Motivation

EDU 330: Educational PsychologyDr. Daniel Moos

Overview

Video Objectives:• Understand assumptions and applications of:

– Behavioral View of Motivation– Social Cognitive View of Motivation– Cognitive Views of Motivation– Expectancy X Value Theory– Humanistic View of Motivation

The Behavioral View of Motivation

• Students are motivated to complete a task by the desire to obtain an externally provided reinforcer (extrinsic reinforcement)

• Limitations of the Behavioral View Temporary changes (in absence of reward) Materialistic View Undermining Effect with Intrinsic motivation

The Social Cognitive View of Motivation

• Two factors that influence motivation: The models to which people are exposed The strength of one’s self-efficacy for a particular task

• The Power of Persuasive Models Students who observe an admired model receive reinforcement may be motivated to exhibit the same behavior because they expect to receive the same reinforcement (vicarious reinforcement)

The Social Cognitive View of Motivation

• The Importance of Self-Efficacy Choice of learning goals

– Task mastery goals– Performance-approach goals– Performance-avoidance goals

Outcome expectations– High self-efficacy high expectation of

positive outcome Attributions

– Ability, effort, luck, task difficulty

• Attributions: Explanations that people tend to make to explain success or failure

Internal

External

Controllable Uncontrollable

LuckEffort

Difficulty of Test

Choice of Study Environments

Other Cognitive Views of Motivation

Attribution Theory: Introduction (II) • How do individuals typically attribute their success and/or failure?

– Interpret successes and failures in a manner that is most likely to maintain positive self-image

Internal

External

Controllable Uncontrollable

LuckEffort

Difficulty of Test

Choice of Study Environments

Success FailureSuccess/Failure

Attribution Theory: Introduction (III)

Attribution Locus Stability ControllabilityInherited ability internal stable uncontrollable

Personality internal stable uncontrollable

Effort internal unstable controllable

uncontrollableTask Difficulty external stable

Luck external unstable uncontrollable

Need Definition Classroom Application/Example

Competence

Autonomy

Relatedness

Independence and ability to alter the environment

The feeling of being connected to others in one’s environment

Feedback (“Your problem-solving skills are improving. Good work!”)

Teacher asks for student input on rules, encourages students to set & monitor goals

Teacher spends time with her students before & after school, helping them w/ homework, etc

Self-determination theory: Process of deciding how to act on one’s environment (Ryan & Deci, 2000)

Ability to function effectively in the environment

Other Cognitive Views of Motivation

Other Cognitive Views of Motivation

• Beliefs about the Nature of Cognitive Ability Entity Theorists

– Believe that intelligence is like a thing, or entity, that has fixed characteristics Incremental Theorists

– Believe that intelligence can be gradually improved by adding to and refining thinking skills Developmental trajectory

Attribution Theory: Case Study

Attribution Theory: Strategies (1) “I am competent” AND “I worked hard”

• NOT beneficial to completely attribute to ability

(2) Students most likely to persist after failing if they attribute failure to a lack of appropriate effort

(3) Scaffold student’s understanding of effort(a) Students often confuse spending time doing ineffective

activities with effort(b) Students often have incorrect conceptions of their

understanding (metacognition)

(4) Should assessment include evaluations of effort?

Expectancy X Value Theory

Motivation: Humanistic views (II)

Motivation: Humanistic views (III)

Applying humanistic views of motivation to the classroom:

• Treat students as people first and learners second.• Provide students with unconditional positive regard

by separating their behaviors from their intrinsic worth.

• Create safe and orderly classrooms where students believe they can learn, and they are expected to do so.