qed529 peer teaching session 3- motivation

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Self-Determination TheoryTheory of Achievement Goals

QED529 Discovery & Peer Teaching Session 3

By Michelle Choy

+Domain: MotivationKey Problem: Lack of Motivation

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Research Question 1a:What causes a lack of motivation? (Amotivation)

Applicable Theory & Justification

• Low Perceived CompetenceWhen self-efficacy is low, failure is perceived as a likely outcome.

Patrick, Skinner and Connell (1993) have suggested that students who are the most detached from school have little belief in their academic ability.

Evidence from the Scenario: Teacher is condescending to Minah when she asks questions about the equation. This only reinforces the students’ low perceived competence.

Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000)

Justification:Students are showing signs of amotivation, except for Annie who is the teacher’s favourite pupil.

+Domain: MotivationKey Problem: Lack of MotivationResearch Question 1a: What causes a lack of motivation? (Amotivation)


• NonrelevanceStudents do not see the value of the rote learning.

“When a task is void of interesting orstimulating qualities and when it is boring, routine, tedious, arduous, or irrelevant, amotivation may ensue. Such an activity is likely to be abandoned or neglected.” (Legault, Green-Demers, & Pelletier, 2006)

Evidence from the Scenario: Lucy advised Minah, “remember what she says and repeat exactly back to her what she says. Take all she says as facts and follow exactly what she says we are to do.”


Justification:Amotivation has beenassociated with boredom and poor concentration in class (Vallerand, Pelletier, Blais, Brie`re, Senecal, & Vallie`res, 1993).

+ Domain: MotivationKey Problem: Lack of Motivation

Research Question 1a: What causes a lack of motivation? (Extrinsic Motivation)


• Students have no autonymy (controlling). Their opinions are rejected/ not valued by the teacher.

Evidence from the Scenario: When Lian Huay said the teacher was unfair. Her unhappiness was not addressed and she was just told to stop talking.


Justification:The teacher uses controlling, non-informational language that coerces students into compliance.

+Domain: MotivationKey Problem: Lack of MotivationResearch Question 1b:How can a teacher promote intrinsic motivation?


Facilitate the fulfilment of students’ three basic psychological needs as described by SDT:

1) Need for competence

2) Need for relatedness

3) Need for autonomy

In other words, to cultivate autonomy-supportive style


+Domain: MotivationKey Problem: Lack of Motivation Kusurkar, Croiset & Ten Cate (2011) suggested some practical

tips to stimulate intrinsic motivation in students through autonomy-supportive teaching.

Psychological Need(s) According to SDT

Practical Tip Example

Need for Competence

Identify what students want and need

- Find out what students want out of the teaching sessions.

- Structure activities that align with their interests and needs.

“This is to make the learning more relevant,intriguing and interesting, thus stimulating among the students.”

• Miss Jia should build on the students’ prior knowledge by doing a revision of the previous lesson at the start.

• She should be approachable and encouraging when students ask her questions.

• Hearing their concerns will help her to design her lesson in a way that clarifies their doubts and builds their competence.





Need for Competence

Need for Relatedness

Give positive and constructive feedback

- Feedback should be given in a timely, non-threatening way.

“The tone of the feedback is equally important. Points for improvements should be presented as ‘suggestions’ and not as ‘directives’”(Reeve, Deci, & Ryan, 2004).

• When students like Minah ask questions, Miss Jia can affirm her by saying, “Good question” instead of being condescending.

• To motivate her students, she can encourage them with feedback about what they are doing correctly/ well, before giving them tips for improvement.






Give Emotional Support

- Create a warm, positive and sharing atmosphere in the classroom.

- - Students feel safe to express their feelings, doubts and questions.

“Having positive interaction with the teacher is likely to make students more interested in the subject matter.”

• Miss Jia can emphasize mutual respect and care among the students.

• When the classmates jeered at Minah or when John was rude to Lian Huay., Miss Jia could have provided firm but caring correction and made it a learning point for the class.

• She should also be fair and consistent to all students. (no favouritism)






Acknowledge students’ expressions of negative effect

- Listen patiently to students and emphathize with them if they communicate their disinterest or dissatisfaction with a topic.

- Suspend judgement.

“Students need to feel heard, think that their feelings are important to the teacher and that they can influence some things in the teaching sessions with their construcitve feedback.”

• Instead of viewing all comments or questions from the students as disruptions to her lesson, Miss Jia should be more approachable and learn to emphathize with their struggles.

• She can use these opportunities to teach them how to cope with their difficulties. E.g. prioritizing; stress management; study skills etc.






Need for Autonomy

Encourage Active Participation- This makes learning more

autonomous and increases feelings of relatedness among the students and with the teacher.

“This approach stimulates discussion among the students and every student is actively involved in the learning process.”

Instead of always calling on Annie, Miss Jia can direct questions to other students.

She can also make use of group work, giving each group the responsibility for discussing and working out a different equation to ensure active participation.





Need for Autonomy

Give Choices- Whenever possible, give

students choices on how they would like to learn. (e.g. sequence of topics to be taught, would the students like to do group work/ presentations etc.)

“Being involved in some of the planning…enhances their intrinsic motivation do the things required for the course due to their feelings of being stakeholders in the teaching-learning activities” (ownership)

Since only Annie is showing mastery of the topic, Miss Jia can ask the students if they would like her to revisit certain topics that they are unclear of.

