Motivation to Learn
What is it that motivates a child to learn? It’s an important question as motivation—the will, inner drive, and self belief— provides the impetus, energy, and direction required to develop and sustain skills, knowledge and competencies necessary to perform academic tasks. Research suggests it is the will to learn which precedes the attainment of academic skills.
Along with the inner drive of motivation, external drives play an important role in the development of will and skill. These include parents and caregivers, peers, psychologists and school counsellors, and teachers. Research demonstrates it is the teacher via classroom instruction who plays one of the greatest roles in influencing academic will and skill. And what a role they have! But how do teacher's effectively influence their students to learn and subsequently acquire academic skills?
Three adaptive factors relevant to motivation
Academic motivation is the energy, drive and inclination to learn and achieve. There are three motivation factors significantly linked to students' academic engagement, interest in school, enjoyment in school work, effort, self–regulation, class participation, academic resilience, attendance, study patterns, and homework and assignment completion. These motivation factors are:
1. Self belief
This is the student's belief and confidence in their ability to understand or to do well in their school work, to meet the challenges they face, and perform to the best of their ability.
2. Learning focus
The focus on learning, solving problems, effort and the development of skills, enhances motivation, as opposed to seeing learning through the lens of competition, limited ability and comparisons with others.
3. Valuing school
Students need to believe that what they learn at school is useful, important and relevant to them and the world in general, in order to enhance how they value school learning.
A history of underachieving can negatively impact upon self–belief, learning focus, and valuing school. A child's negative perception of their ability to achieve can decrease motivation and increase anxiety, elevate fear of failure, reduce a sense of control and negatively affect student disengagement.
So how do teachers enhance and sustain student motivation and the will to learn?
How to enhance and sustain the will to learn
Intervention research over the last two decades demonstrates the importance of enhancing and sustaining the motivation factors of self–belief, learning focus, and valuing school by the following methods:
1. Think positively and constructively
Teaching students to think more positively and constructively about themselves as learners increases their self–belief and learning potential. For example, the power of ‘yet’ such as ‘I don't know it yet' teaches students that it takes time to master skills and knowledge and that yes, we make mistakes, have failed attempts, and do not always know the answers when we are learning. This is normal.
2. Focus on improvement and personal progress
When students focus on personal improvement and progress, rather than on competition and comparisons with others, they are more likely to enjoy the learning experience and to feel less anxious.
3. Identify the relevance of schoolwork
Students motivation to value school and learning is increased when they can link what they are learning to the relevance of their lives. How are the skills and knowledge they are acquiring at school, relevant to everyday life, both in the short and long term?
Achievement and explicit instruction
Research suggests that when it comes to student achievement, explicit instruction is more effective for skill attainment than inquiry–based and discovery learning. The research does not dismiss the later form of learning, rather it suggests that it may be introduced too early in the learning process.
Student centered approach based on discovery and inquiry approaches, where the teacher is seen more as a facilitator of learning, is important in schools. However, research suggests that explicit and structured instruction, including practice and drill, is vital for skill development, and produces greater achievement than inquiry-based and discovery learning.
When students are well guided, supported and led by the teacher in initial learning (explicit instruction), they then become sufficiently skilled and knowledgeable to engage in meaningful and informed discovery-based learning. As Professor Andrew Martin writes, "explicit instruction is the front end of learning and skill development, which lays a solid foundation for subsequent meaningful and supported discovery–based learning" (InPsych, 2017).
Explicit instruction in learning supports working memory, reduces ambiguity, enhances clarity, builds in sequencing and scaffolds, and prompts deliberate and guided practice to automate learning processes. Of course there should be variation in the pace of presentation relative to the pace at which each student learns. Higher performers move onto discovery–based approaches sooner than low performers.
From explicit to discovery learning
Discovery and inquiry–based learning has an important role in the learning process. However the best place for this style of learning is after sufficient direct instruction and input. Once learners acquire the necessary skills and knowledge they can engage in more meaningful and richer discovery learning and problem–solving approaches.
When knowledge and skills are transferred to the child's long term memory there is no longer the load on working memory—the skill and knowledge are encoded into long term memory and become automatic. An example of this is when a child learns to read fluently. The more practice of this skill the more automatic it becomes.
Students need to be motivated to want to learn—to move from will to skill. But the process of being motivated involves a methodical teaching approach of ensuring students have mastered the skills they need through explicit instruction. Once they have a sense of mastery the motivation to learn, along with the skill they have attained, provides the competency to move on to discovery learning and problem solving.
When we understand how children are motivated to learn, and how this can be enhanced and sustained, it brings a greater focus and direction to teaching instruction. Children thrive on methodical and purposeful teaching that goes from explicit instruction to discovery learning and which also increases their will—motivation to learn—as they gain a greater level of success in their academic achievement.
Sourced:
Prof. Martin, A. (2013). From Will to Skill: The Psychology of Motivation, Instruction and Learning in Today's Classroom. In Psych: The Bulletin of the Australian Psychological Society Limited, Vol 35 (6).