![]() That’s what I thought as I ran out the door to catch the bus to school to take my final exam on math…… and then … it happened 😱😱😱…… and yes, it was a black cat that crossed my path! This can’t be….I had studied so hard, done a dozen practice tests…… I anguished over my bad luck. I decided not to apply to Engineering schools.... What is luck gotta do with motivation? The Merriam Webster dictionary defines luck as “to prosper or succeed especially through chance or good fortune”. Watch this trailer on a newly released movie “ Luck”. The plot is about Sam Green field, the unluckiest girl who goes to the Land of Luck to find her lucky penny and to turn her luck around. https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/luck/umc.cmc.5w6fq1u39v7ozsdv3jkx0nrfs Like Sam, I am on a quest to find motivation (and luck?) for my students….. The classroom climate is an important factor that controls motivation. This could be in the form of extrinsic motivators like participation points, praise, prizes, or other gamification elements to increase engagement of students. Intrinsic motivation on the other hand is motivation from within and needs a little more than external factors. Allowing the students to choose their own format for assignments, instilling the value of the concepts and describing the expectancies may motivate the students. The social cognitive theory of motivation involves goal setting in the presence of values, and expectancies. If you think you could attain the goal, and it was important for you, you would be motivated to pursue the process. The attribution theory explains how some individuals blame an external factor for their failure – like bad luck. These persons believe that the outcome is independent of the effort and therefore are not motivated. Loci of control is the central factor in this theory. Weiner added another aspect to this; stable or unstable. Effort from an individual could be unstable because it may depend on the environment. This is an important to consider while giving feedback to students with learning disabilities like ADHD who do not claim their failures. You may need to build their confidence and praise their effort and guide them to succeed. Since the classroom is a diverse atmosphere, it is also important to remember not to tolerate unacceptable behavior, while attributing it to the person’s background or personality (Attribution Error). Goal theory differentiates between learning goals that bare task oriented and performance goals that are ability-based goals. Students who focus on the learning goals can develop self-efficacy that helps with long term success. These individuals have a growth mindset and are capable of intrinsically motivating themselves. Students who are competitive and focus on the performance have a fixed mindset and are unable to motivate due to attributions. Goal framing could help with such students- this helps to see the goals in terms of “mastery” for the sake of “competence”. Offering study tips and strategies and time management will help these students develop self-efficacy that they lack. Are you ready to find some luck? Come and find it with me….
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Dr. Parvati IyerI am a passionate, inquisitive dental educator, striving for excellence. My goal is to be inclusive in the classroom, incorporate multimodal teaching and learning strategies to increase active learning. |