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Book: Code No. 8601

Book: General Methods of Teaching

University: Allama Iqbal Open University

QUESTION 1:
PART 1

1. DEFINITIONS OF TEACHING

A child’s learning depends on the talent and skills of the person leading his or her classroom, the
teacher. Teachers are the persons who work in an applied discipline and face the reality of nature in the
form of growing minds before them, their students. Teaching is an art and an academic process. In this
process students are made motivated by a number of ways to learn. A teacher begins with the student’s
view about different things, what do they know and think about the topic. The teacher keeps in mind
the prior knowledge of the students. Teaching positively influences the way students think, act and feel.

Teaching is defined as a process in which students are prepared for learning by providing initial
structure to clarify planned outcomes and indicate derived learning strategies. The teachers provide
sufficient opportunities in the classroom for students to practice and apply what they are learning and
give improvement-oriented feed-back (Good, T.; Brophy, J. 2000).

The teachers provide assistance to enable the students to engage in learning activities productively
(Meichenbaum, D.; Biemiller, A. 1998).

In the process of teaching the teachers take their students from a level of unknown to a level of
understanding the new concepts. Therefore, an effective teacher 1s one who contributes to the learning
environment by increasing keen interest of the students. For the purpose of teaching the teacher has to
play five major roles. These roles are:

As a Subject matter expert

Teachers possess thorough knowledge of subject matter and go beyond the standard textbook
materials. Teachers develop important and original thoughts on the subject matter. They tackle issues
related to the discipline on the basis of their knowledge.

As a Pedagogical expert
Teachers set appropriate learning goals and objectives and communicates them clearly. They show a
positive attitude towards the subject, work to overcome difficulties that might hindrance in learning.
They evaluate and mark students’ work fairly. They guide students through critical thinking, and
problem-solving processes and help them to develop their own understanding. Teachers provide
feedback to students about their progress in learning.
As an Excellent communicator
A Teacher demonstrates effective oral and written communication, good organizational abilities and
planning skills. He/she helps students learn to use effective communication skills; utilizes teaching tools
appropriately and effectively.

As a Student-centered mentor
A Teacher tries to encourage each student to learn through a variety of methods and encourages
student participation. Take his/her students to higher intellectual levels.

As a Systematic and continual assessor

A Teacher makes an appropriate procedure for student outcome assessments in order to improve
student learning experiences. He/she systematically assess his/her own teaching, keeps the class
material fresh and new. He/she uses new teaching style to achieve the objectives of successful student
learning by identifying his/her own weaknesses and shortcomings in the teaching process.

Learning is very easy and natural process for the small children but it becomes hard and difficult for
the children as they grow older. Learning can be made easy and natural at schools only if education and
teaching is based on experiences in life of the children.

Alton-Lee (2003) has listed ten characteristics of quality teaching. Alton-Lee's ten-point model covers
the following areas:

1. A focus on student achievement.

2. Pedagogical practices that create caring, inclusive and cohesive learning communities.

3.Effective links between school and the cultural context of the school.

4.Quality teaching is responsive to student learning processes.

5.Learning opportunities are effective and sufficient.

6.Multiple tasks and contexts support learning cycles.

7.Curriculum goals are effectively aligned.

8.Pedagogy scaffolds feedback on students! task engagement.

9.Pedagogy promotes learning orientations, student self regulation, meta cognitive strategies and
thoughtful student discourse.

10. Teachers and students engage constructively in goal-oriented assessment (Alton-Lee, 2003: vi-x)

Long ago a Russian psychologist, L. S. Vygotsky’s (1956) ideas affected the world’s understanding of
teaching, learning, and cognitive development. Many researchers of different nations have now
elaborated, corrected, and developed the concept of teaching differently. Much of this work was
focused on the "natural teaching" of home and community. It is now accepted that before the children
enter school, they could be “taught" cognitive and linguistic skills. teaching of these skills 1s done in
everyday interactions of domestic life by setting goal directed activities of daily life. The new concept of
teaching consists of more capable family and friends assisting children to do things which the children
cannot do alone.

