Motivation 1.  How do you define motivation? 2. How do you decide whether a student

is motivated or not? 3. How can a teacher influence a

student’s motivation?

Combine the following stem with each of the sentence completers listed below it. To the right of each completer, write T is the resulting statement is TRUE and F if it is FALSE.

MOTIVATION IS… …the student’s intent to learn. ______ …developed over time. ______ …evident in the behaviors of the student. ______ …affected by a student’s previous school experiences.______ …affected by a student’s previous life experiences. ______ …affected by what a student’s current teacher does or does not do.

______ …one of the most important factors in achievement. ______

What does motivation have to do with learning?

•  If students are motivated to learn the content, achievement and learning are high.

•  If students are not motivated to learn the content, achievement and learning are low.

What is motivation?

Motivation is a need or desire that activates a person to do something that satisfies that need or desire.

In learning situations, it is: •  the student’s intent to attend •  evident in the student’s behavior (I.e., effort) •  a critical component of achievement •  developed over time

Motivation: Theories and Variables Multiple theories explain how motivation develops and evolves over time. They help us: (a) analyze why a student’s motivation is high or low (b) understand why and how the six variables of motivation work.

Attribution Theory, Drive Theory, Self-Worth Theory Success The six variables of motivation Knowledge of Results can be manipulated by the teacher Feeling Tone to increase or decrease student Level of Concern motivation. Interest Rewards

Attribution Theory How students perceive the causes of their prior successes or failures determines whether or not they will attend to and persist in the academic tasks you assign. Internal External

ABILITY EFFORT LUCK TASK DIFFICULTY -I’m good at… -I worked hard at… -I’m lucky… -This task was easy… -I’m not good at… -I didn’t work hard at… -I’m not lucky… -This task was hard…

Which of these four do students have control over?

Attribution Theory Generalizations •  The only way to know which attributes students use to explain their achievement

or lack of it is to ask them. •  The attributes a student uses to explain achievement or lack of it can be different

for different tasks. •  The more ingrained a student’s attributions are, the harder they are to change. •  It is best for students to have an internal locus of control --that is to believe that

their own ability and effort, rather than external factors like luck and task difficulty, lead to success or failure.

ABOUT ABILITY: If we want students to persist at academic tasks, we should help them believe they are competent. It is not beneficial for students to attribute their successes entirely to ability. If they think they already have all the ability they need, they may quit working and lose ground. ABOUT EFFORT: It is extremely damaging to student motivation for a student to fail repeatedly after making a serious effort at academic tasks. It is important for students to define effort accurately. Effort means devoting effective academic learning time and action to the task. Teacher feedback can show students how to improve effort. Students who believe they are “lazy” lose motivation.

Attribution Theory •  Give two examples of how you use one or more of the

four attributes-- ability, effort, luck, and task difficulty-- to explain successes or failures in your own life.

ex. - I’m not very good at technology even though I am working harder all the time to get better. When I master a technology skill, I either tell myself that I was really lucky to get it right or that the skill was really easy.

1.

2.

Drive Theory •  Motivation is described in terms of two

competing drives--the striving for success and the fear of failure.

•  Over time, the frequency of successes and failures impacts how students see themselves and their potential to succeed.

Drive Theory In 1993, motivation researcher M.V. Covington pointed out that school presents students with a special “ability game” that for some can be difficult to win. Over time frequent successes and failures cause them

to develop one of three perspectives about the game of school.

SUCCESS- FAILURE FAIULURE ORIENTED AVOIDERS ACCEPTORS students see are uncertain see themselves themselves as about the as doomed academically probability from the competent. of success. Outset.

In 2001, researcher Rick Stiggins described the effects of repeated successes or failures on student efforts. •  Success-oriented students have had repeated successes in the

classroom. When they do fail, they know that the problem can be corrected if they work harder and smarter (increase their effort), so they do. Usually, harder, smarter work results in more success.

•  Failure avoiders have had repeated failures in the classroom. As a result they doubt their own abilities. Additional failures just reinforce their sense of inadequacy. When they do succeed, they fear they didn’t deserve the success or think that the success was an accident that can’t happen again.

•  Failure acceptors have experienced so much failure over time that they have given up on themselves and school. There is no desire to “try” left in them. They become mental dropouts or practice “learned helplessness.”

