According to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary motivation is "the act or process of giving someone a reason for doing something: the act or process of motivating someone: the condition of being eager to act or work: the condition of being motivated: a force or influence that causes someone to do something" (2015).
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| 27 Strategies to Motivate Students in Class |
Having motivation creates a goal for individuals,
causing them to make decisions based upon achieving that goal. It increases the
level of effort, and energy one invests in tasks where motivation is present.
Being motivated to complete a task is what will help a student work through
obstacles they come across and not just give up and move on or hand it in.
Cognitive processing is also increased when a student is motivated because they
are more likely to pay attention and retain the information they are learning
about.
There are two main types of motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic
is sparked from within and is about doing something for yourself, it's about
learning for the sake of learning and mastery/understanding of that subject
matter. Extrinsic motivation is about what you get out of it,
externally, for example rewards/praise or grades. Extrinsic types of motivators
work best for younger students, but tend to plateau and are not a practical way
to stay motivated because that external motivator may not always be present or
attainable.
To measure ones' level of motivation or determine if they are motivated, four
factors can be examined. Firstly, if they had a choice in the task, they would
choose something that interested them or they enjoy. Therefore, they have
chosen to do a task they are more motivated to complete. Secondly, the level of
effort invested demonstrates motivation, for example if one puts a lot of
effort behind something and works very hard on that task they were motivated to
do so. Thirdly, level of persistence is an indicator of motivation, because if
one spends a lot of time on a task and hasn't given up even after facing
obstacles then they were motivated enough to overcome obstacles and complete
the task. Lastly, the level of achievement is an indicator and can be
determined looking at all three of those indicators together. This is the
largest indicator of achievement. The higher any of these indicators are
regarding a task, the more motivated the individual likely is and therefore the
more likely the task will be completed.
Within your classroom there are many ways you can
work to motivate your students. For
example praising students for work well done or good behaviour can help to
motivate them to keep it up.Through your teaching methods you can also spread
the excitement and enthusiasm for subjects and certain materials, as well as
try different types of instruction methods to give them more options and reach
various types of intelligences. To help increase motivation. Also, showing
students their important and having that tracked will motivate students to keep
improving. The following video is a great example of how important the presence
of motivation is within the classroom, through a case study example.
