Sample Question to Consider

Chapter 11 Motivation How might you enhance motivation and affect in your students using the theories of motivation? Here's a video that adds a lot to the conversation on motivation theory: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc So when I think about different theories of motivation, I think a lot about goals, but also how to structure those goals in terms of what students want. The book mentions a few types of goals, with mastery goals described as superior to performance goals (Ormrod 2011, p. 379). So if all students are motivated to do SOMETHING, I want to find a way to incorporate a desire or interest they have into my material in order to foster mastery goals. In Spanish class, this was easy. I noticed that many of my boys were interested in sports, so I did a unit on sports and sports vocabulary. In math, I tried to have answers to the question "when will we ever use this?" One, you're using it now. This is what we're doing. Two, you're learning problem-solving skills. Those are important. Three, sometimes I could specifically describe what use the material serves. When fostering mastery goals failed, I tried to be relatable. Relatedness is one of the fundamental human needs mentioned in Ormrod 2011 (p. 371). If I knew my students didn't care about the material, I would kind of ask them to do it "for me." This only worked with select students. But I built relationships with all my students, on purpose, partially in order to have that option on the table for motivation, but mainly cuz that's what I liked most about the job. In the video they talk about purpose and autonomy as big drivers of motivation. In my class I tried to help students understand the purpose of the course in relation to their goals. I tried as much as I could to incorporate student choice into my assignments, even if it was as simple as the option to choose one of two essays on a test. Another idea I have related to purpose is to tap into movements. These days a million and one movements are going on all the time. Eat more bacon, veganism, gay rights, gun-rights, PETA, nutrition movements, reading movements, and of course everything and anything that is happening in Brooklyn. :)