Drive Theory

Think about the students you work with. Try to identify: * a success-oriented student * a failure-avoidant student * a failure-acceptor Be prepared to explain what behaviors and attributes led you to your identification.

Self-Worth Theory Martin Covington, Professor of Psychology at the University of California-Berkley,

wrote Making the Grade: A Self-Worth Perspective on Motivation and School Reform, in 1992.

* He states that student motivation can best be understood in terms of each student’s attempts to maintain self-worth and that self-worth is a key factor in the development of independent learning skills.

* He defines self-worth as positive self image--”the need to protect our own general belief that we are good, capable individuals.”

* He says public school classrooms are battlegrounds where effort and ability vie for influence over a student’s achievements and therefore over his or her self-worth. * He says students’ perceptions of self-worth change over time. They initially

believe effort has the most influence over achievement and therefore over self-worth; but by middle school they believe that ability is the only factor influencing achievement and therefore self-worth.

The Development of Self-Worth •  Stage 1 (Preschool and Kindergarten): Ability, effort, and achievement are one and the same

thing. For these students, self-worth comes from the combination of ability, effort, and achievement. They believe that trying hard is evidence of ability. One first kindergartner confided, “Smart students try, dumb ones don’t.” They also believe that effort can actually increase their ability. Another student said, “Studying hard makes your brain bigger.” These students believe all achievements are possible, including increasing their ability, if they just try.

•  Stage 2 (Grades 1-4): Ability and effort are the same, but effort is more important in achievement than ability. For these students, self-worth is measured by effort. They begin to assume a one-to-one correspondence between effort and achievement. The harder one tries, the better one’s performance is likely to be. Children in this stage believe that by increasing effort, even the dullest student will be successful. They recognize hard-working, compliant children often succeed and are praised by adults.

•  Stage 3 (Grades 5-6): Ability and effort are different, and effort leads to achievement. For these students, self-worth is still measured by achievement, and increased effort can make up for low ability while high ability permits a relaxation of effort. These students insist that as a task becomes more difficult, one only needs to increase effort to succeed. At the same time, these children recognize ability as a fixed, stable factor that doesn’t increase with effort.

•  Stage 4 (Middle School, High School, and Beyond): Ability alone explains achievement or failure. For these students, self-worth is measured by their achievements in a competitive environment, and only ability influences achievement. They would much rather be viewed as “smart” than as “hard working.” Therefore, some overachievers disguise the role of effort in their success and become “closet achievers” who complain about not having had enough time to study even though they secretly spent weekends in an isolated part of the library. Some failure avoiders employ a number of different ruses to explain failure in a way that keeps them from having to confront the possibility of low ability. Neither type of student sees much value in effort.

Effects of Self-Worth Theory •  As a child gets older, social comparisons, competition, experiences with success and failure,

and adult feedback about their performances tell them that ability is more valuable than effort.

•  As a child gets older, protecting a sense of worth as defined by the ability to achieve competitively becomes increasingly more important.

•  As a child gets older, (s)he struggles to preserve dignity and a sense of self-worth by adopting effort “ruses” that both explain their failure and hide their ability. Such ruses include:

-underachieving (refusing to work so there is no test of ability) -cheating (passing off other’s work as their own) -procrastination (starting so late that there is no way to succeed regardless of ability) -excessive busyness (being too busy at nonacademic tasks that academic tasks don’t get done) -perfectionism (spending so much time on one aspect of an academic task that the task itself can’t

be finished) -choosing or setting unattainable goals (choosing goals so hard no one could accomplish them) -collective failure (associating with friends who fail because if everyone fails, the problem is with the

task, not with individual ability) -adopting the “academic wooden leg” (using a minor personal weakness or handicap such as test

anxiety to cover up intellectual inadequacy) Even when students believe they have convinced others that their poor performance was a result of

insufficient effort rather than ability, they describe themselves as “lazy” and “shiftless.” Humans will stop at little--lying, cheating, even failure--to protect their self-worth. Even if failing students harbor doubts about their ability, they are unwilling to test the limits by trying

their hardest because they fear having to find out that their ability is inadequate.

Other findings… •  Regardless of their ability, students with high effort receive more

positive feedback for success and less negative feedback for failure. (Weiner, 1992, 2001)

•  Students with high ability, low effort, and failure received the most negative feedback.

•  Students who did not try to evoke the most irritation from teachers, who in turn are likely to respond with punishment.

