Increasing Levels of Motivation in Today’s School Systems



77001371600540005431155Increasing Levels of Motivation in Today’s School SystemsEducational pyschologyDiana Lawrence7900035000Increasing Levels of Motivation in Today’s School SystemsEducational pyschologyDiana Lawrenceright23002311402016760098002016Currently, the topics for educational reform include reducing drop-out rates, increasing preparation, and closing the achievement gap. Students seem to think the leading problems in schools today involve boring and meaningless curriculum. Teachers identify the main issues facing school systems as; the pressures of teaching associated with high-stakes testing, assessment, compromised attention spans and a lack of motivation. There are many problems that face the education system today; few are things that can be easily changed. The lack of motivation is an issue in which many other problems stem from. As educators, our ultimate goal is to help students learn; to motivate students and raise self-efficacy thereby obtaining mastery goal orientation. The primary purpose of this essay is to analyze the lack of motivation found in schools today and provide obtainable solutions. This will be accomplished by: defining motivation and self-efficacy, linking motivation to more pervasive educational problems, providing supportive data and current insight, and presenting achievable solutions.What is motivation? Psychologists define motivation as an intentional process that activates, guides, and maintains behavior over time CITATION Sla051 \l 1033 (Slavin, 2005). Motivation directly impacts learning and overall performance. In order to build capacity in a child; the child must have a strong foundation. What are some foundational tools that will help a child succeed? In order to learn a student must first have the desire. Association must be made in order for a student to answer the “why” in learning. If a student can’t relate a lesson to the purpose of learning, he or she simply will not be motivated. A child needs someone to guide or facilitate learning; a teacher. They need a learning environment that provides effective evidence-based instruction. Problem areas such as “teaching to the test” and poor methods of assessment do not contribute to the area of effective instruction. Boring and meaningless curriculum are often the result of poor lesson planning and pressures associated with the accountability imposed on teachers from programs that need revamping like; No Child Left Behind. Teachers tend to blame their students for lack of motivation when they do not achieve, yet teachers have an extraordinary impact on their student’s motivation. Success stories of students overcoming the odds and achieving are generally linked to an outstanding teacher. Passionate and encouraging attitudes modeled by teachers often sets the tone for learning. Educator Frank Pajares suggests that how well a student motivates himself or herself and preservers in the face of adversities relates directly to their vulnerability to stress and depression and the life choices they make CITATION Paj09 \l 1033 (Pajares, 2009). Therefore, the lack motivation can be clearly linked to unprepared students, achievement gaps and high drop-out rates. If we took things a step further, low levels of motivation could also be linked to unemployment, crime, and suicide. Conjointly, self-efficacy can be thought of as a tier or level to which a student is motivated to learn. Self-efficacy is a theory that often expounds upon the topic of motivation in the field of education. According to the social cognitive theory, self-efficacy beliefs provide the foundation for human motivation, well-being, and personal accomplishment: unless people believe that their actions can produce the outcomes they desire, they have little incentive to act or persevere in the face of difficulties CITATION Paj09 \l 1033 (Pajares, 2009). People with a strong sense of personal competence approach difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered rather than threats to be avoided CITATION Paj09 \l 1033 (Pajares, 2009). Therefore, there is a need to build self-efficacy beliefs for students.The necessity for education reform lies in the issues currently faced by our teachers, the political debates, and the everyday headlines. After interviewing several current teachers, concerns were introduced about the general lack of desire found in many students. One teacher privately confessed that after offering a student additional help with a project, the student responded by saying, “no, it’s good enough.” Teachers feel that students lack motivation. Current teacher Ms. Smith said she felt that kids struggle to do the hard work of learning sometimes because of their diminished attention spans. As an English teacher Ms. Smith found that her students suffered in the areas of reading, writing, and conversation. She attributed compromised attention spans to the overuse of technology. Further stating that technology has made kids more “instant” and less motivated CITATION Smi16 \l 1033 (Smith, 2016). NEA today, additionally supports this claim by adding that a student’s love of technology also tends to distract him from his schoolwork CITATION Che16 \l 1033 (Chen, 2016). Teachers find it can be difficult to keep students’ interest and attention while attempting to properly teach new concepts. Additional areas of concern for current teachers fall within the category of evaluation. There is an overwhelming demand put on teachers associated