Improving student motivation is considered one of the important strategies to create educational effectiveness, especially with mathematics education. This study was conducted with the aim of improving students’ motivation towards a collaborative learning approach. To achieve the above goal, we organized an 8-week controlled experimental study for 8th grade students at a secondary school in Ho Chi Minh City, in which the experimental group learned according to the STAD cooperative learning model. The research results showed that the motivation of students in the experimental group increased statistically significantly compared to the control group. In other words, teaching mathematics using the cooperative learning method has increased learners’ motivation.