Motivation and affect
Theories and educational implications
Aims
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Define the term ‘motivation’ and consider some of its
characteristics
Distinguish between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
Explore psychological theories on ‘motivation’
Examine the notion of ‘affect’
Discuss the ways motivation, affect and cognition
relate and impact upon each other
Critically assess educational policy and the extent to
which current practice motivates learners.
A warm – up activity
Spend a few minutes thinking of one of your achievements
(something you have put effort into and succeeded it). Then
consider the following questions:
 How did you succeed? Or else, what sorts of behaviours or
strategies did you follow to succeed?
 Why did you succeed in this situation? Or else, why did you
do so well in that particular instance?
 What were the sort and the long term consequences of this
achievement?
 Do you think you were motivated to succeed? What
motivated you?
 What is motivation? Do we need it in order to succeed?
Motivation
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The word comes from the Latin movere – ‘to move’. It
refers to a set of factors that ‘drive’ us, ‘move’ us to
behave in certain ways
It is an internal state that arouses us to action, pushes us
in particular directions and keeps us engaged in certain
activities.
Situated motivation: motivation often a function of the
environment. Different learners may be motivated by
different aspects of a learning environment/experience
(such as the material used, or the content, or group work,
etc).
What does motivation ‘do’?
Motivation increases an individual’s energy and activity level
and directs the individual towards certain goals. It affects
the choices people make and the consequences they find
reinforcing.
Seen as a personal investment, it affects learning strategies,
persistence and time on task.
Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
Extrinsic: When source of motivation lies outside of the
individual and the task being performed (reward or
punishment from environment).
 Intrinsic: When source of motivation lies within the
individual. The individual finds the task enjoyable,
worthwhile in and of itself.
Extrinsic motivation increases time on task and
performance is likely to improve as a result. But, learners
do the very minimum required to achieve the rewards
and may stop engagement when extrinsic motivation
ends.
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Benefits of intrinsic motivation
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Learners pursue the task on their own initiative, without
having to be pressurised or prodded
Greater cognitive engagement (focused attention)
Strive for true understanding of the subject matter
Undertake more challenging aspects of the task
Undergo conceptual change when such change is warranted
Show creativity and persist in the face of failure
Experience pleasure in what they are doing
Regularly evaluate their own progress
Seek out additional opportunities and achieve at high levels
Relationship between extrinsic and
intrinsic motivation
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Not an either-or situation. Both forms may co-exist.
Students may be extrinsically motivated to pass a subject,
or gain a high grade, but at the same time be interested in
the subject.
Or, extrinsic motivation may encourage intrinsic
motivation. A good performance and positive feedback
on a test may encourage the student to try harder and
even develop an interest in the subject.
Theories on motivation
Group activity
What is it that motivates us? Why are some individuals
more motivated than others? Why are we more
motivated to engage in certain activities but not in
others? What is it that ‘drives’, or else causes motivation?
Discuss using examples.
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Basic human needs
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Theories on what motivates us have been based on the
idea that individuals have basic human needs that drive
them towards acting/behaving in certain ways. Therefore
they are motivated to perform certain actions in order to
fulfil their needs. These needs are said to be universal.
Early theories on motivation looked at physiological
drives, need for arousal and the fulfilment of basic human
needs.
Later theories looked at our needs for competence, self
worth, self determination and relatedness).
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
People have five different sets of needs:
 Physiological needs: needs for oxygen, food, water, warmth,
exercise, rest, etc. (same as drives to achieve homeostasis)
 Safety needs: needs to feel safe and secure in our environment
– we prefer structure and order in our lives
 Love and belongingness needs: We are driven towards forming
affectionate relationships and feel belongingness.
 Esteem needs: we need to feel good about ourselves (need for
self esteem) and to feel that others feel positively about us
(need for esteem from others).
 Need for self-actualisation: need to develop and reach our full
potential. We seek new activities and learning for the sake of
learning.
The hierarchy (cont)
These needs form a hierarchy. This means that the bottom
ones need to be fulfilled before we ones higher in the
hierarchy are felt. Physiological needs are the most
important. Until these are met, the person does not
experience any other needs. Once physiological and
safety needs are met, the individual starts experiencing a
drive to fulfil their belongingness needs, and so on.
Example: It is possible that we won’t worry too much about
self esteem and esteem from others, if our physiological
and safety needs are not met first.
The hierarchy (cont)
Self
actualisati
on
Esteem needs
Love and
belongingness needs
Safety needs
Physiological needs
The hierarchy (cont)
The first four needs are the D needs (Deficiency needs). We
only feel them (they become an issue for us) if they are
threatened. They are met only by external sources. Once
they are met there is no reason to satisfy them further.
The last, self actualisation need is a G need (a growth need).
It is constantly experienced. The motive behind it is not
to address a deficiency, but to enhance the person’s
growth and development.
Competence and self-worth
People have a need to feel positively about themselves – a basic
need for competence. A need to believe that they can deal
effectively with their environment (similar to Maslow’s need
for self esteem).