•  American teachers tend to view students with low ability who try hard and succeed more favorable because our culture values those who overcome handicaps and succeed. In other cultures, teachers view students with high ability more favorably.

Increasing Their Motivation: Using the Variable of Success •  What is the definition of success? •  How does frequent success or failure affect

student learning? •  What can teachers do to increase the

likelihood of student success and therefore improve student motivation?

What IS Success? In the earliest days of education, “success” meant some students earned high letter grades or percentages on accumulated work. By 1980, researchers like William Spady and Albert Mammary were advocating that “success” meant all students mastered specific learning outcomes. By 2001, PL.107-110 (better known as No Child Left Behind) stipulated that success meant that all students demonstrated mastery of specific outcomes mostly in core subjects, as measured by standardized or criterion-referenced assessments administered in elementary, middle, and high school. These--grades, mastery of outcomes, or skill performance--are not necessarily how STUDENTS measure success.

When it comes to learning and motivation, SUCCESS is an internal sense of achievement as perceived by the learner. Thus, “success” is: •  contextual in nature. •  different for different students.

Standards-based educators believe that: * ALL students can succeed. * Teachers control the conditions for success. * Success breeds success.

Success and Failure How are success and failure prevalent factors in all theories of motivation? Attribution Theory Ability Effort Luck Task Difficulty Drive Theory Success- Failure Failure

Oriented Avoiders Acceptors Self-Worth Theory

Success and Failure What generalizations can you make about success and motivation (students attending to the learning)? Example: Success of lack of success in a school subject is eventually a major force in determining how the student feels about the subject and his desire to learn more about that subject. (Benjamin Bloom) - - - - - -

Success in the Classroom When it comes to academic achievement, think of “success” as clearing an “intellectual” high jump bar under strict conditions. (Madeline Hunter) To feel success, students must: -expand effort to accomplish a worthwhile task. -face a moderate degree of difficulty. To encourage success, teachers must: -control the level of difficulty of the task for ALL students. -use teaching skills that make success for ALL students possible. Teacher diagnosis is critical: -Can students who don’t know their multiplication facts be successful with long

division? -Will students who already know how to write a bibliography feel successful after a

lesson on how to write a bibliography? Success is not about giving students easy work. It is about providing the with rigor that is achievable.

Success The following teaching strategies have the likelihood to improve success for individual students: -  Scaffolding teaching content from easiest to hardest. -  Providing appropriate wait time that encourages all students to process

a question. -  Deliberately building small groups to include students with all ranges of

ability. -  Finding multiple ways to have students actively participate in

processing lesson information and practicing. -  Providing students with choices for process, product, and assessment. -  Using frequent formative assessments and tracking student gains over

time to build perceptions of success. -  Providing “do-over” opportunities to improve the quality of work.

Students must FEEL that they are successful. Teachers must find ways to help students BE successful.

Increasing Their Motivation: Using the Variable of Knowledge of Results

•  How can we define knowledge of results? •  What are the critical attributes of knowledge of results? •  Why does knowledge of results increase motivation?

Knowledge of Results: Critical Attributes When we find out what we are doing well, what needs to be improved, and most importantly, what to do to improve it, and then feel a reasonable probability that we can improve it, we are motivated to try to accomplish that improvement. (Madeline Hunter) Knowledge of Results is: -the kind of feedback -the amount of feedback -the specificity of feedback -the immediacy of feedback That students receive about their learning. Each of these critical attributes exists on a continuum, and each of them affects a student’s desire to continue with the learning or task.

The Continuums Kind of feedback: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No feedback Praise Grades Comments Amount of feedback: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No feedback Little feedback Some feedback Lots of feedback Specificity of feedback: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ No Nonspecific Ego-Involved Task-Involved feedback feedback feedback feedback Immediacy of feedback: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ No Very Delayed Delayed Prompt feedback feedback feedback feedback

Knowledge of Results is: the kind of feedback

Kind of feedback Impact of feedback No feedback “Just doing something again without knowing

how well we did it is not very satisfying or stimulating.” (Madeline Hunter)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Praise “Praise leads kids to feel good about

themselves but be unable to do anything. The goal of learning is for kids to be able to do the tasks related to learning goals.” (Dylan Wiliam)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grades “Students need feedback and lots of it, but

grades are not the best forms of feedback. Grades, by their very nature, are post-learning. If we want students to learn, we can’t spend a lot of time using grades as learning tools.” (Rick Wormeli)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Comments “Providing students with specific information about their standing in

terms of particular objectives increases their achievement by 37 percentile points! This finding led the researcher to remark, “The most powerful single innovation that enhances achievement is feedback.” (Robert Marzano)

What kind of comments should you make?

