http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
Classroom Motivation
This module is designed to take the place of a formal presentation in the
Instructional Effectiveness Program (IEP). It is available free for use by all
faculty, students, and staff at Oklahoma State University. All participants
who wish to obtain credit or a certificate for IEP and who wish to count this
module, as part of their work must complete the activities related to this
module.
Participation Requirements: Access to a computer, which has Internet
access, and email capability is necessary. All IEP modules are product based
so you should expect to create products as the result of completing this
module.
Directions:
Reading: Bull, K. S., Montgomery, D., and Kimball, S. L. (2000).
Classroom Motivation. In K. S. Bull, D. L. Montgomery, and S. L. Kimball
(Eds.) Quality University Instruction Online: A Basic Teaching
Effectiveness Training Program--An Instructional Hypertext. Stillwater,
OK: Oklahoma State University.
Performance Objectives
1. Briefly (1-2 pages) describe how your course relates to the real world
goals of students. Write in student appropriate language that could be shared
with students as a motivator at the beginning of the course.
2. Create a motivational plan for a course which you may teach. The plan
should specify all of the things you will do intentionally to try to motivate
students, when you will do these things, and how you will evaluate your
success.
3. Describe the process you propose to use to induce intrinsic motivation in
your students, in a class in your discipline. List at least 10 processes and
describe how you will use them.
4. Explain, in student appropriate language, how you will challenge each
learner in our class at an appropriate evel of difficulty. Describe the
strategies or adaptations you will use and indicate who will control these
applications.
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
5. Create a motivational stimulation system for your course using need
stimulation as the base. Describe the processes and strategies you will use.
6. Create a system to motivate students to read the textbook or other
readings prior to coming to class. Explain it in students appropriate
language.
Classroom Motivation
Table of Contents
A metaphor for teachers
Classroom motivation
Learner motivation in traditional classrooms
Community, one aspect of motivation
Our purpose for motivation
Extrinsic motivation
Motivation through positive outcomes
Mixed motivation
Conflict between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
Intrinsic motivation
Motivational influences
Factors influencing motivation
Expectations and motivated performance
Motivation through challenge manipulation
Motivation through novelty
Motivation through needs (Maslow)
Motivation through need stimulation
Readiness
Social motivation
Motivational comments
External motivators to insure that students read the text
Motivators for adult learners
Motivation (arousal)
A diagrammatic illustration of arousal
Arousal as an individual difference in motivation
Motivational effect of low arousal
Motivational effects of high arousal
Arousal and learning
Extremes in arousal
Attribution theory as related to learning
Motivation by induction into a community
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
Paradigm description or shared theory perspective
Studying in the discipline
Describing communities of practice
Signs of community membership
Learning to walk the walk
General principles of motivation
Requirements for motivated behavior in education
Teachers strategies that promote motivation
Instructional design components that motivate
Sharing with student which motivates
Teaching to motivate
Climates that produce motivation
Student tasks which motivate
Questions students have to have answers to, to be motivated
General Objectives:
1. Describe processes that can affect students' motivation prior to their
coming to your class.
2. Differentiate between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
3. Describe factors that influence classroom motivation.
4. Describe arousal as a motivational factor.
5. Explain the relationship between attribution to success and failure and
motivation.
6. Explain motivation by induction into a learning community.
7. Identify general principles of motivation.
8. Describe teacher strategies that promote student motivation.
9. Identify student questions that need to be answered before students can
become truly motivated.
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
Classroom Motivation
"You see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up (the
dressing and the proper way of speaking, and so on), the difference between
a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she's treated. I
shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins, because he treats me as a
flower girl, and always will; but I know I can be a lady to you, because you
always treat me as a lady, and always will." Eliza Doolittle to Colonel
Pickering,
George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion (1940, p.80).
A Metaphor for Teachers: The opening quotation provides a metaphor for
the idea that the ways in which students are treat students will determine
their motivation, their success, and, in many cases, what they do in their
careers.
Classroom Motivation: Motivation comes primarily from wanting to learn
so that an authentic product can be constructed for an appropriate audience
and wanting to create the product so that others will not be disappointed.
Learners are motivated when they have the background and the desire to
learn. Desires and needs are driven by different levels of need in Maslow's
model, which implies that different learners will be differentially motivated.
Learners are motivated when they can increase competence and when they
can develop autonomy. Motivation may also come about through external
manipulation of the environment. Motivation is not the same for everyone.
We have different needs, goals, and different personalities. We are even
motivated differently at different times in a single course of instruction.
Good teachers are sensitive to the motivational needs of students and try to
provide a climate in which a learning community can develop.
Learner Motivation in Traditional Classrooms: Many learners have had
poor affective experiences in traditional classrooms. It is good to remember
(Raffini, 1996) that some researchers believe that conventional instruction,
by its nature, creates educational disability and undermines intelligence.
Much traditional instruction controls student behavior by negative affect,
shame, guilt, negative reinforcement, etc., for lack of conformity to teacher
desire. Deshler (cited in Wlodkowski, 1999) "uses the expression
educationally deformed to describe some adults who resist formal education
not only because of the poor instruction they received in the past but also
because of the failure and disrespect they endured due to class, gender, or
racial bias while in elementary or secondary school." (Italics in the original).
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
Do not provoke educational deformity. Good (caring) teachers do not laugh
at students, humiliate students, or make them look stupid in front of their
peers. Typically, learner motivation is likely to be intrinsic rather than
extrinsic. Learner control increases the relevance of the learning and in turn
improves learner motivation. Motivation refers to the magnitude and
direction of behavior. It controls the choices which one makes and the
degree of effort or persistence that will be invested in a task. Students can be
stimulated through the provision of questions that they can choose to
answer. Things that the instructor can deal with can cause lack of
motivation: Students who are unprepared either in content or in the response
mechanism which is required, e.g., student does not want to lead the group.
Incorrect assumptions have been made about what the students know. There
are interpersonal difficulties between the student and peers/instructor.
Student does not use the communication medium well, e.g., ESL student.
Access to needed resources is limited. The interaction among peers is more
social than academic. Students are always motivated. When we say that they
are unmotivated we mean that they will not do what we want them to do.
:"
Community, One Aspect of Motivation
Community is the tie that
binds students and teachers together in special ways, to something more
significant than themselves: shared values and ideals. It lifts both teachers
and students to higher levels of self-understanding, commitment, and
performance-beyond the reaches of the shortcomings and difficulties they
face in their everyday lives. Community can help teachers and students be
transformed from a collection of "I"s to a collective "we," thus providing
them with a unique and enduring sense of identity, belonging, and place. "
Thomas J. Sergiovanni, Building Community in Schools (1994, p. xiii)
Our Purpose for Motivation: Our purpose in teaching motivation is to help
you define a community in which all learners are empowered and motivated.
