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Motivation in School Learning
Motivation
Motivation has been taken from English word motive. The word motive is come from the Latin word
motives. In the meaning of motive in directly is be the reason for Sub’s action and dictionary is be the
reason for Sub’s action and Stimulated the interest of somebody.
Defination of Motivation
“ The term motive refers to an internal state of the organism which arouses activity and directs the
organism’s behaviour certain objects or conditions called goals”.
“ A motive or adrive is a complex state with in an organism that directs behaviour towards a goal.”
“ A motive is internal Activator or Modifier”.
“ The influence of needs and desires on the intensity and direction of behaviour.”
What is Motivation?
Motivation is one of the most important components of learning and one of the most difficult to
measure.
Psychologists defines motivation as an internal process that activates, guides, and maintains behavior
over time.
Motivation told some some something can come about in many ways. Motivation can be a personality
characteristic, individual may have lasting, stable interests in participating in such broad categories of
activities as academies, sports, or social activities.
Learning
The learning is the most important thing in human life.
In Holy Quran and Hadees the learning is important for every men and women.
Definations.
“Learning is a process which brings about a change in the individuals way of perceiving or responding
as a result of contact with the environment.”
“Learning may be defined as the process be which behavior originates or is altered through training or
practice.”
Through Psychology
“The process by which an activity orginates or is change through responding to asituation provided
the changes cannot be attributed to growth or to the temporary state of the organism as in fatigue or
under drugs.”
What is Learning?
Learning is usually defined as a change in an individual caused by experience changes caused by
development (such as growing taller) are not intance of learning.
Learning take place in many ways. Some time it is intertional, as when student acquire informational
presented in a classroom or which they look something up in the encyclopedia.
Purpose Of Motivation in School Learning: In a school system, they inevitably have to follow the school system of timetabling, planned
curriculum, set assignments and so on. For some children this may appropriately fit their learning
requirements, but too often this is not the case. Their only motivation is to please the teacher - or
perhaps to get good grades for the sake of their parents. Or perhaps to beat the other children for
first place in the class. Yet what good does this do long-term? All it teaches children is that learning is
not in itself worthwhile unless there is some kind of reward at the end.
Home education can give a totally different environment to learning. Children can be free to follow
their own interests, and to find their own motivation. For some parents just starting this can seem
rather frightening - aren't there things that children OUGHT to know? Don't they have to be kept on
track with a curriculum? How can they be motivated without a reward?
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What Factors Influence The Development Of Students' Motivation In School Learning?
According to Jere Brophy, motivation to learn is a competence acquired "through general experience
but stimulated most directly through modeling, communication of expectations, and direct instruction
or socialization by significant others (especially parents and teachers)."
Children's home environment shapes the initial constellation of attitudes they develop toward
learning. When parents nurture their children's natural curiosity about the world by welcoming their
questions, encouraging exploration, and familiarizing them with resources that can enlarge their
world, they are giving their children the message that learning is worthwhile and frequently fun and
satisfying.
When children are raised in a home that nurtures a sense of self-worth, competence, autonomy, and
self-efficacy, they will be more apt to accept the risks inherent in learning. Conversely, when children
do not view themselves as basically competent and able, their freedom to engage in academically
challenging pursuits and capacity to tolerate and cope with failure are greatly diminished.
Once children start school, they begin forming beliefs about their school-related successes and
failures. The sources to which children attribute their successes (commonly effort, ability, luck, or level
of task difficulty) and failures (often lack of ability or lack of effort) have important implications for
how they approach and cope with learning situations.
The beliefs teachers themselves have about teaching and learning and the nature of the expectations
they hold for students also exert a powerful influence (Raffini). As Deborah Stipek (1988) notes, "To a
very large degree, students expect to learn if their teachers expect them to learn."
Schoolwide goals, policies, and procedures also interact with classroom climate and practices to affirm
or alter students' increasingly complex learning-related attitudes and beliefs.