Describe the student’s work. “Your topic sentence and concluding sentence are clear and they go well together.” Comment on the process the student used to do the work. “Can you rewrite that sentence so it goes better with the one before it?” Relate work back to the learning goal so the student ca see progress toward the goal. “Did you notice that you have all the names capitalized this time? We’ve really been working in correct capitalization, and it looks like you’ve got it.”

(Susan M. Brookhart, “Feedback that Fits,” Educational Leadership)

Knowledge of Results is: the amount of feedback

The wise teacher spends time using frequent and valid formative assessments and then finds time to consider the results of those assessments and make instructional changes accordingly. These frequent checkpoints are where students learn the most. They also allow teachers to give lots of feedback that influences learning and changes the course of their teaching if needed. (Rick Wormeli) Probably the hardest decision concerns the amount of feedback. A natural inclination is to want to “fix” everything you see. To the teacher’s-eye view, that is where the perfect achievement of of all learning goals is. But try to see things from a student’s-eye view. Are there any assignments coming up that would make it wiser to emphasize one point over another? And what about the student’s developmental level? (Susan M. Brookhart)

Knowledge of results is: the specificity of feedback

Specific feedback tells students: -what they are doing well -what needs to be improved -what to do to improve it You have listed all the significant details of the Civil War. Now you just need to organize them for meaning. For example, you might write about them in chronological order (order of time) or in order of importance (most important to least important). You can pick the organization you like. “Feedback should be specific enough that the student knows what to do next, But not so specific that you do the work. Identifying errors or types of errors is a good idea, but correcting every error doesn’t leave the student anything to do.” (Susan M. Brookhart)

Knowledge of results is: the immediacy of feedback

Assessment guru Dylan Wiliam says that immediacy of feedback means American teachers have to change their work habits. He says that in order to give immediate feedback, teachers must spend TWO times as much time planning for instruction (I.e., creating formative assessments and organizing feedback opportunities) as they do grading papers! Currently American teachers do the opposite! Susan M. Brookhart, author of How to Give Good Feedback (ASCD, 2008), says teachers should put themselves in their students’ places and ask,

“When would a student want to hear feedback?” She says the answer is always the same--when the student is still thinking about the work!”

Knowledge of Results is: the kind of feedback

the amount of feedback the specificity of feedback

the immediacy of feedback What should you change about the way you give feedback to students in your classroom if you want to change their desire to improve? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kind Amount Specificity Immediacy Impact --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Summative Few to Nonspecific Prompt to Little to Letter Grade Some Very Delayed No Value (A,B,C) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Verbal Some to If Task-Focused Prompt (in class) Good to Comment Many to Somewhat Moderate (Class Delayed Value Participation (Conference) Or Conference) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Written Some to If Task-Focused Prompt to Good to Comments Many Very Delayed Moderate Value

Knowledge of Results The following teaching strategies can improve Knowledge of Results for students in your classroom: -Asking hinge questions that all students answer during a lesson and giving specific feedback related to those answers. -Giving frequent formative assessments with immediate feedback and having students track progress toward learning goals. -Scheduling frequent student teacher learning conferences to give oral comments related to class assignments. -Changing grading practices to emphasize formative assessments with comments as preparation for summative assessments with grades. -Writing teacher comments, but no grade on a product or project. -Giving students ways to “self-check” homework or independent practice.

Increasing Their Motivation: Using the Variable of Feeling Tone

•  What is feeling tone? •  What are the three different kinds of

feeling tone? •  How does feeling tone increase or

decrease motivation? •  How can teachers use feeling tone to

help students attend to learning?

What is Feeling Tone? •  Feeling Tone is the emotional state

within the learner that exists toward the learning environment.

