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8Humanistic Education and Motivation

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Learning Objectives

After studying this chapter you will be able to:

ሁ Explain how humanism differs from other approaches. ሁ Describe the human potential movement. ሁ Describe what a learning-styles–driven school might look like. ሁ Summarize Maslow’s theory of motivation. ሁ Define arousal theory, and explain its educational implications. ሁ Define self-regulated learning.

There is surely a piece of divinity in us, something that was before the elements, and owes no homage unto the sun.

—Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici

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Pretest

Determine if the following statements are true or false.

1. Most students see school as competitive. (T/F) 2. Maslow defined the Jonah complex as deliberately avoiding the effort required for per-

sonal growth and development. (T/F) 3. Students’ overexcitement tends to be more of a problem in classrooms than is boredom.

(T/F) 4. Our judgments of self-efficacy are determined by task importance. (T/F) 5. Locus of control is the belief that intelligence is fixed and cannot be changed. (T/F)

Answers can be found at the end of the chapter.

Introduction Humanists object to what they see as the mechanistic, highly limited, and dehumanizing emphases of traditional approaches to psychology and education. Approaches such as behav- iorism, they argue, pay too little attention to the healthy and positive aspects of human nature and growth. Humanistic education urges the adoption of new attitudes and new approaches. In this chapter we describe the fundamental characteristics of humanistic approaches to understanding people and to teaching. We look, as well, at one of the most important factors in student achievement: motivation.

As a budding psychologist, when I came back from college I brought great armloads of explanations home to my grandmother, like chunks of firewood to stoke her fires and inflame her imagination. Because she wanted to know, I told her with stunning behavioristic clarity why pigs lie in their muddy wallows on hot summer days and why chickens crow in the morning and roost at night. I explained to her why cows always go into the same stall and why horses stand with their backs to a storm.

“Bah!” harrumphed my grandmother, refusing to see the magic in my expla- nations. “I personally know pigs that don’t care to wallow in mud, chickens that never roost or crow, cows that park their arses wherever, and horses so contrary they’ll face whichever way they bloody please.”

8.1 Humanistic Psychology My grandmother was a humanist.

Humanistic psychology is concerned with the uniqueness, the individuality, the humanity of each person. Humanism is based on the fundamental observation that, although we might resemble each other in many important ways, each of us is quite different from every other. Our uniqueness is our “self.” And self is the most central concept in humanistic psychology.

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Humanistic psychology has its roots in philosophy—especially in the existential philosophy of writers like Jean-Paul Sartre. These philosophers wondered about the nature and purpose of humanity and of human existence (hence the label existentialism). They were profoundly concerned about what it means to be human and how humanity grows and expresses itself in each individual (Lefrançois, 2014).

Humanism Versus Other Views in Psychology These, too, are the concerns of humanistic psychology. This explains why humanists have not always been happy with the preoccupations of science. Science, humanists insist, tends to dehumanize people. It reduces them to averages and generalizations. It looks for what is com- mon and predictable and it ignores that which is private and individual and uniquely human.

Humanism as a movement in psychology and education arose primarily as a reaction against the limitations of Freudian psychodynamic theories and against what was seen as the mecha- nistic, quasi-robotic view of humans sometimes presented by behaviorism. Abraham Maslow (1998) referred to psychodynamic theories and to behaviorism as the first two forces in psy- chology. Accordingly, he labeled the humanistic movement third-force psychology. His hope was that this third force would become as important in psychology as the first two forces currently were.

In a nutshell, what humanists object to is what they see as the technological orientation of approaches such as behaviorism. In its most extreme form, this technological orientation asserts that certain identifiable teaching processes, when used with such-and-such a type of student for such-and-such a kind of content, will predictably result in the attainment of specific, previously identified, and clearly intended objectives. Humanists object strongly to this process–product orientation. As Allender and Allender (2008) observe, they see this as focusing too strongly on techniques that “should” be practiced by teachers and placing far too much emphasis on the measurable outcomes of the teaching-learning process, especially in terms of gains on standardized tests.

The Humanistic Teacher The humanistic view emphasizes two things: the uniqueness of the pupil, and the teacher’s attitudes toward students. Hence, humanistic teachers are especially sensitive to diversity in their classrooms. Humanistic teachers respect and try to enhance the history, culture, and different perspectives of individual students. The preparation of teachers, humanists argue, should pay more attention to teachers’ beliefs and attitudes and less to subject matter and instructional strategies (Mule, 2010). If teaching is both an art and a science, humanists are more on the side of art and behaviorists more on the side of science.

But some cautions are appropriate before we rush forward to describe what the humanists have to say about the art of teaching: First, keep in mind that most educators do not fall neatly into the humanist, the behaviorist, or the cognitive camp. Most are quite eclectic; they borrow from here and there. Also, in this chapter we stretch the truth on two counts: We exaggerate the differences between humanism and other approaches—especially behaviorism; and we pretend that all that is not clearly humanistic is, by default, behavioristic.

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Humanism in the Classroom Humanists present a strong plea for student-centered teaching—an approach that gives students a far more important role in curriculum decisions than has traditionally been the case. They argue that teachers should be learning facilitators rather than the principal source of information and that, to be successful as learning facilitators, they must be trained to be sensitive, caring, genuine, and empathetic.

Not surprisingly, humanistic approaches to education emphasize healthy social and per- sonal development and also de-emphasize rigorous, performance-oriented, test-dominated approaches to subject matter. They strongly advocate providing students with experiences of success rather than failure; their orientation is toward discovery approaches (constructiv- ism) rather than reception learning (direct instruction). As Allender and Allender (2008) put it, “Many of the educational environments with which we live are restrictive and discourag- ing, demanding that we teach in ways we swore we would never teach. The culture of testing undermines our sense of ourselves as teachers and parents, for we participate in the judging of our children by standards set by folks who do not know our children” (p. 3).

The humanistic view of human functioning accepts individuals for who they are, respects their feelings and aspirations, and believes that every person has the right to self-determination. But child-centered schools are not concerned solely with the emotional and personal devel- opment of the child—although it sometimes seems that way, partly because their emphasis is on affective growth and partly because this aspect of the humanistic movement has been exaggerated as a reaction against more rigorous approaches. Most humanistic programs are responsive to the important requirements of curricula. After all, even the most self-actualized individuals still need to know how to read, write, and name the major capitals of Europe. In fact, becoming self-actualized—that is, becoming all that one can and should be—may well depend on both knowledge of the three Rs (Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic) and the wealth of cognitive and metacognitive strategies that the cognitive instructional sciences use to build their teaching programs. Clearly, cognitive concerns can also be part of a thoughtful, human- istic approach to teaching.

Emphases of Humanistic Education The concerns and goals of humanistic education and those of more traditional schools are entirely compatible. All schools are concerned with the current and future welfare of students; all recognize the worth and the rights of the individual; all pay lip service to such human and humane values as openness, honesty, selflessness, and altruism.

But the emphases of humanistic approaches are incompatible with the pressures of over- crowded classrooms, the regimentation and anonymity of bureaucratic educational systems, and the fierce competition for academic success. Rather, humanistic approaches strive for meaningful communication, the exploration of values, and the development of affect and of self. The challenge for the humanistic teacher is to remain true to these ideals in the context of a traditional classroom situation and in the face of increasing demands for teacher account- ability coupled with test-driven evaluation.

Humanistic approaches to education are highly varied, but, as Kazanjian and Choi (2016) explain, they share some common emphases: greater attention to thinking and feeling than

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is common in more traditional approaches to learning; efforts directed toward developing notions of self and individual identity; more concern with interpersonal communication and social interaction; and the recognition and development of personal values. Students are encouraged to know themselves and express themselves, to strive toward feelings of self- identity, and to realize their potential. Note how, in the classroom case “What’s in a Name?”, Mrs. Gupta uses a very simple, highly involving strategy that not only teaches these neophytes their letters but also makes them proud of their names—of their selves (see Table 8.1).

