Chp. 11 Questions to Consider: Motivation and Affect

Questions to Consider:

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How might you enhance motivation and affect in your students using the theories of motivation?

Which theories of motivation are most helpful and instructive for you?

 One of the biggest challenges facing today's teacher is finding ways to engage their students and generate motivation for the class and its requirements. There are many ways to accomplish this, but first we have to understand some preliminary factors. For starters, it helps to understand what "motivation" really means. According to our textbook, "Motivation is something that that energizes, directs, and sustains behavior; it gets students moving, points them in a particular direction, and keeps them going." In my own terms, motivation is students becoming engaged in their learning. Affect, by our book's definition, is the mood or emotion with which a student approaches a task in order to complete that task. 
 In order to enhance the motivation and affect in my students, I would think that addressing each student's basic human needs, their learning styles, and their tendencies to be either intrinsically or extrinsically motivated would be necessary. This could be accomplished by including activities and lessons within my lesson planning that are varied and that are adaptable to each student's learning and motivational needs. Not every lesson is going to appeal to every student 100% of the time. But by using different teaching methods (instructional, participation, hands-on, multimedia, etc.), I believe that I would be able to encourage students to become engaged in the lesson and more motivated to perform well, regardless of the subject matter. Catering to the students' needs gives them the tools they need to do better and to gain confidence in the classroom, thus improving their affect.