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Motivation. Here's an outline of the things we'll be talking about-- self-actualization, deficiency needs, intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation, locus of control, and being or growth needs. So motivation, then, we have four general approaches-- humanistic behavioral, cognitive and then social learning. Now, we'll mainly be talking about humanistic approaches to motivation. We've already talked about behavioral approaches. We'll talk a little bit about cognitive, and maybe a little
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bit about social learning approaches. Now, Maslow represents the humanistic approach. He was the one who developed his writings about humanistic.
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It's also called the third force psychology-- the first force being Freudian thought, the second being behavioral, and then the third being humanistic. He says that in order to motivate students, you have to encourage their inner resources. Now, Maslow believes that humans are basically positive in nature-- basically growth-seeking. And the humanistic approach started as a reaction to behaviorism. People thought that behaviorism didn't really capture all of what human beings were.
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So the humanistic approach then emphasized personal choice and freedom. It talked about needs-- both being and growth needs. It talked about self-actualization, or, in other words, being all you can be, and then it talked about self-determination. So Maslow started out studying people that he thought were self-actualized. And first he studied famous people, and then later he studied the average people. So he said that people that are self-actualized, which he
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defined as being the best you can be, reaching your full potential, they have a clear view of reality. He said that they accept themselves and the world as they are, that they're spontaneous in both thought and action, they're problem-centered rather than self-centered, and then lastly he says that they are autonomous and independent. He also said that they are sympathetic to the human condition, they tend to promote common welfare, they're democratic in thought and action, they're creative.
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Under relationships, he said they had a few intense relationships rather than many superficial relationships. And he also said that they had peak experiences-- what he described as intense joy or other kinds of intense feelings. Maslow came up with the hierarchy of needs. He says that the bottom of the needs are physiological needs. And then once those are satisfied, we move to safety needs. And then, again, when safety needs are satisfied, then we
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move to belongingess and love needs, and then to esteem needs, cognitive needs, aesthetic needs, and then finally we move up to the top of the pyramid, which is self-actualization, and as the Army used to say, being all you can be. Now, Maslow says there are two different kinds of needs. He says there are deficiency needs. Deficiency needs-- the motivation decreases as met, increases when not met. He also says there are being or growth needs, and he says
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that the motivation for these, you never get enough. The motivation increases as you meet the need, so you never get enough. And so here are the physiological needs, the safety needs, the belongingness, esteem needs. These are deficiency needs. And then the being or growth needs are this need for knowing and understanding, aesthetic needs, and then, finally self-actualization needs. He says that they are fundamentally different kinds of needs. So for self-actualization--
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under needs, then, we have self-actualization, the motivation to meet the needs-- the being needs is endless-- the motivation for the lower needs is increased when they're not met, decreases when they're met. So for Maslow, we have to meet the lower needs. Once those are satisfied, then we're able to go on and meet the higher needs. So deficiency needs are things that you need to have in order to-- well, at the lowest level, that you must have in order to live.
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Maslow says you cannot meet the higher needs unless the lower needs are met. Deficiency needs grow stronger when unmet, weaker when met. Not meeting the deficiency needs pulls us away from self-actualization.
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We meet the deficiency needs, then we reduce tension. Meeting deficiency needs can create dependency. That is, we might have to depend on Brookshire's for our food. And then we have problem-solving as techniques to meet those deficiencies needs. Deficiency needs, then, are physiological needs. These are the kinds of needs that we must have in order to maintain life. What are the physiological needs? Food water shelter-- shelter from the elements. We can't be too hot or too cold.
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Safety needs, then, are those needs that we want to feel free from threat, both psychological and physiological--
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free from any kind of threat. Belongingness and love needs-- we want to be a part of something. And then esteem needs. We want to feel like we're doing a good job. The being or growth needs that are never met-- they grow and expand with experience, and then the motivation to meet these needs is endless. Being needs, then, are the need to know and understand, aesthetic needs. Knowing and understanding them is learning. Aesthetic needs is beauty, truth, art.
