classroom,
motivation
Roles And Relevance Of Motivation To Classroom Teaching And Learning
According to Olajide and Gbadesere (1992) it was emphasized that teaches should adequately motivate their students to generate the desired willingness to learn in them. No doubt, adequate motivation makes the student poised at the beginning of the lesson and sustain their interest during the lesson even to the end of the lesson.
The teachers enthusiasm and spiritedness should create conclusive environment to make student wholly involved in the learning acitivity and to set realistic goals for themselves.
Consequently, effective motivation plays a significant role in the teaching – learning process. In the sense that it leads to the development of personal interest in learning and appreciation of education, a zeal for acquisition of knowledge and desire for personal development. Thus, motivation helps in the realization of personal goals thereby helping to sustain the future.
The teacher should therefore make their students see the need for their aspiration. Once students appreciate this, they will readily cooperate and put in sincere efforts to benefit from the learning. In motivating student to learn in the classroom teachers should be guided by the fact that external stimuli which individuals identify as relevant to their personal needs, survival ambition and progress will further stimulate them to learn better and faster.
Motivation, as relevant as it is to the teaching / learning situation, should be in moderation, it should not be too much as overdose of motivation in the classroom maybe cause of over anxiety for students thus leaving them confused and disorganized, also it should not be under – dose, as this might not be strong enough to fall the students to action (learn). In the efforts to improve students cognition and affective outcomes in mathematics and / or school learning, educational psychologists and mathematics educators, have continued to search for variables (personal and environmental) that could be manipulated in favour of academic gains. Of al the personal and psychological variables that have attracted researchers in this area of education achievement, motivation seems to be gaining more popularity and leading other variables (Tella, 2003).
To enhance self-esteem of learners, which will in turn improve attribute of such pupils, it si recommended that varying activities (game activities), which has been designed to contain mathematic problems ranging from easy to very difficult, should be used. At least each pupils no matter their ability level should be able to answer some questions correctly.
This would go a long way to motivate such pupils towards further learning. When an activity is designed with its central feature being an admired situation, experience or individual, it would go a long way in motivating pupils to learn. For example, in teaching addition at the primary school level, you could centre learning activities around food like snacks (for example I got two sweets from mummy and four from daddy, how many sweets do I have and so on).
It could as well be centred on a pleasurable experience (like going to see father Christmas) or around an admired person e.g. a most like character on the television. All these suggestion would help to motivate learners towards learning.
Achievement motivation
How do people differ in their motivation to achieve? In a classic study to asses the differences in strengths of people’s achievement motives, Mcclelland and Colleague in Aire and Tella (2003) developed a projection technique using selected picture cards fromteh Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). The technique assumes that when asked to write stories about the pictures, respondents will project their feelings about themselves on to the characters in the picture. Subjects who refer to achievements goals are often rated high in achievement motivation, those who rarely or never refer to achievement goal are rated low.
Achievement motivation is often correlated with actual achievement behavior (Camara, 196). The motivation to achieve, however may evidence itself only in behavior that children value. For example a child may be highly motivated to achieve and this may be exhibited in athletics but not in school work. Thus different situations have different achievement attaining values for children. Eccles, et al 1998, Harter and Connel, 1984.
Achievement motivation child expectation and attribution
Individuals actual achievement behavior depends not only on their motivation to achieve but also on whether they expect to achive and whether they fear failure. People are more likely to work hard when t hey perceieved a reasonable chance to succeed than when they perceive a goal to be out of reach ( Atkinson, 1964) children’s expectation of success can be measure by asking them to predict a certain grade indicate how sure they are that they can solve a particular problem, and select the hardest task they think they can do from a collection of tasks varying by degree of difficulty (Philip, 1987). Children with high expectation for success on a task usually persist at it longer and perform better than children with low expectation Eccles, 1983, Eccles etal (1`998). Researchers like (Carr etal 1991) have found that children with high I.Q’s and high expectation of success in school do, infact get the highest grade. Children with high / IQs and children with low IQs and low expectation receive lower grades than children with low IQs and high expectation. In addition to child rearing practices, reviewed previously teaching styles and communication pattern affect children’s attributions. When teachers are caring and supportibe and emphasis the teaching / learning process over the performance outcomers and when they give feed back children tend to be motivated to achieve and to expect success. Daniel, Kalkman, and McCombs, 2001). Intelligence is not the only determinant of academic achievement. High motivation and engagement in learning have consistently been linked to reduce dropout rates and increased levels of students success (Kushman, Sieber, and Harol, 2002). Development of academic intrinsic motivation in student is an important goal for educators because of its inherent importance for future motivation as well as for students effective school function (Gottfried, 1990). The few studies that have examined motivation in young children have found that it is a predicator of achievement Stipek and Ryan, 1997). The family is the primary social system for children. Rollins and Thomas (1979) found that high parental control were associated with high achievement.
