M OTIVATING YOUR L EARNER
O VERVIEW

Motivation theory: what makes people want to
learn?

Findings from motivation research

Feedback:

What doesn’t work

What does work

Applying research findings to the clinical teaching
setting
W HAT
IS
M OTIVATION ?
“Motivation is the process
whereby goal-directed activity is
instigated and sustained”
Pintrich & Schunk, 2004
M OTIVATION :
A
H ISTORY

Initial work : psychology researchers

Focus: What drives behaviour?


Basic needs = main motivators

Stimulus-response
Hull (1943) moved motivation theory beyond
basic needs and into the domain of drive to
succeed
A CHIEVEMENT T HEORY

Growing out of Hull’s work, educational
psychologists began to study what drives
students in classrooms

Cognitive theories of motivation are the most
researched

These are loosely termed as “achievement
theories”
A CHIEVEMENT T HEORY

Five main theories of motivation in education

Much overlap between theories

Certain components will resonate for people

Instructional recommendations from research
around each theory are applicable to most
students
S ELF - EFFICACY

Bandura (1997) & Schunk (1991)

Self-perception of “I can do it” leads to
motivation

Future-oriented; situation-specific; unstable –
varies with situation;

Expectancies and goals required to determine
self-efficacy
S ELF - WORTH

Covington (1984; 1992)

People are motivated by the need to feel
competent; “to be worthy is to be able”
(Graham & Weiner, 1996)

Need is to protect a sense of one’s own
ability in order to preserve self-worth


success = high self-worth,

failure = low self-worth
want to maximize rewards and minimize
punishment.
E XPECTANCY - VALUE

Eccles (1987, 2005), Eccles & Wigfield (2000)

Choice, persistence, direction of behaviour depend
upon value of the task and its successful completion

expectancies based on learner’s self-perceptions of
competence

4 dimensions for task-value:

attainment value

intrinsic value

utility value

cost
ATTRIBUTION T HEORY

Weiner (1985)

Outcomes (particularly failure) lead to search
for reasons for outcome;

causal attribution impacts future expectancies

Causal search; focus on outcome (pastoriented);

attributions can be

internal/external (locus),

stable/unstable (stability),

and within or beyond the learner’s control (controllability)
A CHIEVEMENT G OAL T HEORY

Ames (1984), Dweck & Leggett (1988), Nicholls,
1984)

Implicit goals exist for all tasks:


do it to learn/do it for yourself,

OR do it to look good/be better than others (OR both)
Implicit goal orientations are adopted for a task:

mastery/learning/task orientation = doing task to
learn/improve skill

performance-avoid = do not do task to avoid looking
bad

performance-approach = do task to look good
L EARNING AND M OTIVATION

Self-efficacy and goal orientation are
predictive of, or positively correlated with, the
use of cognitive strategies and self-regulated
learning (Bandalos et al., 2003; Patrick et al.,
2001; Pintrich & DeGroot, 1990; Schraw et al.,
1995; Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons 1990)

Self-worth predicts the use of selfhandicapping (Covington, 2000), which
interferes with student learning
L EARNING AND M OTIVATION

Task value predicts whether students plan to
enroll, & whether they actually enroll in
courses; expectancies predict achievement
once students actually enroll (Wigfield &
Eccles, 2002), which suggests that
expectancies are impacting student learning
during the course.

Attributions indirectly affect student learning
through their impact on self-efficacy and selfworth (Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2002; Pintrich,
2003).
M OTIVATION AND
I NSTRUCTION

Achievement motivation constructs interact

Planning instruction around one motivational variable
will likely have an influence on other motivational
constructs.

Improving self-efficacy can encourage adoption of a
learning goal;

Creating an environment that protects self-worth while
allowing mistakes can lead to adaptive attributions, higher
self-efficacy, and eventually the adoption of a learning goal.

Creating a learning environment that encourages and
fosters motivation can lead to improvements in learning
outcomes.
F EEDBACK

Effects of feedback have been examined in all
areas of achievement motivation,


but are particularly important in the impact
feedback has on attributions, self-worth, and
intrinsic motivation.
In the case of attributions, the feedback given
by teachers after either success or failure will
influence the attributions that students make
for the outcome (Pintrich, 2003; Pintrich &
Schunk, 2002).
F EEDBACK

Accuracy of feedback regarding the causes of
failure – was the failure due to lack of effort?
poor strategy use? – should be both adaptive
and honest.

The best evidence for the impact of feedback
on attributions can be found in research on
attributional retraining, where students are
systematically given feedback to encourage
them to make adaptive attributions (for
example, Hall et al., 2004).
F EEDBACK

Finally, feedback as a course progresses was
found to have an influence on students’ selfefficacy beliefs (Bandura, 1993, as cited in
Tollefson, 2000, p. 68).

Performance-focused feedback, as opposed
to effort or strategy-focused feedback, may
lead to the development of high outcome
expectancies paired with low self-efficacy,

which can lead to the choice not to exert effort.
F EEDBACK

So what IS feedback?

Evaluative information in response to an activity or
behaviour

Key elements:

Informative

There is always an evaluation component to feedback in
education
F EEDBACK & A SSESSMENT

In our context:

In both undergraduate and graduate
programs

Feedback is part of assessment
F EEDBACK & A SSESSMENT

Feedback on performance can be one of two
kinds:

Feedback to further learning

Feedback that is a judgment of learning
F EEDBACK & A SSESSMENT

Five kinds of evaluative feedback

Confirmation (No, you’re wrong)

Corrective (No, you’re wrong. The answer is Alberta)

Explanatory (Your answer was wrong because
Edmonton is not in B.C.; it is in Alberta)

Diagnostic (Your answer suggests that some extra
study of Canadian geography would be helpful)

Elaborative (You will find as you study further that
Edmonton is home to the University of Alberta, home
of a terrific Family Medicine Residency program).
F EEDBACK & R ESIDENTS

Best feedback to Residents is INFORMATIVE

Residents enjoy compliments

But will learn better from constructive
feedback
F EEDBACK & R ESIDENTS

Boehler et al., 2006

RCT: students given informative feedback on their
performance after instruction in two-handed
surgical knot-tying VS. students given
compliments on how well they did the technique

Informative feedback group performed the skill
better

BUT: compliments group reported significantly
higher satisfaction with the instruction
F EEDBACK & R ESIDENTS

Feedback should be about specific
behaviours

“You handled that encounter well” does
not give as much information as “You
communicated well with Mrs. Smith. She
really responded to the way you made
an effort to keep eye contact with her
and talked to her at eye level instead of
standing and looking down at her”
F EEDBACK & R ESIDENTS

All feedback should give the opportunity for
further learning

“You seemed to have some trouble
explaining those medication instructions
to Mr. Smith. Would it be helpful if we
reviewed asthma management?”
F EEDBACK & R ESIDENTS

Feedback should be about actions or
decisions, not about how you interpret
the Resident's reasons behind those
actions
F EEDBACK & R ESIDENTS

If you do give subjective feedback, be
sure to indicate that you are doing so
F EEDBACK & R ESIDENTS

Frame feedback in a way that allows
Residents to self-evaluate first

“How do you think that went?”
F EEDBACK & R ESIDENTS

Feedback should be clear

Resist the temptation to address multiple
issues at once

Provide specific feedback about a specific
behaviour or action

If a larger issue must be addressed, make
sure the feedback session includes the
opportunity for the resident to make a
plan to rectify the problem

Questions?