U9d1 Motivation

Discuss the importance of motivation. Can learning be effective without it? Which is most important for learning: motivation, quality instruction, or intelligence? How much can you as an author do to improve a student's motivation? (2b, 9a, 9b, 9c, 11a, 12c).
Post your response in the discussion area.

Motivation can be intrinsic (internal rewards) or extrinsic (external rewards). Motivation

involving the basic human needs includes drive theory (survival drive, etc.), arousal (attentiveness),

Maslow's hierarchy of needs (physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, and self-actualization), competence and self-worth, and relatedness (feeling of social connectedness). Individuals have different needs for affiliation, approval, and achievement. Also, related to motivation is affect which includes the emotions of pleasure, anxiety, excitement, pride, depression, anger, guilt, etc. (Omrod, 2004).

Cognitive factors in motivation include intrinsic motivation such as self-efficacy, self determination, and response from others as well as establishing goals towards which the student progresses. Motivational attributions include contingencies (conditional possibilities), self-efficacy, learning strategies, metacognition (people's recognition and regulation of their own learning processes), self-regulated learning, self-worth, self-handicapping, relatedness, expectancies, values, and affect. (Omrod, 2004).

Motivation is the cause of an organism's behavior. In a human being, motivation involves both conscious and unconscious drives. Psychological theories must account for a �primary� level of motivation to satisfy basic needs, such as those for food, oxygen, and water, and for a �secondary� level of motivation to fulfill social needs such as companionship and achievement. The primary needs must be satisfied before an organism can attend to the secondary drives. Motivation can be primary such as the need for food and clothing or secondary such as the need for companionship and success (and perhaps fashionable clothing). The American psychologist Abraham Maslow devised a hierarchy of needs that, according to his theory, explain human behavior. Maslow a states that the needs are: (1) physiological; (2) safety; (3) love and belonging; (4) esteem; (5)

self-fulfillment and curiosity and (6) self-actualization. Though recent cognitive theories of motivation, however, say humans want to optimize, rather than minimize, stimulation and this better explains their exploratory nature and the need for variety, art, travel, and curiosity. (Mazur, 2002).

The teacher functions as a facilitator and mediator between the student and the body of

knowledge to be learned and should provide the sort of knowledge, expertise, and training necessary for the students' intellectual and cultural growth. The teacher can only make the students aware of the immediate and future extrinsic rewards. A student's motivation is a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors and my educational motivation has been throughout my life. Later, the motivation becomes more extrinsic as the child attempts to please its parents and others. I think as a person matures, in addition to the rewards that are intrinsic and for personal satisfaction, the rewards are external to the internalized knowledge and generally become increasingly more extrinsic in nature.

Which is most important for learning: motivation, quality instruction, or intelligence? Quality, useful information and motivation are the most important factors in learning. Quality instruction is a plus but the learning is done by the student so, other than the material to be learned, the characteristics within the student are the most important factors in learning. Another characteristic of the student is intelligence -- one can only fill a tank to the capacity that it can hold.

How much can you as an author do to improve a student's motivation? The teacher can make the material as interesting as possible as t he teacher functions as a facilitator and mediator between the student and the body of knowledge to be learned and should provide the sort of knowledge, expertise, and training necessary for the students' intellectual and cultural growth. The teacher can only make the students aware of the immediate and future extrinsic rewards. A student's motivation is a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Motivation usually becomes more extrinsic as the child attempts to please its parents and others. I think as a person matures, in addition to the rewards that are intrinsic and information learned for personal satisfaction, the rewards from learning are external to the internalized knowledge and generally become increasingly more extrinsic in nature. --- Richard

Reference:

Clark, Ruth. (2003). Building Expertise: Cognitive Methods for Training and Performance Improvement. Silver Spring , MD : International Society for Performance Improvement.

Mazur, J. (2002). Encarta Encyclopedia 2002. Seattle : Microsoft Inc.

Ormrod, Jeanne E. (2004 ). Human Learning . Upper Saddle River , NJ : Pearson Education, Inc.

Comment from Diana

Hi Richard, I liked your statement "The teacher can only make the students aware of the immediate and future extrinsic rewards". The first day of every class that I teach, I start with the students searching for a job (that they would want) that requires the skills they will learn in the class. I have found this to make the class relevant to them and they become very motivated. Undergraduate students like looking at their future in the professional world.

Thanks for your insights. I enjoyed reading them. ---Diana

U9d2 Instructional Media Tools: Instructional Tools and Learning Theory

Do you believe that instructional media tools, including both authoring and learning management tools, should incorporate learning theory or instructional design principles into the tools, or should that be left totally under the control of the author?

Yes, I think instructional media tools (authoring and learning management tools) should incorporate every learning theory and instructional design principle that they can manage so that then the author can select the ones that suit the material's purpose. --- Richard

Reference:

Clark, Ruth. (2003). Building Expertise: Cognitive Methods for Training and Performance Improvement . Silver Spring , MD : International Society for Performance Improvement.

U9d3 Instructional Design Checklist

Using the concepts from Chapter 14 as a guide, prepare your own checklist for the development of instructional designs that use instructional media tools.

While teaching or using instructional media tools the following aspects of learning should be incorporated into the learning procedures:

Engage learner motivation � give real world intrinsic and extrinsic reasons for learning the material and demonstrate how the knowledge can be applied to their lives.

Gain and sustain attention � Find the students' interests and use them to foster student involvement and interest

Activate prior knowledge � get the students to use through exercises and problems their previously learned knowledge.

Manage cognitive load in working memory � Give them realistically obtainable learning goals and do not overwhelm them with material that, rather than stimulates, only frustrates them.

Build mental models in long-term memory � have them commit the information to long term memory through memorization, repetition, and empirically derived information (such as in scientific experimentation).

Support transfer of learning to the job � give the students opportunities to learn by doing

Support participants' metacognitive skills -- Demonstrate metacognititve ( Knowledge about one's own thinking ) skills and cognitive concepts skills through games and examples such as the one below:

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in

waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht

frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses

and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed

ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe. (Ross, 2003).

Reference:

Clark, Ruth. (2003). Building Expertise: Cognitive Methods for Training and Performance Improvement . Silver Spring , MD : International Society for Performance Improvement.

Comment from Anne:

Richard, Thanks for the example of demonstrating metacognititve skills through games! That's a good one, although when I first started reading it, I thought you must have posted very late at night ;-D --- Anne