In: Psychology
Beginning teachers have been identified as using four basic types of motivational strategies: (1) rewards/punishments, (2) building confidence, (3) focusing attention, and (4) emphasizing relevance. Differentiate between each strategy in terms of orientation (what they involve) and frequency of use. Which strategies do you believe would be the most and the least effective for focusing attention on tasks? Explain your answers.
Rewards or punishments are part of the behavioral motivation type and the source of motivation is an intrinsic one. They are associated with the learning behavior of a student. Focusing attention is a part of the cognitive motivation type and the source of motivation is an intrinsic one. They are associated with the pace and interest of learning in students. Building confidence is a part of the humanistic motivation type and the source of motivation is an intrinsic one. This is strongly associated with the self-confidence factor of a student. Emphasizing relevance is a socio-cognitive motivation type whose source is both intrinsic and extrinsic. The importance of a topic for study to the student is the one that is involved here.
Here the most frequently used one is the reward/punishment method where learning behavior is seen as the basic one to be achieved first by a student and is used more frequently by all beginning teachers. The least frequently used one is the focussing attention one where research works have shown that every student loses focus on the subject being taught once in every 15 to 20 minutes.
A most effective strategy in focussing attention on tasks would be reward/ punishment system as motivation to get more reward and avoid punishment will make a student focus attention on tasks, The least effective one is the building of self-confidence in a student which does not play many roles with respect to focusing attention on tasks