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Purpose of this paper
The purpose of this paper is three-fold: First, to examine briefly Social Cognitive Theory’s view on the contribution of self-efficacy to learning and motivation; Then, to offer some guidelines for motivational strategies reflecting self-efficacy concepts that have been supported by research; Finally, to provide some possible ways to implement these guidelines in a mathematics class.
Introduction
Within us all is a desire to achieve. The need exists to show, to ourselves and to others, that we are capable in some area; that we are able to perform difficult tasks, acquire knowledge that no one else knows, run faster, jump higher, and live up to some perceived potential unique to us as individuals.
This goal to achieve is evident in young children, manifesting itself early and continuing at some level throughout the school years and on into adulthood. Of particular interest and importance to me as a teacher are contributing factors to students’ motivation to achieve, and motivational strategies that can increase the likelihood of student achievement.
At this point, let me state the obvious: Studying motivation is somewhat difficult, because motivation is subjective. Motivation is not directly observable. It must be inferred from student behavior. Also, behavior patterns exhibited by students may have similar surface attributes, but could arise from entirely different motivations (Good, Brophy, 1995).
Student motivation is affected by many variables including past experience, peers, home life, classroom and school expectations, and teacher behavior. This adds to the complexity of studying motivation, and adds to the difficulty teachers face when addressing issues relevant to promoting st...
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...03). My Current Understanding of Understanding Mathematics, paper submitted for MAT 791.
Snowman, J. & Biehler, R. (2000). Psychology Applied to Teaching. 9th Edition.
Boston, MA. Houghton Mifflin Company.
Urdan, T. Midgley, C., & Anderman, E. M. (1998), The role of classroom goal structure in students’ use of self-handicapping stragtegies, American Education Research Journal,
35(1), 101-122.
Online sources and suggestions:
www.analytictech.com/mbo21/motivation.htm.
www.cartwright.k12.az.us/Math/Resources/cooperat.html (Cooperative Learning Suggestions).
www.emory.edu/EDUCATION/mfp/BanEncy.html (Self-Efficacy by Albert Bandura).
www.emory.edu/EDUCATION/mfp/effpage.html (An excellent resource for information
and links on SCT and self-efficacy).
www.fiu.edu/~cryan/selfefficacy/MotivationandOpportunity.htm.
www.med.usf.edu/~kmbrown/Social_
Ever since I began my teaching career, I have been fascinated with the topic of motivation and the role it plays in student learning. Daniel Pink’s book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, has been on my personal reading list for a couple of years now, and I was elated to find that it was one of the recommended books to read for this assignment. I have often wondered why some of my students, and even one of my own children, are more internally driven than others to complete a given task. Now that I am in the process of becoming a school administrator, my curiosity about what motivates adults has been heightened, as well. In the hopes of finding some insight, and perhaps the answers to some of my burning questions, I finally picked up Daniel Pink’s book and began reading.
RIOT can create lists of user comments and postings online for evaluation. However, it does not read a user’s private emails, though the federal government has been demanding this information from various firms. RIOT cannot mine the data files on your personal computer. However, the federal government has been arguing that data stored on the cloud isn’t “private” like data on a computer in your home, thus exempt from many of the protections granted to private papers. Internet security then only applies to the government itself, though it has a ...
The participants in this study where 257 students mostly non-Hispanic white fourth graders, with an almost even split of boys and girls. The exclusion criteria were all non-fourth graders and non-white participants since CWK is already focused on that particular demographic and this new study was aimed at a different sample. The study design included participants from a pool of 12 schools in northern Colorado who indicated interest to an invitation from the district wellness coordinator (Cuningham-Sabo & Lohse, 2013). From those 12 schools, four elementary schools with similar enrollments and socio-economic characteristics were selected and randomly assigned to two schools for intervention, or two schools for comparison (Cuningham-Sabo & Lohse, 2013). The intervention group involved CWK and included cooking and tastin...
The atrocities in Darfur are being conducted by an assembly of government funded and heavily armed militants who are known as the Janjaweed. These groups of Arab radicals destroy the people of Darfur by pillaging and burning their villages, robbing them of their economic assets, contaminating their water supplies by dumping dead bodies into the wells, slaughtering, raping, and tormenting them. The attacks on the villages range from a variety of approaches but the most typical start with bombings from the Sudanese Air Force, followed by the raids of the Janjaweed. A recent estimate by UNICEF has the death toll in Darfur at an astonishing 300,000. Out of the total population of 6.2 million people, 4.7 million are affected by the conflict. Half of the directly affected people are children; of these children, almost 700,000 have lived their entire life knowing nothing more than the violent lifestyle that has overtaken the region (Sudan: Darfur Overview).
