Maxwell Harvey EDF1303: Understanding Learning and Learners Submitted 2/6/2019

30582075

Assessment Task 2: Reflective Essay on

Learning
A Reflection upon Motivational Theory and its Involvement in a Personal Learning Episode

The Personal Learning Experience I have chosen to analyse in this essay is one experienced between my
private saxophone tutor and I during year 11. I will be focussing on the aspects of motivational theory
surrounding this episode. I was not doing particularly well in VCE Music Performance unit 1 and found
my motivation to improve my musicianship was being lost. My performance in lessons was not up to the
standard it was supposed to be, and my teacher had expressed her distaste at this fact. Walking into one
of my lessons, I was dreading what might happen, as I was particularly lacking in motivation for one piece
I had to play. My teacher was also lacking in enthusiasm – I had been consistently performing below her
expectation and she was at a loss as to what she could do. From this, for her, came frustration. After
hearing me play, she told me once again that my performance wasn’t at the level she thought I should be
at – she said she knew I could do much better, but if I didn’t take my music education seriously, I’d be
forced to drop the subject.
This moment was something of a wake-up call for me – it was at this point I recognised that it would be
very difficult for me to complete VCE music and I would need to work much harder than I previously
had. My teacher’s explanation that I wouldn’t succeed if I continued this trajectory gave me intense
motivation, giving me energy and direction to succeed in VCE music. The reasoning for my newfound
motivation was two-fold: firstly, I wanted to prove to my teacher that I had the talent and discipline to do
well in music. Secondly, I wanted to succeed in my VCE. All the pressure put on me by teachers and
demands for my VCE gave me the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation that I needed to work hard for my
passion.
Motivation can be defined as an ‘internal state that arouses, directs, and maintains behaviour’ (Woolfolk
& Margetts, 2016) and, in practice, can be classified under three general terms: amotivation, intrinsic
motivation, and extrinsic motivation. Amotivation distinguishes a complete lack of any intent to act - the
student has no motivation or intention to complete a given task. Intrinsic motivation is where one is
motivated to perform a task for personal reward. This is in contrast to extrinsic motivation, where one is
motivated to perform a task for external reward. For example, one student may work hard in chemistry as
they enjoy the subject – the student’s motivation is intrinsic. However, another student may work hard in
chemistry to achieve a certain grade, where they do not have especial interest in the subject itself – this is
extrinsic motivation.
The general classifications of motivation can be applied to my relationship with the academic subject of
music. I originally worked hard in music as I enjoyed it myself – I was intrinsically motivated to work.
However, when my work became too tough for me to do easily, I became somewhat amotivated. I was
left with an ultimatum: force myself to overcome my amotivation and continue in VCE music, or give in
and drop the subject. Some contend, however, that different kinds of motivation fall along a continuum,
from intrinsic to extrinsic (Vansteenkiste, Lens, & Deci, 2006). Others believe that intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation are two independent possibilities, and some of each can always be at play (Covington &
Mueller, 2001). I believe that both categories of motivation are at play in the episode I am recounting:
Whilst the locus of causality (source of the cause of behaviour) is external, the reason I am working hard
to prove myself to others is in truth due to an underlying passion and love for music. In these respects,
the motivation for my ‘musical epiphany’ can be traced to both extrinsic and intrinsic sources.
There are five general approaches to motivation, according to Woolfolk and Margetts. The behavioural
approach deals mainly with extrinsic motivation, influenced by rewards, incentives, and punishments. The

Tutor: Joanna Phillips

Tutorial: Group 17, Thursday 10:00
Maxwell Harvey EDF1303: Understanding Learning and Learners Submitted 2/6/2019
30582075

humanist approach, however, focusses on intrinsic motivation, and the need for self-esteem, much like the
cognitive approach, where motivation is influenced by beliefs and expectations. The sociocultural approach
also deals with intrinsic motivation, but it is influenced by wishes for engagement, participation, and
identity. The social cognitive approach supports both intrinsic and extrinsic sources of motivation,
influenced by goals and self-efficacy (Bandura, 1994).
I believe that my personal learning episode aligns most clearly with the social cognitive approach to
motivation. A key component of social cognitive approaches to motivation is expectancy-value theory. This
purports that motivation is the product of expectancy (expectation of reaching a goal) and value (how
much this goal means to the person). The consideration of the effort needed as well as the worth of the
outcome can be represented as an equation, motivation = expectancy * value, as if either of the variables are
zero, then there can be no motivation (Locke & Latham, 2002). I knew I could work hard to achieve my
goal, my teacher told me so, thus my expectancy was high. The outcome of my hard work in music would
be of high value to me as well, so the value is high as well. According to this idea of expectancy * value, my
motivation to work harder in VCE music should be very high – I feel this is correct in this particular
experience.

Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs provides a view into what basic needs are required to be met before
one can be able to thrive. Maslow (1970) purports that lower level physiological needs must be met
before self-actualisation can be achieved. Self-actualisation refers to the ability to reach one’s full potential –
according to Maslow, this cannot be achieved unless deficiency needs are reached, these being the four most
basic needs in Maslow’s hierarchy. The hierarchy starts with the most basic component, biological
survival needs, which includes things like food and shelter. Safety needs are next, covering security and
protection. Social needs such as love and understanding are the next step, followed by esteem needs,
encompassing approval, self-respect, and dignity. Finally, after these four fundamental needs are met,
being and growth needs can be addressed. According to Maslow, one cannot thrive and reach self-
fulfilment without these five needs first being met. This relates to the more recent self-determination
approach to motivation (Ryan & Deci, 2000). The self-determination theory focuses on similar needs to
Maslow’s hierarchy – one must feel competent, capable, and connected before reaching self-fulfilment.
This theory is also driven by the need for autonomy, where we have out own wishes, rather than external
incentives – the source of motivation in the self-determination approach is intrinsic (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

In practice, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs could be applied to my episode as well. Assuming that my
biological, safety, and social needs have been fulfilled, perhaps my esteem and being needs were not fully
met before the interaction with my teacher. Maslow’s higher order needs such as accomplishment,
achievement, and productivity could possibly not have been met before I started to put in extra work for
my saxophone. Once I had worked hard for a few weeks, and noticed improvement in my own playing, I
would begin to notice that I was accomplishing what I wanted to accomplish, and my teacher was
noticing improvement in my skills as a result of my work. This perception of my own accomplishment
further spurred me on to work harder and harder, providing an intrinsic motivation to continue the
positive trajectory I had been forging for myself in saxophone. Thus, once my being needs were met, I
could work toward self-actualisation. My experience can also be linked in with Ryan and Deci’s self-
determination theory. My internal needs were met – I felt capable, due to the encouragement and belief of
my teacher (“I know you can do this, Max”), I felt competent as I saw improvement in my playing, and
finally, I felt connection with my teacher once she had begun to notice my improvement. My realisation
that I was autonomous to create my own path of success in msuic helped me to reach self-actualisation.
In the following image, from a 2000 article by Ryan and Deci, by reading left to right, it can be seen the
transition from being amotivated to being intrinsically motivated, via various stages of extrinsic
motivation as created by my teacher’s remarks and by my VCE demands.

Tutor: Joanna Phillips

Tutorial: Group 17, Thursday 10:00
Maxwell Harvey EDF1303: Understanding Learning and Learners Submitted 2/6/2019
30582075

(Ryan & Deci, 2000)

The beliefs held by students surrounding knowledge and learning (epistemological beliefs) will influence
motivation and strategic choices (Woolfolk & Margetts, 2016). Some of the most powerful
epistemological beliefs in creating motivation are those surrounding personal ability. There are two main
schools of thought on the characteristics of ability, these are the entity view of ability and the incremental view
of ability (Dweck, 2002). The former believes that ability is fixed and that ability level cannot be
augmented, whereas the latter believes that ability level can be changed – this is also known as having a
growth mindset. It could be said that when I was struggling with my music lessons, I was working with an
entity view of ability – I did not believe that I could achieve highly in music, as my ability level was fixed,
and I was stuck at a level of low motivation and ability. However, when external factors influenced the
level of motivation, I was practically forced to adopt a growth mindset, as I had tangible results that my
increased work effort was resulting in higher ability and skill. Thus it can be concluded that the mindset I
adopted was the link between my motivation and my outcome – I could well be motivated, but with a
fixed mindset of my ability, I would not have been able to succeed. My newly adopted growth mindset
allowed my motivation and drive to manifest in increased ability.
This episode reveals that I, as a learner, am motivated to a significant degree by others’ expectations,
however, I also am motivated intrinsically by my underlying passion for music. Although it was my
teacher who spurred me on to work harder in music, if it weren’t for my already present value for music
and for my education overall, I would not have been so motivated by her comments. This aligns with
research published in 2001 by Covington and Mueller. Their decision was that the “classic
intrinsic/extrinsic dichotomy” was incorrect, dismissing the idea that the two types of motivation were
antagonistic. Instead, they argue that both types of motivation play an important part in education – while
on the surface of a situation it may be apparent that someone is working for extrinsic motivation (good
grades, recognition, etc.), an underlying intrinsic motivation is often present (curiosity in a subject, for
example). My experience of a combination of loci of causality is legitimised by this theory.
Motivation can be described as both a “general trait and a situation-specific state” (Brophy, 1988). As
teachers, we attempt to induce a state of motivation as a short term goal, and in the long term, to develop
within the student a trait of being motivated to learn. This is an extension of the ‘teach a man to fish…’
mentality: place a student in a motivated state, they will want to learn for a day, but give them a trait of
motivation and they will want to learn for a lifetime. In application to my learning episode, my teacher
placed me in a state of motivation by giving me incentives to work hard. Then, upon seeing the results of
this short-term motivation, motivation for music learning became a trait within me as a learner. Carol
Ames (1992) published a method in which teachers can induce motivation within learners, entitled by

