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Running Head: Motivation to Learn

Motivation to Learn
Amanda J Mayo
January 11, 2014
University of New England

Self-Determination Theory

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Jack is a ten year old student in the fifth grade. Jack is new to the
school district this year, having moved over the summer from out of state. In
class Jack often appears uncertain of both his academic abilities and social
standing. He alternates between being very quiet and unobtrusive to being
boisterous and physically active. Jacks school is located in a predominantly
affluent community; Jack lives in a small apartment. Jack learns best through
structured tasks in which the expectations and steps are clearly defined for
him. He also learns best when he is allowed to choose his own topic of study,
or if the work is related to history.
Jack finds fiction and personal writing to be a challenge. During
independent work, Jack checks in often with peers and his teachers to make
sure he is doing the right thing. He frequently asks Is this okay? or Am I
doing this right? Getting a paragraph completed is a laborious and timeconsuming task for him. He seems to desire to complete the work well to
appease his teacher and his parents, but his worry about doing it right often
hinders his productivity. However, when asked to write an informational
piece, Jack becomes animated and focused. He will write pages upon pages
of detailed descriptions and facts. Jack is passionate about history, and
avidly reads anything he can get his hands on that pertains to the American
Revolution or the Titanic.
Self-determination theory would be a useful motivational theory for
Jack because he often seeks the approval of others and confirmation of his
own abilities. He is easily influenced by both praise and social expectations.
Jack looks for the recognition of others to determine whether he is
successful. These desires directly related to the needs for competence and
relatedness found at the core of self-determination theory (Anderman &
Anderman, 2014, p.5). Jack is also intrinsically motivated by his interest in
history, a subject in which he feels knowledgeable. His ability to direct his

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own learning when it comes to historical facts fulfills the third basic need
explained by Anderman and Anderman; autonomy.
Attribution Theory
Lucy is an eleven year old student in the fifth grade. Lucy is a very
social student who gets along well with her peers. She appears to enjoy
school and often mentions how much fun she finds it to be. Lucy has
struggled over the last year emotionally because her parents have separated
and subsequently divorced. This change in family dynamics hit her hard last
school year. She participated in a social group for students with changing
family situations, and frequently asked to see the guidance counselor. Since
starting fifth grade, Lucy has asked to see the guidance counselor several
times, but is doing so less frequently. In class Lucy is actively engaged in
both group and independent work. She learns best through group work
where she can share ideas and be social at the same time. Lucy also learns
well through hands-on creative projects.
Lucy writes at an appropriate fifth grade level. Her work includes
appropriate organization, voice and ideas. However, Lucy struggles
significantly with spelling. She has little awareness of word patterns or letter
sounds, and will often spell the same word incorrectly several different times
in the same writing piece. Lucy is willing to look up the words that she
misspells when they are pointed out to her, but does not search for them
when her writing is complete. When asked about spelling mistakes, she will
say that she is just bad at spelling or its too hard. When peer editing
with classmates, Lucy will laugh off many of her spelling errors, saying that
she just wasnt thinking or that she wasnt really trying.
Lucy would benefit from the use of attribution theory to motivate her to
work on her spelling skills. Lucy is already using the theory of attribution to
explain her current difficulty. Instead of thinking that improved effort could

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improve her spelling, Lucy has rationalized that her spelling difficulties are
due to an innate inability to spell. Her feelings about why she struggles
directly related to her future effort in spelling; she does not believe she is
able to spell correctly, therefore does not believe there is any point in
attempting it. Anderman and Anderman (2014) discuss stability, locus, and
control as key dimensions of attribution theory (pg. 6). Lucy exhibits all three
in that she sees her spelling difficulties as constant across all subject areas
(stability), she finds the cause to be due to her own lack of ability (locus),
and she believes she cannot control or change the situation. If Lucy were to
see increased effort causing a change in her ability and performance, than
continued growth would be likely.
Expectancy-Value Theory
Chris is a twelve year old student in the seventh grade. Chris has a
negative attitude towards school, and consistently tells his peers that doing
the work is stupid. Chris has many friends in class, whom he likes to
entertain with jokes and off-task behavior. When he does his work, he is not
concerned about whether it is done well, and often jokes about not trying.
Chris is in the resource room for math, reading, and writing classes due to an
identified processing disorder. This processing disorder has him identified as
being two grade levels behind in math and three grade levels behind in
reading. He is mainstreamed for his fine arts, science, and social studies
classes.
During class time, Chris avoids doing work by repeatedly sharpening
his pencil, asking to use the facilities, and talking with friends. When asked
to do his work, hell say that theres no point or that he doesnt need to
know it anyway. When there are group projects, Chris will sit back and allow
others to do the majority of the work. He does enjoy giving presentations,
but will make jokes about the work or make up information. Due to his
processing disorder, Chris gets extended time to complete tasks that require

