Motivation Flashcards
Motivation
an internal process that activates, guides, and maintains behaviour over time
2 types of needs on Maslow’s pyramid
Deficiency and growth needs
Deficiency needs
Needs you develop due to deprivation. They have to be met in order to avoid unpleasant results.
* Physiological
* Security
* Social
* Esteem
Growth needs
Needs that are motivated by the desire to reach full potential.
* Cognitive
* Aesthetic
* Self-Actualization
* Transcendence
Attribution Theory
A theory of motivation that focuses on how people explain the causes of their own successes and failures.
3 Characteristics of Attribution Theory
- Internal or External Locus
- Stable or Unstable
- Controllable or Uncontrollable
Internal Locus
Belief that success or failure is due to his or her own efforts or abilities.
External Locus
Belief that other factors, such as luck, task difficulty, or other people’s actions, cause success or failure.
Central Assumption of Attribution Theory
People will attempt to maintain a positive self-image.
Self-Efficacy (Bandura)
One’s beliefs that a given task or behaviour can be successfully performed.
Bandura’s Views on Self-Efficacy
- People of low efficacy quickly give up trying.
- People of high efficacy are resilient and view challenges as surmountable by self-development and perseverant effort.
Self-Efficacy expectations vary on 3 dimensions:
- Level: the level of difficulty of the task that the individual feels capable of performing
- Strength: the confidence the person has in their estimates.
- Generality: the range in which a person’s confidence in their abilities is applicable.
4 Information sources that form and modify people’s self-efficacy:
1) Performance (mastery) experiences
2) Vicarious experiences
3) Verbal persuasion
4) Physical and emotional reactions
Which information source is the most influential for self-efficacy?
Mastery experiences: they are the most authentic evidence regarding whether one will achieve expected goals.
Which information source operates under the premises of “learning begins where learning left off”?
Mastery (or performance) experiences
What are the two tricks to mastery experiences?
1) Strategy training: step-by-step instructions and baby steps
2) Goal setting: proximal rather than distant goals
Vicarious learning is all about what?
Modelling
Important factors in vicarious learning:
- Attempt to find a model that is similar to the student (for best results)
- Present coping models (someone who has struggled with the task) rather than mastery models.
- Use technology as support
Two key elements to verbal persuasion:
1) Performance feedback
2) Reinforcements (individual reinforcers)
The highest level of self-efficacy and skill is seen when teachers link achievement to what?
Effort
In verbal persuasion, it is said to attribute success to what?
To the accomplishment of specific tasks
* EX: “You did a great job memorizing the scales correctly”
True or false: Stressing future effort, such as “you need to work harder” leads to no benefits.
True
What should you as a teacher do for students that have physical and emotional reactions?
- Ask students how they are interpreting their feelings
- Try to help them reinterpret their physiological signs (ex: “is it common to experiences some nervousness before performing?”
- Suggest strategies or suggestions to help them cope
3 important things of motivation and self-regulated learning:
- Social modeling
- Goal setting
- Feedback
What does self-regulated learning require?
Requires the learner to take independent responsibility for learning (not just complying with the teachers demands)
* Involves engagement and investment
What is the biggest predictor of self-efficacy?
Self-regulated learning
What did Vygotsky say about self-regulated learning?
Self-regulated learning means you’re capable of doing things on your own.
What is Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development?
The space between what a learner can do without assistance and what a learner can do with adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers.
What is the “formula” for Expectancy Theory?
Motivation = perceived probability of success x incentive value of success
What is the main take-away of Expectancy Theory?
A person’s motivation increases as task difficulty increases up to a point at which the person decides that success is very unlikely or that the goal isn’t worth the effort.
True or false: In Expectancy Theory, moderate to difficult (but not impossible) tasks are better than easy ones for learning and motivation.
True
High achievement motivation versus affiliation motivation:
High achievement motivated students choose a partner who is good at tasks, whereas affiliation motivated students choose a partner who is a friend.
What features determine a high achievement motivated student?
- They persist longer at tasks
- They attribute failure to a lack of effort
- They expect to succeed * They double their efforts when they fail
What are learning goals?
The goals of students who are motivated primarily be the desire for knowledge acquisition and self-improvement.
* They take challenging courses and keep trying in the face of obstacles.
What are performance goals?
Goals of students who are motivated primarily by a desire to gain recognition from others and to earn good grades.
* They take easy courses and avoid challenges.
* They are discouraged by obstacles.
True or false: Teachers who emphasize learning (rather than getting good grades) obtain better learning results from students.
True
What is learned helplessness?
A condition in which a person has a sense of powerlessness, arising from a traumatic event or persistent failure to succeed.
What are some things teachers can do to help students overcome learned helplessness?
- Success in baby steps
- Immediate (specific) feedback
- Consistent expectations and follow-through
- Accentuate the positive
- Eliminate the negative
- Go from familiar to new - using advance organizers or guided discovery
- Create challenges that students can solve using skills they already have.
What is the Pygmalion/Rosenthal Effect?
The phenomenon where higher expectations lead to an increase in performance
How can teachers display positive expectations?
- Wait for students to respond (3 seconds)
- Avoid unnecessary achievement distinctions between students
- Treat all students equally
What are some suggestions for teachers on how to manage/reduce student anxiety?
- Provide opportunity to correct errors and edit
- Provide clear instructions
- Avoid time pressure
- Order test questions from easier to more difficult
- Provide support (ex: school counsellor) to help students develop strategies to reduce anxiety
What are some suggestions for enhancing instrinsic motivation in students?
- Arouse interest
- Maintain curiosity
- Use a variety of interesting presentation modes
- Help students make choices and set their own goals
What are the principles for providing extrinsic incentives?
- Express clear expectations
- Provide clear, specific, frequent, and immediate feedback
- Increase the value & availability of extrinsic motivators
- Ensure learning tasks are meaningful to students
True or false: the use of praise can have undesirable effects
True
According to Brophy (1981), in order for praise to be effective, it should be:
- Contingent on students’ performance of well-defined behaviours
- Specific rather than general
- Credible rather than given effusively for trivial accomplishments
- Spontaneous rather than planned
- Sincere rather than insincere or rote
- Provided for effort as well as successes
- Given because students deserve it not because they need it
- Accompanied by congruent nonverbal action
In order for praise to be effective, it needs to be matched to what?
It needs to be matched to students’ developmental levels
