Monday, March 28, 2011
Chapter 11- Motivational Theories
An amusing side note I must include, is that I thought the reading for this week was chapter 9, the Neuroscience of Learning. Wow, did I have to filter through that a couple of times only to realize that we were supposed to be reading Ch. 11. The theme of Motivation in Chapter 11 is an ideal subject for a teacher. This is one thing I constantly struggle with when designing lesson plans, “how will I motivate my students to learn?” In my teaching experience of almost two years, I have noticed that if the students are motivated the learning comes naturally. The section that appealed to me most in this chapter, was the one devoted to Social cognitive theory. My literature review topic is self efficacy. It makes complete sense to me that a student needs to have confidence in his or her ability to learn before they can start to set goals and expectations. So what are we as teachers doing in our classrooms to try to increase this “Self efficacy” within our students?
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4 comments:
As a teacher which motivational factor would be more important to you: intrinsic which is self generated or extrinsic, learning because rewards are being offered? It's neat to see what educator's opinions are because I believe intrinsic is more important, or should I say, important in a different way because if a child has the desire needed to want to learn something because of a self-generated factor, that would make all the difference in the world. I also believe that motivation is an important part of the learning process but believe it is a difficult task in some cases to accomplish.
Jennifer – you will have a head start on Chapter 9 now!
I am happy that you are honest about struggling with designing motivational lesson plans. I agree that it is often easier to motivate students if the learning comes naturally and is not forced. When learning is forced, students are often resistant to the learning process. As teachers, we have to make lessons relate to students and their real lives. I often find it easier to do this by relating all my lessons to things I know they enjoy. All of my examples are taken from things that they experience and would understand. By making the topic seem more attainable to them, it increase their level of self-efficacy and they believe in their own abilities. As teachers we have to break down the barriers of learning that makes subjects seem unreachable.
Some people believe that motivation is an inherited trait but that can be motivated by (a teacher’s) reinforcement (Rewards) or by setting consequences. I think it depends. The real key is to capture the student’s interest and attention. Everyone has intrinsic motivation that can influence them to choose a task, get energized about it, and persist until they accomplish it successfully, regardless of whether it brings an immediate reward or consequence. I believe learners really need to know, understand and appreciate (passion) what they are doing in order to become motivated.
The motivation techniques I use in the workplace for myself is the Goal Theory. I have always used these types of goal orientations but I never realized there was a difference between learning goals and performance goals until this course. I realized it is important to distinguish between the two to ensure that I am on task not setting myself up for failure with unrealistic goals. When beginning a task at work I find it helpful to think about what skills I will gain from completing a task or duty and after I complete the task, I revisit the task and reflect on whether or not I gained the skills I wanted.
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