Thursday, May 26, 2011

Theories of Motivation in Education


Motivation is a force used within the educational system to encourage student learning and understanding. In the educational setting, motivation is either an internal force or external force. There are different theories of motivation in the educational setting, including those that state that student behavior is dictated due to either external or internal factors. This discussion concerns the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and their effect on student learning and success within an educational setting.

Theories/Speculation
·         Motivation is affected greatly by the locus of control. The idea that a person feels their own decisions and actions determine their destiny indicates an internal locus. If the individual is operating using an external locus, they believe outside forces are responsible for the events that occur in their lives and feel they have little control situations. Those with an internal locus will often use intrinsic motivation, which is person centered and comes from within an individual, whereas those with an external locus may need extrinsic rewards or consequences as an effective motivational tool.
Intrinsic Motivation
·         According to humanistic theories set forth by Carl Rogers, motivation might come from within an individual without any thought to the external reward. Students receive their own internal reward through an increase in self-esteem and sense of achievement when they reach their desired goal. They may just feel the desire to succeed based on factors such as their own interest in an activity or the feeling of satisfaction that is achieved when they complete the necessary steps to achieve the desired accomplishment. This drive is called internal or intrinsic motivation, which means there are no outside forces that dictate whether an individual will ultimately achieve his goal. He does not attempt to achieve to receive an external reward works toward the intrinsic value associated with the success of the project. Students will be motivated to perform desired behaviors, and neither punishment or rewards are necessary to motivate the individual to succeed.

39 comments:

  1. this is so true i can't tell you how proud I felt when i became a college grad

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  2. yeah... I still like gettting a cookie for doing a good job. or doing my studies all the way. rewards are still good, even if i am satisfiyed with myself.

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  3. Dang! Look at all those bikes!!

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  4. cool stuff. I remembered learning in psych that extrinsic motivations offered to intrinsictly motivated students actually worsened their performance. #mindfuck

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  5. When I went to college I had full control over what I was doing and it made me less motivated. :/

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  6. That all seems right to me. Carl Rodgers is a great read.

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  7. motivation : nothing can pull more than pussy

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  8. this really are some interesting points

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  9. look at all of those bicycles. but no people in the photo. where are the owners of those bicycles? eh?!

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  10. So how long can you remain motivated in your posts about motivation? :D

    Seriously, interesting stuff as always.

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  11. I was not motivated at all I got a bad school degree, wish I would have been able to motivate myself...

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  12. i dont see how motivation can be external, but the rest makes sense ^^

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  13. Great piece, love your writing :)

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  14. Interesting read, I like the psychology spin you put on it.

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  15. Liking the new look. Easier on the eyes. Great post too.

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  16. Staying motivated is the hardest part of schooling.

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  17. Vigorously nodding my head in agreement!

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  18. I tend to agree with Intrinsic Motivation. The issue is that it doesn't seem to be a universal rule. Or, it could be that people are only motivated to do what they want, so school isn't right for everyone.

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  19. these posts on motivation have been really informative

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  20. Always hard to stay motivated thanks for sharing the info. It will help a lot.

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  21. Absolutely thought provoking read.

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  22. Education itself needs to be reformed, and then motivation will be a result of it

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  23. I like the theories on motivation for the education and, NO i'm not quiting for one month :)

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  24. This theory seems to fit with the BA/liberal arts majors. But as to the technical majors such as engineering and science, the education is less of a selfesteem/achievment thing, and more of learning a trade/practicality thing. Example: Motivation doesnt come from learning how to fix a bike, but instead, it comes from the ability to fix bikes in the future

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  25. Motivation in education is the most natural and important things anyone can have. Too bad we kill it

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  26. Have you heard about motivation being enhanced by NLP techniques? It worked for me :)

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  27. The enemy of all students: laziness :/

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  28. Motivation always came hard to me and to make matters worse, whenever I received a "good job" or some other sort of a compliment it only deteriorated the little motivation I once had. It's not that I can't take a compliment, I guess it's more to do with don't compliment me when I didn't do a good enough job. But who determines 'good enough'...

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  29. Motivation is pretty important, I wish i had more.

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