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And the self-actualization needs are at the top, then. We want to be all we can be. Deficiency needs, then, involve survival-- safety, belonging, and self-esteem. Before the being needs can be met, these deficiency needs have to be fulfilled. Being needs, on the other hand, then involve intellectual achievement, aesthetic appreciation, and self-actualization. We want to learn more, we want to find music art truth beauty. And then, finally, self-actualization, which is
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of all you can be, being your best. Once we acquire the desire for these needs, the fulfillment increases. That is, in other words, we never can get enough of the being needs. We never can get enough knowledge or aesthetic appreciation. From Maslow's hierarchy, we have deficiency needs. These things are necessary for survival at the lowest end. They're a prerequisite for being needs, and so we have survival, safety, belonging, and self-esteem. On the other hand, we have the being needs.
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These are endlessly renewed. They make up the whole person. We have intellectual achievement. The need for aesthetic. And then, finally, the self-actualization. Maslow talked about good choosers and bad choosers. And he says some people, in their lives, are not choosing well. They're not choosing the best. And the reason he says that is because they are operating under deficiency needs. They haven't had their needs met, so they're not making wise choices because those needs have not been that.
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On the other hand, he says there are good choosers. These choosers are operating under being needs. They are making good choices in their lives.
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So here's Maslow's hierarchy. We have physiological needs, safety needs, belonging and love needs, esteem needs, cognitive needs, aesthetic needs, and then, finally, self-actualization at the top of the period. Conclusions, then, on Maslow's ideas is that we see that we have needs for belonging and safety, and that we, obviously, must have the survival needs met before we can move on to the higher needs. We also understand that there is an relationship of needs--
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that is one level has to be met before we can get to the next level for the being needs. Applications then would be Headstart, immunization clinics, free lunch, free breakfast, latchkey checks, hygiene checks. Implications for teachers-- first we need to meet the lower needs, then we can meet the higher needs. We have a need for positive relationships. We have a need for a safe learning environment. We want to encourage autonomy in our students.
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But the criticism of Maslow's ideas is that the behavior may not match the theory. That is, actual behavior may not match the theory's predictions. Some people who seem to have all of their basic needs met are still operating as if they didn't. And so Maslow would say that they still believe that those needs, while may be met, could be taken away very quickly. So you have people that grew up in the Depression acting like they're poor when, in fact, they have plenty of
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cash, but they are still operating as if they were poor. OK. So let's say have a little practical application. Choose a problem that you might think students in your class would have. So first, have a [INAUDIBLE] that you're thinking about. And then see how those needs have been met. And you can explain the problem in terms of Maslow's ideas. Maybe the needs appear to be met, but they really haven't met. So a new student comes to your school, so you might pair them
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with an established student and take them through all of the different places of the school where they can get their needs met, and then maybe have a buddy system where they would help them get along through the day in the new school. So motivation-- we have four general approaches. We have the humanistic approach, we have behavioral approaches, we have cognitive approaches, and then we have social learning approaches. To continue with the humanistic approach, we have Carl Rogers.
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Carl Rogers started out as a psychotherapist, and later he came up with the idea of Client-Centered Therapy, which made its way into education as Learner-Centered Education. So Maslow says that teachers should have no facade, no false front. That they should be able to express their feelings, and that they should accept the students. He calls that unconditional positive regard-- unconditional positive regard. They accept the students as they are.
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He says that the teachers should have empathy for the students-- not sympathy, but empathy. That is they can stand in the student's shoes and experience what the student has experienced. He also talks about a belief in students. So this comes in the positive theory of human nature. You have this belief in students that they know what they're all about and that they're capable of the best possible. Thomas Gordon was another member of the humanistic team, so to speak.
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And he proposed a no-lose method of problem-solving, which he put down in his book Teacher Effectiveness Training. Teacher Effectiveness Training, then, is a problem-solving way. It's problem-solving and it's also interpersonal communication. He puts forth a number of ideas to help teachers get along with their students-- get along in the classroom. The first thing he talks about is effective communication. And he says there are roadblocks to effective communication.
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And he came up with 12 of them. So if you think about the way teachers traditionally act in classrooms, you'll see that they do many of these roadblocks. That they use many of these roadblocks in their interactions with students. So he says the first thing you need to do, then, is develop a feeling vocabulary. And he spends a while with the teachers generating feeling words. So he says that Americans usually don't have a feeling vocabulary, and so we need to develop a feeling vocabulary.