•  Teachers can consciously use emotion to enhance attention and therefore increase student learning. (Pat Wolfe)

Teachers Set Feeling Tone in the Classroom

-------------------------------------------------------- Pleasant Neutral Unpleasant Feeling Tone Feeling Tone Feeling Tone -Challenging, achievable content -Unchallenging, achievable content -Challenging, unachievable content -Supportive teacher -Uninvolved teacher -Unsupportive teacher -Safe physical and/or -Sterile environment -Unsafe physical and/or psychological environment psychological environment -Humor -No humor -Sarcasm -Positive relationships -Needs of students unimportant -Negative relationships -Respect -Little interaction -Disrespect -Well-planned & executed lessons -Little teacher instruction -Unplanned & confusing lessons -Primarily collaboration -Primarily competition -Needs of students dignified -Needs of students ignored At times, what is done by the teacher isn’t conscious or deliberate,but It does affect climate.

Feeling Tone Impacts Motivation ----------------------------------------------------- Pleasant Neutral Unpleasant Feeling Tone Feeling Tone Feeling Tone INCREASE NO CHANGE IN DECREASE MOTIVATION MOTIVATION MOTIVATION Students want to and can put Neutral feeling tone has NO Students may change to forth more attention to the task effect. Students feel no need their lack of attention if they find the learning situation to change their level of effort to the task if they find the (facility, relationships, content) to learn if they find the learning the learning situation pleasant. In the process, they situation (facility, relationships, (facility, relationships, feel positive about content) neutral. They feel no content) unpleasant. learning, especially if they need to attend. However, negative side sense that they have a effects may be that they high probability of achieving dislike the teacher or the success. content in the future or that they stop attending to the

task.

Using Feeling Tone Effectively When positive feeling tones aren’t working, the proactive teacher uses unpleasant feeling tone to increase motivation. ”There’s way too much visiting going on. We are really on a tight schedule today and we must finish this science experiment. You will need to get to work immediately with no talking and stay on task for the next 10 minutes.” The proactive teacher uses neutral feeling tone to transition back to a positive feeling tone. The teacher monitors the quiet work time with limited interaction directed at answering questions. The proactive teacher returns to positive feeling tone after students put forth effort to learn and/or attend to the task in order to prevent damaging after effects from negative motivation. “It took real perseverance to finish this experiment. You should all be proud of how diligently you worked. Everyone in class finished the assignment!”

Feeling Tone There are teaching strategies that let teachers use Feeling Tone effectively in their classrooms. -Building positive personal and academic relationships with every student. -Masterfully controlling the time, support, and resources in lessons. -Using effective grading practices (I.e., formative & summative assessments, no zeros, equal measures of central tendency, etc.). -Teaching and modeling social skills. -Using effective elements of instruction. -Creating an invitational, enriched classroom environment. -Using humor, but NEVER sarcasm, to take the pressure off of difficult learning time.

The brain is biologically programmed to attend first to information that has strong emotional content!

•  The brain looks for emotional information that signals “danger” and reacts protectively to it.

•  The brain is constantly sifting incoming information to determine what to keep and what to ignore. When the information is dangerous or threatening, the brain triggers the “Fight or Flight” response that is essential for survival of the individual and the species and “downshifting”--the inability to do any complex thinking--occurs.

EMOTION-- A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD The brain recognizes emotional information that is not dangerous and remembers it longer. Most incoming information that is not “sifted out” of the brain goes to working memory for only 15-20 seconds; without attention or rehearsal it will most likely be forgotten in 18 seconds. However, non-dangerous emotional information goes straight to long-term memory and remains there.

Increasing Their Motivation: Using the Variable of Level of Concern

•  What is Level of Concern?

•  How does Level of Concern increase or decrease motivation?

•  How can teachers use Level of Concern to change a students’ intent to learn?

What is Level of Concern? Level of Concern is the amount of anxiety felt about gaining or losing something that you want or need (I.e., internal or external). It changes the level of accountability felt by the learner and may change performance.

Have you ever had a case of “butterflies” in your stomach? Having “butterflies” in your stomach is evidence of the internal anxiety that is connected to Level of Concern.

Level of Concern Continuum

-------------------------------------------------------- No Concern= Moderate Concern= Too Much Concern= No Attention Focus on the Task Inability to Concentrate

on the Task

“John, take as “Carrie, you’ll have one “Mike, get this health much time as you’d week to finish your health report turned in on like to finish your report. I’ll be checking with tomorrow. And I’m health report. It’s you each day, though, to going to base your not going to be see how far along you are.” grade for the entire graded anyway.” class on how well you do on it.”

