THE EFFECTS OF MOTIVATION ON STUDENTS’ LEARNING

by

RAHIMULLAH RAMESH

A MONOGRAPH

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree

B.A. OF ARTS

Department of English
Faculty of Languages and Literature

KABUL UNIVERSITY
Kabul, Afghanistan

Year
(March, 2011)

Approved by:

Mrs. Somaiya Hussainiyan

Preface
It is an immense pleasure and an exceptional chance for me being able to write my monograph
regarding motivation and its effects on student’s learning. I do believe that both English learners
and instructors will find this academic work worthy of reading because it is an informative
research and I have put my best effort to present it in a clear and systematic way. I did this
research about motivation not because it was obligatory, but because I have a strong interest in
teaching. I can say this because I selected this subject on my own accord.

It is of great importance to mention that in writing this monograph, I have gained information not
only from reliable sources but also from my personal observations and experiences. All the
details in this monograph are trustworthy and reliable because this is the result of my four year
study at the university and it took me one full year to finish it.

Although this is my first academic paper, I hope this piece of information can somehow help
English learners and newly appointed English teachers.

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Acknowledgements
I am really grateful to nearly all the instructors in English Department who supported me with
valuable suggestions and advices which really did help me doing this investigation.

Particularly, I would like to express my thanks and appreciation to my advisor, Prof. Somaya
Hussainyan, an instructor in English Department, who has guided and supported me throughout
my academic paper and has spent her valuable time guiding me all through my research. I am
also grateful to Prof. Abdul Kareem Waseel Wardak, head of English Department, and Prof.
Amir Mohammad Barakzai Shindandi, an English lecturer, who have always shouldered the
responsibility of guiding and advising English students in every field. Both of them made useful
suggestions based on which, I nearly completed my composition. Additionally, a special thank
also goes to Prof. S. M. Mohaqqeq, who directed me about the composition and framework of a
research paper as a whole, and made countless suggestions how to do a research paper. I should
be heartily thankful to him and should appreciate him for his illimitable contributions which
helped me doing my work in a systematic way and with ease.

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Contents
Chapter 1 ………………………………………………………………………………………….4
Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………….4
Chapter 2 ………………………………………………………………………………………….7
What is Motivation? ……………………………………………………………………………....7
2.1 Sources of Motivation …………………………………………………………………….9
2.1.1 Intrinsic Motivation ………………………………………………….…………….…9
2.1.2 Extrinsic Motivation ……………………………………………………………..….10
2.1.3 Success in the Task …………………………………………………….……………12
Chapter 3 …………………………………………………………………………………...……14
What is Learning? …………………………………………………………………………….…14
3.1 Instruction in Learning ………………………………………………………………..….15
Chapter 4……………………………………………………………………………………..…..17
Motivation in Learning.……………………………………………………………………….…17
4.1 Motivation directs behavior towards particular goals …………………………………...18
4.2 Motivation leads to increased effort and energy………………………………………….18
4.3 Motivation increases the initiation of and persistence in activities ………………...……18
4.4 Motivation makes the students to study for the subject’s own importance……………....19
4.5 Motivation facilitates learning…………………………………………………………....19
4.6 Motivation affects cognitive processes.………………………………………………/.…20
4.7 Motivation determines which consequences are reinforcing and punishing………….….20
4.8 Motivation makes the students active, more alert, and busy ………………………….…20
Chapter 5 …………………………………………………………………………………….…..23
How to Motivate the Unmotivated Students ………………………………………………….…23
5.1 Why are Students Unmotivated? …………………………………………………………23
5.1.1 Subject is boring ...………………………………………………………………...…23
5.1.2 Subject is presented in a boring way ..…………………………………………….…24
5.1.3 Students lack clear goals………………………………………………………..….…25
5.1.4 Pupil feels insecure, anxious, or scared ……………………………………………..26
5.1.5 Pupil has never earned high or satisfying grades ………….…………………………27
5.1.6 Pupil has had negative experiences …….………………………………………….…27
5.1.7 Student experiences little sense of acceptance, belonging, or esteem …………….…27
5.1.8 Teacher’s personality and style is not pleasing for the students…………………..….28
5.2 Motivating the Unmotivated Students……………………………………………...…..…29
5.2.1 Explain …………………………………………………………………………….…30
5.2.2 Reward …………………………………………………………………………….…31
5.2.3 Care ………………………………………………………………………………..…32
5.2.4 Have students participate ………………………………………………………….....33
5.2.5 Satisfy students' needs and make learning fun …………………………….……..…..34
5.2.6 Make learning visual …………………………………………………….………..….35
5.2.7 Use positive emotions ……………………………………………………….…….…36
5.2.8 Teach inductively ………………………………………………………….……..…..37
Chapter 6 ……………………………………………………………………………….…..……38
Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………..……,,…38
References ……………………………………………………………………………………….41

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 Chapter One: Introduction

The subject matter I am dealing with is basically about the effects of motivation on students’
learning and the ways the students can master classroom tasks. Particularly, I have focused on
how students can be influenced effectively and efficiently as to be able to learn things so rapidly
and with enthusiasm through highly encouragement. At the same time, recent researches have
shown that motivation has played a major and extraordinary role in students’ educational career.
I can say this, because it has been already experienced that students with high level of motivation
are much more successful in the learning process than those without motivation. For example, if
two classes of students are taught in two different ways in terms of encouragement (one class
with very much motivation and another with no motivation at all), it can be seen that in the day
of exam, the students who were supported with motivation and inspiration receive high and
satisfying grades, whereas those lacking motivation receive poor results. In this research paper, I
have tried my best to figure out all the ways and factors that highly interests the students in the
learning procedure.

It is worth mentioning that the main emphasis in this work will be on the effects of motivation
and how a teacher might motivate his or her students to achieve instructional or educational
objectives fully. This is because motivation is a broad topic that covers the arousal, excitement,
and continuation of all types of behavior. Sometimes teachers say that a particular student is
“unmotivated.” Strictly speaking, that is not an accurate statement because he may possibly be
unmotivated to behave in other ways, not in the learning process. Therefore, the topic motivation
here is limited to the effects of motivation in the field of education and instructional purposes.

Furthermore, many students want to learn everything that the teacher wants them to learn and
they also do learn and can perform the required tasks properly. However, some students are
forced to go to school while they do not want to go; some students want to go to school, but they
do not want to learn what the school and teachers want them to learn, and some students go to
school, but they cannot perform the demanded learning tasks. Why is this so? Of course because
some students are highly motivated that enthusiastically do everything well; some are slightly
motivated that can do the tasks but not in a way that they should do, and some are not motivated

4
at all that cannot or do not do the education related tasks. Thus, this is how motivation works and
affects the students’ learning in different ways.

If the teacher shoulders the responsibility to increase the motivation of the students through for
example, learning activities that engage the students, praise and rewards in the learning process,
providing warm and orderly atmosphere in the class, … etc, the students will absolutely become
interested in learning and will perform all the required learning tasks with great eagerness.
Consequently, the more students are motivated, the better and enthusiastic they will be in the
learning process.

As I went through some books, I found that of all the relationships that the term motivation has
with the other things, there is an outstanding and remarkable connection between motivation and
learning. To make the above claim clear, I can say that motivation has to do with different things
such as one’s profession, different sports, social and unsocial behaviors, and many other
activities. However, it is engaged with learning and education more than anything else. For
example, it can be possible to fulfill a task related to a particular sport, but achieving
instructional and educational objectives exceedingly needs motivation that without some
incentive, it is considerably impossible to achieve the learning objectives. Additionally, it has
been proved from the course of time that the reason why many students want to learn things and
perform the desired educational tasks efficiently is that they are highly motivated, and the reason
why some students do not want to learn things and do not perform the desired educational tasks
efficiently, is that they are unmotivated.

Because motivation is a broad discussion, I have not proceeded with all its components. Instead,
I have tried to discuss the concept of both motivation and learning and have argued the impact of
the former on the later. At the very beginning in this academic work, I have tried to discuss
generally about Motivation. In other words, I have talked about intrinsic and extrinsic or inside
and outside motivations without discussing each one of them in separate chapters, and I have
gathered everything about motivation under the title of What is Motivation. Second, I have
discussed generally about Learning and process of acquiring knowledge, the relationship of
learning and instruction, and all about learning procedure under the title of What is Learning.

