ABSTRACT
Being
motivated and setting the right goals offers a good perspective of the
achievement in educational context.
Motivation
of achievement is strongly connected with students’ cognitive representations
of their attempts to succeed. It helps them to improve their ability in a task
and are associated with different outcomes such as a challenging work, high intrinsic
motivation, persistence and willingness to seek help with schoolwork.
The
teachers’ part here is to help them know what they really want to achieve. In
this case, the teachers seem to help them know the importance of the right
goals.
Having
the right motivation directs in the right achievement.
Key words: Motivation; school
achievement; intrinsic motivation; persistence
Motivation is a very
important cognitive process which has a great impact on the achievement.
Students which reach to set the right motivation or follow the objective set by
the teachers, prove a sense of self efficacy. They get totally engaged to fill
that. During their engagement, their performance in collaborating and
interacting seems to be improving. This is manly pictured in project-based
learning. During their meetings, they repeat and memorize the information. Self
efficacy is fundamental. While the students look into the learning processes
and see how they are progressing in some time, they recognize their ability and
agility (Elliot and Dwech; 1998).
According to Bandura, to
keep the students aware of their progress on reaching the objectives, in the
same time rises up self efficacy,so they feel highly motivated and believe that
they can succeed
To rise self efficacy means
to inspire the motivation making it to improve the development of capacity. On
the other hand, the growing motivation to reach the goals depends upon the
features of these ones such as specificity, difficulty and affinity. According
to Schunk and Bandura (1981), to make a student eager to achieve a short
distance goal, rise the motivation, self efficacy and abilities (Schunk; 1985).
Also showed that to give students specific goals plans other information linked
with their peers. To let the students make projects about motivation can bring
rise to their commitment. Those who project their aims, show a bigger
motivation than students who have no aims at all. So we can understand the
importance of goals and communication in motivation
Oriented motivation refers
to the fact that how much focused is a student in learning progress and which
is the attitude of its performance through this important process. These
students are motivated setting themselves goals which make them feel successful
and feeling the pleasure of achievement and setting other following goals. In
these cases, the arrangements are largely seen in the efforts context rather
than the ability because even failure helps them understand where they have
done wrong in order to improve their performance and to avoid failure. Even
avoiding failure can help the motivation increase the need of achievement. As a
result of these efforts to reach the maximum, the students who are focused on
achievement are not threatened by failure because failure in this case, affect
on their trial and not competences (Martin 2003).
This theory is an important
concept in self determination theory (Ryan & Deci; 2000). This makes
motivation in two key concept: Intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation.
Students who are focused on
learning are closely related to intrinsic motivation. This means persistence,
making a plan on a policy and managing it. In difference with them, students
who are motivated extrinsic
ally learn how to gain their parents’ and teachers’ approval. Intrinsic
motivation is autonomy itself because students want to reach the highest
standards of reflection. The better the student focus on the studies, the
better the performance. These students want to gain the maximum of their
abilities to set their own goals and feel pretty successful in their taken
responsibility. Oriented motivation is a fundamental element of self
determination. This makes intrinsic and extrinsic motivation distinguishable (Plotnik, R). Extrinsic motivation happens when a
student is directed to a commitment just to be rewarded or to avoid the
punishment
In this case the motivated
behavior is directed by the desire to achieve or to avoid failure and negative
consequences. Intrinsic motivation is different from the extrinsic one because
the behavior is oriented towards a personal obligation or as a desire and not
to be recompensed by the others
To get the concept we need
to understand that students’ behavior is motivated by an inner desire or active
participation. This motivation at school is principle. A group of education
experts think that emphasizing in outer forms of recompense, such as good
marks, different rewards minimize the effects of intrinsic motivation.
Meanwhile, others think that just these factors by making students feel
capable, emphasis the intrinsic motivation.