Extrinsic Motivation: Extrinsic motivation comes from environmental
manipulation external to the learner. These manipulations can be seen as
either the acquisition of positives or the avoidance of aversives. Positive
manipulations are usually viewed as rewarding events or tangibles, e.g.,
money, good grades, sex, social recognition, etc., which are bestowed upon
one when performance meets externally controlled criteria.
Aversives are things or events that the individual will work to try to avoid,
e.g., poor grades, speeding tickets, social isolation, or a sharp stick in the
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
eye. Learners will actively do other things to avoid aversives; this is called
negative reinforcement. Students will do homework, for example, to avoid a
poor grade. Few would do homework if there were no penalty or reward for
doing it. Some will argue that this kind of manipulation is not motivation
because it is induced externally. There is some logic to this perspective,
however, much of behavior is performed to acquire externally manipulated
positives and therefore we as teahers must consider both. We also recognize
that it is easier to manipulate the environment than it is to manipulate the
human mind.
Motivation Through Positive Outcomes: Rewards and intrinsically
positive outcomes stimulate motivation according to those who use
environmental manipulations. Motivation is enhanced when learners can use
what they have learned in meaningful and authentic applications. Provide
positive feedback when the learner accomplishes a worthy task. Rewards
can be tangible, verbal, tactile, or they can increase status. All of these will
increase behavior that is called motivated. Be enthusiastic about the learners'
behaviors. Use reward to manipulate behavior that the student does not want
to perform. However remember that extinction will occur when rewards are
no longer offered. Try to empower learners and show them that they have
control over the environment. When the learner has control external
reinforcers are not needed.
Mixed Motivation: Sometimes motivation is both internal and external.
Many learners are drawn to content because they are interested/curious, etc.,
and they take classes they also are manipulated through grading processes to
do homework. Here there both intrinsic and extrinsic factors at work once
the students is enrolled in the class. This can cause conflict.
Conflict Between Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivators: There are always
conflicts between internal and external motivators. Students are always
manipulated externally to do one thing and internally to do another. In these
conflicts the strongest motivator attracts and manipulates the behavior.
Heider describes this as the conflict between approach and avoidance. If a
learner has both internal and external positive choices or two of either,
leading in different directions we have an approach-approach conflict. If
both are negative we have an avoidance-avoidance conflict. In the first case
we must go with the strongest positive. In the second case go with the
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
weaker negative. In approach-avoidance conflict we go with the stronger of
the pair.
Intrinsic Motivation: We need to start by trying to overcome the idea that
learning is a struggle. Learning is fun and should draw us in. It should be
useful and we will therefore want it or be motivated to attain it. Motivation
is caused by situational interest that is by novelty and curiosity about
something that we do not quite understand. Note that this is not things that
are unknown. The unknown does not draw nearly as well as the not quite
understood. Motivation also comes from topic interest in the sense that some
learners are interested in specific topics. We are motivated by our historical
experience with a topic. The more confidence and satisfaction we have
experienced the more likely we are to persist when we are trying to do
something that does not immediately yield to our attack. Challenge
motivates. Challenge exists when the goals are clear and the outcome is
uncertain. Curiosity motivates because it is internally driven.
Motivational Influences
Factors Influencing Motivation: There are a variety of factors, which
influence learner motivation. Intrinsic motivation is primarily influenced by
personal expectations of success. If a learner believes that learning and
success are possible the chances are he/she will be motivated, assuming that
success is desired. The way one feels about the learning place, the people in
it, and the content itself will affect the level of motivation of the student.
The learners' motivation to learn influences the depth and breadth of the
subsequent learning. Likewise the learner's self-awareness influences the
level of motivation, which the learner possesses. The beliefs, abilities,
competence, and personal control of the student influence motivation. This
latter needs mentioning. Having control promotes motivation because no
one else can induce failure. Clarity and relevance of the learners' values,
interests, and goals affects motivation. Knowing where one wants to go is
very helpful in starting to move to get there. Intrinsic motivation is created
by using authentic tasks and assessment, by providing an optimal
environment of difficulty and by providing choices in line with personal
interests. For a discussion of intrinsic motivation see
http://world.std.com/~lo/96.09/0428.html . Teachers should assist in the
development of positive self-concepts toward learning by encouragement
and student self-control. Instructors should establish an expectancy of
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
success for all learners. Telling students that they are all capable and that all
that reaches specified criteria can earn the grade that they expect facilitates
this. Conversely low expectations of success decrease the perceived value of
an external positive and increase the probability of the receipt of external
negatives. Use of negatives is problematic because of this interaction with
learner perception. In the extreme, external negatives can lead to learned
helplessness when learners believe that nothing that they do will allow them
to escape from the threatened aversive.
Expectations and Motivated Performance: Students tend to avoid things
that they are hit with, either physically or psychologically. Becoming a
failure or getting a low grade, when a higher grade was desired, is the same
as being hit. Competition promotes the feeling of being hit among most
learners, if only a few can get As or Bs.
Motivation Through Challenge Manipulation: Students should expect to
succeed. The level of challenge that is posed should be in the mid-range of
the student's ability. To facilitate this provide objectives, learners are more
likely to reach a goal if they know where they are going. Provide choices so
that learners can begin to move toward setting their own goals. Help learners
see that effort brings success. Typically providing choices in a range of
difficulty levels does this. Different difficulty levels allow different students
to find mid-range challenges. Sequence material from easy to difficult, from
simple to complex so that initial success can be attained. Teach the learners
to self-evaluate by providing criteria and answers to problems for selfchecking activities. Let the learners set the pace to reduce frustration and
boredom. As competence develops motivation develops. We are almost
always more motivated to do things that we know how to do well than we
are to do things at which we predict failure. We should help learners to
function at a mid-level of challenge in all activities. No single activity can
provide the optimal level of challenge for a group of students. If learners
have different discourse histories and different levels of learning then there
needs to be a set of options among which students can choose if they are to
have access to optimal levels of challenge in their activities. Performance
outcomes should be related to effort. If you know a lot already you should
be challenged. If you come in knowing nothing you should be able to do
well even if it takes you longer. High grades should not be restricted to fast,
historically knowledgeable learners. Wherever possible let the students selfevaluate and set the criteria for success. If you use examinations you should
use formative as well as summative testing to provide for
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
tutoring/reteaching opportunities. You should also allow retakes using
parallel forms of the exam.