And developmental changes comprise one more strand of the motivational web. For example,
although young children tend to maintain high expectations for success even in the face of repeated
failure, older students do not. And although younger children tend to see effort as uniformly positive,
older children view it as a "double-edged sword" (Ames). To them, failure following high effort
appears to carry more negative implications--especially for their self-concept of ability--than failure
that results from minimal or no effort.
ADVANTAGES Of MOTIVATION In School Learning:Does it really matter whether students are primarily intrinsically or extrinsically oriented toward
learning? A growing body of evidence suggests that it does.
When intrinsically motivated, students tend to employ strategies that demand more effort and that
enable them to process information more deeply (Lepper).
J. Condry and J. Chambers (1978) found that when students were confronted with complex intellectual
tasks, those with an intrinsic orientation used more logical information-gathering and decisionmaking strategies than did students who were extrinsically oriented.
Students with an intrinsic orientation also tend to prefer tasks that are moderately challenging,
whereas extrinsically oriented students gravitate toward tasks that are low in degree of difficulty.
Extrinsically oriented students are inclined to put forth the minimal amount of effort necessary to get
the maximal reward (Lepper).
Although every educational activity cannot, and perhaps should not, be intrinsically motivating, these
findings suggest that when teachers can capitalize on existing intrinsic motivation, there are several
potential benefits.
Role Of Motivation in School learning for UNMOTIVATED STUDENTS?
A first step is for educators to recognize that even when students use strategies that are ultimately
self-defeating (such as withholding effort, cheating, procrastination, and so forth), their goal is actually
to protect their sense of self-worth (Raffini).
A process called ATTRIBUTION RETRAINING, which involves modeling, socialization, and practice
exercises, is sometimes used with discouraged students. The goals of attribution retraining are to help
students to (1) concentrate on the tasks rather than becoming distracted by fear of failure; (2) respond
to frustration by retracing their steps to find mistakes or figuring out alternative ways of approaching
a problem instead of giving up; and (3) attribute their failures to insufficient effort, lack of information,
or reliance on ineffective strategies rather than to lack of ability (Brophy 1986).
Other potentially useful strategies include the following: portray effort as investment rather than risk,
portray skill development as incremental and domain-specific, focus on mastery (Brophy 1986).
Because the potential payoff--having students who value learning for its own sake--is priceless, it is
crucial for parents, teachers, and school leaders to devote themselves fully to engendering,
maintaining, and rekindling students' motivation to learn.
Developing Abilities in School learning Motivation :
Students decide how much effort they will allocate to a learning task on the basis of their self-concept
of ability and their effort beliefs. Young children are notorious over-estimators or under-estimators of
their own performance. They may rate themselves among the best of their class, even though their
performance is absolutely below the mark. Young children have a rather naïve theory of effort. They
believe that if they want
something badly enough and do their best to accomplish it, they will be valued for their effort. In
other words, they think they have control over the learning situation and keep their high expectations
of success even after repeated failure. Their conceptualization of effort as the most important
explanation of their successes and failures is a strong motivator to keep practicing. However, as
students get older, the messages they receive
from parents and teachers change gradually. More emphasis is put on their ability as a major source
of success and failure than on their effort. Children learn to take into account their actual experiences
and evaluative feedback from others. They also engage in social comparisons with their peers. This
implies that their domain-specific self-efficacy beliefs become more accurate and realistic.
Simultaneously, they link these beliefs to their emerging theory of effort. By the age of 9, children
seem to have lost confidence in effort as the overall source of success. Research evidence is clear:
domain-specific self-efficacy beliefs influence effort investment, and not the other way round.
