I thought each one of the articles was interesting and informative in its own way but the two that stuck out the most for me were Strategies for Stimulating the Motivation to Learn (SSMtL) (Keller, 1987) because it was like a prescription of sorts, and Motivational Design of Instruction (MDoI) (Keller, 1983) because the Concept of Interest really resonated with me personally. Many times in my own life I have trouble being motivated because I am simply not interested in the content and that's where I begin to stray. Maw & Maw's (p, 399; MDoI) definitions of the qualities of a curious person were interesting to me because I think that is what motivation is all about. Keeping people interested is the key and understanding what peaks others' curiosity seems to be the defining factor in how to keep the interest flowing when designing instruction. I think the instruction can seem interesting to the designer when in fact, the audience finds it entirely boring. Having a deep understanding of your audience but also how to peak their curiosities is important. So I don't really know if motivation is the actual problem, or if a facet of motivation is the problem (curiosity). It would seem to me that the concept of interest Keller describes would be the main objective here. I know from my own personal situation in watching my daughter perform in school that when she is bored, forget it! Not much learning is taking place there. When she is interested, she learns. BUT, even when she is not interested in the beginning, if she receives a nugget that peaks her curiosity, she's hooked. The curiosity leads to the interest, which leads to the motivation.
In the SSMtL article, I was grateful for the tables and the major process questions. I was very interested in the Components of Attention and it seems that using this article for guidance may make it easier to better facilitate instruction that motivates. This article seems to provide the WOW! factor for me. The idea of motive matching made me think back to 6th grade when we were learning about the Greeks and Romans and we had to do some kind of project that reflected life in the particular era. The teacher let us choose the projects with final approval from her, and my partner and I chose to build an Olympic arena using Barbie Dolls (WE WERE LIKE 12 OKAY!). The teacher allowed us to be creative and we learned. She set limits but we were able to follow them easily because we were also allowed to create the project using things that interested us. I think that experience also ties in to Keller's familiarity component as well. I think this article should be required reading for instructional designers and teachers alike!
Hi Jen, I enjoyed reading your reflections. Stimulating interest in middle school students does indeed begin with, as Keller states in his Motivational Design of Instruction (MDoI)(Keller,1983,p.398), that students have to be at least paying attention to a stimulus for learning to occur. I have two prominent views as to why students may enter the class and immediately decide to not pay attention. One, they have decided I don't like this class/subject/teacher; or two, they are simply burned out on learning and/or the educational process. Let me address the second view first. My honors science 7 class came in one day after many days of testing; this means they spent the last 3 days satisfying both local and state testing expectations. I was my usual peppy, enthusiastic self :), full of variety and well, you get it. Their eyes were glassy with no expression; their faces dull and unresponsive.
ReplyDeleteRather than lecture them on the benefits of this course and let's go, I simply asked them what was wrong, and they responded that they were tired. I affirmed their condition and simply said, I understand, hang in there and let's make the best of this day. Their willingness to be more positive did increase their participation and curiosity. The first view, in which I believe that some students have simply decided ahead of time that they have no interest and therefore will not participate, is much more challenging for a teacher to capture the interest of the learner as Keller states in Strategies for Stimulating the Motivation to Learn (SSMtL) (Keller, 1987). My next step is usually to talk with the student one on one in order for me to understand where their thinking is at and what their roadblocks are. As Keller states in The Systematic Process of Motivational Design (SPMD) (Keller, 1087), motivation is not magical; it sometimes takes commitment and patience to promote a positive response.
Hi Jen,
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you mentioned issue of familiarity. Not only in readings, but also in my teaching experience I realized that familiarity is a significant agent to keep students motivated.
When I was teaching, I did not have much problem about increasing motivation of students; however, I really had problem to keep students motivated(especially in science courses). When I started to create activities and course plans with considering familiarity(students' interest), the students started to keep their motivation longer.
I also agree with Denise,one of the most important feature for teachers is commitment.
