CHAPTER 8

THE PLACE OF MOTIVATION IN LEARNING

• Learning is an active expression of life’s purpose. It requires

the rigorous on-going application of both internal and external
resources on th part of the student.
• Behavioral and cognitive theorists agree that motivation is
essential for learning.
• Students deserve appreciation and recognition when they give
correct correct responses, follow directions, pay attention,
complete assignments, and comply with all the tasks and
requirements.

Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of all the learners in Chapter 8, students shall have the opportunity to;
1. evaluate the internal and external influences affecting motivation;
2. differentiate motives from drives;
3. evaluate the elements of a motivational system in relation to learning;
4. judge the value of self-regulation in learning;
5. explore the theories of motivation; and
6. explain the process of shaping student motivation.

Advance Organizer:

 Sources
 Aspects
 Motivation and Behavior
 Sequence
 How Motivation Works
Motives
 Elements of Motivational
System
Motivation  Inner Speech
 Self-Efficacy
 Beliefs and Self-Perceptions
 Instrumental Satisfaction or
Choice
Behavior Dissatisfaction of a
Motive

Fig 4. Sequence of Motivation

The quintessence of success in the satisfaction of a motive depends on three different aspects;

• Physical components of the goal. Certain goals may be characterized by quality,

quantity, or value.

• Consummatory behavior. The word “cosummatory" is an adjective which means 'that

of relating to something used to achieve, fulfill, or complete'.

• Subjective feelings of individuals. The third and last aspect deals with how we feel
about satisfying a motive.

Factors Affecting the Satisfaction of a

Motive

Physical Subjective
Consummatory
components of the feelings of
behavior
goal individuals

Fig 5. Factors Affecting the satisfaction of a Motive

How Motivation Works

• Interest- students are motivated to work harder because the lesson or the material to be
learned has personal value or interest for them.

• Belief- Students will work harder to learn because they know that their hand work and
labor will pay off. Students with high Self-efficacy believe that they are capable of
learning a particular task such as learning how to add in Mathematics.
 • Attributions- Students work harder to learn when they attribute their academic success
or failure to effort rather than to their ability or other factors. In other words, when they
want to succeed in learning they must exert a lot of effort.

• Goals- students will work harder to learn when their goal is to perform well or to master
a certain skill. Student's academic goals are influenced by the amount of effort they put
into learning.

• Social Partnership- Students will work harder when they see their teachers as coach or
social partners who try to bring out the best in them. They view their teachers as persons
who provide support to help them achieve their academic tasks. They also see their
teachers create a social partnership in which they feel a sense of a learning team.

Motives and Drives

The predominant theories of human motivations mostly assured that people are compelled to act
in order to:

• increase pleasure and decrease painful experience,

• get innate physiological needs; and
• compensate for innate drive (Compton, 2005)
 Motivation is an innate and integral part of our biological predispositions. It means that
motivation is connected to our minds, feelings, and emotions.
 Motivation is related to motives and drives. However, most psychologist often distinguish
between motives and drives. They prefer the term drives for motivation that is assumed to
have a strong biological component and plays an important role in survival and reproduction
(Zimbardo, Johnson, & Weber, 2006).
 Hunger, thirst, and fear are all examples of biological drives.
 On the contrary, still many a psychologist reserves the term motives for urges that are mainly
learned, such as the need for achievement (Zimbardo, Johnson, & Weber, 2006).
 Conversely, many of our goals, activities and desires are driven by both biological
components and learning.

Others What will often think of me if In my own person.....

I do that?

Results What if I make a mistake? I wonder what the experience

will be like....

Age I am too old to do that. I may be in later years, but

I'd love to try.
  It is clear that self-efficacy has something to do with self-fulfilling prophecy or a
condition in which we end up acting in certain ways because that is what others expect of
us (Kyle & Rogien 2001). The way we perform a specific task depends to a large
measure, on how we are expected to do it.

Beliefs and Self-perceptions

Epistemological Beliefs. These are the student's beliefs about learning that influence their
motivation and the kind of strategies they will use in order to learn. The following are some
questions that may be asked to determine their epistemological beliefs:

• Which of the following is the most important thing in Facilitating Learning?

√ Remember what the teacher has taught us

√ Practice all concepts involved in the subjects.

√ Understand important concepts and use them to learn new things.

• Which of the following is the most important thing to do in learning Math?

√ Do what the teacher tell us.

√ Figure out how the explanation works.

√ Remember everything we are supposed to know.

• How long are we going to study certain lessons in English?

√ Less than a semester if we study hard.

√ About one or two years

√ Forever

• What happens when we learn more and more about Social Studies?

√ Questions become more complex and complicated.

√ Questions get easier.

√ All questions are answered correctly.

• What does it mean to learn Science?

√ Memorize all the facts and concepts

 √ Provide examples and use the in other contexts.

√ Develop integrated approach to understand important concepts and ideas.

Answering the questions will identify the five components of epistemological beliefs. They re as
follows:

• • Structure of knowledge- Is knowledge a simple set of facts or a complex organization

of concepts and relationships?

• • Certainty of knowledge- Is knowledge fixed or does it evolve over time?

• • Ability of the learner- Is the ability to learn innate or not?

• • Speed of learning- Do we gain knowledge in a quick manner or do we take time to

learn?

• • Nature of learning- Is learning a mere memorization of facts from isolated bits of

information or integration of patterns and relationships?