Moderate Levels of Concern Stimulate Efforts to Learn

In the past, we believed that stress or concern was undesirable. Now we know that a moderate level of concern is essential to an individual’s putting forth

effort. If you are satisfied with your appearance, job, or where you live, you will not put forth effort to change it. It is only when you become concerned that you will do something! (Madeline Hunter)

Can the Level of Concern be Too High? “Emotion is a double-edged sword with the ability to enhance learning or impede it.” (Pat Wolfe) “If you have no stress in your life, you probably won’t get out of bed in the morning. If you have too much stress in your life, chances are you won’t get out of bed in the morning. As with many things in life, more is not necessarily better, especially when it comes to the stress response…The stress response was designed for life in caves, but we don’t live there anymore. The contemporary human brain doesn’t distinguish between actual physical danger and psychological danger. It sets the same set of physiological chain of events in motion in either case. The blood pressure goes up, blood clotting elements are released into the blood stream, the immune system si suppressed, and cortisol and adrenaline are released to increase the “flight or fight” response and decrease thinking. If you want to SEE the effects of excessive stress on students, watch those who are being bullied or laughed at, those who are uncomfortable about performing in public, those who are taking timed tests, those who are called on when not prepared, and those who have a general fear of failure.” (Pat Wolfe)

Teachers Affect the Level of Concern

Lowering Level of Concern: -More Time -More Help -More Resources -Formative Assessments before Summative Assessments -Low Stakes Test Results -No Public Display -More Wait Time with Questions -Less Teacher Proximity -Lower Level of Task Difficulty

Raising Level of Concern: -Less Time -Less Help -Fewer Resources -Summative Assessment without Formative Assessment -High Stakes Test Results -Public Display -Less Wait Time with Questions -More Teacher Proximity -Higher Level of Task Difficulty

Level of Concern There are teaching strategies that let teachers use Level of Concern effectively in their classrooms: -Giving students “high visibility” and “low visibility” options for how they do presentations in your classroom. -Checking class notes regularly. -Requiring a “ticket out the door” from each student to account for learning at the end of a lesson. -Providing “do-over” options for high stakes learning assessments. -Building a strong plan that combines frequent formative assessments before reasonable summative assessment in your classroom.

Can Grades Change Motivation? Using grades to try to make students care about learning may or may not be a good idea. (Rick Wormeli) It may come as a surprise to some, but low grades push students farther from our cause; they don’t motivate students. Recording a D on a student’s paper won’t light a fire under that student to buckle down and study harder. It actually distances the student farther from us and the curriculum…and lessens the level of investment the student had prior to receiving the low grade. Given this, imagine a student earning a string of low grades--how motivated will he or she be? High grade also have issues. Alfie Kohn says that high grades have a little bump in motivation--students who earn an A want to earn another one. This is short-lived, according to Kohn, works only on the part of some students, and is

extrinsic so it doesn’t help students’ intent to learn and achieve in the future.

Increasing Their Motivation: Using the Variable of Interest

•  What is interest? •  What are the two sources of interest? •  What attributes increase interest in what students

learn? •  What can teachers do to keep interest from

overpowering content?

What is Interest?

Interest is an internal sense of curiosity on the learner’s part. The brain is constantly using automatic mechanisms to scan the environment for stimuli. In other words, your “unconscious” brain makes the first decisions about whether incoming information is relevant or not. (Pat Wolfe) Interest has three attributes: -MEANING: how incoming information “matches up” with information already stored in the brain. -NOVELTY:how different incoming information is from what we are used to seeing, hearing, or experiencing. -VIVIDNESS: how clear and how intense incoming information is.

Interest Has Two Sources

“Students bring to school interests in particular areas. School also offers the opportunity for students to realize new interests. Thus,

highly effective teachers attend to both developing existing interests and as yet undiscovered interests in their students.” (Ann Tomlinson)

Personal Experience -in school -in life outside of school -from cultural or ethnic background

Situational Experience -meaning -vividness -novelty

“Interest is not inborn but is acquired.” (Madeline Hunter)

*In school (academic and non-academic) -Do you know each student’s favorite class, best skill, best & worst

experiences, closest friends, etc.? *In life outside of school -Do you know which students are involved in sports, music, dance, or

drama outside of school? -Do you know how students relax or play during free time? -Do you know which students have traveled extensively with family,

friends, or organizations? *From cultural or ethnic background -Do you understand “pop culture” and what students are interested in? -Do you know which students speak or understand more than one

language or have lived in another country?

