Theories of Motivation
“Motivation is the force that initiates, guide and maintain
goal-oriented behavior.” – PGCE lecture note. Such forces could be biological,
social, cognitive or emotional.
There are 2 types of motivation that is intrinsic and
extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is when the learner does something
for an external reward. Intrinsic motivation is when a learner does something
for self gratification. Below are some perspectives on motivation.
1.
Behavioral view of motivation. It states that motivation arise due to reinforcements and
external rewards.
2.
Cognitive views of motivation. It states that motivation is influenced by a person’s need
to master his environment, need to attain some goal and how he or she
attributes his failures or successes.
3.
Social Cognitive view of motivation. It states that factors that influence motivation are: the
models to which they are exposed to; the level and influence of their self
efficacy. It also goes on to explain that different people have different
learning goals such as task mastery goals, work avoidant goals and ego or
social goals.
4.
Humanistic Theory of motivation. Maslow explained this theory stating that a person’s
motivation is directed at fulfilling different levels of his needs. For
instance any person would be most motivated in achieving his primitive needs
such as finding food, shelter and love followed by his self esteem and
eventually self actualization.
Some Personal attributes that can
influence motivation are:
1.
Culture, religion and ethnicity.
2.
Emotion
3.
Degree of competence.
4.
Relevance to achievement
5.
Prior knowledge
It would be every teacher’s target to get his or her
students intrinsically motivated by the end of his or her term. Teachers can
attempt this initially by using extrinsic motivation methods such as
reinforcements. Once their motivation seems to be active slowly try to get them
to acquire intrinsic motivation by understanding their personal attributes and
trying to trigger those attributes appropriately.
Reference:
PGCE lecture notes
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