5
Third, I have argued about the effectiveness of motivation and some of the predominant impacts
of Motivation on learning, which is the main purpose of this work under the title of Motivation in
Learning. Then, beneath the title of How to motivate the unmotivated students, I have discussed
some of the most challenging reasons that make students unmotivated. In this section, I have also
pointed out at some principal ways through which the students can be motivated and do well in
the learning process. Finally, I have summed up all the discussion in the conclusion section.

6
 Chapter Two: What is Motivation?

Before going frontward intensely with the idea of motivation, I want to point out at some
motivation-related questions that play an outstanding role in better understanding of the term
motivation. The questions are: why do we produce behavior towards something? (For example,
going for food), why do we behave differently towards different things or situations? (For
example, striving for food, water, reputation, power and authority, social status, gaining wealth,
getting married, …etc.), why are we most of the time active and are constantly moving and are
not restful even for a single moment?, why do we react negatively and positively towards
something?, why do we often cry for and laugh at something?, and many other such why
questions.

To answer the aforementioned questions, we should approve that there are some factors and
motive powers that not only make us to do something, but also drive our activities toward
particular goals. These driving factors which cause a person to do something are called Motives,
and the state of being motivated due to the penetration of a motive is called Motivation. In other
words, motive is the reason and cause that impel someone to do something, and motivation is the
enthusiasm for doing something, or the state of being stirred to action. For example, the need for
food is a motive, and the state of being hungry is motivation; the need for water and the shortage
of it is a motive, and the state of being thirsty is motivation; the need for sex appeal and marriage
ceremony is a motive, and the state of being in love with someone is motivation. Therefore,
simply we can say that motivation is the willingness to spend a certain amount of effort to
achieve a particular goal.

Motivation like many other complex terms is a broad and difficult subject to define exactly.
However, it becomes clear from its name that it is the inner power or energy that pushes
someone toward performing actions and achieving something. As it is mentioned in the above
sentences that motivation activates behavior, we can say that it is what causes us to act, whether
it is getting a glass of water to reduce thirst or reading a book to gain knowledge. For example,
sometimes it happens that a particular student does not want to study a particular subject; this is
because that particular student does not have the motivation to trully deal with that subject. If the

7
same student is provided with motivation through for example praise, rewards, and realizing the
advantages of the respective subject, it is likely that he or she changes his or her mind and tries to
acquire it.

It is important to realize that motivation has much to do with desire and ambition, and if they are
absent, motivation is absent too. Often, a person has the desire and ambition to get something
done or achieve a certain goal, but lacks the willingness to take action. This is due to lack of
motivation. Motivation strengthens the ambition, and gives direction, courage, energy and the
persistence to follow one's goals. A motivated person takes action and does whatever it needs to
achieve his/her goals, and becomes stronger when he/she has a vision, a clear mental image of
what they want to achieve.

In a human being, motivation involves both conscious and unconscious drives. Psychological
theories must account for a “primary” level of motivation to satisfy basic needs, such as those for
food, oxygen, and water, and for a “secondary” level of motivation to fulfill social needs such as
companionship and achievement. The primary needs must be satisfied before an organism can
attend to secondary drives. To appreciate this point, we can say that the primary levels of
motivation (thirst, hunger, sex appeal …etc) are established based on existential necessities of a
living being and they are innate essentials. In other words, these initials need help the organisms
to be alive or in breathing shape and therefore should be fulfilled. On the other hand, the second
levels of motivation (power, authority, social status, etc) are not inherent to living creatures; they
are rather acquired through learning. Because the secondary levels of motivation do not have to
do with individual’s state of existing, they are of secondary importance to be fulfilled.

It is worth mentioning that motivation has a major importance in the life of living beings because
every single behavior has its own motivation before taking action, that without motivation, an
organism cannot do something in a way that is necessary to be done. It is motivation that impels
one particular student to study psychology for hours; whereas, makes another student to spend
most of his/her time studying literature, and so forth. It is due to motivation that one person
strives to make enough money, while another person tries to serve and help others, and so on.
(Ganji, 1998). Thus, motivation can be applied to every action and goal. There could be
motivation to study a foreign language, to get good grades at school, to get the first position in

8
class, to write a poem, to take a walk every day, to make more money, to get a better job, to buy
a new house, to own a business, or to become a writer, a doctor or a lawyer.

It should be also taken into account that motivation is not all the time positive; it can be negative
as well. Positive motivation is a response which includes enjoyment and optimism about the
tasks that you are involved in. Negative motivation is a reaction which includes dissatisfaction
and pessimism about the tasks you are involved in. For instance, if a short story writer is treated
and supported with love and respect by the society after publishing his or her first collection of
short stories, the writer becomes overconfident about his or her storytelling career, and gets
enough interest to write more. This satisfaction and hopefulness is because of the positive
outcomes of the writer’s tasks, and so he or she is positively motivated. On the other hand, if a
school student receives a failing grade in a subject, he or she loses interest in that particular
subject, and this dissatisfaction and hopelessness is due to the negative outcome, and so he or she
is negatively motivated.

2.1. Sources of Motivation:

It is necessary to find out the roots and sources of motivation. One student may be motivated to
do learning activities because of receiving some rewards from either the teacher or his/her
parents, yet another student may perform something because of its own positive outcomes at the
end. A third student may value learning because he/she has experienced achievement in it, and so
on. Therefore, although students may be equally motivated to perform a task, the sources of their
motivation may differ. Generally motivation comes from three sources in learning: from inside
of you (intrinsic Satisfaction), from outside of you (extrinsic reward), and from your success
in the task (combining satisfaction and reward.)

2.1.1. Intrinsic Motivation:

Intrinsic or inside motivation, as its name suggests, comes from your hopes and expectations,
and from your own desire to do something or to be someone. It is the enthusiasm that arises from
within the individual with his or her own personal satisfaction of doing something. For example,
when someone studies a subject for its own sake usually because he or she knows the advantages
of doing so, or because the learning activity and the learning environment elicit motivation in the

9
student, we say that the student is intrinsically motivated. A particular student who has not
experienced the intrinsic motivation can achieve it by thinking carefully about what he/she hopes
to gain from his/her studies and why. He/she can set a goal and direct all the study efforts
towards reaching it. Intrinsic motivation is the innate and the learner’s natural interest towards
something. It is the most important kind and is defined as the desire to engage in an activity for
its inherent satisfaction rather than for some separable and external outcomes. Therefore,
intrinsically motivated learners usually show intellectual interest, find learning fun and continue
seeking knowledge even after the formal class of study.

2.1.2. Extrinsic Motivation:

In the case of extrinsic or outside motivation, a student studies in order to receive praise from a
teacher, avoid punishments, earn high grades, particular prizes, money…etc. For example,
students are motivated to learn by being awarded grades; individuals outside of school are
motivated to engage in many activities because they hope to win certificates, medals, prizes or
admirations from the society. Students are motivated to learn when they realize that receiving
good grades in different courses is the key to success in finding satisfying jobs; individuals
outside of school may compete for prizes that have high values. Sometimes it happens in the
educational process that students are persuaded to work at not so enjoyable learning tasks by
being promised the chance to engage in a favorite activity (like playing soccer) after they finish
the task. We are experiencing that many people work at jobs that they do not enjoy so that they
can earn enough money to engage in free time activities that they do enjoy. Consequently,
extrinsically motivated learners are much more dependent to the teacher. They are subordinate.

In the field of education, the most obvious kind of extrinsic motivation is the grades, and it is
assumed that people will be motivated to learn so that they can get good grades. To provide an
example, I can remind the learning experiment that Edward L. Deci, a professor of psychology,
did with his coworkers, considering the issue of grades as a motivator. They had two groups of
college students supposd to spend about three hours on learning some complex material on
neurophysiology. Half of these students were told that they would be tested and graded on their
learning, and the others were told that they would have the opportunity to put the material into
active use by teaching it to others. After the students finished studying, they assessed their

10
intrinsic motivation with a questionnaire and found that those who learned the material in order
to be graded were less intrinsically motivated, and the students who learned the material in order
to have the opportunity of actively using it, were much more intrinsically motivated. A week
after the experiment, they again tested the students, and found that those who had learned in
order to be tested or graded, had forgotten almost everything, and those who had learned in order
to put the material into active use, did well in the test. Why is this so? Because some of the
students were extrinsically motivated, and they just memorized the material for the test and
grade; whereas, the others were intrinsically motivated, and learned the material for its own sake
and importance.