According to Vygotsky’s theory, the developmental level of a child is identified by the ability of the child
to do work alone. On the other hand, the child’s ability to do work with the assistance of anyone was
called by Vygotsky the "zone of proximal development”.

Teaching may be defined in the proximal zone. In Vygotskian terms, teaching 1s good only when it
"awakens and rouses to life those functions which are in a stage of maturing, which lie in the zone of
proximal development" (Vygotsky, 1956, p. 278; quoted in Wretch & Stone, 1985).

Therefore, a general definition of teaching was derived from this as: Teaching consists of assisting
performance through a child’s zone of proximal development (ZPD). But teaching must be redefined as
assisted performance; teaching occurs when performance is achieved with assisting the students
(teaching):

Students’ performance can be assisted by a number of ways. Behavioral and cognitive science have
given following seven means of assistance:

1. Modeling: teacher offers behavior for imitation. Modeling assists learning and gives the learner
information and a remembered image that can serve as a performance standard.

2. Feeding back: teacher provides information on the performance of the students. This enables the
learners to compare their performance to the standard, and also allows self-correction.

3. Contingency managing: teacher applies the principles of reinforcement and punishment. In this
rewards and punishment are arranged to opt desirable behavior and to avoid the negative behavior.

4. Directing: teacher requests for specific actions. Directing assists by specifying the response. It provides
clarification information, and promotes decision-making.

5. Questioning: teacher produces a mental operation that the learner cannot or would not produce
alone. This interaction assists by giving the teacher information about the learner’s developing
understanding.
6. Explaining: the teacher provides explanation of the concepts in the content. This assists learners in
organizing and justifying new learning and perceptions.

7. Task structuring: The teacher organizes a task into different components in a sequence. The students
work on the task. the task structuring involves the chunking, segregating, and sequencing.

Properly organized classroom activities in teaching also provide assistance to students ‘learning. Many
teaching methodologies like lectures, demonstrations, cooperative learning exercises/activities, and
textbook reading can all assist learning. Other necessary elements contributing to classroom learning are
recitation and assessment.

In past teachers emphasized rote learning and immediate responses. there were no opportunities for
give-and-take between a teacher and learning students. The student role was passive. Very few teachers
make efforts to adapt instruction to individual differences. The other modern way/mean for effective
teaching is "scripts" (scripted teaching). It involves the traditional student-teacher interaction set up. It
uses predesigned teacher talk and predicts student responses. It offers more than the recitation script
for learning. The scripted teaching emphasizes: 1) rote learning, i1) student passivity, 111) facts and low-
level questions, and 1v) low-level cognitive functions (Tharp & Gallimore, 1991).

PART 2:
Principles of Effective Teaching:
Richard T. Walls (1999) makes links between "process" of teaching and the "student learning" (the
product) in "Four Aces of Effective Teaching". The Four Aces of Effective Teaching are summarized in the
following figure:

Ace I Outcomes

1 let students know where they are going and why

2 drive hard toward clear goals

Ace 2 Clarity

1 make the contact as clear and simple as possible

2 build on what students already know

Ace 3 Engagement

1 Don’t lecture for more than 30 minutes before running an activity that involves
all students
2 People learn what they DO, so have students DO everything that you want
them to learn
Ace 4 Enthusiasm

1 If you hate to teach it, your students will hate to learn it

2 The only key to motivation is success

QUESTION 2:

PART 1:

4. Characteristics of an Effective Teacher

Knowledge and skills are taught and learned at school. School is a little community in itself where
teachers and students interact with each other. During this interaction teachers influence their learner’s
behavior and learners influence their teacher’s behavior. The nature of this interaction is an important
factor in determining the learner's perceptions of school and his/her attitudes toward school-related
persons and activities. This factor involves the relationship between the personality of the teacher and
that of the learner

A teacher’s personality traits are important as Callahan, (1966) says that the teacher whose personality
helps create and maintain a classroom or learning environment in which students feel comfortable and
in which they are motivated to learn is said to have a desirable teaching personality.

Research says that teachers are cognitively oriented toward pupils while pupils are affectively oriented
toward teachers. Teacher’s personality is, therefore, directly and indirectly related to learning and
teaching in the affective domain as well as to that in cognitive and psychomotor domains, (LEW, 1977).

