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Chapter 10: MOTIVATION IN LEARNING

MOTIVATION DEFINED
Motivation is the process by which an individual creates an inner drive to accomplish goals or objectives. Motivation influences an individual to act. Motivation is the practical art of applying incentives and arousing interest for purposes of causing a student to perform in a desired way. Motivation designates the use of various devices such as the offering of rewards or an appeal to the desire to excel. Motivation is used to refer to devices and activities that the teacher may employ to bring about increased or active learning.

PURPOSES OF MOTIVATION
Teachers motivate their students to learn through the following purposes: To arouse the desire to achieve a goal To stimulate action to accomplish a particular objective To cause a student to perform in a desired way To arouse interest thereby making a student simply work willingly and to complete tasks To use various incentives such as the offering of rewards or an appeal to the desire to excel To stimulate an individual to follow certain direction desired for learning.

TYPES OF MOTIVATION
1. INTRINSIC MOTIVATION It is based on personal motives and consists of self-generated factors that influence individuals to behave in a particular way, or to move to a particular direction. This involves factors such as; Heredity Intellectual abilities Instinctual drive Personal philosophy, vision and mission in life

Desire for recognition Desire to serve others 2. EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION It occurs when the learner wants to learn for reasons other than his or her own personal interest. It is based on social motives which may include: Rewards such as high grades, increased pay, praise or promotion as well as Punishments, such as disciplinary action, low grades, withholding pay and criticism

MASLOWS THEORY OF MOTIVATION AND NEEDS


Abraham Maslow (1943) psychologist proposed the theory of motivation and needs.

Five Basic Groups 1. Physiological needs These are biological needs such as: food, clothing and shelter, among others. 2. Safety needs Teachers and students have inherent need to survive to protect themselves from any hazards or injury such as having a protection plan for sickness through environmental cleanliness, sanitation, waste management, clean air, and protection from fire hazards, among others. 3. Social needs The individuals need for a sense of belongingness, love and acceptance from significant people such as family members, friends, and neighbours in the community.

4. Esteem needs Learners have the need for a stable, family-based, high level of selfrespect and respect from others. 5. Self-actualization needs These refer to the realization of success. Maslow describes self-actualization as an individuals need to be and do that which the individual was born to do. Points that educators should address to help students respond to their selfactualization needs, are as follows; 1. Teach people to be authentic, aware of their inner selves and to listen to their inner-feeling voices. 2. Teach people to transcend their cultural values and become world-class citizens. 3. Help people discover their vocation in life, their calling, fate or destiny, particularly in finding the right career or mate. 4. Teach people that life is precious, that there is joy to be experienced, and if people are open to seeing the good side of life in all kinds of situations, it makes life worth living. 5. Accept the individual as she is and help her learn her inner nature. From real knowledge of aptitudes and limitations they will know what to do build upon and what potentials to develop. 6. Make sure that the individuals basic needs are satisfied, such as safety, belongingness and esteem needs. 7. Refresh consciousness by teaching the individual to appreciate beauty and other good things in nature and in life. 8. Teach students that self-regulation is good and complete abandonment is bad. It takes control to improve the quality of life in all areas of living. 9. Teach students to transcend and analyse problems and attend to serious problems in life. These include the problems of injustice, pain, suffering, and death. 10. Teach students to make good decisions by giving them opportunities to practice and experience problem solving using hypothetical situations in the clinical laboratory or in any related learning experience.

MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS OF LEARNERS


Learners are people easily affected by stimuli they be intrinsic or extrinsic. 1. Psychosocial Needs It arises from the individual because she is part of a social setting.

Learning takes place within oneself, but enhance when a student is within a group of learners. According to Heidgerken (1971) the teacher should be concerned with the following: a. Security A students feeling of being safe and protected. It is a form of self-preservation and therefore always present in some form of human behaviour. b. Anxiety This is a feeling of concern or worry about some anticipated event which seem to involve some danger to the individual learning process such as assignments, course requirements and related learning experiences. c. Frustration A student has the feeling of blocking or frustrating to achieve a goal because of some barriers or constraints in the learning process. d. Independence The need to achieve a status of self-sufficiency, which arises from the individuality of each learner. e. Actualization This is the fulfilment of ones personality potential. f. Assertion The overt manifestation of ones personality to speak for oneself, her ideas, opinions, and feelings in a respectful manner without creating enemies. g. Achievement The need to attain some worthwhile goals, the degree of which varies from one person to another. h. Recognition This refers to acknowledgement by others of ones achievement in some activity. i. Participation It is sharing experience and activities with others. j. Interest This is a conscious awareness of an inner desire for some object which has concern or importance to an individual. Interests are closely allied to attitudes, but may be different in some aspects, such that;

