PLE #2: Motivation

I remember briefly discussing motivation in EP 210, but I don't think that we went over anything in great detail. I actually really enjoyed our discussion of motivation because I think that it's something we can all use when we're in the classroom. Motivating students to learn seems like one of the biggest challenges that we'll face as teachers, but we were provided with some really helpful ideas in class and the textbook. I know that I have personally experienced how difficult it can be to motivate even younger elementary students to learn. I wish that I had known about some of these techniques before because I think that some of them could have been really useful in the classroom. I always used to associate motivation with extrinsic rewards, like candy or getting a good grade on a test. It was nice to know that there are ways to build a student's intrinsic motivation.

As far as theories of motivation go, I think that Expectancy vs. Value theory could be really useful in motivating students. It makes sense that students are more motivated to complete tasks when they expect to do well (because they have done well in the past) and when they believe that they will benefit from performing the task at hand. I know that I personally am not very motivated to do math homework because I have a history of not doing very well at math, and I don't see much benefit in doing the work. I'm sure that my students will feel the same way. Understanding Expectancy vs. Value theory will be useful to me because I'll be able to understand the perspectives of my students.

I found this video from another educational psychology class at Randolph-Macon college. I think that it really helps explain expectancy vs. value theory in a way that we can all understand.



I also think that goal theory could really help motivate my students to learn. Actively setting goals can help add value because students can see that there is a reason to complete a task. I have learned that by providing students with specific goals (either short or long term) can enhance their motivation to learn because they feel like there is a reason for their action. This could also tie in with expectancy vs. value theory because, like I said before, goals can add value to a seemingly pointless task.

This video provides a really quick overview of goal theory. It really helped me to better understand what we learned in class: