The purpose and importance of motivation should be clearly understand by the teacher. The fundamental aim of motivation is to stimulate and to facilitate learning activity. Learning is an active process that needs to be motivated and guided toward desirable ends.
Learning is self-initiated, but it must be aided by motives so that the learner will persist in the learning activity. A definite motive is valuable in all work, as motives makes for readiness. The greater the attention given to the work on hand and the sooner will the desired result be achieved.
It is important to attempt to get the learner into a state of readiness for it increases the alertness, vigor and wholeheartedness of learning. In trying to achieve some end, the more acute the readiness, the more satisfying the reaction. The activities which are futile become annoying.
One sure means of putting the law of effect into operation is to assist the learner to achieve ends and purposes which he is jealous to attain. The real problem in motivating schoolwork is to discover values strong enough to stimuulate the pupils to effective effort.
The value that appeals strongly to one individual may have little or no appeal to another individual. Moreover, the value that appeal strongly to one individual at one time may not appeal so strongly at another time.
The teacher must be continually on the alert to perceive these differences and fluctuations. Since all learners do not react similarly, the motivation of learning must be varied for different individuals. An understanding of the nature of motivation is important, because motivation determines not only the intensity of the efforts to learn, but also the extent to which this effort is made an activity of the total personality.
Motivation of learning activities helps the pupils to concentrate on what he is doing and thereby to gain satisfaction. Continuous motivation is needed to be learned. The importance of motivation in its simplest form is seen in the experiments made in the way animals and human beings learn.
In human learning, the motives that are applied most often are the impulse to mastery and the desire for social approval. As shown by experiments, the impulse to mastery motive can be utilized in directing the learning process by the use of the teacher’s marks, scores in objective tests, and the graphic records of progress.
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