Students assign various attitudes and meanings to academic activities, which initiate different energies among them. The attitudes, meanings, and their associated energies are what are referred to as students’ motivation to learn. Notably, differences in motivation are crucial as they bring diversity in a classroom. Being in a classroom does not necessarily mean that a student wants to learn. Indeed, some students are naturally interested to learn while others have to be motivated. In this regard, teachers have the responsibility of initiating students' motivation.
One of the motivational theories is the behavioral theory. A student’s behavior can tell whether he or she is motivated to learn — for example, participation in class. Several factors can enable a teacher to establish whether a student is motivated or not. These include asking and answering questions in class, doing homework in time, among other behaviors. Such behaviors can be improved through operant conditioning, whereby a teacher can pose a question to a student to initiate their participation in class. After the student responds, the teacher can praise or compliment the student. The question, in this case, acts as the motivation and the compliment is the motivator.
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The behaviorist point of view can, however, be unreliable as some students’ behaviors do not necessarily mean that they are motivated to learn. For example, a student can be answering questions in class with the motive of appearing intelligent before the rest of the classmates. Others do so to please the teacher, to avoid punishment, get rewards, or even to avoid failure. Ideally, this represents the "motives as goals" theory. To avoid such cases, the teacher should always encourage the students to focus on the mastery of goals, which include learning and grasping the concepts espoused in class.
Student motivation can be intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is one which is within an individual. For instance, a student may be motivated to learn since they want to gain satisfaction in understanding more about a certain subject. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation is that which is driven by external factors (Tranquillo, 2016). For example, a student can be motivated to learn in order to perform well and get rewards as promised by parents or teachers. The factors affecting a student’s motivation include the qualities or effectiveness of the teacher, parent involvement, self-esteem issues, and the leaners environment in general. If the teaching methods are boring, the student is likely to be demotivated in learning that teacher's particular subject. Similarly, if a student is having issues at home, they are likely to be distracted and hence demotivated to learn.
The three strategies that a teacher can use to enhance student motivation include engaging the students, introducing challenges during the learning sessions, and giving the students control. Importantly, by using student-active teaching activities from time to time, the instructor increases the chances of students participating in class. In addition, it makes learning lively and exciting and therefore boredom among students is minimized. The introduction of new challenges also breaks monotony and boredom. Ultimately, giving students control creates a friendly learning environment in which the students feel they are appreciated and their opinions honored. Consequently, this improves their motivation and creates a sense of importance and self-determination.
Teacher effectiveness is one of the most important factors affecting student motivation. Research has shown that improving the effectiveness of a teacher has more impact on student learning more than any single factor (Sanders & Rivers, 1996). Therefore, students must be motivated to learn since failing to do so means they are less likely to grasp anything in class and may end up performing poorly. The instructor’s methods of teaching, for example, are a major determinant of student motivation. If the teacher uses monotonous and unengaging teaching methods, the students are most likely to be demotivated. A teacher's qualities also impact students’ motivation. Indeed, a teacher who takes all control in the classroom and is fierce and unfriendly to the students creates an undesirable learning environment. Such a teacher's lesson is most likely to be avoided by students whenever they can. Besides, the students will not freely participate in class during such sessions and may keep their answers about the subject to themselves, leading to poor performance. A teacher, therefore, plays a major role in shaping the learning motivation of students and hence their performance. Noteworthy, the teacher has the responsibility of identifying the behavior of students and coming up with solutions to problematic ones as well as strategies of encouraging the right kind of behavior.
References
Sanders, W. L., & Rivers, J. C. (1996). Cumulative and residual effects of teachers on future student academic achievement (Research Progress Report). Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Value-Added Research and Assessment Center.
Tranquillo, J., Stecker, M. (2016). Using intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in continuing professional education. Surgery Neutrol Int, 7 (7). Doi: 10.4103/21527806.179231
