Motivation

In order to help the students improve their reading achievements, it is important to

identify their source of motivation. Motivation is literally the desire to do things. It's the

difference between waking up before dawn to pound the pavement and lazing around the

house all day. It's the crucial element in setting and attaining goals—and research shows

you can influence your own levels of motivation and self-control. We can categorize

motivation as Intrinsic or Extrinsic.

Intrinsic Motivation

Is internalized and can be task related. Intrinsic motivation refers to behaviour

that is driven by internal rewards. In other words, the motivation to engage in behaviour

arises from within the individual because it is naturally satisfying to you. Intrinsic

motivation is an important topic in education. Teachers and instructional designers strive

to develop learning environments that are intrinsically rewarding. Unfortunately, many

traditional paradigms suggest that most students find learning boring so they must be

extrinsically goaded into educational activities. Intrinsic motivation is an energizing of

behaviour that comes from within an individual, out of will and interest for the activity at

hand. No external rewards are required to incite the intrinsically motivated person into

action. The reward is the behaviour itself. Logically, this seems like an ideal, for people

to act as “origins” of their behaviour rather than “pawns” (de Charms, 1968). However,

it is certainly not the case that every real world behavior stems from an intrinsic energy.

The factors they identify as increasing intrinsic motivation include:

 Challenge: People are more motivated when they pursue goals with personal

meaning and when attaining the goal is possible but not necessarily certain. These

goals may also relate to their self-esteem when performance feedback is available.

 Curiosity: Internal motivation is increased when something in the physical

environment grabs the individual's attention (sensory curiosity). It also occurs

(cognitive curiosity).

 Control: People want control over themselves and their environments and want

to determine what they pursue.

 Cooperation and competition: Intrinsic motivation can be increased in situations

where people gain satisfaction from helping others. It also applies to cases where

they are able to compare their own performance favourably to that of others.

 Recognition: People enjoy having their accomplishment recognized by others,

which can increase internal motivation.

Extrinsic Motivation

Which is external to be the student, is often social? An extrinsic goal may involve

rewards. Intrinsic motivation refers to behaviour that is driven by internal rewards. In

other words, the motivation to engage in a behavior arises from within the individual

because it is naturally satisfying to you. Extrinsic motivation is a construct that pertains

whenever an activity is done in order to attain some separable outcome. Extrinsic

motivation thus contrasts with intrinsic motivation, which refers to doing an activity

simply for the enjoyment of the activity itself, rather than its instrumental value.

However, unlike some perspectives that view extrinsically motivated behaviour as

invariantly no autonomous, SDT proposes that extrinsic motivation can vary greatly in

the degree to which it is autonomous.

Intrinsic motivation and becoming more self-determined with respect to extrinsic

motivation. We pointed out that in schools, the facilitation of more self-determined

learning requires classroom conditions that allow satisfaction of these three basic human

needs—that is that support the innate needs to feel connected, effective, and agented as

one is exposed to new ideas and exercises new skills.

and intrinsic motivation. A teacher who understands the distinction will be better to

determine whether the student goals match teachers goals.

Intrinsic Motivation: A Closer Look. Gagne and Driscoll have identified three

sources of Intrinsic Motivation: Curiosity, Achievement and Self-efficacy

Curiosity is a knowledge state caused by stimuli that are novel, complex and in some way

incongruous.

Achievement can be thought as need, something intrinsic to the learner, which can

manifest itself as an attitude of competitiveness.

Self-Efficacy –when students observe their own successful completion of academic task,

the development a belief in their ability to continue to do so.

Self-efficacy

When student observe their own successful completion of academic tasks, they

develop a belief in their ability to continue to do so – a belief we call self-efficacy

(Bandura, 1977). A student’s belief about his or her own ability to perform successfully

influences his or her motivation. From experience, a student learn that he or she is able or

unable to perform well under certain conditions. For example, the student may classify

him or herself as a good or poor test-taker. Perhaps through experiences on standardized

or multiple-choice tests in class, the student has come to consider him or herself capable

or incapable of performing well on such test. The belief in the ability to perform under

those conditions represents a sense of self-efficacy. A student may develop expectations

of self-efficacy from a number of sources:

1. The first source of self-efficacy is simple self-observation. Past success leads you

to expect you will succeed in the future on similar tasks, such success enhances

your sense of self-efficacy.