Hi Jennifer:
ReplyDeleteThank you for your reflective blog posting for Week 1. I enjoyed reading your commentary. I think that Keller’s work in the area of motivational and instructional design is really groundbreaking. At the time when Keller was formulating his theoretical ideas and design concept about motivation, there was a debate raging among teachers and instructional scientist as to whether motivation was an outcome of either intrinsic (intuition, natural talent, drive, and determination) or extrinsic (the environment) factors. Keller perceived motivation as “influenced by myriad internal and external characteristics” (1983, p. 389). Thus, he set forth in a systematic manner to address the issue of student motivation. Ultimately, Keller’s his research activities resulted in the macro theory and design model known as ARCS. The acronym, ARCS stands for Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction and are said to be the “four conditions that have to be met for people to become and remain motivated” (Keller, 1987a, p.3).
As I think about the class that I just finished in summer session one, I note that I can utilize the ARCS concept as an analytic tool for theorizing as why some students dropped out from the course. For example, two students originally enrolled in the course were working professionals here at SU and when they took a realistic look at their work schedules and job responsibilities, the HED 700 course was not seemingly relevant enough (i.e., non-alignment with their personal and job related needs and goals) for them to stay enrolled in the course. This is a major challenge that online teachers face when working with an adult student population. There are many external responsibilities and factors (i.e., family, work, community, etc) that adult students have to deal with and sometimes these concerns take precedence over their academic studies. The challenge for online instructors is to find ways to constructively motivate adult student to stay enrolled in their course(s).
Best,
~Aja
References
Keller, J.M. (1983). Motivational design of instruction. In C. M. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional-design theories and models: An overview of their current status. (pp.383-434). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Reference
Keller, J.M. (1987a). Development and use of the ARCS model in instructional design. Journal of instructional development, 10(3), 2-10.
Hey Jenn,
ReplyDeleteI also found this article interesting. It really made me think that motivation in classroom education really depends on the person leading the classroom. I didn't ever really think about all the work that teachers had to do to get their students to pay attention and learn. If it wasn't one reason, such as content, then its seems like it might be the presentation such as materials or even the tone of the the presenter's voice. And, overall, none of this matters if the student(s) can't relate to the topic. This article really showed me all the hard work that goes into instruction. Also, it helped me to see why I had some difficulties in certain courses in bot k-12 and college.
It's kinda funny, though, how sometimes in the professional world, during initial training we usually pay very good attention. Maybe its because as a new employee we are motivated as a result of the new job.
Ramon
Hi Jen -
ReplyDeletethank you for your post! Reading this and our classmates' responses makes me think about how much of what we do with motivation in the classroom is instinctual rather than planned, and to appreciate those instances when we have either benefitted from a teacher's thoughtful instruction or when we ourselves have been able to click with students and address these components of motivation, simply by being attune to their needs, dispositions, interests, etc. For example, planning for inquiry arousal, variability, familiarity, and so on seems to always begin with our own sensitivity to our students as real people who bring their own wonder to the learning. What an awesome and powerful phenomenon that really is...
I can't recall an example as good as the Barbie Olymic arena (although I do remember dancing around a sombrero in the school play-yard - something to do with a multicultural festival in 6th grade, I think). But I do know that my students seem the most motivated when I express sincere desire and interest in the learning (as opposed to the tasks, the grades). But like Denise said, sometimes my "show" just isn't enough for reasons outside of my control - but that's when that human element steps in again. I'm fortunate for being able to use the ARCS model to reevaluate what I see as effective and motivational, becuase it demands I think carefully about how that interaction happens and how I can move from letting it be instinctual and perhaps accidental, to action that's more deliberate.
Jen
ReplyDeleteVery thought provoking comments, I agree with your review. I agree when you discussed a deep understanding of the audience in needed for success. For example, adults have different learning styles than adolescents, in adults motivations, aspirations are more well defined as opposed to younger students. I think I hear you moving to the suggestion that teachers are the key to instruction ans student outcomes, in particular, middle/high schools years when teaching the "whole child" and tapping into multiple intelligences (Howard Gardner) is key.
Jen,
ReplyDeleteNice to put interest and curiosity at the core. I would say that it;s the facet of motivation that is the 'problem.' As we move on in modules, you'll look more closely at those different facets, which will likely have you rethink this post, or at least add to it.
As people have mentioned here, the instructor/trainer can have a huge impact on motivation. People can enter a learning/training setting being highly motivated, only to have that 'crushed' by those who haven't included strategies to motivated learners, who use strategies that demotivate.