What do you remember most from
our class thus far?
Why?
Motivation
IP&T 301
Suzy Cox
“Students get out of any course
of study only what they put into
it.”
What is our purpose, then?
What are the benefits/results of
motivation?
Different Types of Motivation
• Situated Motivation
– What is situated cognition? What is situated
motivation?
Different Types of Motivation
• Intrinsic Motivation
• Extrinsic Motivation
– Which is most beneficial? Why?
– “Some researchers believe that our schools
foster extrinsic motivation far more often than
intrinsic motivation.” Thoughts from the
practicum?
The Decrease in Intrinsic
Motivation
• Stressed importance of good grades
• Lack of relevance to students’ goals
• Overly structured, repetitive, and boring
activities
• What is the answer?
Enhancing Intrinsic Motivation
• Arousing Interest
– “hook,”
– examples relating material to students’ cultures
or prior knowledge,
– give them some choice about what they will study
or how they will study it – how do we do this
practically?
Enhancing Intrinsic Motivation
• Maintaining Curiosity
– hands-on experience,
– surprising or challenging students with a problem
they can’t solve with their current knowledge
(constructivism),
– getting students into a familiar pattern and then
breaking that pattern
Enhancing Intrinsic Motivation
• Using a Variety of Interesting Presentation Modes
– carefully planned and instructionally sound,
– emotional material,
– concrete examples,
– cause-and-effect relationships,
– clear organization,
– games or simulations (learn about a subject from the
inside) – team games better than individual (all have a
good chance of success if mixed-ability)
Enhancing Intrinsic Motivation
• Helping Students Set Their Own Goals
– people work harder for goals they set themselves
• Conference Schedule: discuss prior goal attainment,
set new goals
– ambitious but realistic,
– give praise for setting and then achieving goals
Will Extrinsic Motivators Destroy
Intrinsic Motivation?
• Yes
– task is of high interest,
– rewards are tangible and offered beforehand,
– given without regard to success or specified level
of performance
Example
• Chronicles of Narnia – The Horse and His
Boy
Will Extrinsic Motivators Destroy
Intrinsic Motivation?
• No
– contingent on quality of performance rather than
on mere participation,
– seen as recognition of competence,
– uninteresting task,
– social rather than material
Will Extrinsic Motivators Destroy
Intrinsic Motivation?
• Still risky
– start with educational practices and self-
regulation
“Students receive about 900
hours of instruction every year,
and intrinsic interest alone will
not keep them enthusiastically
working day in and day out.”
Extrinsic has its benefits
• may confirm that a student is mastering the
subject matter
• may also be essential for getting some
students on the road to successful classroom
learning and productivity
Internalizing Motivation
External Motivation
Approval Seeking
Understanding
Internalization
Handout
Different Perspectives (p. 371-2)
• Trait
• Behaviorist
• Social Cognitive
• Cognitive
Another Perspective
• Abraham Maslow
Additional Needs
• Self-worth
• Relatedness
– Affiliation
– Approval
“Motivation should be at a
maximum at moderate levels of
probability of success.”
“Success breeds the desire for
more success, which in turn
breeds success.”
Implications?
Promote Self-comparison
• Define success in terms of task accomplishment,
skill improvement, or academic progress
• Minimize students’ awareness of their classmates’
performance levels
• Provide opportunities for students to assess their
own performance and monitor their improvement
over time
• Highlight improvement
Good Feedback
• provides information that students cannot get
on their own
• identifies specific strengths that students
have and specific weaknesses that can be
addressed
• maintains students’ self-efficacy and self-
esteem
Performance v. Learning
• What are performance goals?
• What are learning/mastery goals?
• How would each respond to a challenging
situation?
Most students, if they are
motivated to succeed in their
schoolwork, are primarily
concerned about getting good
grades, and they prefer short,
easy tasks to lengthier, more
challenging ones.
Sound familiar?
How do we combat this attitude?
• Future usefulness
• Meaningful learning
• Show progress
• Emphasize effort and the value of mistakes
• Self-determination
“Students in schools whose
teachers have high
expectations achieve more
than those in other schools.”
Impact of Teachers
• Especially strong in early grades. Why?
• Optimistic, but realistic, expectations for their
performance
• Attribute their successes and failures to
things over which either they or we have
control
• Look for strengths in every student
Concepts from the basics sheet
• Anxiety
• Attribution
• Learned Helplessness
Guiding Principles
Examples
• http://msed.byu.edu/ipt/ipt301/movies/motivati
on.html
• http://msed.byu.edu/ipt/ipt301/movies/behavi
oral.html
• Which techniques are more effective for controlling
behavior?
• Which techniques promote intrinsic motivation?
• Which techniques are more likely to have a long-
lasting effect?
• Which techniques promote community over
competition?
• Which techniques are more likely to elicit
understanding?
• Which techniques would you choose to use in your
classroom? Why?