Table 8.1: Common emphases of humanistic approaches to education

Emphasis Practical implication

1. Affect School places much greater emphasis on feeling and thinking and less on the acquisition of information.

2. Self-concept One of the most important educational goals is the development of positive self- concepts in children.

3. Communication Teachers pay particular attention to the development of human relationships and honest interpersonal communication.

4. Personal values Schools recognize the importance of personal values and character education, and try to facilitate the development of positive values and high moral standards.

C A S E S F R O M T H E C L A S S R O O M : W H A T ’ S I N A N A M E ? The Place: Mrs. Gupta’s kindergarten class

The Situation: “Special person day!”

The children have settled on the carpet, ready to welcome today’s “special person.” In this class, this is a rotating privilege.

Mrs. Gupta: Today, you’re the special person, Jennifer!

Jennifer, smiling from ear to ear, takes the pointer, walks to the front of the room, and points to the big “J” on the smartboard.

Jennifer: Give me a “J!”

Class: “J.” “J.” The chorus echoes through the room.

Jennifer: Give me an “E!”

Another chorus as the pointer moves. Now an “N,” another “N” and on, and on, finally to the “R.”

Jennifer: And what do we have?

Loud class chorus and clapping: Jennifer! Jennifer!

Man, it feels good to be Jennifer today.

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The four humanistic emphases—affect, self-development, communication, and values—lend themselves to certain instructional methods more readily than the more traditional empha- ses on mastery of academic content, good citizenship, and good sportsmanship do. Thus, group approaches are common instructional approaches in humanistic education. In groups, students can be encouraged to express their feelings more openly, to clarify their emotions, to explore interpersonal relationships, and to articulate their personal value systems. Various communication games can enhance the genuineness and openness of interpersonal relation- ships. Role-playing games also offer a way to explore emotions and human relationships.

Perhaps the most important contribution that humanistic concerns can make to teachers’ preparation is in the realm of attitudes rather than methods. Humanistic educators strive toward a truly caring attitude, toward open and effective communication, and toward genu- ineness, empathy, and warmth.

But these are vague terms, and vagueness is not what we need; we need examples and methods. Because no matter how appealing and convincing the arguments for humanizing the teaching– learning process, if they leave us short of methods and strategies, we may ignore them.

Humanistic Programs The experience of going to school is not a happy and effective one for all children: Schools and children don’t always fit together very well. Various cultures react differently to this occa- sional poor fit. The Japanese culture, claim Hess and Azuma (1991), is most likely to require that students change to conform to the demands of the system. In contrast, North American cultures are more likely to try to make changes in the system to conform to the needs and wishes of students.

In spite of this, most classrooms in North America are what we might term traditional, yet there are several alternatives to traditional education.

Holistic Education One alternative is holistic education, a profoundly humanistic reaction against traditional education. It’s an educational orientation that attempts to integrate the affective and cogni- tive aspects of teaching and learning. By definition, holistic education is aimed at teaching the whole person. It rejects approaches that limit learning to intellectual matters and to training students to compete in the real world (Inglar, 2014).

Because traditional education is so clearly directed toward cognitive matters, holistic educa- tion has tended to emphasize the affective aspects of education. It is identifiable primarily in terms of its major emphases and attitudes rather than in terms of any specific teaching methods. Among the most important of these attitudes are the following (Shapiro, 1998, pp. 11–13; Miller, 2006):

1. A process orientation: The “what” of learning (that is, the outcomes of learning) is seen as far less important than the “how.” Students are encouraged to think and talk about how they feel and about the processes by which they learn.

2. Emphasis on self-determination: Autonomy, self-direction, and self-evaluation replace teacher-directed learning and evaluation.

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3. Affective bias: Feelings and personal experience are given preference over abstract, objective, impersonal approaches.

4. Encouragement of innovation: Holistic education tends to be anti-authoritarian. It is directed toward change.

5. Personal growth: The emphasis is on the development of each individual, rather than on the mastery of subject matter.

6. Individualism: Holistic education stresses the uniqueness and self-determination of each person.

Notice that each of these emphases is a clear reflection of the most important of humanism’s concerns. In a nutshell, humanism recognizes and encourages the fullest possible develop- ment of human potential. Not surprisingly, holistic education describes itself as an important methodology in the human potential movement—a counterculture movement that origi- nated in the 1960s and that was directed toward cultivating untapped human potential. As we will see shortly, the theories of Abraham Maslow strongly influenced this movement.

Teaching Values When teachers, both in training and in practice, were asked whether they thought values should be taught in schools, a convincing 95 percent of them said, unequivocally, “yes” (Zern, 1997). Why? Because values, after all, are what we think highly—or less highly—of. Values determine what we value. If we value wealth, we behave so as to acquire it; if we value human life, we behave so as to preserve it. And if we don’t value the world in which we live, we take little care of it.

Yet the systematic teaching of values in schools remains a relatively rare and highly contro- versial matter. Many remain convinced that homes (and places of worship) should be respon- sible for imparting values and that schools should teach subject matter. Humanists—and many others who don’t see themselves as humanists—don’t agree.

But whether you deliberately teach values in your classes, you will, at the very least, reflect adherence to some fundamental beliefs about right and wrong. And about the most basic of these beliefs, most of us find little disagreement. When Zern (1997) asked teachers what values should be taught in schools, 75 percent or more agreed that responsibility, respect, honesty, caring, trustworthiness, and justice and fairness should be among the values taught (see Figure 8.1). And fully 96 percent thought teachers should be role models for these values.

One way of imparting values, humanistic education suggests, is through the establishment of a classroom climate that embodies those values. As Ozolins (2010) argues, schools have the responsibility of developing a habitat—that is, a moral environment or ecology—in which positive values flourish. As an aid to developing this sort of habitat, a number of values edu- cation programs have been designed to teach values in schools. Such programs are common in many private schools and are often part of religious education programs (Pike, 2010). Other programs, termed values clarification programs, are designed not so much to impart values as to encourage students to actively reflect on what they think and believe about specific mat- ters of morality and ethics. Values training programs are often part of physical education and sports classes (Koh, Ong, & Camiré, 2016).

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The most common techniques used for teaching values include discussing moral dilemmas and evaluating the ethical implications of behavior; role-playing situations involving moral issues; modeling procedures; and direct teaching. In addition, programs in conflict manage- ment can be used to teach children different ways to resolve conflicts—for example, negoti- ating, compromising, taking turns, explaining, listening, apologizing, soliciting intervention, using humor, and invoking chance (for example, flipping a coin). (See Chapter 9 for more information on what is sometimes called character education.)

Open Education Several decades ago, a phenomenon called open education, or the open classroom, became something of a fad in North America. The open classroom differs from the traditional class- room in several ways. First, its principal goals are clearly humanistic—specifically, individual growth, critical thinking, self-reliance, cooperation, and a commitment to lifelong learning. Second, in open education, the most important person is the student, not the teacher. And third, the open classroom does not typically adhere to the same curriculum-bound, age- locked, grade-locked system that typifies the traditional school; it is far less formal.

Figure 8.1: Values teachers believe should be taught in the classroom

ሁ Zern’s research showed that an overwhelming percentage of teachers who participated in the study felt that basic values like responsibility, respect, and honesty should be taught in the classroom.

Source: Based on D. Zern (1997). The attitudes of present and future teachers about the teaching of values (in general) and of certain values (in particular). Journal of Genetic Psychology, 158(4), 505–507.

Specific values

Pro-choice positions

Tolerance for homosexuality

Value of religious diversity

Pro-life positions

Trustworthiness

Caring

Justice and fairness

Honesty

Respect

Responsibility

Percentage 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

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Open education was a reaction against what seemed a highly restrictive educational environ- ment—one where children are arbitrarily divided into groups according to their birthdates, where they are placed in the charge of a single adult, and where attempts are made to moti- vate them to learn by grading them and comparing them with other similarly graded learn- ers. In contrast, open education sought to tear down walls—literally and figuratively. Thus, through the 1970s, a number of schools were built without interior walls so that there would be no sorting of children into classes according to age. In many of these open schools, parents became enthusiastic participants, teachers collaborated with each other in their instructional tasks, and children learned to cooperate in their learning tasks.