From the experiment above, it becomes clear that both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations have
their own importance especially in the field of education. However, intrinsic motivation is the
most important kind, and researchers suggests that intrinsically motivated learners do better in
the learning process than extrinsically motivated students. This is because students with a high
intrinsic motivation value learning and study things with great pleasure and their natural interest,
while, extrinsically motivated students are much more dependent to someone else (the teacher),
and they do good only as long as they are under the control of the teacher. Intrinsic motivation
allows the students to think and reason on their own about something; however, extrinsic
motivation involves punishments and rewards, and therefore disregards the children’s ability to
think and reason on their own. It is usual that a particular teacher supports good students with
good marks or praising words and punishes other students with low marks or critical words.
Therefore, the rewarding system itself can be frustrating for the weaker students.

It is of great importance to know that although intrinsic motivation is preferable, it can be

enhanced by extrinsic motivation. In other words, extrinsic motivation pokes the students to be
intrinsically motivated. I can say this, because when external rewards are given according to
some decided standard of excellence, when the task is quite challenging, and when the reward is
relatively large, intrinsic motivation is likely to come into being. If a student gets the first
position in a language class, for example, a suitable reward may absolutely cause the student to
get interest in that particular language. Therefore, tangible rewards (such as toys and candy), and
social rewards (such as praise and admiration) can be effective in enhancing intrinsic motivation.

11
However, the teachers should avoid the excessive use of rewards particularly when the activity is
naturally interesting to the students. Instead, rewards should be given to the students when they
work on tasks that are so challenging, or on tasks that they have not yet experienced.

In actuality, the teacher creates the situation from which the students motivate themselves. It
means that it is the teacher’s responsibility to create such a condition which seems really
interesting and motivating to almost all the students, so that they can turn out to be intrinsically
motivated. Deci, E. L., and Flaste, R. (1995) noted that “parents, teachers, managers, doctors,
coaches, and politicians are forever asking, “How can I motivate people to behave themselves,
perform well, and act responsibly?” But that is the wrong question because it starts from the
wrong premise. They should be asking a profoundly different question: “How can I create the
conditions within which people will motivate themselves?” (p. 201).

2.1.3. Success in the Task:

Considering the first two sources of motivation and their relationships, the third source comes
into being which is built on the fact of success in the learning task. We said that students can be
intrinsically motivated by having a natural satisfaction and enthusiasm in the learning process,
and they can be extrinsically motivated by receiving external rewards or avoiding punishments.
The third source of motivation is the combination of both satisfaction and reward. This is the
most important of all because at this stage, the learners succeed in what they do, and it can
definitely advance their level of motivation more than it was previously. Success in the learning
task pushes the students to put in more effort and do something over again (Woodworth &
Schlosberg, 1954). For example, if a student in a certain language learning class has a really
strong natural interest in acquiring a particular language and is also supported by remarkable
external rewards and praising words (having both inside and outside motivation), he or she will
be able to do the related language learning tasks in a systematic way, and will therefore succeed
in learning the language. This favorable outcome increases the student’s concern about the
respective language, and forces him/her to study further until it is professionally and
academically acquired.

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If we put in more effort because of the success in the learning procedure, we generally get better,
and so this sustains our motivation. Feelings of being able to do something and feelings of
sustained motivation can therefore be linked into an upward spiral which causes us to commit
ourselves to what are we doing and to improve. In other words, the ability and success in doing
something, and the sustained motivation that we are already supported with, inspire us to act
more favourably in doing something.

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 Chapter Three: What is Learning?

It is very common to think of learning as the process of acquiring knowledge in schools and
other educational institutions. However, we should realize that much of human learning occurs
outside of school, and people continue to learn throughout their lives. For example, before
entering school, many young children learn to walk, to talk and to use their hands and manipulate
different toys, food and other objects. They learn how to catch a ball or throw it away and how to
ride a bike. They may learn how to buy something from a nearby shop. When they enter school,
children learn basic academic subjects such as reading, writing, and mathematics, and they learn
which behaviors are good and are likely to be rewarded, and which behaviors are not good and
are likely to be punished. They learn social skills and may know how to participate and behave in
different social engagements. After they finish school, they must learn many things that affect
their lives such as getting married, raising children and finding jobs. Therefore, we cannot limit
learning to only the things that take place in school, or the acquisition on knowledge by study.

The term learning, which is one of the greatest physical and psychological characteristics of the
human being, does not have the exact and single definition to cover everything about it and bring
the full satisfaction. Different psychologists and investigators define it differently; however, the
majority of researchers, psychologists, and theorists suggest the following description:

They argue that learning is applied to the respective changes that come into view in the human
behavior due to the instruction and experience. This definition points out that learning is the
result of instruction or experience, and therefore, it does not cover the natural and innate changes
in human behavior. For example, getting taller and gaining weight, the inclination to sleep, eat,
or work. These changes and many other unintentional alterations that are natural to human
beings, are therefore not related to learning because learning should be instructed or experienced
rather than gained naturally.

Because learning continues throughout our lives and affects almost everything we do, the study
of learning is important in many different fields. Teachers need to understand the best ways to
educate children. Psychologists, social workers, criminologists, and other human-service workers

14
need to understand how certain experiences change people’s behaviors. Employers, politicians,
and advertisers make use of the principles of learning to influence the behavior of workers,
voters, and consumers. Businessmen need to follow and understand ways through which they
can upgrade their business affairs. Consequently, all the human beings, and to some extent, the
other living creatures are in fact learning things throughout the life in one way or another.

If we pay full attention to the very early life of animals and human beings in which man used
stone tools and weapons (stone age), it becomes clear that the animals’ current life condition is
the same as it was five or thousands years ago. However, there is a vast difference between the
life condition of human beings in the very old age and the present. Centuries ago, the human
beings, like animals, were living in the caves, and were not able to put their life affairs in order.
Nevertheless, as the time went by, great and remarkable changes in all aspects of human life
came into being, and they experienced amazing developments about which they had not even
thought long ago. Today human beings are not only aware of the farthest and hardest spots of the
earth, but they are also conscious about the depth of oceans, inner part of the earth, and the
magnificence of galaxies. All of these developments in life of human beings are the result of
learning. Consequently, it becomes obvious that learning has a great importance in the life of
mankind.

3.1. Instruction and Learning:

We said earlier that learning is the result of instruction, and that it is associated with instruction
in an inseparable relation in a way that learning will not occur without teaching or instruction.
Now, we are going to discuss what teaching or instruction is, and how it influences learning.

Instruction or teaching can be applied to a variety of activities that bring about learning.
However, it should be realized that these activities in the direction of learning can be
accomplished not only by the teacher, but by the collaboration of both teacher and learner. In
actuality, the teacher instructs the students about the principles of learning, and then, learning
should be accomplished by the learners themselves. In other words, the teacher has the
responsibility of presenting information and ideas to pupils in ways which will help them to

15
learn, and he/she influences the way pupils come to view the whole process of education. After
that, it is the students’ responsibility to proceed with the ideas of the teacher, and establish
learning. Therefore, the key to success in the learning process is basically related to the teacher,
instructional items, and the student, in a way that all of them should be highly involved in the
task.

It is accurate that instruction leads the students to learning; nevertheless, we cannot say
indispensably that learning is the just result of instruction. This is because the teacher facilitates
and ease learning for the students, and afterwards, every single learner should shoulder his/her
own responsibility in relation to learning. For example, if a particular teacher instructs a class of
students in a really systematic and carefully planned way, and observes all the principles of
teaching, but the students do not continue to work and get better, it is obvious that learning is not
achieved. It is realized from the above example that sometimes there can be appropriate
instruction, but no learning. Consequently, we can state that instruction or teaching is the
collection of activities to facilitate learning, but it is possible that these activities might not result
in learning.

It becomes clear that the success in the learning process is due to the reciprocal work of both
teacher and learner, and if one of them fails to perform the learning tasks, there will be failure in
the learning procedure. Sometimes learning fails to be accomplished and only instruction takes
place because of the heedlessness of students to instruction, and sometimes learning fails because
of the poor instruction (Kadiver, 2008). We can obtain that when there is not instruction, there is
not learning accordingly; however, when the instruction exists, it is the duty of the learner,
whether or not to accomplish learning. Thus, any kind of instruction does not result learning, and
we cannot give the instruction over to the personal preference or liking of the teacher.