“Motivation is a complex part of human psychology and behavior that influences how individuals choose to invest their time, how much energy they exert in any given task, how they think and feel about the task, and how long they persist at the task” (Urdan & Schoenfelder, 2006). The biggest question educators face in today’s classroom is what motivates a student to do something and why? Virtually all students are motivated in one way or another. Research of student motivation suggests a theory that emphasizes a social-cognitive perspective. The cognition of students regarding academic work are influenced by social factors, such as messages from the teacher about the difficulty of the task, the perceived abilities of classmates, and the information about the importance of learning the material (Urdan & Schoenfelder, 2006). In this paper the focus will primarily be on those elements within the classroom that influence student motivation and engagement.
Instead of giving up the cutting task, disturbing other students, or cutting the paper randomly, he persists in the task, complete it efficiently, and follows the teacher’s instruction. He is the first student of whom sticks four cutting pictures in a red paper in his table. This example indicates that self-efficacy contributes to behaviors (person → behavior). After he completes the task successfully, he may perceive that he is able to understand what the teacher is saying, use a scissor, and stick pictures in a paper, which in turn will foster his self-efficacy. The reason is that positive results improve his confidence in similar tasks (behavior →
Many researches have been conducted to investigate what motivates students for better academic performance and whether it has a correlation with achievement motivation.
“Motivation is the process whereby goal-orientated activity is instigated and sustained” (Schunk, Pintrich & Meece, 2008. As cited in Eggen & Kauchak, 2010, p.284). Motivation comes in many forms and can be divided into two broad categories - extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivators are external factors which can motivate a student; rewards are an example of this. An issue with extrinsic motivators is that the desire for the learner to participate often lessens, once the rewards are withdrawn (McCullers, 1987). On the other hand intrinsic motivation comes from within - learning for the joy of it - where the desire to learn leads to a higher level of knowledge, and is a reward in itself. Kohn (1996, p.285) states that research suggests, “Rewards actually decrease interest in intrinsically motivating tasks, therefore sending the wrong message about learning” (as cited in Eggen & Kauchak, 2010a)
Self-efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change. Psychological Review, 84, pp191-215. Gecas, V. (1989). The Social Psychology of Self-Efficacy. Annual Review of Sociology.
It is first important to understand how motivation works in the classroom. There are infinite procedures teachers use to achieve desired effects from their students, but there are general patterns these motivational tools follow. In order for teachers to communicate with their students, they must identify with their needs on an individual basis (Gawel, 1997). This proposal is much akin to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, which states five basic needs that must be met in order to achieve full motivation. These needs, in ascending order, are as follows: physiological, security, love and belongingness, esteem and self-respect, and self-actualization (Gawel, 1997). Each of these needs details a very important issue in motivation inside the classroom and out.
The concept of self-efficacy is grounded in Bandura’s (1977) social learning theory. Bandura (1994) defines perceived self-efficacy as “people’s beliefs about their capabilities to produce efforts” (p. 71). In essence, one having strong self-efficacy experience increase in motivation, accomplishment, and personal well-being ( Bandura, 1994). Those with a low sense of self-efficacy, on the other hand, often suffer stress and depression; unbelieving of their capabilities and often succumbed to failure (Bandura, 1994).
Student motivation can be affected by several factors. These elements include parent involvement, teacher enthusiasm, rewards, peers, the learner’s environment, personal experiences, personal interests of the student, and self-esteem and self-image.
People have been deforesting the Earth for thousands of years, primarily to clear land for crops or livestock. Although tropical forests are largely confined to developing countries, they aren’t just meeting local or national needs; economic globalization means that the needs and wants of the global population are bearing down on them as well. Direct causes of deforestation are agricultural expansion, wood extraction (e.g., logging or wood harvest for domestic fuel or charcoal), and infrastructure expansion such as road building and urbanization. Rarely is there a single direct cause for deforestation. Most often, multiple processes work simultaneously or sequentially to cause deforestation.
To a certain extent it can be said that without a sense of motivation, whether it be intrinsic or extrinsic, a child’s ability to learn and reach their potential is greatly lessened. Motivation is best described as an internal state that not only arouses and directs behaviour but also helps to maintain it (Woolfolk & Margetts, 2013). Motivation not only plays a large role in a child’s learning ability, it also shapes a student’s interests and enjoyment of school and study (Martin, 2003). For both pre-service teachers and expert teachers it is easy to see that if a student possesses high motivation to learn, their behaviour towards their school work is more positive and in turn leads to higher academic success, whereas a student with little to no motivation will exhibit negative behavi...
At the end I would like to include that the most important thing in learning process is being intrinsically motivated. Because it satay us lifelong. If you have no motive that means we won’t have any goals of our life. So as a student we all should have a certain targets towards our