Reflection 2: The Influence of Needs on Motivation to Learn

Reflection: The Influence of Needs on Motivation to Learn

According to Maslow, there are five levels of need. The first level is the physiological needs.  These include the needs we have for oxygen, water, protein, salt, sugar, calcium, and other minerals and vitamins. Maslow argues that it is the basic needs that man should fulfill first. Second level is the safety and security needs. This level is going to be fulfilled by you if you thought your physiological needs is reached. In this level, you will find safe circumstances, stability, and protection.  The third level is love and belonging needs.  When physiological needs and safety needs are fulfilled, a third layer starts to show up.  You begin to feel the need for friends, a sweetheart, children, affectionate relationships in general, even a sense of community. 

The fourth level is esteem needs.  In this level, Maslow identifies two types of self-esteem. They are lower one and a higher one.  The lower one is the need for the respect of others, the need for status, fame, glory, recognition, attention, reputation, appreciation, dignity and dominance.  On the other hand, the higher one involves the need for self-respect, including such feelings as confidence, competence, achievement, mastery, independence, and freedom.  The last level is self-actualization. This level emphases on realization of one’s potential doing that which maximizes one’s potential and fulfills one’s innate aspirations.

Regarding the five levels of needs by Maslow, level one up to four are known as deficiency needs. Deficiency needs mean if the level is unfulfilled yet thus the man will force them self to reach/fulfill it. However, level five is known as growth needs. It means needs in intellectual achievement and aesthetic appreciation that increase as people have experiences with them.

Instead of the hierarchy of needs my Maslow, in this session we also learned about self-determination theory. This theory focuses on innate needs that could influences one’s motivation. The innate needs are the needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness. In this reflection, I am not going tell the definition of each innate needs. However, I am going to write some ways to apply these needs in classroom context. To promote students’ need for competence, teacher might give the challenging task for them and comment toward their work. In addition, to promote students’ needs for autonomy, teacher might let students select topics for book reports, writing assignments, and projects. The last to promote needs for relatedness, teacher should avoid social comparisons in communicating assessment results. In conclusion, it is oke to teacher to always promote those needs in his/her classroom.