Cassidy and Lynn (1991) included a specific factor of the family socio-economic status, crowding, as an indicator of how being disadvantage affects educational attainment. They found that a less physically crowded environment, along with motivation and parental support, were associated with higher educational levels of children.
Religiousity as an aspect of the family environment is another independent variable possible influencing academic achievement (Bvahr Hawks and Wang, 1993). Cassidy and Lynn (1991) explored how family environment impacts motivation and achievement. This means that motivation served as a mediating variable between home background, personal characteristics and educational attainment.
Higher – achieving students are likely to have the following characteristics.
- Positive feeling about their school experience
- Attribute their success in school to such things as hard work
- Self discipline
- Organization
- Ability and
- High motivation, tend to watch relatively little television during the school wee.
- Tend to associate with students who also were successful in school and avoid readers (WAEC, 2005) student motivation for learning is generally regarded as on e of the most critical determinants, if not the premier determinant of the success and quality of any learning outcome (Mitchell, 1992).
Examining the construct of intrinsic motivation in elementary school students is significant and important, bucase academic intrinsic motivation in the elementary years nay have profound implications initial and future school success. Students who are more intrinsically than extrinsically motivated fare better than students who are not motivated to engage in learning are unlikely to succeed (Gottfried, 1990).
Academic achievement is accomplished by the actual execution of class work in the school setting . it is typically assessed by the use of teacher’s ratings, tests and examinations (HOWSE, 1999) research shows that student perceptions of academic competency decline as they advance in school (Eccles, Wigfield, and Schiefele, (1998). Schun and Pajares (2002) attributed this decline to various factors , including
• Greater completion
• Less teacher attention to individual students progress
• Stresses associated with school transition
Students were motivated by teachers who cared about student learning and showed enthiasm. These teachers introduced topics in an interesting and challenging way, used varied teaching strategies, and promoted student involvement by allowing participation in the selection of learning activities (Cothron and Ennis, 2000). Gottfried found positive, correlations between motivation and achievement. Specifically, young students with higher academic intrinsic motivation has significantly higher achievement and intellectual performance. She also found that early intrinsic motivation correlate with later motivation is predictable from early achievement (Gottfried, 1990) It was also found that perceived academic competence was positively related to intrinsic motivation.
It seems that students who feel competent and self – determined in the school context develop on autonomous motivational profile toward education, which in turn leads them to obtain higher school grades.
Perceived academic competence and perceived academic self – determination positively influence autonomous academic motivaton, which in turn had a positive impact on school performance (Fortier, Vallerand, & Guay, 1995) . some studies have found little or no significant relationship between motivatrion and academic achievement. A study by Niebhr (19950 examined relationship between several variables and student academic achievement. The study included an investigation of the relationship of individual motivation and it effect on academic achievement. Niebunhr’s (1995), findings sugest that the element of both school climate and family environment have a stronger direct on academic achievement. Another study by Boggiano, Main, and Katz (1991) regarding differences in gender in motivation, found that females were significantly more extrinsic than males. Male student performance accords their interest level more than is case for female students. Specifically, female students academic performance is less associated with their interests than male students academic performance (Schiefele, Krapp & Winteler, (1992).
According to Hammer (2003) the home environment is as important as what goes on in the school. Important factors include parental involvement in the children ‘s education, how much parents read to young children, how much TV children are allowed to watch and how oft en students change schools. Achievemtn gap is not only about what goes on once students get into the class room . its also about what happens to them before and after school parents and teachers have a crucial role to play to make sure that every child becomes a high achiever, parental influence has been identified as an important factor affecting student achievement. Results indicate that parent education and encouragement are strongly related to improve student achievement (Wang, Wildman, & Calhoun, 1996).
Philips (1998), also found that parental education and social economic status have an impact on student achievement, students with parent who were both university – educated tended to achieve at the highest levels.
Income and family size were modestly related to achievement (Ferguson, 1991). Peng and Wrights (1994). Analysis of academic achievement, home environment (including family income ) and educational activities explained the greatest amount of variance .
Allen and Kickbusch (1992)o cited in WAEC, 2005, found that the highere – achieving students plan to continue their education after graduation from primary school, participant extensively in extracurricular activities, have a few absences each school year, more likely to engage in recreational reading and to check books out of the school or public library on a regular basis, watch less television, spend more time each evening doing their home work, have friends who have positive attitudes toward school and who rarely cut classes or skip school, have positive feelings about their teachers and about specific courses they take and attribute success in school to hard work rather than ability.