How to Discover Students’ Personal Interests -Give interest surveys to students. -Invite students to talk about themselves and those things that interest them or relate to current learning objectives. “One simple technique for engaging students and enhancing their motivation is to create classroom situations that allow them to talk about their interests. For example, assume that a PE teacher has presented a technique for stretching before running. He might ask students to think of something they are interested in that is related to this technique in any way. A student who plays the trumpet might say it is like warming up your lips before you begin to play. A student who is interested in cars might say that it is like getting getting all the tools out and organized before working on a car. A student who is interested in crossword puzzles might say it is like getting a feeling for the whole puzzle before trying to solve individual elements. These connections have two benefits. First, they relate academic content to students’ personal Interest. Second, and equally if not more important, they allow students to discuss something of personal interest. The teacher can capitalize on the opportunity by asking them to provide more information on how the two things are similar.” (Robert Marzano)

How Can Teachers Make Learning Personal? “The fact is that students are interested in themselves.” (Madeline Hunter) -Relate material to your students’ lives by using the students’ names. “Suppose Jason’s mom said he could have 1/3 of the cookies. How many cookies could he take?” -Use examples which refer to students or experiences in the class. “If we were to increase the percentage of Club 66 kids in this class by 25%, how many more students would have to attend Club 66?” -Assign problems or activities with a “personal” application. “Let’s make a graph of the favorite flavor of ice cream for everyone in our classroom.”

Meaning and Learning Sustained attention on something that you can’t figure out--that makes no sense--is not only boring, it’s almost impossible! I’m afraid that too often, we expect this out this of our students. (Pat Wolfe) Imagine picking up a magazine in the waiting room of an office while you wait for an appointment. If you opened the cover to find the text written in a language you do not read or understand, how long would it take for you to put down the book and look for something to read that you could understand? How is that similar to what happens in the classroom when lectures, textbook assignments, handouts, activities, or questions make no sense to students?

How Can Teachers Make Learning Meaningful? All learning begins with concrete experience. Neural networks are activated when students see, hear, taste, smell, or feel something new. For example, a young child out for a walk with his father sees, smells, and touches his first dog. Representations or symbols (pictures, experiments, examples, diagrams, charts, graphs, etc.) are used to extend concrete learning and therefore meaning. For example, the father buys the son a picture book about the different breed of dogs and reads it to his son, pointing our the different breeds of dogs and naming and describing each of them. Students are involved in experiential learning that whenever possible requires them to solve authentic (rather than hypothetical) problems. For example, the father suggests buying a dog for the family and takes the child to the Humane Society to look for “just the right dog” for the family to own. Helping students to link what they already know to new learning and giving them opportunities to process the new information in concrete, representational or experiential ways that are congruent to the objective WILL INCREASE MEANING.

Vividness and Learning •  Clarity -Meaning is one of the most important propellants of learning. Meaning, however, does not exist in the material but in the relationship of the material to the students’ past knowledge and experience. (Madeline Hunter) -To motivate with interest one can make the material meaningful to the student and the learning vivid or novel. (Carol Cummings) -Clear Examples -Experiments -Models and Modeling -Field trips -Simulations

•  Intensity -Many of our most vivid memories have strong emotional ties. The time we got lost in a crowded mall or the time our mother’s tears fell on us as she learned of her parent’s death are burned into our memory by the emotions that are attached to them. -Emotionally charged memories will often be triggered by the same sensory stimuli that made them memorable. That’s why if we see a small child alone and crying at the mall we remember the original incident again as if it were yesterday. -If students can attach appropriate emotion to developmentally appropriate content, students will learn what we teach and remember it longer. Appropriate emotionally charged pictures, music, video, etc. can get students’ attention quickly and set learning in long term memory.

Novelty and Learning

One key component in the filtering process is whether the incoming stimulus is different from what we are used to seeing--whether it is novel. Novelty is an innate attention getter! This is true because in prehistoric times when our ancestors lived in caves, it was the novel, unique different stimulus that signaled danger. In order to survive, the human brain had to be programmed to “notice” and pay attention to that which was unusual. (Pat Wolfe)

CAUTION: Do not bring in an elephant to teach the color gray! If we make things too novel or vivid, Students will focus only on the novelty and not on the content. We should never forget that the novelty is introduced to increase students’ attention to learning what is not novel. (Madeline Hunter)

Novelty and Habituation A characteristic of novelty that makes it difficult to employ on a daily basis is the brain’s tendency toward habituation. If a sight or sound is new and unusual, we initially pay close attention. But if that same sound occurs over and over, the brain normally becomes so accustomed to the stimulus that it ignores it. This is known as habituation. (Pat Wolfe) If you have ever lived near an airport or train track, chances are you have benefited from habituation. At first you cannot avoid hearing planes take off or trains going by; but after the same sound is repeated day after day, you most likely reached the point where you seldom paid attention to the noises because they were no longer novel and were filtered out by the sensory system as “not important.”

