1	Motivating Students
2	What is motivation? Get up and go! Keep on keeping on! From within (intrinsic) or without (extrinsic) What energizes, drives, and directs behavior
3	Infants and young children appear to be propelled by curiosity, driven by an intense need to explore, interact with, and make sense of their environment. As one author puts it, “Rarely does one hear parents complain that their pre-schooler is ‘unmotivated’” (James Raffini, 1993).
4	What Influences Motivation to Learn? Culture
5	Are Schools Designed to Motivate Students? Grouping Curriculum Grading systems Distractions
6	Classroom Variables What are students expected to do? How are they assessed? How is time used? How are students grouped? How are students recognized? How is the class managed?
7	Complexity of Motivation – What are we really dealing with?
8	Approaches to Motivation
9
10	Intrinsic Motivation From “within” High self-efficacy Self-determination In control of their own destiny Can make choices in their lives Cognitive or social cognitive
11	How Do You Explain It?
12	Why You Did So Well! You studied hard. You’re smart. History just comes naturally to you. You were lucky. Dr. Davidson asked the right questions. Davidson likes you, so he gave you a good grade even though you didn’t know what you were talking about.
13	How Do You Explain It?
14	Why You Failed! You didn’t study hard enough. You didn’t study the right things. You didn’t feel well when you took the test. The student next to you was sick, and the constant coughing and sneezing distracted you. You were unlucky. She didn’t ask the questions you knew the answer to. You’re stupid. You’ve never been very good at math. It was a bad test. The teacher hates you and gave you a poor grade.
15	How Do You Respond?
16	Attribution Theory On what do students blame or credit their performance or non-performance? “The test was too hard.” “I was just lucky.” “I studied hard.” “I’m stupid.” “I’m smart.” “I’m glad I spent time using the study guide.” “The teacher doesn’t like me.”
17	Dimensions of Attributes
18	Analyzing Success “I have talent.” “My teacher helps me when I have trouble.” “I worked really hard to improve my skill.” “This is my lucky day.” “Math is easy.” “I was feeling really good that day.” “The mnemonics I used really helped.”
19	Analyzing Failure “I need to try a different approach.” “My teacher doesn’t like me.” “I’m a very anxious person.” “I had the flu when I tried out.” “I wasn’t cut out for this.” “The test was too hard.” “I didn’t study long enough.”
20	Influences for Attributions Pattern of past successes and failures Effects of these patterns Adults’ expectations for future performance Adults’ messages about successes and failures
21	Patterns of Behavior Frequent success...internal Attribute success to own effort or ability (internal) Attribute failure to own lack of ability or effort (internal) Frequent failure...external Attribute success to good luck or ease of task (external) Attribute failure to bad luck or task difficulty (external)
22	Failure Cycle – A Vicious Beast!
23
24	Success Cycle – Hard to Beat!
25	How Attributions Influence Cognition and Behavior Emotional reactions to success and failure. Expectations for future successes and failure. Expenditure of effort. Help-Seeking behavior Classroom performance Future choices Self-efficacy
26	Some Questions… When two students succeed, which one is more likely to be optimistic about future performance – the one who attributes the success to high ability, or the one who attributes it to high effort? When two students fail, which one is more likely to be optimistic about future performance – the one who attributes failure to low ability, or the one who attributes it to a lack of effort?
27	Developmental Factors Young Children Infer they have high ability if they succeed at difficult tasks, or if they improve. View ability as a temporary state of affairs that improves with effort. Older children and adolescents Infer that they have high ability only if they do better than their peers. View ability as a relatively permanent condition. Think of ability and effort as being negatively correlated – people with high ability try less hard than others do.
28	Promoting Productive Attributions Provide goals Specific, proximate goals that are challenging but attainable Provide learning strategies Appropriate for the specific student and learning context Create opportunities for early successes Coach student in self-talk: Move from “How smart am I?” to “How much progress have I made?” or “How much effort have I put into this?” Help student link personal effort or strategy to success Measure success using the proximal goal as criterion Ask questions such as, “What did you do when you tried?” Provide frequent feedback directed toward mastery goals as well as controllable, internal attributes (i.e., effort, strategies)
29	Promoting Productive Attributions, cont. Reinforce students’ successes, but don’t make a big deal of their failures. Demonstrate high expectations. Be aware of messages’ impact Attribute success to relatively controllable as well as uncontrollable internal factors “You’ve done very well. Obviously, you’re good at this, and you’ve been trying very hard to get better.” Attribute failure to relatively controllable, internal factors “Perhaps you need to study a little differently next time. Let me give you some suggestions.”
30	Promoting Productive Attributions
31	Learned Helplessness vs. Learned Industriousness “I can do it” vs. “I can’t do it.” Learned helplessness vs. self-efficacy Teachers can empower students!
32
33
34	Achievement Goal Theory Learning or Mastery Goals Competence or mastery Performance Goals Achievement, doing better than others, pleasing others
35	Achievement Goal Theory Learning Goals Self-confident Prefer new, challenging tasks Strive for success Prior success leads to new success View failure as a challenge to be met Persistent and ask for help (regroup) Take pride in accomplishments Performance Goals Not self-confident Set low, easy goals Prefer easy, repeated tasks Try to avoid failure Prior failure leads to new failure Underestimate prior successes Define self as “failure” when they fail Give up quickly
36	Achievement Goals & Climate
37	Failure Avoidance Tactics Not trying Procrastinating False effort Denial of effort From the student’s point of view, failure without effort does not negatively reflect on their ability: “Failure with honor”
38	Promoting Learning Goals Show our interests and capitalize on students’ interests Communicate belief that our students can learn and provide strategies and scaffolding Focus students toward learning rather than performance Allow failure and model what to do