Module 19-24

Motivation is the force that energizes a learner to do what s/he is

expected to do. It is an indication for them to take action. A learner’s level of
motivation is reflected in his choice of action and in the intensity and
persistence of his/her effort. A highly motivated learner accomplishes and
performs well in contrast to an unmotivated one who seems not to have any
desire to accomplish things or perform well. That force can be intensified by
factors outside a learner (extrinsic) or factors inside him/her or by the activity
itself (intrinsic). There are indicators presented to determine whether the
students have high level of motivation. The characteristics of a highly
motivated student are having a positive attitude towards school and describe
school as satisfying environment, persist on difficult tasks and cause a few
management problems, and process information in depth and excel
inclassroom learning expertise.
There are two types of motivation mentioned, the extrinsic and intrinsic.
Extrinsic motivational factors include rewards, incentives, praises or words of
encouragements, approval of significant others like teachers, parents, peer
group or their opposites – fear of punishment and withdrawal of privileges.
That is why it is very important for us teachers to give positive feedback to our
students in everything they do because that keeps them motivated at all
times. Being acknowledged is one of the needs of our students, they feel that
their feelings and opinions are valid so we should recognize it. An example of
this motivation is when the students study because they are just told by their
teacher or because they are afraid to fail and their parents will make them
stop from schooling or because it will lead them to good grades. In this
example, there are factors that drives them to do action. On the other hand,
intrinsic motivation is shown in the enjoyment of the activity itself and the inner
conviction of the learner that such things are the right things to do in order to
realize a personal goal or a life dream. And intrinsic motivation yields more
advantages than extrinsic motivation. This kind of motivation is what we need
to employ to our students because they should perceive schooling as
worthwhile and enjoyable instead as burden and requirement. The best
example of this motivation is when students take their last examination, they
feel satisfied with their performance not because of the grade they will get, but
because they gave their best effort to finish the exam.
Theories of factors affecting motivation are attribution theory, self-efficacy
theory and self regulation theory. Attributions refer to an individual’s beliefs
regarding causes of successful or failing performance. It also explains that we
attribute our successes or failures or other events to several factors. There
are several types of attributions, including ability, effort, task, and luck. In
addition to that, the types of attributions a person holds determine his or her
level of motivation according to whether the cause is perceived as something
that is changeable and within the person’s control. On the other hand, effort is
within a person’s control and entirely manipulable. We can obeserve to our
students that their poor performance on a task is more likely to contribute to
reduced effort and motivation for those holding ability attributions. However,
as a future teacher, I think we should frame successful performances in terms
of ability rather than effort because success communicates positive
information about competency to students.
 Self-efficacy theory explains that one has necessary capabilities to
perform a task, fulfill role expectations, or meet a challenging situation
successfully. Social cognitive theorists identified several self-efficacy-
enhancing strategies such as we make sure that our students master the
basic skills like reading and writing, help them make noticeable progress on
difficult tasks- the knowledge that you are progressing inspires you to keep
on, coomunicate confidence in students abilities through both words and
actions, expose them to successful peers so that students will inhale success
and get energized to succeeding as well. Other recommendations from
motivation theories that we should practice are we should provide
competence-promoting feedback, promote mastery on challenging tasks
because it encourages our students to stretch themselves to their limits,
promote self-companion rather than self-comparison with others.
Environmental factors that affect student’s motivation are human factor
and non-human factor. The immediate factors that surround the learner are
the teachers, other students, and their parents. The teacher’s affective traits
are being caring, fairness and respect, social interaction with students,
enthusiam and motivation for learning, attitudes towards the teaching
profession, positive expectations of students manifested. I am grateful to
those who motivated and inspired me. I must also be grateful to those who
were not as motivating and inspiring. In a way, they also helped me become a
better person in the sense that I strived to become better than who I am
before.
A conducive learning environment matters too in order for our students to
learn efficiently. In traditional classroom setting, it is more of teacher-centered
and with no support of technology while on the 21 st century classroom, we
create flexible learning spaces and also we create a collabprative
environment among our students. Aside from that, we have so much things to
consider in order four classroom to be conducive enough for learning. Our
classroom’s furniture should be conveniently arranged so it allows our
students to move without distractions and they view clearly the presentations
on the board. We should also create a flexible seating arrangement in order
for them to feel connected to each other. It provides enough space for the
students to sit conveniently without hesitations. It also allows interaction
between teacher and students and among students. Lastly, our classroom
should be clean, well-lighted, well-ventilated and noise free.
Assessment is at the service of learning, thus the phrase assessment of
learning. Assessment is meant to ensure the learning takes place. It should
be a tool to facilitate and enhance learning and not just to evaluate learning.
To some students, assessment gives off a negative vibe and has threatening
effect to them. These wrong connotations bring a new challenge for us, future
teachers on how we can make it motivating while at the same time non-
threatening to them. Experiences in classroom assessment and principles of it
tell us these strategies. Learner’s objectives should be cleared. They need to
be clarifed of the objectives they are working or achieving on. Also, teachers
need to clarify the criteria to be used to evaluate the students. Our students
must also be allowed to set their own personal learning targets based on the
lesson objective. It is evident in classroom that our expectations may not be
met immediately but diversity should be always taken into consideration. After
our students have their own learning targets, it is better for them to have
reflection and let them assess themselves. In that way, I think I made my
future students take an active role in the learning process.