Although some studies of the effectiveness of open education found that it often developed students who were more independent and more creative, in many cases children didn’t achieve quite as well on standardized achievement tests. Given a zeitgeist that emphasizes academic achievement and teacher accountability, open learning systems are not very popu- lar at present (Cuban, 2004).

The Learning-Styles Approach When discussing traditional education, Dunn and Griggs claim: “The system works well for some, but not for others” (1988, p. 1). Why? Because some students don’t learn at all well in the morning but perform very well later in the day. Some excel with highly structured, teacher-directed, whole-class approaches; others perform much better with less-structured, self-initiated, individual approaches; still others achieve better in small-group, cooperative settings. Some students prefer to work in bright, well-lit surroundings with loud music; oth- ers require more subdued environments. Some learners have a marked preference for the visual or the auditory mode; some respond better than others to praise or criticism; some have longer attention spans than others . . . and on and on. In short, each student has a per- sonal and unique learning style.

Traditional schools don’t often take individual learning styles into account. As a result, they reward students whose personal styles happen to match that for which the traditional school was designed—and, by the same token, they unwittingly punish those whose rhythms are sounded on a different drum. Students whose biological rhythms make it difficult to concen- trate in the morning must nevertheless come to school and sit through the same offerings as everyone else. Those who respond best to visual stimuli—or to tactile stimulation—are forced to listen just as much as those who are more responsive to auditory stimuli. Children with shorter attention spans are compelled to sit as long as those who are not so easily dis- tracted (see Table 8.2).

This is not fair, argues Bluestein (2008). It is not an optimal learning situation. Schools, she insists, must take into account these fundamentally important differences in learning styles. But how?

First, schools need to develop a profile of each student’s learning style. Several instruments are available for this purpose (for example, Otrar, 2007; Klein et al., 2007). Among the most widely used is Renzulli, Rizza, and Smith’s (2002) Learning Styles Inventory, Version III. It is designed to help teachers adjust their teaching to match individual learners’ attitudes toward such common instructional procedures as lectures, simulations, discussions, projects, games, drills, recitations, peer teaching, independent study, and programmed instruction.

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A simpler approach, suggested by Bluestein (2008), asks learners a series of questions: Do you study best when it’s quiet? Do you learn better in a brightly lit room? Are you more alert earlier or later in the day? Do you remember things better when you see them or when you hear them?

Another common classification of learning styles is Fleming’s (2001) model, sometimes called the VAK model—where the V stands for visual learners, the A for auditory learners, and the K for kinesthetic or tactile learners. Visual learners, Fleming explains, prefer to see things; hence, the best teaching methods for them involve diagrams, illustrations, photographs, and other visual aids. In contrast, auditory learners learn best by listening (lectures or recorded presen- tations, for example), and kinesthetic (or tactile) learners learn best when the approach is more hands-on (for example, physical exploration or hands-on scientific experiments).

Identifying individual learning styles is only the beginning; dramatic changes are required in schools and in teachers’ behavior if schools are to be truly responsive to students’ individual

Table 8.2: The fit between traditional school characteristics and students with different learning styles and preferences

School/Classroom characteristics Best fits student who: Does not fit student who:

Fixed-length instructional periods

Learns/works at “average” pace Can sustain attention for long periods Has low need for physical activity

Works faster/slower than normal Quickly becomes restless Has a high need for physical activity

Emphasis on “correct” solutions and procedures

Is strong in convergent-thinking skills and logical problem solving

Is strong in divergent-thinking skills and creative problem solving

High ratio of aural instruction Learns well by listening Is more visually oriented

Age/grade segregated Functions at an “average” grade/ age level

Has learning difficulties or has exceptional gifts and talents

Highly structured rules, routines, and environment

Is compliant, conforming, happy to follow rules

Is independent, individualistic

Large group Learns well in groups with little social interaction

Functions better in small-group settings with greater social interaction

Emphasis on traditional subject areas (math, reading, science)

Is logical, rational, well-organized

Is artistic, musical, creative

Unvarying daily school times Learns well mornings and early afternoons

Wakes up reluctantly; learns best in the evening

Bench-bound Has low need for physical activity Is restless/active

Emphasis on silence Is quiet Is restless/talkative

High verbal content Has high verbal skills; can respond quickly

Has lower verbal skills; needs more time to reflect

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differences. Dunn and Griggs (1988), following visits to 10 schools where attention to learn- ing styles had become the determining factor in educational offerings, describe the idealized learning-styles–driven school. It’s a school that gives learners an almost staggering assort- ment of options. It allows children to work alone on soft carpets or to work in groups at conference tables. It provides highly structured teacher-presented lessons, peer teaching, programmed instruction, computer-assisted instruction, and self-learning. It rotates pre- sentation of core subjects so that they are offered at all times of the day, including early in the morning and late in the afternoon. It allows students to take examinations and work on projects at times that are compatible with their biological rhythms. And it pays attention to values, to problem solving, and to creativity.

These are only a few of the more than 70 different approaches to accommodating learning styles that have been proposed (Coffield, Moseley, & Ecclestone, 2004). Some of the research looking at the effects of matching instructional approaches to learning styles has reported encouragingly positive results (for example, Çolak, 2015; Ozerem & Akkoyunlu, 2015). How- ever, not all evaluations have been very promising. Some researchers claim that there appears to be little evidence, for example, that learners’ preferred learning styles are actually best for them (Glenn, 2009).

After doing an extensive review of research that looked at the effectiveness and usefulness of learning-styles approaches to instruction, Pashler and associates (2008) write: “We con- clude therefore, that at present, there is no adequate evidence base to justify incorporating learning-styles assessments into general educational practice” (p. 105).

This, of course, does not mean that teachers should pay no attention to their learners’ pref- erences; nor does it mean that learning styles are simply fictions. In the end, it may be irrel- evant that research has not unanimously supported any one model of learning styles and has not yet clearly demonstrated that learning-styles–driven approaches to teaching are clearly more effective than more traditional approaches. It may be, as Pashler and associates (2008) note, that this is simply because there have been few adequately controlled studies in the area. In their words, “It would be an error to conclude that all possible versions of learning styles have been tested and found wanting; many have simply not been tested at all” (Pashler et al., 2008, p. 105).

Cooperative Learning According to Johnson and Johnson (1999), teachers have three basic choices: In every class- room, teachers may structure lessons so that students

1. engage in a win–lose struggle to see who is best in completing the assignment. 2. work independently to complete the assignment. 3. work together in small groups, ensuring that all members complete the assignment

(p. 3).

Put another way, the three choices are between competition, individualism, and cooperation. Unfortunately, claim Johnson and Johnson, most students see schools as competitive because that is how grades are typically assigned. As a result, not everyone can do well because to achieve at the highest level, students must compete with, and outachieve, the others. And when schools are not competitive, they are most often individualistic. That is, students are urged to work toward the attainment of their own individual goals—without help, proudly, and independently! Only rarely are school experiences truly cooperative.

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Another way of distinguishing among these three alternatives is in terms of rewards. In a cooperative learning situation (also termed collaborative learning), the individual is rewarded in proportion to others in the group; in a competitive learning situation, individ- ual rewards are inversely related to those others receive; and in an individualistic learning situation, there is no relationship among individual rewards.

When Antil and associates (1998) asked 85 teachers whether they used cooperative learning in their classrooms, an amazing 95 percent said “Yes, indeed!” And when this 95 percent were interviewed individually, each claimed to use cooperative learning approaches every single day. But, claim Antil and associates, the vast majority of these teachers were not actually using cooperative learning approaches at all because true cooperative learning involves more than simply having students work together to achieve a common goal.