Self worth: Protecting one’s sense of competence. Seen as one
of individuals’ first priorities. Achieving success serves this
purpose. But, when success is not possible, individuals follow
strategies to avoid failure. These are:
 Refusal to engage in a challenging activity
 Downplay its importance
 Setting low expectations for themselves
 Refuse to abandon their beliefs in the face of contradictory
evidence.
Self determination
People’s need to have some sense of autonomy regarding
the things that they do – basic need for self
determination.
More likely to be intrinsically motivated if learners have a
sense of self determination about their circumstances. If
they have little involvement/control in determining what
is going to happen, they may comply with external
demands but have little intrinsic motivation.
Competence/self worth/self
determination
Need for
competence
Need for self
determination
Need for self
worth
Self determination (cont)
Factors that influence people’s sense of self determination:
 Choices: Giving learners choices within certain reasonable
limits. Choices have to be real choices.
 Threats and deadlines: they reduce self determination and
intrinsic motivation
 Controlling statements: conveying the message that others
control the situation
 Extrinsic rewards: they may undermine intrinsic motivation,
especially if learners perceive them as controlling and
manipulating their behaviour, rather than as feedback about
their progress.
 Surveillance and evaluation: people that are under evaluation
have a lower sense of self determination.
What about ‘affect’?
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Affect: our feelings, emotions and general moods that we bring
to a task.
Affect’s evolutionary function: driving force of motivation. It
enables the learner to set goals. Motivation to succeed creates
positive feelings and positive feelings create belief that success
is possible. It enables learners to imagine the positive feelings
when the target will be met and success will be experienced.
As a general rule, people act in ways that make them feel
happy and comfortable. When they encounter ideas that
conflict their current beliefs they experience cognitive
dissonance. This motivates them to resolve the discrepancies.
Emotions and learning
Activity 1:
What sorts of
emotions
have you
experienced
Whilst
learning
something?
Emotions
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Learning
…
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…
Activity 2:
what is the
relationship
between the
two?
Elaborate
using
examples.
The relationship between affect,
learning and cognition
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We experience feelings and emotions when learning and
performing a task. Successful learning experiences bring
on feelings of pleasure, satisfaction, excitement and pride.
Failed attempts bring on feelings of frustration, anxiety,
upset and therefore dislike for the task.
As we think about, learn or remember something we
have learned, our thoughts and memories may be
coloured by emotions – hot cognition.
General mood states affect learning and memory. Anxiety
for example.
Anxiety
Feeling of uneasiness and apprehension about a situation,
typically one with an uncertain outcome. It is at the high end
of the arousal continuum.
Anxiety has two components: worry (cognitive aspect) and
emotionality (affective aspect).
2 types: state anxiety (linked to a specific situation) and trait
anxiety (stable trait).
Anxiety is not always harmful. In moderate levels it can enhance
performance – optimal levels of arousal required depending on
difficulty of task. Threat versus challenge.
Easy tasks best performed with higher levels of anxiety
Difficult tasks performed with low level of anxiety.
Test anxiety
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Highly anxious learners do poorly in tests. Appear to be
concerned that the teacher will make evaluative
judgments about them, or that the results of the tests will
be taken as representative of their (low) ability.
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Test anxiety interferes not only with the ability to
remember (retrieval) during the test, but also with the
encoding and storage of info when studying for the test.
Seminar task 1
Skim read the article “Children’s theories of motivation”,
uploaded on Moodle. This will give you a general idea of this
piece, what it is about and what it claims it has found.
Then focus more on the Introduction, Method and
Discussion and write your thoughts down on the following
questions (fill in the following slides):
a. What was the purpose of this study?
b. What is the conceptual framework
(the main theory) of the study?
c.
Which are the different strategies used to motivate
others and which are the most effective?
d. What methods did they use to collect
their data (very briefly)?
e.
What did they find? What strategies did the
children favour?
f. Do these findings confirm or challenge
their initial predictions?
Seminar task 2
How would you create a motivating learning environment?
The following statements may give you some ideas:
 Learners learn more effectively when they are intrinsically
rather than extrinsically motivated
 Children’s intrinsic need to learn at school tends to
decrease as they progress through the school grades and
may be particularly low during transition from primary to
secondary education
 Learners are more likely to be intrinsically motivated
when they feel confident that they can succeed at
classroom tasks.
Seminar task 3 (cont)
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Intrinsic motivation increases with degree of autonomy
Having choices about what to do enhances intrinsic mot.
Extrinsic motivation could be used effectively to
encourage intrinsic motivation
Non academic needs are also important
Involve emotion in learning.
Classroom assessments are more effective motivators
when perceived as a means of enhancing future
achievement rather than as judgments of ability and
worth.
Rerefences
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Herbert, P.,L. &nGovern, J., M. (2004) Motivation: theory, research
and applications. London: Thomson Learning.
Jordan, A., Carlile, O. & Stack, A. (2009) Approaches to learning.
A guide for teachers. Glasgow: McGraw Hill, Open University
Press.
McCombs, B. L. & Miller, L. (2007) Learner-centered classroom
practices and assessments: maximizing student motivation, learning,
and achievement. Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Corwin.
Ormrod, J. E. (2008) Human learning. New Jersey: Pearson
Prentice Hall.
Schunk, D. H. (2012) Learning theories. An educational perspective.
London: Pearson.