Students like Stefano, who believe that they are good in mathematics, are willing to invest effort to
acquire math skills, but they do not necessarily invest more observable effort. Their task-engagement
is fundamentally different from that of students who believe they
lack efficiency. More specifically, these students use adequate cognitive strategies that lead to good
results. Students like Sandra, who believe that their math skills are deficient, may also invest effort in
mathematics. However, they do a lot of things that are ineffective, such as sitting and sighing in front
of their books, copying a lot of exercises, rereading several pages. This type of effort creates anxiety
and frustration
and leads to poor performance. Research has shown that teachers can coach students to develop their
effort beliefs. Interestingly, teachers who coach effort are rewarded by enhanced intrinsic motivation.
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Motivating Of Students
Motivating your students Teacher observations confirm that students develop a threshold for
declaring whether or not they have put in sufficient effort to reach the learning goal. They use specific
stop rules. For example, Sandra may say: ‘I have worked for more than an hour now. This must be
sufficient for my math homework’, or ‘I have worked harder for mathematics than for history’. Stefano
may justify thus: ‘I don’t have to work hard for math, I just do the exercises and it usually works out
well’, or ‘I have worked longer than any of my friends to write a good text—this must be sufficient’.
In general, students’ theory of effort is underdeveloped. They need assignments to build up domainspecific effort beliefs and to be encouraged to update these beliefs as their skill develops. When you
encourage and value effort, your students will begin to view themselves as responsible for their own
learning. It is essential, however, that you provide your students with adequate feedback. A good way
to start is by providing assignments that require students to predict the effort needed to do a task.
After finishing the task, students could be asked to reflect on the invested effort. Was it sufficient or
superfluous, and why? Once students get into the habit of reflecting on their effort, they are better
equipped to self-regulate their own learning.
References: Boekaerts, 1997; Covington, 1992; Pintrich, 2001; Wlodkowski & Jaynes, 1990; Ryan &
Deci, 2000.
Bring assignment within child’s experience:
Experience is not only the best teacher: it is the only teacher. There can be no learning apart from
experience and every experience can be an education. We speak of a self-educated man as through
there were some other kind of education. Broadly speaking, all education is self- education. Formal
education by the schools merely seeks to improve the quality of the education by improving the
quality of experience, for the quality of learning is determined by the quality of experience on the part
of the learner.
Learning is also conditioned by past experience. We interpret new experience in the light of the old.
Identical environmental circumstances mean different things to different people and are variously
interpreted. Their reactions also differ widely. Eyewitnesses at the scene of a crime or accident will give
widely different interpretations of what actually transpired. If all witnesses give identical accounts, they
are suspected of collusion and their testimony discounted. Learning based on past experience and
tied in with the “ total pattern” is more effective in comprehension and speed of learning. It is better
integrated and longer retained because it is better organized. It is more functional and therefore
meets the objective of all school learning in producing approved conduct through the various
satisfactorily desirable experiences of the learner.
Rewards and punishments:
Rewards and punishments are in the same category as praise and reproof, if we consider praise as one
from of reward and reproof as one from of punishment. Much that was presented above will apply
here also, except that rewards and punishments cover a wider area. Praise and reproof would
constitute one form of reward and punishment.
The objective in both reward and punishment is identical—to affect future conduct favorably. They
differ as to methodology. Reward seeks to influence conduct favorably by associating a pleasant
feeling with the desired act; punishment seeks to deter or prevent and undesirable act by associating
unpleasant feeling with it. If it was not for the anticipated deterrent effect of punishment and the hope
of changing motivation, it would have no reason for existing, except as an instrument revenge and
sadism. It would be sheer cruelty. The question is: just how successful is punishment in school learning
and how does it compare in effectiveness with reward as an incentive?
They create pleasurable associations that are strong inducement to repeat the desired act. They have
the advantage of being ides-motive through the force of suggestion. Being pleasant, they generate
interest and enthusiasm; and They appeal to ego-maximization and develop high morale.
Disadvantages:
They are mostly extrinsic in motivating the pupil toward winning a prize instead of cultivating a taste
for the thing itself. They afford temptation to cheat. They encourage the wrong attitude expecting
something for nothing; and In most instances only a few children may hope to win, those least
needing motivation.