All true cooperative learning techniques have the following characteristics in com- mon, explains Gillies (2007): (1) face-to- face interaction among group members— usually four to six students, (2) positive interdependence; that is, members must cooperate in allocating resources, assign- ing roles, and dividing labor if they are to achieve their common goals, (3) individual accountability: cooperative learning assigns individual responsibility for sharing, coop- erating, and learning, and (4) display of interpersonal and small-group skills, such as those involved in taking turns, facilitat- ing, collaborating, and so on (Gillies, 2007).

Where Antil and associates’ (1998) teach- ers fell short of using true cooperative learning was with respect to individual accountability. Most of these teachers had developed their own “group” approaches, but few of them had worked out how to make each individual in the group individually responsible for achieving the group’s goals.

Many cooperative group activities have been developed for use in schools. They have a vari- ety of names but are sometimes included under the generic labels circles of knowledge or circles of learning.

A well-known cooperative instructional technique is learning together, developed by John- son and Johnson (Johnson et al., 1984). In learning together, groups of four to six students are given a lesson or worksheet that they must learn or complete together. Members must help each other to ensure that everyone learns the lesson or completes the assignment. Members of each group are also encouraged to help other groups once they have completed the assign- ment. Praise is given for cooperating and finishing the assignment. In this approach, there is no competition among groups.

Antonio_Diaz/iStock/Thinkstock ሁ In theory, classroom activities can be

competitive, cooperative, or individualistic. In practice, however, these distinctions are not always clear. Thus, these students might cooperate, helping each other complete the assignment. But the teacher’s evaluation might involve comparing students to each other, therefore reflecting a competitive structure.

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Learning together illustrates the four characteristics of true cooperation: (1) It divides stu- dents into small groups of four to six learners who interact face to face; (2) it fosters inter- dependence by having learners work toward a common goal; (3) it makes learners individu- ally accountable by requiring that each later demonstrate mastery and understanding of the material; and (4) it brings into play interpersonal and small-group skills.

A variety of cooperative approaches are possible at all grade levels and for all subjects. For example, Mwanza-Simwami (2016) explains how electronic technologies such as mobile apps and social networking sites can be used as a basis for collaborative learning. Also, a large number of investigations have looked at the use of collaborative learning for online and web-based courses (for example, Chuang, 2016; Karaman & Özen, 2016). Similarly, Bonham (2011) shows how small groups can be used to gather and share hands-on, laboratory-type information in physics.

The case “My Name Is Ocho . . .” illustrates all the elements of true collaborative learning: face-to-face interaction (evident in the writing and presentation of the stories and in answer- ing questions and judging the responses); interdependence (students work jointly toward the reward); individual accountability (every student must reach the “end of the road” before the group is rewarded); and small-group skills (at play in planning, presenting, and evaluat- ing the fairy tales and related questions).

C A S E S F R O M T H E C L A S S R O O M : M Y N A M E I S O C H O . . . The School: Lord Elgin Elementary School

The Setting: Ms. Lawrence’s 5th-grade classroom: English period

Ms. Lawrence: Today it’s orange group’s turn to read their story. (The five members of the group scurry to the front.)

Ronald: We’re going to put up our questions first. (Ronald projects the first of five questions on the smartboard and reads it.) Why was the creature’s name Ocho? Rosa reads the next question; Tammy the next . . .

Ms. Lawrence: Good questions. (She reminds the other groups that they will need to listen to the story to answer the questions, that every correct answer will move them one step further on the magic road. At the front of the class is a large map with a winding road leading to a “pot of gold”—a pre-negotiated collection of individual and group rewards. Scattered on this road are tiny little cars bearing the names of each student in the class, color coded according to their group.)

Tammy: (Begins to read the story.) Once upon a time there was a tiny little creature that looked just like a unicorn except that it had eight horns. . . . (She reads the first paragraph, then Rosa continues.)

Rosa: The creature’s name was . . . (And the story continues. When it’s finished, groups dis- cuss their answers for each question. Individual students then write an answer for each question. Those whose answers are judged correct move ahead another mile. The reward is within sight!)

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Some Reactions to Humanistic Education To the extent that humanistic education represents concern for the individual lives and self- concepts of students and for the healthiest and happiest development of human potential, it is beyond reproach; all teachers must be humanistic. But clearly, some teachers are more humanistic than others, as Sultan and Hussain (2012) illustrate. They identified a number of teachers perceived as more “humanistic” and others who were more “authoritarian.” Inter- estingly, in their investigation, both the motivation and the achievement of students were positively related to the humanistic orientation of teachers, and negatively related to a more authoritarian orientation.

Unfortunately, humanistic education too often appears to deal with vague qualities and spec- ulative conclusions. Advocates of approaches such as values clarification and open education have perhaps been too free with their use of imprecise terms and concepts such as authentic, open, real, genuine, fully functioning, and meaningful. How do you distinguish between an authentic experience and one that is inauthentic? Between a genuine teacher and an impos- tor? Between a fully functioning student and one who is only three-quarters functioning?

Although these terms are vague, they seem to represent good things and are therefore highly appealing. But the things they represent cannot easily be defined or measured, and as a consequence, some of the evidence upon which advocates of humanistic reforms base their arguments is not always convincing. And perhaps the most telling criticism of humanistic approaches to teaching is that most are highly dependent upon the personal qualities and skills of individual teachers. More conventional approaches to classroom practice are, in this respect, much more “teacher proof.”

Keep in mind that humanism is not an educational technique, although it manifests itself most clearly in specific techniques. In effect, humanism is an educational philosophy characterized by the sorts of admirable attitudes toward students and toward educational goals that should be characteristic of all teachers. These attitudes, as mentioned earlier, are not subject to the criticism that has been applied so generously to specific humanistic approaches to education. In the end, to be a truly humanistic teacher, you may not need to copy the models or take the advice presented by the more visible humanistic approaches to education.

8.2 Motivation What is important, explains Abraham Maslow (1998), a highly renowned humanistic psychol- ogist, is that you genuinely care about students as people. His notions of human motivation are especially important to teachers.

Maslow’s Theory of Motivation Our motives—the forces that energize and direct our behavior—can be described in terms of two general systems of needs, says Maslow: basic needs and metaneeds.

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Basic Needs Our basic needs include:

• Physiological needs: These are our biological needs—for example, the need for food, water, and temperature regulation.

• Safety needs: These are needs that are manifested in people’s efforts to maintain safe, predictable, orderly, and therefore nonthreatening environments.

• Need for love and belongingness: We also need to develop relationships involving reciprocal affection; we need to be members of a group.

• Self-esteem needs: We need to cultivate and maintain a high opinion of our self, and also we need to have others hold us in high esteem.

Note that Maslow views these needs as being hierarchical. By this, he means that the lower- level needs take precedence over the higher-level needs. That is, high-level needs will be attended to only after low-level needs are satisfied (see Figure 8.2). When people lack food, they are not likely to be concerned with love or self-esteem.

Figure 8.2: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs ሁ The open pyramid indicates that self-actualization is a never-ending process, not an ultimate,

achievable goal.

Self- actualization

Aesthetic

Cognitive

goodness truth

beauty justice

knowledge symmetry

Self-esteem competence approval

recognition

Belongingness and love affiliation acceptance affection

Safety security psychological safety

Physiological food drink

(Deficiency needs)

(Growth needs)M et

an ee

Ba sic

n ee

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Metaneeds Maslow’s basic needs are called deficiency needs because they motivate (lead to behavior) when the organism has a deficiency with respect to a need (for example, lacks food or water). The metaneeds are termed growth needs because they motivate behaviors that do not result from deficiencies but from a natural human tendency toward growth. The growth needs will be attended to only after the basic needs are reasonably satisfied.

The metaneeds include aesthetic and cognitive urges associated with virtues such as truth and goodness; the acquisition of knowledge; and the appreciation of beauty, order, and sym- metry. The highest need in Maslow’s system is our tendency toward self-actualization.

