MOTIVATION
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DEFINITION.
Motivation can be defined as the art of getting people to do things because they
want to, or because they see some benefit. It refers to the initiation, direction,
intensity, and persistence of behavior and desire to achieve a goal, combined with
the energy to work towards that goal.
WHAT ENERGIZES AND DIRECTS OUR BEHAVIOUR?
There can be many factors that energize and direct an individual behavior.
For instance, A strong need to achieve a certain goal, Interest
insomething,curiosity,fears,social,pressure,expectations,values,incentives,beliefs
needs achievement and many other factors.
TYPES OF MOTIVATION.
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THEORIES.
There are several motivational theories that trace their roots to the information
processing approach to learning. These approaches focus on the categories and
labels people use help to identify thoughts, emotions, dispositions and behaviors
Cognitive Views of Motivation
Cognitive views stress that human behavior is influenced by the way people think
about themselves and their environment. The direction that behavior takes can be
explained by four influences: the inherent need to construct an organized and
logically consistent knowledge base, one's expectations for successfully completing
a task, the factors that one believes account for success and failure, and one's
beliefs about the nature of cognitive ability.
Behavioural views.
Each of the major theoretical approaches in behavioral learning theory posits a
primary factor in motivation. Classical conditioning states that biological responses
to associated stimuli energize and direct behavior. Operant learning states the
primary factor is consequences: the application of reinforces provides incentives to
increase behavior; the application of punishers provides disincentives that result in
a decrease in behavior.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs identifies five levels of needs, which are best seen
as a hierarchy with the most basic need emerging first and the most sophisticated
need last. People move up the hierarchy one level at a time. Gratified needs lose
their strength and the next level of needs is activated. As basic or lower-level needs
are satisfied, higher-level needs become operative. A satisfied need is not a
motivator. The most powerful employee need is the one that has not been satisfied.
Abraham Maslow first presented the five-tier hierarchy in 1942 to a psychoanalytic
society and published it in 1954 in Motivation and Personality (New York: Harper
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Questions as to why and how we motivate.
WHY MOTIVATE
HOW TO MOTIVATE
To:
By:
Foster programs that stress
goal settings and self
regulation.
Stress the fun of learning
.
Stress goals and purpose in
learning
Provide opportunities to
develop responsibility,
independence, and
leadership skills.
Foster opportunities to learn
metacognitive strategies for
self regulation.
Give optimal choice in
instructional settings.
Develop skills in self
regulation.
Foster personal best awards.
Provide opportunities for all
students to be recognized.
Foster policy in which all
students and achievements
Can be recognized.
Recognize progress in goal
attainment.
Recognize and publicize a
wide range of school related
activities for students.
Recognize efforts in a broad
array of learning activities.
Provide opportunities for
group learning,prolem
solving, and decision making.
Build an environment
acceptance and appreciation
of all students.
Allow time and opportunity
for peer interaction to occur.
Broaden range of social
interaction.
Foster the development of
subgroups within which
significant interaction can
occur.
Enhance social skill
development.
Encourage human values.
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Reflection and Discussion.
To what extent does pupil motivation play a part in effective learning?
How might a teacher’s expectations influence pupils’ efforts to learn?
Which of the following teachers is primarily concerned with motivation? (Mark each
item Yes or No.}
1. _____ Miss Peters is looking for ways to make Tommy want to study long
division more industriously.
2. _____ Professor Vockell is trying to figure out how to make his book more
practical, so that readers will want to apply the principles of educational
psychology to their daily practice.
3. _____ Mr. Howell is trying to organize his lesson plan in such a way as to
make it easier for students to make associations with previous material and
thereby remember the information longer.
4. _____ Mr. Jorden is presenting information that will show the connection
between his unit on geometry and the practical problems of living in an urban
setting. His belief is that if students see this connection, they will be more
eager to learn from the unit. _____ Mrs. Jeffries has developed a set of
instructional objectives, so that students will know exactly what they need to
learn in order to do well on the exam.
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Conclusion.
At its most crude, motivation in the workplace is linked to pay. It has subsequently
been proved that pay is not the only motivator and in certain circumstances does
not act as one at all.
It does not matter what amount of an effort a child has accomplished, what
matterIs the effort, the initiation they take to accomplish the task given. Once they
take the initiation, then its our duty to motivates them to accomplish, therefore we
should always look at children accomplishment no matter what, remember every
individual child is different and unique!!!
The world through a child's eyes is an awesome place. Allow
children to explore and discover their world. Around every corner is an
experience just waiting to surprise and excite young growing minds; all they
need is a small amount of direction and a large amount of freedom. It is not
necessary to praise and reward children for their own actions as they attempt
to control their environment. The feelings of accomplishment they gain from
results of those actions will be reward enough.
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References:
Text books
Educational Psychology,ninith edition.
By Anita Wool folk
.
Looking in classrooms, ninth edition
By Thomas L Good
Jere E. Brophy
WEBSITES
Educational Psychology Interactive.


http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/motivation/motivate.html
www.google.com
http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/motivation/Pages/What%20is%20Mo
tivation.htm
 http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/te
achtip/motiv.htm


http://www.motivation123.com/motivation-checklist.html
http//college.hmco.com
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