Theories on Factors Affecting Motivation

It can be said that intrinsic motivation is far better than extrinsic motivation. Teachers ought to develop
intrinsic motivation among their learners. However, according to experts, there is currently NO unified
theory that explain the origin or elements of intrinsic motivation. Most explanations combine elements
of Bernard Weiner’s Attribution Theory, Bandura’s work on Self-efficacy, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs,
William Glasser’s Choice Theory and other studies relating to goal orientation.

I. Attribution Theory
- Explains that students attribute their successes and failures or other events to several factors.
- A psychological concept about how people explain the causes of an event or behavior.
- Fritz Heider stated, we are all ‘naïve psychologists’ with the innate desire to understand the
causes of our behaviors and their outcomes.
- Attribute successes / failures to several factors: (Locus, Stability and Controllability)

A. Locus (Place) of Causality: Internal and External Locus

Attributions are classified along a dimension known as the locus of causality from internal to
external. If we attribute behavior to an internal locus of causality we assume that outcomes
resulted from something within us (due to student’s abilities and hardwork); if we attribute the
outcomes to an external locus of causality we view it as caused by something outside ourselves
(teacher’s method, schools’ equipment).

B. Stability: Stable and Unstable

Attributions are also classified in terms of stability, from stable to unstable. Stable causes are
those that are difficult to change such as intelligence (genes); unstable causes can be changed
(excessive exposure to gadgets).

C. Controllability : Controllable and Uncontrollable

Attribute success / failure to a factor beyond his control (ineffective teaching strategy) , and
attributing even to factors which are very much within his control (poor study habit)

If students attribute their success or failure to something within him/herself and therefore is within
his/her control or to something unstable and therefore, can be changed she is more likely to be
motivated. If however, your student tracers his/her success to something outside him/her and
therefore beyond his/her control, he / she is likely to be less motivated.

II. Self-efficacy Theory

A sense of high self-efficacy means a high sense of competence. Self-efficacy is the belief that one
has the necessary capacities to perform a task, fulfill role expectations or meet challenging
situations successfully. When your students believe that they have the ability to perform learning
activities competently, they are more likely to be intrinsically motivated to do learning tasks.

Strategies in Building Self-efficacy

1. Make sure that students master the basic skills. Mastery of the basic skills will enable the child
to tackle higher level activities. Unable to perform higher-level tasks that require display and use
of basic skills, your students will feel they are failure in their school lives.
2. Seek Feedback. The problem with understanding feedback is that some people tend to believe
that getting no feedback is the same as being told that one is doing their job well (hence the
common phrase: “no feedback is great feedback”).
3. Help them make noticeable progress on difficult tasks. You like giving up climbing a mountain
when you fell that you are not making progress at all. When you have spent hour and hours on a
difficult task and you seem not to be progressing, you are made to think that your efforts are
leading you nowhere and you want to give up. That is why, it is good that you are helped to see
progress while you are working on difficult tasks. Your knowledge that you are progressing
inspires you to keep on.
4. Encourage participation. Participation tends to be essential in any work– it encourages the
person to be active and environment engaged, great qualities in someone that are usually
influential in a person’s levels of self-efficacy.
5. Communicate confidence in students’ abilities through words and actions. Express confidence
that your students, with all their abilities, can easily work on challenging learning tasks. Needless
to say that your body language and your words expressing your belief in their abilities must
match.
6. Expose them to successful peers. Being with successful peers, your students will inhale and get
energized to succeed as well. Success is contagious in the same way that failure is also
contagious. (Ormrod, 2004)
7. Emphasize peer modeling. Learning from examples set by those around you happens at any age
(think of how a teacher is a role model for a student but in a similar manner an employer is a
model for an employee).
8. Promote self-comparison rather than comparison with others. One becomes vain and bitter, if
one starts to compare him/herself to other students. For always there will be greater and lesser
people than yourself. After encouraging your student to set their personal goals, ask them to
evaluate their progress against their own goals.

