Chapter 4: Motivation and Self-Directed Learning Are Important Aspects of Achievement
Over the course of students’ K-12 educational experience, they will have hundreds of interactions with teachers and many opportunities to learn new information. These early learning interactions, of course, play a major role in what students know, but perhaps even more importantly, they influence the development of students’ motivation to learn, curiosity, and sense of efficacy or competence. In the long-run, these attributes contribute to the development of learners who assume control over what they learn and do so with a strong desire toward understanding what they learn. How does a person develop into a motivated learner? What role does schooling play in this development? What theories can explain the development of motivation and self-directed learning? Before delving into the answers to these questions, let’s first examine a couple of classroom situations.
Ms. Cappen’s Second-Grade Classroom
Ms. C.: Okay students, please take out your math book, a pencil, paper, and your calculators. Turn to page 46 and work through sample problem number 1 and then do problems 1 through 10 . . . [walking toward James and in a soft voice] . . . James, do you need a pencil?
James: No, Ms. Cappen. I have one, but do we have to do these silly addition problems again? I have been doing these forever. I hate doing them every day!
Maria: Ms. Cappen, I need help.
Ms. C.: Yes, Maria. [in a soft voice] What is the problem?
Maria: What do you do when there are too many numbers? I keep getting confused.
Ms. C.: Maria, would you like to work on the assignment with James? He is very good in math and would probably like to help you.
Maria: Is it okay? Will I still be able to earn my points for completing my assignment if he helps me?
Ms. C.: Yes, Maria, of course, as long as you put in the effort to understand the problems I think you should be rewarded. . . . James, please bring your book and chair. I need your brain!
James: Good! My brain is on the way, Ms. Cappen. Where is it going?
Ms. C.: On a math trip with Maria. If you both work together on the assignment, you can each earn math points today. I know you are not excited about these addition problems, but Maria needs your assistance. Please be a good helper and help her remember the steps in solving these problems.
James: Okay. This is better than working alone. I can help Maria and she can even have my points!
Ms. C.: Thanks James, but even if you don’t want the points, Maria can only earn her own points. . . . [smiling and with a little chuckle] You’re being too generous with my motivation points!
Mr. Guy’s Eighth-Grade Science Class
Mr. G.: Remember students, the exam will cover the last three chapters on the cell. You all should have a detailed knowledge of mitosis and meiosis, and be able to sketch the process of cell reproduction and division. The exam will be on Thursday and is closed book. Any questions? Hearing none, I recommend you use the last 10 minutes of class to get organized for the exam.
Dustin: What do you guys think, is Mr. Guy going to make the exam tough?
Emily: For sure. Every exam he gives is a real killer to me! They’re always long and cover so much stuff. I never come close to finishing. If he wasn’t our coach, I probably wouldn’t even try to finish his exams.
Mitch: I agree. The subject sucks, but Mr. Guy is cool. In addition, my dad would probably kick meif I didn’t get at least a B in this class. So I have to do well.
Dustin: I didn’t mean to get you guys all anxious about the exam. Even though all Mr. Guy’s exams are tough, they are fair. If I study, I will do well. I feel confident of that. My challenge is finding the time to study. Wow, it is less than two days from now!
Emily: Yeah, only two more days of waiting for a death sentence in science.
Mr. G.: What’s this I hear about a death sentence in science, Emily?
Emily: Nothing, sir. I’m just not very lucky when it comes to your tests.
Mr. G.: Luck really doesn’t have anything to do with it. Studying does!
Mitch: You’re right Mr. Guy, studying is the answer. So I guess we better start studying, right Dustin? Right Emily?
Mr. G.: Good, Mitch. Try to psych these guys up and help them find BigMo within. Especially Emily. She could use your best motivational speech and a study buddy.
Dustin: Study buddies, that’s a good idea! Let’s get together after school for a review session. I’ll bring my notes and our previous quizzes. Mitch, you bring some treats for all of us to eat. Emily, you are responsible for keeping it fun, but focused!
MOTIVATION: MEANING AND MYTHS
Both Ms. Cappen’s and Mr. Guy’s classrooms characterize some of the daily motivational challenges students and teachers must deal with to achieve success. When parents and teachers ask aboutmotivation, they often want to know what causes one student to act highly motivated and another in the same class to be totally unmotivated. To answer this question, we must first define motivation, a central construct in both educational and psychological research for the past sixty years and part of several theories of human development. Motivation is an internal state that arouses us to action, pushes us in particular directions, and keeps us engaged in certain activities. Learning and motivation are equally essential for performance; the former enables us to acquire new knowledge and skills, and the latter provides the impetus for showing what we have learned. In general, more motivated people achieve at higher levels. Motivation appears to affect learning and performance in at least four ways:
1. Motivation increases an individual’s energy and activity level (Pintrich, Marx, & Boyle, 1993). It influences the extent to which an individual is likely to engage in a certain activity intensively or half-heartedly.
