The Influence of Needs on Motivation to Learn

The Influence of Needs on Motivation to Learn

                In this second session of MMSEL subject with Ibu Mima, we discussed about the influence of needs toward motivation in learning. Each of us is motivated by needs, and Abraham Mashlow purposes his finding on motivation as hierarchy of needs that is divided into five stages. First is a biological and psychological need, second is safety need, third is belongingness and love need, fourth is esteem need, and the last is self-actualization.

          Each of these stages is need to be reached by every individual, started from the lowest stage then higher one and so on. Let’s we relate each of these hierarchy of needs to our students. At the beginning of the first stage, student needs to be able to fulfill their biological and physical needs. Foods, drinks, home, healthiness, sleep, and etc. once they can fulfill these basic needs then they can survive to start reaching the next stage.

                In this second stage, student will start to seek for safeness from their environment, and the most important safeness come from their family protection. In the next stage where belongingness and love needs should be fulfilled, relationship with other becomes more and more important for them. They need to be loved and admitted by people around them, and it becomes a motivation to step up to the next stage. In fourth stage, they will start to reach achievements in almost the entire thing that they are dealing with. These achievements then will build up their status, reputation and also awareness of their responsibility and once they can reach them all, it means that they have been fulfilled the esteem needs.

               

           Finally, after those four stages that our students go through, they come to the highest stage of hierarchy of needs. This is self-actualization stage, where they will develop themselves completely, because there’s nothing else that they have to worry about.

                Actually as a teacher candidate, we have to be able to identify where our students’ stage is. Then it will create a better opportunity to help them to fulfill what they need in their stages and also build up their motivation toward learning.