Motivation Through Novelty: Keller and Burkman (1993) present the
following as motivational principles. When you change the organization or
presentation of content from that which is expected it can stimulate the
attention of learners and provoke curiosity. When presenting information
vary the sequence in elements, do not use a consistent pattern, if you want to
maintain attention. When mental conflict is provoked it tends to stimulate
epistemic curiosity. If facts are available which contradict past experience
this will stimulate curiosity. Paradoxical examples, conflicts in opinions of
facts, humor and unexpected statements of opinion that contradict previous
statements also provoke curiosity. Presenting problems that are unresolved
will interest many learners. Generally anything which is unexpected and
about which the learner knows enough to recognize as being unexpected
will provoke motivation through epistemic curiosity.
Motivation Through Needs (Maslow): Abraham Maslow proposed a
hierarchy of needs, which has influenced motivational understanding for
thirty years or more. His hierarchy, from lowest to highest level contains
physiological needs, safety needs, love, and belongingness needs, selfesteem needs, and self-actualization needs. He asserted that lower level
needs are prepotent until satisfied and then higher level needs will come to
the fore. At the lowest level we have physiological needs (food, water, air,
sex). At the safety and security need level we have needs like shelter,
freedom from attack and fear. At the love and belongingness level we have
needs to be in a group/family or a collaborative grouping. At the self-esteem
level are needs for respect, being looked up to, being seen as an authority,
etc. The highest level, self-actualization is not reached in a formal learning
setting because there is too much external control. Maslow's hierarchy of
needs applies in all settings. Learners should feel safe and be lead to believe
that they belong if motivation is to be high. The instructor should be
responsive to the learners needs. An environment should be created where
the learner feels accepted and respected as a member of the group. The
learner should develop to the point that he/she can satisfy self-esteem needs
through interaction with the content.
Motivation Through Need Stimulation: If the learner feels a need this will
provoke motivation. Therefore building relationships between the content
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
and objectives of instruction and the expressed needs of the learner will
increase motivation. Tie what you are going to teach to what the learner
already knows. The clearer the relationships between the goals of the learner
and the goals of instruction the more motivation should be exhibited.
Remember that this is different depending on the level in Maslow's
hierarchy. We are more interested in things that we have knowledge about
than things that we have little knowledge of. Having knowledge is an
indicator of previous motivation and interest in a content area. Tell the
learner how the present instruction is designed to build on previous
knowledge and experience. Use advance organizers to show the learner the
relationships between the old and the new materials. When you cannot relate
the new learning directly to the discourse history of the student use
analogies and metaphors to provide approximate relationships. These
relationships will help the learner structure the new information into the
existing schema. Tell the learner how the material to be learned is to be
related to the learner's future goals. This usually relates to how someone in
the field would use the information. Use authentic situations where the
learner can have applications that relate to future goals to increase
motivation. Find out what the students like and let them learn in that way to
increase motivation. In teaching personalize the interaction to stimulate
human interest on the part of the learner. Adapt the presentation of
information to the preferred learning style of the learner. This will provide
maximum acquisition opportunities and should increase motivation. Be a
model of interest in the content, and show that you value the information
and that it has utility for you. This modeling can stimulate intrinsic
motivation and help the learner adjust goals to follow those that are
modeled. Be enthusiastic, it is contagious. Provide personal examples of
your own learning or the learning of those in the field that the learner should
look up to provide a motivational model for the students. If behavior change
on the part of the learner is needed involve the learner in role-plays where
they can voice and do that, which is appropriate. Doing, even in a role-play,
will move attitude and is likely to affect behavior in the future. Increase
relevance by using materials, values, images with which the learner can
identify.
Readiness: It is unlikely that a learner will be motivated to interact with any
information of which he/she has no knowledge. To draw a learner into
learning the learner must want to know about the information, that is, he/she
must be interested in, curious about it, or rewarded for attending. If you
know nothing about some information--that is if you cannot even talk about
it because you have no language related to it and no socially constructed
knowing--the information is almost unapproachable and it is clearly
indescribable. This leads us to the concept of readiness. To learn a student
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
must be ready or prepared in the sense that the prerequisite information must
be known before new learning can take place. The learner must be able, in
the prerequisite sense, and must be willing, in the affective sense, before
he/she will operate on the new information.
Social Motivation: The social dimension is extremely important for
motivation. Most learners should be motivated by a desire to learn. Then
they should be motivated to work with others. Then and only then will they
be motivated to work for extrinsic reward (grades). There is a
developmental push to work with others and to interact with others after
children reach age six or seven. This desire to work with others continues
through out life. It seems to be an integral part of the make up of human
beings. The social outcomes from shared learning include personal insight,
self-assurance, and increased competence in working with others. The
group, which is formed as part of a class, must develop a sense of
community if they are to function effectively. If there is no community it is
just like a group of prisoners who are waiting to be released or to escape
without any thought about their fellows.
Motivational Comments: When doing collaborative learning the
participants may have to be taught to provide peers with motivational
comments. This kind of comment is not usually accorded in traditional
learning settings but it can be useful to improve team member performance.
Comment such as "What do you think? I'd like your opinion. I like that
idea." are examples of the kinds of comments, which motivate. If a class
member is absent for a period of time a comment such as "We missed you.
or Welcome back" may be appropriate.
External Motivators to Insure that Students Read the Text: One area
where many teachers want more student motivation is in the reading of
textbooks. Many students do not thoroughly read the textbooks before class.
To assist in this area the teacher may use the following as external
manipulations. See DeZure (ND).
· Give a short quiz at the beginning of the class on the chapter for the day.
· Have the students complete the questions at the end of the chapter and turn
them in before the class on that chapter.
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
· Have students write a minute paper summarizing the content of the
chapter.
· Give students a few questions, related to the chapter, which will cause
them to take a stand in the next class period.
· Have students develop an outline of their reading assignment and turn it in
before the class starts.
· Have students develop a cognitive or concept map of the reading
assignment and turn it in before the class starts.
· Do an activity where you ask students to name one important point or idea
from the reading. Go around the class and ask each to contribute.
· Have students summarize the readings in small groups before discussion.
· Have students write a half page response paper noting the questions and
concerns that the reading raised for them and turn it in before the class
starts.
· Have students turn in journal entries on their readings before the class
where they are discussed.
· Have learners sign a contract that makes them responsible for the reading
(negative reinforcer).
· Make doing the reading a significant component of the student's
participation grade.
· Dismiss students from class if it is obvious that they have not done the
reading (aversive).
Motivators for Adult Learners: Adult learners have cognitive interests
which are related both to the general expansion of their knowledge and to
the development of skills, which will be useful to them (usually in vocation
or avocation). They are also motivated to seek stimulation or to escape from
aversive home or work environments. Adult learners are motivated by
personal advancement and by external expectations such as family or
employers. Others are motivated because of changes in life events
(downsizing, divorce). They also learn to improve the social welfare and to
develop social relationships (to make friends). Learning is usually seen as a
means to an end rather than as an end in itself. Learning may also be
motivated by a need to increase self-esteem.