2. Motivation directs an individual toward certain goals (Eccles & Wigfield, 1985). Motivation affects choices people make and the consequences they find reinforcing.
3. Motivation promotes initiation of certain activities and persistence in those activities (Stipek, 1988). It increases the likelihood that people will begin something on their own initiative, persist in the face of difficulty, and resume a task after a temporary interruption.
4. Motivation affects the learning strategies and cognitive processes an individual employs (Dweck & Elliott, 1983). It increases the likelihood that people will pay attention to something, study and practice it, and try to learn it in a meaningful fashion. It also increases the likelihood that they will seek help when they encounter difficulty.
The concept of motivation has been subject to some myths that can lead to inappropriate educational practices. For example, failure is a good motivator. Experience may be a valuable teacher and we all can learn something from our mistakes, if we listen to feedback. But chronic failure often begets more of the same, unless a better way is substituted. Success, even a small success, is a more potent motivator for most students. Another example of a myth is that teachers motivate students. Realistically, the best that teachers can do is make conditions for learning as attractive and stimulating as possible and by matching tasks to student ability. By doing so, one can encourage students’ self-motivation. A final common myth is that threats increase motivation. By using the threat of low grades, retention, and parental notification, someteachers believe that they motivate students. Although such stern measures may result in some short-term improvements, in most cases they have been shown to be counterproductive.
Another aspect of motivation often discussed when educational practices are of concern is the relative importance of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic, or internally oriented, motivation means that students themselves demonstrate the desire to learn without the need for external inducements. James, in Ms. Cappen’s class, and Dustin, in Mr. Guy’s class, both primarily appeared to be intrinsically motivated to achieve. James did not seem interested in earning motivation points, he was energized to do the math assignment only when he was given the responsibility of being a helper. Dustin showed signs of confidence in his ability to deal with a science test and exhibited leadership in organizing a nonrequired study session. These are indicators of self-directed learning and competencies of an intrinsically oriented student. Obviously, this is an ideal state that can result in considerable learning and a minimum of discipline problems. This ideal state of intrinsic motivation, however, can be elusive for some students. Consequently, marks, prizes, and other tangible rewards have been used to influence some students’ behavior. If students respond to these external inducements, they are said to be extrinsically motivated. In reality, the intrinsic-extrinsic dichotomy is false; rather it is more accurate to say that students are primarily intrinsically or primarily extrinsically motivated to learn. There are always consequences extrinsic to students that may influence their efforts. The long-term desired goal of most parents and educators is to see a student develop into an intrinsically motivated learner. That is, they want to see students who are self-directed, who initiate and maintain interest in what they are learning, and are genuinely pleased when they finish their work.
If you were asked to provide a list of highly motivated individuals, the chances are that your list would include the names of some great athletes. These gifted people did not arrive at their present lofty position by ability alone. Talent plus dedicated determination helped them to achieve their “worldclass” accomplishments. Psychologists are convinced that today’s great athletes have not yet reached their physiological limitations and that any restraints on performance are psychological. In their efforts to help athletes to overcome these restraints, sports psychologists have devised techniques that can help not only athletes but also classroom teachers. For example, runners are urged to imagine the noise of the crowd, the sound of their own breathing, their position at the starting line, the starter’s gun, their first steps, the encouragement of their teammates, and the feeling of the track under their spikes. They are likewise directed to see themselves crossing the finish line first and receiving a victory medal.
The intent of the sports psychologist is to produce in the athletes a feeling of their own competence, which is a strong motivating force. That is, not only can they do it, but they want to do it. Similar techniques can be effective in the classroom. It is entirely possible that if you match a task with a student’s ability, having that student imagine successful performance will produce more effective behavior, which then will aid motivation for the next task. For example, urge students to picture themselves studying. Then have them visualize understanding the material. Finally, have them see themselves in the classroom, relaxed and ready for a test.