Teachers have rights and responsibilities to develop a climate in the classroom which supports effective
learning. Aristotle quoted in Stephen Covey, "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", says we are
what we repeatedly do.

Climate in their classroom is based on the teachers’ personality and style of teaching, the tone of their
voice, and the little things they continually say and do on a daily basis. In the classroom, the learners’
behavior could be determined from the way their teachers behave with them.

Best, (1991, p. 275) says the teaching is “primarily concerned with developing qualities such as curiosity,
originality, initiative, cooperation, perseverance, open-mindedness, self-criticism, responsibility, self
confidence and independence”.
 March banks, (2000) in a study, examined the personalities of sixty students at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill through a 110-question questionnaire. The traits of passion, patience,
cooperation, authoritativeness, and creativity were studied in particular because these are the essential
personality traits of an effective elementary school teacher. He says teachers in the twenty- first century
are responsible for the overall well-being of their students, as well as educating, disciplining, and
stimulating their developing minds. Because teachers have these additional duties, many more
requirements are needed to be an effective teacher. Let us read the personality traits, necessary to be
able to accomplish all of the above stated tasks and duties.

Personal qualities
Elementary school teachers need the following characteristics:

• strong interpersonal and communication skills

• a genuine interest in children and respect for their individuality

• the ability to sense children's individual needs

• the ability to be creative, imaginative, patient, energetic, organized and resourceful • the ability to
establish rapport children and parents

• strong leadership and teamwork skills and a good sense of humor

• a high level of dedication to work which often impacts personal lifestyle choices

• a clear, pleasant speaking voice and the ability to convey confidence

• positive conflict resolution skills and the ability to handle stress well.

They can enjoy finding different ways to solve problems and present information, and organizing and
coordinating the work of others.

One must be passionate, patient, cooperative, authoritative, and creative in order to be an effective
teacher beside the basic and extended knowledge of the subject he/she is teaching. A true passion for
both the profession and the children is indispensable; a teacher must look forward to his/her job every
single day, having the desire to instill in the students all the knowledge and skills needed to lead a
happy, healthy life in today’s world. Patience is needed to maintain that passion and desire for teaching.
In order to interact with the children and other teachers most effectively, an overall cooperative
personality is needed. A degree of authoritativeness is necessary to preserve order and discipline in the
classroom. Finally, teachers have to be creative in their approaches to instruction to earn the most
successful results in educating their students (March banks, 2000).

Thompson, Greer, and Greer (n.d) says that “every teacher should possess twelve characteristics such
as displaying fairness, having a positive outlook, being prepared, using a personal touch, possessing a
sense of humor, possessing creativity, admitting mistakes, being forgiving, respecting students,
maintaining high expectations, showing compassion, and developing a sense of belonging for students”.
Let us read these characteristics as given bellow:

1) Fairness

Fairness is one of the characteristics of the students’ favorite teachers. All humans possess an inbuilt
sense of fair play. Whenever a person violates, the other person in this situation is prone to react
negatively. Any impression of favoritism, or lack of fairness, leaves scars on the life of persons that lasts
forever. The students report in great detail, the unfair actions of their teachers when they had negative
experience of competition between classmates, even after many years have passed.

2) Positive Attitude

Another characteristic that students’ like most is the positive attitude and approach of their teachers
they use into the classroom. Scholars suggest that effective teachers are those who use meaningful
verbal praise to get and keep students actively participating in the learning process. The effective
teachers are generally positive minded individuals who believe in the success of their students as well as
their own ability to help students’ achievements. If the teachers have positive attitude, they “catch
students doing things right” rather than “catching them doing something wrong.” The students often
recall praise and recognition that was given by their teachers at schools, and they point to the
confidence and direction that often resulted in their lives.

3) Preparedness

Competence and knowledge of the content area being taught is something that our college students
have always mentioned about their favorite teachers. In a research the students pointed out that in
classrooms where teachers were well prepared, behavior problems were less prevalent. The well-
prepared teacher is more likely to be able to take time during lessons to notice and attend to behavioral
matters, and is less likely to miss the beginnings of potentially disruptive activity. If, on the other hand,
teachers have not spent sufficient time in planning and preparation, they tend to be so focused on what
they are doing that they miss the early signs of misbehavior. This ultimately results in frequent
disruption, waste of valuable instructional time, and student’s frustration.

