Bret Atkins

Educational Psychology and Learning Theory 5302

July 9th, 2017
Dr. Duckworth

Unit 5 Final Exam Essay

Teachers who do not understand their students are unlikely to be successful in

their attempts to educate students and manage a classroom. Educators can benefit

tremendously by understanding the motives and rationale for students actions in the

classroom. In this paper, we will discuss a variety of classroom scenarios. We will focus

on the underlying reasons for the behavior demonstrated in each scenario, as well as

actions teachers can take to handle each situation.

Students actions in the classroom are complex, and no situation is the same.

There are a variety of motives for student behavior. Motivation is defined as An internal

state that arouses, directs, and maintains behavior. (Woolfolk, 2016). What

circumstances lead to this internal state? How can teachers influence student

motivation? The behavioral view of motivation focuses on the teacher using rewards and

consequences to create motivation. In the behavioral view of motivation, students create

motivation for desired behavior through rewards such as high grades, stars, or the

promise of an early lunch break. On the other hand, teachers diminish motivation for

poor behavior through punishments such as low grades or disciplinary actions. The

humanistic view of motivation focuses on motivating students through students innate

desire to achieve the best version of themselves, or self-actualization. The humanistic

view of actualization focuses on developing inner qualities such as confidence,

independence, and self-efficacy through praise and increased autonomy in the classroom.

The humanistic view of motivation relies heavily on Maslows hierarchy of needs.

According to the humanistic view of motivation, students cannot strive for self-

actualization unless their lower level needs- such as food, love, and self-esteem- are

fulfilled. The cognitive view of motivation, similar to the humanistic view, emphasizes

intrinsic motivation. The cognitive view of motivation focuses on developing motivation

by developing the correct thought patterns and belief systems in students. An example of

the cognitive view of motivation is attribution theory; attribution theory states that

students are more likely to be motivated if they believe that successes are the result of

hard work and sustained effort, and less likely to be motivated if they believe successes

are the result of innate intelligence and circumstance. The cognitive approach to

motivation strives to create a growth mindset in students, whereby they take

responsibility for learning and believe in the rewards that come from sustained effort.

Sociocultural approaches to motivation focus on the social identity that students develop.

According the sociocultural view of motivation, students are motivated to learn if they

are part of a group that values learning and academic achievement. Thus, teachers can

motivate students by creating a classroom culture that values the contributions of each

individual, and holds students to high standards. There is truth in every theory of

motivation. Students can be motivated through the classroom environment, by appealing

to their inner desire for excellence, and by rewarding good behavior. However, no single

approach works in every situation. Let us examine situations with a variety of student

behaviors, and approaches educators can take to work with students.

How do we motivate students who have low self-efficacy? Annie is a fifth-grade

student in Mr. Baers class. For five consecutive days, she has not participated in class,

and has made negative comments regarding her ability to successfully complete writing
assignments. One day, Annie tells Mr. Baer that she just cant do this writing stuff. As

a teacher, it is possible to understand this comment in the context of Albert Banduras

social learning theory. According to social learning theory, people learn through those in

their social surroundings by observing and imitating their behavior. Annie may be from a

family that does not value academic prowess, so she is imitating her family. It is also

possible that some of her friends have a particular distaste for writing, and she is

imitating their behavior. The sources of Annies low self-efficacy may be past academic

experiences, or comments made towards her by others. She may have had a fourth grade

teacher who was very critical of her writing ability, and consistently gave her poor grades

on writing assignments. Similarly, her belief in her writing ability may have been eroded

by friends who made fun of her for spelling mistakes, or parents who told her she was not

going to be great at writing because nobody in the family is. Whatever the root cause of

Annies low motivation and self-efficacy in writing may be, there are a variety of

methods for a teacher to increase her motivation and self-efficacy in writing. A teacher

can apply social cognitive theory towards enhancing Annies approach towards writing.

