Читать книгу Student Engagement Techniques - Elizabeth F. Barkley - Страница 25

In Chapter 1, we described motivation as a theoretical construct to explain the reason(s) we engage in a particular behavior. We suggested that motivation is the feeling of interest or enthusiasm that makes someone want to do something. At a fundamental level, then, motivation is the inclination to act in a way that satisfies certain conditions, such as wishes, desires, or goals. Motivation means attempting to optimize well-being, maximize pleasure, and minimize pain. While motivations can be biologically based factors that are often called drives, including constructs like hunger and thirst that are rooted in biological purposes, they can also be driven by social and psychological mechanisms.

Motivation that is driven by social and psychological factors comes in two types: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation arises from internal factors such as personal satisfaction, interest, or enjoyment. For students, if they are in college because they want to learn and want to become more educated, they are intrinsically motivated. Intrinsically motivated students will be motivated by autonomy, purpose, and excellence. Motivation can also be extrinsic, which means it arises from external factors. Extrinsically motivated students might do their work because they want good grades or they want high-paying jobs upon graduation, or perhaps they are just trying to satisfy their parents, not just because they want to learn.

While some scholars have found that implementing strategies that promote extrinsic motivation could decrease intrinsic motivation (see, e.g., Deci, 1971; Kohn, 1993/1999), these findings have been challenged (see, e.g., Cameron, 2001); thus we have yet to fully determine the relationship between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. What we can say is that most students seem motivated by a mix of intrinsic and extrinsic factors, and that mix can change over time. We can also say that while many of us might prefer students who were completely intrinsically motivated, we would also do well to recognize the reality of extrinsic motivation in our students' lives and to understand that this type of motivation can have a place in the college classroom.

Several theories of motivation exist, and these can aid our understanding of student motivation. Early theories of motivation suggested that rational thought and reason were the primary factors in human motivation. However, many now believe that motivation may not be entirely rational and instead may be rooted in basic instincts, needs, and wants. Two primary categories of motivation theory are particularly important to our current work: content theories and process theories.