She can also find out if they would like to do group work occasionally.





Need for Autonomy

Direct with ‘can, may, could’ instead of ‘must, need, should’

- Controlling teachers use phrases like ‘you must learn this’, ‘you should do this’. ‘if you don’t do this, I will give you a bad grade’, etc.

VS.- Autonomy-supportive teachers who use phrases like ‘if you study this, it will increase your understanding of …”, ‘if you don’t study this, you may lose out on understanding some topics…”

• Instead of constantly saying she needs to finish teaching this topic (controlling), she can use a phrase like “if you can give me your attention to this, it will increase your understanding of this topic.”





Need for Autonomy

Communicate value in uninteresting activities

- Provide rationale for engaging in uninteresting activities.

- Find ways to explain the link to real life topics that are interesting to the student or will develop the student in the larger scheme of things.

- When students see the value of the subject, they will autonomously choose to study it.

• Miss Jia can frame her lessons by opening with the “Big Picture” (explaining the value and importance of mastering this skill).

• How it links to more advanced topics or how it is necessary knowledge for certain occupations students may be interested in.

+Domain: MotivationKey Problem: Poor Instructional Strategy

Research Question 2:What are the Classroom structure and Instructional strategies that lead to a mastery goal orientation?


On mastery goal orientation, Ames (1992) qualified that the focus of attention is on the intrinsic value of learning as well as effort utilization.

“One’s sense of efficacy is based on the belief that effort will lead to success or a sense of mastery.”

Theory of Achievement Goals- Performance Goals vs Mastery Goals (Ames & Archer, 1987, 1988)

Justification:Miss Jia’s students are showing signs of performance goal orientation such as avoidance of challenging tasks; low self-concept and superficial, short-term learning strategies such as memorising.

Teacher promotes rote learning which students do not see the value of (Performance Goal Oriented).

+Domain: MotivationKey Problem: Poor Instructional StrategyResearch Question 2:What are the Classroom structure and Instructional strategies that lead to a mastery goal orientation?


Ames (1992) suggests that “these structures include, but are not limited to, the design of tasks and learning activities, evaluation practices and use of rewards, and distribution of authority of responsibility.”


+Domain: MotivationKey Problem: Poor Instructional StrategyResearch Question 2:What are the Classroom structure and Instructional strategies that lead to a mastery goal orientation?


In short, Ames studied three structures:• Tasks (Design of learning activities)

• Evaluation and Recognition (Students’ perceptions of the meaning of the evaluative information)

• Authority (Teacher’s orientation toward autonomy and the degree to which teachers involve children in decision making)


+Domain: MotivationKey Problem: Poor Instructional Strategy(Ames, 1992)

+Domain: MotivationKey Problem: Poor Instructional StrategyStructure Instructional Strategy for the

Scenario (Solution)

Task • Miss Jia can design activities that are reasonably challenging for the students, provide scaffolding and sufficient time to gain mastery of skills. Students must be able to see that success is possible with reasonable effort.

• To move away from rote learning, she can design her tasks with more variety to engage student interest. (e.g. occassionally allowing them to work in groups, informal and ungraded quizzes etc.)

+Domain: MotivationKey Problem: Poor Instructional StrategyStructure Instructional Strategy for

the Scenario (Solution)

Authority • Miss Jia can discuss ‘class rules and expectations’, preferred lesson activities or task priorities, goal setting with the students so that they play a part in decision making.

• She can assign roles to the students to develop responsibility and independence. (e.g. Math Representative; Group Project Leaders; Peer Teaching etc)

+Domain: MotivationKey Problem: Poor Instructional StrategyStructure Instructional Strategy for

the Scenario (Solution)

Evaluation/ Recognition

• Instead of comparing everyone to Annie, Miss Jia can provide encouragement by affirming individual students’ efforts. Celebrate growth milestones/ improvements.

• Instead of shaming her students for asking questions/ making mistakes, she can encourage them to view mistakes as part of the learning process.

+List Of References

Ames, C. (1992). Classrooms: Goals, structures, and student motivation. Journal Of Educational Psychology, 84(3), 261-271. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.84.3.261

Kusurkar RA, Croiset G, Ten Cate TJ. (2011). Twelve tips to stimulate intrinsic motivation in students through autonomy-supportive classroom teaching derived from self-determination theory. Medical teacher, 33(12), 978-982.

Legault, L., Green-Demers, I., & Pelletier, L. (2006). Why do high school students lack motivation in the classroom? Toward an understanding of academic amotivation and the role of social support. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98, 567-582.

Patrick, B. C., Skinner, E. A., & Connell, J. P. (1993). What motivates children’s behavior and emotion? Joint effects of perceived control and autonomy in the academic domain. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 781–791.

Reeve J, Deci EL, Ryan RM.( 2004). Self-Determination Theory: A dialectical framework for understanding sociocultural influences on student motivation. In: McInerney DM, van Etten S, editors. Big theories revisited. USA: Information Age Publishing Inc. pp 31–60.

Vallerand, R. J., Pelletier, L. G., Blais, M. R., Brie`re, N. M., Senecal, C.,& Vallie`res, E. F. (1993). On the assessment of intrinsic, extrinsic, and amotivation in education: Evidence on the concurrent and construct validity of the Academic Motivation Scale. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 53,150–172.