Self-actualization is a difficult concept, explain Leclerc and associates (1998)—one that is not yet fully clarified more than 50 years after its original formulation. Their survey of 26 “experts” indicates a general consensus that self-actualization is a process rather than a state. It is a process of growth—of becoming—evident in the unfolding and fulfillment of self. Inter- estingly, it is a process that is similar in many ways to the ideals of Chinese Taoism and Zen Buddhism (Chang & Page, 1991). In a sense, the human potential movement of the 1960s was directed toward helping people move toward self-actualization—toward the optimal actual- ization of all that is potential in the self.

Most humanistic psychologists consider self-actualization absolutely central to the healthy experience of being human. But, laments Maslow (1991), there are relatively few truly self- actualized people. Growth requires will and effort and perhaps a great deal of sacrifice. And many of us, notes Maslow (1991), suffer from the Jonah complex. Like that biblical character, we deliberately avoid the commitment and the effort required for personal growth and devel- opment. Instead, we choose to shuffle along, eating and drinking and satisfying our other needs. And in the end, we are somehow less human than we might have been; and perhaps less happy as well.

We should emphasize that self-actualization is not a single, unchanging goal toward which development strives; rather, it is an ongoing process. Depiction of Maslow’s theory as a tri- angle, which is how it is typically represented in textbooks, is misleading, says Rowan (1998). “What is wrong with the triangle,” he says, “is that it suggests that there is an end point to personal growth” (p. 88). We never reach that point, explains Rowan; we never reach the ultimate. He suggests that something like a ladder would be a better representation than a triangle. Figure 8.2 combines both a triangle and a ladder.

Motivation and Achievement How important is motivation? After intelligence, say Steinmayr and Spinath (2008), it, along with quality of instruction, is one of the most important variables in determining perfor- mance in school (Figure 8.3). The importance to the teacher of understanding motivation and the factors that affect it cannot be overemphasized. In many cases, motivation—or lack of motivation—clearly makes the difference between success and failure.

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Need–Drive Theory Need–drive theories offer one explanation for behavior. Needs are states of deficiency or lack within an organism. Drives are the energies or tendencies to react that are aroused by needs. For example, we have a need for food; this need gives rise to a hunger drive; eating reduces the drive. According to behavioral psychologists like Hull, this is a very important explanation for behavior; it is labeled drive reduction. However, while drive reduction might explain why we eat and drink, it is less useful for explaining higher-level human needs such as those Maslow termed growth needs. (See Figure 8.4.)

Emotion and Motivation: Arousal Theory Behavior, claim Turner and Goodin (2008), is energized and directed by the goals we intend to reach—and by those we intend to avoid. That is, behavior is intentional. Success in our endeavors leads to positive emotions; failure results in negative emotions. Thus, emotions are intimately linked with the reasons why we do or don’t do things. In this view, motivation is both physiological and psychological. And some of the aspects that are physiological can be detected and measured as changes in the sympathetic nervous system. These changes are apparent in what is termed arousal.

Figure 8.3: Factors underlying achievement ሁ Research indicates that quality of instruction, motivation, and intelligence are among the most

important predictors of school achievement.

Quality of

instruction

Intelligence

Motivation

gggegegegegeeeennnncnccceceeIInnnntnttttn elellellellellellllleee iiigigigigigigigg

MMMoMotototottM iviivaivaivavaatttioioioonn

Achievement

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Psychologically, arousal refers to an individual’s degree of attentiveness. At the lowest levels of arousal, the individual is asleep (or in a coma) and is totally inattentive; at higher levels of arousal, the individual is intensely aware and alert; at still higher levels of arousal, the indi- vidual might be in a state of panic or shock.

Arousal and Motivation Increasing arousal, claim Brehm and Self (1989), is more or less equivalent to increasing motivation—more or less because the relationship is not completely linear. At very low levels of arousal, like sleep, motivation tends to be low and behavior ineffective. And at the highest levels, like sheer panic, behavior might also be highly ineffective.

The inverted U-shaped relationship between arousal and behavior is shown in Figure 8.5. What the figure illustrates is that motivation (and the effectiveness of behavior) increases with increasing arousal until an optimal level is reached; following this, further increases in arousal will result in decreasing motivation and decreasing effectiveness of behavior.

Figure 8.4: The drive-reduction model of motivation ሁ A need (lack) gives rise to a drive (urge) that in turn leads to a behavior whose goal is to remedy

the lack. This model is useful for explaining many physiologically based behaviors but does not effectively explain why some students work hard to learn their subjects and others play electronic games instead.

Drive-reducing behavior

(eating, drinking, searching for

shelter)

Drive (hunger,

thirst, urge to warm up)

Need (lack of food, lack of water,

lack of warmth)

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The relationship between arousal and motivation can be summarized as follows: For any given activity there is a level of arousal at which performance will be optimal and the individual behaves so as to maintain that level of arousal. Certain routine activities, like dressing or eat- ing breakfast, do not ordinarily require a high level of arousal. On the other hand, intense, concentrated activities such as taking examinations or doing a television interview require higher levels of arousal.

If arousal level is too low, the individual will try to increase it; if it’s too high, steps will be taken to lower it. For example, under very high stress, people sometimes engage in an avoid- ance response or sometimes make some illogical or inappropriate choice. Avoidance might be a very intelligent choice if a grizzly bear or an armed bandit is coming after you; it’s a less intelligent choice when test anxiety gnaws at your vitals when you think of your upcoming educational psychology exam.

Some Implications of Arousal for Teaching The relevance of arousal theory for education depends on the teacher’s control over variables that affect arousal. With respect to test anxiety, for example, teachers can sometimes modify instructional and testing procedures, or they can take steps to help increase students’ sense of preparedness and competence.

Teachers also have some control over arousal in the course of daily classroom activities. According to arousal theory, all students in a class should ideally be working at a relatively moderate level of arousal. Students who are asleep, nearing sleep, or just waking up are at levels of arousal too low for most classroom activities; those who show signs of panic and impending flight are at too high a level. The important question for teachers is how to keep arousal level optimal.

Figure 8.5: The relationship between performance and arousal level

ሁ Behavior is least effective with very low or very high levels of arousal, and most effective with moderate levels of arousal.

Arousal level

ModerateSleep Panic

Very effective

Ineffective

B eh

av io

ra l p

er fo

rm an

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The main sources of arousal are external and internal input, including visual and auditory stimulation as well as ongoing thought processes. Teachers control a significant part of the stimulation to which students are exposed. The intensity, meaningfulness, and complexity of what teachers say and do directly affect the attention (arousal) of their students. Teachers can keep students at an uncomfortably high level of arousal by overemphasizing testing, making tasks unrealistically difficult, using threats, or presenting material that is too complex—and students might reduce their arousal by withdrawing attention and effort. Teachers can also keep students at too low a level of arousal by boring them—and again students may cease to pay attention.

Sadly, boredom is likely a far more serious problem in most classes than overexcitement. For- tunately, there are ways to avoid being boring. Most of them have to do with the intensity, meaningfulness, novelty, and complexity of what teachers say and do—and how they say and do it.

A Behavioristic View of Motivation Recall that behaviorism is concerned with stimuli and responses and with how the conse- quences of behavior regulate and control actions. Accordingly, behavioristic approaches emphasize extrinsic motives (external motives) such as those involving praise and reward.

Reinforcement and Praise Psychological hedonism—also called the pain/pleasure principle—is a simple summary of the most basic behavioristic motivational principle: We behave to obtain pleasure and to avoid pain. However, pain and pleasure are subjective emotional evaluations that violate behaviorists’ determination to be objective. Instead, behaviorists attempt to identify situ- ations (stimuli) that increase the probability of a behavior. These are termed reinforcers. Reinforcers can then be used in various ways to bring about desirable behaviors and some- times to eliminate those that are less desirable.

Recall from Chapter 5 that reinforcement can be either positive or negative. Positive reinforce- ment increases the probability of a behavior when it follows as a consequence of the behavior (a food reward given for an action, for example). Negative reinforcement also increases the probability of a response, but it does so as a function of being removed as a consequence of behavior (for example, detention ends following an apology).