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And that's really the first part. And the feelings, then, are used for effective communication.
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He says one of the first things that you do in Teacher Effectiveness Training is decide who owns the problem. Now, there's three possibilities. The teacher could own the problem, there's no problem, or the student could own the problem. So it's very important to determine who owns the problem, because then that dictates your next step. So he says in the beginning teachers have a lot of problems with student's behavior, as indicated here with this rectangle.
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A lot of the things that students do are problematic for the teacher. And he says there's very little-- the no problem area-- and little the student owns the problem. And he says it's by this process here that the teachers become more accepting of student's behavior. So that this line here increases so that there s more of a balance between teacher-owned problem and student-owned. So he says that teachers, as a process of using Teacher Effectiveness Training, become more accepting
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of student's behavior.
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And actually what he would do is say does the student's behavior prevent the teacher from teaching? If the answer to that question is yes, then he would say you have a problem-- that the teacher owns the problem. Otherwise, there's no problem or it's the students problem. So who owns the problem? In order to figure out if the teacher owns the problem, we must ask the question does this behavior affect my role as a teacher? That is, am I prevented from teaching because of the student's problem?
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If the answer is yes, then the teacher owns the problem. If the answer is no problem, then fine, or if the answer is the student owns the problem, then he would use active listening. If the teacher owns the problem, then the teacher would begin the problem-solving techniques. So he says first, if I own the problem, I'm the teacher, then I want to get the student to change their behavior. And the way that starts is with the I message. So with an I message, there's a statement about feelings.
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There is the tangible and concrete effects of the behavior on you, and then you have to specify the behavior. So, for example, if the students are talking out of turn when the teacher is trying to lecture, then the teacher would say, I own the problem. And how does the teacher feel? Well, how do you feel when you're a teacher and the students are talking? So are you angry? Are you frustrated? Or whatever. So you have to first identify your own feelings.
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So some teachers, they think this is nonsense, but Gordon's philosophy goes under the theory of human nature, the positive view. He has a positive view of human nature. So he's basically expecting that most people are positive in terms of their human nature. So how do I feel when the student is misbehaving? I feel angry. I feel frustrated. What is the specific behavior that they're doing? So this is a nonjudgmental description of the behavior.
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And then, finally, we have the tangible and concrete effect that the student's behavior has on the teacher. Now, that, sometimes, is difficult, because if the students are wearing those funny earrings in their nose or in their lip, you may have a tough time convincing the student that it has a tangible and concrete effect on you. Now, I don't like it and you don't like it, but really how does it affect me as a teacher? Does it prevent me from teaching?
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And most the time, the answer is probably no. So let's go back, then, to where the students are talking when the teacher is trying to teach. And so how do I feel? Well, I'm frustrated. What is the specific behavior when the student talks out of turn? The tangible concrete effect-- again, this may be difficult, but let's just say for this example that I have to repeat the questions because some student didn't get it.
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So to use the I message here, you would say I'm frustrated when you talk out of turn because it means I have to repeat the lecture. Now, think about that in contrast with the way teachers usually talk. So what do they usually say? Well, it'd be something like, why don't you shut up because you're misbehaving. Again, if you look at those 12 roadblocks to communication, you'll see that teachers typically use these when students are not doing what they would like them to do.
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And so this is not helpful for problem-solving. So what we have is then the use of active listening, and the question is what happens when you use active listening and the student response in a defensive way? So the student cannot listen to the I message because their emotional temperature is too high. Generally, if you send an I message, which is a nonjudgmental description of the behavior and the tangible and concrete effect that it has on you, generally they
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would respond in an appropriate way. But if they don't, then you would use active listening. If they respond to your I message in a defensive way, then you would use active listening. Active listening is where you reflect the feelings that you think the person is experiencing. And you don't have to worry if you don't get it right, because they'll tell you. So then in review, then we see to use Gordon's ideas with students, we first want to define the problem.