with achievement levels. This demand began with the No Child Left Behind Act in the attempt to set high standards and close the achievement gap. Many teachers found themselves forced to “teach to the test” in fear of punishment. This topic came up several times during various interviews. Both teachers and students feel that the creativity, and the overall effectiveness of lesson plans have suffered due to this attempt in education reform, impacting levels of motivation all around the board. This topic is further reinforced as educator Cindy Donaldson aspires to answer the question of why America’s students are falling behind, suggests that our schools are outdated. She states that in a world that runs on innovation and curiosity, our schools still teach to standardized test. They emphasize memorization and compliance in an era where data is only a smart phone away, and today’s cutting edge is tomorrow’s ancient history CITATION Don10 \l 1033 (Donaldson, 2010). Further expanding on this idea; current teachers have expressed concern about assessment and grading and how students and parents react to grades. Too often students view grades as a representation of their aptitude, ability, or even self-worth rather than the quality of their investment CITATION Shi08 \l 1033 (Shindler, 2008). Parents tend to react poorly when their children receive low grades, often blaming the teacher for the outcome. Prevailing headlines and political debates further emphasize the need for increased student motivation. In October of 2016, President Obama delivered remarks on education. He said the best jobs are going to the best educated. He said our schools were the leaders in education, but the world caught up. President Obama reviewed the need to continue to improve on higher graduation rates and greater college attendance. He declared that too many states had not raised standards and improved performance. Some school districts are still not fully preparing their students. In some schools one third of students do not earn their diplomas on time. He went on to say that in 2020 two out of three job openings will require some sort of higher education. In order to succeed in the market place students must have more sophisticated reasoning, they must be able to think creatively, and work within a team. He concluded by stating that we must continue to close the achievement gap, to fix the No Child Left Behind Act, and we must improve the quality of teaching CITATION Oba16 \l 1033 (Obama, 2016). If our goal as educators is to prepare students to become successful, contributing members of society, they must have attributes that are desirable in the present-day workforce. According to Mike Summers of Dell Computers, kids have an amazing lack of preparedness in general leadership skills and collaborative skills CITATION Don10 \l 1033 (Donaldson, 2010). What is the common denominator for all of these present-day concerns? Motivation: Current literature indicates that both students and teachers can have an impact on achievement and success. Motivation is something that can be transformed. A tremendous volume of research and data has been published suggesting effective strategies for increasing student motivation. As with many concepts involving learning, no one theory will suffice, but a review of all theories and their interrelatedness will be able to offer improvement into the teaching/learning process CITATION Sla051 \l 1033 (Slavin, 2005). First and foremost, a student must find a lesson interesting. On the grounds that most students do not find interest in all topics, incentives and enabling student control is important. The best type of incentive is related to intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation has to do with the personal desire or sense of relevance a student finds in a particular subject. In contrast, extrinsic motivation is related to things such as rewards or grades. Several educators presented a concern about how students and parents interpret grades. Grades have only symbolic meaning, not inherent value CITATION Shi08 \l 1033 (Shindler, 2008). Therefore, in practice, grades become more effective when they are clearly related to a meaningful outcome. It is important to incorporate authentic measures of assessment like feedback and rubrics that will be more motivational than the total number of correct responses CITATION Shi08 \l 1033 (Shindler, 2008). Feedback should be both explanatory and timely. Furthermore, it is suggested that grades and rankings should be deemphasized, and focus should be based off of effort versus ability. To do this it is suggested that educators use individualized instruction, progress at the student’s own level, and include efforts as a component of grading CITATION Sla051 \l 1033 (Slavin, 2005). Some of the biggest detriments to the testing and assessing of a student are the potential for the child to fall into a cycle of learned helplessness. Learned helplessness is when a student fails repetitively, falling into a cycle in which he or she eventually gives up. To help a child overcome learned helplessness Slavin suggests to accentuate the student’s strengths, set short-term goals, and link lessons to the students’ own experiences CITATION Sla051 \l 1033 (Slavin, 2005). Additional extrinsic motivational factors such as rewards should also be used sparingly and carefully. While writing his text book: Transformative Classroom Management, educator John Shindler suggests that giving students extrinsic rewards for