Advantages:
They often act as deterrent. They serve as a form of discipline, and They are especially useful if They
appear as natural consequences of the undesirable act, Are used in combination with reward, and If
the child can be made to realize that it is the undesirable act and not he that is being punished.
Disadvantages of punishments in motivating learning: -
They are based on fear, not a healthy emotion. They lose effectiveness if the child is no longer afraid
or is willing to take the consequences. They are likely to reinforce the undesirable conduct by
overemphasis. They create unpleasant feeling that are negative and associated with failure. The results
are not always permanent. They may engender ill-will toward teacher and society; and There is no
reliable measure of severity in punishments. Punishments that are considered severe by one pupil may
be laughed off by another, and deliberately provoked for the compensation of being in the spotlight
by still another.
The Challenge Restructuring Of Motivation in School Learning: Maehr (1991) has argued persuasively that school administrators should seize the opportunity offered
by the school restructuring movement to effect changes in the entire school environment as well as in
the individual classroom environment. His argument goes hand in hand with the findings of
motivation research. “Few have seriously considered motivation vise a vies the current restructuring
movement,” he says, and few have considered that the school as an entity in its own right, may have
effects that supersede those of individual classrooms and the acts of individual teachers. And so it is
that we wish to make the argument that now is the time to consider school, as well as instructional,
curricular, and classroom change. He notes that because school leaders can establish, promote, or
ignore policies, they may have more effect on education than that generated at the classroom level.
Maehr provides an outline that identifies areas where school wide
policies and procedures might well have an impact on the psychological environment of the school
and thus lead to increased motivation. He identifies six target areas and provides examples of goals
and strategies for bringing about change in a restructured environment.
Tasks
Tasks refer to the nature of the work undertaken by students in the school. Such tasks should help
students focus on the intrinsic value of learning. Goals in this area should reduce reliance on extrinsic
incentives, emphasize the fun of learning, and be challenging to all students. Strategies for
accomplishing these goals include initiating programs that take advantage of the students’
background, that stress goal setting and self-regulation/management, and that take students to nonschool settings for learning experiences.
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Authority
Schools should delegate responsibility by focusing on student participation in learning/ school
decisions. Goals include providing opportunities for developing independence and leader-ship skills
among students. Strategies include offering students choices in their instructional settings and
supporting their participation in cocurricular and extracurricular activities.
Recognition
There should be extensive use of recognition and rewards in the school setting. Goals should be
established that will provide opportunities for all students to be recognized, recognize progress in
goal attainment, and emphasize a broad array of learning activities. Strategies include “personal best”
awards and recognition of a wide range of school-related achievements.
Grouping
Grouping refers to student interaction, social skills, and values. There should be goals that bring about
an environment of acceptance and appreciation of all students, that broaden the range of social
interaction among students, including at-risk groups, and that enhance social skills and humane
values. Strategies should include programs that provide occasions for group learning and problem
solving and that foster development of subgroups (teams, schools within schools, and so forth).
Evaluation
Goals regarding the nature and use of evaluation and assessment procedures include increasing
students’ sense of competence and self-efficacy, increasing their awareness of their unique sets of
talents, and encouraging them to understand failure as a natural part of learning and life.
Strategies to accomplish these goals include a reduction in the emphasis on social comparisons of
achievement by minimizing public reference to normative evaluation standards such as grades and
test scores. It is also important to create opportunities for students to assess progress toward goals
they have set.
