Chapter 11

Honestly, all of the theories from this chapter seem to mesh together to motivate students. It would be hard for me to pick solely one theory to claim as the only means of motivation. The theories that most motivate me would be behaviorist theory and the sociocultural theories. For example, I did not care to make A's in high school, and I didn't make all A's. But when I got to college, I made straight A's for almost two straight years because I was motivated - and I didn't feel motivated in high school. In the behaviorist theory, it talks about motivation being the result of "drives". I read an article in another class about faulty notions that teachers believe, and one notion was that students success is dependent on motivation. I honestly think it is vice versa - students are motivated when they succeed, and I definitely experienced this in college. No one was holding me accountable, but I was motivated to do well because I knew I could. When considering the sociocultural theory, I can understand that motivation leads to success. I have known people whose parents did not care how well or how creative their child was in school, and this affected the student's performance due to the lack of motivation. As a teacher, it is so vitally important to motivate the students to be creative - to find a way that engages the student enough to form that desire to learn. In a future classroom for example, Susie might be home alone until bed time and hardly see her parents. When she does see her parents, they yell at her for not having the house cleaned, dinner made, etc. They never want to hear about her grades or see her finished art project. But at school, her teacher wants to see the drawings Susie does in her free time and at home. The teacher also reinforces her success academically by praising her and rewarding her with extra time for art activities. The teacher might also ask Susie to draw her a picture for the teacher's desk during that awarded time.