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From the article, "Teaching Learners to be Self-Directed"
available at: http://www.longleaf.net/ggrow |
Motivating learners with different degrees of self-direction |
Works on motivation tend to assume
that all students are alike and are thus motivated by the same
things. Many teaching strategies presume that students require
external motivation. Fundamental to this paper is the understanding that students learn differently, depending on the degree of responsibility they are ready to take for their learning. Students with different degrees of self-direction find different things motivating. In the supplementary sections on motivation for S1 - S4 learners, I have adapted material from three significant works on motivation by Ames & Ames, Keller, and Wlodkowski (citations at end). These deal mainly with elementary, college, and adult learners, respectively. Where a concept was taken directly from one of these authors, it is identified by (A), (K), or (W). The author's additions are identified by (G). You will notice that, as the students' degree of self-direction increases, it becomes more and more difficult to find suggestions on how to motivate them. This is natural: Self-directed learners need less external motivation and may even respond less well to it. |
| Citations |
(A) Ames, Russell, & Ames, Carole. (1991). "Motivation
and Effective Teaching," in Lorna Idol & Beau Fly Jones
(Eds.) Educational Values and Cognitive Instruction: Implications
for Reform. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, pp. 247-270. |