2. A second source of self-efficacy is the observation of others. When you observe

others whom you perceive to be similar to yourself, you attend to their behavior;
 you view yourself as being capable of achieving the same outcome they do. You

say to yourself, “If that person can do it, I can do it.”

3. A third source of self-efficacy is encouragement, usually in the form of verbal

praise. Verbal encouragement may come from a teacher who says, “I know that

you have the ability to accomplish this particular task and I’m confident that you

will be able to perform well.” Verbal encouragement can also come from one’s

self, an internal pep talk.

4. A fourth source of expectation for self-efficacy is emotional arousal. Some kind

of emotional event can spur your determination to attain a particular outcome.

Perhaps you have experienced, in your own academic career, a teacher who

expressed doubt in your abilities to do well in school. As a result of your

indignation at the doubt expressed by the teacher, you ought to prove to him or

her, to others, and to yourself that you are indeed capable of attaining what they

thought was, for you, unattainable. If a student has expectations of efficacy, if a

student believes he or she is capable of accomplishing a particular goal, the belief

will serve as motivation. The same is true even in cases where there are many

obstacles to success. Consider some of the extraordinary efforts expended by

individuals in order to overcome physical or intellectual challenges.

Some students will be physically, emotionally, or psychologically challenged in some

ways. When such students overcome obstacles and succeed in attaining the goals they’ve

set, they can be assumed to harbor expectations of efficacy. Learners who persist,

learners who believe in their abilities under certain conditions, and learners who exert an

extraordinary amount of effort in pursuit of a particular academic goal are motivated by

their sense of self-efficacy. They use their capabilities in a focused way. We often speak

of a student’s ability or inability to concentrate on a task. The student who is unable to

concentrate for an extended period of time on a particular task is assumed to be

unmotivated. The mental effort that a student exerts after an academic goal can be an

index of that student motivation.

environment are various forms of external reward, praise, and encouragement. We use

extrinsic motivation as a way to manage our classroom. Our goal, however, is to produce

students who are motivated intrinsically. As teachers, we are extrinsic to or students.

How can we behave in ways that will lead students to motivate themselves? The answer

is, of course, very carefully.

The Undermining Effect

The undermining effect is the result that extrinsic reward can have on behavior

that is intrinsically motivated. For example, a student who begins reading biographies of

renowned scientist which delighted parents and teachers with the new found interest. As a

function of their delight, the parents or teachers tells the student that for every biography

of a scientist read, he or she will receive some sort of reward- either free time in the

classroom or pursue the hobby of reading or release from household chore or some more

tangible reward. According to researchers, the establishment of external rewards may

serve to undermine the student’s intrinsic motivation. The student may begin to perceive

his or her reading behaviour as being caused not by some internal curiosity about the

scientist, not by some need to understand their characteristics and attitudes, not by some

expectation that he or she may have an ability to understand the personalities. Rather, the

student may begin to suspect that his or her reading behaviour is being caused by the

rewards delivered from external sources, the parents or the teacher.

It is tempting for a teacher to encourage academic pursuit, especially in a student

who has not demonstrated a keen interest in reading or writing or other cognitive

activities. However, teachers should take care in identifying those areas in which student

require motivation from external sources and to allow intrinsically motivated behaviour

to flourish on its own terms. The undermining effect appears to operate at all ages. The

intrinsic motivation of young children is especially susceptible to being undermined by

extrinsic rewards.
 Motivation in reading plays a major role since it is an individual activity. The kind of

material to be read, and what to do with what has been read are determined by the pupil’s

motive or motives for reading. Pupil motives take precedence over materials or time. The

pupil selects what he wants to read. He decides what he wants to read about and why, or

he may consult with the teacher or sometimes with other pupil in order to clarify his

purposes. Or, because he was an active participant in a group or class project initiated

either by the teacher or the pupils, he discovers purposes for reading. This in turn means

that to plan, a teacher must have ways and means whereby pupil motives can be

determined. This can be done by:

1. Keeping eyes and ears open to all activities throughout the day;

2. Noting special interests of pupils in the different curriculum areas;

3. Noting the response of pupils to varied selections especially the informative or

nonfiction type;

4. Making a check on each pupil’s toys, hobbies, home library;

5. Observing response to oral reports by classmates, a school librarian, or guests

with specialties (for instance, n engineer, patrolman, post maker, diary man,

nurse, etc.)

a. Taking an inventory of pupil interest.

