IPT 301 Week 9

1. I think that the students in my cohort classroom are more extrinsically motivated. Some evidence of this is that they want to show the teacher their work as soon as they are done and be praised for it. They also read with the intent of earning minutes towards a free pizza or kids meal at Applebees and they turn in their homework folders to get a piece of candy. I am sure that there are some lessons where they are intrinsically motivated but I think right now, they are usually externally motivated.
2. Intrinsic motivation is decreased by rewards and praise because then those students who were otherwise motivated by a desire to learn and discover will start to attribute their efforts to gaining said reward rather than just learning and discovering. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation will be increased by rewards and praise because those people who expect rewards for their efforts and perform merely to receive those rewards will continue to perform just to get those rewards and will not learn to be intrinsically motivated until said rewards are removed.
3. Expectancies and values influence student motivation because students lose any motivation to try a task if they have the expectancy that they will fail. They also lose motivation if they do not think that there is a real value in the task they are completing. On the other hand, students will have more motivation if they believe they will succeed and will be especially more intrinsically motivated if they believe that what they are doing is of real worth and something that they will need or want to know in the future. Expectancy and value also effects students’ motivation because they will think about what the cost of a certain task is and if it is worth them taking time away from other things in order to complete.
4. I noticed that my mentor teacher did not praise the students for things that she already expected them to know how to do. This made her praise more real because then if she praised the students it was more likely that they actually deserved if for their efforts. She also kept high expectations for all of the students and put a big emphasis on their own responsibility to learn. I think that this view helped increase their motivation because it focused on the effort that the students put forth and put success on controllable causes. She wouldn’t help the students with things she knew they could do themselves which also helps increase motivation and increases their expectancy.
5. I agree with the behavioral theory because it makes sense that some people are motivated to learn by the outward rewards, the need to please others, or the desire to learn. I have seen all of these things at some point in my life and could agree that these explanations are accurate. On the other hand, I also think that the self-worth theory has a very convincing argument because I can also see instances where people may have been fearing failure or accepting failure and these are the things that affected their performance.