Motivation

In education, there are many theories that help teachers in guiding their students along the academic path. Teachers struggle everyday to determine which strategies will help their students in the most beneficial way. Although there are many ways to teach a child and to help him or her to learn, whether or not they actually learn depends on one thing: motivation. Motivation is the driving factor behind whether or not a child will actually learn and carry this “new information” with him or her throughout his or her life. To understand motivation and how it helps children in their cognitive, social and moral learning, we must understand what motivation is and what kinds of motivation exist, how it evolves within a child, and how it affects learning and behavior.

What is Motivation

Motivation can be defined as, “factors within a human being…that arouse and direct goal-oriented behavior” (Britannica 2001). In each and every person there is a driving force that moves one to desire and do certain things. In the classroom, motivation is what gives the child the desire to do what is asked, to complete tasks and to interact with other people. It gives them the desire to achieve or fail, to socialize or withdraw, to behave or misbehave. Motivation has always been a mystery when trying to discover the exact reasons why people do what they do. To help children in their learning, a teacher must understand each child’s academic motivation and what they aspire.

Perhaps before we can understand the affects of motivation on learning we must understand the definition of learning itself. Learning can be defined as the, “process of acquiring modifications in existing knowledge, skills, habits, or tendencies through experience, practice, or exercise” (Britannica 2001). Learning is a change in thinking, reacting and acting, based on experiences. In the educational world, learning is best seen by how a child thinks and acts after a new physical or cognitive experience. Normally, this would be the way to see how new knowledge has motivated a child to act or think a certain way, but it is not always that simple.

Motivation comes in many different forms and has different outcomes in different situations. In simplest terms, there are two main kinds of motivation: extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation is, “motivation promoted by factors external to the individual and unrelated to the task being performed” (Ormrod 2003). Extrinsic motivation can be seen mainly in assessment where the child is motivated by the fact that they receive points and grades based upon performance. It can also be seen in the giving of other rewards for certain behaviors. This type of motivation is a behaviorist example in education. Intrinsic motivation is, “the internal desire to perform a task” (Ormrod 2003). This type of motivation is in no way influenced upon the child by external forces such as the teacher, assessment or peers. It is an internal desire, a goal to achieve and learn for the sake of knowing or mastering a concept. This type of motivation is less common among students for the very fact that they are in the stage of deciding what exactly they hope to achieve in life and so are still motivated more by external factors. Both forms of motivation can be effective in different educational areas of a child’s life, but as teachers, we should understand the effects that each kind of motivation has on our students so that our teaching can actually convert into meaningful and effective learning.

How Motivation Evolves in a Child

To understand the effects of motivation on a child, we must first understand how motivation evolves and develops within them. Motivation begins with basic needs that every human being feels that he or she needs to fulfill. Abraham Maslow suggested five basic needs that every human desires to fulfill: 1. physiological, 2. safety, 3. love and belonging, 4. esteem and, 5. self-actualization (Ormrod 2003). These may not be the only needs that people feel when motivated to do something, but they are helpful when looking at possibilities as the driving factor. Basically, to understand what factors motivate a child in the learning process, we must understand that child’s background and life experiences. Since this is a difficult thing to study on an individual basis, we must look at three general factors more than anything else to get a good idea as to the reasons or motives that a child does what he or she does. These factors are: family background, social background and past academic experience.

First of all we look at the family background to understand the basic, principal motives that may have evolved within the child. Family background includes many things such as ethnicity, culture, socioeconomic status, and discipline. Motivation evolves first in a child depending on the experiences that he or she has at home. These experiences depend largely on who the family is and what their background is. As with ethnicity, certain ethnic groups may hold higher expectations in education, such as those in Asia. They may hold higher expectation for the male children than for the female children. They may not even hold any expectations at all for conventional education because their ethnic background expects the child more to follow his or her parents’ professions and not bother with other academic responsibilities. Depending on the culture as well, the female population may not have even been allowed to receive an education. Some cultures may look down upon certain academic areas or may hold others higher. The value of education and the resources needed to obtain it may also depend largely on the socioeconomic background of the family. Some families where the parents dropped out of high school, or never cared much for education will instill those same feelings into their children. Some families may hold higher hopes for their children because they weren’t able to get much education themselves. An example is shown in the story, “A Russian Immigrant in the ‘Promised Land’”. Mary Antin tells of her own personal experience as her father brings them to America with the promise of free education. Since she was never allowed to receive a formal education in her homeland, she was very excited and motivated to learn (Foundation 2003). The manner in which the parents discipline their children also plays an important role in their motivation because it affects their views of “good and bad behavior”, obeying the authority figure and doing things exactly as they are told. These are just a few of the many things that begin to build motivating factors in a child’s life.

The second thing that plays a role in the motivation of a child is his or her social background. This includes their relationships with adults and peers and their own personality. Children’s motivational factors are being molded from the moment that they are born. These factors are being developed and influenced by their parents’ views as to what is important as well as in the way that the child is disciplined by their parents (Kagan and Havemann 1972). Peers begin to play a large role in the development of motivation as children enter schools and interact more with others of their own age. As the child develops, he or she begins to develop characteristics and ideas about the world around them. This is developing their personality and, at the same time, their moving or motivating reasons for making decisions. Social, or outward, influences play a large role in the development of motivation because they can mold or manipulate that development.

