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Raymond N Dawsonia January 13, 2015 Motivation Essay There are several things that determine the motivation of a student, as a teacher it is a constant job to challenge, peak interest, and make the learning seem more fun than chore. When determining motivation theories, the Hierarchy of Needs model, developed by Abraham Maslow is the most pertinent to the levels of the motivated student. The theory of Hierarchy of Needs is structured in regards to necessities essential to our basic human needs. There are 8 levels (previously 5) that are associated with the HNM (Hierarchy of Needs Model). In observing the class between teacher and student, you can tell that the student is comfortable with the teacher. The student makes a comment, “I have a lot of work to do”, which makes it seem like the students mind is not focused on the lesson plan. Overall, the student does well with remembering the words and also can create sentences applicable with the level. There were points were the student was frustrated or confused, but the teacher made quick and effective adjustments, making all the questions relatable to the student’s actual life. For example, “What were you doing at 1am?” the student answers with the proper verb and rapidly “I was sleeping”. There seemed to be a breakthrough when the lesson was directly dealing with what the student had done the day before. This proved to me that the Hierarchy of needs of each student would be subject to change for unknown reasons. When you find the reason that as a teacher you must be engaged to motivate through that need. I believe that the student’s Hierarchy of Needs for learning the English language would be Level 3. This deals with the basic need of relationships or bonds. The student is a receptionist at the actual academic establishment, which means that there could be several reasons for her intrigue in learning the language. Her reason could be to interact with the students, it may be to help her translate administrative work, or just to give the language “a try”. In Maslow’s theory of HNM, it is stated that the student’s motivational level can only increase once that person’s needs are met for all previous levels. Therefore, if a person does not have the basic necessities of water, food, shelter they will remain at Level 1 because they will first need to obtain those essential elements before moving forward to Level 2 (Safety Needs). The theory of Hierarchy of Needs is a very interesting topic, but there seems to be elements that are missing from these particular situations. For instance, the student is from Brazil and is clearly operating at Level 4 (at minimum) for both the cultures of Brazil and Argentina. When broken down to cultures it becomes quite a dynamic situation, the student is living in an area where they are operating at a Level 4 of hierarchy of needs, but in learning English they are operating at a Level 3. The other motivation theory would be “Behaviorism”, this theory created by B.F. Skinner, is based on operant conditioning. In this theory there are no studies or understanding of intrinsic qualities because those things e.g. self-esteem, emotional status cannot be truly measured. Instead, the theory observes extrinsic behavior of humans. Behaviorism is based on the reinforcement; reinforcement allows the continuation of actions whether it is positive or negative. Vocabulary that correlates with Behaviorism is: Positive Reinforcement- Strengthening a behavior by providing a rewarding consequence. Negative Reinforcement- Strengthens behavior because it removes an unpleasant experience. Punishment- Opposite of reinforcement because its purpose is to weaken or eliminate a response rather than increase it. In the classroom activity I observed definite examples of behaviorism being practiced. For example, when the student was correct in their answer, the teacher would follow-up with positive reinforcement of “Good job!” This positively reinforces the proper actions that will help motivate the student to continue their path to learn English. On the opposite end, if the student would do something incorrectly the teacher would correct them by saying “I do not understand”; the students immediately would repeat themselves to correct their error (negative reinforcement). This would prove that negative reinforcement works as well because the student is self-correcting through only a slight hint to repeat their answer. In closing, there are several factors that determine the success of the learning process for a student. One of the major external factors would be the teacher, with enough positive reinforcement (when necessary), structured lessons, and enthusiasm to teach; the student should be able to have enough confidence to tackle the specified subject. Intrinsic qualities would rely heavily on the intention of learning, determination to succeed, and patience. These external and internal behaviors would be just a portion of what it takes to motivate a student, it is up to the unit of student and teacher to combined compromise their perspectives to make this relationship worthwhile. Bibliography Abraham Maslow Businessballs.com (1940) Abraham Maslow- Hierarchy of needs and diagrams of Maslow’s motivational theory – pyramid diagrams of Maslow’s theory. [online] Available at: http://www.businessballs.com/maslow.htm McLeod, S. A. (2007). Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html B.F. Skinner Intructionaldesign.org (1950) B.F. Skinner – Operant conditioning. [online] Available at: http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/operantconditioning.html McLeod, S. A. (2007). B.F. Skinner - Operant Conditioning. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html