16
 Chapter Four: Motivation in Learning

It has already been experienced and proved that motivation plays an important and outstanding
role in the area of learning. A variety of factors determine an individual’s ability to learn and the
speed of learning such as individual’s age, prior experience, intelligence…etc. Most of all,
motivation has its own particular significance in upgrading and directing the knowledge gained
through study in schools, colleges, universities, and other educational organizations. As a plain
example, if you are a teacher in a certain school and want to realize the impact of motivation on
student’s classroom learning, you can invite all the students and divide them into two groups. For
a few days, you can support one of the two groups of students with enough praising words and
motivate them to do a certain learning task without letting the other group know. After some
days, you can mingle both groups and evaluate them through a test. If the results of the students
whom were already motivated were more satisfying than the results of the other group, you can
draw conclusions that motivation affects learning positively.

It is experienced that at the very beginning, children have a strong desire of going to school,
having school bags on their backs, associating with their classmates, and doing their home works
with great enthusiasm. However, as children grow, their passion for learning frequently seems to
shrink, and learning often becomes associated with drudgery instead of delight. A large number
of students leave school before graduating, and many more are physically present in the
classroom but largely mentally absent. Why does it happen? Absolutely because they are
unmotivated. Sometimes these unmotivated learners turn to become interested back again in
learning if they are motivated through various ways which will be discussed in the upcoming
pages.

It is motivation that energizes the students and brightens their gloomy points of view about
learning. Most psychologists believe that motivation is one of the most important ways to
success in the learning field. When there is lack of motivation you either get no results, or only
poor results, whereas when there is motivation you achieve greater and better results and
achievements. If we compare a student who lacks motivation and who hardly studies to a student
who is highly motivated and who studies not so hardly, the motivated student will attain better
results despite the fact that he/she does not study seriously. Similarly, most motivation theorists

17
believe that motivation is highly involved in the performance of the learning tasks. I can say this,
because according to Marshall (1987), “a learning behavior will not occur until it is energized.”
(p. 90). Considering the fact that motivation affects students’ learning, I can point out to some of
the most predominant effects of motivation on learning as the following:

 Motivation directs behavior towards particular goals. Motivation not only impels
students to do something, but also guides the direction of their activities towards a
particular goal. According to Maehr & Meyer (1997), individuals set goals for themselves
and direct their behavior accordingly, and it is motivation that determines the specific
goals towards which the learners strive. When a particular student does not have
motivation to study, it is certain that he/she does not have the goal in the direction of
which, to struggle. However, a motivated student in the learning process will definitely
have a specific goal, and directs all his/her strives toward it. Therefore, motivation affects
the choices students make, whether to study a language to become an instructor, or to
spend an entire evening completing a challenging homework assignment to receive
rewards.

 Motivation leads to increased effort and energy. Motivation increases the amount of
effort and energy that learners expend in activities directly related to their needs and
goals. It is experienced that not all students spend the same amount of physical and
mental efforts doing a certain learning task because they have comparatively different
levels of motivation. The more students are motivated, the greater amount of energy they
are willing to spend in doing something. For instance, it is usual that almost all the
students in a particular class, struggle to get satisfying results in the exam; however, those
who have already experienced pleasing results, compel themselves to study as hard and
rigid as possible. This is because the hard working students are already motivated and can
realize the impact of hard studying, and this motivation pushes them from time to time to
struggle more and more than they did before.
 Motivation increases the initiation of and persistence in activities. When the learners
are motivated through for example, internal satisfaction or external rewards, they are
more likely to begin a learning task as soon as possible, and they enthusiastically desire
to continue working on it until it is completed even though it requires much time to be

18
 accomplished. An intrinsically motivated student not only performs the education related
tasks with great care, but also enjoys from every single moment of doing something
because he/she is pushed from the inside, which is the most important key to success in
learning. Sometimes a particular student spends much time on doing something that in
spite of being occasionally interrupted or frustrated, he does not give up until finishing it.
Therefore, we can say that motivation is the fundamental provision of learning that
causes the learner to catch triumph.

 Motivation makes the students to study not only for the exam, but also for the subject’s
own importance. This can be done when students are more intrinsically than extrinsically
motivated. An intrinsically motivated student, as mentioned earlier, has the innate interest
in a particular subject, and studies for its own sake. When intrinsically motivated, a
student undoubtedly studies not only for the examination, but also for his/her
fortunateness and for the course’s own significant. Deci and Flaste (1995), have
suggested that “rewards and punishments (extrinsic motivation) do not make the students
to learn better; however, students have an innate energy, interest and excitement (intrinsic
motivation) about the world that can be encouraged, and when they find greater
satisfaction in what they do, they are more effective.” (p. 104).
 Motivation facilitates learning. Of all the effects that motivation lays over learning, this
is of utmost importance that it makes learning to be achieved with ease. When there is
motivation, there is absolutely either need or the natural inclination to learn, and when
there is need or tendency towards something, there is achievement. For example, it is
experienced that at the very beginning, the students want to do the required learning
tasks, but they cannot, or do it with great difficulty because they do not have the
satisfaction to do so. They may spend a considerably large amount of time and energy in
performing a learning mission, and may possibly be frustrated or discouraged. After
enduring a remarkable amount of troubles, it might be to some extent possible to achieve
learning. This is because lack of motivation makes learning hard and tough, and usually
preventing the learners from persistence or continuation in performance. On the other
hand, working on a learning task with great enthusiasm, inside or outside satisfaction, and

19
 a fixed goal, which are the spirit of motivation, can make the students to reach to the
acme of achievements easily.

 Motivation affects cognitive processes. The cognitive view of motivation stresses that
human behavior is influenced by the way individuals perceive and understand things.
According to Blount, N. S., & Klausmeier, H. J. (1968), “Cognitive theorists state that
individuals are motivated when they experience a cognitive disequilibrium, or a desire to
find the solution for a problem. Arranging for pupils to experience a personal desire to
find information or solutions is an intrinsic form of motivation in which learning occurs
for its own sake.” (p. 541). Therefore, motivation affects what learners pay attention to
and how effectively they process it. When a learner pays attention to research about a
certain subject, this tendency can bring about extra motivation that helps the learner with
his/her research. For instance, motivated learners often make a concerted effort to truly
understand classroom material—to learn it meaningfully—and consider how they might
use it in their own lives.
 Motivation determines which consequences are reinforcing and punishing. The student
who is highly interested in a certain learning activity, in fact he/she extremely values the
consequences that the activity encompasses. It is clear that the more learners are motivated
to achieve academic success, the more they will be proud of a satisfying grade and upset
by a low grade. The more learners want to be accepted and respected by peers, the more
they will value membership in the group and be distressed by the ridicule of classmates.
To a teenage boy uninterested in athletics, making or not making the school football team
is no big deal, but to a teen whose life revolves around football, making or not making the
team may be a consequence of great importance.
 Motivation makes the students active, more alert, and busy in the learning process. This
can be overcome when students are allowed to talk, argue, and exchange their ideas during
the instruction. This condition will motivate the students to be constantly industrious and
engaged in learning. If students in a particular class of learning are motivated to feel free,
participate in the class, and exchange their thoughts with each other, they will count on
them and believe that they are important members of the class, and will try their best to be
constantly well prepared and produce excellent behavior. Conversely, if students are

20
 occasionally threatened and are not treated as real students, they will definitely lose
interest in learning, and will therefore think that they are of no use. Consequently, being
active, industrious, and conscious are the important keys to success in learning; while,
being inactive, indolent, and unconscious are the keys to failure in the learning process.
Above all, it is motivation that enables the students to become full of activity and
hardworking, so it is appropriate to say that motivation is the most important key to
success in learning.

It is important to state that students who rely and count on themselves are those who can
easily achieve success. It is already experienced that the most successful people in the
world are those who had much reliance on themselves before achieving something.

It becomes clear from the abovementioned paragraphs that learning is usually most efficient and
rapid when the learner is motivated and attentive. Behavioral studies with both animals and
people have shown that one effective way to maintain the learner’s motivation is to deliver
strong and immediate reinforces for correct responses. However, other research has indicated
that very high level of motivation is not truthfully helpful. Psychologists believe that an
intermediate level of motivation is best for many learning tasks. If a person’s level of motivation
is too low, he or she may give up quickly. At the other extreme, a very high level of motivation
may cause such stress and distraction that the learner cannot focus on the task. Thus, it should be
kept in mind that while motivating the students, teachers must be excessively careful not to
destroy the students by either very high motivation or very low level of motivation.