Social cognitive theory believes that we learn by observing others who model desired

behavior. Thus, a teacher could increase Annies writing ability by showing her a well-

written writing assignment, or by having her do pair work with an exemplary student. A

teacher could also teach Annie to self-regulate her writing practice by applying Winne

and Hadwins model of self-regulated learning. According to this model, a teacher

should teach Annie to regulate her learning by analyzing the writing assignment, setting

specific goals for accomplishing the writing assignment, developing a plan for the writing

assignment, and by enacting learning strategies to carry out the writing of the assignment.
If the teacher can successfully implement these techniques, perhaps Annie will have

success with writing assignments. After Annie experiences success, her self-efficacy and

motivation will increase as a result.

In order to have motivated students, teachers must teach students the correct

mindset. As an example of student mindset, we will look at two students: Bill and Elliot.

Elliot puts forth little effort in school, yet he is concerned with the appearance of his

work, and his quick to brag about his achievements to others. Bill, on the other hand, is

immersed in his school work, yet he does not seem overly concerned about his

appearance or test scores. Suppose Bill and Elliots school is having an annual fund-

raising drive, and Bill and Elliot are tasked with selling candy. Both students are asked to

set goals for selling the candy. What kind of goals would they set, and how would these

goals differ? Elliot is likely to set goals that deal with the outcome of selling the candy-

for example, raising $300, or raising more money than anyone else. Bill, on the other

hand, will be much more likely to set goals that focus on the process of salesmanship

itself, how many of each types of candy he will sell, where he will sell the candy, and

how he will approach potential buyers. Students like Elliot are likely to set performance

goals, which are goals that are concerned with competition and the outcome of

assignments and tests. On the other hand, students like Bill are more likely to set

learning goals, which are goals regarding the mastery of material and the learning

processes involved. Students with learning goals are far more likely to master learning

content. Students with learning goals are also much more likely to be highly motivated.

Elliots teachers do not necessarily need to discourage him from being focused on his

performance. However, his teachers can emphasize to him the importance of the process,
which leads to mastery level performance. In other words, Elliot will be a more

motivated student if his teachers can teach him to set incremental, daily goals which will

compound into mastery level performance on assignments and tests.

Teachers may also be tasked with handling conflict with students. Conflict

between teacher and student can be a tenuous situation, as students and teachers both may

be sidetracked by the conflict, leading to a decline in student motivation. As an example,

we will look at a conflict between Ellen and Mr. Fournier, Ellens ninth-grade Spanish

teacher. Ellen stands up from her seat, and then refuses to return to her seat when Mr.

Fournier asks her to, she says, "You're always picking on me. I've had it with being the

one who's told to do everything." Mr. Fournier remains calm and says, "Ellen, return to

your seat right now." However, Ellen refuses to return to her seat. Mr. Fourniers initial

response to Ellen is assertive; he is not being hostile or aggressive, so Mr. Fournier is on

track. What should he do next? Mr. Fournier should ask Ellen to go out into the hallway.

He should then wait a few minutes to allow Ellen time to cool down. Then, he should go

out into the hallway and attempt to have a conversation with Helen. If they fail to resolve

the situation quickly in the hallway, Mr. Fournier can utilize Gordons no-lose method.

Using this method, Mr. Fournier can meet with Ellen and first define the problem by

stating his issue with Ellens behavior, and giving Ellen a chance to give her side of the

story. Next, Ellen and Mr. Fournier brainstorm possible solutions to the conflict. After

this, they can evaluate each solution, decide on the best one, and determine on a specific

plan of implementing the solution. Lastly, after a period of time, Mr. Fournier will need

to meet with Ellen to determine the success of the solution they decided to implement. If
it has been successful, and Ellens behavior has changed, then Mr. Fournier has helped to

make Ellen a more focused and motivated student!

There are a variety of approaches to motivation that teachers must take into

account in order to ensure that students are motivated to learn in their classroom. As

teachers, we must ensure that we do everything in our power for students to be confident,

for a positive culture and climate to dominate our classroom, and for student discipline

issues to be managed in a way that motivates a student instead of distracting. Most

importantly, we must be persistently creative, recognizing that no single approach will

work for every student.

References:

Woolfolk, A. (2016). Educational Psychology (13th ed.). Pearson Education.