What is motivation? What are theories of motivation? How can achievement motivation be enhanced? How can teachers increase motivation? How can teachers reward performance, effort, and improvement? What is Motivation? internal process that activates, guides, and maintains behavior over time may vary in intensity and direction competes with other activities Theories of motivation behavioral learning theory rewards and reinforcement humans are complex the value of an incentive value cannot be assumed Maslow’s humanistic theory hierarchy of needs deficiency vs. growth needs self-actualization implications for education relationship between growth & deficiency needs cognitive dissonance theory we need to maintain a positive self-image we feel discomfort when a value or belief we hold is inconsistent with another belief or behavior Festinger’s experiment implications for education personality theory tendency to strive toward certain types of goals motivation is stable personality trait result of history of situational motivations attribution theory how we explain success or failure three characteristics of explanations: internal or external stable or unstable controllable or uncontrollable achievement situations ability internal, stable effort internal, unstable task difficulty external, stable luck external, unstable locus of control external luck, task difficulty, other people’s actions internal self-efficacy relation to academic achievement? implications of attributions & self-efficacy for education? how students may interpret feedback self-fulfilling prophecy use of competitive grading system use of public grades belief that all students can learn belief in ability, rather than effort expectancy theory motivation depends on: people’s estimation of chance of success value they place on success motivation should be at maximum at moderate levels of probability of success Achievement Motivation teachers should try to convince students to learn for learning’s sake avoid competitive grading or incentive systems understand failure vs. success seekers have consistent, predictable use of rewards & punishments provide students opportunities for success provide attribution training Motivation orientation learning goals (mastery goals) see purpose of schooling as gaining competence in skills more likely to take difficulty courses continue trying when encounter obstacles more likely to use metacognitive strategies or self-regulated learning performance goals seek to gain positive judgments more likely to focus on getting good grades get more discouraged when facing obstacles Success seekers vs. failure avoiders success seekers’ motivation increases after a failure; intensify their efforts failure avoiders decrease efforts after a failure failure avoiders choose very easy or very difficult tasks Learned helplessness the expectation that one’s actions will lead to failure develops in one’s environment avoided by providing small steps, immediate feedback, and consistent expectations & follow-through Teachers’ expectations self-fulfilling prophecy teachers can: wait for students to respond avoid unnecessary comparisons treat all students equally Anxiety & achievement difficulty learning & transferring overly self-conscious teachers can: create accepting classroom environment let students correct own errors avoid time pressure start with easy problems and work up Increasing motivation intrinsic vs. extrinsic interest vs. rewards Lepper’s experiment preschoolers & markers extrinsic may work when intrinsic is unavailable Enhancing intrinsic motivation arousing interest maintaining curiosity using a variety of interesting presentation modes helping students set their own goals Incentives for learning expressing clear expectation providing clear feedback providing immediate feedback providing frequent feedback increasing value and availability of extrinsic motivators Rewarding performance, effort, and improvement effective praise grades evaluation, feedback, incentive Individual learning expectations (ILE) initial base scores feedback to students recomputing base scores improvement points & grades Goal structures competition cooperation individualization Review Questions: What is motivation? What are theories of motivation? How can achievement motivation be enhanced? How can teachers increase students’ motivation to learn? How can teachers reward performance, effort, and improvement?