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Upon completion of this module, you should be able to:
Define what is motivation
Explain how motivation is related to learning
Discuss the Expectancy-Value Theory of Motivation
Compare the different types of motivation related to valuing the task
Explain Expecting Success
Describe self-efficacy and how it is related to motivation
Explain how attribution is related to motivation
Suggest ways of motivating
LEARNING
Take care how you respond to you learners. Check your own emotions.
When you find yourself irritated at a stupid question, disappointed in
learner's lack of understanding, or furious with off-topic remarks in the
classroom. STOP. Wait and react after some time to decrease the
likelihood of negatively impacting the learning process.
Show your enthusiasm for the content and for learning. It is contagious.
Give learners reasons to care about the topic by showing that you do.
Encourage their understanding by helping them personally create
meaning from class material. Point out successes and give them goals to
achieve in their learning. Such actions provide emotional and social
support for their learning.
Personalise your communications. Use the learner's name. Use personal
examples. Ask learners to relate their learning to real life or past
experience. These techniques make the interpersonal aspects of the
content more emotionally accessible and enhance learning.
Do not hesitate to express your own emotions. You might say, "I was
really impressed," "I am confused," "I was surprised" or "I am
happy"
ACTIVITY
b)
c)
Value of Activity
of Product
Expectation
of Success
Task
Involvement
c) ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION
Students learn to show that they can perform better than other people. The
motivation here is based upon the ego boost that comes about through social
competition. It is the struggle to get to the top, beating others in open competition; it
is not so important to gain material rewards as such (although it helps). Neither is it
important what the task is; it can be selling cars, getting lucrative contracts, winning
votes and so on. This is called achievement motivation and was first described by
McClelland, Atkinson, Clark and Lowell in 1953. Two major motives are involved
in achievement motivation:
the motive to achieve success; in particular, the ego enhancement that success
brings;
the motive to avoid failure, which involves the fear of losing face.
Refer to Chapter 8: Understanding Individual Differences where we discussed
achievement motivation as a personality trait that accounted for individual differences
in learning].
People in whom achieving success is a
stronger motive than is avoiding failure are
called high need-achievers (their actual
ability is a separate question). For them the
greatest glory in winning comes when the
chances are about 50-50. If the chances are
80% of winning, they will consider it a waste
of time as they are sure of winning. It is like
Manchester United playing against the MPPJ
football team! People in whom the motive to
avoid failure is stronger than the motive to
achieve success are called low-need achievers. These are people who will compete
against someone who they are certain to beat or defeat. They will take on a stronger
opponent so that they can fail gloriously by competing when the odds are hopeless.
High need-achievers thrive on competition; low need-achievers adopt any
tactic to avoid it. High need-achievers are bored with tasks with high success rate,
such as mastery learning or programmed instruction. Low need-achievers like these
methods because of the higher success rate which is what they need to produce better
feelings of self-efficacy.
d) INTRINSIC MOTIVATION
Intrinsic motivation is the natural tendency to seek out and conquer challenges
as we pursue personal interests and exercise capabilities. When we are intrinsically
motivated, we do not need incentives or punishments, because the activity itself is
rewarding. For example, Maznah studies chemistry outside school simply because she
loves the activity; no one makes her do it. To enhance intrinsic motivation, the tasks
need to be potentially meaningful, the tasks need to be at an optimum level of
difficulty (see Table 9.1) and the tasks need to be presented in a way that enables
multiple levels of processing.
Demand
Too little
Just right
Too much
Motivational
Familiar with all the content
Mixture of familiar & unfamiliar
Unfamiliar with all the content
Consequence
Boring, been there, done that.
A challenge, motivating
Cannot cope
If someone opposes me, I can find the means and ways to get what I want
I can remain calm when facing difficulties because I can rely on my coping
abilities.
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2 = Hardly true
3 = Moderately true
4 = Exactly true
Unstable
Stable
Unstable
Controllable
Uncontrollable
Table 9.3 Dimensions of Attributions
As you might expect, these attributions can have considerable influence on the
motivation to perform.
When one attributes performance largely to internal factors and
controllable factors, motivation tends to be higher.
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The results for the stable-unstable dimension are less clear. For example, if I
believe that my ability to learn in some domain is generally high, then stability is a
positive factor; but if I believe my ability is low, then stability is a negative. How
students perceive their competency and how they judge the amount of control they
have over the learning process influences how they perform in school.
