WEEK 3 BLOG
Motivation is a condition that activates and sustains behavior towards a goal. This is significant throughout life; motivation meets engagement, persistence, and better learning results. Learning as the objective instead of performing as the objective is more effective in keeping the students engaged and persistent. Teachers can encourage students to focus on the learning aspects and not the grade. We do not determine students' intellectual worth based on standardized scores. How do students learn? Motivation is known to develop and change after some time.
In this way, the learning experience
should be dynamic. Self-efficacy, values, and interests are components within
motivation that need to be considered when developing a lesson plan. Teaching
needs to pertain to a specific audience. Intrinsic motivation to learn involves
willingness. Students are more opted to become or stay involved in a project
that they actively want to participate in and do not feel controlled. Who likes
to be pressured into doing something they do not want to do? External rewards
can be a great motivator. These rewards would need to be age appropriate,
hopefully not the only motivation a student has to complete a task. That would
defeat the purpose of genuinely being engaged in the learning process. The
learners' desired outcome could be motivation enough. Teachers probably
influence students more than they expect. Students have lives outside of school
and may not have a positive influence at home. Teachers can lead and be
positive influencers that let them know they are intelligent and take a leap of
faith to try. Children are sometimes afraid of failure; however, if we believe in them and motivate them then they will work hard to achieve and succeed at reaching
their goals.
Gura mentions in the text that
creativity is a "safe" space. This means no judgment for the student's
efforts. It is essential to give them time to be creative, understand there is
no exact answer to creativity, know mistakes are a part of the learning process
and look at the lessons as challenges instead of assignments. Creativity is a social phenomenon that becomes a habit, and students
should embrace the reflection portion of their creativity to progress in their
craft (Gura, 2016).
The innovative designer ISTE student standard
coincides with motivation to learn and part 2 of Make Learn, succeed: Building a Culture of
Creativity in Your School (Gura, 2016).
Students can be creative with their solutions to open-ended problems that allow
them to expand their creative process, which entails the motivation to learn.
References
National Academies of Sciences,
Engineering, and Medicine. (2018). How
people learn II: Learners, contexts, and cultures. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies
Press. http://dot.org10.17226/24783
Gura, M. (2016). Make, learn, succeed: Building a culture of
creativity in your school. Eugene,
OR:ISTE
ISTE Standards for Educators
(2017). Retrieved from:
https://www.iste.org/standards/foreducators
Apathy has been a concern among some of my peers. I really believe motivation along with the ability to be creative would go a long way to curb some of the issues.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate Gura saying that creativity is a safe place. I think that too often, our students fear judgement. Teenagers, in particular, are so worried about not fitting in. I think creating a classroom/school where students feel like they can be their authentic selves is so important.
ReplyDelete