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Motivation and Engagement - Coggle Diagram
Motivation and Engagement
Understanding Students
Neuroplasticity
The changes that occur in the organisation of the brain as a result of experience
Various kinds of stimulation actually change brain structures and affect the way people think, and that these transformations go on throughout life
Neuroplasticity and Educating
Changes in the brain result in changes in perceptual, cognitive and communicative styles
Motivation and engagement in learning may also require pedagogic techniques that can take advantage of multitasking and a continual shifting of focus
Digital Natives
People who have never known a world without computers,
24-hour TV news, the internet or mobile phones (Prensky 2001)
Never known a world without computers - very reliable on technology and instantaneous information
A recent study identified that people 8 to 18 years of
age expose their brains to more than 8 hours of digital and video sensory stimulation each day
Motivating Students
Theories of Motivation
Social Cognitivist Views of Motivation
Social cognitivists suggest that children should be seen as innately active learners.
Motivation is often described as goal-directed behaviour that is closely linked to feelings of personal effectiveness and develops as children develop an intrinsic desire to learn. For cognitivists, students study something or learn to do something because it produces personal positive consequences such as knowledge, competency or a sense of independence; in other words, learning is linked with intrinsic motivation
Humanist Views of Motivation
Humanist theories of motivation are linked to achievement and education, but also to student welfare and
wellbeing.
Behaviourist Views of Motivation
For behaviourists, motivation to do something is derived from past experiences and influenced by rewards
and/or punishment.
In the eyes of behaviourists, the desire to do something is derived
externally and, as such, school activities and learning are enhanced through extrinsic motivation
Emotions and Motivation
Self-Efficacy Theory
Motivation is enhanced because
students feel capable.
Learning is improved when students see themselves as competent for the given task.
Attribution Theory
Motivation is enhanced if students believe the outcome of what they do is a result of the effort they make
Learning is improved when students associate success or failure with the effort they make as opposed to their ‘ability’
Interest Theory
Motivation is enhanced because the student values the experience or finds it important.
Learning is improved when students are highly engaged with what they are being taught.
Goal Orientation Theory
Motivation is enhanced when the value of understanding material presented is linked to students’ personal objectives or values
Learning is improved when students want
to understand the material.
Rewards
Rewards and punishment can never be separated, and the most significant problem with using rewards as a motivational tool is that they rely on the decisions of others. It is also important to note that handing out rewards is premised on a behaviourist model whereby humans are passive beings whose behaviour must be elicited by external motivation in the form of an incentive
Motivation to Learn
Impact of Stress, Anxiety and Learned Helplessness
Good Stress, Bad Stress
Optimum levels of stress (eustress) are often powerful empathetic, motivational and creative forces allowing individuals to achieve success in a variety of demonstrable ways, while negative, chronic or traumatic stress (distress) can be very problematic given how it engages the body’s physiology
Learned Helplessness
In terms of classroom endeavour and motivation, learned helplessness can contribute to an expectation, based on previous experience, that learning efforts will lead to failure. If previous learning experiences have contributed to low self-esteem then a student will believe that no amount of effort will lead to success
Limiting stress and enhancing stress
Homework
Homework may assist learners in terms of reviewing or consolidating some aspects of learning and it may provide communication platforms between teachers and parents
Although homework may be assigned with the best of intentions, teachers and parents alike frequently cite it as a source of difficulty and conflict at home and at school
Standardised Testing
Testing can be limited in determining what a student actually knows and/or has learned.
Aan invoke negative reactions such as stress or anxiety
Feedback from the tests is often presented long after the actual test was taken and, as such, is ineffective as a tool for enhancing learning.
Engaging motivation and learning in the 21st Century
Fostering Motivation
Provide strategies and ideas for students to succeed
Provide ongoing and informative feedback
Design learning experiences that are at an appropriate level of difficulty, challenging and specific
Provide scaffolding to ensure successful outcomes are within the grasp of the student.
Strategies for continual engagement
Ensure that students believe that they have some control over their learning (to enhance self-esteem and self-worth and diminish stress and anxiety)?
Ensure that students perceive the learning environment as their space for learning and that they are part of all learning activities (to enhance self-esteem and self-worth, and diminish stress and anxiety)
Ensure that students perceive the learning environment as a comfortable, orderly, safe and secure place
(to diminish stress and anxiety)
Ensure that students know what to expect and have some sense of predictability (to diminish stress and
anxiety)
Provide opportunities for students to self-reflect and articulate their own ideas and feelings about learning (to enhance self-esteem and self-worth)
Ensure that students feel accepted by the teacher and their peers (to enhance self-esteem and self worth)