Motivation

 

Motivation plays a vital role in students' educational process as it determines whether or not students are receptive to being taught, are eager to learn, and apply themselves academically. Usually, students who are motivated tend to be actively engaged in their learning process while students who lack motivation tend not to put forth the effort necessary for experiencing academic success. It is therefore essential that pre-professional educators develop an understanding of motivation if they are to create a learning environment that is meaningful and energizing to students.  

WHAT IS MOTIVATION? 

Motivation is defined as an internal state or condition that activates, directs, and sustains behavior. There are two types of motivation, namely extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is elicited by external factors (e.g., rewards or avoidance of punishment). Intrinsic motivation is elicited by internal factors (e.g., doing something because it is fun).

In the classroom, motivation or lack of motivation typically determines whether or not students are applying themselves academically and why they are engaging in certain behaviors. When students apply themselves and sustain the same level of effort, they are demonstrating that they are motivated. To the contrary, when students appear bored and do not apply themselves, they are demonstrating that they are not motivated. 

COGNITIVE & SOCIOCULTURAL FACTORS THAT AFFECT MOTIVATION 

A number of cognitive factors influence whether or not students are motivated, including: 

• Level of interest in a topic, issue, activity, or task. When students are interested, they tend to pay attention, be engaged, retain information, and perform well academically.
• Degree of self-efficacy. The term "self-efficacy" refers to students' perceptions about their ability to learn and successfully perform tasks. Self-efficacy is linked to students' past experiences and can be improved through constructive feedback from the instructor, peers, family, and other individuals, as well as through encouragement and collaborative activities with peers.
• Level of self-competence. When students are convinced that they cannot be successful academically, they sometimes engage in destructive behavior by not applying themselves, being disruptive, procrastinating, and spreading themselves thin. This type of behavior is referred to as "self-handicapping".
• Perceptions about the benefits of education. When students see their learning experiences as crucial in attaining their future life goals, they tend to readily apply themselves in comparison to students' who do not view education as a stepping stone to success.
• Goals. Students typically cultivate different types of goals, including mastery goals (i.e., to learn and master subject area knowledge), performance goals (i.e., to perform well academically), or performance-avoidance goals (i.e., to avoid performing less well than peers). Students with mastery goals tend to be very motivated, to actively participate in class, and to apply themselves. Students with performance goals or performance-avoidance goals tend to not put forth their best effort. They only do what is necessary to pass tests or a class.
• Ability to handle academic goals and other life goals simultaneously. Beyond academics, students have other goals (e.g., happiness, friendship, money, and future profession) which they have to address. Some students develop strategies that allow them to effectively address several goals at the same time.
• Attributions. Attributions refer to students' beliefs about the causes of personal success or failure. When students have an internal locus of control, they attribute academic performance to internal factors (e.g., satisfactory academic performance is linked to good study habits). When students have an external locus of control, they attribute academic performance to external factors (e.g., unsatisfactory academic performance is linked to poor instruction).
• Attributions for past learning experiences. Students' beliefs about their past academic experiences can also impact their future academic performance by leading some students to believe that they are not intelligent. This can prevent students from applying themselves.

Beyond cognitive factors, sociocultural factors can also negatively impact students' level of motivation, including:

• Instructors' beliefs about students' ability. When instructors believe that students are capable, they tend to convey positive messages to students that influence their level of motivation.
• Instructors' expectations for different students. When instructors convey high expectations to students, students tend to be more motivated.
• Age-related attributions. With age, students tend to increasingly attribute academic success or failure to ability. This leads some students to develop a "I can't do it" or "I can do it" attitude that will powerfully impact their level of motivation and academic performance
• Students' cultural background. Cultural background powerfully influences the beliefs, value systems, and academic and life coals that students have and the level of motivation that they demonstrate.

 Major Theories of Motivation

There are four major theoretical perspectives to motivation: the behavioral, humanistic, cognitive, and social perspectives. It is important for future educators to familiarize themselves with these perspectives in order to design instruction that is interesting and motivating to students.

Behavioral Perspective

According to this perspective, consequences are key determinants of students' level of motivation. In particular, positive reinforcement (e.g., praise) and negative reinforcement (e.g., avoidance of a negative consequence) can both increase desirable behavior in students while punishment (e.g., detention) acts as a disincentive that decreases students' undesirable behavior. 

