When designing curriculum and instruction educators should include strategies that motivate students to participate in the learning process. Instruction should move and increase natural or intrinsic motivation. Students are motivated through touching, smelling, hearing, seeing, and tasting. Students are also motivated through social connections and activities, such as friendships and group work. Students are also motivated through organized purpose, such as assembling and preserving things. Motivation begins, McClelland (1985) argued, with the initial stimulation or attention grabber. Students also use their past academic histories to formulate the type of response and involvement level that they give to the lesson. Students will seek opportunities and activities that lead to academic success and to avoid those that lead to failure or shame. It is important to understand the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
What is intrinsic motivation? Intrinsic motivation is student’s internal drive. Students are born with natural or intrinsic motivation—curiosity, ambition, and emotions (Wilson & Wilson, 1921). Intrinsic motivation changes as students mature. Students environmental interactions can have an effect intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation usually determines student academic achievement. Gambrell (2011) suggested that reading instruction can increase intrinsic motivation levels through: a) access to multiple genres, (b) choice, (c) time, (d) success in advanced level texts, (e) collaboration regarding the text, (f) relevance to the reading assignment, and (g) incentives.
What is extrinsic motivation? Extrinsic or external motivation is the components within our environment that stimulate action. Extrinsic motivation is dependent on the past and current learning environments of students. Each student will have different extrinsic motivators that can be used to enhance the learning process in the classroom, for example a student who traveled to China can share their experience adding to the curriculum knowledge of the lesson. The location of the instruction can impact the lesson. Students who are presented a lesson in a noisy hallway may be less engaged in the lesson. A student may enjoy writing using computer software better than using a pencil and paper. Students may be more willing to listen and focus on the lesson if they know that their recess will be shortened. Extrinsic motivation can be used to develop intrinsic motivation.
The following instructional strategies have shown to increase student motivation towards participation in the learning process:
Schedules and Routines. Develop classroom schedules and routines to increase student motivation and achievement. McClelland (1985) argued that children from homes where parents follow consistent schedules, such as when to eat and use the bathroom, have higher achievement rates in school. Children begin to learn how to regulate their needs through regular schedules. Weiner (1974) also argued that reinforcement schedules assist students in developing higher levels of cognition. He believed that reinforcement schedules enforce positive behaviors and redirect negatives behaviors.
Incentives and Goals. Incentives and goals can increase intrinsic motivation. Incentives can increase students’ intrinsic motivation in learning how to read (Gambrell, 2001). Tangible rewards should be relevant to the activity, such as giving a book to a student in order to honor his or her reading achievement. Students are usually more motivated to meet a goal with a checklist of requirements for the goal or assignments (Servilio, 2009). The checklist gives students a road-map of what should be accomplished and what has already been accomplished. When using a checklist, students learn organization and responsibility skills. Students with a goal and purpose have a higher level of motivation towards learning skills that are difficult to them.
Collaboration in Small Groups. Research suggests that student motivation often increases when students collaborate with others in small group settings. Student motivation increases when students collaborate with and assist their classmates in exploring, analyzing, and reflecting on their chosen topic (Hsiao, Lin, Fang, & Li, 2010). Students with higher interpersonal skills benefit more from working in small groups than from working alone. Mihandoost, Elias, Nor, and Mahmud (2011) found that small group work increases student motivation in reading for students with dyslexia. Intrinsic motivation improves when students use technology to complete assignments in small groups that consist of one student and one instructor or two students (Reed-Swale, 2009).
Student Choice. Student motivation increases when students are given choices within the instructional lesson (Chu, Tse, Loh, & Chow, 2011; Gambrell, 2011; Mihandoost, Elias, Nor, & Mahmud, 2011; Schiefele, Schaffner, Möller, & Wigfield, 2012; Servilio, 2009). Researchers argued that student achievement in reading comprehension increases when students are given the opportunity to read literature of their own choosing. Students’ engagement in reading instruction increases when students are given the opportunity to make choices about how to complete the assignment during differentiated instruction (Servilio, 2009). Student motivation in reading increases when students are given the option of choosing the reading texts (Gambrell, 2011).
Relatable and Relevant. Teachers should select literature that is relatable. Students can better relate to characters through drama. Students are more motivated to understand the meaning of a literature passage when they are given the opportunity to recite and define the literature passage. Wilson and Wilson (1921) believed that students are motivated to strengthen their reading skills when they learn about different subjects they are interested in, such as baseball or bugs. Wilson and Wilson also suggested that oral reading or songs and games can motivate students during English language arts lessons.
The right instructional strategies can improve student motivation towards learning. Instructional strategies should be developed to increase ownership of the lesson. Instructional strategies should energize and spark interest of the topic.
References
Chu, S.K.W., Tse, S.K., Loh, E.K.Y., & Chow, K. (2011). Collaborative inquiry project-based learning: Effects on reading ability and interests. Library & Information Science Research, 33(3), 236-243. doi: 10.1016/j.list.2010.09.008
Gambrel, L. (2011). Motivation in the school reading curriculum. Journal of Reading Education, 37(1), 5-14.
Hsiao, H.-S., Lin, C.-C., Fang, R.-T., & Li, K.-J. (2010). Location based services for outdoor ecological learning system: Design and implementation. Educational Technology & Society, 13(4), 98-111.
McClelland, D. (1985). Human motivation. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Mihandoost, Z., Elias, H., Nor, S., & Mahmud, R. (2011). The effectiveness of the intervention program on reading fluency and reading motivation of students with dyslexia. Asian Social Science 7(3), 187-199.
Reed-Swale, T.W (2009). Engaging digital natives in a digital world teaching more than web design. Synergy Learning, 22(128), 22-25.
Schiefele, U., Schaffner, E., Moller, J., & Wigfield, A. (2012). Dimensions of reading motivation and their relation to reading behavior and competence. Reading Research Quarterly,47(4), 427-463. doi: 10.1002/RRQ.030
Servilio, K. (2009). You get to choose! Motivating students to read through differentiated instruction. Teaching Exceptional Children Plus, 5(5), Article 5. Retrieved November 7, 2012 from http://escholarship.bc.edu/education/tecplus/vol5/iss5/art5
Weiner, B. (1974). Achievement motivation and attribution theory. Morristown, NJ: General Learning Press.
Wilson, H.B., & Wilson, G.M. (1921). The motivation of school work. Cambridge, MA: The Riverside Press.
