Motivation in the Classroom

The School Motivation and Learning Strategies Inventory (SMALSI) is a self-report tool designed to determine student performance across a comprehensive set of behaviors representing learning strategies, academic motivation, and test-taking. This inventory is unique in that it is designed especially for use with school-aged youth. There are two forms: a Child Form for students aged 8-12 years, and a Teen Form for students aged 13-18 years. Both forms consist of over 100 items written at a third grade reading level, which should take from 20-30 minutes to complete. The SMALSI can be administered individually or to a group; the form also can be read to students who have difficulty reading. The SMALSI is intended for use in both general and special education for the purposes of: (a) screening to facilitate identification of topics for group instruction; (b) prereferral intervention, which may ameliorate learning difficulties and avert the need for special education; (c) special education assessment, which is linked directly to intervention in areas that may exacerbate academic difficulties; and (d) research related to understanding the nature of these skills and to the development of effective interventions for learning strategies, test taking, and academic motivation.

Understanding how students are motivated can help educators engage students in learning activities and ultimately improve their academic performance. Researchers Mandy Sedden and Kevin Clark summarizes students’ and instructors’ perspectives on motivation and explores instructional strategies educators can use to motivate college students (Sedden & Clark, 2016). This journal article discusses the impact student motivation or lack of motivation has on the overall outcome of their educational experience. Sedden and Clark noted that many students of the millennial generation view education as an acquisition rather than a process of learning (Sedden & Clark, 2016). In other words, the thought of the high-paying job or improved intellectual status that awaits after completing school is more alluring than the process of attaining knowledge. According to the research students are intrinsically motivated when the instructor is motivated themselves, the lessons are interactive, the atmosphere is positive and well-organized, and the instructor demonstrates they care about the students.

The United States of America is known for being a country filled with people of many different ethnic backgrounds. Likewise, the student population in schools is just as diverse as it continues to grow. Lynch (2015) notes that schools are expected to teach their students “how to synthesize cultural differences into their knowledge base” as this will help “facilitate students’ personal and professional success in a diverse world” (para. 8). Educators must be able to provide for the diverse needs of students and are expected to equip students with skills that can lead to healthy development as it can affect higher levels of student achievement and students have more opportunities of success in their future. Providing students with tools and skills requires an awareness and acceptance of their ethnic identity. Once students have developed self-acceptance about their ethnic identity, they can begin to feel empowered and motivated to do well. Through cultural empowerment, students of color can develop intrinsic motivation and achieve academic success.

Can you elaborate on what your mean by your statement on staying motivated and how that brings excitement to lesson plans and keeping students engaged? Are you referring to staying motivated yourself in reference to bring excitement into the lesson plans? In other word keeping yourself pump up or motivated for the lessons you will be delivering. If so do you believe that your lessons all need to be exciting and entertaining for each student? Or are you referring to internist or extrinsic motivation for engaging students? If so, how do you tap into what motivates your students especially since each individual student will have their own motivational venue.

Current research on young adolescent student motivation shows that the teacher must; make the lesson connect to the outside world as much as possible, let the students decide where they sit or what project to work on, guide the student rather than tell them the way, and be someone the student can trust and depend on. Teachers must motivate their students to become better and more engaged within the classroom by using techniques that allow the student to develop their own sense of motivation.

“I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think.” Written by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, this heartfelt quote, though it may not look it from her quiet and thoughtful demeanor in the classroom, perfectly describes Samantha Rowberry, myself, a 14 year old girl currently living in England and attending Lakenheath Middle School. Samantha is known for being the girl with the crazy socks, the smart one (a.k.a. the human computer), a frequent actress in school plays, and a fairly good singer; however, there is more to anyone than meets the eye, and the same is true for her. Most people that have met her know nothing of the fact that she was once a dancer and has choreographed her own dances, or even that she

Motivation is a driving factor in the success of learning a new skill. Ideally, a student is intrinsically motivated to perform a task; although, as educators have seen in the classroom, this is not typically the case. Therefore, introducing reinforcers to help motivate a student is beneficial, but only if the reinforcer is paired with a preferable item, activity or situation. Educators should remember that reinforcers are personal to the individual student and may not be appropriate for all students in the