4) Personal Touch

Teachers who are connected personally with their students; call them by name, smile often, ask about
students’ feelings and opinions, and accept students for who they are. As well as the teachers who tell
stories of their own lives events which relate to subject matter currently being taught, motivate
student’s interest and endorse bonding with the students. Teachers who show interest in their students
have interested students.

5) Sense of Humor

If a teacher has the ability to break the ice in difficult situations with the use of humor, this is an
extremely valuable asset for teaching. According to McDermott & Rothenberg (2000) students enjoy
teachers with a sense of humor and remember those teachers who made learning a fun. Good teachers
enjoy a laugh with the class occasionally.

6) Creativity

Students always like the unusual things that their teachers do in creative ways. Construction of models
or things from wastage like plastic bottles provides a field into which children could go and work by
themselves quietly on academic’s activities like puzzles and word-finds. 24 Fun activities arranged by
teachers into the classroom encourage the students towards learning. Teachers can use unique ways of
motivating their class. Teacher can set a reward for the class on reaching a particular academic goal. For
example, a teacher can give extra marks of work done by the students in a creative way.

7) Willingness to Admit Mistakes

Like everybody, teachers may make mistakes. Sometimes students may know when their teachers make
mistakes. Unfortunately, some teachers try to let the mistakes go unnoticed or cover over them quickly.
Teachers who recognize their mistakes in a very humble and pleasant way and apologize them. This act
of teacher provides an excellent model for the students, and they may be remembered as a good
teacher.

8) Forgiving

The effective teachers reflect a willingness to forgive students for misbehavior. For example if a student
repeatedly asks irrelevant questions and detracts others from the lesson. The teacher can simply say the
question is irrelevant and direct the student for further study.

9) Respect

The teachers desire be respected by their students. The teachers who give respect to their students are
always respected by them. Effective teachers can train their students be respectful by many ways such
as, he can keep individual grades on papers confidentially, or can speak to students privately after
misbehavior not in front of others. Good teachers show sensitivity for feelings and consistently avoid
situations that unnecessarily make students uncomfortable.

10) High expectations

Teachers with positive attitudes also possess high expectations for success. Teachers’ expectation levels
affect the ways in which teachers teach and interact with students. Generally, students either rise to
their teachers’ expectations or do not perform well when expectations are low or non-existent. The best
teachers have the highest standards. They consistently challenge their students to do their best.

11) Compassion

Hopefully, school is a place where children can learn and be nurtured in an emotionally safe
environment. Sometimes in youngsters’ classrooms there may happens a significant amount of cruelty
and hurt feelings. In these situations, a caring teacher tries to reduce the impact of hurt feelings on
learning

12) Sense of Belonging

Teachers developed a sense of family in their classrooms. A variety of strategies, such as random act of
kindness awards, class picture albums, and cooperative class goals build a sense of unity and belongings
and maintain an emotionally safe classroom. Good teachers also took strong measures to prevent mean
and hurtful behavior like teasing and bullying. Effective teachers know well that when children feel
emotionally and physically safe, they learn far better.

PART 2:

ROLE OF TEACHER FOR CONDUCIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Teaching is a multifaceted profession. The teachers have to perform many roles other than the process
of teaching and imparting information to the students. They take up vital places in the lives of the
students in their classrooms. Mainly they set the tone of their classrooms, build a warm environment,
and take care of students by looking for any sign of trouble. They become role models for the students.

The role of a teacher in the classroom as a leader is to lead students, and families. The classroom
teacher is responsible for creating a positive and disciplined learning environment:

– in the classroom

– in co-curricular activities

– in interacting informally with students

In this way, each student is challenged to grow in knowledge and maturity, according to his potential, in
all aspects of his life

Areas of Responsibility:

The classroom teacher is responsible for:

-Promoting the mission and philosophy of the School/College through structured classroom prayer,
participation in the educational life of the College, and modelling of appropriate standards of behavior. -
Maintaining a positive and effective learning environment through well prepared lessons, which cater a
wide range of student abilities and interests.