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
Motivation (Arousal): The amount of stimulation provided by the content
and the interaction determines how the learner will react to the content.
Learners perform best when they receive enough stimulation to provoke
high levels of performance. This level however varies with the individual.
High arousal leads to anxiety and in the extreme to withdrawal. Low level of
stimulation leads to frustration and boredom and disassociation with the
content. Sharing a workspace or process with others increases stimulation. It
also increases the learners' involvement in the process. Stimulation, under
low stimulation increases the learner's interest and draws the learner into the
material. Stimulation can maintain as well as create interest. To maintain
stimulation, vary the presentation format and style. Challenge the learners
with active tasks.
A Diagrammatic Illustration of Arousal: The curve shows the theoretical
relationship between
Wingfield (1979)
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
It should be noted that this curve is for one individual in relation to a given
task.
Other individuals might exhibit other curves, that is the midpoint of the
curve might shift either to the right or left.
Arousal as an Individual Difference in Motivation: Sensation seeking or
arousal seeking (Zuckerman, 1979) is a characteristic which is called either
a personality variable or a cognitive style which affects classroom
motivation. People who have high sensation seeking needs are interested in
risk taking, danger, and excitement. They need stimulation to raise their
performance to an optimal level. Those who need stimulation would
typically perform poorly in traditional learning settings because the
environments are not stimulus laden. Stimulus avoiders, the opposite side of
the inverted "U" curve avoid stress, anxiety, excitement, and so forth. They
typically will learn well in a stimulus-deprived environment. The
stimulation-seeking factor may go a long way toward explaining the
problems that some children have with learning due to distractibility. It is
hypothesized that hyperactive children who are calmed by amphetamines
are stimulus seekers who are chemically rebalanced (aroused) by the drug
treatment that in turn improves their performance.
Motivational Effect of Low Arousal: In our illustration we see that when the
learner is in a low arousal state the quality of motivation and performance
will be low. If the level of arousal is too low, sleep may occur. Obviously
this would be detrimental to learning. If given a choice, a learner in this
setting would choose to do something else which would provide more
stimulation. More stimulation is motivating. Because of this the learner's
attention will drift if other ambient stimuli are more arousing
(attractive/stimulating) than the one which is intended for the learner to
attend to. Some of this problem may be corrected by the development of a
learning set. If the under-aroused learner is interested in the learning, and is
told what to look for, this will increase the level of arousal, prepare the
learner to learn, and improve the learning performance by moving the
learner up the arousal curve.
Motivational Effects of High Arousal: On the other side of the curve the
student who is over-aroused feels stress and anxiety when in contact with
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
the material to be learned. This is probably a particular problem when the
student is called upon to perform in front of classmates. Such a student may
be capable of performance but may fail to perform because of over-arousal.
Students who are over-aroused may also freeze when taking examinations.
Over-aroused students will fail to attend to cues in the learning process and
will, in extreme cases, revert to primitive approaches to learning, e.g.,
memorization when there are appropriate cognitive structures available.
Stimulus overload causes avoidance. We must also be aware of the cyclical
nature of information overload. As we are presented with new information
we can assimilate it as long as it does not come too fast. We need to know
information, in a perfect world, and we seek it. We receive massive amounts
of information that puts us into overload. This in turn increases anxiety and
reduces performance that in turn reduces the amount of information that can
be obtained.
Arousal and Learning: It is clear that the arousal level of a learner is an
important variable in that person's learning. Anytime that the learner
attempts or is presented with a task that is not at the optimal level his/her
performance is degraded. Learners will, with some training, be able to select
tasks that are at an optimal level of arousal, if choices are provided. When
this is done learning will be efficient and effective; when it is not the
performance of the learner will be more or less degraded.
Extremes in Arousal: Students in schools who are in the tails of the arousal
distribution are likely to be labeled for it. You may see those who are very
low in arousal labeled hyperactive or as having attention deficit disorder. On
the other end of the distribution students who consistently narrow their view
of the world and insist on maintaining and attending to only a narrow range
of stimuli are typically labeled autistic or in the extreme catatonic.
Attribution Theory as Related to Learning: Another motivational model
is attribution theory. Attribution theory tries to explain the rationales which
learners use to explain their successes and their failures. Attribution theory,
according to Weiner (1972), deals with the way in which learners attribute
to success or failure. The rationales that they use in their attributions show
how they perceive the world. The prepotent attribution is one of control,
who has the control in a given learning setting. De Charms (1968) describes
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
those who believe that they have control as origins and those who believe
that others control them as pawns. The basic attribution model is shown
below.
........................................................................Internal Control.........External
Control
.....................................Ability.......................Task............................Stable
.........................................................................Difficulty
.....................................Effort...........................Luck..............................Unsta
ble
When a learner is successful and has internal control, he/she will make
either ability, e.g., "I'm smart or capable," or effort, e.g., "I work hard at it",
attributions to explain the success. The same learner when faced with failure
in a task will typically respond with effort attributions, e.g., "I should have
tried harder." A learner who is externally controlled will make external
attributions. Under the success condition and externally controlled learner
might say, "the task was easy," a task difficulty attribution, or, he/she might
say, "I got lucky". Under a failure condition the learner, who is externally
controlled might say "the task was too hard" or "I got unlucky". Now, what
does this have to do with learning in general? Think about the typical
classroom where the teacher rewards good performance. For that matter,
think about the typical teacher and his/her expectations and the expectations
of the learner who expects to fail, because success is a function of luck.
Rewards do not work in the ways that behaviorists would expect them to do
in this case. Getting a reward may only raise the perception of failure on the
next trial. The same thing is true with the use of negative reinforcers in
failure settings. There is also an interesting phenomenon that happens in
group settings relating to reward and attributions. As children get older, they
view those who receive praise after success as being lower in ability (Barker
& Graham, 1987). Students perceive praise following success and lack of
blame following failure as an indicator of low ability (Barker & Graham,
1987). Meyer, et al. (1979), supports this. In both success and failure
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
conditions the higher one's effort the lower one's ability is perceived to be
(Barker & Graham, 1987). Neutral feedback should be used instead of
praise. Paris and Cross (1983) make the following statement that seems to
summarize the problems related to attribution when they say: "Expending
great effort is risky, however, because failure after trying hard presumably
indicates low ability (Covington & Omelich, 1979). Personal deprecation
then leads to lower expectations and negative attitudes for future task
involvement. Teachers cannot maintain that students are 'really capable' in
the face of their repeated failures with effort because they would lose
credibility by obvious lies. Even if students believed the false compliments,
they would probably devalue the task through overjustification. Although
students feel the most shame following failure with great effort, they cannot
choose the easy alternative of not trying. Although discounting task appeal
and decreasing effort may be rational defensive coping strategies, they are
rarely useful options with regard to ordinary learning, especially in school.