How Can Teachers Make Learning Novel? We achieve novelty when we CHANGE the way we do things. -Change our voice or position in the room. -Change presentation styles. -Change student processing styles or products. -Change learning materials. -Present information in a novel way (i.e., stress the novel aspect of the content itself) -Use color. Use movement. -Use music. - - -

Increasing Their Motivation: Rewards •  How do you define rewards? •  How can rewards have both a positive

and a negative impact on students?

•  Why should rewards be the last variable of motivation that teachers try?

The Reward Mentality Rewards are tangible incentives used to manipulate behavior. We live in a world where we are bombarded with promises of tangible rewards--money, prizes or awards, praise, or the chance to become “a winner”--as incentives to change our behavior. Skeptics might ask, “Who needs rewards anyway?” The answer seems to be, “We all do.” But do rewards work?

“The question always is, ‘Do rewards work?’ And the answer should sound familiar: Sure! Rewards work very well in the short term to get one thing--temporary compliance.” Often educators use the word motivation when they mean compliance. This is because they want to change students’ behaviors (not attending to instruction, not completing assignments) rather than their intent to learn. You can’t motivate another person. When you believe you can, you resort to controlling devices--in other words punishments and rewards--to manipulate behavior. (Alfie Kohn)

Extrinsic Rewards Should Be Last on Your List of Motivators

Don’t try extrinsic rewards until you’ve exhausted the other variables of motivation. Why? It would be great if all students were extrinsically motivated to learn. They are not. Did you come out of the womb motivated to read? It probably took several ye ars of hard work learning the skill before you got satisfaction from reading itself. (And even then you may not have achieved intrinsic motivation.) During those years of hard work, other motivators were being used by your teachers: level of difficulty was adjusted so you’d experience success, you received immediate and specific knowledge of results, the materials were made “interesting” for you, and your level of concern was up because you knew you’d have to perform in front of your peers. All of these motivators are intrinsic. They are self-perpetuating. Yes,you may have also gotten stars, good grades, and approval for reading as well. Those last three extrinsic motivators are not related to the task of reading, so they only work as long as the teacher is around to give them. Unless you will always be there to give extrinsic rewards, don’t use them as the first or primary motivators. (Carol Cummings)

What Works Better Than Rewards? *CONTENT -Give students something worth learning! Make it real or authentic whenever possible. -Make the connection interesting whenever possible. -Work with students to help them find success--over and over again. -Give students specific knowledge of results to improve their efforts and reinforce their

success. *COMMUNITY -Create a feeling tone that lets students know they are part of a physically and academically safe environment. -Keep the level of concern productive by providing ample support for students’ learning. *CHOICE -Make sure students find the intrinsic value of learning by asking them to think about what they’re doing, how, with whom, and why. Conclusion: Success, feeling tone, knowledge of results, level of concern, and interest help students build the INSTRINSIC motivation they need to get motivated and stay motivated.

The Motivation Continuum ---------------------------------------------------- Extrinsic Intrinsic Doing something to receive a tangible reward. -material “stuff”

stars stickers candy

-good grades -teacher, peer, or parent approval -getting something “over with” -”winning” -”perks” (special seating, etc.) Intrinsic motivation is not necessarily saintly nor is extrinsic motivation sinful. Both are effective. The difference is that with intrinsic motivation, you are doing something because you wish to do it.

Doing something to enjoy the activity of doing it or because accomplishing it makes you feel “good.” -satisfaction -”loving it “ (passionate interest) -success (a sense of accomplishment) -excitement With intrinsic motivation, satisfaction comes from engaging in the learning process. The more you learn, the more satisfaction you receive and the more you want to learn. Intrinsic motivation is self-perpetuating. When you are exerting effort because of extrinsic motivation, once the goal is achieved, you no longer have it as a motivator, so the effort ceases most of the time. (Madeline Hunter)