Motivation for Students in the Classroom
Introduction
As educators we need to constantly strive to maximize the potential of our students. In my opinion one of the most effective ways to maximize learning is to motivate in the classroom. Even though most educators would agree that motivation in the classroom is an effective strategy to maximize learning as a whole we do not emphasize and use this strategy enough. There are several reasons why educators do not take advantage of this good teaching strategy; some of these reasons are that it takes more thought and time, we are to focused on curriculum, and we have not been educated on how to motivate and why it is important. It is my hope that this paper will improve how we motivate in the classroom and to learn how we can use this great strategy in the most effective manner possible to help aid in maximizing the potential of our students.
Body
There are two kinds of motivation: extrinsic and intrinsic. Students are extrinsically motivated when they accomplish a task in order to receive a reward outside of the task. For example, students who do an assignment because they want to complete a requirement or get a passing grade are extrinsically motivated. Students are intrinsically motivated when they do an assignment because it is personally interesting, fulfilling, or enjoyable (McGlinn, 2003). Obviously then the goal of educators should be to find ways to intrinsically motivate students however in my opinion it would be naïve for educators to believe that every student is going to be intrinsically motivated in every subject area. Therefore I believe that educators should always strive to intrinsically motivate but also use extrinsic motivation as a tool for a last resort. Since we have stated that the best type of motivation is intrinsic I think that it would be important then to study intrinsic motivation so that we can hopefully incorporate intrinsic motivation techniques into our classrooms to accomplish our goal of maximizing learning.
As educators we need to constantly strive to maximize the potential of our students. In my opinion one of the most effective ways to maximize learning is to motivate in the classroom. Even though most educators would agree that motivation in the classroom is an effective strategy to maximize learning as a whole we do not emphasize and use this strategy enough. There are several reasons why educators do not take advantage of this good teaching strategy; some of these reasons are that it takes more thought and time, we are to focused on curriculum, and we have not been educated on how to motivate and why it is important. It is my hope that this paper will improve how we motivate in the classroom and to learn how we can use this great strategy in the most effective manner possible to help aid in maximizing the potential of our students.
Body
There are two kinds of motivation: extrinsic and intrinsic. Students are extrinsically motivated when they accomplish a task in order to receive a reward outside of the task. For example, students who do an assignment because they want to complete a requirement or get a passing grade are extrinsically motivated. Students are intrinsically motivated when they do an assignment because it is personally interesting, fulfilling, or enjoyable (McGlinn, 2003). Obviously then the goal of educators should be to find ways to intrinsically motivate students however in my opinion it would be naïve for educators to believe that every student is going to be intrinsically motivated in every subject area. Therefore I believe that educators should always strive to intrinsically motivate but also use extrinsic motivation as a tool for a last resort. Since we have stated that the best type of motivation is intrinsic I think that it would be important then to study intrinsic motivation so that we can hopefully incorporate intrinsic motivation techniques into our classrooms to accomplish our goal of maximizing learning.
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