Student Motivation “The most important attitude that can be

and formed is that of the desire to go on

learning”
Technology -John Dewey, 1938

Matthew D. Laliberte
March 6, 2006
mdl@wpi.edu

What Motivates You?

What motivated you to attend today?

What motivates you to work?

What motivates you to play?

How do you motivate students?

How do you motivate individual students?

© Artlex

1
Motivation is… Qualities of Motivation

Complex
Energizes behaviors

Physical & psychological

Directs behaviors

Unique to each and every

person
Enables persistence towards a goal

Context-sensitive
Exists in varying strengths

Not fully understood

What does the Research Tell Us? What else does the Research Tell Us?
Technology helps to motivate students, as it… Studies tell us that…

Garners and maintains student attention;

Enables the conceptual to be made visual;

Dynamically represents processes often seen as static or
theoretical;

Brings the real world into the normally self-contained
classroom;

Leverages the visual learning strengths many students of
the Millennial Generation possess

The targeted use of multimedia as an instructional
methods results in increased student motivation

Simulations and virtual tours are consistently rated by
students as highly motivating

A reliance upon or overabundance of extrinsic rewards
diminishes the affect of intrinsic motivation over time

Motivation is a prerequisite to learning

2
Needs Theory – A. Maslow Expectancy Theory – V. Vroom
•Satisfied needs cease to
motivate students
•When threatened, student
needs become more basic
•Self-Actualization drives
people to utilize their most
unique abilities •Motivation = Effort * Performance * Satisfaction
•Operates under the 50/50 Principle (competition)
•Motivation will be small if any of the factors in the
equation are limited

The 6 C’s of Motivation Flow - M. Csikszentmihalyi

Choices Collaboration •Knowing it is possible to
do the task well

•Timeliness of instruction

Constructing •Intrinsic motivation is

Challenge
Meaning critical, and is determined
by…
•Student experiences
•Student beliefs
•Prior knowledge
Control Consequences •Sociocultural history
Turner & Paris, 1995

3
Vertex of Flow ARCS Model - John Keller
•Changing disposition of
the learner

Attention - What are you doing to gain and maintain
students’ attention?
Challenge

•Motivation is ephemeral

Relevance - How do you demonstrate the relevance of
•Capitalizing on the course content to your students?
teachable moment

Confidence - What are you doing to build confidence in
students that they will be able to learn and apply course content?

Satisfaction – Upon learning, what do you do to impart

satisfaction amongst students?

Attention Relevance
Perceptual Arousal (creating
Goal Orientation (meeting learner needs)
curiosity) – Allow students to define own and class goals
– Inject personal, emotional, or – Provide multiple examples of practical content utility
controversial material – Invite guest lecturers & discussion moderators
– Use novel delivery methods
– Use cases or mystery scenarios

Motive Matching (ownership)
– Provide for individual projects
Inquiry Arousal (increasing – Provide for group projects
curiosity) – Provide opportunities to assume different classroom roles
– Use Socratic method
Ehninger, 1986
Familiarity (personal connections)
– Create paradoxes from hitherto resolved
issues – Utilize concrete examples and analogies
– Use current examples
Variability (maintaining interest)
– Differentiated instruction
– Group dynamics

4
Confidence Satisfaction

Performance Requirements
Natural Consequences (practical application)
(expectations)
– Establish trust – Incorporate real-world projects
– Clearly outline class requirements and – Demonstrate practicality of skills & knowledge learned
evaluative criteria
– Utilize participant modeling
Positive Consequences (reinforcement)

Success Opportunities (self-confidence)
– Provide many and varied learning
– Supply extrinsic rewards
experiences – Engage individual students to understand and elicit
– Sequence instruction – harder material built intrinsic rewards
on easier
– Allow for choice when demonstrating – Provide public forums for student display of work
learning
– Provide encouraging and informational
Equity (fairness)
feedback
– Apply stated performance expectations consistently

Personal Control (locus of control)
– Learning contracts
– Provide checkpoints along the way
– Customized/individualized assignments

Course Management Systems Virtual Tours

Benefits Benefits

Aggregates content of various forms
Grabs student attention by being unique

Ability to modularize content & media
Brings the real world to the classroom

Facilitates discussion & formation of
Demonstrates applicability of skills &

social relationships knowledge being studied

Reduces social & cultural resistance to
24/7 access

participation Drawbacks
Drawbacks
Time-consuming film and edit

Amount and location of content may
Bandwidth-intensive

become overwhelming and/or Sample 1

Passive
Sample 1
confusing Sample 2 Sample 2

5
Animations Interactive Simulations & Remote Labs
Benefits Benefits

Makes concepts & theories visual
Promotes active learning

Plays to the strengths of many learners
Incorporates elements of variation

Dangerous or difficult-to-replicate
Dangerous or difficult-to-replicate

experiments are made possible experiments are made possible

24/7 access
24/7 access

Drawbacks Drawbacks

Time-consuming to develop
Time-consuming to develop Sample 1

Passive
Sample 1
May be bandwidth-intensive
Sample 2
Sample 2 Sample 3

Synchronous Connections Hung up on the Visual…

Benefits
Experiential/Interpersonal:
http://www.beelinetv.com/
– Brings outside experts into the classroom

Intrapersonal:
– Demonstrates practicality of skills &
http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0450.asp?bhcp=1
knowledge being learned

Auditory:
– Internet-based (Webconferencing) http://www.jfklibrary.org/speeches.htm
Drawbacks
Linguistic:
– Bandwidth intensive http://www.ipl.org/div/news/

(videoconferencing/Access Grid)
Artistic:

http://www.imaginationcubed.com/LaunchPage

6
Conclusion

No single model is comprehensive

Every faculty member and their teaching style
is unique

Every student and their learning style is
unique

Technology is a motivational tool
Discussion

How might we characterize the motivational
qualities of different classes of students?

How might we best access and leverage
students’ intrinsic motivations?

How might we best motivate faculty members
to attend faculty development sessions?