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Motivation and Achievement

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9 views3 pages

Motivation and Achievement

Uploaded by

ksheteba
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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7.

2 MOTIVATION

According to Graham (2020) ‘motivation’ is the study of why individuals


behave as they do: what gets their behaviour started and what directs,
energises, sustains, and eventually terminates action. Looking at this
definition, it is easy to recognise the vital role teachers and education plays
in fostering and sustaining motivation in learners. They can create a
supportive learning environment, provide meaningful and challenging tasks,
offer opportunities for autonomy and self-direction, establish clear
expectations and goals, offer feedback and recognition, and promote a sense
of relevance and value in learning.
As teachers you are therefore confronted with finding the most effective ways
of supporting learners to develop their learning potential, and to find ways of
fostering their motivation to want to learn and achieve. Not all learners are
equally motivated to expend or apply their time, abilities and efforts to
engage with schoolwork.
It is imperative for teachers to understand how they can play a role in
influencing learners’ motivation positively. This is an important skill that
teachers need to develop.

7.2: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Abraham Harold Maslow is an influential American Psychologist who developed a


theory of psychological health based on fulfilling human needs in priority
(hierarchy) which is concluded in self-actualisation.

- Maslow proposed that individuals have a set of hierarchical needs that


must be satisfied in a specific order, starting with basic physiological
needs (such as food, water, and shelter) and progressing to higher-level
needs such as safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.

- When a human being ascends or climbs the levels of the hierarchy, having
fulfilled the lower-order needs, such a person may eventually achieve
personal growth, self-actualisation, or self-fulfilment.

- He emphasized that some needs are more basic and more powerful than
others and that one needs to fulfil the basic needs first before fulfilling
others. The following numbers represents the level on how needs are
ranked.
1. Physiological needs: air, food, water shelter, clothing, sleep

2. Safety and security needs: health, employment, property, family, stability

3. Love and belongingness needs: friendship, family, intimacy, connections

4. Self-esteem needs: confidence, achievements, respect for others,


connections, need for individuality

5. Self-actualisation: morality, creativity, spontaneity, acceptance, experience,


purpose, meaning, and inner potential

These needs can be grouped into three categories namely, physiological (basic)
needs, psychological needs, and self-fulfilment needs.

 Physiological needs = physiological + safety:

Satisfying the physiological needs is seen as motivated behaviour at its lowest level.
Satisfying these basic needs of a learner is a prerequisite for motivation to learning. For
example, if a learner is hungry, the learner will not be motivated to learn.

 Psychological needs = love & belonging + self-esteem:

The basic needs (e.g., protection and safety) and the social needs (e.g., love and
belonging) of the learner have an influence on their self-fulfilment needs (e.g. academic
achievement). Looking at the developmental profile of the adolescent, this learner is
mainly characterized by the need for love, acceptance and belonging. Failure to meet
the adolescents’ need for safety and social needs may result in deviant behaviour. The
need for appreciation and self-esteem is central to adolescent development. This need
includes two groups, one of which is centred on respect and self-esteem, and the other
one around respect and approval.

 Self-fulfilment needs = self-actualisation:

Self-fulfilment needs encompass the desire for individuals to reach their fullest potential,
to become all that they are capable of becoming, and to achieve a sense of personal
satisfaction and fulfilment in their lives. Adolescents particularly display the need to
achieve and to experience independence and freedom and answer the question “who
am I”? The need for self-actualisation is the highest need in Maslow’s pyramid.

Moslow’s hierarchy of needs It is a model for understanding the motivation for human
behaviour
Achievement and motivation

Achievement is fuelled by a person’s state of motivation.

Highly successful people are both externally and internally motivated

There are various ways of motivating learners:

 Positive reinforcement- praises and rewards as a way of positive reinforcement of a


good behaviour

 Punishment- it should be noted that physical harm is an offense especially in the


department of education. All the punishment should be done in a way that does not
compromise the learning of the children (learners at school)

 Negative reinforcement- unpleasant consequences by undesirable behaviour

 Extinction- ignoring undesirable behaviour

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