Thus, students need to expend enough effort to avoid reprimands from
teachers, but not so much effort that failure leave low ability as the only
plausible cause. Of course, this is how excuses become functional as
alternative attributions for failure. Covington (1983) stated the maxim as
'Try, or at least appear to try, but not too energetically and with excuses
always handy."
Motivation by Induction into a Community: In many disciplines,
strategies for learning in that discipline are a neglected area. Usually
learners are only gradually inducted into the fold, mostly at the doctoral
level. Thus many students, who could be majors, drift away and are not
attracted into the discipline when they could have been, if they were
exposed early on to what the discipline is and how its members function.
Conversely, a number of learners may be drawn into a discipline only to
find out very late in their educational careers they do not care for or are not
comfortable with the discipline as a profession.
Paradigm Description or Shared Theory Perspectives: A discipline either has
a paradigm, a set of shared theories, or an approach/technique which
members of the discipline use to undergird their practice. Paradigms, in a
Kuhnian sense, are easy to deal with, all agree in the discipline as to what is
the framework for research, theory, etc. Shared theory causes controversy.
When there are a number of perspectives on the philosophy of a discipline,
adherents of one philosophy usually do not read the literature from other
philosophies; interpret research in the same way, nor talk to adherents of
other frames (Sfard, 1998). Thus it may be difficult to get agreement on
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
which theories to share with students. Each adherent to a single view will
think that their view is correct and that, at best, other views are wrong
headed. However, students need to be exposed to all of the viewpoints so
that they can make intelligent decisions about which theory they believe is
correct.
Studying in the Discipline: Students should be provided help in learning the
discipline. This begins with study skills and goes through the creation of
portfolios. Teachers should insure that learners could find information,
which they can transform into knowledge, in both print and electronic
forms. Students should be taught how to use databases and how to create
them as archives for their artifacts. Some instruction should be provided on
how to find good resources such as journals and how to evaluate
information that is found on the Internet. There should be information,
which focuses on the beginner or participant in the first course in the
discipline. This track through the information should show the broad scope
of the discipline. It should show a range of activities in which practitioners
could join and the kinds of jobs that they could hold. It should provide
access to a glossary of terms and a number of reference sources in the
library, which would be useful to the beginner in developing ideas and
papers using the discipline content. If a generational archive is available it
may be tapped for teaching introductory material. There should be links to
higher levels but learners should be told that these links are more
sophisticated and possibly not as user friendly as those provided for
beginners. Some of these links may be made transparent based on the entry
level of the student. At an intermediate level the depth of material provided
is higher than that provided for the beginner. This track should provide
access to a great deal of material (see http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/),
which explicates or summarizes what, is happening in the field. It should
provide access to conferences , lectures, campus and regional meetings, and
links to national organizations (see http://www.educause.edu/ ). It should
provide access to style manuals (see
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/cgos/idx_basic.html) and databases, which
are necessary to writing papers and to constructing projects, which are
appropriate to majors. At a third level the advanced (graduate) level would
focus on the interaction of advanced students who have research questions
and technical questions, which cannot typically be easily answered by
looking up the answers. Therefore, they should be connected to higher level
resources and to links, which provide access to experts.
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
Describing Communities of Practice: The teacher should describe what
learners have to accomplish to become full practitioners such as becoming a
journeyman after an apprenticeship or a list of demonstrable competencies.
In communities of practice, learners watch each other and interact in a
collaborative fashion. Experienced learners train new members on beginning
tasks. The new learner learns how to complete authentic tasks, how to
interact with other members of the community, how to talk in the jargon of
the community, and how to act when dealing with others within and outside
of the community. New learners observe the skills, projects, methods, and
accomplishments of those that are more skilled and thus acquire confidence
in their abilities to join the members of the community. This increases
motivation as one becomes enmeshed in one's community.
Signs of Community Membership: There are signs that learners have
adopted the practices and values of a disciplinary community. All of the
members of the community share the same worldview, or adhere to one of
the recognized shared theories, if there is not paradigm. All agree on the
underlying assumptions, which are used as the basis for practice and theory
in the discipline. Understanding of embedded and critical concepts and
attitudes are evident. Community members know and understand implicit
relationships. Members know and follow the tacit conventions and react to
subtle cues in the same ways. All follow the same rules of thumb in solving
problems and applying procedures appropriate to disciplinary activity.
Community members share recognizable intuitions when dealing with
problems and future orientations. Members share specific perceptions and
have well-tuned sensitivities.
Learning to Walk the Walk: Learning in a discipline is a process of
enculturation, i.e., a process of learning knowledge and values. Values are a
socially constructed set of beliefs, which form the core of a disciplinary
belief structure. In many cases there is a paradigm which specifies the
theoretical base of the discipline, states the boundaries of research, indicates
the big questions and how to approach finding answers to the questions see
http://www.eco.utexas.edu/Homepages/Faculty/Norman/05/kuhn.html in
economics based on Kuhn's ideas. In disciplines, which do not have a
paradigm, there will be shared theory which different groups will espouse.
All shared theory should be included, even if some disagree, as no one
knows which theory will eventually produce the paradigm agreeable to all.
All learners should be familiar with all the positions. Part of the learning
process is learning how to use the disciplinary tools, which is a function of
the accumulated insight of the disciplinary community. Students cannot
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
understand the tool without understanding how it is used in the community;
it is a matter of teaching and of observation. Learners must become
members in a community of practice where they learn how things are done
in the discipline. Meaning in the sense of community is a product of
community negotiation. Therefore, words have different meanings in
disciplinary communities and new learners need to acquire these meanings
if they are to be accepted as participants.
General Principles of Motivation
1. All behavior is motivated. Everyone is motivated (just not in the same
direction.)
2. Motivation derives from needs or desires that are internal to the
individual. Therefore others cannot motivate an individual. They must
manipulate the environment that will attract or repel individual behavior.
Intrinsic motivators are related to individual goals and activities. External
manipulators have little relation to the goal or task. If a student thinks that
what you are teaching will help him/her, that student will be motivated to
learn. This will lead to improved studying, better questions, and more
persistence on the part of the learner.
3. Motivation will not always overcome a poor book, poor instruction, or a
poor learning environment.
