Understanding Student Motivation

Chadron State College

Understanding Student Motivation

11/10/2021


A little about me

• I’m a teacher turned educational psychologist

• I got my Ph.D. from Ohio State

• I LOVE to learn

• I’m extremely enthusiastic about making education the best it can be (“extra” is a word that may have been applied to me)


What is Motivation?

= an inner state that energizes, directs, and sustains behavior (Ormrod, Anderman, and Anderman, 2020)

True or False?

Some students just aren’t motivated.


What is Motivation?

= an inner state that energizes, directs, and sustains behavior (Ormrod, Anderman, and Anderman, 2020)

True or False?

Some students just aren’t motivated.

• They may not be academically motivated.

• They may not be motivated to achieve at high levels.

• However, everyone who engages in goal-oriented behavior is motivated.


So how do I get my students

motivated for MY class?


Expectancy Value TheoryMotivation is driven by two subconscious assessments:

Expectancy for Success

“Can I do it?”

Value for the Task

“Do I want to do it?”


Competence in College

• Self-efficacy: a person’s judgement about their own ability to execute a particular course of action (Shunk, Meece, & Pintrich, 2014)

✓ Highly context specific

✓ Goal-related

By building students’ self-efficacy, we can increase expectancy for success, and thereby motivation


Self-efficacy is influenced by:

Prior related success & failure

Emotional state

Messages from others

Others’ success & failure

Group-related success or failure


Improving Self-Efficacy (and therefore expectancy)

Ensure one score won’t doom students’ course grades

Provide concrete, specific feedback for improvement

Enable students to improve upon poor performance

Build on success experiences

Show many examples of success

Show students you believe in them

Work to build positive relationships in the classroom


Attributions

• Why I succeed or fail?

How are attributions related to expectancy for success?


Why did I fail?

• Test was unfair

• My professor grades too hard

• I didn’t have time to study

• I studied the wrong key details

• Time management

• Poor planning

• Lack of background knowledge

• Lack of effective study strategies

• I suck at <math>


Reflect on it!

• How can you build students’ expectancy for success in your classes?


ValueValue has three major forms

✓ Utility (is it useful?)

✓ Interest (is it enjoyable?)

✓ Importance (does it matter for me?)

Value must offset the cost of the task

o Emotional energy

o Time

o Opportunity cost

o Effort

Utility Interest Importance Cost Value


Improving Value

Show students why content is valuable/applicable

Help students see their own progress

Express enthusiasm for the content and learning

Design activities that are engaging and relevant

Use varied instructional methods

Include student ideas and opinions in class activities

Reduce cost of engagement


Reflect on it!

• How can you build students’ value for your classes?

• How can you reduce cost?


Achievement Goal Theory

Performance

Related to demonstrating competence

Can be approach oriented (looking good) or avoidance oriented (not looking bad)

Mastery

Related to building competence

Focused on learning and improvement

People have two major types of achievement motivation:


High Performance

High Mastery

High Performance

Low Mastery

Low Performance

High Mastery

Low Performance

Low Mastery

PerformanceM

ast

ery

LowHigh


Performance Mastery

People with performance goals are more likely

to:

• Believe intelligence is fixed

• Give up in the face of difficulty

• Self-handicap

• View effort as evidence of low ability

• Choose easy tasks over challenging ones

• Prefer work that allows them to not make

mistakes

• Use surface-level processing

People with mastery goals are more likely to:

• Hold a growth mindset

• Persevere in the face of challenges (and

enjoy it)

• Adaptively use strategies for learning

• View effort as necessary for learning

• Choose challenging tasks

• Prefer work that enables them to grow

and learn

• Use deep processing

(Ormrod, Anderman, and Anderman, 2020)


Reflect on it!

• How can we promote mastery orientation in college classes?


Increasing Mastery Orientation

Show students why content is valuable/applicable

Help students see their own progress

Give students opportunities to improve

Give explicit feedback for improvement

Talk about learning and class objectives

Tell students what they will learn/gain from assessments

Avoid emphasizing grades/scores

Give students time to practice, process, and discuss content

Work with students as much as possible

Help students build community and responsibility for each others’ learning


What does this look like in your class?


Apply

Given what you’ve now learned about motivation, take some time to plan changes to your syllabus or assignments for next semester.


Schunk, D. H., Pintrich, P. R., Meece, J. L., & Pintrich, P. R. (2014).Motivation in education: Theory, research, and applications (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall.

Ormrod, J. E., Anderman, E. M., & Anderman, L. H. (2020).Educational psychology: Developing learners (10th ed.). Pearson.

References

Questions?

Contact

Elizabeth Kraatz

[email protected]

308-432-6458

mailto:[email protected]

Understanding Student Motivation

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