engaging in learning tasks make’s the implicit statement that the activity was not worth doing on its own merits CITATION Shi08 \l 1033 (Shindler, 2008). While this is a strong position to hold, many professionals suggest that the use of continuous reinforcement leads to gradual decrease of motivation CITATION Shi08 \l 1033 (Shindler, 2008). Instead, focusing on creating meaningful lessons that students can relate to actual life is optimal. Lydia Dobyns President and CEO of New Tech Network suggest that students are most successful when what they are learning is real, relevant, engaging and prepares them for the life they are living now and will face after high school CITATION Dob13 \l 1033 (Dobyns, 2013). Giving student control means the teacher steps back into the position of a facilitator. Professionals suggest that teachers should resist telling students the answers. Instead, they should help the student find ways to analyze the problem and develop solutions CITATION Don10 \l 1033 (Donaldson, 2010). This process allows the student to gain critical thinking and problem-solving skills that future employers highly regard. Giving students a selection of assignments based on their interests, or allowing them to approach a task with a method of choice also provides the student with personal control. The concept of a teacher as a facilitator encourages the use of collaboration and cooperation, especially with peer tutoring and group projects. Cooperation is one of the best ways to promote a mastery goal orientation CITATION Top152 \l 1033 (Top 20 Principles from Psychology for PreK-12 Teaching and Learning, 2015). In addition, students will learn the leadership skills that are highly sought out by employers by working within a group. Furthermore, the concept of enabling student control includes setting expectations and goals. Teachers’ expectations for their students affect students’ opportunities to learn, their motivation, and their educational outcomes. It is best for teachers to communicate high expectations to all students and maintain appropriately elevated standards for everyone in order to avoid negative self-fulfilling prophecies CITATION Top152 \l 1033 (Top 20 Principles from Psychology for PreK-12 Teaching and Learning, 2015). This is especially true for students who belong to minority groups or have disabilities. The last focus area for motivational strategies has to do with modeled behavior. When teachers model flexibility, organization, and enthusiasm it increases student motivation. This contagious enthusiasm and high level of flexibility assist teachers who have a hard time keeping the students’ attention and encourages creativity in a high paced technologically advanced world. When lessons are greatly personalized, and students are offered variety, interaction becomes emphasized and children tend to have greater focus and are generally more motivated.After deeply exploring the issues our education system faces today it is apparent that motivation is a fundamental building block to establishing a student’s full potential. There are many issues the education system faces currently that don’t have valid solutions. Nevertheless, rigorous research provides effective strategies for increasing motivation in the school system. Teachers can directly influence how quickly attitudes and values change and how rapidly schools can be restructured to increase student achievement. The greatest goal in achieving motivation is to find out what a child is curious about, encourage him to pursue it, guide him, and build his curiosity and imagination. This can be done by providing the child with challenging tasks and meaningful activities that can be mastered, and guiding these efforts with the appropriate levels of support and encouragement with the end goal of developing self-efficacy. In a rapidly changing world, students have to be flexible, adaptable, and lifelong learners. Let’s make an explicit aspiration to create a generation of innovative learners who can think critically, collaborate well, communicate with others and be creative CITATION Dob13 \l 1033 (Dobyns, 2013). We must remain committed to the goal of increasing preparation, closing the achievement goal, and reducing dropout rates through the use of motivational strategiesReferences BIBLIOGRAPHY Dobyns, L. (2013, April 28). Countdown: Top 10 Education Issues I'm following in 2013. Retrieved from Huffington Post: , C. (2010, January 15). The Global Achievement Gap: Why America's Students are Falling Behind. Retrieved from : , M. (2015, May 27). 27 Intrinsic Motivation Ideas. Retrieved from The Better Plan: , B. (2016, October 17). President Obama Delivers Remarks on Education. Retrieved from The White House: , F. (2009, December 23). Motivational Consequences of Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Academic Attainments Implications for Teachers and Schools. Retrieved from Education: , L. (2016, November 17). Problems facing School Systems Today. (D. Lawrence, Interviewer)Shindler, J. (2008). Transformative Classroom Management. Boston: Allyn Bacon Publishers. Retrieved from calstatela: http:Slavin, R. E. (2005). Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice. Baltimore: Pearson.Smith, E. (2016, November 20). Problems Facing the Education System Today. (D. Lawrence, Interviewer)Top 20 Principles from Psychology for PreK-12 Teaching and Learning. (2015). Retrieved from American Psychological Association: ................
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