High Self-efficacy Learners Low Self-efficacy Learners

Task Orientation Accept challenging tasks
Effort Expend high effort when faced
with challenging tasks
Persistence Persist when goals aren’t
initially reached
Beliefs Believe they will succeed
Control stress and anxiety when
goals are not met
Performance Perform HIGHER than low-
efficacy students of equal ability
Avoid challenging tasks
Expand low effort when faced
with challenging tasks
Give up when goals aren’t initially
reached
Focus on feelings of incompetence
Experience anxiety and depression
when goals aren’t met
Perform LOWER than high-efficacy
students of equal ability

III. Self-determinaption and Self-regulation Theories

 Students are intrinsically motivated when they have a sense of self determination- when
students believe that they have some choice and control regarding the things they do and
the directions their lives take. A student’s sense of self-determination is demonstrated in his
capacity for self-regulation. Self regulation refers to a person’s ability to master himself. He
is the “I am the captain of my ship” type of person. He is capable of directing himself.

The following abilities indicate self-regulation:

- Set standards for oneself
- Monitor and evaluate one’s own behaviour against such standards and
- Impose consequences on oneself for one’s success or failure (Ormrod, 2004)

A self-regulated students is more likely to be intrinsically motivated because he/she sets his/her
goals and standards and goals, he monitors his/her progress and evaluates his/her
performance.

IV. Choice Theory

This theory suggests that people are born with specific needs that are instructed to satisfy.
Aside from physical need for survival, people have four (4) basic psychological needs that
must be satisfied to be emotionally healthy:
1. Belonging / connecting
The need for belongingness or connecting motivates students to develop relationships
and cooperate with others. If teachers create a sense of community in the classroom
and make every student feel he/she belongs to that community, s/he will more likely be
motivated to learn. Teacher, then, need to use various cooperative learning structures
in their classes.
2. Power / competence
The need for power is more than just to dominate the whole class. Power is gained
through competence, achievement and mastery. To satisfy the students’ need to power,
teachers need to help students achieve mastery and competence. In that manner,
students get recognized and experience genuine power.
3. Freedom
As humans, students are also motivated to be free to choose. Having choices is part of
what it means to be human. To motivate our students for learning, teachers should
provide students ample freedom to choose within parameters that are safe and
responsible, developmentally appropriate and supportive of learning for that is the
ultimate purpose of freedom: to help our students learn and grow into the responsible
persons they are called to be.
4. Fun
Each time student learns something new, they are having fun, another universal human
motivator. It is our playfulness and our sense of discovery that allow us to learn as much
as we do. So, if students’ need for fun is satisfied, they are most likely to learn much.

V. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

A student’s lower-order needs must first be met before s/he works for the
satisfaction of his/her higher-order needs. For teachers, this means that we cannot
teach students with empty stomachs. We cannot teach students when they feel afraid
and insecure. Our students’ need for love and belongingness is satisfied in a class where
they feel they belong and are accepted regardless of their academic standing in class,
economic status or ethnic background. Their need for self-esteem is satisfied when we
 help them succeed, recognize their effort and contribution. Doing so propels them to
self-actualization.

Based on Maslow’s theory, a satisfied need is NOT a strong motivator but an

unsatisfied need is.

VI. Goal Theory

The goals that students set for themselves affect their own motivational level. There are
several types of goals: Learning and performance goals.

Learning goal: A desire to acquire additional knowledge or master new skills

Performance goal: desire to look good and receive favorable judgment from others

The student with a learning goal is mastery-focused while the student with performance
goal is performance-focused

Comparison of mastery-Focused and Performance-Focused Classrooms

Success defined as
Value placed on
Reasons for satisfaction
Views of errors
Reasons for assessment
Mastery-Focused
Mastery; improvement
Effort; improvement
Meeting challenges, hard
work
A normal part of learning
Measure progress toward
preset criteria, provide
feedback
Performance-Focused
High grades; doing better
than others
High grades; demonstration
of high ability
Doing better than others
A basis for concern and
anxiety
Determine grades, compare
students to another student

Self-determined goals
Personally-relevant and self-determined goals enhances students’ motivation. Making goals
relevant to student’s life increases their motivation. Thus, ownership of the goals comes in.
This departs from de-contextualized teaching that happens when all we do is to deposit
information (banking system of education).
Goal setting
As a motivational tool, goal setting is effective when the following major elements are
present: goal acceptance, specificity, challenge, performance monitoring and performance
feedback.