Every accomplishment, small or large, comes from the motivation one has to succeed in their goals. Motivation is not always present in the classroom, for example in Mrs. Garcia’s classroom at Milby High School. For me, knowing Spanish was a given since most of my family speaks it. Although this is the case, I never used Spanish with them because they can understand English. For this reason, I only knew the basics and couldn’t hold a conversation with it. My parents always wanted me to learn more Spanish and perfect it in order to have a better future. I never saw the point of it until I was placed Mrs. Garcia’s Spanish level 1 class. The first days of class I had zero motivation into learning Spanish but as the weeks passed

In the words of the late John F. Kennedy, “leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” Through various leadership positions in organizations such as Shop with a Bulldawg and Delta Epsilon Psi I’ve learned in order to be an effective leader, one must be willing to interact with and learn from others. By bringing this mindset to KYCOM, my peers and I can mutually benefit from each other through a positive and motivated learning approach, which will help each KYCOM student flourish in the classroom. I am more than enthusiastic to be a part of the KYCOM community because I believe the education and devotion to primary and rural health care I will receive will be second to none. Through an enthusiastic learning approach and my power

Classroom motivation can be a trying event in a high school arena especially in mathematics. Mrs. Bettice took matters in her own hands compiling questions for research action plan to evoke insight to her unenthusiastic math class. This qualitative study collected information through a student survey to apprehend reasons for her unenthusiastic math learners.

When teaching a lesson, the first core teaching strategy I use to achieve my results is to engage the students and/or relate it to my students. Students learn much more effectively when they are engaged and interested in the topic they are learning. By creating an activity that gets the students involved and interested they will learn the material more easily and have fun while doing it. I could also relate their lives and interests in my lessons. Students will pay more attention when the topic is related to their lives.

Motivation can be broken down into several subtopics that can address finer details with student motivation. One of the main issues is that students are not becoming personally invested in the class rather then being motivated by their grades. According to Alfie Kohn, students who are motivated by their grades is known as especially problematic, this has effects of decreasing a student’s interest in learning, and shutting down curiosity and risk-taking (Kohn, 2009). Also Mr. Kohn wrote a great book about how students are punished by rewards. In his book Punished by Rewards; he states incentives never produce anything more then temporary obedience. The more we use incentives to motivate people, the more they lose interest in what you are having them learn (Kohn, Punished by Reward, 1993). Couple ways to influence a student’s personal investment in a topic is to affect their self-efficacy and action possibilities. When helping students become confident in the subject matter, they can successfully engage in-group work and have positive outcomes in class by working on their self-efficacy skills. Closely connected to the concept of self-efficacy is that of action possibilities because actions you believe are possible and what you believe about the consequences of those actions (Peteranetz, Motivation, 2015). When students think that they are able to learn by just doing the necessary things to

What is motivation? What influences it? The term motivation can be defined in different ways. Motivation can simply defined as “ a need that, if high, is evident in a strong desire to achieve, to excel, to reach a high level of excellence” (Lefrancois 430). To become motivated, one must have a positive attitude to a variety of learning skills. Some factors that influence motivation include our peers, friends, parents, and environmental settings. Division four being high school division, attention is focused towards learning and what methods can be used. Students at this stage are more eager and develop a sense of what he or she wants to do and accomplish in upcoming adulthood. With a division comes a group of intelligent theorists. All

In addition to both teacher and student experiencing low levels of motivation, little to no attention is paid to the

One of the growing struggles educators face is poor student attitudes. Behavior problems and lack of motivation manifest in education when students have misconceptions and poor attitudes about education. As scripted and standardized lessons have become the expectation and educational norm, many graduates of an educational program will enter the workforce with the ability to regurgitate information but lack the skills needed for innovation and problem-solving in their careers and daily lives. In preparing students to be successful in education and furtur careers, teachers must be willing to step off the beaten path to spark a deeper connection to the material for the students. In creating classrooms that foster motivation for learning, educators must be willing to self-assess their teaching methods and styles to gauge if their classroom mechanisms are effectively engaging the students.