According to Ellis B. (1958), students should not be motivated through excessive use of rewards
because such an approach involves at least three possible dangers. First, students may feel that
they are being controlled all the time and resent the fact that they must make use of themselves in
order to gain achievements. Second, learning may be seen as a temporary means to an end. As
soon as an exam is taken or a course completed, the extrinsic goal has been achieved, and the
student will tend to forget what was learned, and perhaps even avoid the subjects in the future.
Third, students may become too dependent on the teachers. If students are all the time rewarded
by the teachers to do the learning tasks, they will not study on their own at all and will think that

21
learning is something that is done in order to receive rewards from teachers. Therefore, the
teachers should avoid motivating the students via immoderate external rewards.

It is mentionable that motivation is important and can be applied to every action and goal. There
could be motivation to study a foreign language, to get good grades at school, to bake a cake, to
write a poem, to take a walk every day, to make more money, to get a better job, to buy a new
house, or to own a business. However, it is mostly engaged with getting education, which is the
main emphasis of this academic work.

When we say “motivated student”, it means that the student is positively motivated. However, it
is possible that a motivated student wants to leave school and education. This is because that
certain student is motivated to go away from instructional objectives. Therefore, it should be
remembered that if the students are positively motivated, their ability to learn and the speed of
learning in them will be enhanced, and if they are negatively motivated, then they will soon
withdraw learning. When a student’s basic needs in the classroom are not satisfied, and when he
badly dislikes a particular teacher, these negative factors, in fact, motivate the student not to do
well in the learning tasks.

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 Chapter Five: How to Motivate the Unmotivated Students

Students in the learning field are sometimes unmotivated to behave in the way the teacher would
like them to behave. It is experienced that some students want to go to school, but they cannot do
the required learning activities, and some others are pushed to go to school while they do not
want to go. Many other students are interested to go to school, and they also have the ability to
perform the desired tasks efficiently, but when they attend school, their interest in learning
gradually decreases and they tend to go away from school. The reason to all of the above
situations is that they do not have the motivation for learning. The primary emphasis in this
chapter will encompass the reasons why students are not motivated to learn accurately, and the
second issue to be discussed, will be on how you might motivate the unmotivated students to
achieve instructional objectives truly.

5.1. Why are Students Unmotivated?

There are a number of factors that cause the students to be unmotivated in learning knowledge
though study, and induce them to be engaged in other unrelated activities. As an example, let’s
say that a certain youngster is exceedingly attracted to attend school at the very beginning, but
his parents do not response favorably, and try to drive their child to advance in life through
working in a certain business, rather than through education. This undesirable response of
parents causes the child not to appreciate school anymore because it is so natural that children do
what their parents ask them to do. The child is, therefore unmotivated to go to school, and is at
the same time motivated to work. As a second instance, it is possible that a learner is encouraged
by his parents to go to school; however, the child dislikes the teacher because of his/her furrowed
and wrinkled forehead during the instruction. This terrible facial expression of the teacher can
sometimes cause the learner to lose interest in a particular subject. Taking into account that there
are many reasons that demotivate the students in learning, we are going to indicate some of the
most challenging ones here.
 Subject is boring. One factor among many other demotivating causes in learning is that a
particular subject is not interesting. It is very common in schools where some of the students
complain that a certain subject is very boring for them, and that they cannot keep on studying

23
 it. This is because some students do not know the essence and intellectual importance of the
subject, and the teacher too, does not pay full attention to make the subject as interesting as
possible. In actuality, none of the subjects is absolutely boring. The teacher is boring, and the
way the teacher teaches a subject is tedious. However, it is also proved that not all the
subjects are equally interesting. Truthfully, some of the subjects are less interesting in
comparison with some others, and there are also subjects that are the most interesting ones.
Therefore, the students react more favorably to the most interesting subjects, and so the less
interesting subjects gradually become the boring subjects for them. In other words, the
students do not want to enthusiastically study the less fascinating subjects, without
considering the fact that these subjects (less interesting, or as they say boring subjects) can be
made interesting subjects.

Some subjects seem dull and boring to almost every one; other subjects seem to have built in
appeal. If you do not plan motivational strategies, it is possible that you might make a
slightly boring subject deadly boring, or convert a potentially interesting subject into one that
is uninteresting. Lack of interest in classroom often leads to a vicious circle. A dull
presentation by the teacher causes students to show that they are bored and restless.
Accordingly, the lack of response from pupils causes the teacher to lose confident and
enthusiasm, and assume that nothing can be done to arouse interest in students__ and so on.
Consequently, when the subject is not interesting, the students lose motivation, and become
uninterested to study.

 Subject is presented in a boring way. Sometimes the students become unmotivated because
of not being systematically instructed in a particular subject. If the teacher always instructs
the students monotonously without trying to arouse and sustain interest in learners, the
learners turn out to be bored with not only the subject, but also they may dislike the
respective teacher. Most inapt teachers enter a classroom of learning and urgently write the
topic of the lesson on the board, and start speaking without any pause until the class is
finished. Doing so can unquestionably cause the students to lose their tempers and become
both physically and mentally tired. In such classes, great amount of energy is spent, but
without any contribution to the students’ learning.

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 In most secondary schools, the teacher centeredness system is always preferred where only
the teacher leads the class and memorization is emphasized. The teacher centered atmosphere
makes the students who cannot keep up with classes to behave poorly, pay less attention, talk
to each other, and so on. In such atmosphere, the teacher considers the side talks among the
students during the lesson a challenge or indifference . It is also experienced that in the
teacher centered atmosphere, the teacher is excessively wordy in explaining the lesson today
and asks the students about the same lesson tomorrow. Acting in this way, the teacher
embarrasses the students when he/she asks them to clarify the preceding lesson in front of the
class because some students are weak and do not like to be criticized for committing
mistakes before their colleagues. If the teacher does not use pair work, group work, and
cooperative activities among students (student centeredness), it will be putting too much
pressure on individual students.

It is also a crucial demotivating point that some teachers announce the results of the tests
publically in the class. This can embarrass and insult the students because it is possible that
sometimes the high scoring students laugh at those who fail the exam or get low grades. The
students with lowest grades usually become unmotivated and stigmatized if their classmates
know their grades. We can infer from the abovementioned paragraphs that the more a
subject is presented in an uninteresting way, the further students will be unenthusiastic.

 Students lack clear goals. Some high school students do not have specific goals and do
everything aimlessly. The absence of goal in learning is one of the predominant factors,
which makes the learners unmotivated not only in proceeding one particular subject, but also
in the learning arena as a whole. When students determine their goals, they provide
themselves with a very important sense of direction, and relate all their effort towards it.
They become sure about where they are heading and what they need to achieve, so students
without any goal, do not know where their direction is, and what they are going to
accomplish. They are just knocking around and do everything without any plan.

For example, let’s assume that you know what you want to do when you finish school: you
have decided to become a veterinarian. To become a veterinarian, you probably know that
first you must graduate from high school with satisfying grades. After high school, you must

25
 go to college and get good grades there. Finally, you must be accepted at a school of
veterinary medicine. Because so many students want to become veterinarians, getting into
such a school is extremely difficult. The programs are highly competitive, and only the best
students are accepted, so you must be well prepared to face the challenges with great ease in
order to achieve your goal. These steps are your short term goals, and they must be achieved
in order to reach your long term goal (becoming a veterinarian). However, if you do not have
the goal what to do, or become in the future, you are hanged what to do right now. You may
struggle pointlessly with the learning tasks for some time, but soon or later you will give up.
Thus, when a student does not establish his long-term goal and struggle to achieve the short-
term goals, he will not be able to continue learning.

 Pupil feels insecure, anxious, or scared. Students will not do well what the school and the
teacher desire unless they are physically and psychologically safe. Students with an awful
emotional security, a high level of anxiety, and physical dissatisfaction cannot ever
concentrate on classroom studies because their thoughts are scattered and they are constantly
threatened by their feelings. Similarly, when there is not a warm and orderly atmosphere in
the classroom, and when the teacher is exceedingly punitive, the students become not only
unmotivated in learning, but also their social conducts are badly affected.

For instance, in classes led by punitive and non-punitive teachers, children were asked about
pupil misconduct. Those who had the punitive teachers were less concerned about learning
and school values than were the children whose teachers were non-punitive. Also children
under punitive teachers manifested more aggression in their misconduct, and were more
unsettled about misconduct. (Biehler & Snowman, 1990).

Sometimes the teachers do not pay full attention that students may occasionally be hungry or
thirsty, and they do not permit snack break (small amount of food or drink eaten between
regular meals) in the classroom. Correspondingly, some teachers are not alert about physical
annoyance, such as sunlight coming through a window and half-blinding a student. All of
these affect the learning process ineffectively.

Since one of the most important responsibility or role of the teacher in the classroom is to
reduce the students’ anxiety, the teachers should be highly careful to build self confidence

26
 and enhance motivation in students. If not, the students will fail to keep up with learning
because too much anxiety blocks learning.

 Pupil has never earned high or satisfying grades. It is one of the most common experiences
that the students often lose enthusiasm to a certain subject when they are punished by low or
failing grades. The highly emphasis on grading system, is in fact the preference of extrinsic
rewards on entrinsic motivation. Doing so, can scratch the learning process because when
students are always motivated by only high grades, they will value learning temporarily and
as soon as the grade is achieved, they do not study farther. However, if students are
intrinsically motivated, they will value learning everlastingly. Therefore, if the teachers limit
motivation to only offering high grades to excellent students and low grades to unintelligent
students, the unintelligent students become undoubtedly unmotivated.

 Pupil has had negative experiences in school or with a particular subject. A student who
has already had unpleasing or some evil experiences in school or with a certain subject,
he/she turns out to be almost in opposition to the process of acquiring knowledge. This kind
of situation mostly takes place in schools, in which inexperienced and untalented teachers
have the accountability of teaching students, or in schools which are geographically not
located in suitable places. For example, in a furthest suburb, it is possible that a primary
school student may be forced by the teachers to learn without offering rewards, describing
the benefits of studying, making the subjects easy to understand and creating pleasant
conditions in which the student can motivate himself. Suffering all of these, the student
becomes unmotivated and claims that physically working in a complicated business is easier
than performing the school related tasks. Correspondingly, a student who response weakly to
a particular subject, may be constantly punished by failing grades, unpleasant words, or
bodily punishments. In the future, this student will be unmotivated in that subject because of
his/her negative past experiences.

 Student experiences little sense of acceptance, belonging, or esteem. It is certain that the
more students are optimistically received, or valued by the teachers, parents, and other
important members of society, the better they will be in the learning process. Conversely, if
students are not received well, or if they are not esteemed satisfactorily by the society, there

27
 self-confidence over learning will be negatively affected. It is natural to human beings that
when a student is appreciated by elders in the society and receives verbal encouragements
such as: you are fortunate and successful in every field, he will be favorably motivated and
will put more effort to learn what the school desires. On the other hand, when a pupil
receives verbal discouragements such as: you are of no use, he will be highly unmotivated
and will not be able to proceed in a way that a student should do. As a result, students can be
definitely uninterested if they experience poor sense of approval and admiration.
 Teacher’s personality and style is not pleasing for the students. As the teacher is the key of
the teaching and learning process, his/her personality has great impact on the learners’ like or
dislike for studying the related subject. Some students do realize that a special subject is very
important for their professional life, but they dislike the subject exclusively because of the
subject’s guiding teacher. This is because some teachers unexpectedly become nervous or
angry when, for example, the students talk to their colleagues during the instruction.
Improper and scolding words are used by the teacher when one fails to answer some
questions or forget doing homework. For example, in a language learning class, if a student
says “I watch TV yesterday”, and the teacher criticizes him with some unpleasant words such
as shut up!, the student will be embarrassed and highly unenthusiastic.

The students are especially sensitive to their teacher’s character and behaviors and are highly
influenced by them. The sudden anger or wrath of the teacher badly affects the spirit and
courage of the students and causes the students to drop curiosity. Students, who come from
relatively insecure or unconfident families, extremely need the teacher’s kindness and
compassion. Even those students, who belong to the secure and confident families, will be
negatively affected if the teacher conveys his/her family problems in the classroom.
Therefore, it is possible that a student may be unmotivated in a subject exclusively because
of the teacher.

It is repeatedly stated by parents, teachers, and principals that the teacher’s verbal
encouragements push the students towards seriously studying. However, it should be
remembered that not all the teachers can motivate the students through their praising and
commending words. Praise and encouragement should result from a worthy source; in other
words, the students should receive praise and inspiration from the one, who is highly

28
 admirable for them. If students completely dislike their teacher because of his/her
impersonality, the admiration and encouragement from this particular teacher will be
ineffective for the students. Thus, a teacher who lacks warmth and friendliness, detachment,
excellent emotions, and human qualities, the students will withdraw learning.

It becomes clear that in comparison to other factors, teacher has a major role in both motivating
and demotivating students.

5.2. Motivating the Unmotivated Students

As it is mentioned that there are many demotivating factors that impede the students from
performing learning activities, correspondingly, there are also many motivating factors that push
the students to strive as hard as possible to achieve learning objectives. To light up this claim, we
can say that students can be motivated by converting all the aforementioned demotivating factors
into motivating and encouraging bases. That is, when the subject is boring, the teacher should try
to make the subject as interesting as possible, and when the students feel anxious in the class, the
teacher should follow ways through which he/she can reduce anxiety.

As a plain example, in discussing how to produce an optimal level of motivation for unmotivated
learners, Brophy (1990) makes several general suggestions. To begin, the teacher needs to
eliminate all the obstacles to motivation such as, negative attitudes, anxiety, physical and
psychological disorders, fear of failure, and other such states. This can be done by using
programmed materials to guarantee continuous progress and success, training students to set
challenging but achievable goals, and training them to attribute failure to lack of effort rather
than lack of ability. This is because some students do not put enough effort and attribute failure
in learning to the lack of ability although they are able to do the task.

The next step according to Brophy is to produce positive inside or outside motivation. There are
several suggestions. First, make sure that the magnificence of rewards matches the quality of the
work; that is, avoid the excessive use of rewards. Second, stimulate students to value a task
because the knowledge or skills that it reaches will be valuable in the future. You might mention,
for example, that the people who are knowledgeable are good problem solvers, and are quite
satisfied with their positions in life. Third, help students to become more aware and appreciative

29
of the knowledge and skills and think about how they can apply what they have learned in their
usual life. One way to advance this goal is to provide students with clear objectives, so they will
accurately recognize the level of skill or knowledge they have attained. Fourth, stimulate
students to value and enjoy the actual process of working on academic tasks. As students gain
better control over the learning process, they will find academic tasks more meaningful, and will
be therefore, intrinsically motivated.

Because there are considerably large number of factors that motivate the unmotivated students,
we cannot discuss every single of them in this few pages, for it needs a separate academic work.
Hence, instead of going through all of them, I want to point out at some of the most significant
and important ideas that motivate and move forward the apathetic students to work hard in the
learning tasks. Here are some of these factors.

1. Explain. Some recent researches show that many students do poorly on assignments or in
participation because they do not understand what to do or why they should do it. It is also
experienced that many times pupils do not exert themselves in classrooms because they say
they do not know what they are supposed to do. To overcome this problem, teachers should
spend more time explaining why they teach, and why the topic or approach or activity is
important, interesting, and worthwhile. Knowing what one is expected to do is the most
important information in the construction of a learning strategy. The teachers should use
techniques to take full advantage of the values of instructional objectives. The most
important point about objectives is that they should be clear, understood by all the members
of the class, and attainable in a short period of time. In other words, the goal should be a
SMART goal, it should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound.
Decorated with such objectives, the students are more likely to work steadily if they are
reinforced frequently. In this process, some of the teacher's enthusiasm will be transmitted
to the students, who will be more likely to become interested. Therefore, the teachers should
make sure that the pupils know what they are to do, how to proceed, and how they will
know that they have achieved goals.

As mentioned before, the teacher has a major function in both motivating and discouraging
students in the learning procedure. It is the teacher who either makes the students to do well

30
 in the learning tasks or pushes them to withdraw learning. Sometimes it happens that a
faculty or school member gives assignment to a group of students for analysis, but few of
the students understand what the faculty member wanted. If the teachers are confused
themselves, how can we expect the students to understand?

