6+Factors+Affecting+Motivation

There are six factors that affect motivation in adult learners (Wlodkowski, 1985). As instructors, we need to be familiar with each one and even make changes to our style of teaching when we find it necessary to help motivate a student.

**Attitude**: the predisposition to respond fairly or unfairly to a person, place, idea, object or event. Attitudes help people make sense of the world and provide cues for appropriate behaviour. However, attitudes are not fixed things and can be changed through learning new things or having new experiences. Instructors of adult learners need to be flexible when teaching because a group of adults has a wider range of attitude than a group of children.

**Need**: an internal force (that creates tension and desire) that leads to formation of goal. Abraham Maslow proposed a psychological theory based on a hierarchy of needs that human beings must satisfy ([|Maslow's hierarchy of needs, 2011]). At the most basic level are the needs for air, water, food, clothing and shelter. These physiological needs, along with personal safely needs, must be met before humans can move on to the higher-order needs like esteem and self-actualization. As instructors, we need to recognize that the basic needs must be met before our students can form the desire to learn. We can help them by intensifying that desire once it is present.

**Stimulation**: something that happens in the environment to make us more active (e.g. listen or look more carefully). Stimuli in the environment get our attention and keep us involved in what's happening. Brain activity increases and we can sustain learning behaviour. However, when there is a lack of stimulation, we can experiment boredom and fatigue which leads to distraction and a decrease in learning. Over time, a lack of stimulation can lead to abnormal growth and psychological health. Therefore, as instructors, we need to make our learning environments stimulating places for students - requiring them to be always alert for changes.

**Affect**: emotion. Learning is influenced by the emotional experience that happens during the learning process. Intense positive emotional feelings lead to the strongest student involvement and interest. Emotion can also affect the way a student thinks and the decisions that they make. As instructors, we should want our classroom to be associated with positive emotion (excitement, curiosity, surprise) to foster positive learning behaviour and retention.

**Competence**: humans want to become better at doing something. When learners sense progress and achievement, they are motivated to continue learning. Competence leads to confidence in the skill, which makes the learner more motivated to learn more and achieve more mastery, which in turn leads to more confidence. A positive upward spiral of achievement and motivation. Instructors can work to create a classroom that encourages competence.

**Reinforcement**: something that increases the preceding response. Reinforcement can be positive or negative. In general, positive reinforcement is used in classrooms with negative reinforcement being considered to have a diminishing effect on learning behaviour. Positive reinforcements can include social approval, attention, money, prizes and praise. However, as we are learning, praise is not necessarily the best way to ensure future positive learning behaviour.