Motivation and Learning Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Intrinsic motivation is motivation driven by personal interest or enjoyment of the task.

Intrinsically motivated learners do a task because they find it interesting, satisfying or enjoyable in itself. This kind of motivation tends to produce deeper learning and longer persistence.

The other three are forms of extrinsic motivation, where the reason for acting lies outside the task: external rewards, winning against others, and gaining others' appreciation or praise.

Answer: D

Motivation grows in an environment of (a) belongingness and (d) safety.

Children are more willing to try, ask questions and make mistakes when they feel they belong to the class and are physically and emotionally safe. Maslow's hierarchy places safety and belonging below higher needs such as esteem and self-actualisation, so learners whose basic needs are met are free to focus on learning.

Fear and rejection lower motivation: they lead to anxiety, withdrawal and avoidance of challenge. Every option containing (b) or (c) is therefore wrong.

Answer: A

Students' motivation should mainly be focused to understand and appreciate the process of learning.

This is intrinsic, mastery-oriented motivation: learners study because they want to understand and improve, and they value the process, including mistakes. Such motivation lasts longer and leads to deeper learning than motivation tied to external judgments.

The other three are performance-oriented or fear-based motives. Proving one's worth to others and avoiding the shame of appearing ignorant make learners anxious and unwilling to take risks, and constant competition turns learning into a contest that discourages cooperation.

Answer: B

Motivation to learn can be sustained by focusing on mastery-oriented goals.

A mastery (learning) goal is aimed at understanding and improving one's own competence rather than outperforming others. Learners with mastery goals see mistakes as part of learning, persist after difficulty and enjoy challenge, so their motivation lasts.

Punishment produces fear and avoidance rather than a wish to learn. Very easy tasks give no sense of achievement and soon become boring. Rote memorisation without understanding gives little reason to stay interested.

Answer: A

The belief that is good for learning is that ability is improvable.

This is what Carol Dweck calls a growth mindset, or an incremental view of ability. Learners who believe ability grows with effort and good strategies take on challenges, persist after setbacks and treat mistakes as information, so they learn more.

The other beliefs make up a fixed mindset. If ability is fixed, effort seems pointless; if efforts make no difference, there is no reason to try; and if failure is uncontrollable, the learner feels helpless. Each leads to avoiding challenge and giving up.

Answer: A

An effective motivational strategy is providing scaffolding, especially when students learn a new skill.

Scaffolding gives just enough support for a learner to succeed at a task she could not yet do alone, then withdraws as she gains skill. Success with support builds a sense of competence, which sustains motivation to keep learning.

The other options weaken motivation. Stressing completion over learning makes work a chore to finish. Tasks that are very easy give no sense of achievement and soon bore students. Heavy competition motivates the few who expect to win and discourages the rest.

Answer: C

The answer is internal attribution for failure as well as success.

In Weiner's attribution theory, what learners believe caused their results shapes their future effort. Attributing success to internal causes such as effort and ability builds confidence, and attributing failure to an internal, controllable cause, mainly insufficient effort, makes the learner believe that trying harder will change the result, which leads to persistence.

Blaming failure on external factors such as luck or a hard test protects self-esteem but gives no reason to try harder, and external attributions for success make the learner feel success is out of his hands.

Answer: B

Sujata is Extrinsically motivated.

She takes part only to win the cash prize, a reward outside the activity itself. Extrinsic motivation is doing something for an external outcome such as money, marks, praise or avoiding punishment.

An intrinsically motivated child would dance because she enjoys dancing. A mastery-oriented learner focuses on improving her own skill, and a failure-avoiding learner acts mainly to avoid looking incompetent, neither of which matches a child driven only by the prize.

Answer: B

A mastery goal orientation means a focus on improving ones' skills and understanding of a task.

Learners with mastery (learning) goals want to understand and become more competent. They judge success against their own progress, persist after setbacks and see mistakes as part of learning.

Competing with others describes a performance-approach goal, working for grades or rewards is extrinsic motivation, and avoiding failure for fear of humiliation is a performance-avoidance goal.

Answer: A

Students should be encouraged to set learning goals rather than performance goals.

Learning (mastery) goals focus on understanding and improving one's competence. Students with such goals choose challenging tasks, persist after setbacks and see mistakes as part of learning. Performance goals focus on looking able and outperforming others, which leads students to avoid challenges in case they fail.

The reverse order is wrong for the same reason. Failure-avoiding and marks-seeking goals are both forms of performance orientation, so neither should be encouraged over the other.