9/12: Motivation

Among the theoretical approaches to motivation listed in the book, I resonate with the cognitive approach to studying motivation. This approach considers how mental and emotional factors affect perceptions, which in turn affect student engagement in learning. The book gives the examples of a learner’s sense of self-determination, locus of control and self-worth influencing their behavior. Student autonomy is certainly an important component to consider when constructing activities. For instance, the book mentions how rules can undermine intrinsic motivation and make activities feel more like work than play. If activities seem more like play than work, then students will be more motivated to participate in the activities. Locus of control refers to whether students interpret outcomes as controllable or not. For example, if a student believes she did well or poorly on a test simply because of what the teacher put on the test, her locus of control is external, and she may not be motivated to study. Self-worth is considered a basic human need and involves how capable one believes he or she is. Self-worth is related to other concepts of motivation in the chapter. For instance, if a student doesn’t believe in himself and thinks he isn’t capable, then he has a low self-worth and an internal locus of control.

            Self-worth and locus of control are two factors of motivation I consider to be integral to success in the classroom. As Hsieh et.al put it, students “need to develop a strong belief that they are capable of completing tasks successfully” (Hsieh et. al 2007). The teacher project today on self-wroth really made me reflect on how important one’s sense of capability is to education. My group completed the easy puzzle too quickly, and, as a result, our self worth was not as high as it could have been. The groups with the huge puzzles had little chance of completing the task. Though their long-term self-worth may not have taken a hit, they felt less motivated when they didn’t believe they could complete the task. In my future class, I would like to begin the year with a somewhat similar activity. I would group the students randomly and give them an easy task (say a 25-piece puzzle) to complete in a given time limit. After that, I would give the groups a more difficult task (say a 75-piece puzzle) to complete. After all of the groups completed the more difficult task, I would have them reflect on the exercise. Then I would tell them that despite their past experiences, they were all able to collaborate on and complete a task. I would reveal to them that they have the ability to do well in the class if they maintain the same attitude all year. Hopefully, this would increase their self-worth and motivate them to learn in my class.