Motivation

Once purpose is energized a bit, focusing on day-to-day motivation can help you identify stumbling blocks and key supports. The concept of motivation is an expansive set of variables which have been described in lengthy textbooks and lectures. Sometimes students themselves can help simplify this concept of motivation. When asked to define motivation, students say things such as desire, energy to get something done, discipline to follow through, and stick-to-it-ness. When pushed to take these abstract ideas and make them more concrete, students list important factors influencing their motivation. These can be broken down into two areas:

Intrinsic Motivators (Mastery Goals)

Interest in the assignment, the need to know and learn, the desire to improve, seeking knowledge because knowledge is power, to be able to do the things I want to do in life, to better myself, to enjoy the learning process.

Extrinsic Motivators (Performance Goals)

Grades, I want to make lots of money, I don't want to let down the professor, my parents will kill me if I don't do well, I have to do better than the others in the class, fear of failure, fear of success.

It is important to identify what motivates you to get out of bed in the morning, get to class, complete assignments, take tests and use tests appropriately, and find time to develop other aspects of your life and personality. Research has shown that students with primarily extrinsic motivation go to class less, are more prone to dropping out of school, and are much more stressed out and uncomfortable with their learning. Also, they view grades more as an evaluation of themselves as a learner, thus they experience significantly higher levels of test anxiety which then interfere with their test-taking ability and may hurt their self-esteem.

Ames and Archer (1988) defined the intrinsic focus as Mastery Goal Orientation while the extrinsic focus was labeled Performance Goal Orientation. If grades, parents, and competition come up as your major motivators, you may not be focusing on aspects of your experience which would help you internalize and stabilize your desire and discipline. By balancing the extrinsic or performance goals with more intrinsic mastery aspects of learning, you can possibly increase your motivation and self-esteem and possibly decrease your test anxiety.

Unfortunately, Harter (1981) found that students' extrinsic or mastery goal orientation decreases as they progress from third grade to ninth grade. You may have been taught over the years to focus on extrinsic, performance goals. By discussing what motivates you and focusing on your extrinsic and intrinsic goal orientations, you can directly influence your ability to be motivated. Researchers have found that mastery goal orientation leads to a view of learning as an end in itself, and to higher abilities in setting sub-goals and personal standards, higher levels of school satisfaction, more independent judgment, more cooperative learning, less reported stress, and, if that isn't enough, higher achievement.

It is important for students to change their perspectives, somewhat, about tests. Instead of viewing tests as an evaluation of your intellectual abilities or learning ability, you may try to view tests as feedback. Using tests in this way focuses on analysis of your learning process, improvement in the way in which you approach the knowledge, and the strategies of test taking (see the section on test preparation and using tests as feedback).

Focus on mastery goals is one way to increase motivation. Bandura (1982) also proposed four concrete ways for students to increase their motivation:

1. Set doable sub-goals
   Large tasks like a paper assignment can seem overwhelming to students, especially if the assignment must be produced over the course of weeks or a full semester. The all-nighter strategy is not feasible or effective. To break large assignments down into their component parts, doable within on- to two-hour time slots, creates manageable task oriented goals (see handout Break It Down Before You Have a Breakdown).
2. Create task contingent rewards
   Once sub-goals are set, rewards can be linked to the accomplishment of each small goal. Now the goals are both manageable and there is a nice reward at the end (see handout on Rewards).
3. Set personal standards
   Setting your own personal goals in terms of writing abilities and the understanding of concepts can eliminate a lot of external pressures. Set your standards around the course curriculum. What information do you want to get out of this course? What skills, perspectives, and topics can you focus on within the course? Standards based only on grades and class percentiles reinforce extrinsic goals.
4. Self-monitor your goal
   Once doable goals are created in the realm of motivation, they can be linked to the next step in the pyramid, time management. Doable goals are placed into specific time slots or daily to do lists. This provides a direct "task to time" relationship and feedback on your progress.