Item 3 - Glasser & Maslow - student motivation

Passionate, creative teachers = students who WANT to learn.

A motivated student = belief in the intrinsic value of learning.

According to Glasser and Maslow, fulfilling the needs of the student is what it all comes down too.

GLASSER...

...believes that student motivation, and indeed ability to learn, is based on satisfying the following five requirements for effective learning (which he also explores in Choice Therapy);

• survival
• love/belonging
• power
• freedom
• fun

In Control Theory in the Classroom (1986) and The Quality School (1990) Glasser suggests that for a person to succeed at life in general, they must have an initial experience of success in an important aspect of their life.

For the majority of people this initial success would be school related - specifically academic, or though many schools now acknowledge and reward different sporting, community, art and social achievements as well. Glasser argues that traditionally success (specifically academic success) in school was determined by comparative grading and suggests that this system, which only allows a minority of students to achieve A's and B's, effects feelings of successfulness in the majority of students who fail to recieve higher than average grades. According to Covington (1985) 'the self-worth of the remaining students (who may be quite capable) suffers, which depresses their motivation to achieve on subsequent classroom tasks'.

NSW schools have switched to outcomes based assessement which helps to promote self confidence and esteem in a more considered and practical way than past programs. The student can now see which outcomes he/she did not meet and work toward that goal, thereby recognising a personal achievement. This is in stark contrast to the numerically based system of old.

School should be a place that satisfies all of Glasser's five requirements for effective learning because school should be about the development of the whole person not simply about that person's academic ability. There are, so far, nine different types of intelligence. Why then should we, as teachers, ONLY acknowledge and cater for the high achieving academic student. By acknowleding individual differences and allowing for creative expression we are able to foster self efficacy and increase the self esteem of our students. As a student, having the support to discover your talent and the self confidence to achieve is certainly a lesson worth learning and according to Glasser one that is often left unmotivated because often too much emphasis is placed on academic ability alone.

MASLOW...

...believes meaningful learning occurs based on a physiological and psychological heirarchy of needs - he stresses the importance of meeting basic needs before embarking towards the pinacle of self actualisation.

I find Maslow to be more structured than Glasser. Glasser seems to suggest that his five requirements for effective learning are altogether collectively and simlutaneously essential in the effective development and motivatation of student learning. Maslow on the other hand suggests that one stage cannot be met without the stages beneath being satisfied. Maslow's theory takes the form of a pyramid because he considers the first and most basic need is also the greatest. The aim is for the student to develop towards self actualisation. While Maslow's structure makes more sense to me personally, I see the value in Glasser's theory because he seems more in touch with the idea of educating the whole person. The sum of the parts don't necessarily make up the whole - so it is with trying to psychologically deconstruct a person. We only come in 'wholes'.

The journey towards self actualisation shows there is a vast difference between learning because you HAVE to and learning because you WANT to. Maslow argues the importance of making learning relative. As teachers we have to find within ourselves the creativity and inspiration to convey a genuine passion for our subject and inspire our students to WANT to learn. It is not just our subject that will inspire a student it is the way we, as teachers teach them to learn, as well as a whole range of other factors in a students life that also act as important contributers. As teachers we must continually reassess how we relate to our students. By continuing to redefine our expectations and attitudes towards each student we can help them to become well rounded, self actualising individuals.

References:

Classroom Discipline & Management (an australian perspective) CH Edwards & V Watts Wiley

Education Psychology (Constructing Learning) McInerney & McInerney Pearson Education Australia

http://college.hmco.com/education/pbl/tc/motivate.html

Control Theory in the Classroom (1986) and The Quality School (1990)