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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

student motivation, Chinese classroom, educators, behavior, students, extrinsic rewards

College

David O. McKay School of Education

Department

Teacher Education

Abstract

Educators are constantly striving to improve and increase student motivation. The less time a teacher spends on motivation and management, the more time can be spent on teaching the subject matter. Behaviorism and constructivism are two theoretical positions on human motivation which can help explain student motivation in the classroom. Greatly simplified, Behaviorism takes the position that people naturally act and will continue to act in a certain way if their actions are followed by an external event that is reinforcing to them. Similarly, a behavior is less likely to occur if it is not reinforced by an external event or is followed by a negative consequence. The focus of motivation is, therefore, on external events. Another important idea in Behaviorism is that once a behavior is learned because of an extrinsic reward, the behavior will continue if there is something in the environment (a natural consequence of the behavior) that is rewarding. This allows the original reinforcement to be faded out. In the school setting, the teacher can evoke desirable behavior through offering students extrinsic rewards; once this is done, the teacher can maintain the desired behavior by presenting interesting lessons without the need of the original incentive. On the other hand, Constructivists believe that students are inherently curious and motivated to learn. Some Constructivist theorists have been very critical of extrinsically rewarding students for something for which they are already intrinsically motivated, claiming that doing so reduces their motivation when the extrinsic reward is removed. The lesson content should be the primary motivation.

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