Intrinsic Motivation Blog 1

The main focus on the two chapters was the factors that motivate students to succeed and become intrinsically motivated to learn.  Cognitive theories of motivation suggest that in order to change a student’s motivation, they have to first change the way they think.  The first theory is the expectancy-value theory in which the expectancy concept is whether or not the students think they can do the task, and the value is students reasoning for doing a task.  Some of the values include intrinsic value- satisfying interest, attainment value-importance of being good at something, and utility value- usefulness for meeting goals.  Another theory is the goal theory in which students for goals for academic and nonacademic interests.  An achievement goal is important and focuses on the reason for choosing a task and the standards chosen to measure performance.  Different types of goals motivate students: based on need to succeed, fear of failure, and competence to others.  The attribution theory focuses on students past experiences and how it affects them.  Some students have an incremental view in which they believe that ability is unstable and controllable.  While others have an entity view of ability in which they believe ability is stable and uncontrollable.  It’s important for teachers to have an incremental view on student’s ability, because if they share an entity view they are likely to pass judgment quickly and not change their initial judgment when the behavior changes.  It’s important for teachers to teach students that failure is linked to lack of effort rather than low ability.  It’s also important for teachers to teach students to value effort, challenge, and improvement.  If teachers can reduce the competition in the classroom and emphasize the value of learning, students are more likely to become intrinsically motivated.  The second chapter focuses on the self-theories.  The Self-efficacy Theory in which students have expectations for success on a particular task, it’s important for students to believe they have the knowledge and skills to succeed at a particular task.  It’s also important for teacher to maintain a high teacher-efficacy, in which they believe they have the ability and skills to teach all students effectively.  Teachers with high efficacy spend more time on planning, are more willing to try new methods, use classroom management strategies to promote achievement, and show persistence in helping students who are having difficulty.  The self-worth theory focuses on the needs to maintain a sense of self-wroth and evaluation of values.   The self-determination theory promotes self-autonomy, competence, and relatedness as being necessary factors for students to be intrinsically motivated.  This theory focuses on four types of students who are approach success and failure in different ways.  It’s important as a teacher to understand which students fall into the different categories and use this to help them succeed. This theory relates to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in which if lower needs aren’t met it’ll interfere with a student’s learning. 

How can you promote self-worth in a first grade classroom?

I have been successful in school for most of my life.  I found myself being successful in the classes that I put effort into, and less successful in classes that I blew off because they were “easy.”  For the most part I did well in classes, but I resisted taking more challenging classes for fear of failure, or that the teacher would be too hard.  Now that I’m in college, I’ve realized that I can achieve difficult tasks if I put effort in.  I could have easily taken more challenging classes in high school, if I would have put my effort into them.  But I believed that the external factors would inhibit my performance such as teachers hard grading skills and being in the same class with students of a higher-ability. In my hard classes I blamed external factors such as too long of reading assignments, and tests that were impossible.  If I received a low score I blew it off and didn’t try any harder for my next test.  When I did well in a class, I continued the same strategies.  I didn’t put very much effort into high school classes.  I thought many things were out of my control, but now I understand that if I would have worked hard I could have achieved at any level of class.