Summary and Reflection: Motivation and Managing Students for Effective Learning

In the first meeting of motivation and managing students for effective learning (MMSEL) class, my friend and I learned about definition of motivation, two types of motivation viewed from where motivation comes, and theoretical views of motivation.

From our discussion and from what my lecturer’s explanation, I conclude that motivation is psychological factor which encourage and direct individual to do or achieve something. It should be created and maintained either by the individual itself, by others, or both. Therefore, motivation can be viewed as a sustained process created to encourage individual to do what intended to do.

Motivation can come internally from the individual itself or be forced by external factor which is outside the individual. Thus, motivation, according to where it comes, can be divided into two types which are intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation can be created because of individual’s passion, curiosity, self-determination, interest, desire, dream, and so forth. Besides that, extrinsic motivation can be forced by challenge, social or economical factor, rewards, friendship, and so forth. So does in teaching and learning process, for instance, students who has interest in certain subject will intrinsically motivated to learn the subject and involve in learning and teaching activities given by the teacher. Other example, students who like being given a reward by the teacher when they do the best will extrinsically motivated to learn. They learn and perform as the best as they can because they want to get the reward.

However, I am confused whether responsibility given is extrinsic motivation and whether feeling is intrinsic motivation. Responsibility is given by other, it seems like extrinsic motivation, but if the individual itself is not responsible (intrinsic factor) she/he probably will be not motivated. Then, when individual do something because she/he is happy, is it intrinsic motivation? As we may know, feeling is intrinsic factor which affected by external factor.

There are some theories which view motivation from different perspective. First, behaviorist theory views motivation from behavior changes as a product of individual experiences in his/her environment. Individuals receive external stimuli such as rewards, punishment, etc. that make them change their behavior. It is different with social cognitive and humanistic theories that focus on intrinsic motivation. Social cognitive theory emphasizes more on intrinsic motivation like individuals’ assumption, belief and thought that make them intend and attempt to do or achieve something. Whereas, humanistic theory views individual as human being who want to grow and accomplish their personal needs. It is like what Maslow described on his theory “hierarchy of needs”. The last perspective is from socio-cultural theory. It views motivation as a need to involve in community so that every individual can support each other to maintain and accomplish their goals.

For me, as the next generation of teacher, knowing deeply about motivation is a must. As what I have write above that motivation is psychological factor. It means it is an abstract thing that we can see only from its symptoms. Teachers should be able to recognize its symptoms well so that they can convince when their students are motivated or unmotivated. Moreover teachers also need to know various ways to motivate their students and how they can design teaching and learning activity that can motivate them.