Understanding Motivation and Benefits
Motivation
is an internal state that causes us to act, pushing us in a particular
direction, and keeps us working on a particular activity (Elliott et al,
2000). Motivation is an important psychological constructs that affect learning and performance in four ways yaiti:a. Motivation improving individual energy and activity level (Pintrich, Marx, & Boyle, 1993)b. Motivation directs individuals towards a particular goal (Eclcles & Wigfield, 1985)c. Motivation raising initiative of certain activities and persistence in such activities (Stipek, 1998)d. Motivation affects learning strategies and cognitive processes of business someone (Dweck & Elliot, 1983).Another aspect that is often discussed is the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic
motivation or internal motivation orientation means that students
demonstrate a desire to learn without the need encouragement from
outside destiny. If the impulse response of the students refer to the outside then said that he had extrinsic motivation. The
long term goal is desired by most parents and educators is to see
students develop itself so that it has an intrinsic motivation to learn.There are several perspectives of motivation, such as behavioral perspective. This perspective emphasizes the importance of extrinsic motivation in achievement. According to this perspective, external rewards and punishments is a key determinant of student motivation. That's because a stimulus or incentives, both positive and negative events that can motivate student behavior.Theories of motivation1. Maslow's Hierarchy of NeedsThe
most well-known concept of Abraham Maslow (1987) is self-actualization,
which means that we use our abilities to the limits of our potential. If
we can convince students that they will and can fulfill their promise,
then at that time they were on the path to self-actualization. Self actualization is a concept of growth, students move towards the goal after fulfilling their basic needs. Growth toward self-actualization requires the satisfaction of the hierarchy of needs. Five basic needs in Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory is:1. Physiological needs such as hunger, sleep and so on. For example, students who do not have breakfast before bealjar teaching activities difficult to concentrate in class.2. The need for security is freedom from fear and anxiety (T) high.3. The need for love and ownership, referring to the need for family and friends.4. The need for self-esteem, including the reaction of others towards us as individuals and pandanagn us against ourselves.5. The need for self-actualization2. Weiner and Attributions About Sucess or Failure.Attributions theory is based on three basic assumptions (Petri, 1991) are:a. Abilities
(ability): Attribution of success and failure have important
implications in teaching students from assumptions about their abilities
based on past experience. When a student has a history of failure, they often assume that they are less able. Studii
Schunk (1989) on the relationship between self-efficacy and learning,
reported that students who enter the classroom with the skills and
experiences that affect their self-efficacy for initial learning. When successful, the students' sense of self-efficacy increases and in turn increase motivation.b. Effort (business): Weiner (1990b) found that students usually do not know about how hard they try to succeed. Students know their business by way of finding out how well they are in a particular task.c. Luck: Students who have low confidence in their ability to attribute, they will be considered successful as a result of luck.d. Task Difficulty: Usually assessed dariperforma others on the job. If many are successful, then the task is considered easier and vice versa.3. Operant Conditioning by SkinnerReferring to the B. F. Skinner (1971), behavior is shaped and maintained by its consequences. The consequences of previous behavior affects students. No components of internal motivation or intrinsic motivation as a major in the process. If students are collecting reinforcement for a particular behavior, they tend to repeat with force. If not, students tend to lose interest and their performance deteriorates. It is proven that positive reinforcement is the best answer. Students are given rewards when responding appropriately and not punished when a response is not appropriate. Students
will feel free and happy when they are inside and outside the learning
situation because they have created a pattern of behavior yan result in
success, a happy relationship with others, and a deserved result.Skinner stated that tells students that they do not know something does not give the slightest motivation to them. Instead, give small amounts of material quickly give them positive reinforcement. Reinforcement
method is more appropriate to use when students are experiencing high
anxiety about learning, low motivation, or have a history of academic
