Motivation to Learn

Motivation to learn is paramount to student success. The sources of motivation however are complex. Motivation is something that energizes, directs, and sustains behavior; it gets students moving, points them in a particular direction, and keeps them going. We often see students’ motivation reflected in personal investment and in cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement in school activities.

Virtually all students are motivated in one way or another. One student may be keenly interested in classroom subject matter and seek out challenging course work, participate actively in class discussions, and earn high marks on assigned projects. Another student may be more concerned with the social side of school, interacting with classmates frequently, attending extracurricular activities almost every day, and perhaps running for a student government office. Still another may be focused on athletics, excelling in physical education classes, playing or watching sports most afternoons and weekends, and faithfully following a physical fitness regimen. Yet another student—perhaps because of an undetected learning disability, a shy temperament, or a seemingly uncoordinated body—may be motivated to avoid academics, social situations, or athletic activities.

In the pages to come, we’ll find that as teachers, we can do many things to motivate students to learn and behave in ways that promote their long-term success and productivity.

As an instructor I often consider student motivation to be up to the student. Such abstract concepts as attitude and needs are personal and not easy for an instructor to address. Adult educators are dealing with a group of individuals whose needs and motivations are very diverse. Life experience widens the gap between students and creates a diversity that is important in learning. Instructional designers must meet the challenge of designing instruction that is motivating. There are a number of motivational techniques which have a great bearing on instructional design. The potential benefits of attention to motivation in instructional design are many.

Components of the Motivation to Learn

1. Curiosity

The behaviorist talks about reward and punishment as being the main influence on learning. Behavior can be focused toward a reward or away from a punishment. Human behavior is far more complex. People are naturally curious. They seek new experiences; they enjoy learning new things; they find satisfaction in solving puzzles, perfecting skills and developing competence. A major task in teaching is to nurture student curiosity and to use curiosity as a motive for learning.

Ask students questions or create a problem situation rather than presenting statements of fact. This increases student interest and curiosity to learn more about the topic. Curiosity is a motive that is intrinsic to learning, and thus continued learning is not dependent upon the teacher rewarding learning.

2. Attitude

Every educator has encountered students who are labeled as having a bad attitude. Attitude is an illusive commodity. A manager dealing with an employee with an "attitude" is instructed to deal specifically with the behavior that is occurring. Performance evaluations are not to include the term, "bad attitude". Rather specific examples of actual situations must be cited of employee job performance. In an educational setting the performance that we are striving for is learning, which in some cases can be judged through behavior but not always. As with employees it is important to point out to students specific behaviors that demonstrate an attitude. However the attitude of a student toward learning is very much an intrinsic characteristic and is not always demonstrated through behaviors. The positive behaviors exhibited by the student may only occur in the presence of the instructor, and may not be apparent at other times. For example a person may have a poor attitude toward the police but when confronted by a policeman they behave courteously and respectful. The behavior is contrary to the attitude.

3. Need

The needs of individual students can vary greatly. The most well known and respected classification of human need is Maslow's hierarchy of needs. There are five levels of need in this hierarchy: (1) Physiological (lower-level) (2) Safety (lower-level) (3) Love and belongings (higher needs) (4) Esteem (higher need) (5) Self-Actualization (higher need). The importance of this to motivation is the lower-level needs must be satisfied at one level before the next higher order of needs become predominant in influencing behavior. Education fits into the realm of achieving higher level needs. Students will 3

not be ready to learn if they have not had their lower level needs met. Children who are sent to school hungry, are not able to learn. Their lower needs must be met first.

5. Competence

Competence is an intrinsic motive for learning that is highly related to self-efficacy. Human beings receive pleasure from doing things well. Success in a subject for some students is not enough. For students who lack a sense of efficacy teachers must not only provide situations where success occurs but also give students opportunities to undertake challenging tasks on their own to prove to themselves that they can achieve.

6. Attention

Gaining and maintaining attention follows many of the same principles as discussed in providing a stimulating learning environment and arousing curiosity. Often it is easy to gain attention at the beginning of a lesson. Sustaining the attention is a challenge. Provide variety in presentations through media, demonstrations, small group discussions, or whole class debates. Likewise, printed text can be varied through different type sizes or fonts or the inclusion of diagrams or pictures.

7. Confidence

Confidence and self-efficacy are closely aligned. Three strategies for developing confidence are outlined by Driscoll (1994).

(1) Create a positive expectation for success by making it clear just what is expected of students. Break complex goals into smaller chunks. It is easier to eat an elephant if you do it in small chunks.

(2) Provide success opportunities for students. Learners gain confidence if they are given enough assistance to perform a task they are not quite capable of doing on their own.

(3) Provide learners with a reasonable degree of control over their own learning. Help them to recognize that learning is a direct consequence of their own efforts

References

1. Driscolll, Marcy. (1994). Psychology of Learning for Instruction. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

2. Fleming, M., Levie, W. H. (1993). Instructional Message Design, Principles from the Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences. Educational Technology Publications, Englewood cliffs, New Jersey, 1993.

3. McCombs, B. L. (1996).

http://www.mcrel.org/products/noteworthy/barbaram.html.

4. McKeachie, W. J. (1994) Teaching Tips. D. C. Heath and Company, Lexington, Massachusetts.