The grandest thing about motivation is the fact that the right and privilege

of self -selection command the pupil’s attention rather than demand it. Each pupil

becomes involved through his own ego and his response to the attention and regard

obtained from others.

Intelligence

The term intelligence, generally defined as a personal capacity to learn, is probably the

one piece of educational jargon most used in everyday language. As teachers, we learn

about the intelligence level of students. Intelligence is measured in schools periodically

and is included on most permanent records of students. Indeed, in many schools the
measured intelligence of a child is used in concert with other information to make

instructional decisions concerning a student’s future.

The measurement of intelligence yield and index is called an intelligence quotient

(IQ). A person’s IQ is typically represented by a single number. For example, someone

with an IQ of 102 is considered to be of average intelligence; an IQ of 120 is considered

to be above average. In and out of educational circles, when we talk about a person’s

intelligence, we usually think of it as a unitary thing that can be reflected in a single

number. Incidentally, while we usually talk about IQ as a single value, it is more accurate

to speak of the probable range of a person’s IQ.

There has been a long and animated debate among psychologist as to the meaning of

the term intelligence. Intelligence is a construct, an idea devised by a theorist in order to

explain something else (Cown & Roop). Intelligence, for example, has been used to

explain why some students graduate from law school and others can’t finish high school;

why some students complete tasks with ease and others struggle; why some students

succeed and others fail. It is a measure of differences among students. Some

psychologists suggest that there is a general overriding mental ability that can be referred

to as a person’s intelligences. Others take the view that intelligence is not a unitary thing.

Rather, there are many intelligence.

A number of research studies have been done to determine the relationship between

reading achievement and intelligence. Albert Harris (1963) indicates that the correlation

between reading and individual verbal intelligence tests, such as the Stanford-Binet, tends

to be in the neighbourhood of .60 to .70. However, as children enter the middle grades

and begin to take group intelligence test that are more verbally oriented and correlation

may range from .70 to .85. On the nonverbal or non-language tests, however, the

correlations range much lower- between .20 to .40. The question that reading specialists

must ask is whether IQ is really a valid predictor of reading ability.

reading achievement could be predicted from WISC IQ scores administered at the

kindergarten level. In their conclusion Ames and Walker stated that they believed that the

usefulness of their reported findings did not lie in their employment for predicting fifth

grade reading scores. Rather they offered the suggestion that individual subject

characteristics other than either general intelligence o specific reading skills contributed

to individual differences in reading at the above- average level as well as below average.

George and Evelyn Spache (1969) has similar viewpoint when they expressed that

intelligences test results are not highly predictive of early reading success. If pupils are

arranged in the order of their reading test scores after a period of training, the order just

does not neatly parallel a ranking based on mental age or intelligence quotient. Only the

extreme cases, the very superior and the mentally retarded pupils, tend to agree in their

ranks in reading and intelligence. The degree of reading success for most pupils is

determined not by their exact level or rank in intelligence but by other more influential

facts.

It seems evident then that we should not place a great deal of faith in IQ scores as

predictors of potential reading ability. However, as Spache and Spache point out, the IQ

is a fairly good predictor of reading ability for children with extremely high IQs or for

children who are mentally retarded. Most researchers agree that children with very low

IQ are at a considerable disadvantage in learning to read; therefore, a low IQ is often an

important hindering factor. For this reason it is often helpful to administer an individual

intelligence test as part of the normal diagnostic procedure among students.

Just as children differ in their capacity to learn, they differ in how they learn. This well-

accepted fact has enormous implications for classroom teaching. As Dr. Rita Dunn and

colleagues explained, "Learning style is biologicallly and developmentally imposed set of

personal characteristics that make the same teaching method effective for some and

ineffective for others. Every person has a learning style - it's as individual as a signature."

