The problem statements are as follows:
What is the role of the teacher in motivating the students?
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
The Motivation – Definition and Interpretation
Motivation means driving people ahead; sometimes this process of pushing is self-made or sometimes the people are pushed with outside forces. The basic attribute of motivation is to move people into action. It activates the people towards doing something. The purpose of motivation lies in its etymology. The word motivation is derived from the original Latin word movere, which means to move or be moved (Ryan, Lynch, Vansteenkiste & Deci, 2010). For moving something, some action must be performed. For example, if we want to start a machine, we need to turn on the button. Turning the button on in human point of view is driving the people by proper motivation to move ahead. Hence motivation is important in every field and education field it the foremost phenomenon. It is a key factor supportive in order to improve the performance of the students.
Academic performance is the performance of the students to know whether the students as well as the teachers have achieved the desired educational goal. The ultimate goal of the teachers and the students in the education institute is the academic achievement or high score in the examination or assessment process. There are many obstacles in attaining the goal, such as behavior or cognitive problem of the students, environment or surrounding, their family background and so on. The students are likely to get distracted by these factors and it can have the adverse impact on their academic performance. One of the effective ways to cope with these problems is the continuous motivation. The literature review aims at exploring the previous research find out whether the impact of motivation is directly associated with students’ academic performance.
Impact of Motivation of Students’ Performance
While discussing the importance of motivation among the students, Palmer (2007) says that the motivated students pay attention to their work. They take interest in the given task. If they do not understand something, they try to get their doubts clear. They also feel happy, satisfied in their learning process. They experiment new thing and try to find out solutions for the problems they face in their learning process. They are not indifferent or lethargic about learning, but very active. Palmer (2007) says that there are number of motivational strategies which have been taken from the current theories. He further argues that the students can be motivated by success, novelty, choice relevance, variety collaboration, and the encouragement and enthusiasm of the teachers.
A good teacher needs to be a good psychologist and he/she should study the regular behavior of the students to know whether they are satisfied of what they are doing in their academics. A good teacher should find out some of the qualities of the students which can label them as motivated students as described by Palmer. The first is autonomy, it means that they fully pay attention to their activities and ultimately they learn to work independently because they are interested in the task by heart. Furthermore their curiosity should be checked by the teacher. If the quality of inquisitiveness is found in the children, the teacher can assume that these children are intrinsically motivated.
There are two types of motivation; intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Not a single motivation can drive the students ahead for the improvement in academic performance of the students according to the researchers. The researchers have accepted the idea that man needs both self drives as well as external forces to push his to achieve something. The self drive is called intrinsic motivation while the external forces are known as extrinsic motivation
While detailing the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and their proper application in enhancing students’ academic performance, Daniels (2010) states that the students brings a typical degrees of both intrinsic and extrinsic. The students motivated intrinsically tend to develop the learning ability without the use of external rewards or reinforcement, while the students who have developed extrinsic abilities tend to fight tooth and nail for gaining rewards. They achieve something just because of the rewards. Daniel (2010) also found that the extrinsically motivated students are at the high risk of performing lower in academically than the intrinsically motivated students. The teacher should pay attention mainly one developing the intrinsic motivation among the students.
The empirical study is conducted regarding extrinsic motivation and their results in developing certain approach and cognitive ability among the children. Children tend to complete certain task for rewards and not for gaining excellence in the subject matter. If rewards are not given, the work is judged as less creative. It doesn’t mean that if the person does not get reward, he/she does not deserve (Amabile & Gitomer, 1984, Condry, 1977, Ryan and Grolnick, 1986). Hence while giving rewards to the students, it is essential to make them aware that gaining rewards does not mean they are the only deserved children and rest of them are not. There is a fear that if the students stop gaining rewards and prizes, their motivation level may come down and it is not good for their consistent academic performance.
The SDT theory of motivation is associated with the source of motivation; whether motivation is internal (Intrinsic) or external (Extrinsic). The motivation is also divided into two parts; quantity motivation and quality motivation.
The Techniques Used by the Teachers
While discussing the techniques used by the teacher to inculcate the motivation among students, Senge et.al. (1994) suggests that the teachers should be the producers of the environment. They should be able to create an atmosphere for their students in which students will be able to develop their through high motivation. In teaching and pedagogical strategies, the teacher should explore the practical answer to the questions. They should be the producers of the environment that will be favorable for the students’ motivation.
The study conducted by Muhammad et.al. (2014) reveal the fact that motivation can serve as a yardstick to measure the expected level of performance of the students. Their study was conducted among 218 students that consisted of 114 males and 104 females. The hypothesis for their study was the impact of motivation on the students’ performance. The statistical analysis is conducted during the study in which they found the correlation value equal to 0.667 which indicated very strong positive correlation between the dependent and independent variables. They also found that for the increase in students’ motivation, there will be positive improvement in the academic performance of the students. They conducted the research of the students from the Students of University Sultan Zainal Abidin, Their research found strong positive relationship between motivation and the academic performance of the students. Based on the research and study, the researchers concluded that teachers’ parents’ or guardians’ should find various means of motivating their students and they should boost their desire to learn.