failure.Factors Influencing Student MotivationSome things that affect student motivation are:1. FearAnxiety
is an unpleasant sensation often experienced as a feeling of fear and
general irritability accompanied by restlessness, fatigue, and a variety
of somatic symptoms such as headaches and stomachaches (Chess &
Hassibi, 1978, p. 241).Since our attention primarily referring to. anxiety,
we must realize that the intense and extreme motivation that produces
high anxiety has a negative effect on performance. Motivation was a desired level in the study of complex tasks. Yorkes-Dodson
law is the principle that states that the ideal motivation will
decrease when the intense difficulty of the task increases.2. Curiosity (curiousity) and interestCurious
behavior is often described by other terms such as exploratory,
manipulative, or more or less active have the same meaning as that
curious behavior. According
to Loewenstein (1994), curiousity is cognitively based emotion that
arises when students realize that there is a discrepancy or conflict
between what he believes is right about the world and what is actually
happening.Approximately the same interests and are associated with curiousity. Interest
is retained characteristics expressed by the relationship between
learning and the particular activity or object (Deci, 1992).3. Locus of ControlLocus
of control is the cause of a behavior, some people believe a thing is
caused by something that is in them, others believe it is due to
something that is beyond them. Individuals
who attribute the causes of behavior are factors outside themselves
known individuals with external locus of control, and vice versa when
coming from within oneself is called an internal locus of control.4. Learned helplessnessLearned
helplessness is the reaction of some individuals in the form of
frustrated and simply give up after repeated failures (Seligman, 1975). Three components of learned helplessness has particular usefulness for the class are:a. Failure to initiate action means that students who have experience learned helplessness tend to not try to learn new material.b. Failure to learning means that although the new direction given to the students, they are not my study of any of it.c. Emotional problems seem to be with learned helplessness. Frustration, depression and feeling incompetent appear regularly.Strategies for Increasing MotivationHere are some strategies that can be done to improve student motivation, namely:a. provide competent models that can motivate them to learn.b. Creates a challenging atmosphere and a high level of expectationsc. Mengkomunukasikan the students that they will receive academic and emotional support.d. Encouraging students' intrinsic motivation to learne. Work with students to help them set goals and plan and monitor progress.f. Selecting learning tasks that stimulate student interest and curiosity.g. Using technology effectively.Socioeconomic DifferencesSosioeconomic
status (SES) is a common social and economic position of a person in
the community (including family income, occupation and education level).
SES
a family (whether SES high, medium or low) gives the meaning of their
position in society or how flexible they are in life and what they are
buying. How big is their influence in political decision making, educational opportunities they can offer to their children, and others.Students with low SES groups are of different maca (Sidel, 1996). Among
them were from families unable to meet their basic needs (such as food,
clothing and shelter) but do not have the money to lavish. Another
group lives in the lives of even the most extreme poor, and this group
has a higher risk for academic failure and in need of care and support
(support).There are several factors that may contribute to low achievement of students with low SES. Students who only have 1-2 factors that influence can still perform well in school. However, students face a lot of factors that affect the SES have a greater risk for academic failure. These factors, among others:1. poor nutrition. Nutirisi
which may adversely affect school performance, both directly and
indirectly (Byrnes, 2001; Sigman & Whaley, 1998; RA Thompson &
Nelson, 2001). Teachers should be able to take the necessary steps to ensure that the students are met nutrition. For
example, teachers should ensure that all students can get nutritious
food cheap or free programs that have been organized by the school
(Ormrod, 2006).2. inadequate housing (Housing inadequate)3. emotion stress (emotional pressure, such as depression, anxiety, etc.)4. gaps in background knowledge (knowledge gap about the beginning)5. less parental involvement in school activities and homework (Lack of parental involvement in school activities and homework)6. lower-quality school (school quality is low), etc. (Omrod, 2006)The
research gives reason to be optimistic teacher to students with
low-income backgrounds have performed poorly when the teacher is also
committed to helping them and giving them a strong academic program and
