Topic:

Environmental Factors Affecting Motivation

Sub-topic:
1. Teacher’s Affective Traits
2. The Classroom Climate
3. The Physical Environment

‘Greetings, Introduction & Priming Activity’ (Dejie D. Pansa) 15 mins.

I. Greetings
Say:
Good day everyone, I am ________________________. We will be facilitating the session of
“Environmental Factors Affecting Motivation”.

II. Introduction
Say:
If environment is defined as the sum total of one’s surroundings then environment factors that
affect student’s motivation include human as well as non-human factors. The immediate human factors
that surround the learner are the teachers, the other students and his/her parents. The classroom climate
is more a product of the interaction between and among teacher and students than that of the physical
condition among the personalities in class but it may not contribute as much as the classroom social
interaction does.
We do not get affected only by the psychological climate in the classroom. We are also affected
by the physical condition of the learning place. A crucial part of the whole teaching-learning process
is to find whether both the learner and the teacher were successful in the process.

Objectives:
To be able to
a. Identify the environment factors affecting motivation.
b. Differentiate the environmental factors that affects motivation.
c. Relate the effects of the environmental factors affecting motivation as a future teacher.
d. Compose a poem about the environmental factors affecting motivation

III. Time Allotment

C. Session – 2 hours

IV. Materials
A. Powerpoint/Slided
B. Handouts
C. Marker, Manila paper

V. Procedure
A. Priming Activity: (10 minutes)
Arrange the participants into 3 groups. Each group will solve the given scramble words.

Say:
Solve the scramble word then present your answer in the class.

B. Analysis and Discussion Questions (Edjean Grace N. Laranjo) 10 minutes

 1. How do environmental factors affect the students in the classroom?
2. Do these factors affect the students? How do they influence the behavior of the learners?
3. When do we say that a student is well-motivated inside the classroom?

C. Abstraction (Julie F. Rupinta, Hony Jean G. Tinda, Aurelio G. Teologo) 1 hour

If environment is defined as the sum total of one’s surroundings then environmental factors that
affect students’ motivation include human as well as non-human factors. The immediate human
factors that surround the learner are the teachers, the other students and his/her parents.

Teacher’s Affective Traits

Studies suggest that management and instructional processes are key to facilitating learning
but many interview responses, like the letter at the beginning of this module, emphasize the
teacher’s affective characteristics or social and emotional behaviors, more than pedagogical
practice. Researches cite the following affective characteristics of effective teachers (James H.
Stronge, 2002):
 Caring – Specific attributes that show caring are:
 Sympathetic listening to students not only about life inside the classroom but more
about students’ lives in general
 Understanding of student’s questions and concerns
 Knowing students individually, their likes and dislikes, and personal situations
affecting behavior and performance
 Fairness and Respect – These are shown in specific behaviors like:
 Treating students as people
 Practice gender, racial and ethnic fairness
 Providing students with opportunities for students to participate and to succeed
 Social Interactions with Students – The specific behaviors of a facilitative asocial
interaction are:
 Consistently behaving in a friendly personal manner while maintaining
professional distance with students
 Working with students not for the students
 Interacting productively by giving students responsibility and respect
 Allowing students to participate in decision-making
 Willing to participate and demonstrating a sense of fun
 Have a sense of humor and is willing to share jokes
 Enthusiasm and Motivation for Learning shown in:
 Encourage students to be responsible for their own learning
 Maintaining an organized classroom environment
 Setting high standards
 Assigning appropriate challenges
 Providing reinforcement and encouragement during tasks
 Attitude toward the Teaching Profession
 Dual commitment to personal learning and to students’ learning anchored on the
belief that all students can learn
 Helping students succeed by using differentiated instruction
 Working collaboratively with colleagues and other staff
 Serving as an example of a lifelong learner to his/her students and colleagues
 Reflective Practice
 Reviewing and thinking on his/her teaching process
  Eliciting feedback from others in the interest of teaching and learning

Bullying and the Need to Belong

Students form part of the human environment of the learner. In fact, they far outnumber
the teachers in the learning environment.
The need to belong is a basic human need. Students who are accepted by teachers and
classmate feel they belong to the class. Students who feel are part of the class look forward to
attending class and participating in class. The sense of belongingness enhance their learning and
performance. The prevalence of bullying, however, obstructs the creation of a learning community
where everyone feels he/she belongs. With bullying in schools, the learning environment cannot
be safe. Then by all means, bullying should be eliminated in schools. Bullying takes on several
forms. It can be mild, it can be intense or deeply-seated and highly violent. Today safety in schools
is being raised all over the world especially with that tragic shooting incident that happened
recently in Virginia, USA acclaimed to be the worst school tragedy in American schools. In that
tragedy, more than thirty students were killed.

