Zakaria Dabboussi, PSYC214 , University of Balamand

What Is Motivation?

• A motivating environment that encourages and supports students on their learning paths.

• Giving minimal attention to actively participating in class, and from being minimally interested to feeling excited and enthusiastic.

• When we talk about engagement –or motivation- it is important to clarify that it involves both, behaviors and emotions;

• behaviors such as concentration and attention, and emotions such as enthusiasm and interest.

What Is Motivation?

The ultimate cognitive motivation

“ a state of flow in which people are intensively attentive

to a task so that they lose awareness of

time & space.” Csikzentmihalyi (1975, 1988)

Three main sets that govern motivation:

1 1 • Perception of

Self-competence & control

2 2 • Values & goals

3 3 • Social connectedness

A study performed by Berktold, Geis, and kaufman (1998, Table 6) shows

that 32% among 13,000 eight graders claimed that they dropped out of

school because they could not keep up with schoolwork.

Perception of Self-competence & control

Another study performed by Ferguson (2002) on 100,000 students whose grades range from 7 to 11, reveals

that students with low socioeconomic status reported “less understanding of teacher’s lessons, and they were less likely to complete their homework”.

Perception of Self-competence & control

A student who believes that his academic ability is fixed and he cannot succeed in school is not expected to keep up in the academic

field.

Perception of Self-competence & control

Reasons for being engaged varies from originating from within the self (a feeling of self-determination, I’m

working because I want to),

to external goals (I want to avoid punishment or to earn a reward; I’m

working because I have to).

Perception of Self-competence & control

According to Smith and Ouston (1979), “students’ perceptions of their

teachers’ expectations for their learning is a strong predictor of the

level of engagement of those students.”

Increase students’ Perception of Self-competence & control

A low-income African-American student asserted

that “If somebody keeps telling you you’re gonna be

nobody, you’re going to take that in and you’re going to

say ‘Well damn, I’m going to be nobody. Look at my grades, they’re right’”.

Increase students’ Perception of Self-competence & control

Davidson (1999)

Another student declared that his teacher, while giving him the test paper says: “I don’t think you’ll do it, but I’ll

give it to you anyway.”

Increase students’ Perception of Self-competence & control

Davidson (1999)

Descriptive

Increase students’ Perception of Self-competence & control

rather than

judgmental language

It is noteworthy to acknowledge that, in order to exert academic effort, students need to see reasons for being engaged, even if their self-

efficacy was high.

Values and Goals

Ogbu (1992) argued that African-American youth don’t expect their

own success in school to be rewarded with good jobs and higher incomes so

they do not display interest in schoolwork.

Values and Goals

Emphasis on rewards and other extrinsic activities might undermine intrinsic interest in the activity.

Promoting values & goals

(Rayn and Deci, 2000)

In the Metlife survey (2002), the most frequent reason for both skipping and dropping out of school was

that “school was boring”.

Inquiry-based instructional strategies,

real life problem-based learning Hand-on activities Others……

Promoting values & goals

Social connectedness

Urban high school students, when they were interviewed by Davidson and Phelan

(1999), focused on “caring adults”.

Social connectedness

And according to the Public Agenda (1997) survey, 64% of students

claimed that they would learn more with a teacher who is “personally

cared about his students as people.”

Summing up

1 1 • Perception of

Self-competence & control

2 2 • Values & goals

3 3 • Social connectedness

Thank You for your Attention