Module 5

Throughout this course I have gathered so much information that will be beneficial to me in my career as an elementary educator.  Knowing how to properly analyze and prepare students for their upcoming years of education is an important aspect of teaching as well as being able to identify potential learning disabilities.  

Part of chapter 12 covered the topic of my research paper, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation.  This is a controversial topic and very interested to dig into.  Extrinsic motivation is doing something for a known reward such as a paycheck, toy, praise, bonus, etc.  Where intrinsic motivation is the exact opposite, accomplishing something for the simple reason of it makes you feel good, there is no known reward.  I personally believe that there is a middle ground that can be met inside the classroom when it comes to extrinsic and intrinsic motivation.  When it comes to teaching younger children, elementary aged level (kindergarten through fifth grade) it can be greatly beneficial to have some extrinsic motivation and I believe that it can also create healthy competition and teach students that you may not always be first place and win at everything you do.  When extrinsic motivation is utilized excessively it can have a negative impact on students and their motivation.  When a child is praised every single time they, for example, walk in the hallway quietly as instructed or they receive a prize from the classroom treasure chest every time they raise their hand, it begins to lose its effectiveness.  I believe that the goal of most teachers, and definitely the goal for me as a future educator, is to be able to balance the two and give the confidence and knowledge to students where they can apply it to their work and not need to be constantly praised and rewarded, some things you just have to do because they are an expectation and you will not be rewarded for them and this is not just true in school but in nearly every aspect of your life.   

Motivation and determination tie into Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (figure 12.1 pg.449) starting at the top with self actualization, aesthetic needs, cognitive needs, esteem needs, love and belongingness, safety needs and physiological needs. Cognitive needs, for example, require a person to have knowledge and understanding.  In order to have knowledge and understanding you must be willing to learn and explore without rewards or praise because in the long run having that knowledge and experience is much more rewarding and motivating than having a teacher tell you good job for opening up your textbook.  Self-motivation is influenced by many different factors such as, classroom goal structure and the level of support from parents/guardians  (pg.450).  The classroom environment is directly associated with student self-determination (pg. 450).  The Woolfolk text created some guidelines to support students and their self-determination, allow and encourage students to make choices through designing different ways to meet lesson objectives (technology, tests, a paper, etc), help students plan actions to accomplish self-selected goals, hold students accountable by having consequences for their actions and choices, provide reasoning for limits, rules and constraints (why do you have rules), acknowledge emotions, both negative and positive, are valid and understand them as a teacher and use non-controlling and positive feedback void of negative language (pg. 451).

I found the explanation of the attribution theory to be interesting and they definitely make sense.  The attribution theories of motivation, “describe how the individual’s explanations, justifications, and excuses influence motivation (pg. 458).  Bernard Warner related attribution theory to education through three different categories, locus, stability, and controllability (pg. 458-59).  In order to properly encourage each student’s self-worth, there are some guidelines to follow, as teachers, emphasize that abilities are not set, but are always improvable, teach directly about the difference between learning goals and performance goals, make the classroom a place where failure is just diagnostic (it just tells you what you could improve upon) and always encourage students to seek help and also give help to others (pg. 462).  

This chapter was very interesting and helpful in learning useful ways to motivate diverse students from different cultures, different learning capabilities and different learning limits as well.  I will definitely keep these guidelines handy when I do become a teacher because each student is different and in order to properly motivate and utilize intrinsic and extrinsic motivation as well as reaching students who may suffer from anxiety or they may not have involved parents who are interest in their school work, I must be able to find a motivation inside each of them and bring it out so that they can reach their full potential.