support their learning efforts.Learning Strategy ElaborationLearning
strategy is elaboration learning strategies which adds additional ideas
based on what a person already known before (Ormrod, 2006). Elaboration
is to associate an item to be remembered with something else, such as
the phrase, scene, scenery, places, or stories (Papalia, 2004). Srategi learning effectively used if the idea were added according to the inference. The
implication of this learning strategy is to encourage students to
explore the information itself, for example, to draw conclusions and
speculate about the possible implications. Children use his prior knowledge so that new ideas can be extended, so can store more information than is actually presented. Elaboration certainly help students learn and remember the material in the classroom is more effective than it otherwise. Children begin to elaborate since the beginning of the preschool experience (Fivush, Haden, & Adam, 1995 in Ormrod, 2006). Examples
of the use of elaboration is when a child is 11 years old and remember
the line musical staff (E, G, B, D, F) by associating them with the
phrase "Every Good Boy Does Fine"Middle Childhood Cognitive DevelopmentPiagetian Approach: Children in the Concrete Operational StageAt
age 7, referring to Piaget, children enter the so-called concrete
operational level, so named because at this level the children can use
mental operations to solve concrete problems (actual). Kids can think more logically than before because they can take a lot of aspects of their situation. However, they are limited msih in thinking about the real situation at this time and in this place. The
children at the concrete operational level can perform multiple tasks
at a higher level than what they can do at the level of preoperational
first. They
have a better understanding of spatial concepts, causality,
categorization, inductive and deductive reasoning, and conservation.1. Space and Causality (spatial and causality)Children at this stage can better understand spatial relationships better. They
have a clearer idea in seeing how far the place is from another place
and how long it took to get there, and they can easily remember the
route and signs along the way. The
experience has a role in this development - a child who walks to school
would be more familiar with their neighbors outside the home. The ability to use maps and models and to communicate spatial information increases with age (Gauvain, 1993 in Papalia, 2004). The view that there is a cause and effect also increases during middle childhood. When
children aged 5-12 years were asked to predict how the scale of the
lifting and the balance will be indicated by the number and weight
varies placed at varying distances from the center, children age old
lebuh give more correct answers than younger children (Amsel, Goodman, Savoie, & Clark, 1996 in Papalia, 2004).2. CategorizationCategorization includes capabilities such as sorting, Transitive inference and class inclusion. Children
show when they will understand when they can sort ordering of objects
in a particular order to any one or two dimensions, such as weight
(lighter or heavier), or color (lighter or darker). Transitive
inference is the ability to recognize the relationship between the two
objects to determine the relationship between each of them and a third
object. Inclusion classes is the ability to see the relationship between the whole and its parts.3, inductive and deductive reasoningInductive
reasoning is a type of logical reasoning that moves from the
observation portion of the members of the class to generalize about the
class. While
deductive reasoning is a type of logical reasoning that moves from the
general premise of the class to conclusions about some member or members
of the class.4. ConservationIn
solving various types of conservation problems, children in the
concrete operational stage can figure out the answer in their heads,
they do not have to measure or weigh objects.II.1 B memory and other processing skillsWhen a child begins to enter the school year, they are making steady progress in its ability to process and retain information. They
are more understanding of how memory works, and this knowledge allows
them to be able to use the strategy, or plan to assist them in
remembering. In
addition, in line with the expansion of their knowledge, they become
more aware of the various kinds of information that are important to
note and remember.During
the period of middle childhood, increased reaction time, and speed up
the process for some tasks sharp as unneeded synapses, or neural
connection in the brain trimmed (Hale, Bronik & Fry, 1997; JANOWSKY
& Carper, 1996; Kail, 1991, 1997; Kail & Park, 1994 in Papalia, 2004). Furthermore,
more efficient processing of increasing the amount of information that a
child may be stored in working memory, make a better recall more
possible and more complex, higher-level thinking (Flavel et al., 1993 in
Papalia 2004)