Positive and negative reinforcement (and sometimes punishment as well) are used in virtu- ally all classrooms, even by the most humanistic of teachers. Teachers praise and admonish students, they give high and low grades, they smile and frown. These and a thousand other indicators of approval or disapproval are examples of reinforcement. When reinforcement is used judiciously and systematically, it can have profound effects on behavior.

But we are not simply hungry rats in an experimental cage, Weiner (1984) informs us: Behav- ior in a classroom is not driven just by external rewards like candy bars or gold stars or high marks. Rather, behavior is informed. That is, it is driven by cognitions and by emotions.

It is not surprising that current applications of reinforcement theory in the classroom take students’ thinking into account. As Maclellan (2005) notes, the most powerful reinforcers for students are stimuli such as praise. The effectiveness of praise clearly depends on a student’s interpretation of the teacher’s behavior. (See Table 8.3 for a summary of some of the charac- teristics of effective and ineffective praise in schools.)

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Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation Praise, like little gold stars, hugs, and high marks, provides extrinsic motives for behavior. Those who are extrinsically motivated engage in behaviors for the external rewards they expect will follow. By contrast, those who are intrinsically motivated respond to internal sources of reinforcement such as personal satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment.

Although extrinsic reinforcers (in the form of praise and otherwise) are used extensively by virtually all teachers, some teachers object to their systematic and deliberate use because they sense there might be something mechanistic and dehumanizing about the programmed application of rewards and punishments to shape behavior. Others object because they fear students who are trained to respond to extrinsic reinforcers might become too dependent on them. And some humanists fear that such students will never learn to listen to their own motives—to their intrinsic and fundamentally human urge to excel, to become someone worthwhile and actualized.

Table 8.3: Guidelines for the use of praise

The most effective praise The most ineffective praise

Is used sparingly and judiciously Is used excessively

Is sincere and believable Is indiscriminate and empty

Follows desirable behavior immediately Is delayed and unsystematic

Is specific to the desired behavior Is vague and global

Is given for important accomplishments Is given for trivial behaviors

Occasionally needs to be private to forestall envy and protect student’s social relationships

Is always loud and public without regard for the stu- dent’s feelings and relationships

Places emphasis on intrinsic motivation Places emphasis on extrinsic motives

Is used judiciously to reward desirable behaviors Is used excessively to control the behavior of poorer students

Attributes success to student effort Attributes success to ability or to task difficulty or luck rather than to learner effort

Focuses attention on the student’s individual efforts and improvement

Compares student to others in the class

Says something positive about the student’s competence

Contains no information about the student’s competence

Is non-intrusive; typically follows the behavior being praised; occurs during a break in ongoing activities.

Intrudes on ongoing activities

Shows appreciation and provides encouragement Is perfunctory, habitual, and meaningless

Is often unexpected Is routine

Is designed to increase the student’s self-esteem Is used by itself without meaningful information about the student’s performance or efforts

Is sometimes accompanied by non-verbal signs of approval

Is always given in a highly predictable verbal form

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Social Cognitive Views of Motivation Again, we need to remind ourselves that our psychological categories are seldom as neat as we would like; the real world is not as simple as the models we invent to represent it. For example, no matter how behavioristic our view of reinforcement, we know that the effects of verbal praise depend on the person’s understanding of the meaning of the words that carry the praise as well as on the social context in which it is given. Meaning and understanding are unabashedly cognitive concerns; and social context—for example, who gives the praise and under what circumstances—is fundamental to its effectiveness. Hence, although the theo- ries we consider in this section can be described as social cognitive theories, most also have behavioristic and humanistic overtones.

Some of the earliest accounts of motivation viewed the human organism as a passive being— a being unmoved and unmoving in the absence of external or internal conditions that define needs, drives, and arousal levels, or that are clearly associated with pain or pleasure. In other words, early psychology has, inadvertently or otherwise, described an organism that is highly reactive but considerably less active.

Newer approaches are clearly more cognitive and more social. They see us not as victims of internal or external prods that move us willy-nilly through our daily activities but as organ- isms whose ongoing activity is guided by conscious evaluation, anticipation, and emotion. And perhaps the single most important feature of human motivation is our ability to delay gratification.

An enormous proportion of our behavior is motivated by our anticipation of distant out- comes. This is much less true of young children. For example, when 3-year-old Nathan wants $2 so he can buy some ice cream right now, he’s not very likely to be satisfied with my offer of $20 tomorrow instead. We adults, on the other hand, would be more than happy to forgo $2 today in exchange for $20 tomorrow. We have learned to delay gratification by virtue of some uniquely human abilities involved in thinking, imagining, anticipating, and verbalizing.

Self-Efficacy The clear emphasis of social cognitive theories of motivation is on human information pro- cessing capacities and on thought that concerns our selves and our own mental processes— labeled self-referent thought. One aspect of self-referent thought that has important impli- cations for motivation relates to our personal estimates of our effectiveness and competency, termed self-efficacy.

Self-efficacy, Bandura informs us, has to do with our estimates of our personal effectiveness. The most efficacious people are those who are most competent. Accordingly, self-efficacy has two related components: The first has to do with the skills—the actual competencies— required for successful performance; the second concerns the individual’s personal estimates of competence.

Personal estimates of competence are extremely important in education. In fact, taken together, the hundreds of studies of self-efficacy reported in the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) database in 2015 and 2016 clearly support the conclusion that perceived self- efficacy contributes significantly to academic achievement, to adjustment, to engagement in cognitive tasks, to the likelihood of attempting postsecondary studies, and to positive feelings

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about schools. Our beliefs about how likely we are to succeed in a given subject or endeavor (our notions of self-efficacy for that subject or activity) profoundly influence what we choose to do, how much effort we are willing to put into it, and how persistent we will be.

Much of this research also indicates that what teachers do—or can do—can have an impor- tant influence on students’ notions of self-efficacy; hence, the importance of understanding the origins of judgments of self-efficacy.

Factors in the Development of Self-Efficacy Judgments Children’s beliefs about their competence and effectiveness appear to change systematically during the school years. Youngsters begin with global notions of whether they are “smart” or “not smart,” explains Harter (2006a; 2006b). But there appears to be a definite, general bias in the direction of “smart.” A majority of first graders rank themselves near the top of their classes with respect to things like reading ability.

With increasing experience, most children’s notions of self-efficacy become more differ- entiated. Rather than simply seeing themselves as “smart” or “dumb,” children now begin to develop notions of self-worth and self-competence in several areas: athletic, social, and academic (Wilson & Trainin, 2007). In addition, estimates of personal competence tend to decline, becoming more closely aligned with actual success as reflected in school grades.

A person’s judgments of personal self-efficacy (personal competence) are determined by four factors, explains Bandura (1997). First, actual experiences of success or failure are probably the most important single source of information about self-efficacy. Those who are never suc- cessful are less likely to have positive evaluations of self-efficacy than are those who most often succeed.

Second, observing the performance of oth- ers—termed vicarious experience—tells us a great deal about our competence. Clearly, if we see that others around us always pro- duce nicer paintings than we do, we are unlikely to develop high evaluations of our artistic competence. Similarly, children who always receive the poorest grades—or the highest—are being provided with compara- tive information that might be highly instru- mental in determining their judgments of personal worth.

Third, verbal persuasion can sometimes be an important source of information about competence. Those who lack confidence— whose self-efficacy judgments are low—can sometimes be persuaded to do things they would otherwise be reluctant to do. Implicit in the persuasion (“come on, Emily, play your guitar for us”) is a positive judgment (“you play your guitar so well, Emily”).

JGI/Blend Images/Thinkstock ሁ Verbal persuasion can influence one’s self-

efficacy. For example, asking a student to play the guitar can improve her self-efficacy.

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Finally, the person’s emotions (physiological states) contribute to perceived self-efficacy. Intense emotion (high arousal), Bandura (1997) suggests, can affect self-judgments in dif- ferent ways. For example, great fear might lead to judgments of low personal competence. A mountain climber overcome by fear might decide that he is incapable of continuing—as might a person about to speak in public. In contrast, great fear might lead a hiker to judge that she is capable of outrunning a bear.

