Student Motivation

Pintrich and Schunk (2001) note that the motivation of students is one of the most important contributions to learning and achievement. In this regard, the authors state that motivation is especially important in terms of teaching adolescents because there is substantial research indicating that the transition from middle school into high school and again from high school out into the career world is often associated with motivational decline. The purpose of this paper is to examine two theories of motivation, the behaviorist and the humanist models, and discuss their usefulness to teachers of students ages 16 to 19 years.

Sansone and Harackiewicz (2000) define motivation for learning as a students' desire to participate in the educational process that is inclusive of the students' reasons and goals that underlie their involvement or non-involvement in the learning process. Students can be "intrinsically motivated" which is to say that they participate in learning for its own sake, enjoying the process for what it provides in terms of feelings of satisfaction and accomplishment. They can also be "extrinsically motivated" which means that they perform academically in order to obtain some sort of reward and/or avoid punishment, both of which are external to the inner learning process itself. Sansone and Harackiewicz note that motivation to learn, when strong, is char

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tivating than seeking knowledge and understanding. However, once a teacher has taken the time to ensure that students' lower-order needs are met, the effort to build motivation can begin. Based on the humanist approach, this would involve making sure that the student's interests are incorporated into class lessons (Kotter & Zehm, 2000). Hunter (1996) notes that other things which humanist theory holds as operating to spark intrinsic motivation are to help students concentrate on their tasks and to show them ways to respond to frustration by retracing their steps to find the mistakes that were made. Teachers should also show students plenty of alternative approaches to solving academic problems. All of this, Hunter states, will help students not only to succeed in terms of performance but will also help them to attribute any experienced failure to lack of effort or information rather than to lack of ability. In this way, they will maintain their intrinsic motivation at relatively high states. Hunter (1996) makes several other recommendations for building intrinsic motivation based on a humanist model. These recommendations include: ensuring that the classroom climate is caring and supportive, a place where students feel close t
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Approximate Word count = 1302
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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