They involve personal identification with the object, while attitudes do not. It is generally considered that interests are directed toward a class of objects, while attitudes are oriented toward some specific objects. Interest may be instinctual or acquired, but attitudes are only acquired. k. Religious need The individuals inner requirement for God. Some scholars have long recognized this need as one of mans most important needs. 2. Incentives Refers to the use of praise, reproof, competition, knowledge of results, quizzes, grades, among others, to initiate and sustain motivation. a. Praise and Reproof The teacher should use praise and reproof to build a sense of achievement in the students, this will give them a feeling of satisfaction because they have achieved a particular set of objectives. b. Competition Competition is urging oneself to take action to achieve a certain objective in order to prove ones capability or excellence. Following are three kinds of competition: Competition wherein an individual is one of the group that competes with another group Competition wherein an individual competes with other individuals in the same group Self-competition wherein an individual compete against her own record.

c. Knowledge of Progress Student must be kept informed of their progress through selfevaluation, assignments, tests and examinations and through conference with teachers. d. School Marks School marks are used as basis for grading and offer a powerful stimulus to induce learning activities. e. Exhibiting Good Works When a student knows that the best work is to be exhibited, the desire to do better work is stimulated or created. f. Game or Play Play is an incentive for learning and a great factor in physical and mental development. It develops personal discipline which is essential in assuring responsibility and doing mature roles. g. Examination Examination creates drive among students to prepare and review in order to attain a passing mark which will spare her of embarrassment due to failure. h. Deans List To be in the Deans list is a motivation itself. It gives a student sense of recognition and pride. i. Emulation Emulation is exemplified in cases where students are required by the teacher to do their test in oral or written exercises. Students are praised and recognized for best and neat performance of assigned tasks. j. Material Rewards The use of material rewards helps motivate students to learn. However, there are drawbacks in the use of material rewards, such that; It is necessary to increase rewards periodically to sustain and maintain motivation to learn Students may think that attainment of material reward is the primary goal, while school learning becomes only an incidental means to an end which is quickly cast aside or ignored when the reward is attained.

Other kinds of incentives maybe as effective or more effective and do not lead to relegate learning to a secondary position. k. Punishment Punishment is used as a form of extrinsic motivation. Traditionally, punishment has been assumed to accomplish the following: Teach the learner respect for authority Block undesirable responses Force the learner to do something he was not ready to do or did not want to do Set an example for potential offender Make the student pay attention to class work Motivate students to learn assigned material

IMPORTANCE OF MOTIVATION IN LEARNING


The purpose and importance of motivation to learning should clearly understand by the teacher. The fundamental aims of motivation are as follows: 1. To stimulate and facilitate learning activity. 2. Learning is an active process and student need to be motivated and guided toward desirable ends. 3. Learning is self-initiated, but it must be aided by motives or incentives so that the learner will persist in the learning activity 4. A defined motive or incentives is valuable in all prospective activities, as motives and incentives will prepare the students to learn. 5. The greater the readiness to learn, the greater attention will be achieved. 6. It is important to get the learner into a state of readiness to learn for it increases alertness, vigour and whole heartedness of learning. 7. One sure way to operationalize the law of effect is to assist the learner in achieving ends and purposes which she desire to attain. Understanding the nature of motivation is important because: 1. Motivation determines, not only the intensity of the effort to learn, but also the extent to which this effort is made as an activity of the total personality. 2. Motivation of learning activities helps the student concentrate on what she is doing, thereby gaining satisfaction.

3. Continuous motivation is needed to help learners concentrate on the lessons to be learned.

ASSESSING MOTIVATION AMONG LEARNERS


Students motivation is markedly influenced by the learning goals established and the feedback provided. Following are aspects of assessing students motivation: 1. Previous learning experiences, like positive and negative outcomes and processes. 2. Personal attitudes and beliefs about learning like reasons for taking up nursing or caring for the patient. 3. Readiness to learn, such as interest in the subject and impact of external factors such as family life. 4. Availability of resources to support learning, such as library, laboratories, computer access, social support, financial resources. 5. Level of anxiety, where moderate levels of anxiety enhance motivation while high levels of anxiety impede it.

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