Enhancing students motivation

Enhancing Students Motivation

Student motivation is a major problem in classrooms. Many children are bored, inattentive, and unable to see much connection between schoolwork and their livesoutside classrooms. Their boredom diminishes attention, lowers achievement, and is a likely reason for dropping out of school.

A review of the research on motivational strategies showed that teachers candesign learning activities in more stimulating and valuable ways for children. Teachers may capitalize on four sources of motivation -- student curiosity, challenge of the assignment, relevance ofthe content, and student sense of control. The following strategies use these sources to make learning more interesting and relevant for students.

Theorists have developed several approaches tomotivation which fall in four broad categories. Adopting these approaches can assist teachers in their endeavor to provide the right conditions for student learning: (1) the behavioral view, (2) thecognitive view, (3) the humanistic view, and (4) the achievement motivation theory.
The Behavioral View
The behavioral interpretations of motivation rest on B. F. Skinner’sbehavioral learning theories and focuses on the reinforcement of desired behavior through the use of extrinsic reward.
Psychologists have noted that excessive use of extrinsic forms of motivation such aspraise and rewards may lead to resentment, limitation of transfer, may cause dependency on teachers, the undermining of intrinsic motivation, and viewing learning as a means to an end. They suggest thatto limit the negative effects of extrinsic rewards, teachers should use extrinsic forms of reward only when correct or desired responses occur.
The Cognitive View
Cognitive theoryemphasizes intrinsic motivation. When teachers utilize intrinsic motivation techniques, such as the arousal of disequilibrium, students value learning for its own sake.
The major limitation...