Osychologists have been studying differences in the ways that students learn for several

decades. Some students work better than others when tasks are highly structured. Some

can study effectively with the stereo blaring; others need a quiet environment. Some

students learn well from one particular teacher, while others in the same class learn very

little. By identifying student's learning styles, we can understand diversity in classrooms,

and select particular instructional methods and techniques to accommodate it.

Students have different learning styles just as they have different oersonalities . Indeed,

one way of approaching the question of learning styles is to first consider personality

types. Carl Jung, in his correspondence with Sigmund Freud, postulated personality

types. In the book people types and Tiger Stripes, (Cown@Roop,1992), Jung's

personality types were organized into four bipolar pairs:

1. Extrovert-Introvert. A person who is out going and vivacious is classified as an

extrovert. An introvert does not share his or her feelings freely.

2. Sensory-Intuitive. Sensory types rely on the evidence of their senses. A person who

relies on "gut feelings" is classified as ituitive.

3. Thinker-Feeler. A thinker is one who relies on logic more often than emotion. A

person who responds emotionally to situations is classified as a feeler.

4. Judger-Perceiver. A person who takes time to evaluate various aspects of a situation is

classified as a judger. A perceiver acts on unanalyzed events.

among first year college students who were education majors. Meinke found that the

greatest learning-style differences were between judger's and perceivers.

Convergent thinkers tend to react to instructional materials in conventional ways.

Divergent thinkers tend to respond in unconventional or idiosyncratic ways. We tend to

think of divergent thinkers as being more creative in their responses to instructional tasks

and materials. If a teacher decides to encourage one style or the other - in order tob

"balance" a student’s operational approach, for instance- instructional tasks can be

designed to encourage either conventional or unconventional thinking.

Sensory Preferences. The most familiar concept of learning style involves children's

sensory preferences and how those preferences affect their learning. We label such

preferences visual, auditory, Kinesthetic, and tactile. In the simplest sense, visual learners

are those who best acquire new information through sight. For example, the visual

learners would prefer the teacher to demonstrate an assignment, rather than just describe

it. The auditory learner, needs to hear an explanation of the content. The tactile learner

learns best by manipulating materials. A Kinesthetics learner prefers to use the whole

body, favoring such activities as dramatization and pantomime, field trips, and

interviewing.

Individual Preferences. Sensory preferences are just one aspects of learning style. Dunn

and other researchers have found many otheir aspects, including individual preferences

for sound levels, light levels, temperature, seating arrangements, mobility, group size,

type of learning activity, eating amd /or drinking while concentrating l, and

chronobiology.

Research on hemisphericity reveals some interesting findings. For example, students who

are identified as persistent usually are left-brain processors. Gifted and highly gifted

students more often have a right - brain orientation. They and other right hemisphere

learners dislike structure and are strongly peer motivated, Dunn reports. Left hemisphere
children prefer conventionally designed classrooms with more structure and More visual

rather than tactile or Kinesthetics resources. Interestingly this traits cut across age groups,

ability groups, cultural groups, and even families, as Dunn reports that parents and

siblings tend to be more different than alike in hemisphericity.

Learning styles research also documents the effectiveness of small-group learning. Dunn

reports that except among the gifted, students in grades 3 through 8 will learn better if

they can work in small, well-organized groups, as opposed to working either alone or

with the teacher. Many students have intake preferences - difference on their need to eat

and/or drink while concentrating.

Common Myths. Learning - style research also exposes many of the myths . The research

shows that when instruction is matched with children's learning preferences, whether they

be social, sensory, environmental, hemispheric, or related to mobility or time of the day,

achievement increases and behaviours improve. Teachers have learning style,L's, too,

which contribute to their teaching styles.

What should you do about the differences in learning styles that students will bring to

your classroom?

First, be aware that they exist; that they are important contributors to the diversity you

will encounter.

Second, analyze how students respond to various learning tasks you give them. For

example, during class discussion or reviews, notice which students respond to questions

immediately and which students prefer to think about the answers. The tasks your

students perform provide more than just ways of collecting scores for the grade book;

they are opportunities for you to learn about your students.