4. Different cultures use different motivators. Youth is a culture therefore
each generation uses a somewhat different set of motivators.
5. You must feel successful to be motivated. Note that being successful and
feeling successful may be only moderately correlated. The more a learner's
goals and expectations are met by what they are learning the more motivated
they will be to learn. People strive to be competent, if they feel that it is
possible, in a given setting. Students engage in tasks where they feel
competent and confident and avoid those where they do not. Student's
perception of competence is more important than the student's actual
competence in terms of explaining motivation.
6. It is difficult to have a feeling of responsibility unless one has chosen to
attempt the task. Imposed tasks are ones for which we usually do not feel
responsibility.
7. Thinking is a motivated process. If students cannot voice opinions or
share thinking without threat or fear of rejection then thinking, at least in
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
your class, will not be very appealing. Emotions influence task engagement.
We are unlikely to maintain contact with things that we do not like.
8. Much of motivation comes from doing with others. We form communities
which we support to get security, identity, shared values and people who are
like us and who we like. We are motivated to maintain these communities.
9. If you believe in Maslow's hierarchy of needs fear should not be used as a
motivational manipulation. Fear reduces security and moves the learner
down in the need hierarchy to the next to the lowest level. Only starvation,
strangulation, etc., put the student at a lower level.
Requirements for Motivated Behavior in Education: McCombs (1991)
states that, "Research has shown that for students to be optimally motivate
to learn, they must:
1. See schooling and education as personally relevant to their interests and
goals.
2. Believe that they possess the skills and competencies to successfully
accomplish these learning goals.
3. See themselves as responsible agents in the definition and
accomplishment or personal goals.
4. Understand the higher level thinking and self-regulation skills that lead to
goal attainment.
5. Call into play processes for effectively and efficiently encoding,
processing, and recalling information.
6. Control emotions and moods that can facilitate or interfere with learning
and motivation.
7. Produce the performance outcomes that signal successful goal
attainment."
The strategies that follow will allow you to assist your students in
optimizing their motivation.
Teachers Strategies that Promote Student Motivation
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
Instructional Design Components that Motivate
· Design procedures for student goals to be accomplished. Goal setting is a
tangible expression of motivation. When we help students set goals we help
them to articulate and put forth their motivations following the interests they
evince. Geen (1995) sets forth some guidelines for educational goal
development that follow. Goals are the immediate regulators of behavior.
Do you and your students have common goals? If they are not can you align
them or should the instructional goals be changed to facilitate student needs?
Goals run hierarchically from very specific to general broadly defined
needs. Is your course related to specific student goals? The greater the
specificity of goals the easier it is to show their relationship to student goals,
assuming that there is a match. If course goals are general, teachers will
have to spend more time showing students how these goals subsume student
goals, so students can see the match. This needs to be done if motivation is
to be optimized. The strength of striving for goals depends on the student's
expectancy of reaching the goal and the goal's value. Do students have
multiple ways of reaching the goals you jointly set? If there are options the
probability increases that students will find several in which they have
expertise and confidence. Remember that perceptions of success drive
motivation therefore this will show an increase in student motivation.
Performance is generally better when students work for difficult and specific
goals than when goals are either easy or ambiguous. Do your students
clearly know what the goals are? Are your students challenged by the goals?
Good performance in working for a goal is enhanced by knowledge of the
results. Do you have a specific plan to provide timely feedback on all
student performance? The attractiveness of a goal varies directly with the
amount of effort that must be expended striving for it, which is a direct
function of the goal's difficulty. Can your students choose among goals of
different levels of difficulty? Commitment to a goal is necessary before
effort will be spent striving for it. Do you have a mechanism for attaining
commitment to your course goals (such as a contract)? Causal attributions of
previous successes and failures mediate both motivation and emotional
responses to subsequently experienced task situations. Do you assess
students' previous success/failure history or allow them to choose their own
goals? Simply having an incentive to strive for a goal does not guarantee
that a person will actually undertake the effort that is required, the student
must also be able to take control over the process and believe that success is
possible. Do all your students have opportunities to succeed (make A's and
B's)? Simply providing a safe and positive learning environment does not
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
mean that it will be perceived appropriately. Learners see what they expect,
retraining may be needed if controls are reduced.
· Provide information that students think they need and this will motivate
them. This may mean changing the structure of some material to provide
some of the practical aspects before all the theory is taught. Include
information on how others have been able to use the material in the real
world to draw students in to wanting to acquire the information. Students
want learning to be practical so build activities around things that can be
used in the real world. Try to insure that the first activities are easily
accomplishable. This draws students in and makes them feel that they can
do it.
· Build on the previous experiences of the learners. Draw them in by using
their experiences to help and share with others. Sharing stories and
experiences is a way of building community. Education is personalized
when you share your experiences. It makes learning more vital to those who
share. It also makes learning more meaningful and concrete for those who
receive. Community is created by situations in which those of like minds
can gather and share. When members of a community work together they
can solve more difficult problems because of having access to all of the
previous experiences of members of the community.
· Plan instruction so that all can learn and receive a moderate level of
challenge. Build on student strengths, motivation increases when the chance
of success improves. Insure that all students can be successful in you course
if they meet your requirements. Develop in students positive emotions about
learning rather than uncertainty. Success on moderately challenging tasks
breeds positive affect. Remember that we are differentially challenged.
Moderate difficulty is not the same for all!
· Allow the learner choice and build flexible routes so learners can choose
what they need when they need it. Some structure may be needed. Not all
will be able to determine the appropriate paths though the content. Provision
of several alternative tracks may help learners and motivate them by
providing choice. Students who have choices feel that they have some
control. Having control increases the perception of possible success and
success possibilities increase motivation. If you can empower your students,
if they can control, to some extent, where they are going and what they are
learning, they will evince higher levels of motivation, than students who
have no control.
· Increase the level of students control over challenging material by
introducing new skills gradually, providing timely feedback so that incorrect
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
behaviors are not learned, encouraging the students to use the material to
solve problems.
· Assign "can do" homework. Do not give students homework that they
cannot do, start with easy things and increase the challenge as they
demonstrate success.
· Develop a choice menu, where students may select activities, assignments
from which will contribute to course evaluation. This will activate personal
interest through opportunities for choice and control. Provide students with
options to choose from and have them consider the consequences of each
choice. Help them develop goal-setting strategies.
· Provide opportunity for self-evaluation. Many will have to be taught how
to self evaluate, see grading.
· Provide authentic audiences and assessment for students. Authentic
audiences have real needs for the presentations of learners. Products are
used to solve real problems. Authentic assessment tries the product,
knowledge, process, etc., in a real situation, with real implications to
demonstrate that it works.