Past academic experience has one of the strongest influences on how a child performs in school. It develops a child’s motivation because that child will see how they have performed and make decisions as to how their future performance will be. This could be for good or for bad and can in large part be influenced by the teacher’s role in the child’s academic life. Academic experience is an important factor in understanding a child’s motivation.

How Motivation Affects Learning and Behavior

Now that we understand somewhat how motivation will develop within a child, we can begin to understand how motivation will affect their learning and behavior. We can understand this because we should be able to see reasons why the child excels or fails in academics, whether it is influenced by family background, social background or past academic experience. Understanding how these influences have affected a child’s motivation, we can in turn see how the child’s motivation can affect his or her learning.

There are basically four affects that motivation can have on learning and behavior: negative extrinsic, negative intrinsic, positive extrinsic and positive intrinsic. Motivation can negatively affect the child’s learning and behavior by the fact that the child will feel as though the task is impossible or not worth trying. Intrinsically, the child may feel as though he has bad luck or that his lack of ability is heritable. Extrinsically, peers or adults may make the child feel inadequate or that the task is a waste of time. On the positive side, extrinsically a peer or adult may help the child in feeling as though they can accomplish the task or that they are capable of doing just about anything. Intrinsically, when a child is motivated meaningfully and feels as though the task has purpose or is special to them, that motivation will lead to meaningful learning (Highbee 1996).

Motivation really is the key factor to whether or not a child will accomplish a task or complete a behavior. Not only that, if the child does complete the task, it will become meaningful learning depending on the motivation that has driven the child. Motivation impacts the learning and behavior of a child in both positive and negative ways. By understanding the motivation that drives a child, a teacher can understand how to affectively use that motivation in the academic progress of the child.

How Motivation Applies to an Actual Classroom Practice

Motivation applies almost more than anything else in the classroom because it is the main factor that will allow a child to truly learn and desire to learn. The fine line is drawn when a teacher must decide whether to use intrinsic or extrinsic motivation and what form of each should be used. It is not an easy decision and largely depends on the individual students. Motivation can be applied in classroom management, assessment and any of the moral, social and personal development of each student. Since it is such a broad topic and can be encompassed by almost everything that has to do with education, we as teachers must understand the different uses of motivation and when and when not to use the different kinds. Our students will always need some reason or motivation for doing just about anything, otherwise they wouldn’t do it. With most of the children, we will have to start with extrinsic motivation in order to get them on the path toward academic achievement. However, intrinsic motivation is the goal because it will cause meaningful learning within the child and what he or she learns will not only stay with them for a long time, but will also be applied in various aspects of their life.

Expected Positive Outcomes

As with any educational theory and technique, the positive outcomes should outweigh the areas of concern. Since motivation is such a vast and all encompassing theory, the teacher should understand the best kinds of motivation for each child. Rather than try and explain which tools in motivation may be better, since it differs depending on the child, we should understand the outcomes and concerns of using extrinsic or intrinsic motivation.

Extrinsic motivation will be the starting point for most children, especially for those that have no support at home or very little positive academic background. Extrinsic motivation will help in letting the child see that good academic abilities help them to progress, even though the “rewards” are something external. This will begin to foster in the child a new insight in academics and learning. They will begin to take more interest in the subjects if they find that the extrinsic motivators are enough to make them feel good about what they are doing, be it good grades or peer involvement. If these motivating factors work their course and help the child to achieve, then eventually the child will begin to develop intrinsic motivation, which should carry on throughout the child’s academic career and life.

Intrinsic motivation is the ultimate goal both in learning and in behavior for the main reason that specific extrinsic motivators will not always be with the child. Teaching style and learning behavior may change throughout the child’s public school experience. Friends will vary and parental involvement may change. Once intrinsic motivation becomes a part of the child’s learning it will always stay with the child since it is part of the child. One interesting study showed that when a child begins to combine new schemas with existing schemas intrinsic motivation will increase and thus meaningful learning will take place more often (Lugo and Hershey 1974). Intrinsic motivation will have the greatest long-term impact on a child’s learning.

Motivation should have many positive outcomes if used correctly. The tools of motivation will differ depending on the child, but the correct use of motivation will help the child in driving himself or herself toward academic achievement.

Potential Areas of Concern

Motivation can also have potential areas of concern, as stated before, depending on how the motivation is used and the different tools of motivation that are used. When motivation is used as a manipulating or forceful factor, it can actually be damaging to the child’s learning. If a child is intrinsically motivated in an area and the teacher begins to heavily implement and enforce extrinsic motivation on that child, it will have a negative affect. As one study about the affects of rewards and motivation stated, some rewards (tools) will have little or no affect on the child’s motivation. This depends on the child as well as on the task and type of reward given (Cameron, 2002). As teachers, we must be very careful in the types of motivation that we use as well as the moments that we use them.

 

Motivation is perhaps one of the most important theories in education because it builds the base of the child’s educational experience. It also is one of the most important factors in the educational progress and advancement because it is what drives the child to success. Motivation is so important that even in our spiritual education it can determine blessings or trials. In spiritual terms, we differentiate extrinsic and intrinsic motivation as living the letter of the law and living the spirit of the law respectively. You are blessed and can progress by living either one, but you are much more blessed and gain a better understanding of the “big picture” by living the spirit of the law. By encouraging and helping to develop motivation in each one of our students, we help them to see the “big picture” and begin to “paint” beauty in education on their own.