Singapore primary and secondary school teachers (n=76) attending an inservice education course on motivating learners identified and described two critical lessons: one in which the teachers successfully motivated students and another in which they failed to motivate pupils. Participants recalled those critical lessons in a reflective and self-evaluative manner. Each lesson was analyzed by an assigned "critic" and discussed by the group. Analysis of the lessons revealed that primary school teachers felt that "pupil involvement" and "tuning in" were most frequently successful in motivating pupils to learn. Among secondary school teachers, "teacher being prepared,""topic relevance," and "teacher concern/awareness of needs" were contributing factors. At the primary level, commonly cited reasons for motivation failure were "teacher doing the usual" and "no tuning in." At the secondary level, the most frequently reported cause was "teacher being unprepared." Being able to motivate learning was felt to result from "knowledge of, concern, and love for children"; "teacher attributes"; "effort and preparation"; "lively lessons"; and "teacher awareness of learning needs." (JDD)