· Create evaluation practices that focus on progress and improvement. The
most important thing is for the students to want to succeed and stay in
contact with the discipline. We should try to develop life long learners. At
worst we should do no harm.
· Avoid forcing students to compete for a limited number of rewards.
Everyone wants to succeed. If we cannot because of limited opportunity,
many will opt not to try.
· Provide opportunity for student-student learning. Student-student learning
is better, many times, than student teacher learning because students provide
more understandable examples. This creates community and is inherently
motivating.
Sharing with Students which Motivates
· Explain the relevance of projects, homework, and activities to the goals
that the students have. Explain the reasons or purpose of rules, assignments,
and learning activities. Include a discussion of the importance and utility
value of the work. The students must see activities as meaningful.
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
· Reduce cognitive overload for students by sharing why the course is
important, how it is structured, and sharing a context in which students can
see why basis information is needed to accomplish future goals. This will
reduce memorization as students tie new information to places where they
want to go, career wise.
· Reviewed and redefined instructional objectives to insure that
teachers/students recognize their value and are committed to insuring that all
attain them.
· Foster the belief that competence or ability is changeable, controllable
aspect of development. Tell them that all can succeed and that they can
control the process. Use a Mastery vs. Norm referenced approach.
· Set high expectations for all students and assist students in achieving them.
Students will try to meet your expectations if you give them meaningful
opportunities. Help students maintain relatively accurate but high
expectations and efficacy and help students avoid the illusion of
incompetence.
· Provide frequent feedback either peer or instructor both for recognition of
work well done and for correction to improve products. Learners should be
able to track their own progress so that they can be sure they are doing what
is necessary. Knowing where you are is extremely important when rewards
are external and are applied by others rather than by the self. Provide all
students with ample amounts of positive information feedback. Plan your
feedback schedule into your course design. Specify how often it will occur.
Check with students to insure it is sufficiently frequent. Teachers who do
not provide a motivational plan for a class should not complain about a lack
of student motivation.
· Provide help for students who may be afraid to reach out for challenging
goals by giving help sessions, providing study sheets, review sessions, and
study skills in your discipline. Share the purpose of what is being learned
and its relationship to the goals and personal lives of the learners.
· Help students learn to accept their mistakes and successes by modeling
self-analysis of errors and achievements. Tell the students about things that
you learned from through failure.
· Celebrate the accomplishments and achievements of all students.
· Ask the learners how you could make the learning more interesting.
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
Teaching to Motivate
· Tell the learners what they should expect to get from each segment of
material. This of course will vary if there are alternative experiences
provided or if the students can take alternative tracks through the material.
Will this material help on the job? Is it necessary for the next course? Why
should students learn it? Try to provide specific examples of how the
knowledge or skill will be usable in the real world. Have a graduate of the
course return and talk to the students. The graduate could be a guest or a
guest speaker. Some graduates may be willing to serve as mentors for
individuals or small groups of students. Graduates who can tell students the
ways in which class content helps them in the real world can be powerful
motivators. They provide a clear and demonstrable link between class
learning and job performance.
· Provide simple, clear directions on tasks because Structure in learning can
be a motivator. Break tasks down into accomplishable tasks and help
students develop a plan of action for the accomplishment of each task.
· Listen. Talk less than the students do. We are motivated when we have
input and some control. Listen to your students. Give them safe
opportunities to ask questions and listen to what they say. Have idea times
where students can share ideas. Invite them to share their thinking in a safe,
non-evaluative setting.
· Use a consistent text and graphical image to build learner confidence. Text
and other material should look easy to gain attention and to build
confidence. Use short presentations to decrease the look of difficulty. Wellorganized text motivates. Use materials that look like others that the learner
has used to increase confidence. Make text easy to read. Use a readable
writing style. Write in an active voice to maintain attention. Don't use long
sentences. Vary the vocabulary and the complexity of sentences to maintain
attention. Use interesting pictures to maintain attention. Picture should also
add to the understanding of the material. Use pictures to increase novelty
and drama. Use colored pictures when possible to attract attention.
· Keep presentations short or break them up with other activities. Attention
spans are short, no more than 15 minutes, for most students. Novel
presentations with graphics draw students in. Presentations related to
students' goals are also good.
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
· Provide concrete examples of difficulty concepts. Tangible, visible
examples insure that students who are not at full formal operations in a
content area can still successfully acquire the needed information.
· Model thinking process (think aloud) so students can see how you do it.
(Problem solving, using a process, etc.)
· Incorporate novelty, surprise, and incongruity into teaching and student
activities. We are curious about the new. This draws us in and promotes
motivation if we have enough prior knowledge to recognize the situation.
· Use visuals and graphics to illustrate and enhance understanding of key
points. See Stilborne and Williams (1996). Many learners favor visual
presentations. They learn better, are more successful, when they can see a
picture or a graphic that illustrates the information to be learned. Providing
information in this way will be motivational to a significant segment of the
population.
· Use real problems to focus learners on how the material would be used in
the real world. Real problems can be provided in narrative or diagnostic
cases, in simulations, and in problems acquired or brought to the class from
the professional community. Adult students can be asked to share their
problem experiences if they have previous exposure in the discipline. All of
these techniques add reality to the problem process.
· Make learning into a game. Dean [1997] describes the process for turning
a lecture into a motivational game. To do this present students an answer to
which they have to come up with an appropriate question as the response.
This is useful when the students need to know facts from a chapter. Teams
are arranged on opposite sides of the room. Each person has two
opportunities to ask and respond to the time limited questions in a Jeopardy
framework. If an individual gets stuck, team member may provide
assistance but the number of points for correct responses are cut in half.
Wrong answers yield no points and the instructor is the arbitrator. All
students participate as the question asker and answerer rotate throughout the
teams. Ask questions that the average students should be able to answer.
· Plan and implement collaborative learning. Teach students how to work
better in groups, share norms, rules and guidelines. Encourage students to
help classmates who are having difficulties. You never really learn a topic
until you have to teach it.
· Increase student control by using learning contracts.
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
· Provide immediate application of the content. Students will be more
motivated to learn statistics when they are trying to analyze some real data
for a project than when it is presented as abstract, disconnected content.
· Avoid penalizing some students for the behavior of others. Class
punishments, e.g., pop quizzes, should not be used. We tend to avoid the
things we are hit with and the places where the hitting takes place.
· Strive to make evaluation private, not public.
Climates that Produce Motivation
· Treat students as you would want to be treated or as you would want your
child to be treated. The Golden Rule does apply! Treat students with dignity
and respect. Respect individual uniqueness. This is particularly important if
you want them to be creative or to solve problems.