- Setting of realistic and challenging academic standards of student performance.

- A challenging and realistic program of student homework.

- A comprehensive attention to students work submitted for marking and supervision.

- Demonstrating knowledge, competence and confidence in the relevant subject discipline.

- Demonstrating high levels of professionalism in all activities.

Let us have a detailed look on teacher’s roles as teachers serve many other roles in the classroom:

1. Teaching Knowledge

The most common role of the teacher in the classroom is to teach knowledge to children. Teachers are
given a curriculum they must follow that meets state guidelines. This curriculum is followed by the
teacher so that complete knowledge is conveyed to the students in the given time (academic year).
Teachers teach in many ways, such as lectures, small group activities and hands-on learning activities.

2. Creating Classroom Environment

Teachers play an important role in making the classroom environment either positive or negative.
Students often imitate a teacher's actions. If the teacher prepares a warm, happy environment, then
students will also be happy. The teachers are responsible for the social behavior in their classrooms. This
behavior is primarily a reflection of the teacher's actions and the environment she/he sets.

3. Role Modeling

Students spend a great deal of time with their teacher and their teacher becomes a role model to them.
This can be a positive or negative effect depending on the teacher. Teachers not only teach the children,
but also love and take care for them. Therefore, teachers are respected by the community and become
a role model to students and parents.

4. Mentoring

Mentoring is a natural role played by the teachers. Mentoring is a way by which a teacher encourages
students to do the best they can. This also includes encouraging students to enjoy learning. Listening to
students carefully is the part of mentoring. By taking time to listen to what students say, teachers impart
to students a sense of ownership in the classroom. This helps build their confidence and helps them
want to be successful.

5. Signs of Trouble

As a protector, teacher looks for signs of trouble in the students. When students' behaviors change and
any sign of physical abuse are noticed, teachers are required to look into the problem and solve it as per
rules.

The plans of class room activities to be happened each day make the teaching effective. The teachers go
through many steps for planning a lesson. Six steps are given below to guide the teachers to create their
first lesson plans. Each step is comprised by a set of questions:

1. Outline learning objectives

The lesson objectives are usefully stated in terms of what students will achieve at the end of the lesson.
The first step is to determine as a teacher what you want students to learn and be able to do at the end
of class. To help you specify your objectives for student learning, answer the following questions:

• What is the topic of the lesson?

• What do I want students to learn?

• What do I want them to understand and be able to do at the end of class?

• What do I want them to take away from this particular lesson?

Once you outline the learning objectives for the class meeting, rank them in terms of their importance.
This step will prepare you for managing class time and completing the learning objectives. Consider the
following questions:

• What are the most important concepts, ideas, or skills I want students to be able to grasp and apply?

• Why are they important?

• If I ran out of time, which ones could not be omitted?

• Which ones could be skipped?

2. Develop the introduction

After determining learning objectives and specifying them in order of their importance, the teacher has
to design the specific activities for the students. They may already be familiar with the topic; therefore,
it is necessary to gather background information from the students prior to lesson. You may start with a
question or activity to assess students’ knowledge of the topic. For example, you can ask a question or
take a simple poll: “How many of you have heard about this? Raise your hand if you have” or ask them
to write comments on paper. This additional information can help you to shape the introduction and
learning activities of the new concept.

Develop a creative introduction to the topic to encourage thinking. You can use a variety of approaches
to engage students for example, personal anecdote, historical event, real example, short video clip,
practical application, probing question, etc. following questions may help you in planning your
introduction:

• How will I check whether students know anything about the topic?

• What are some commonly held ideas (or misconceptions) about this topic that students might be
familiar with?

• What will I do to introduce the topic?

3. Plan the specific learning activities (the main body of the lesson)
 Prepare several and different examples (ways) to explain the topic/concept (real-life examples,
similarities, visuals, etc.) to catch the attention of all students. After planning examples and activities for
the lesson, estimate how much time you will spend on each. Manage the time for different applications
or problems, and for the check of learning and understanding of the students. The following questions
would help you design the learning activities you will use in the class:

• What will I do to explain the topic?

