Ability & Motivation

" Children cannot be fooled by empty praise and condescending encouragement. They may have to accept artificial bolstering of their self-esteem in lieu of something better, but what I call their accruing ego identity gains real strength only from wholehearted and consistent recognition of real accomplishment, that is, achievement that has meaning in their culture." Erik Erikson

The belief in one's capabilities motivates people to learn quickly and in turn prepares them for success. As a teacher I understand how very important it is for students to come to the classroom everyday knowing their abilities and trying their best every single day. A few startergies to develop, encourage and strengthen self-efficacy is to establish attainable goals and feedback from time to time, rewards and self-instruction for verbalization of startergies and participant modeling. Once a student has learn to accept himself not only will he be able to set goals but also achieve them which in tuern will increase his self worth! Teaching children not to be afraid to take risk and learn from their mistakes will help children be motivated and take ownership in their learning and in turn lead to higher performance.

"The only real failure in life is the failure to try.”

Motivation is a desire to achieve a goal, combined with the energy to work towards that goal. Students who are motivated have a desire to undertake their study and complete the requirements of their course.

Then why do so many students feel so de-motivated to accomplish a task?

This brings us to the Attribution Theory which is a cognitive theory that considers a person's attitude about causes of results and how these results influece prospects and performance for the future. Causes of results include the following factors:

• Ability
• Effort
• Task difficulty
• Stratergies
• Luck

This can help us as teachers to explain success and failure in the classroom and can help us foresee the expectancies held by students and develop an approach plan for intervention when needed.

Introduction

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it!

Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!" - Goethe

I never imagined that I would one day have my own blog but here it is and I am really excited and looking forward to use this tool throughout this course and later. I love learning and trying new things and am definitely interested in learning more about engaging and motivating all types of learners in the classroom.