Tutor: Joanna Phillips

Tutorial: Group 17, Thursday 10:00
Maxwell Harvey EDF1303: Understanding Learning and Learners Submitted 2/6/2019
30582075

Epstein the TARGET model. This model is of six areas, in which teachers target different areas of a task
in order to influence motivation. The TARGET model is as follows:
1. Task deals with how learning tasks are structured to enhance attractiveness of outcomes and to
make learning meaningful.
2. Autonomy deals with student participation in learning decisions, where optimal freedom should
be provided for students to take control of their learning.
3. Recognition is how students’ achievements can be taken note of in order to foster goal-based
motivations for learning, e.g. recognising ‘personal bests’.
4. Grouping practices cover the organisation of learning and experiences to encourage acceptance,
interaction, and social skill development – cooperative learning is key.
5. Evaluation covers how assessment can be used to clarify goals and objectives that students
should be motivated to achieve, giving them a will to practise.
6. Time focusses on use of schedule (or lack thereof) to give fair importance to tasks, allowing
students to be more autonomous and understanding in the structure of their learning.
(Ames, 1992)
The TARGET model provides a clear set of recommendations for teachers to create an environment or
state of motivation within students, allowing teachers to affect their students in positive ways, as was the
case in my learning episode. However, some of the elements of motivational theory are up to the student
to employ – even without deliberate consideration. Being somewhat of a mature student at the time of my
educational episode, I ended up internalising the ideas that the TARGET model promotes for teachers.
This shows that I as a learner am often self-motivated and like to operate in a self-governed manner.
In conclusion, many motivational techniques and theories can be purported to be present in any learning
experience – even though my teacher may not have been considering the psychological elements of
student motivation, her behaviour put into practise many of the theories put forward by educational
psychologists. Her encouragement, approach, and technique as a teacher enabled me to develop a drive to
work hard in VCE music, and this in turn resulted in a complete change in my educational trajectory.
Manipulation of the internal workings of motivation within the mind of a student can have a huge effect
on their attitude towards learning, and it is up to teachers to create an environment in which students are
encouraged to see the value in learning and are driven to have a trait of intrinsic motivation surrounding
their field. Use of models such as the TARGET model can help the classroom be a catalyst for
educational inspiration, which is always a goal for teachers to be motivated towards.

Tutor: Joanna Phillips

Tutorial: Group 17, Thursday 10:00
Maxwell Harvey EDF1303: Understanding Learning and Learners Submitted 2/6/2019
30582075

Bibliography
Ames, C. (1992). Classrooms: Goals, structures, and student motivation. Journal of Educational Psychology,
261-271.
Bandura, A. (1994). Self-Efficacy. In V. S. Ramachaudran, Encyclopaedia of Human Behaviour (pp. Vol. 4, pp
71-81). New York: Academic Press.
Brophy, J. (1988). Research Linking Teacher Behavior to Student Achievement: Potential Implications for
Instruction of Chapter 1 Students. Educational Psychologist, 235-286.
Covington, M., & Mueller, K. (2001). Intrinsic Versus Extrinsic Motivation: An Approach/Avoidance
Reformation. Educational Psychology Review, 157-176.
Dweck, C. (2002). The Development of Ability Conceptions. Educational Psychology, 57-88.
Locke, E., & Latham, G. (2002). Building a Practically Useful Theory of Goal Setting and Task
Motivation. American Psychologist, 705-717.
Ryan, R., & Deci, E. (2000). Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation,
Social Development, and Well-Being. American Psychologist, 68-78.
Vansteenkiste, M., Lens, W., & Deci, E. (2006). Intrinsic Versus Extrinsic Goal Contents in Self-
Determination Theory: Another Look at the Quality of Academic Motivation. Educational
Psychologist, 19-31.
Woolfolk, A., & Margetts, K. (2016). Educational Psychology (4th ed.). Melbourne, VIC: Pearson Australia.

Tutor: Joanna Phillips

Tutorial: Group 17, Thursday 10:00