Tips For Developing Students’ Motivation To Learn
Following our recent article on learner diversity and creating content that supports diverse learning needs, some members of our teacher community asked questions about a very crucial source of diversity in the classroom that the article was silent on; motivation to learn. Hence, this piece explores the subject to suggest ways teachers can influence students’ motivation to learn with a few tried and tested behaviour triggers.
Most teachers have observed that the energies that arouse and inform learning differ from person to person. The presence of a student in a class does not imply willingness to learn and hence the need to take into account the different things that motivate learners to learn in the whole instructional design and delivery process. Understanding motivation as the inward triggers of outward behavior, teachers should be intentional about influencing student’s motivation to learn. Here are triggers to learner motivation that applies to diverse learners and how teachers can leverage on such triggers to develop learner motivation.
· Reward & Reward Withdrawal
This trigger is informed by the theory of operant conditioning which asserts that behavior becomes more likely because of reinforcement and extinct because of the removal of reinforcement. In this sense, reward is an example of reinforcement that increases the likelihood of students learning and the withdrawal of it makes extinct the behaviours and attitudes that are detrimental to learning. Examples of rewards teachers can use include praise, recognition of achievement or learning progress, assigning class leadership roles, etc. Teachers can develop students motivation to learn for example by recognizing and rewarding students who ask questions in class. This recognition can come in the form name mention for those who do and no mention for those who did not. Students can also be rewarded with class leadership roles like supervising peer groups, leading team discussions, etc. when they exhibit positive learning behaviours and demonstrate commitment to the learning process. On the other hand, these recognitions and rewards should be withdrawn when learners show behaviours detrimental to learning or decreased commitment to learning.
· Goals
It is interesting to know that students have different goals for different subjects and event topics sometimes. In a scenario of student A, B and C, student A may want to understand and master all the topics in Maths because she believes it will be useful to her dream of studying actuarial science at the university. Students B on the other hand, may want to earn the highest mark in math to make his parents happy and so is focused on performance in tests and assignments. Student C however, just wants to get a pass mark in all subjects including math to avoid repeating the class. In these scenarios, we identify a mastery goal, a performance goal and a failure avoidance goal. These goals inform the amount of effort students invest in learning, how they engage with content and how they evaluate their own learning outcomes. While student A may be seen asking questions in class and solving more math problems to achieve the mastery goal, Student B may do same but is less likely to engage with other learners because his/her performance goal positions every other learner as a competitor. Student C however, may ask less questions but will engage in assignments and tasks sufficiently to achieve the failure avoidance goal. Teachers can develop students’ motivation by making students aware that mastery is the ultimate learning objective; the most ideal for improving performance and ensuring effective and continuous learning. To do this, students with performance goals can be motivated to develop mastery by engaging in practical hands-on exercises and tasks where possible. In the same way, teachers can set high performance standards for student who simply want to avoid failure. In this situation, the pass mark should be raised above the usual average. Mastery goal can also be encouraged by delivering content in ways that demonstrate relevance and applicability to everyday life.
· Learner Autonomy
Students need to be given choices wherever possible to give them a sense of control over learning tasks and the process of learning itself. These choices could be as simple as choosing whether to write with a black, blue or green pen or more complex decisions of deciding which person in a class they want to collaborate with in a group work. It is important to offer choices to all students including those who need extra help as this makes them feel self-determined and motivated to participate in learning. Autonomy can also be enhanced by minimizing grade comparison among students. Another way is to put together activities that allow students to work together in mutually supportive ways that minimize competition and allow individual initiatives towards overall group outcome.
· Believes about Self-efficacy
Aside being influenced by rewards or the withdrawal of it, goals and level of autonomy, students are also influenced by beliefs about their personal abilities. A student’s self-efficacy is a believe that he/she can learn and understand a subject, topic or complete a given task. It is important for teachers to build learners self-efficacy for every topic and assignment at the beginning of instruction. This increases student’s persistence to learn and improves their ability to cope with stressful learning tasks. Learners ability to recover motivation after failing in a task or assignment also becomes possible with high self-efficacy which teachers can build and develop one topic and task at a time. Teachers can successfully do this by referencing previous tasks or topics in which students were successful and how it relates to current tasks.
The application of these extrinsic and intrinsic triggers will go a long way to build and develop student’s motivation to learn.
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Author: EDUCATION 360
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