To get a good start for myself, I must first discover my motives to drive me to pass this course! J What can I use from the lessons to be explored? As an academic staff in the school, I must assist the teachers regarding their teaching performance in one way or another. A problem always found in class is that students are lacking attention and motivation to learn or to cooperate in learning activities. To generalize, most Thai kids are not self-regulated and are not self-study learners. It is challenging to make these kids be more self-motivated and to create intrinsic motivation in them. Besides the perspective of students, motivational design can be involved with my role to promote motivation at work to both teaching staff and non-teaching staff. Researches in motivational design and models will definitely reveal strategies to help me deal with these circumstances.
This week I select to write the reflection on the article “What is motivational design?” by John M. Keller. It is edited from the original version appeared in the encyclopedia (Keller, 1988).
Motivational design can be defined as making changes in motivation through the process of managing resources and procedures. In terms of educational instruction, motivational elements should be embedded in the instruction to make it more appealing. It is like we add colors to a plain instruction to make it more colorful.
Reading through the article, I learnt that motivation researchers and instructional designers are not in the same field. Motivational perspectives are not distinctive in the instruction design. However, they are closely consistent with reinforcement, feedback and gaining attention in the field of instructional design. Effective instruction can happen without motivation. Students can achieve the goals of the lessons without the motivational part in the lesson. To another extent, I think it is better that we make the lesson more interesting to students by adding motivational elements in it. How? This is to be further explored.
Coming across extrinsic and intrinsic rewards, extrinsic rewards are not long-lasting element to foster motivation. The extrinsic rewards can be certificates, grades, advancement in position, etc. It is claimed that the motivational design aims to create an instruction that is intrinsically interesting. How? This is again to be further explored.
Motivational design has its scope of use. For those learners with severe symptoms of learning disorder or mentally problems, assistance from specialists will be needed. It is beyond the scope of motivational design to cure these problems. At this point, we should learn more to separate the types of learners so that we know which one is beyond motivational assistance. Then, we can transfer such learners to psychological specialist.
In this article, the author provides a glimpse of motivational models. Details in each model are needed to research further if interested. Motivational models are categorized into 4 groups.
1. Person-Centered Models
The person-centered models tend to believe that people have inner drives that influence their motivation and development. Alschuler and Simon et al’s studies interest me as they researched how to improve school childr’s self-motivation and self-awareness besides from only making the instruction appealing. My personal note is to search more on their studies.
2. Environmentally-Centered Models
The environmentally-centered models claim that environment influences human’s will. Well-known programmed instruction by B.F. Skinner falls on this category. The programmed instruction is a combination of instructional design and motivational design. Read more about programmed instruction here.
Expanded from Skinner’s model, Keller designed the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) or the Keller Plan. It is a self-paced instruction which students can decide when to take the test and if to do the re-test. The Plan is a combination of programmed instruction, instructional activities and instructional management system.
3. Interaction-Centered Models
The models are also known as social learning theory and expectancy-value theory. They study influences of environmental circumstances on behavior. Examples of influences are teaching style and complimenting.
Expectancy-Value Theory (DeCharms, 1968) Expectancy = Personal causation Value = Achievement motivation
Main idea of the theory is to change individual behavior to help them feel confident and in control of their destinies. Personal causation is a person’s awareness of his/her competence and effectiveness.
Keller’s ARCS model A = Attention R= Relevance C= Confidence S = Satisfaction
Problem-solving model which we can use to track down the motivational problems of the instruction. It is widely used in studies of all education levels and various cultures.
4. Omnibus Models
The omnibus models are not considered the motivational design models. Rather it is the study of motivational elements embedded in the models.
More researches on motivation are highly encouraged!
Hi Ornisa,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your efforts. You summarized these motivational models from the article. It is a good idea to write the basic principles for each one and its implication in instructional settings. I think some of these models related to the basic concepts of motivation which are extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. The important issue in these models even in ARCS's model how we can maintain learner's motivation in different learning situations.
Hey Ornisa,
ReplyDeleteI like your discussion on extrinsic and intrinsic rewards with instruction. I agree that it is difficult to figure out a way for students to become intrinsically interested in instruction. The extrinsic forms of motivation are much more easy to regulate and see, especially in the elementary grades, but it must take a lot of work to see if someone is intrinsically motivated. For your thoughts on students with mental disorders that need to see a psychologist, can we say that they are beyond motivational assistance or that they might just be at a different pace? Or they have a tough time expressing their motivation in a way that we understand? These are just some thoughts I had while reading that section.
Hi Amber,
DeleteThanks for you comment. My personal interpretation about the scope of motivational enhancement and psychological assistance is that if we can see that our students are not just lacking motivation in learning rather they are having psychological problem, we should refer them to have the psychological therapy. Motivational instruction designed for them may help them to a certain level or may not help at all. In my school, we don't have a teaching service for special need students. However, it sometimes happens that we found later that they are special so we referred the kids to counseling service or psychologist.
Hello Ornisa, and Amber and Zuheir.
ReplyDeleteInteresting comment on Thai children and how most are not self-regulated. One interesting thread could be looking across cultures. That could be an entire course. On children who other needs, I would say that, while they have compounding factors that could impact them and their interactions in the classroom, they still have motivational needs, and as Amber mentions, may mean employing different strategies. All learners have some level of motivation that can either help or hinder classroom performance.