Motivation is an internal state that drives us take action, spurring us to follow a given path, and maintains our engagement.
Motivation enables all of us, students included , to begin and continue in activities. Of course, it impacts students’ very own investment in school pursuits together with their time on task. It may also improve individuals’ energy and activity levels, which impacts whether students will approach school in a fashion that is active and engaged or passive and disengaged. Motivation guides us and our actions when it comes to particular desired goals. Consequently it influences the choices students decide on and the activities they make priorities. Motivation can also affect the learning and thought processes put on a task. That is, high levels of motivation give rise to higher degrees of cognitive engagement. Students with good motivation are more inclined to use mental processes such as attending to, learning meaningfully, elaborating, keeping track of understanding, and identifying inconsistencies in details.
The interesting thing is, students are invariably motivated in some way or another. Each student has some motive which is created by a desire to have particular results. Sixth grade students, for instance, could have a range of motives like learning the coursework that is presented in by the teacher, getting good grades, doing better than their peers, finishing projects quickly, or making a good impression on their friends. Certainly, the same students could also be motivated to avoid thinking about mathematics, shirking homework, because this behavior is “cool” among other friends (even if that means not excelling in school), or impressing other friends by acting out in class. As educators, parents, or therapists, we can help direct students’ motivation towards meaningful and productive interests.
We can make this happen by considering the two types of motivation: extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation can be found outside the individual and is in play any time a student aims to achieve an external reward like points, grades, or special treats. Intrinsic motivation exists within the individual and is present when a student considers a pursuit itself gratifying or worth their time. Intrinsic motivation has several advantages, because students often follow activities without requiring prodding, show resourcefulness, manage their own progress, are actively interested, and continue when difficulties develop. Students who are intrinsically motivated have a tendency to achieve at high levels, shoot for true understanding of the coursework, and search for even more opportunity to use their aquired skill set or expertise. Of course, having all intrinsically motivated students is best; even so, we ought not believe that the occurrence of extrinsic motivators negates intrinsic motivation. A lot of circumstances or motivators have both extrinsically and intrinsically motivating aspects. For example, obtaining an A on a report may be extrinsically motivating when the parent rewards their child with a new toy for getting the grade even though the same A is intrinsically motivating for the reason that student feels a feeling of satisfaction and knows that he or she learned the material.
So what can we do to raise students’ motivation? First of all, create an academic climate that the student sees as caring, supporting, and interesting. They should feel capable, well regarded, and appreciated. To achieve this, parents and teachers should nurture learning and create an environment that fosters exploration and change. At home, this might mean creating a “learning center” in the home a place where the student’s learning is encouraged and they feel free to explore. For instance, this “learning center” might contain blocks to explore math concepts or a chemistry set to understand more about science.
Parents may also cultivate learning by considering the student positively, being acceptingand understanding of feelings, reassurance, and satisfaction. Therefore if a student becomes frustrated with schoolwork,it is beneficial if the parent refrains from also exhibiting frustration or dissapointment. Rather the parents ought to express understanding of the frustration and supply assurance the fact that academic hardship can be overcome.
Developing a nurturing learning environment in which students are motivated to explore is a great step when it comes to encouraging academic motivation within your child. This step will make up the groundwork where further motivating factors could be included.
Author: Lindsay Bell, intern at the Austin Psychology and Assessment Center
Photo: IT Division Educational Outreach to Berkeley Unified School District.
IT Division hosted 2nd grade classes from LeConte Elementary School (a Berkeley public elementary school) for a field trip to teach young students about how computers enable Science. The students took apart (and put back together) computers and talked about the basics of how they work. Then the students connected themselves in a “network,” holding onto cables to get them familiar with the idea of a network.
credit: Lawrence Berkeley Nat’l Lab – Roy Kaltschmidt, photographer