• What will I do to illustrate the topic in a different way?

• How can I engage students in the topic?

• What are some relevant real-life examples, similarities, or situations that can help students
understand the topic?

• What will students need to do to help them understand the topic better?

4. Plan to check for understanding

Up till now the topic has been explained with different examples. At this stage you need to check for
student understanding. Therefore, you are required to plan for how will you know that students are
learning? Think about specific questions you can ask students in order to check for understanding, and
write them down. Try to predict the answers to your questions. Decide on whether you want students
to respond orally or in writing. Ask yourself the following questions:

• What questions will I ask students to check for understanding?

• How will students demonstrate that they are following?

• Going back to the list of learning objectives, what activity students can do to check whether each of
those has been completed? Decide what kinds of questions will be productive for discussion and what
questions might sidetrack the class. Think about the balance between achieving learning objectives and
ensuring that students understand.

5 Develop a conclusion and a preview

Repeat the material covered in class by summarizing the main points of the lesson. You can do this in a
number of ways: you can state the main points yourself (“Today we talked about…”), you can ask a
student to help you summarize them, or you can even ask all students to write down on a piece of paper
what they think were the main points of the lesson. You can review the students’ answers to estimate
their understanding of the topic and then explain anything unclear the following class. Conclude the
lesson not only by summarizing the main points, but also by making its link to the next lesson. How does
the topic relate to the one that’s coming up next? This opportunity will increase students’ interest and
help them connect the different ideas within a larger context.

6. Create a realistic timeline

A realistic timeline will reflect your flexibility and readiness to adapt to the specific classroom
environment. Here are some strategies for creating a realistic timeline:

• Estimate how much time each of the activities will take, then plan some extra time for each

• When you prepare your lesson plan, next to each activity indicate how much time you expect it will
take

• Plan a few minutes at the end of class to answer any remaining questions and to sum up the key points
• Plan an extra activity or discussion question in case you have time left

• Be flexible – be ready to adjust your lesson plan to students’ needs and focus on what seems to be
more productive rather than sticking to your original plan

QUESTION 4:

Madeline Hunter’s Seven Steps Lesson Plan :

Hunter developed a seven steps model of lesson planning. These steps are associated with the direct
instruction method and behavior change practices.

The seven steps fall under four categories as follows:

i) Getting Students Ready to Learn

1. Review: -

review of prior learning is necessary to make students ready to learn the new concept.

2. Protective Set: -

focus attention, gain interest – knowledge and experiences of the students about the new concept are
assessed. The teacher connects the previous knowledge and experience of the students to the new
topic/concept.

3. Stating the objective: -

most specifically the objectives of the lesson are stated by the teacher.

ii) Instruction Input and modeling: -

the teacher presents instructions to the class. He/she uses different modes keeping in mind the
students’ interests and abilities. Various examples from the daily life experiences help students to grasp
the new concepts.
iii) Checking for Understanding

1. Check for understanding: -

students learn the lesson according to their own style of learning. Teachers check students
understanding in the middle and at the end of the lesson and decide whether further clarification is
required or not or which areas/points needs more clarification either through teaching material or
through different strategies. The teachers use class assignments for this purpose

2. Guided practice (provide feedback without grading)

a teacher’s remark on students’ work is very essential. It provides feed back to the students about their
progress, learning and weaknesses, areas where improvement is required.

iv) Independent Practice Independent practice (usually for a graded assignment)

students’ learning of new concepts is regularly checked through continues assessment; i.e. monthly
tests, quarterly exams. The teachers mark and give grades to their work.

3) 5 E’s of Lesson Planning

Learning theory of Constructivism states that learners construct new ideas or concepts on the basis of
their current/past knowledge. This model is based on the 57 ideas of constructive learning. Teachers
design their instructions/ lessons around the learning objective, gather resources, and provide students
an opportunity to explore, build, and demonstrate their learning. It shifts the learning environment from
teacher-centered to learner-centered. The 5 E's Lesson Planning Model is most often associated with
constructivist learning design. It involves following 5 E’s:

• Engage - students come across the material, define their questions, do the basic work for their class
work, make connections between new and known ideas, identify the relevant practices from their daily
life.

