Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Motivation Theories

This chapter discusses the theories of motivation and the drive that fuels us in many different ways. Once we need the basic needs of life, such as food,water, and shelter then we can continue to nourish our mind and body with additional resources.According to Maslow, people want to be held in esteem both by themselves and by others.After we have attained the other traits then we try to reach a higher level of accomplishment.Self actualization is the highest desire we as humans desire and strive for.An example of that is my younger brother, who strives to be the best at his level. He has 2 Bachelors and 2 Masters and is working on his PHD. What motivates him is different than what motivates me because we both have different needs and wants.That can also be said about the classroom environment. What are some motivational techniques you use in the classroom or workplace?

6 comments:

  1. I think it is important that you showed how different people have different needs and wants as in the case of you and your brother. Because of that fact, I believe that people react differently to certain motivational techniques. The needs and desires of the person often determine which motivational techniques will work best for individuals in the workplace or in school. For example, I have some students that desire extra credit work so that they can get the highest grade possible. I have other students that would rather have free time on the computer as a reward for high grades. As an educator or even as a boss, sometimes to have to get to know the student or individuals better to see what will motivate them.

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  2. One lesson I recently applied in my classroom dealt more with long term goals and what motivates the students to accomplish them. For example, each student was to list one major life goal. Then they each needed to come up with three short term goals that would contribute to the main goal. After listing all these goals, they needed to list what motivates them to accomplish all these goals. Some examples of motivational factors were family, feelings of accomplishment, and of course money.

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  3. It's interesting to see that most of our classmates have really enjoyed Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. I also enjoyed learning about this because it truly is an eye opener. You make some great points about how people are motivated by different things. I think that comment is so important because often times teachers fail to see that each child in their classroom is different and what may motivate one child, may not motivate another one. I believe these tools are great but we have to keep in mind that although teachers have excellent tools to use in the classroom we must cater to each child's needs.

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  4. The motivation techniques I use in the workplace for myself is the Goal Theory. I have always used these types of goal orientations but I never realized there was a difference between learning goals and performance goals until this course. I realized it is important to distinguish between the two to ensure that I am on task not setting myself up for failure with unrealistic goals. When beginning a task at work I find it helpful to think about what skills I will gain from completing a task or duty and after I complete the task, I revisit the task and reflect on whether or not I gained the skills I wanted.

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  5. As far as the classroom we try to keep it fun and interesting. It can be difficult to keep that motivation going. I feel encouragement and goal setting are important. At the beginning of each semester I may ask my students what they hope to accomplish, what they hope to learn and I also ask them to list some traits and qualities of a person they admire. We also break up the class into groups with each having assigned roles (Team Leader, Equipment Manager, Time Keeper, Motivator....etc.) This works out well for us as it gets the class more involved with each other and bonds form which increases everyone's moral and motivation to keep moving forward.

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  6. I like how you have discussed how your needs and your brothers are different, but you each have a goal that you want to attain. With Maslow's hierarchy of needs, you can see how each of your needs have been met to get you where you are today. I think that taking the needs into consideration, fun and interesting things that I have done in the classroom really has been the incorporation of technology into each lesson. Kids like learning about a concept, and then playing a game of some sort that reinforces it, really helps the student to remember what is learned.

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