Activity 5: Motivating our Students
Why do this activity?
Understanding the motivation of our students and addressing it can increase learning by providing
situational factors to consider when designing our courses
What are some key questions?
Disagree
Agree
1.
I am interested in learning about how learning works
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2.
I am good at learning the kind of material in this
workshop
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
3.
If I perform poorly on the end of workshop quiz, it is
because I did not try hard enough to learn
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
4.
In attending this seminar, my goal is to perform better
than others on the end of workshop quiz
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
5.
In attending this seminar, I feel as if the presenter and
peers at my table are working with me
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Question
a. Individually and honestly answer the questions above.
Adapted from Mayer, RE Applying the Science of Learning, 2011
5 Conceptions of Motivation
Basis
Goals
Description
Students work hard to learn when their goal is to master the
material
Belief
Students work harder to learn when they believe their hard
work will pay off
Partnership
Students work hard to learn when they view the instructor as a
social partner
Attributions
Students work harder to learn when they attribute their success
and failures to effort
Interest
Students work harder to learn material that has personal value
to them
Example
Question
1. As a table, for each of the concepts, match the questions in the first part with the related
concept
2. As a table, rank each concept from most important (1) to least important (5) based on the
answers within the previous section (i.e., average the tables scores or take the mode to rank the
concepts)
Adapted from Mayer, RE Applying the Science of Learning, 2011