Encouraging student motivation

Encouraging student motivation

1. Intrinsic and Extrinsic

2. Newstead, Franklyn-Stokes and Armstead 1996

   • reasons for study
     • stop gap
       • nothing else to do
       • defer decisions
       • social life
       • least frequent
     • means to an end
       • better paid/ interessting job
       • Qualifications
       • most common
     • personal development
       • improve life skills
       • reach potential
       • interest
       • gain control of life

3. Dweck and Elliot 1983

   • performance goals
     • motivated to get good marks
     • linked to means to end and extrinsic
   • learning goals
     • want to learn from studies
     • linked to personal development and intrinsic

4. Deci and Ryan 1985

   • amotivation (like stop gap)
     • dont know why at uni, think themseleves incomplete, feel have little control
   • motivation has strenght as well as direction

5. achievement motivation

   • discussed by many as one of the principle influencing factors of HE outcomes
   • scale from high to amotivation
   • measure of strength but not direction

6. motives and behaviour

   • approached to studying inventory
     • Entwistle and Ramsden 1983
     • deep and surface learning
       • deep associated intrin and surface extrin
       • conflicting eveidence: found intrin learners used methods to develop conceptial but extrin did not use more rehersal
     • strategic approach also emerged from this
       • cloesely relates achievement motivation
       • main aim is to obtain high marks so will use which they see most appropriate to the task
   • Biggs
     • achieving orientation, can be motivated to achieve good grades even if not interested in task
   • association between motivation and stratergy but not direct between intrinsic motivation and academic sucess
     • if lack intrinsic motivaiton must adopt study stratergy which compensates for this
   • controversial results for studies of deep approach and academic success
     • one explanation is that it is not always rewarded through assesement

7. measuring

   • Entwistle and Ramsen 1983
     • ASSIST
   • Biggs 1987
   • Academic motivation scale: Vallerand et al 1992
     • 28 items, asses 3 types intrinsic motivation, 3 types extrinsic motivation and amotivation
     • found reasonable reliability and validity
     • short: ease of use
   • Motviated stratergies for learning questionairre: Pintrich et al 1993
     • 81, more sub-scales
     • too long
     • good reliability and validity

8. development

   • no change in intrinsic, extrinsic and amotivation found over time at uni

9. Encouraging

   • no quick fix
   • how to avoid amotivation
     • students found essay marks unsatisfactory
       • no relation of effort to result
       • glass ceiling
         • little incentive to work
     • give good feedback
     • essay bank to look at what aspects get good marks
   • students with intrinsic motivation - read round a lot - stuggled to keep to essay word count - performed worse
     • felt marking was inconsitant and not enough information of how to improve
       • avoid understanding motivation as feel leads to worse marks
   • problem of lecturer time
   • multifactorial approach
     • assesment seems to be of importance
       • findings suggest that around exams before less intrinsically motivated
       • need to encourage conceptual understanding
   • encourage students to regulated own motivaiton