Humanistic Perspective

Based on this perspective, all human beings have the need to develop to their fullest potential and will strive to do so unless they encounter obstacles. Obstacles are conditions that prevent an individual's psychological growth (e.g., hunger, homelessness, financial difficulties).

One of the well-known proponents of this approach is Abraham Maslow. In his view, people have a number of needs that they must address. Some are lower-level needs (e.g., need for water, food, and shelter) and others are higher-level needs (e.g., need for feeling competent and respected). Collectively, these needs form a hierarchy. The latter are illustrated in the following diagram.

According to Maslow, if students' lower-level needs are not met, they cannot address any of their higher-level needs.   

Cognitive Perspective

The cognitive perspective argues that students' level of motivation is contingent on their perceptions about the reasons for achieving or underachieving academically and their beliefs about being able to control the environment through planning and goal-setting.

Bernard Weiner is one of the proponents of this view. He formulated what is called attribution theory. According to Weiner, people have the need to explain why things happen the way that they do. People usually do so by attributing the causes of situations to outside forces (i.e., external attribution) or to factors within themselves (i.e., internal attribution). The four most commonly ascribed attributions are ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck.

Another advocate of this approach is Robert White who claimed that people have the motivation to act a certain way when they feel competent that they can bring about change in their environment. As people repeatedly engage in the same tasks, they develop mastery and increase their confidence, and this sustains their motivation. 

Social Perspective

The social perspective attributes motivation to people's need for affiliation (i.e., being close to other people). It has been shown that students who have positive relationships with their teachers tend to have better attitudes towards school and academic tasks. 

Affect and its Impact on Learning

Do students' psychological states, including feelings and moods, impact their level of motivation and how well they learn?  

WHAT IS AFFECT AND HOW DOES IT INFLUENCE STUDENT LEARNING?

The term affect refers to the emotions and moods that students exhibit in class (e.g., feeling happy, sad, or angry). According to researchers, affect powerfully influences students' level of motivation. In general, students tend to engage in behaviors that lead to feelings of satisfaction or contentedness. However, students sometimes experience feelings of pride, shame, or guilt that are associated with their self-perceptions and sense of self-worth, and may experience a depressed mood that prevents them from being motivated. Students' level of interest in an academic topic or activity also plays a role in students' affect and attitudes towards learning. When students are interested, they tend to display a positive affect (e.g., satisfaction) and to be more motivated and to have a high degree of self-efficacy.

Affect also influences how well students learn. If students enjoy working on a classroom activity, they are more likely to put forth their best effort and to use effective studying strategies to master the knowledge and skills at hand. In addition, when the concepts taught involve emotional content, students tend to pay closer attention and to remember the information. In contrast, if students are bored and disengaged, they may not pay attention, apply themselves, and may even become disruptive. 

Sometimes, anxiety can negatively impact learning and academic performance if students feel threatened by a task and believe that they cannot successfully complete it. 

In another respect, affect is related to cultural background. In particular, some cultural groups tend to be more expressive of their feelings and moods than others (e.g., Westeners vs. Easteners). In addition, certain emotions may be acceptable and socially appropriate in some cultures but not in others (e.g., anger or pride are acceptable in Western cultures but not in Eastern cultures). 

How can instructors cultivate positive affect in their students? The following are suggestions that have been shown to work:

• Giving students some degree of control in their learning experiences
• Giving students a voice in creating class rules and choosing the projects that they will work on to demonstrate mastery
• Providing constructive feedback that prompts reflection
• Reinforcing good behavior (e.g., using praise)
• Encouraging students to plan short-term academic goals and a road map for attaining their goals
• Relating teaching to students' interests, personal lives, and the world at large
• Conveying high expectations and the message that "everyone can learn and be successful"
• Using active learning strategies that arouse interest and excitement and allow students to interact with peers
• Being a caring and student-centered instructor
• Establishing a supportive learning environment where students feel comfortable and experience minimal anxiety

REFERENCES 

Maslow, A. (1970). Motivation and personality (2nd ed.). New York: Harper & Row.

Ormrod, J. & Jones, B. (2018). Essentials of educational psychology: Big ideas to guide effective teaching (5th ed.) Boston: Pearson.

Santrock, J. (2018). Educational psychology (6th ed.). Boston: McGraw Hill.

Sternberg, R. (2012). Cognitive psychology (6th ed.). Boston: Cengage.

Weiner, B. (1980). Human motivation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

White, R. (1959). Motivation reconsidered: The concept of confidence. Psychological Review, 66, 297-333.