The teachers enthusiasm and spiritedness should create conclusive environment to make student wholly involved in the learning acitivity and to set realistic goals for themselves.
Consequently, effective motivation plays a significant role in the teaching – learning process. In the sense that it leads to the development of personal interest in learning and appreciation of education, a zeal for acquisition of knowledge and desire for personal development. Thus, motivation helps in the realization of personal goals thereby helping to sustain the future.
The teacher should therefore make their students see the need for their aspiration. Once students appreciate this, they will readily cooperate and put in sincere efforts to benefit from the learning. In motivating student to learn in the classroom teachers should be guided by the fact that external stimuli which individuals identify as relevant to their personal needs, survival ambition and progress will further stimulate them to learn better and faster.
Motivation, as relevant as it is to the teaching / learning situation, should be in moderation, it should not be too much as overdose of motivation in the classroom maybe cause of over anxiety for students thus leaving them confused and disorganized, also it should not be under – dose, as this might not be strong enough to fall the students to action (learn). In the efforts to improve students cognition and affective outcomes in mathematics and / or school learning, educational psychologists and mathematics educators, have continued to search for variables (personal and environmental) that could be manipulated in favour of academic gains. Of al the personal and psychological variables that have attracted researchers in this area of education achievement, motivation seems to be gaining more popularity and leading other variables (Tella, 2003).
To enhance self-esteem of learners, which will in turn improve attribute of such pupils, it si recommended that varying activities (game activities), which has been designed to contain mathematic problems ranging from easy to very difficult, should be used. At least each pupils no matter their ability level should be able to answer some questions correctly.
This would go a long way to motivate such pupils towards further learning. When an activity is designed with its central feature being an admired situation, experience or individual, it would go a long way in motivating pupils to learn. For example, in teaching addition at the primary school level, you could centre learning activities around food like snacks (for example I got two sweets from mummy and four from daddy, how many sweets do I have and so on).
It could as well be centred on a pleasurable experience (like going to see father Christmas) or around an admired person e.g. a most like character on the television. All these suggestion would help to motivate learners towards learning.
Achievement motivation
How do people differ in their motivation to achieve? In a classic study to asses the differences in strengths of people’s achievement motives, Mcclelland and Colleague in Aire and Tella (2003) developed a projection technique using selected picture cards fromteh Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). The technique assumes that when asked to write stories about the pictures, respondents will project their feelings about themselves on to the characters in the picture. Subjects who refer to achievements goals are often rated high in achievement motivation, those who rarely or never refer to achievement goal are rated low.
Achievement motivation is often correlated with actual achievement behavior (Camara, 196). The motivation to achieve, however may evidence itself only in behavior that children value. For example a child may be highly motivated to achieve and this may be exhibited in athletics but not in school work. Thus different situations have different achievement attaining values for children. Eccles, et al 1998, Harter and Connel, 1984.
Achievement motivation child expectation and attribution
Individuals actual achievement behavior depends not only on their motivation to achieve but also on whether they expect to achive and whether they fear failure. People are more likely to work hard when t hey perceieved a reasonable chance to succeed than when they perceive a goal to be out of reach ( Atkinson, 1964) children’s expectation of success can be measure by asking them to predict a certain grade indicate how sure they are that they can solve a particular problem, and select the hardest task they think they can do from a collection of tasks varying by degree of difficulty (Philip, 1987). Children with high expectation for success on a task usually persist at it longer and perform better than children with low expectation Eccles, 1983, Eccles etal (1`998). Researchers like (Carr etal 1991) have found that children with high I.Q’s and high expectation of success in school do, infact get the highest grade. Children with high / IQs and children with low IQs and low expectation receive lower grades than children with low IQs and high expectation. In addition to child rearing practices, reviewed previously teaching styles and communication pattern affect children’s attributions. When teachers are caring and supportibe and emphasis the teaching / learning process over the performance outcomers and when they give feed back children tend to be motivated to achieve and to expect success. Daniel, Kalkman, and McCombs, 2001). Intelligence is not the only determinant of academic achievement. High motivation and engagement in learning have consistently been linked to reduce dropout rates and increased levels of students success (Kushman, Sieber, and Harol, 2002). Development of academic intrinsic motivation in student is an important goal for educators because of its inherent importance for future motivation as well as for students effective school function (Gottfried, 1990). The few studies that have examined motivation in young children have found that it is a predicator of achievement Stipek and Ryan, 1997). The family is the primary social system for children. Rollins and Thomas (1979) found that high parental control were associated with high achievement.
