Understanding Motivation

What is Motivation?

Student Motivation in the College Classroom

What factors influence it?

Sociocultural Context

Classroom Environmental Factors

Internal Factors (Beliefs/Perceptions)

Motivated Behavior

Understanding Your Own Motivation

Evaluate your behaviors in three areas:– Choice of behavior– Level of activity and involvement– Persistence and management of effort

Sociocultural Context

Cultural Factors can influence your motivation

Attitudes, beliefs, and experiences you bring to

college based on your sociocultural experiences that

influence motivation and behaviors.

Internal Factors

Goals you set:– Serve to Motivate Behavior– Affect Mastery and Performance

Ask yourself, what are my goals?Are they defined goals in Long and Short Terms?

Are they clear and well defined?

Are they set goals different life areas?

5 Major Ways Goals Enhance Your Performance

Effort Duration and Persistence Direction of Attention Strategic Planning Reference Point

Effects on Effort

Goals setting influences what you do and how hard you maximize your performance

The more difficult the goal—the harder you work towards attaining it.

Effects on Duration or Persistence

Without goals, it easy to be – Distracted– Attention drifts– More easily interrupted– Stop work without task completion

With goals, you have defined point of performance– Know when to quit the task

Effects on Attention

Goals direct your attention toward the task

Goals direct you attention away from distractions

Strategic Planning

To accomplish a goal, you need– An action plan or strategic planning– Goal setting encourages strategic planning and

helps determine how you proceed

Reference Point

Identifies where you are headed Allows you to receive feedback from that point Determines any further actions that need taken

Two Types of Goals

Mastery Goals

Oriented toward learning as much as possible

Performance Goals

Focuses on comparison and competition

Success defined as…

Improvement, progress, creativity

High grades, high performance compared to others

Value placed on…

Effort, academic ventures

Demonstrates high performance relative to effort

Basis for satisfaction…

Progress, challenge,mastery

Doing better that others

Error viewed as…

Part of the learning process, informational

Failure, evidence of lack of ability

Ability viewed as…

Developing through effort

Fixed

Mastery Performance

How do you value different academic courses and tasks?

Values and Interest – Play an important role on academic behaviors– Affect student activities– Affect level of persistence– Affect student choices

Can You Do Well on Different Academic Tasks?

Self-Efficacy plays an important role– How you evaluate your own abilities or skills to

successfully complete a task

Rating your self-efficacy– A rating too high or too low can be detrimental

Causes of Successes and Failures

Discuss

How can a “C” grade on two individual term papers be interpreted as both a success and a failure?

Why the two different responses?

Goals

Attribution Explains why people respond differently to outcomes.

Perception about the cause of success and failure

differ

How students perceive prior successes and failures is an important determiner of how they approach their next tasks.

Rate the Responses as Positive or Negative

I did well because I’m smart.

I studied hard for the test, but it wasn’t enough.

The test was easy.

I was lucky.

The professor was fair.

I did poorly because I’m stupid.

I studied hard for the test but still did not get it.

The test was hard.

I was unlucky.

The professor was unfair.

I was tired.

Respond to these questions

When I perform poorly, do I attribute my performance to uncontrollable factors?

Are there alternative explanations for the causes of my academic performances?

What are some factors that can negatively affect your performance?

Boredom

Anxiety

Worry

Self-Doubt

Negative Impacts on Performance

Boredom

– It is not a reason—it is an excuse!!!– Often implies that the learner does not understand

the material

Negative Impacts on Performance

Anxiety– Can negatively impact performance 4 ways:

Disruption in mental activity Psychological distress Misdirected attention Inappropriate behaviors

Negative Impacts on Performance

Worrying can be a major factor– Has a strong negative impact academic

performance– Negative beliefs– Troubling thoughts– Poor decisions

Negative Impacts on Performance

Psychological distress– Emotionality– This seems to diminish after a test begins; whereas,

worry continues

Inappropriate Behaviors

Procrastination Test anxiety Lack of persistence until task completion

Covington’s Theory of Self-Worth

Strategies that protect against inferences on an individual’s lack of ability

Procrastination

Unattainable Goals

Underachievers

Anxiety

In Class Exercise

Attribution Suggested Responses

I lack ability.

I didn’t feel well.

I wasn’t in the mood.

I’m not interested in the task

I don’t do well on tests.

The material was boring.

The test was unfair.

Assignment

Select two (2) different courses you are currently taking—one difficult and one less challenging or one that you like and one that you don’t like. Analyze your motivation in the

two classes by discussing IN DETAIL each of the following factors that determine your motivated behaviors.

Use a graph like the example that follows:

Motivation and Goal Exercise

Class 1 Class 2

Goals

Interest and Values

Self-Efficacy beliefs

Test Anxiety

Mastery vs. performance goal