Motivation

11. Authentic activities provide motivational factors

One crucial factor in education is motivation. Strobel, Wang, Weber and Dyehouse (2013) argue that learners are motivated if the experience is authentic, meaningful and connected to their own real world understanding. Ur (1996), similarly, describes motivated learner as the one “who is willing or even eager to invest effort in learning activities and to progress” (p. 274). Therefore, taking motivational factors into consideration and making learning meaningful and connected to real world is a crucial element in education (Abuhamdeh & Csikszentmihalyi, 2012; Alias, 2012; Parsons & Ward, 2011).

Motivation can be achieved through

      • providing a challenge that is tied to a goal

      • giving students a challenge appropriate at the level of their expertise (ZPD)

      • targeting an authentic problem and audience

      • involving students in a problem solving process that is (socially) significant for them

      • providing freedom, control and ownership over the problem and the process to solve it

      • giving students real world tasks (rather than "read the text and answer the following questions") with authentic roles

      • providing freedom and control over the problem solving process

      • publishing student work

and alike.

Suggested sources for further reading on this item:

Abuhamdeh, S., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2012). The importance of challenge for the enjoyment of intrinsically motivated, goal-directed activities. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38(3), 317-330.

Alias, N. A. (2012). Design of a motivational scaffold for the Malaysian e-learning environment. Educational Technology & Society, 15(1), 137-151.

Ellis, R. (1997). Second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Harmer, J. (2007). how to teach english (new edition ed.). Malaysia: Pearson Education Limited.

Larsen-Freeman, D. (2003). Teaching language: from grammar to grammaring. Heinle: Cengage Learning.

Jonassen, D. (1999). Designing constructivist learning environments. In C. M. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional-design theories and models (Vol. 2, pp. 215-239). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlabaun Associates Inc.

Mayer, R. E. (1998). Cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational aspects of problem solving. Instructional Science, 26(1), 49-63. doi: 10.1023/a:1003088013286

Moursund, D. (2003). Project-based learning using information technology (second ed.). Washington: ISTE.

Parsons, S. A., & Ward, A. E. (2011). The case for authentic tasks in content literacy. The Reading Teacher, 64(6), 462-465.

Strobel, J., Wang, J., Weber, N. R., & Dyehouse, M. (2013). The role of authenticity in design-based learning environments: The case of engineering education. Computers & Education, 64(0), 143-152.

Woolf, N., & Quinn, J. (2009). Learners’ perceptions of instructional design practice in a situated learning activity. Educational Technology Research and Development, 57(1), 25-43.