The Technique Used by Teachers to Enhance the Impact of Motivation of Academic Performance of the Students
As discussed earlier, the teacher is the motivator. While discussing how teacher is the major source that can give motivation for academic excellence to the students, Doran (1999) discusses following attributes of teacher from which one can easily understand why how teacher can motivate the students in enhancing academic performance.
The inventive teaching technique: Inventive technique has become the need of the changing world. The modern teacher cannot rely on the traditional method of teaching in the classroom. The inventive and innovative teaching by utilizing different resources helps the increase the impact of motivation which results into increasing the academic performance of the students. Today’s classrooms need to be innovative and fully equipped with ultra modern amenities. The teachers have a lot of scope to engage their students with many audio visual technology and internet. It is an opportunity for the teacher to show his creativity to motivate the students with the use of inventive teaching technique supported by technology.
A mere existence of technology is not enough; but the students have to have the knowledge to operate the technology. If they lack in it, they are likely to lose their motivation. Encouraging the students to learn new technology is also a kind of motivation given to them by the teacher. Once they become experts in using the modern technology, their motivational level increases and the learning process becomes more effective.
The motivation makes the students feel special which boost their confidence and interest in their study. If the person is being considered by someone or appreciated by someone, it helps him/her to boost confidence and their motivation level is thus enhanced. Consequently, they can score better in their academic performance.
The use of real life exercises: If the teacher does not keep himself constrained with the syllabus and limited books, and if he/she introduces real life exercises, the students can relate them to their own life and this relativity boosts their motivational level. When the situations are based on real life, it helps them to grasp the topic and their motivational level increases.
A study conducted by Abdurrahman and Garba (2014) also confirms the close correlation between the motivation and students’ academic performance. The study has given some empirical evidences to prove that the impact of motivation is there in enhancing the academic performance of the students. The study found that motivation has a significant impact on academic achievement of the students. It was also cleared that highly motivated students perform better academically than the lowly motivated students.
The literature review thus answers the research questions formulated for the research. It gives empirical evidences about the effectiveness of the motivation in making the students academically strong.
DISCUSSION
The theories of motivation have been studied in education field by educationalist to find out the exact correlation between the motivation and academic development among the students. The present research paper was based on the impact of motivation on the academic performance of the students. For the research, previous articles and journals were studied regarding the similar topic. The information and facts obtained from the thorough review of the literature sufficiently prove the importance of motivation in the academic performance of the students. Though some of the research papers also found that there is no relation or very little relation between these two variables, most of the researchers have proved the positive relations between these variables. The literature review section started with the definition and etymology of the word motivation. Through the definition, it was discussed that the action of motivation contains moving forward or pushing forward.
The second point in the literature was the impact of motivation on students’ achievement. The motivation leads the students for self study. It generates interest among the students. It generates energy and a type of drive within them. They are basically self motivated. The motivation process is not complete without the support of the teacher. It is because the teacher plays the role of the motivator. Hence the teachers’ role is also described in this section. The teachers should be mentor and psychologists and they should motivate the students for their academic achievement.
While talking about motivation, it is essential to know the various types of motivation such as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The study regarding motivation suggests that the real academic achievement is only possible through intrinsic motivation. It is because in intrinsic motivation the students are self-driven, which is better than pushing something ahead forcefully without their wish. Intrinsic motivation is life-long. The intrinsic motivation can be developed among the students with some small and simple acts such as providing them variety of resourceful study material, avoiding individual competition. The teachers’ approach needs to be very supportive and students-oriented. The intrinsic motivation can be brought in the classroom merely by taking their opinions about the learning. Thus the teacher’s role is not limited only to the conventional teaching, but in the modern classroom the teacher has to play the role of a motivator. This is the reason why teachers come in picture while considering the impact of motivation in academic achievement. If the motivation given by the teacher is appropriate, the results are certainly constructive. If the teacher is not a good motivator, he/she cannot influence the children. If the motivation is the factor for the students’ constructive growth in their academics, the teacher should know how to develop it among the children. The teachers should be creative, innovative and they should introduce the students with several innovative technologies. The students like to learn new things through modern technology. It increases the motivation level and these students perform better in their academics.
Several statistical studies were conducted regarding motivation, teachers’ role and the impact of motivation on the academic performance of the students. They have shown strong correlation between the motivation factor and the academic performance of the students.
Recently a study was conducted by Norris and Soloway (2014) in Singapore. In the study it was found that more than 700 third and fourth grade students are using smartphones everyday in science and English class and their test score after using smartphones was high. They use various software on computers and apps on their smart phones. Smart school itself is a motivation for the students and they develop themselves academically. Hence the teachers also are insisting to be smart by using the learning apps and software in the school curriculum. It clearly indicates that the technology is a motivation and the impact of this motivation is certainly very positive among the students.
Hence constant motivation is very important for the overall development of the students including academic and non-academic fields as well.
CONCLUSION
The research paper can be concluded with the assumption that the motivation is very important in the academic progress of the students. Teacher’s role as a motivator is also very important. The motivation can be obtained to the students not just from the teachers but by the adults around him. Being motivator is also a challenging job. The teacher should take care of providing the motivation in a right way and right manner. The study is not complete as many factors are there that are yet to be resolved. For resolving some factors, the primary data is equally essential which is not there in the present research paper. But the articles, and academic journals are sufficient to reveal the fact that the variable motivation is strongly connected with the second variable, which is the academic performance of the students.
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