The interest of a person
does not often survives when the recompense, when it comes as a bribe or as a
form of control. It survives when the job is done properly. If this enforce the
feeling of competence in the same time is risen the pleasure of participating
in this task. When the reward is given in the right way, they can motivate an
excellent performance and creativity. “The rewarding forms such as
scholarships, good job positions, often followed by good results, are here to
stay” explains David G. Mayres in his text “Psychology: Eighteenth Editions in
Modules. The focus of learning is closely concerned with motivation. It is
identified through planning, the studying management and persistence. All these
factors make possible the right prediction and orientation towards the academic
studies. According to this theory, students have a great desire for the
autonomy, ability and interaction between each-other. With such sense of
autonomy and self determination, the behavior is controlled and regulated
intrinsically which, on the other side, directs the selection of the actions
performed beyond (Ryan & Deci; 2000). The need for ability is a desire born
along with the humans to become more able so that to explore other abilities.
Self confidence and evaluation rise up the intrinsic motivation.
The students become eager
if the cognitive level of their task is higher than the level of their
abilities. As a result of their effort to reach and achieve the best results, the
pride gained is higher too. The self determination theory shows that the
reaction of an individual rises from extrinsic and intrinsic motivation.
Intrinsic motivation supplies the individual’s autonomy.
Autonomous students are
more successful and stay engaged with the lessons and are high – achievers. If
the students are autonomous, they are positively directed to lessons (Otis;
2005). This is proved because if they are obligated by parents’ or teachers’
suppression, their force to study is regulated by outer factors. Despite all,
extrinsic motivation is proved to be a good and positive regulator at 9th
grade or in the period of eagerness- inferiority phase (Erikson, E). Inner
motivation is promoted properly when the student finds out a safe environment inside
of which they try to reach the top, something that by its side brings efficacy
perception. This motivation gets inspired by the teachers they prefer the most.
The dependence of inner
motivation to the environment is seen most to girls rather than boys, because
girls are more related to the teachers. As far as it concerns, to the extrinsic
motivation, is of a great importance due to the inspiration of the feeling of
choice. This is linked positively with the eagerness feelings (Howes Philipsen;
2000).
If a student fulfills his
own tasks because of a fear of being punished, this is called extrinsic
motivation because it avoids parents’ sanctions. But if a student is motivated
from the belief that everything values greatly for his career, even though is
pushed by outer factors, has a great sense of inner development of the autonomy
(Eric Erickson).
Conclusions
Being well-motivated is a
main criteria of being well-educated. Students should be lead to a critical way
of judging and thinking. This refers to the effort to understand different
matters, studying them and questioning about them.
Students and adolescents
are capable of understanding when they should react and interact to keep them
motivating. Don’t expect them to ask what they should do; they will find by
experiencing. The teachers and parents should speak to them about desires and
what keeps them inspired. They can start with their favorite subjects and
things they desire the most, when they can find and distinguish. What they
really want it is an easier and concrete start to their evaluation and
self-evaluation. The absence of the answer is interpreted as “this topic should
not be discussed” but keeping motivating is the key. If the teachers and
parents don’t know what to say, they should say “let’s think about it together”
and try to find answers about the things and ideas that they thought about
learning. Get the idea and thought according to their personality. In general,
the students should know that the ways of achieving are different and the best
way is to learn how these affect to motivation. Don’t forget that the way of
asking, thinking and reacting over the aspects of their identity and there are
the sources of their inner motivation. Teachers should discuss with their
colleagues and the parents of the students. Different ideas to know them better
in order to keep them motivated. The division of the ideas and experiences will
help to generate new ideas and to clarify what is better functioning for the
students and the relations between teaching and learning. Teachers should model
different behavior and competences, they should take care particularly to the
situations that can provide low self-esteem or which get obstacles to students
so they can be open-minded to outer and inner challenges. Be careful to
knowledge, books, computer games, sports that they use and play. Teachers and
parents should interfere immediately when they see signs of low self-esteem.
Students should learn that is a mistake to undervalue their self-esteem, their
identities and their gender.
Teachers should try to
create the possibility that students could interact with each other in order to
gain different experiences by their peers, who may suffer the same problems in
a different way. They learn better through concrete experiences. Teachers
shouldn’t be considered as leaders but as collaborators in showing and
directing through the right path of achievement.
Motivating is the key which
winds all inner and outer factors. Keeping the student motivated with high
self-efficacy, high self-esteem, inspires them to prosper in knowing what they
want by themselves. Reaching above all the eagerness to learn and stay humans
through education. Anyone of us should be considered sitting in a round table.
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* Lecturer /
Faculty of Education, ”Aleksander Moisiu” University Durrës, Albania.