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Then we would generate all the possible solutions without deleting any. Then we would evaluate each possible solution. Here's where the teacher would demonstrate some flexibility. It's a give and take, here. We evaluate each solution to see if it meets our needs. And then once we get rid of all the solutions-- we should have one that was left that meets both person's needs. Then we implement that solution and see how it goes. If it doesn't work, then we need to go back to the
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beginning where we send the I message. If it works, fine. So we evaluate the solution. So in review, then, problem ownership. We have to first figure out who's problem it is. We will use our I message. If we get a defensive response, we will use active listening until the emotional temperature of the student goes down to a level that they can hear our message. So here's an example of problem ownership. The student says, you always blame me. I don't like you. And you don't like me and I hate you.
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OK. Who owns the problem? In this case, the student owns the problem. So what would the teacher's response be? Well, it would be active listening. You're really angry now. You blame me for your problems. Another idea of problem ownership. The student says my dog got ran over last night. The problem-- it's not the dogs, but it is the student's problem. And the response would be active listening. You're really upset because your dog was killed yesterday. Problem ownership--
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a student starts yelling after they get failing grades and says it's the teacher's fault. Who owns the problem? Well here, the student owns the problem. The response would be active listening. Many times in education, we falsely believe that if the student isn't doing well, then it must be the teacher's fault. And this is pervasive in education. It's not the teacher's fault if the student doesn't get passing grades. If all the students don't get passing grades, then maybe we
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have some ammunition to say it could be the teacher's fault. But in general, it's the student's responsibility to do what's necessary to get passing grades. The librarian discovers several pages are missing from the book. Who owns the problem? Well, it's the librarian. What is the response? In this case, the librarian will send an I message. I-- and the feeling. I'm discouraged. I'm upset. I'm angry. I'm frustrated when pages are torn from books because that means I have to replace the book.
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In review, then, the I message is the feelings that the person experiences, the non-judgmental description of the behavior when pages are torn from the book, and then the tangible and concrete effect that it has on the teacher. I have to replace the book. Here's an example of problem-solving with the book. After we communicate our I message, we get the students to buy into this idea that missing pages in the book is a problem. And we would generate all possible solutions.
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We don't select out any solutions until all of the solutions have been generated. Then we evaluate each solution in terms of whether it meets your needs or the student needs.
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At the end, we should have just one solution. We select that solution and then we implement that solution, and then we see how it works. If it works good, that's fine. If it doesn't work, then we have to start over again with the I message. Humanistic techniques in education. Humanistic techniques in education. Humanistic techniques in education has fallen out of favor these days. In the '70s, it fell out of favor because of low SAT and ACT scores.
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Now, of course, we've got the problem of passing those minimum competency tests so you get to finish school. However, even though these humanistic techniques have passed, you can still use them in your classrooms if you like. One is sensitivity training. You have a group. You have a group facilitator-- not a leader, but a facilitator. And basically you just talk about your feelings. Another technique is values clarification. You choose your values, and then you tell about why you
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have the values. During that process, you may find out that you really don't believe in some of the values that you'd thought you had. So you're demonstrating, you're explaining why you choose these values. There's pass/fail grading. For instance on-- maybe not on a whole course, but you could have pass/fail grading on an exercise of some kind. So the humanistic techniques fell out of favor, but that doesn't mean you can't use them. OK. Now we'll move to behavioral approaches to motivation.
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The core of behavioral approaches to motivation is reward and/or incentive. We look at the history oh rewards that the person has had with a particular behavior. So a reward is a consequence of a particular behavior. If we do well in a course, then we tend to like that course. If we don't do well, then we probably don't like it very much.
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Incentives are encouraged or discouraged behaviors. Positive reinforcement will encourage the behavior. Punishment, by definition, will discourage the behavior. So for behavioral approaches, then, we look at the reinforcement. What is the history of reinforcement that the student has had? We understand the student's behavior by an analysis of the rewards and incentives. Again, look at the history. Has the student had favorable experiences or unfavorable ones?
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So an example is I would ask how many of you are just dying to take another algebra course? And most probably not many hands will go up. The reason is because you haven't had good experiences with taking algebra. So why don't you want to take another algebra course? Many times, students don't do well in algebra. It's a kind of punishment. They get a C or a D, the algebra problems are difficult, they don't come easy, it takes a lot of work. So we look at that history.