· Develop a sense of belonging; build opportunity into the course for
interaction and community development. Create positive expectations, show
them how they all can succeed. Develop a climate of good collegial and
personal relations. Learners are colleagues in the learning community and
should be treated as such.
· Create a psychologically safe climate in which students are encouraged to
express their opinions and risk being different.
· Accept students as valuable, worthwhile human beings, although you may
have to reject particular behaviors.
· Make it clear that students are competent enough to learn the material
being taught. You can talk about previous classes, or the choice menu you
offer to promote expectations of competency.
· Let them succeed regularly. Reduce failure to a very low level. Motivation
is domain specific and is a function of success and interest.
· Value students' efforts as well as their accomplishments. Show the students
that hard work is valued even if the attempt failed. Mistakes are learning
experiences.
· Show students that you will provide scaffolding when it is requested or
needed.
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
· Help students feel good about your subject by minimizing negative
conditions that may surround it.
Student Tasks Which Motivate
· Help students get to know each other, make time for introductions and help
them share personal experiences
· Have students set goals, periodically evaluate their progress, and decide if
a change in strategy is necessary.
· Have students share how they will use what you teach. This provides
additional examples and interpersonal connection.
· Promote Reflective Procedural Knowledge for Motivation. To promote
reflective procedural knowledge the learner must not only do the task until
he/she has automatized the procedure, but he/she must also think about the
procedure and why the steps are taken in the series used. However, just
thinking about the process is not always enough. To insure that the process
works, and that the learner is thinking about all of the steps, instructors
should implement a teach-back technique where the learner who knows the
process teaches it to a novice who has not previously had instruction. In the
process of teaching, unreflected upon steps will become illuminated as the
novice struggles to accomplish the task.
· Increase relevance of material by using real world examples to illustrate
the ways in which principles and theory can be applied. Have students find
or generate examples that can be shared with others.
Questions Students Have to Have Answers to, to be Motivated: When
you develop your motivational plan you should try to create an instructional
plan based on the answers to these questions. Provide sufficient detail in the
syllabus so you will know how to apply the motivational process.
· What are the rules?
· Can I negotiate for alternatives (in class work, projects)?
· Do I know enough to evaluate my own work?
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
· Can I ask questions safely?
· Will my faculty member listen to me?
· Can I be successful? (this is a function of my perceptions, not the facts)
· Will I be challenged at my level of knowledge or skill?
· Can I read the text material?
· Do I know where we are going?
· Do I know why we are going there?
· Do I know how to play this game?
· Do I have friends/colleagues to work with?
_____________________________________________________________
___
Bull, K. S., Montgomery, D., and Kimball, S. L. (2000) Classroom
Motivation. In K. S. Bull, D. L. Montgomery, and S. L. Kimball (Eds.)
Quality University Instruction Online: A Basic Teaching Effectiveness
Training Program--An Instructional Hypertext. Stillwater, OK: Oklahoma
State University. Revised 05/13/02. For problems email
kaybull@okstate.edu
_____________________________________________________________
___
Discussion Questions
1. The ways in which students are treat students will determine their motivation, their
success,
and, in many cases, what they do in their careers. Agree or disagree? Implications?
2. Learners are motivated when they have the background and the desire to learn.
Agree or
disagree? Implications?
3. Much traditional instruction controls student behavior by negative affect, shame,
guilt,
negative reinforcement, etc., for lack of conformity to teacher desire. Deshler uses the
expression educationally deformed to describe some adults who resist formal
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
education not
only because of the poor instruction they received in the past but also because of the
failure
and disrespect they endured due to class, gender, or racial bias while in elementary or
secondary school. Agree or disagree? Implications?
4. Learners will actively do other things to avoid aversives; this is called negative
reinforcement. Agree or disagree? Implications?
5. Use reward to manipulate behavior that the student does not want to perform.
However
remember that extinction will occur when rewards are no longer offered. Agree or
disagree?
Implications?
6. We need to start by trying to overcome the idea that learning is a struggle.Learning
is fun
and should draw us in. It should be useful and we will therefore want it or be
motivated to
attain it. Agree or disagree? Implications?
7. If a learner believes that learning and success are possible the chances are he/she
will be
motivated, assuming that success is desired. Agree or disagree? Implications?
8. Use of negatives is problematic because of this interaction with learner perception.
In the
extreme, external negatives can lead to learned helplessness when learners believe
that nothing
that they do will allow them to escape from the threatened aversive. Agree or
disagree?
Implications?
9. If the learner feels a need this will provoke motivation. Therefore building
relationships
between the content and objectives of instruction and the expressed needs of the
learner will
increase motivation. Agree or disagree? Implications?
10. To learn a student must be ready or prepared in the sense that the prerequisite
information
must be known before new learning can take place. The learner must be able, in the
prerequisite sense, and must be willing, in the affective sense, before he/she will
operate on the
new information. Agree or disagree? Implications?
11. Many students do not thoroughly read the textbooks before class. Agree or
disagree?
Implications?
12. Learners perform best when they receive enough stimulation to provoke high
levels of
performance. This level however varies with the individual. Agree or disagree?
Implications?
13. The student who is over-aroused feels stress and anxiety when in contact with the
material
to be learned. Agree or disagree? Implications?
14. Rewards do not work in the ways that behaviorists would expect them to do in this
case.
http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/EDUC5910iep9
Getting a reward may only raise the perception of failure on the next trial. Agree or
disagree?
Implications?
15. The teacher should describe what learners have to accomplish to become full
practitioners.
Agree or disagree? Implications?
16. Motivation will not always overcome a poor book, poor instruction, or a poor
learning
environment. Agree or disagree? Implications?
17. Provide information that students think they need and this will motivate them.
Agree or
disagree? Implications?
18. Allow the learner choice and build flexible routes so learners can choose what
they need
when they need it. Agree or disagree? Implications?
19. Set high expectations for all students and assist students in achieving them.
Students will
try to meet your expectations if you give them choices. Agree or disagree?
Implications?
20. Keep presentations short or break them up with other activities. Attention spans
are short,
no more t han 15 minutes, for most students. Agree or disagree? Implications?
21. Avoid penalizing some students for the behavior of others. Class punishments,
e.g., pop
quizzes, should not be used. Agree or disagree? Implications?
22. Make it clear that students are competent enough to learn the material being
taught. Agree
or disagree? Implications?
23. Instructors should implement a teach-back technique where the learner who
knows the
process teaches it to a novice who has not previously had instruction. In the process of
teaching, unreflected upon steps will become illuminated as the novice struggles to
accomplish
the task. Agree or disagree? Implications?
Created 3/3/99, Last revised 01/09/05 . Copyright (1999), Kay S. Bull, all
rights reserved.