Some of the main ideas from the chapter that I got was that motivation is a key part of any classroom. Kids need to be motivated in order to want to learn and in order to keep the interested in learning as a whole. Within this chapter, there were two types of motivation discussed: extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation deals with the doing more straightforward tasks that don't require much thinking and being rewarded for doing such behaviors while the intrinsic motivation relates to personal satisfaction by accomplishing something.
One question I did have over the text was how do we as teachers help kids to motivate themselves? Is there a certain way for us to get them excited to learn and expand their growth or is it all just something they have to learn on their own?
I think that it may become easy as a teacher to teach kids learned helplessness especially in the area of expertise we are in. For example, if I were to teach math I may become so focused on "helping" a child that I'm really just feeding them the answers. I believe it could mostly happen in an environment when we are one and one, but if it something I'm particularly fond of, as the teacher, it may be simple for me to get carried away by it and end up just giving the child the answers to everything instead of allowing them to figure this out for themselves.
I think that if you teach students about metacognition, they might be more likely to understand why intrinsic motivation is so important. If they know the importance of intrinsic motivation, they could be more likely to use it.
ReplyDeleteI'm a little confused by your distinction of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Is that what makes them extrinsic/intrinsic?
ReplyDeleteThere's definitely ways a teacher can help motivate students. There are a few discussed in Module 15, but more in 16 and 17 for this week--since these are somewhat more tied to intrinsic motivation.
Feeding answers could cause learned helplessness. I could see that. You're saying that no matter what they do, you'll just give the answer, so they'll 'think' they understand? They might feel like you're controlling? We discuss teacher control at the end of the course, but it definitely interacts with intrinsic motivation. A very controlling classroom limits choice and individual drive in particular ways. Try to imagine how it might affect motivation.