Jenny’s is demotivated and she does not see a reason why she should be in school. She is demotivated in the sense that she does not feel the arousal, direction, selection and continuation of education. Maslow hierarchy of needs suggests that people are motivated because they feel the need to fulfill their basic needs before they move on to other needs. In the case of Jenny, she does not feel as if she has any needs she needs to fulfill and for that reason, she does not see a reason why she should come to class on time or submit her assignments on time. Jenny’s status is a state that is experienced by many students as they find education hard as they go up to the next grade.
Jenny’s demotivation may be misconstrued by teachers as they may think that they do not motivate her enough. For example, in the case of Jenny, she used to be an excellent student, but all over sudden she seems to disinterested in class work to the extent that she does not complete her assignment. Some teachers would say that Jenny is not motivated to learn, as many teachers would say; however, this is a misconception because as long as students chose goals and expand on them they are motivated. Therefore, in this case it is right to say that the student is not motivated to behave the way the teacher wants her to behave.
Jenny status may have changed because of joining a new grade and the education and the work in the new grade is too much for her to handle. Jenny in the lower grades had shown good efforts in her working class attendance and being active among other things; however, her behavior has changed over time causing an alarm to the teachers. It may seem that some other factors besides school work may be playing a significant role in making Jenny change her behavior so quickly (Snowman & McCown, 2008). Reason being Jenny has modified her behavior in a way that she feels that there is no need to learn anymore because she cannot see the benefit of education. At this point, the role of the teacher is to influence motivation into her and show her that education is meaningful in her life.
Jenny has been a good a student over the years, but when she gets at the sixth grade, she feels that there is no need to continue being a good student. According to skimmer a behavioral learning theorist, it is the duty of the teacher to reward students for good work they have done in class. Jenny used to answer questions and ask questions in class, but because she was not appreciated or rewarded in any way she felt that she was no longer obligated to do that anymore.
Therefore, by rewarding her in class with a token, it influence motivation into the learning process. According to operant conditioning, it has been established that some students react differently and favorably to certain objects. For example, there are students who hate maths and others who love maths. The reason of the difference between the students is that the ones who love maths were influenced to do so through rewards and tokens for every question or answer they got right. Therefore, reinforce and rewarding in the classroom raises a student’s sense of self-efficacy and in which in turn leads to increase in the levels of motivation.
According to cognitive views, human behavior is influenced by the way a person views himself or herself as well as the environment. Therefore, the behavior of a person can take four different directions. These directions include the inherent need to construct a logical and organized, consistent knowledge base, a person’s belief about the success and failure and belief about the nature of cognitive ability and finally, a person’s expectation for successfully completing a task. Therefore, children need to maintain a sense of organization and the balance of equilibration. The reason Jenny finds it hard to complete her homework in class is solely that the equilibrium she had maintained in the previous classes has changed. As she progresses to a different grade, the education becomes harder and that is not what she had expected.
Jenny’s teacher should understand that she cannot motivate Jenny, but she can only influence motivation in her learning process. As discussed above motivation is inbuilt and it cannot be forced into someone. Jenny feels that the education she was used has become hard and she does not see the reason she should bother herself in learning (Schunk, Meece & Pintrich, 2014). For that reason, the teacher already understands her problem and that she already has goals sets it is the responsibility of the teacher to ensure that she achieves those goals.
Jenny has experienced a change in equilibrium, in that she was experiencing a simple life and time in the lower grades. However, when she has joined the sixth grade education has become hard on her and she expresses this to her teacher. The duty of the teacher at this point is to show the student that there is a need for achievement and the only way it can be accomplished through education. The teacher can also come up with a strategy to influence motivation into Jenny, in that she can put it forward that if she answers and completes her homework on time then she will be given a token each time. This will play a great role in changing Jenny’s attitude towards education and will help her in achieving her set goals in education.
There are various types of classroom reward structures that the teacher can use to influence motivation in the life of his or her students. The teacher should use this classroom reward to motivate Jenny into working hard as she did before she lost interest in her education. First, there is the competitive goal structure where students try to outdo each other by receiving the highest grades in class. When there is a competitive spirit in class, then students will work hard to receive the highest grade in that class. The second structure is the individualistic goal structure where the student works alone and earns rewards because of the quality of their efforts (Bruning, Schraw & Norby, 2011). In this structure, the success or failure of a student is not relevant and all that matters is that the student meets the standard of a task that the teacher has given in class.
Jenny should be involved in a cooperative goal structure where students work together to achieve their goals. Reason being what is beneficial for one student becomes beneficial for the others. When students work together they could receive more than what can be received if the work was done by one student. Cooperative structures help students to focus on cooperation and effort that is used as the primary basis of motivation. The use these structures by teachers may help the student into receiving their goals as well as, influencing motivation in their lives and learning process.
References
Bruning, R. H., Schraw, G. J., & Norby, M. M. (2011). Cognitive psychology and instruction. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon/Pearson.
Schunk, D. H., Meece, J. L., & Pintrich, P. R. (2014). Motivation in education: Theory, research, and applications. Boston: Pearson.
Snowman, J., & McCown, R. R. (2008). Psychology applied to teaching. Boston, Mass: Houghton Mifflin.