Cassidy and Lynn (1991) included a specific factor of the family socio-economic status, crowding, as an indicator of how being disadvantage affects educational attainment. They found that a less physically crowded environment, along with motivation and parental support, were associated with higher educational levels of children.
Religiousity as an aspect of the family environment is another independent variable possible influencing academic achievement (Bvahr Hawks and Wang, 1993). Cassidy and Lynn (1991) explored how family environment impacts motivation and achievement. This means that motivation served as a mediating variable between home background, personal characteristics and educational attainment.
Higher – achieving students are likely to have the following characteristics.
- Positive feeling about their school experience
- Attribute their success in school to such things as hard work
- Self discipline
- Organization
- Ability and
- High motivation, tend to watch relatively little television during the school wee.
- Tend to associate with students who also were successful in school and avoid readers (WAEC, 2005) student motivation for learning is generally regarded as on e of the most critical determinants, if not the premier determinant of the success and quality of any learning outcome (Mitchell, 1992).
Examining the construct of intrinsic motivation in elementary school students is significant and important, bucase academic intrinsic motivation in the elementary years nay have profound implications initial and future school success. Students who are more intrinsically than extrinsically motivated fare better than students who are not motivated to engage in learning are unlikely to succeed (Gottfried, 1990).
Academic achievement is accomplished by the actual execution of class work in the school setting . it is typically assessed by the use of teacher’s ratings, tests and examinations (HOWSE, 1999) research shows that student perceptions of academic competency decline as they advance in school (Eccles, Wigfield, and Schiefele, (1998). Schun and Pajares (2002) attributed this decline to various factors , including
• Greater completion
• Less teacher attention to individual students progress
• Stresses associated with school transition
Students were motivated by teachers who cared about student learning and showed enthiasm. These teachers introduced topics in an interesting and challenging way, used varied teaching strategies, and promoted student involvement by allowing participation in the selection of learning activities (Cothron and Ennis, 2000). Gottfried found positive, correlations between motivation and achievement. Specifically, young students with higher academic intrinsic motivation has significantly higher achievement and intellectual performance. She also found that early intrinsic motivation correlate with later motivation is predictable from early achievement (Gottfried, 1990) It was also found that perceived academic competence was positively related to intrinsic motivation.
It seems that students who feel competent and self – determined in the school context develop on autonomous motivational profile toward education, which in turn leads them to obtain higher school grades.
Perceived academic competence and perceived academic self – determination positively influence autonomous academic motivaton, which in turn had a positive impact on school performance (Fortier, Vallerand, & Guay, 1995) . some studies have found little or no significant relationship between motivatrion and academic achievement. A study by Niebhr (19950 examined relationship between several variables and student academic achievement. The study included an investigation of the relationship of individual motivation and it effect on academic achievement. Niebunhr’s (1995), findings sugest that the element of both school climate and family environment have a stronger direct on academic achievement. Another study by Boggiano, Main, and Katz (1991) regarding differences in gender in motivation, found that females were significantly more extrinsic than males. Male student performance accords their interest level more than is case for female students. Specifically, female students academic performance is less associated with their interests than male students academic performance (Schiefele, Krapp & Winteler, (1992).
According to Hammer (2003) the home environment is as important as what goes on in the school. Important factors include parental involvement in the children ‘s education, how much parents read to young children, how much TV children are allowed to watch and how oft en students change schools. Achievemtn gap is not only about what goes on once students get into the class room . its also about what happens to them before and after school parents and teachers have a crucial role to play to make sure that every child becomes a high achiever, parental influence has been identified as an important factor affecting student achievement. Results indicate that parent education and encouragement are strongly related to improve student achievement (Wang, Wildman, & Calhoun, 1996).
Philips (1998), also found that parental education and social economic status have an impact on student achievement, students with parent who were both university – educated tended to achieve at the highest levels.
Income and family size were modestly related to achievement (Ferguson, 1991). Peng and Wrights (1994). Analysis of academic achievement, home environment (including family income ) and educational activities explained the greatest amount of variance .
Allen and Kickbusch (1992)o cited in WAEC, 2005, found that the highere – achieving students plan to continue their education after graduation from primary school, participant extensively in extracurricular activities, have a few absences each school year, more likely to engage in recreational reading and to check books out of the school or public library on a regular basis, watch less television, spend more time each evening doing their home work, have friends who have positive attitudes toward school and who rarely cut classes or skip school, have positive feelings about their teachers and about specific courses they take and attribute success in school to hard work rather than ability.
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