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reading and writing. However, he does not utilize this time and will quickly
write down a sentence or two with little consideration to the accuracy of his
work.
Chris would benefit from the expectancy-value theory. Due to struggles
in the past, he automatically assumes he will fail on assignments. This low
attainment value (Anderman & Anderman, 2014, p. 17) motivates him to
write off learning, rather than risk putting in the effort. He has high
attainment value for social interactions, so he seeks situations where he can
be the center of attention. His view of school work is that it holds little value
to him. He doesnt see how it connects to his life, or how he will use his
learning in the future. This fits in with the utility value component of the
expectancy-value theory. If Chris were to make connections between learning
and his life, or see instances where his effort is rewarded, he may be more
motivated to extend the effort. His past failures have caused him to see
tasks as requiring more effort and time than they are worth.
Social Cognitive Theory
Louis is an eleven year old student in the fifth grade. He is a student
who has struggled in the past, and came to fifth grade with a very negative
attitude towards school, specifically teachers, whom he felt were out to get
him. He comes from a family situation in which there is no ownership for
mistakes and misbehavior. If he is in trouble, it is because someone else has
done something wrong, not Louis. Due to his parents view of him, Louis
thinks he is always the victim. Louis is a very active boy, and learns best
when he can be moving around, talking, and working with manipulatives.
In class, Louis is constantly moving around. He has difficulty sitting
still, and is much more successful when allowed to stand at his desk while he
works. When asked to do tasks he finds difficult, Louis gets distracted and
spends the time trying to find a specific pencil or other item in his cubby.
Louis enjoys reading and writing nonfiction, and can attend to assignments

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involving either type of activity. He finds creative writing and fiction reading
materials less interesting and participates in avoidance behaviors. Louis is
also very successful at group work. He learns well when discussing ideas with
others, and thrives on being in a leadership role.
Louis would benefit from the social cognitive theory. He enjoys being
social, and likes to learn from his peers. He is very susceptible to the
influence of others (Anderman & Anderman, 2014, p.6). Louis is very
competitive, which would make the social cognitive theory successful for him
if it were used to encourage academic competition for Louis. In seeing how
others succeed, and being encouraged to mimic their methods, Louis could
discover his own self-efficacy for specific tasks (Anderman & Anderman,
2014, p.7). Through repeated successes, Louis would become more
motivated to complete tasks because it would allow him to be the leader and
role model.
Goal Orientation Theory
Annie is an eight year old student in the third grade math class. Annie
is the younger sister of Lucy, and is also affected by her parents recent
divorce. Annies parents report that Annie is very stressed out at home by
her school work, and wants all her work to be perfect. She will rewrite her
work multiple times to make sure all her writing is the same size and as neat
as possible. In school Annie is very quiet, and mostly keeps to herself. She
will interact with peers when they initiate conversations, but she will not
seek out others. Annie works best by herself, and enjoys tasks that allow her
to show mastery, such as computation and math facts.
At school Annie gets very upset when she makes mistakes, especially
in math class. Small errors bring Annie to tears, and she will get frustrated
and give up. Grades are a struggle for Annie, because if she does not receive
the highest score possible, she gets very discouraged. Annie finds challenges
such as memorization of math facts to be motivating, and gets very excited

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when her scores on fact fluency assessments improve. However, she gets
equally upset when the scores do not improve or are poorer than previous.
Annie struggles with problem-solving, and will often guess which operation
she should perform to solve a word problem rather than thinking through the
problem.
Annie would find success with goal orientation theory motivation. She
is already demonstrating a performance-approach goal by being intrinsically
motivated to memorize math facts. However she demonstrates a
performance-avoid goal towards problem solving by guessing at the
operation she should be completing. Annie would be motivated by specific
goals in both performance and mastery. She enjoys learning for the sake of
learning, for example she enjoys having math facts memorized and being
able to rely on them when completing more difficult computation problems.
However, Annie is also very motivated by grades; many would say she is
overly motivated by grades. This can be used as a continued motivator as
long as there is not too much emphasis put on them. (Anderman &
Anderman, 2014, p. 21)

References:
Anderman, E.M., & Anderman, L.H. (2014) Classroom motivation (2nd ed.),
Boston: Pearson.