It is worth noting that considerable research indicates that discrimination based on race, gen- der, socioeconomic status, or other factors can have a very deleterious effect on notions of self-efficacy (Thompson, 2013; DeFreitas, 2012). Not surprisingly, those most often exposed to discrimination—and who tend to face lower expectations and, often, lower achievement— are most likely to manifest lower academic motivation (Wood & Graham, 2010).

Implications of Judgments of Self-Efficacy Because our personal judgments of our own effectiveness are extremely important determin- ers of what we do and don’t do, they are very valuable for understanding human motivation. In fact, measures of self-efficacy are sometimes better predictors of behavior than are rel- evant skills. That’s because under most circumstances, children—or adults—don’t attempt to do things that they expect to do badly.

Judgments of self-efficacy affect not only what we choose to do but also the amount of effort we are willing to expend when faced with difficulties. The stronger an individual’s percep- tions of efficacy, the more likely it is that individual will persist and the greater the effort expended will be. But if notions of self-efficacy are not entirely favorable, difficult activities may be abandoned after very little effort and time, or might not be undertaken at all. Research indicates that those with the most favorable judgments of self-efficacy tend to achieve at a higher level, are more likely to accept risks and set higher goals, and are less likely to drop out of school (Caprara et al., 2008).

Not surprisingly, self-efficacy is also closely linked with athletic functioning, notes Bandura (1997). Children whose sense of personal effectiveness in athletics is high are more likely to engage in competitive athletics—and to persist in the face of failure—than are those who doubt their ability to do very well. Coaches have long known that self-confidence—a natural result of high self-efficacy beliefs—is an essential ingredient for high-level athletic accom- plishment. Teachers may well have known (or suspected) the same with respect to high levels of academic achievement but have not always acted as though this were true. Table 8.4 sum- marizes the main influences on self-efficacy and presents related guidelines for teachers.

Attribution Theories Success and failure clearly affect our judgments of personal competence—of self-efficacy. But we are not simple, highly predictable creatures, you and I; we don’t necessarily react to our failures or successes in exactly the same way. Some of us believe we do well or poorly because we are intelligent or stupid; others are convinced that they are simply lucky or unlucky.

Attribution theory looks at the implications of the explanations we give ourselves for the outcomes of our behaviors. Our attributions, notes Weiner (2008), depend very much on what he calls our locus of control—that is, on whether we consider the results of our behaviors to

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be due to internal, personal factors such as our intelligence and skill (referred to as an inter- nal locus of control), or whether we attribute behavioral outcomes to external factors like good or bad luck (termed an external locus of control). Furthermore, some people accept responsibility for the outcomes of their behaviors and others don’t. And some attribute the causes of behavior to highly stable factors—that is, to factors that don’t change much, like how difficult a task is. Others are more likely to attribute the causes of behavior to highly unstable factors—that is, to factors that are subject to change, like the amount of effort an individual expends on a task.

These three factors, locus of control, personal responsibility, and stability, are the cornerstones of Weiner’s theory of motivation. These factors are very important in social cognitive theory’s attempt to understand the achievement-oriented behavior of students (or their lack of effort to achieve).

Table 8.4: Main sources of information affecting judgments of self-efficacy and guidelines for developing positive self-efficacy among learners

Source of influence and examples of information that might lead Jill to develop positive estimates of self-efficacy Suggestions for teachers

Sample supporting teacher comments

Actual experience She wins a scholarship to attend agricultural college.

Provide learners with tasks they can master Minimize overly difficult tasks that might lead to failure Teach thinking/learning strate- gies to facilitate mastery of academic tasks

“You have the ability to . . .” “Your hard work really paid off.” “You’re getting it!” “You have a really good memory for math.”

Vicarious experience (second- hand experience; modeling) She learns that Ronald worked harder than she did but wasn’t given a scholarship.

Provide learners with models of accomplishments of which they’re capable. Allow learners to observe peers (peer tutoring) Use peer accomplishments as a guide for helping learners set goals

“Watch Harry. You can do it too.” “I know you can do it. I’ll show you how.” “See what Mary did . . .”

Persuasion (the effect of others’ confidence—or doubt) Her teacher tells her she should enroll in the advanced program for gifted artists.

Provide support as learners undertake challenging tasks Encourage learners to attempt tasks that are challenging but within their reach

“With your eye for composition, I think you should submit some photographs to . . .” “I know you can write very well.”

Emotive (the influence of physi- ological states) She was tense before her math exam, but felt exhilarated afterward.

Act as a calming influence when learners might be unduly aroused—for example, before a high-stakes test.

“You’re ready. I like the way you’re ready for this.” “Hey, how about we all get up and stretch and listen to some classical (hip-hop) (pop) (rap) . . . music.”

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Locus of Control If I have an internal locus of control, I might attribute my successes and failures to my ability, to my effort, or to a combination of the two. Note that these are factors within the individual. But if I have an external locus of control, I am more likely to attribute my performance to out- side factors like luck or the difficulty of the task.

Personal Responsibility If I attribute the outcomes of my behaviors to external factors like luck or how difficult tasks are, I am attributing them to causes over which I have no control and for which I therefore have no responsibility. But there are other external causes that can be controlled. If, for exam- ple, I attribute the outcomes of my behavior to an external cause like the interference of my friends, I may well have some degree of control over this cause. I can avoid my friends, pay no attention to them, make them into enemies, make new friends, or all of the foregoing. Because I accept that I have some control over this cause, I also accept personal responsibility for the outcomes of my actions.

Similarly, some internal attributions are under my control and are therefore associated with a high level of personal responsibility. Effort, for example, is an internal cause that I can control. On the other hand, intelligence, also an internal cause of behavior, can be viewed as either controllable or not.

Stability and Instability of Causes The causes to which people attribute the outcomes of their behaviors can be highly stable and unchanging or highly unstable. If I attribute my failure in an educational psychology course to a stable cause like the tremendous complexity of the subject, I will not expect to do any better in the future than I have in the past. On the other hand, if I attribute my failure to an unstable cause like the difficulty of the exam, I can at least hope that the instructor will devise a less difficult examination next time.

Figure 8.6 summarizes the characteristics of four of the most important attributions that stu- dents can make: When analyzing the outcomes of their efforts, they can decide that they have done well or poorly because of effort, ability, luck, or the difficulty of the task (or the lack of each of these). Clearly, performance can also be attributed to other causes (mood, illness, or fatigue, for example), but these are more personal and variable, and not easily amenable to scientific investigation.

Performance Versus Mastery Goals Children—and adults too—Dweck (1986; 2008) informs us, seem to behave as though they subscribed intuitively to one of two views of intelligence: the entity theory or the incre- mental theory. If they subscribe to the entity theory, they behave as though they believe that intelligence is fixed and unchanging. Accordingly, their achievement goals are performance goals; that is, they will be moved to perform well in order to obtain favorable judgments about their competence (about their ability) and to avoid unfavorable judgments. On the other hand, if they subscribe to the incremental theory, they behave as though they believe

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that intelligence is malleable. These learners are described as having a “growth” mindset. The goals of their achievement-oriented behavior will be mastery goals (also termed learning goals) rather than performance goals; that is, they will expend considerable effort in attempts to increase their competence.

Dweck’s analysis of attribution research strongly suggests that students whose basic orienta- tion is toward performance goals (those who view intelligence as being fixed) need extremely high confidence in their ability to be willing to accept challenges. Students whose confidence is lower are more likely to be characterized by what Dweck describes as “helplessness,” pri- marily because they see failure as a direct reflection of their lack of ability.

In contrast, students who are oriented toward mastery (those who view intelligence as malleable) are more likely to seek challenges and to be persistent. That is, when students view ability as a function of effort, they are more likely to strive toward high achievement because for them the cost of failure is not as high as it is for those who see ability as fixed and unchangeable (Dweck & Grant, 2008). Interestingly, research indicates that a growth mindset (belief that intelligence is malleable) is a strong predictor of achievement (for example, Claro, Paunesku, & Dweck, 2016). (See Table 8.5.)

