Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Factors in students' motivation
Importance of motivation to students
Factors in students' motivation
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Rough Draft R.P. #6
What contributing factors affect student motivation towards success in college? Motivation is a force that helps people to achieve what they yearn to be, which helps people conquer obstacles to reach a goal. Students can be physically present in the classroom, but mentally absent. Many things can play a factor in student academic success from the quality of the professors’ lecture, to sufficient and modern facilities or the effective engagement between student and professors. In many researches including the books Lives on the Boundary by Mike Ross and Academically Adrift by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa it demonstrates factors that students face in the achievement of academic success. Those factors that coincide on student academic success are motivation, life responsibilities, and preparation.
One contributing factor towards student success is student motivation. Motivation is reading unassigned books out of class that relate to the class subject matter, just to expand his or her knowledge. The need or want type of actions a persons’ mentality is, to reach a personal goal or objective of some sort. People’s motivational purpose in school can range from, higher earning potential, more job stability, greater benefits, and even just to gain more knowledge. In a YouTube video entitled “The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us” by Dan Pink, he suggests that three elements: purpose, mastery, and autonomy play a part towards true motivation. Autonomy is ones self-drive, while
…show more content…
Students entering college may be deemed not college-ready due to not being educationally prepared in their previous learning curriculum. In the book Lives on the Boundary, Mike Ross tells of his experience being accidently placed in remedial classes.
In conclusion, factors like motivation, life responsibilities and socio-economic background play an important role in student academic
Some freshman students might lack the motivation to do well in school because they do further the lack of appropriate role models or mentors in the Academic environment. These difficulties can be tied to lack of support at home the parents might not be concerned about their child education, maybe the parent lacks the ability to guide through college, the parent might not process having not navigated it themselves. The parents might feel embarrassed that they don’t have any knowledge to help them
“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)
Motivation is important because it allows you to work towards and complete your goals. GPA allows you to see, on average, how well a student has performed in all classes they have taken. It is likely there is a relationship between motivation and GPA. If a student is highly motivated, will their GPA rise? Based upon previous research, it is hypothesized that students who are highly motivated will have a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Seventeen university students, 9 male and 8 female participated in the survey. The survey included 9 questions that measured motivation, measured on a Likert scale from 1-5. [Results].
Self-efficacy is the belief that someone has the inherent ability to achieve a goal. A student who has a high self-efficacy allows himself to believe that he can be successfully academically.(Bozo & Flint, 2008) He believes that a challenging problem is a task that can be mastered This student is more committed to work in the classroom. (Schunk,1991). On the other hand, a student who has a low level of self-efficacy is likely to be academically motivated. He is more likely to avoid a task that is difficult, give up, make excuses, or lose confidence in his abilities (Margolis & McCabe, 2006). This failure becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Teachers need to find ways to motivate these students by increasing their self-efficacy.
Most human beings begin college with high expectations of obtaining a degree to become successful in life. Many students are not academically prepared to meet the requirements needed to complete the courses they are enrolled in. The freedom of becoming an adult takes a great toll on the education of new comers to a college. Half of college students are likely to never receive a college degree. Attributes that contribute to a student failing in college is the lack of skills that prepares students for a higher education.
About eight students interviewed about causes that led them to earn academic warnings or to be placed on academic probation. Even though all of the students were previously successful in high school, they were not able to maintain required GPA in college. Most of the students admitted that they were not able to manage their time and had very low self-motivation. Additionally, some of the students responded that they were not used to facing challenges in high school and, as a result, did not know how to deal with stress that was arising from the challenges in college. Basically, the main idea of the research was to show that not only time management and motivation are important for average students, but even for the ones who were considered as far above average and had high achievements before entering
“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.
Academic success is becoming increasingly important in today’s society because most occupations now require a degree of some kind before a job applicant will even be considered. For that reason, academic performance has a considerable impact on a student’s life and whether or not he or she is able to accomplish future career goals. There are many factors that can influence academic performance of a college student, including student personality traits and life circumstances. Life circumstances are sometimes out of a student’s control, but if a student was able to recognize a quality of his or her personality that was inhibiting academic performance, then he or she could possibly make an effort to
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.
Finally, it is a general opinion among many that academic performance is a manner of will and determination of an individual rather than their socioeconomic status. For instance, in schools of higher learning, there are a lot of students from richer backgrounds who do not perform well as compared to those perceived to be from poor backgrounds (Sacerdote, 2002). Research has shown that while socioeconomic status may influence the availability or access to learning materials, it is the student’s personal determination to excel that determines the kind of lifestyle they
The transition from high school to university can be challenging for many students. Students quickly notice differences between the academic expectations of high school compared to those of universities. High school is heavily structured, students’ attendance and participation are regularly monitored, and teachers are in daily contact with them and provide regular feedback. On the contrary, university students are responsible for organising their course schedules. They are not mandated to attend lectures regularly and professors do not monitor their attendance in the majority of the courses. Additionally, assignments and tests are the only source of feedback. Students experience a higher level of discretion and freedom in universities. However, the freedom given to students can have negative impacts on their academic success. Many students attend the lectures sporadically and some do not attend them at all and merely do the assigned work. Moreover, students who attend lectures regularly and come to lectures prepared are more likely to succeed and do well in the course than students who do not. The lectures provide the opportunity to further explore and discuss ideas as well as ask questions and clear up any ambiguities about that specific idea. Therefore, universities should promote regular attendance by making students realize their financial, academic and social responsibilities as university students.
Pintrich, P. R. (2004). A conceptual framework for assessing motivation and self-regulated learning in college students. Educational Psychology Review, 16(4), 385-407.
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.
Motivation is really important tool in a learning environment. Also motivation effects student learning and their behavior as well. It directs behavior towards particular targets. Also it effect the decision which students takes. In motivation mainly we have two types which is intrinsically and extrinsically being motivated. For example: when a student is intrinsically motivated they just do it for themselves not because of the reward that they will get back. It’s just because they have their own interest and they enjoy doing that. On the other side, when a student is extrinsically motivated they just do it for the reward that they will get. That’s why in learning process it’s important that each student should
Another important difference in students time management that is mainly affected by the learners motivation in school and at university. The motivation of school students is comes from parents and teachers, who reward or punish students for keeping up their studies. Students are unexpected to plan or do anything besides follow the timetable and study schedule from teachers. When a student moves on to undertake university study at undergraduate level, there is demanded to be more self-motivated and independent learning. Such as plan a learning programme that takes into consideration time available for study. As Marshall and Rowland (1993, 41) shown that, ¡¥if students are studying at a distance in tertiary education are needed to be particularly careful in setting priorities and balance a certain time between work and study, family and social life.