Time
Time must be effectively managed to carry out plans and reach goals. Goals include improving the
rate of work completion, improving skills in planning and organization, and improving selfmanagement ability. Strategies include developing programs that teach time management skills and
offering students the opportunity to progress at their own rate when possible. Maehr acknowledges
that the successful implementation of new educational policies and practices depends upon school
leaders who have the courage and motivation to seize the opportunity that restructuring offers. As
Maehr puts it, “The time is right for restructuring, and that restructuring will indeed take place. The
question is will it take place in such a way that motivation and the investment in learning of students
will be enhanced” . With the current trend toward restructuring gaining momentum (Conley 1991),
educators at all levels inevitably face some changes in the ways schools
function. Principals will be asked to demonstrate even higher levels of effective leadership as changes
occur. The time has come for them to analyze their own level of motivation as it relates to their role in
a restructuring process that will affect the motivation students feel toward learning for many years to
come.
Culture Of School Learning Motivation: An atmosphere or environment that nurtures the motivation to learn can be cultivated in the home, in
the classroom, or, at a broader level, throughout an entire school. Much of the recent research on
educational motivation has rightly centered on the classroom, where the majority of learning takes
place and where students are most likely to acquire a strong motivation to gain new knowledge
(Ames 1987, Brophy 1987, Grossnickle 1989, Wlodkowski and Jaynes 1990).
But achieving the goal of making the individual classroom a place that naturally motivates students to
learn is much easier if students and teachers function in a school culture where academic success and
the motivation to learn is expected, respected, and rewarded. An atmosphere where students learn to
love learning for learning’s sake, especially insofar as it evolves into academic achievement, is a chief
characteristic of an effective school. This chapter reviews some of the recent work on school culture
and its relationship to student motivation.
Effect
The literature on school culture makes it clear that effective schools, that is, schools that demonstrate
high standards of achievement in academics, have a culture characterized by a well-defined set of
goals that all members of the school—administration, faculty, and students—value and promote. If a
principal can establish and clearly communicate goals that define the expectations of the school with
regard to academic achievement, and if the principal can rally a constituency of teachers and students
to support those goals, then the motivation to achieve the goals is likely to follow.
Most reviews of the effective school literature point to the consensus that school culture and climate
are central to academic success (Mackenzie 1983). Typical of the findings is the summary of Purkey
and Smith (1983), who in their review of the literature on effective schools found a close correlation
between positive school culture and academic quality: The literature indicates that a student’s chance
for success in learning cognitive skills is heavily influenced by the climate of the school. . . . A schoollevel culture press in the direction of academic achievement helps shape the environment (and
climate) in which the student learns. An academically effective school would be likely to have clear
goals related to student achievement, teachers and parents with high expectations, and a structure
designed to maximize opportunities for students to learn. A press for academic success is more likely
to realize that goal than would a climate that
emphasizes affective growth or social development.
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Summary
It is often stated that bad teaching kills motivation and that good teaching brings out the best in
students of all ages. If you want to encourage your students to become their own teachers and
develop independent learning skills, you need to know about the principles that guide motivated
learning. The eight princi-ples that are addressed in this booklet apply to children and adolescents
from different countries and different cultures. I described the principles in such a way that you gain
insight into the reasons why students are or are not motivated to learn in the context of the
classroom. However, you still need to adapt these principles to the local context of your classroom. I
focu- sed on two primary school students, Stefano and Sandra, and referred to their thinking and
feeling in relation to the mathe-matics and language domains, yet the principles do not refer to part
to particular curricula or specific age groups. Rather, they refer to generic aspects of motivated
learning that cut across school subjects, grade levels and types of education. They focus on the
students’ beliefs, opinions and values and how these moti-vational beliefs affect learning. Knowledge
of your students’ motivational beliefs will help you to create learning environ-ments that are well
suited to their psychological needs. The capacity to listen to your students and observe their
behaviour in the live classroom will help to inform you of what they find interesting, challenging,
boring and threatening, and why they have this opinion. Willingness to negotiate with your students
and grant them autonomy will convince them that you are truly interested in how and why they learn.
A good way to start your observations is by selecting one or more students in your class
who think, feel and behave somewhat like Stefano or Sandra. Observe these students in the next few
weeks and discover how the eight motivational principles that are described in this booklet work in
your classroom.
----rajuixu