With regards to academic performance, the following attributions are
significant: effort, interest, study strategy and ability. There is still some debate about
effort and ability. For example, students have better feelings about failure when they
are told it may be attributed to lack of study strategies. High achievers tend to
attribute their success to ability and effort while low achievers attribute their failure to
lack of ability and their success to luck or the test was easy.
A particular bad form of attribution reduces the student to a state known as
learned helplessness (Seligman, 1972). This happens when students believe that they
have no control over unpleasant things that happen to them. Learned helplessness
leads to reduced motivation to control events, impaired ability to learn how to control
the situation and strong fear which lead to deep depression (Miller and Norman,
1979). The worst kind of learned helplessness is attributed to internal, stable,
uncontrollable and general causes. In other words, the student is helpless in all
circumstances. In the school, underachiever may show all the symptoms of learned
helplessness such as: persistent failure, lack of motivation to avoid future failure,
inability to learn remedial material and apathy bordering on depression. Fortunately,
this helplessness being specific to school does not prevent students from blossoming
once the get into the workforce.
ACTIVITY
As educators, we lament at the fact that students are not interested in studying
and the problem is more serious among low achievers. Sometimes low achieving
students are also difficult individuals who pose discipline problems. Unfortunately,
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there is no single magical formula for motivating students. Many factors affect a
particular students motivation to work and to learn such as interest in the subject
matter, perception of its usefulness, general desire to achieve, self-confidence, selfesteem as well as patience and persistence (Bligh, 1971). Researchers are constantly
finding ways of enhancing students motivation in the classroom setting and the
following are some suggestions:
a) Kellers ARCS model
Kellers ARCS model (1983) attempts to identify the necessary components of
motivation in instructional settings. These are said to be
Attention
Relevance
Confidence
Satisfaction.
Gaining ATTENTION is perhaps the easiest of the requirements to satisfyat least
for most learners. Suggestions include framing new information in such a way that it
arouses curiosity, proposes a mystery to be resolved, or presents a challenging
problem to be solved. In addition, varying the presentation style helps to maintain
attention.
Establishing RELEVANCE includes relating new material to the learners own needs
and interests, or showing them how they will be able to use the new skills. Relevance
may also entail relating new learning to things that are already familiar to learners. In
this way it parallels findings from cognitive research that show that new information
is most comprehensible when it can be related to what the learner already knows.
Building CONFIDENCE, according to Keller, can be accomplished by strategies
such as clarifying instructional goals or letting learners set their own goals, helping
students succeed at challenging tasks, and providing them with some control over
their own learning.
Generating SATISFACTION can best be accomplished by giving learners a chance
to use new skills in some meaningful activity. For example, workers who are trained
to use a new software package will likely feel satisfaction if they are immediately
given an opportunity to apply their new skills to a real work project. In the absence of
such natural positive consequences Keller suggests rewards such as verbal praise.
Also, he notes the importance of establishing a sense of fairness by maintaining
consistent standards and matching outcomes to expectations.
Keller urges instructors to analyze the audience or student population to
determine the level of intrinsic motivation to learn the new information or skills.
Obviously, elaborate planning for extrinsic motivation is not needed when intrinsic
motivation is high.
[source: Keller, J. M., (1983). Development and Use of the ARCS Model of
Motivational Design (Report No. IR 014 039). Enschede, Netherlands: Twente Univ.
of Technology. ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 313 001]
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9.4 ACTIVITY
b) Six Cs of Motivation
According to Turner & Paris (1996) proposed six strategies to increase motivation
called the Six Cs:
1. Choice
Provide explicit choices among alternatives can enhance intrinsic motivation; For
example when giving assignments the teacher can allow the students to focus on
their area of interests. Students will choose assignments close to their personal
interest.
2. Challenge
Provide tasks that are not too easy or too difficult but just beyond the skill level of
the student. If the task is too easy boredom may creep in; if it is too difficult the
students may feel helpless and give up or will not try.
3. Control
Students should be involved in the process of decision making, choosing team
members and organizing content; Students must be self regulated, independent and
responsible.
4. Collaboration
Students show deeper engagement and persistence if they work together. They
inspire each other and they improve performance by heeding peer comments.