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If we find a favorable history, then we would probably say the student wants to take another algebra course. If it's unfavorable, then they probably don't. Again, so what is the history? Was it easy or hard? Was it fun? Did you get high grades or low grades? Or there might be other factors that play into why I want to take an algebra course or do not want to take one. Limitations of the behavioral view. Many people have criticized the behavioral view of
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learning because they say you are bribing the student. So some students are extrinsic motivated-- that means they expect something from the environment. Others are intrinsically motivated. They don't expect anything tangible. They study for the love of learning. Which is better? Well, most of you will say intrinsic motivation is better. Why? Because you don't have to do much to motivate the student. They come to school, they're ready, willing, and able to learn.
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So if you pick a student in the past that you've known, you should be able to tell if they are intrinsically motivated or extrinsically motivated. So why don't you think about that for a little while, and then you might communicate that to the other persons in your class. Social learning approaches to motivation. Basically, the social learning approach is that there are observation and imitation. We observe behavior and we imitate it in the vernacular monkey see, monkey do. There are four--
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in review, again-- there are four general approaches to motivation. Humanistic approaches, behavioral approaches, cognitive approaches, and then social learning approaches.
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The cognitive approach focuses on thinking. We have plans, we have goals, we have schemas, we have expectations-- all in the cognitive arena. Cognitive approaches see people as active and curious-- not passive, but active-- wanting to go out there and learn. And the cognitive approach emphasizes intrinsic motivation. By definition, it believes that people are wanting to learn for intrinsic reasons, not extrinsic.
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Achievement motivation attempts to explain success or failure. It attempts to explain achievement and failure or success. Attribution theory. This also helps us explain success or failure. Attribution theory looks at four elements-- ability, effort, difficulty, and luck. Ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck. If we look at ability, we'll see that most of the people have average ability. By definition, about 85% have average ability. But effort-- what is effort? Well, effort is studying.
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Effort is learning. Task difficulty? Well, that's the same for everybody. We all take the same test. And luck, well Tina Turner's "What's Love Got to Do With It," so I say what's luck got to do with it? Luck doesn't have anything to do with learning. You may get lucky, but it really doesn't have much to do with learning. OK. How do we explain success? There's a number of ways that people explain success. There an internal locus of control, ability, effort, external locus, task difficulty,
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and then good luck. So how do some people explain failure? If they have an internal locus of control, they believe that failure is from a lack of ability or a lack of effort. So when they fail, they see it as something that within them. So if you have an internal locus and you fail, you attribute it to lack of ability or lack of effort. You can't really change ability, but you can do something about effort. External locus of control-- they might explain failure as the test was too difficult or
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I was unlucky. Well, you can't control either of those. So external locus has an idea of either success or failure. Internal locus has pride in success, shame in failure. Low achieving students oftentimes have the external locus of control. They believe that they're at the mercy of the environment. They don't think that what they do really changes how they're going to achieve. A high-need achiever, on the other hand-- let's go back to high-need achiever, here.
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Let's go back to low achieving students with the external locus of control. And then we go forward. High-need need achievers-- they believe that there as they are successful because of what they do, because they study or they don't study enough. Examples of Attribution Theory would be internal versus external locus of control, stable verses unstable, controllable versus uncontrollable, and then we have internal locus, stable controllable. An example of that is I am good at studying for multiple
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choice tests, so I'll do well on the next educational psychology exam. Internal stable, uncontrollable-- the tests are always hard for me, so I won't do well in American Literature. Reward structures. We can think about reward structures as basically two kinds-- competitive or cooperative. Under competitive, we see individual and group competition. Within the group, in competitive, within the group, there's cooperation. Between groups, there's competitiveness.
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For the individual reward structure, everybody's competing against everybody else. Cooperative, on the other hand, would be where we're all working together to get that grade. So research suggests that cooperative reward structures are better for achievement in public schools. Does the teacher's attitude or personality effect the motivation? Many people would say yes, it does. What are three tings you can do to improve motivation? Why don't you stop, think about it, and then communicate
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with your fellow students in the class what you think you could do to improve motivation.
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