Third, allow for learning -style differencesvby planning a variety of learning activities.

As you plan, keep in mind your own teaching preferences. If a teachers plan reflect only

the most preferred activity, some students learning styles will never be accommodated.
In a perfect world could establish a learning style profile for each child in every school

and offer learning environments and experiences exactly suited to each. There are several

important changes teachers can make.

First, we need to change our attitudes and understand that one learning style is neither

superior nor inferior to others; they're simply different. Each style exhibits similar

intelligence ranges. Some components of learning style are developed through

experiences, but most are biological in nature and extremely resistant to change. It is

unreasonable and unproductive to expect children to alter their learning styles to match

the teachers. Differences among diverse cultures tend to be developmental aspects of

style. Yet Dunn and others have found as many style differences within cultural groups as

between them. Some childre, often those who are low - achieving or misbehaving, are

actually physically un comfortable with their teachers style.

Second, we can alter our instruction to provide many different types of strategies,

activities, and experiences - something for every one. Different group configurations,

opportunities to move and interact with learning materials, structured and unstructured

activities, verbal explanations, and visual resources are all examples of different

approaches.

Finally, we can organize our classrooms to provide different types of lighting, sound, and

seating arrangements, allowing children frequent choices about where they want to be.

The cozy reading corners set up in some classroom are good example. These areas

feature softer lighting, informal seating, and sometimes, low music for background noise.

It's a lot more difficult to provide areas of temperature differences, but children can adjust

their clothing according to their preferences. Teachers who understand intake preferences

may allow for small snacks or water Sippers to be used in class.

Biological Developmental

- sound. Sociological

- light. Preference

- temperature. . - motivation

- design(seating arrangement). - responsibility

- perception (sensory). - need for structure

- intake ( need to eat/drink while concentrating)

-chrome biological highs and lows

(From: Shalaway, Linda,Learning to teach, 1997 p. 60)

Many teachers do not attempt to match their instructional practices with the learning

styles of their students. It is not clear whether this happens because these teachers are

unaware of style differences, because they do not assess style, or because they do not

plan activities with learning styles in mind. Research suggests, however, that taking the

time to determine learning styles and then using that information in planning is worth the

effort.

Self concept

The self-concept and its close relationship with teacher expectation is a psychological

factor that should not be overlooked. William Padelfords study (1969) has shown that a

significant positive relationship does exist between reading achievement and self-

concept. Adelford found that this relationship exists regardless of ethnic group,

socioeconomic level or sex.

Although little is known regarding the percentage of disabled readers whose problems are

directly related to the possession of a low self-concept, researchers know hat the problem
exists. Frances Pryor (1975) states, "Changing a poor readers self-concept by bolstering

his feelings about himself is perhaps the first step toward improving the academic

problem." For this reason, this factor should not be overlooked in the initial diagnosis of

the reader.

Cognitive development certainly affects the changing structure of the self. School-age

children are better at coordinating several aspects of a situation in reasoning about their

physical world.

They show improved ability to relate separate observations in the social realms as well.

Consequently, they combine typical experiences and behaviors into stable psychological

dispositions and acknowledge both positive and negative traits. In middle childhood,

children also gain a clearer understanding of traits as linked to specific desires and,

therefore, as causes of behavior. For this reason, they may mention traits more often. And

formal operational thought transforms the adolescent's vision of the self into a complex,

well-organized, internally consistent picture (Harter,1996).

The changing content of the self is a product of both cognitive capacities and feedback

from others. Early in this century, sociologist George Herbert Mead (1934) described the

self as blend of what we imagine important people in our lives think of us. He believed

that a psychological self emerges when the childs I-self comprehends the attitudes of

significant others and adopt a view of the me-self that resembles those attitudes. Mead

called this reflected self the generalized other. Mead's ideas indicate that perspective -

taking skills- in particular, an improved ability to infer what other people are thinking-

are crucial in the development of a self-concept based on personality traits. Perspective

taking improves greatly over middle childhood and adolescence. Young people become a

better at "reading" messages they receive from others and incorporating these into their

self a definitions.