Parents as Part of the learners’ Human Learning Environment

The learner spends at least six hours in school. The rest, He/she spends at home. Parents,
therefore, are supposed to have more opportunity to be with their children than teachers.
What parents’ behavioral traits are supportive of their children’s learning? Parents who are
supportive of their children’s learning are observed to do the following:
 Follow up status of their children’s performance
 Supervise their children in their homework/project
 Check their children’s notebooks
 Review their children’s corrected seat works and test papers
 Attend conferences for Parents, Teachers and Community Association (PTCA)
 Are willing to spend on children’s projects and involvement in school activities
 Participate actively in school-community projects
 Confer with children’s teachers when necessary
 Are aware of their children’s activities in school
 Meet the friends of their children
 Invite their children’s friends at home

Unsupportive parent behaviors are the opposite of all those listed.

The interaction between the learner and the teacher, among the learners, and among the learner,
teacher and parents gives rise to the learning climate in the classroom. Whether the climate that
comes as a by-product of the interactions nurtures or obstructs learning depends on the quality of
these interactions.

The Classroom Climate

The classroom climate is more a product of the interaction between and among teacher and
students than that of the physical condition of the classroom. The physical condition of the
classroom may exert an influence on the social interaction among the personalities in class but it
may not contribute as much as the classroom social interaction does.
What is a classroom climate that facilitates learning? It is something business-like and yet non-
threatening. What takes place in a classroom where a business-like and a non-threatening
atmosphere prevail?
The classroom climate that is conducive for learning is one that is non-threatening yet business-
like.
It is a classroom where:
  Specific classroom rules and procedures are clear.
 These classroom rules and procedure are discussed on the first days of class.
 Students are involved in the design of rules and procedures.
 Techniques to acknowledge and reinforce acceptable behavior and provide negative
consequences are employed.
 Clear limits for unacceptable behavior are established.
 There is a healthy balance between dominance and cooperation.
 Teacher is aware of the needs of different types of students.
 Teacher is fully aware of the happenings in class.
 Students’ responsibility for their own behavior is enhanced. (Marzano, et al, 2003)

Thy Physical Learning Environment

We do not get affected only by the psychological climate in the classroom. We are affected
by the physical condition of the learning place. The learner is put at a disadvantage when the
classroom is overcrowded, dark, and damp. We hear of teachers saying “It gets into my nerve”
when students are unnecessarily noisy and unruly in a classroom that is topsy turvy. The physical
learning environment matters, too, in facilitating learning.
The physical learning environment has something to do with the condition of the
classroom, the immediate environment of the learner. A conducive physical learning environment
is one that:
 Allows maximum interaction between teacher and student and among students;
 Allows student movement without unnecessary distraction;
 Allows teacher to survey the whole class;
 Is safe, clean, orderly;
 Is well-ventilated, spacious, and adequately lighted; and
 Makes possible re-arrangement of chairs as the need arises.

Let us not forget the fact that while the physical condition of the classroom and the persons
that the students interact with constitute their immediate environment, our students are also
influenced by factors outside their immediate environment. Our students bring to the
classroom many attitudes as a result of their being conditioned by their families, their ethnic
groups, their communities: these attitudes influence their class performance.

VI. Evaluation/Assignment (Flores C. Manlangit) 15 minutes

Group Evaluation
Direction: In every table compose a free verse poem about the environment factors affecting
motivation.

Group 3 Table 6
Name:
Dejie D. Pansa
Edjean Grace N. Laranjo
Julie F. Rupinta
Hony Jean G. Tinda
Aurelio G. Teologo
Flores C. Manlangit