• Explore - students directly involved with material, go through the learning process to solve the
problems. They work in a team to share the knowledge.

• Explain – the student gets an opportunity to explain the learned concepts such as discoveries,
processes, and ideas by written/ verbal assignments or through creative writing/ projects. The teacher
supplies material, books/ resources, gives feedback, enhances vocabulary, and clarifies
misconceptions/wrong points if any.

• Elaborate – the teachers can enhance students’ knowledge with the help of other examples and
expand their knowledge by explaining similar concepts, and asking them to apply it to other situations.
The learning of the new concepts also raises questions relating to other concepts (lead to new inquiry).

• Evaluate – evaluation of learning is an on-going (continuous) process. Both teacher and learner check
the understanding of the concepts. Different evaluation techniques can be used such as rubrics,
checklists, teacher interviews, portfolios, problem-based learning outputs, and assessments results.
Results are used to evaluate the students’ progress and to modify instructional needs in future.

QUESTION 5:

THEORIES OF MOTIVATION
Different psychological perspectives explain motivation in four different ways. Let us explore four of
these perspectives; behavioral, humanistic, cognitive and social.

The Behavioral Perspective

According to the behaviorist view of learning, when children are rewarded with praise and a gold star
for doing their job correctly, they will look forward to the next mathematics lesson, anticipating another
reward. At some time in the past, they must have been rewarded for similar achievements and this
experience acts as a motivator for future learning of a similar type.

For behaviorists, motivation is simply a product of effective contingent reinforcement. So, they
emphasize the use of extrinsic reinforcement to stimulate students’ task engagement. The
reinforcement can take the form of praise, a smile, an early mark or loss of privileges such as missing out
on sport.

“Almost all teachers use extrinsic reinforcement in some form to motivate students, although they may
not realize they are doing so and may not always use such reinforcement effectively.” (Brody, 1992 in
Krause, et. al, 2003)

The Humanistic Perspective

The humanist theory of motivation is interesting because it is not only linked to achievement and
education, but also has implications for students’ welfare and wellbeing through its concern with basic
needs. It stresses on students’ capacity for personal growth, freedom to choose their destiny and
positive qualities.

There are two theories of motivation from humanistic perspective:

(a) Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow (1954) perceived motivation in terms of a hierarchy of needs that can also conceive as ‘motives.
According to Maslow’s model, once basic physiological needs have been satisfied, efforts are directed
toward achieving needs associated with safety, love and belonging, and self-esteem

b) Roger’s motivation theory

Carl Roger’s ideas are also influential in discussing the nature of motivation and its impact to human
lives. Rogers argued that: Behavior was influenced by the individual’s perception of both personal and
environmental factors. People should listen to their ‘inner voices’ or innate capacity to judge what was
good for themselves, rather than relying on feedback from external sources. The Cognitive Perspective
“According to Santrock (2006) the cognitive perspective on motivation focuses on students’ thought
guide their motivation. It focuses on students’ internal motivation to achieve, their attribution
(perception about the causes of success or failure) and their beliefs that they can effectively control
their environment. It also stresses on the importance of goal setting, planning and monitoring progress
toward a goal.”

(a) Achievement Motivation John Atkinson and David McClelland described the need for achievement
as: “A stable personality characteristic that drives some individuals to strive for success. Students who
have a high need for achievement are motivated to become involved in an activity if they believe that
they will be successful. They are moderate risk taker and tend to be attracted to tasks where the
chances of success are fifty-fifty; since there is a good chance, they will be successful. They like to
attempt a task, but not if they know there is substantial risk of failure.”

On the other hand, Krause described: “Students who have a need to avoid failure, rather than a need to
achieve success, will look for tasks that are either very easy and have little risk of failure, or very difficult
so that failure is not their fault.”

(b) Weiner Attribution Theory

Attribution theory is concerned with the way in which an individual’s explanations of success and failure
influence that individual’s subsequent motivation and behavior. Students may attribute success or
failure to different causes, depending on their beliefs about who or what controls their success or
failure.

There are three important elements to note regarding the way in which students interpret the cause of
behavioral outcome. The three important elements are lotus of control, controllability and stability