I’m wrapping up my first semester of online graduate work. After three semesters + one semester of student teaching, I will be certified to teach English in secondary schools. An additional two semesters will earn a master’s degree, but I’ve been told to hold off on that until I have a teaching job as starting a teacher off in the lower pay bracket appeals to schools more. My posting for this site has fallen behind because every week I’ve had to write two posts on Blackboard and then write five responses to classmates’ posts. I’m in the process of writing something for this site about my decision to teach, so expect that fairly soon. Until then, here is a post on motivation for my last Module in my Psychology of Teaching course.
Motivation is the driving force behind learning. Without motivated students, our efforts as teachers are essentially fruitless. So before we can create a constructivist class or establish expected behaviors among our students, it’s important that we understand motivation and how to encourage it in our classrooms. Various factors influence motivation. Learners’ curiosity, goals and self-efficacy as well as their expectancies and attributions play a role in how much (or how little) motivation they bring to class. As we strive to activate prior knowledge in our teaching, we must be aware that past learning experiences affect how students decide to engage in learning. “What happens as a result of past learning determines to a large degree whether students will engage in new learning at some time in the future” (Driscoll, p. 323).