5. Constructive Meaning
Value related valences are associated with the construction of meaning; if the
students perceive the value of knowledge their motivation to learn increase.
6. Consequences
Students enjoy having their work and learning environment appreciated and
recognized by others. Students work can be displayed by hanging posters on the
wall, publishing the work on web sites and taking part in competition.
[source: J. Turner and S. Paris (1995). How literacy tasks influence childrens
motivation for literacy. The Reading Teacher. 48(8). 662-763]
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ACTIVITY
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Show that you care about your students by asking about their concerns and goals.
What do they plan to do in the future? What things do they like? Such a teacher will
be trusted and respected more than one who is all business.
4) Have students participate.
One of the major keys to motivation is the active involvement of students in
their own learning. Standing in front of them and lecturing to them (at them?) is thus a
relatively poor method of teaching. It is better to get students involved in activities,
group problem solving exercises, helping to decide what to do and the best way to do
it, helping the teacher, working with each other, or in some other way getting
physically involved in the lesson. A lesson about nature, for example, would be more
effective walking outdoors than looking at pictures.
Students love to be needed (just like adults!). By choosing several students to
help the teacher (take roll, grade objective exams, research bibliographies or
biographies of important persons, chair discussion groups, rearrange chairs, change
the overhead transparencies, hold up pictures, pass out papers or exams) students' self
esteem is boosted and consequently their motivation is increased. Older students will
also see themselves as necessary, integral, and contributing parts of the learning
process through participation like this. Use every opportunity to have students help
you. Assign them homework that involves helping you ("I need some magazine
illustrations and internet resources on the Malaysian mangrove swamps for next
week; would someone like to find one for me?").
5) Teach Inductively.
It has been said that presenting conclusions first and then providing examples
robs students of the joy of discovery. Why not present some examples first and ask
students to make sense of them, to generalize about them, to draw the conclusions
themselves? By beginning with the examples, evidence, stories, and so forth and
arriving at conclusions later, you can maintain interest and increase motivation, as
well as teach the skills of analysis and synthesis.
6) Satisfy students' needs.
Attending to need satisfaction is a primary method of keeping students
interested and happy. Students' basic needs have been identified as survival, love,
power, fun, and freedom. Attending to the need for power could be as simple as
allowing students to choose from among two or three things to do two or three paper
topics, two or three activities, choosing between writing an extra paper and taking the
final exam, etc. Many students have a need to have fun in active ways in other
words, they need to be noisy and excited. Rather than always avoiding or suppressing
these needs, design an educational activity that fulfils them.
Students will be much more committed to a learning activity that has value for
them, that they can see as meeting their needs, either long term or short term. They
will, in fact, put up with substantial immediate unpleasantness and do an amazing
amount of hard work if they are convinced that what they are learning ultimately
meets their needs.
7) Make learning visual.
Even before young people were reared in a video environment, it was
recognized that memory is often connected to visual images. In the middle ages
people who memorized the Bible or Homer would sometimes walk around inside a
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cathedral and mentally attach certain passages to objects inside, so that remembering
the image of a column or statue would provide the needed stimulus to remember the
next hundred lines of text. Similarly, we can provide better learning by attaching
images to the ideas we want to convey. Use drawings, diagrams, pictures, charts,
graphs, bulleted lists, even three-dimensional objects you can bring to class to help
students anchor the idea to an image.
It is very helpful to begin a class session or a series of classes with a
conceptual diagram of the relationship of all the components in the class so that at a
glance students can apprehend a context for all the learning they will be doing. This
will enable them to develop a mental framework or filing system that will help them
to learn better and remember more.
h) Use positive emotions to enhance learning and motivation.
Strong and lasting memory is connected with the emotional state and
experience of the learner. That is, people remember better when the learning is
accompanied by strong emotions. If you can make something fun, exciting, happy,
loving, or perhaps even a bit frightening, students will learn more readily and the
learning will last much longer. Emotions can be created by classroom attitudes, by
doing something unexpected or outrageous, by praise, and by many other means.
[source: Robert Harris March 2, 1991. Some Ideas for Motivating Students.
VirtualSalt. http://www.virtualsalt.com/motivate.htm]
ACTIVITY
b) D
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REFERENCES:
Berlin,
Germany
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