In the work of a teacher, perhaps one of the most important aspects of the job involves motivating students to learn.
Motivated students are more likely to pay more attention in class, be more respectful of others while in class, and retain information better.
Students who are given strong encouragement and reasons to learn generally perform better in class, and work to build important social and cognitive understandings and skills.
There are many ways to motivate students, and these techniques can be filtered into several theories of motivation, each one taking its own unique approach to the subject.
In my own classroom, and highlighting my own personal views, the expectancy theory of motivation strikes me as best suited to the task.
This theory of motivation encompasses both intrinsic and extrinsic factors of influence for students.
The expectancy theory focuses on the student's desire to receive or win an award of some kind based on their assumption of whether or not the reward is worth the effort put into getting it.
However, this desire to achieve such rewards must first come from the student's own feelings of competency and ability.
They may decide not to even try for an award, no matter how much they may value it, if they do not believe they are capable of doing the work or learning the information.
On the other hand, a student who feels as though they can accomplish the task will be motivated to do the work intrinsically, and through the promise of a personally valued reward, will also be motivated extrinsically.
The reward itself does not necessarily have to be tangible or have high monetary value, but does have to represent some personal value to the student.
The rewards a student works toward in expectancy theory may be an intrinsic motivation to simply be the best or achieve a high/personal-best score or an extrinsic reward such as food, grades or trophies.
Expectancy theory works through students as a tool that recognizes effort and achievement, while still addressing multiple levels of student personalities and expectations.
By ensuring that the material covered in class is achievable yet not boring, students will be more likely to feel as though they can accomplish the work to an acceptable degree.
By knowing what kinds of things motivate students, teachers can ensure that students who require motivation in this way have something to strive for and are encouraged to push themselves into higher levels of learning and thinking.
In the classroom, teachers using the expectancy theory of motivation must be sure that their curriculum is both feasible and challenging for student understanding and capability.
If students are given too much work or not enough, the likelihood that they will be motivated to complete the task (no matter what the reward) will probably be much lower than if they were given stimulating and decently challenging material/goals.
The students must believe they can and want to do the work before they consider putting themselves through it to reach the reward.
In order to accomplish this, I will give students several options to choose from when a project, paper, or presentation comes up in the curriculum.
Students can decide which one they think is best suited to them, and therefore feel more confident about being able to complete the assignment successfully.
I will also allow students to contract for their grades.
By grading this way, the students set the grade standard themselves, and thus are not in competition with anyone else to get the highest score.
This kind of system sets students up so as to empower them to motivate themselves into believing that they are capable and have the ability to complete the assignment.
I also may add a grading section for the students so they can reflect on the effort they felt had been put into their work.
A variety of assessment tools will be used depending on what kind of grade the students contract for, and take into consideration the material they chose to work with.
When students feel that they have the ability to do something well, they can be motivated even more by providing them with personally valuable rewards.
To find out what my students value, interest inventories and surveys will be given to all of my students at the beginning of the school year.
I will look through the data and decipher what kinds of rewards students feel would best motivate them to learn and achieve their goals.
Some examples of this may include pizza parties, allowing students to bring in movies, food/candy, honor roll admission, or dropping an assignment from being graded.
If students feel that the reward is worth the effort of doing the work, they will be more motivated to complete the task successfully.