2. Reward. Students, who do not yet have powerful intrinsic motivation to learn, can be
helped by extrinsic motivators in the form of rewards. Instead of criticizing unwanted
behavior or answers, reward correct behavior and answers. Remember that adults and
children alike to continue or repeat behavior that is rewarded. Strictly speaking, the rewards
can (and should) be small and configured to the level of the students. That is, small children
can be given a balloon, a piece of gum, or a set of crayons. Even at the college level, many
professors at various colleges have given books, lunches, certificates, exemptions from final
exams, verbal praise, and so on for good performance. Even if something is apparently
childish as "Good Job!" can encourage students to perform at higher levels. And the
important point is that extrinsic motivators can, over a brief period of time, produce intrinsic
motivation. Everyone likes the feeling of accomplishment and recognition, and rewards for
good work produce those good feelings.

When motivating the students through external rewards, the teachers should be highly
careful. Rewards of different kind, from one hand, increases the level of performance in
learning, and from the other hand, affects students’ learning negatively. If students are
exceedingly supported by rewards in the learning process, they will value learning not
because of its own advantages, but because of reward. In other words, the students will feel
highly dependent to the teacher, and they will not exert themselves until they are forced by
someone else. Conversely, if the students are helped by small and configured rewards, they
will value learning for its own sake. Some parents offer money or other incentives in an
effort to motivate children’s school performance. Incentives of any kind, whether they are
rewards for good grades or punishment for poor performance, work only in the short run.
Therefore, the important suggestion for the teachers is that they should reward the students
with the hope that this reward will enhance the intrinsic satisfaction of the students.

31
3. Care. Students respond with interest and motivation to teachers who appear to be full of
pity and caring. Teachers can surely produce these feelings by sharing parts of themselves
with students, especially little stories of problems and mistakes they made, either as children
or even recently. Such personalizing of the student-teacher relationship helps students see
teachers as approachable human beings and not as distant authority figures. Young people
are also quite insecure, and they secretly welcome the admission by adults that insecurity
and error are common to everyone. Similarly, students will attend to an adult who appears to
be a real person, who had problems as a youth (or more recently) and survived them. It is
also a good idea for teachers to be friendly and approachable personally and show that they
care about their students by asking about their concerns and goals. For example, if a teacher
asks his/her students about what do they plan to do in the future? What things do they like?
and etc, such a teacher will be trusted and respected more favorably.

The positive comment is a wonderful strategy to use on students. Some of the students'
home lives are terrible. Some live in conditions that you and I would not want to endure,
and yet they have no choice. Their social behavior is so negative and damaging that the
more positive things we can say, the better. Of course, the teachers’ comments need to be
true statements, not just things made up to make them feel good. As an example, the
teachers should enter the classroom with a smiling face, greet the students compassionately,
and make sure that the students become cheerful and feel that he/she cares for them. If, on
the other hand, the teacher does not pay any attention to the students’ problems and needs,
the students will not only dislike him/her, but also the learning will be demolished.

Considering individual differences in ability, background, and feelings about specific

subjects is also of great importance. There are different sets of students in terms of ability,
intelligence, background, and attitude toward school that need to be considered by teachers.
For instance, students with high levels of ability whose parents are enthusiastic about
education will do well in school. If such students earn high grades the first time they passed
an exam, they will be reinforced for studying and will be motivated to continue to earn more
satisfying grades. If they face an occasional failure, they are likely to try harder the next
time. They will also tend to set realistic goals for themselves and put much effort for
achievement. On the other hand, students with limited ability or limited experiences who

32
 come from homes where parents take little or no interest in education are likely to have
many problems at school. If they receive low or failing grades the first time they passed an
exam, they are likely to become discouraged and will approach to many other tests with the
expectation of failure. Even if they do earn good grades, they may think that it is a chance or
luck. Therefore, the teachers should be careful to highly consider these differences in
classrooms. He/she can group the students in the classroom and put more emphasis on the
weak group, and then mingle all the students to practice cooperatively. Also the teacher can
arrange the students in the classroom, in a way that two completely different students in
terms of ability or intelligence come together, so that the more intelligent student should
support the less intelligent one.

One very important and simple way to care for the students is to learn and use their names
as fast as possible. If the teacher learns the students’ names and calls them by names, the
students will think that the teacher takes an interest in them, and will be therefore motivated
to do well in the learning process. Furthermore, the teachers can associate some additional
pleasant words with students’ names such as “dear Ahmad” to establish a relatively
friendlier atmosphere in the classrooms. Doing so, the teacher can enforce the students to
put further effort than they used to do before.

4. Have students participate. One of the major keys to motivation is the active involvement
of students in their own learning. Standing in front of them and lecturing to them is a
relatively poor method of teaching. Unfortunately most of the teachers nowadays implement
the stereotypical method of teaching in which the teacher proceeds lonely without the
students’ involvement in the learning process. It is proved that learning cannot be
accomplished without the cooperation of both teacher and learner. Therefore, it is better to
get students involved in activities, and problem solving exercises to help them decide what
to do and the best way to do it, to help the teacher, to work with each other, or in some other
way to get physically involved in the lesson. A lesson about nature, for example, would be
more effective walking outdoors with the students than looking at pictures in the classroom.

A successful teacher might include activities, investigations, adventures, and social

interactions in the learning classroom. He/she might, for example, ask him/herself “Are

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 there ways that I can mingle all the students and establish a social interaction between
them”? If, for example, the same teacher invites the students to work together and prepare a
report, arranges small-group discussion in the classroom, asks several students to go to the
board for performing an activity, and requests students to go to the library for investigation
on some self-selected topics, the students will be very much interested in that particular
subject. This is because students respond with great interest to school situations that are
active, investigative, adventurous, social and useful. Also, when students are involved in the
learning activities in a subject, they will not only find the subject very interesting, but also
they will reach achievements.

Additionally, students love to be needed just like adults. By choosing several students to
help the teacher (take roll, erase the board, research bibliographies or biographies of
important persons, have discussion groups, rearrange chairs, write the topic of the lesson on
the board, hold up pictures, distribute papers…etc) students' self-respect is strengthened and
consequently their motivation will be increased. Older students will also see themselves as
necessary, integral, and contributing parts of the learning process through participation like
this. Thus, the teachers can use every opportunity to have students help them. They can
assign students homeworks that involve helping them. For example, if the teacher
announces in the classroom that "I need some magazine illustrations of the emphasis on
materialism for next week; would someone like to find one for me?", all the students will
compete in finding out what the teacher wanted. Thus, it is almost impossible for the
teacher to establish true learning if he/she unilaterally teach. To establish real learning, both
the teacher and students should get together and move the learning process frontward.

5. Satisfy students' needs and make learning fun. Attending to satisfy needs of the pupils
and to make learning fun is a principal method of keeping students interested and happy in
the learning process. It is very common that first of all, the need for performing something
should be satisfied and the individual should have enough self-confidence before taking
action. In other words, the primary needs in the learning course should be satisfied before
students can attend some secondary drives such as achievement. If the students’ basic needs
in the classroom (safety, belongingness, esteem, love, fun, power, freedom, need for food
and water, etc.) are not satisfied, we cannot either produce motivated students or affective

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 instruction. Thus, the teachers should be so careful to: (1) concern about physical condition
of the students in the classroom, (2) make the classroom physically and psychologically
safe, (3) arrange learning experiences so that all the students can gain at least a degree of
esteem, (4) show the students that they care for them, and (5) show them that they belong to
their class.

Many students need to have fun in active ways; in other words, they need to be noisy and
excited. Another best way to motivate the unmotivated students is to make learning fun.
When the teacher makes the class a place of fun and laughter, the students are excited,
energetic, and amused, and they become somehow displeased by the time the class is
finished. Sometimes almost all the students become clock-watchers in the classrooms where
instruction is poor and formal enough. In other words, when a boring teacher with a boring
method of instruction runs a class of learning, the students constantly check the time and
wish to be free of charge as soon as possible. On the other hand, when there is fun and
amusement in a classroom, the students love the time to go slow, and they love the class to
last for a long period of time. In such a class, the teacher can hear the students saying
“Ahhh, the time really goes fast in this class”, or “Ahh, you mean we have to stop playing
now?” To have such a class, the teacher can combine active learning strategies and games
into everyday lessons and produce motivated students.