Will students learn even if they are poorly motivated? They will learn something, but will they learn what we want them to learn? Everything that we know about learning indicates that if motivation is faulty, learning will suffer: attention will be limited; behavior will not be directed at objectives; discipline may become a problem; learning will go awry.Although it is relatively easy to describe motivated individuals, it is difficult to specify just what motivation is. When you are motivated, or when you see your students motivated, you usually can discover what conditions caused the behavior. Something acted on you, or your students, to produce a certain kind of behavior, which was maintained at a certain level of intensity, and which was directed at a definite goal. Thus, motivation arouses, sustains, directs, and integrates your behavior. For example, one of your students may have been promised a ticket to a rock concert for passing an algebra course. You wish a good grade in your educational psychology course so that your transcript will be attractive to a future employer. In both examples, a certain type of behavior was aroused and maintained long enough to achieve a specific goal.
THEORIES OF MOTIVATION: EXPLANATIONS OF MOTIVATED STUDENTS
Since motivated students are obviously the most desirable to teach, it is well worth the time and effort for teachers (and future teachers) to learn as much as possible about motivation. One way of coming to grips with the nature and meaning of motivation is to examine several motivational theories. Motivation has been a central construct in both educational and psychological research for the past sixty years (Weiner, 1990) and has roots in the work of developmentalists like Piaget, Erickson, Maslow, and Bruner and learning theorists like Bandura and Skinner. It has always been tied to learning activities and often inferred from the outcomes of learning. Early motivation theorists in the 1940s (such as Hull and Spence) focused on hunger and thirst drives or sexual stimulation (Freud). Efforts to apply the results of motivational research to education produced a greater emphasis on the cognitive aspects of motivation. Thus today, a cognitive emphasis with a focus on the selfsystem dominates motivational theory and research. For example, causal attributions, selfefficacy, learned helplessness, test anxiety, locus of control, competitive versus cooperative activities, and intrinsic versus extrinsic rewards are all used to explain human motivation(Schunk, 1990) and are examined in this chapter. Although there are numerous theoretical explanations of motivation—biological, learning, cognitive—we shall focus on theories that have direct classroom application. If you grasp the meaning of these motivational theories and related key concepts, you will be in a much better position to understand motivation, or its lack, in your individual students. A good beginning for acquiring an understanding of students’ motivation and objectives is to examine the needs hierarchy of Abraham Maslow.
Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy and its Application in the Classroom
One of Maslow’s (1987) most famous concepts is that of selfactualization, which means that we use our abilities to the limit of our potentialities. If we can convince students that they should—and can—fulfill their promise, they are then on the path to selfactualization. Selfactualization is a growth concept; students move toward this goal as they satisfy their basic needs. It is movement toward physical and psychological health. Growth toward selfactualization requires the satisfaction of a hierarchy of needs. There are five basic needs in Maslow’s theory: physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and selfactualization. Those needs at the base of the hierarchy assumed to be more basic relative to the needs above them in the hierarchy.
1. Physiological needs. Physiological needs, such as hunger and sleep, are dominant and are the basis of motivation. Unless they are satisfied, everything else recedes. For example, students who frequently do not eat breakfast or suffer from poor nutrition generally become lethargic and noninteracting; their learning potential is severely lowered. Note that this is particularly true of adolescents who can be extremely sensitive to their weight.
2. Safety needs. These needs represent the importance of security, protection, stability, freedom from fear and anxiety, and the need for structure and limits. Any of your students who are afraid of school, of peers, of a teacher, or of a parent’s reaction have their safety needs threatened, and these fears can affect classroom performance.
3. Love and belongingness needs. This category refers to our need for family and friends. Healthy, motivated people wish to avoid feelings of loneliness and isolation. Students who feel alone, not part of the group, or who lack any sense of belongingness usually have poor relationships with others, which can then affect classroom learning.
4. Esteem needs. These needs encompass the reactions of others to us as individuals and our opinion of ourselves. We want a favorable judgment from others, which should be based on honest achievement. Our own sense of competence combines with the reactions of others to produce our sense of selfesteem. As a teacher be sure to provide opportunities for students to satisfy this need; help students to achieve and receive deserved reinforcement.
5. Need for selfactualization. Here Maslow was referring to that tendency, in spite of the satisfaction of lower needs, to feel restless unless we are doing what we think we are capable of doing. Encourage your students to recognize their potential and guide them into activities that will enable them to feel both competent and fulfilled.
Examining Maslow’s hierarchy, you can see how a deficit in any one need category will affect student performance. Hungry students, for example, usually are not scholars; their hunger overwhelms all other concerns. Similarly, fearful students (for whatever reason) may find it difficult to concentrate on their studies. Those students who feel rejected and isolated may refuse to participate fully in your class activities.