Student Motivation and Learning (Updated)

Everything students do is underlined by some sort of motivation. This includes students and their motivation to learn. Motivation is essential to learning since it is the driving force for students' to complete tasks that build knowledge. There are many factors that play can potentially influence motivation, which makes research on this topic as it relates to learning diverse and abundant. However, motivational considerations can be summed up as being either task or ego-oriented. The purpose of this paper is to review research conducted on student motivation as it applies to learning, and in the process, identify teaching techniques that support motivating students to learn. Teaching Techniques that Motivate Motivation is the determining factor in learning, since students who do not want to learn will not learn regardless of the caliber of the instructor, and students who do want to learn will. However, students' motivations may change, such that even those who do not want to learn will change their minds upon exposure to stimulating environments that capture their attention. To keep students engaged, students need to maintain a task-oriented outlook on learning, which is associated with deep-level learning and learning for the sole gratification of acquiring knowledge. In comparison, those who are surface learners, gravitate towards ego-oriented learning, and rely on how others perceive them as a source of motivation. To facilitate taskoriented learning, Ward and Bodner (1993) recommend that teachers evaluate student performance based on an absolute scale rather than on a scale that compares student performance against each other, emphasize student participation and self-improvement in learning, and incorporate test questions that require explanations and justifications rather than memorized material. More specific techniques to engage students in learning involve taking what they know from current pop culture and using the concept in the classroom. For instance, Jeopardy, as an active learning alternate to lecture for knowledge based material. For engineering, science and math courses that require problem solving, the reality television show Survivor may be more useful. In Survivor, students are divided into tribes to solve problems to earn immunity. Although Newall (2005) uses different terms to describe the different types of motivation, the concept is the same. Students who are intrinsically motivated (task-oriented) gladly participate in the activity for the challenge of solving the next problem, students who are socially motivated worked on the problems to not let their team, students who were achievement-oriented wanted to win, and students who are instrumentally motivated wanted the bonus points from winning the game to improve their grade in the course. Even students who are voted off the tribes continue to participate by coming up with problems for the next round. Another technique is through the use of scenarios based on literary work that are interdisciplinary in nature. Waddell and Rybolt (2004) presented scientific problems in a mystery story format based on characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. After every story there is a break to allow students and opportunity to solve the problem before providing the solution.