6. Make learning visual. A further very simple and effective way to motivate the unmotivated
students is by making learning visual. It has already been recognized that memory is often
connected to visual images. In the middle ages, people who memorized the Bible would
sometimes walk around inside a church and mentally attach certain passages to objects
inside, so that remembering the image of a column or statue would provide the needed
stimulus to remember the next hundred lines of the text. Similarly, we can provide better
learning by attaching images to the ideas we want to convey. The teacher can use drawings,
diagrams, pictures, charts, graphs, bulleted lists, or even multiple dimensional objects he/she
can bring to class to help students attach the idea to an image. Also if the teacher decorates
parts of the learning classroom with related images before introducing a new unit, students
will find the lesson more adventurous and will gain motivation.

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 For example, the teacher can teach geography by presenting map of the world, or of all
countries with charts including capital, population, ethnic groups, languages, religious
affiliations, literacy rates, and all about a country, so that students can see the sizes and
geographical locations of all the countries on the earth. In such a class, the teacher can ask
the students one after another to go before the map and separate Europe from Asia, for
example. Teaching in this way, the students not only understand writing, but also they see
what they are expected to learn. Also it is very helpful to begin a class session or a series of
classes with a conceptual diagram of the relationship of all the components in the class, so
that at a glance students can catch a context for all the learning they will be doing. This will
enable them to develop a mental framework or filing system that will help them to learn
better and remember more.

As we now are living in the world of technology, it is possible to use technology related
materials such as projector in order to satisfy students. In the language learning or computer
classes, it will be more effective to interest students in the learning process. Doing so, can
highly motivate the unmotivated students.

7. Use positive emotions. Strong and lasting memory is connected with the emotional state
and experience of the learner. That is, people remember better when the learning is
accompanied by strong emotions. If you can make something fun, exciting, happy, loving,
or perhaps even a bit frightening, students will learn more readily and the learning will last
much longer. Emotions can be created by classroom attitudes, by doing something
unexpected or outrageous, by praise, and by many other means. If the teacher during
teaching a particular subject is positively emotional (moving, gesturing, emphasizing,
smiling etc), he/she can make the students that the lesson is of great importance to
understand. Conversely, when the teacher inactively and unemotionally presents the subject
to the students, this can tire out the learners to focus.

One thing should be kept in mind that emotions can be positive and negative. Positive
emotions of the teacher while teaching a particular subject excite students, and make them
more alert about learning. However, negative emotions of the teacher come to the students
as gloomy and unexciting response that destroys the learning process. For example,

36
 sometimes it happens that some teacher expresses his/her personal family problems in the
classroom by facial expression, in which negative emotions are manifested on the face. This
facial expression associated with depressing emotions (great anger, fear, anxiety, etc) can be
transmitted to students and they will become disinterested. As a second instance, it is
experienced that when a certain student fails to answer some daily question, the teacher not
only gets angry enough, but also displays negative emotions. Sometimes the same kind of
teacher, in spite of being angry and emotional, shouts wrathfully at the student. Doing so,
the students become apprehensive and this feeling of fright is one of the most challenging
factor that drawbacks learning.

8. Teach inductively. When teaching students, the teachers should keep in mind the word
“induction”. This is the act or process of deriving a general proposition or conclusion from
certain facts, details, examples, etc. It has been said that presenting conclusions first and
then providing examples interrupt students of the joy of discovery. Why not present some
examples first and ask students to make sense of them, to generalize about them, to draw the
conclusions themselves? By beginning with the examples, evidence, statistics, facts, details,
opinions, stories, and so forth and arriving at conclusions later, you can maintain interest
and increase motivation, as well as teach the skills of analysis and synthesis. Remember that
the parable method of making a point will become a significant historical example. In other
words, when the teacher explains something through use of parables, fables and stories, the
students will practically experience them later or because an event which occurred in the

past, become an example for a later event. Also, when we speak of examples, research has
shown that providing more outstanding examples and fewer problems to solve, increase
learning.

Therefore, students will be much more committed to a learning activity that has value for
them, that they can see it as meeting their needs, either long term or short. They will, in fact,
tolerate immediate unpleasantness and do an amazing amount of hard work if they are
convinced that what they are learning, eventually meets their needs.

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 Chapter Six: Conclusion
All over my academic work, which is entitled “The Effects of Motivation on Students’ Learning”
it is attempted basically to figure out that motivation is the only key to success in learning.
Everything discussed in relation to motivation, learning, and their connection can be concluded
as the following:

First, the term “motivation” literally means the feeling of enthusiasm, interest, or commitment
that makes somebody want to do something. Psychologically, motivation is the biological,
emotional, cognitive, or social forces that activate and direct behavior. In other words, it is the
cause of an organism’s behavior, or the reason that an organism carries out some activities.
Psychological theories must account for a “primary” level of motivation to satisfy basic needs,
such as those for food, oxygen, and water, and for a secondary level of motivation to satisfy
social needs such as companionship and achievement. The primary needs should be satisfied
before an organism can attend to secondary needs. To know where the roots of motivation lie, we
can say that motivation comes from (1) inside of you (internal satisfaction), (2) from outside of
you (external rewards), and (3) from the success in the learning task. Intrinsic motivation is the
most important kind, and it can be enhanced by extrinsic motivation. When inside or intrinsic
motivation is enhanced through external rewards, success in the task results, and it by turn makes
the learners to strive more and more in the learning era.

Second, attempts have been made in this term paper to make clear the concept of learning and its
relationship with instruction or teaching. To think critically, learning encompasses all over the
life of human beings. It is not just acquiring knowledge gained through study in schools or other
educational constitutions. Outside schools, for example, people learn how to prepare delicious
foods, bake birthday cakes, manipulate different objects, do hairdressing, and so many other
occupations. Therefore, motivation can be applied to some changes in the behavior of living
beings, and these changes are the result of instruction or experience. In other words, instruction
usually causes learning. However, it is of great importance to remember that sometimes
instruction cannot bring about learning because of the learner’s poor performance. To say

38
clearly, learning can be accomplished by the reciprocal work of both teacher and learner, and if
one of them does not do well in activities, learning cannot be achieved.

Third, to incorporate motivation in learning, we can say that motivation is the only key to
success in achieving learning objectives. Actually, motivation can activate every single behavior;
however, it is mostly and tightly connected with learning educational objectives. The more
students are motivated, the more they will be able to perform learning activities. Learning is
influenced by many other factors such as learner’s age, prior experience, and intelligence;
however, it can be upgraded, speeded, and influenced more than anything else, by motivation.
Motivation not only drives the students to study, but also directs the students’ behavior toward
particular goals. It is motivation that leads to increased effort and energy, increases persistence in
activities, makes the students to value subjects, facilitates learning, affects cognitive processes,
determines reinforcing or punishing consequences, and makes the students active, more alert,
and busy. Consequently, motivation is that much connected with learning that it is sometimes
impossible to achieve learning without motivation.

Then, under the title “how to motivate the unmotivated students”, some of the most predominant
reasons or factors that demotivate the students in learning have been discussed. In fact, no one
student at the very beginning is unmotivated; however, they become discouraged to response
favorably to learning later in life. Parents, teachers, friends, environment and many other such
sources often dishearten learners in learning, and drive them to be involved in non-learning
activities. Of all the discouraging and encouraging factors, it is the teacher that pushes the
students either to value learning or to withdraw it. Sometimes students are motivated on one
hand, but they are discouraged on the other. In such conditions, the discouraging factors become
more commending and powerful than encouraging factors, and the students lose interest.
Therefore, when the subject is boring, the instruction is poor, students lack goals, feel insecure or
anxious, earn failing grades, etc, they become unmotivated and dislike learning. Additionally,
negative experiences in school or with a particular subject, little sense of acceptance, belonging,
or esteem, and unpleasing style and personality of the teacher destroy students’ inclination to
learn.

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Finally, efforts have been made in this document to offer some solution ways for motivating the
unmotivated students. We said that a variety of factors block students’ learning and make them
dislike learning tasks. In the same way, there are a variety of other factors that influence
students’ learning positively and drive them to follow ways for learning achievements. Because
there are numerous motivating factors in learning, only the most widespread and common ones
are discussed here. When the students are unenthusiastic in doing learning tasks favorably, the
teachers can explain the importance of the desired tasks, reward the learners suitably, care for the
learners and have them participate, satisfy students’ needs and make learning fun. The teacher
can also motivate the unmotivated students by making learning visual, by using positive
emotions, and by focusing attention on desired goals. It is really important for the teachers to
realize that although lots of ways for motivating the apathetic students are suggested, it is really
hard to bring them back into the right path of learning. Therefore, great care should be taken at
the very beginning to get students to the true path of learning by providing them with as much
motive powers as possible

40
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