Recommendations for cultivating learner motivation (online activity 3.3)

After reading a wide range of literature in module 3 about motivational strategies, I have come to realise that there are many factors that impact on cultivating student motivation. Based on what I have read, I propose the following recommendations for cultivating student motivation. These include; understanding teachers' pedagogical approaches, fostering learners' self regulation skills, and purposeful programme design and supports.

Understanding Pedagogical Approaches 

Bonk & Khoo (2014) highlight many strategies teachers use to motivate learners aligned with particular pedagogical approaches and learning views. These include behaviourism, cognitivism, constructivism and socio-cultural views. Behaviourism pedagogy involves the teacher emitting knowledge to the student and providing instant feedback and rewards for successful learning achievement. Cognitivism entails the teacher breaking learning into manageable chunks, supporting students cognitive processing - recognising that students learn using different modes. Constructivism involves the teacher guiding students towards learning outcomes through learning experiences that are authentic, problem based, elicit prior knowledge, and are based on learners' interests. Socio-cultural motivated learning involves the teacher developing learner centred relationships, promoting culturally responsive and collaborative learning experiences. Socio-cultural and constructivist learning views promote active and self regulated learning (Hartnett, 2019).

Fostering Learners' Self Regulation Skills

Self regulated learning is identified by many educational researchers as being essential to learners who are intrinsically motivated and are successful life long learners (Choo & Heron, 2015; Huh & Reigeluth, 2018; Hartnett, 2019). Intrinsic motivation is especially important for students who are studying predominantly online (Hartnett, 2019), but this has also been an important factor in successful learning in blended environments (Howard et al., 2016). According to Choo & Heron (2015), self regulated learners who effectively manage their learning process, possess the skills to: set goals, plan ahead, monitor their progress, reflect on learning, manage their time & persevere with challenges. Huh & Reigeluth (2018) state that younger learners find it difficult to develop SRL skills, and require teachers to provide opportunities to develop these over time.

Purposeful Programme Design and Supports

In a blended learning environment, it is important to incorporate a combination of pedagogical approaches depending on the learning outcomes when designing learning programmes. Paris & Paris (2001) suggest that self regulated learning can be fostered in the classroom in three ways including: indirectly through authentic experiences (personally or through observation of others), directly through explicit instruction (purposefully planned & modelled by the teacher), or through elicited practice (through incorporating tasks such as goal setting or planning into learning project steps). In a blended learning environment, students' ICT skills also need to be catered for in order to promote and maintain student motivation and engagement (Howard et al., 2016). Research conducted by Howard et al. (2016), discovered a correlation between student achievement, ICT skills and their engagement in learning. They recommend that teachers purposefully design technologically integrated learning tasks where students experience successful learning to increase their confidence in a blended learning environment.

References:

Bonk, C. J., & Khoo, E. L. (2014). Online motivation from four perspectives. Adding some TEC-VARIETY : 100+ Activities for Motivating and Retaining Learners Online. Open World Books.

Cho, M.-H., & Heron, M. L. (2015). Self-regulated learning: The role of motivation, emotion, and use of learning strategies in students’ learning experiences in a self-paced online mathematics course. Distance Education, 36(1), 80-99. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2015.1019963

Hartnett, M. (2019). Motivation in distance education. In M. G. Moore & W. Diehl, C. (Eds.), Handbook of Distance Education (4th ed., pp. 145-157). Routledge.

Howard, S. K., Ma, J., & Yang, J. (2016). Student rules: Exploring patterns of students’ computer-efficacy and engagement with digital technologies in learning. Computers & Education, 101, 29-42. doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2016.05.008

Huh, Y., & Reigeluth, C. M. (2018). Online K-12 teachers’ perceptions and practices of supporting self-regulated learning. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 55(8), 1129-1153.

Paris, S. G., & Paris, A. H. (2001). Classroom applications of research on self-regulated learning. Educational Psychologist, 36(2), 89-101.