Figure 8.6: Possible attributions for success and failure ሁ Our explanations for why we succeed or fail can be internal or external; they can also invoke

causes that are stable or unstable, controllable or uncontrollable.

Effort (controllable)

Luck (uncontrollable)

Ability (uncontrollable)

Difficulty (controllable)

Causal attributions

Internal External U

ns ta

bl e

S ta

bl e

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Section 8.2 Motivation

Self-Regulated Learning The learners described by social cognitive psychology are thoughtful sorts. They base their judgments of their personal effectiveness, of their self-efficacy, on the outcomes of their actions as well as on considerations of the behaviors and opinions of their peers, their teach- ers, and their parents. They set their achievement goals in light of what they would like to accomplish tempered by what they think they are capable of. Put another way, these learners are self regulated. There is a strong relationship, explain Shell and Husman (2008), among self-regulation, notions of self-efficacy, a tendency to attribute success and failure to effort, and a mastery orientation.

Self-regulated learning refers to learning that individuals plan and direct for themselves. It implies four things:

1. Setting learning goals 2. Using appropriate strategies to reach these goals 3. Evaluating the effectiveness of the strategies 4. Modifying strategies as required

Zimmerman (2001) summarizes these components of self-regulated learning in terms of three phases: forethought (the learner analyzes the task at hand, setting goals and formulat- ing strategies for achieving those goals); performance (the individual engages in activities designed to achieve the learning goals); and reflection (the learner monitors the effectiveness of behavior to make judgments about the need to modify learning strategies) (Figure 8.7).

Characteristics of Self-Regulated Learners Self-regulated learners are especially aware of their strengths and weaknesses: They have well-developed metacognitive skills. That is, they are able to think about and understand their own thought processes and learning strategies. These are learners who tend to believe that their success or failure is due to factors under their control—factors like effort and the intel- ligent selection of achievable goals and effective strategies (Dweck & Master, 2008). They are especially adept at controlling the time and effort they spend on various tasks, and their moti- vational beliefs typically reflect a high sense of personal ability (of academic self-efficacy). They also have a repertoire of strategies they can use to tackle learning tasks.

Table 8.5: Achievement goals and achievement behavior

Theory of intelligence Goal orientation Confidence in present ability Behavior pattern

Entity theory (Intelligence is fixed.)

Performance goal (Goal is to gain positive judgments/avoid negative judgments of competence.)

If high

If low

Mastery oriented (Seeks challenge; high persistence) Helpless (Avoids challenge; low persistence)

Incremental theory (Intelligence is malleable.)

Learning goal (Goal is to increase competence.)

If high or low Mastery oriented (Seeks challenge that fosters learning; high persistence)

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Fostering Self-Regulation and a Mastery Orientation Teachers have many strategies and interventions at their disposal to foster the development of self-regulation among students. They include the following:

• Direct teaching of strategies, where teachers explain various strategies available for learning, and how and when these might be used.

• Modeling, where teachers, peers, or others serve as examples or provide patterns for the selection and application of goals and performance strategies and for their modification.

• Practice sessions, where learners are given opportunities to apply cognitive strate- gies, often with guidance and support particularly in the early stages, and with sup- portive feedback.

• Scaffolding, where practice sessions and modeling are initially highly supportive, but where supports gradually diminish with the aim of achieving increasing learner responsibility.

Figure 8.7: Zimmerman’s model of self-regulated learning ሁ Zimmerman (2001) labels the phases of self-regulated learning forethought (planning, setting

goals, selecting strategies), performance (applying strategies), and reflection (self-monitoring, self-evaluation). Note that these phases are not necessarily sequential, but can overlap or occur simultaneously. The principal identifying characteristic of self-regulated learning is the learner’s personal responsibility for all aspects of learning (goals, strategies, performance, and self-evaluations).

Source: Zimmerman, B. J. (2001). Theories of self-regulated learning and academic achievement: An overview and analysis. In B. J. Zimmerman & D. H. Schunk (Eds.), Self-regulated learning and academic achievement: Theoretical perspectives (pp. 1–37). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Selecting strategies in light of goals and of self- evaluation

Applying strategies:

Attempting to reach goals

Evaluating: Self-monitoring

to see if goals are being reached

Modifying strategies as

required

Planning and setting of goals

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Section 8.2 Motivation

• Opportunities for self-monitoring and self-reflection where learners are encouraged to think about and become increasingly aware of their cognitive processes.

• Interventions designed to change attributions and to increase achievement motiva- tion where educators attempt to apply the findings of social cognitive research and theory.

As we saw, students who believe that the outcomes of their behaviors result from personal effort tend to develop mastery goals. These students focus on developing skills, understand- ing their work, and becoming more competent. They try to master what they study. Mastery goals are associated with a high-achievement orientation, with risk taking, and with positive attitudes toward learning.

In contrast, students who believe that behavioral outcomes are a function of ability rather than effort develop performance goals. Their focus is on doing better than others, achieving public recognition, and succeeding according to external norms. Learning and understand- ing are secondary for these students; doing well (performing) is all-important. Performance goals are associated with avoiding challenging tasks, using short-term learning strategies, and negative affect following failure.

These two goal orientations are strongly influenced by the extent to which students perceive classrooms as being oriented toward mastery. And that perception is affected by the teacher’s evaluation procedures, the tasks given students, and the extent to which students are allowed to make meaningful choices. In sum, here are some suggestions for teacher behaviors that might foster a mastery orientation and enhance motivation:

• Present students with a variety of tasks with short-term goals that can be accom- plished with reasonable effort.

• Assign work that is personally involving—hence less likely to lead to comparisons with other students.

• Emphasize competence and mastery in your evaluation procedures. • Avoid comparative evaluations. • Focus on the processes of learning and on comprehension. • Avoid the social comparisons implicit in singling out students for public praise. • Give students meaningful choices regarding important issues like curriculum, meth-

ods and pace of studying, and evaluation. • Encourage students to set meaningful, competence-oriented goals. • Reward students for effort and improvements rather than for performance and

product. • Emphasize individual progress in evaluations. • Avoid comments that attribute success to external causes.

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Key Points • Humanistic psychology is concerned with the uniqueness, worth, and dignity of the

self. The major emphases of humanistic approaches are greater attention to think- ing and feeling, the development of self, communication, the clarification of values, openness, honesty, and self-determination. Maslow’s humanistic theory describes self-actualization as the highest human motive—a notion that is closely related to the human potential movement.

• Holistic education is directed at teaching the whole person. It attempts to integrate the affective and the cognitive. It is process oriented, emphasizes self-determination, encourages innovation, and pays close attention to affect, personal growth, and indi- vidualism. Values education refers to the direct teaching of values in schools.

• Open education is student-centered rather than teacher-centered, typically ungraded, and emphasizes personal growth, self-reliance, and self-determination rather than measurable academic achievement.

• Learning styles are individual preferences and strengths related to learning. Learning-styles–driven schools attempt to match instructional methods, curriculum offerings, scheduling, and other aspects of instruction to each learner’s personal learning style.

• Cooperative (collaborative) learning involves small-group techniques structured so that learners are rewarded for the group’s results but are nevertheless individually accountable for learning and for helping other members of the group learn.

• Maslow’s humanistic theory of motivation presents a hierarchical arrangement of need systems, with physiological needs at the lowest level (basic needs) and the need for self-actualization at the highest (metaneeds).

• Behavioristic approaches to motivation stress the importance of positive and nega- tive reinforcers, like praise. Psychological hedonism suggests that people behave to obtain pleasure and avoid pain; need theories argue that the urge to satisfy physical and psychological needs drives behavior.

• Motivation is closely tied to emotions, which are reflected in arousal. People try to maintain an optimal level of arousal for maximally effective behavior.

• Social/cognitive theories describe humans as active, exploring, evaluating organisms capable of delaying gratification and of explaining the outcomes of their own behav- iors (as contrasted with the more passive view of traditional theories).

• Beliefs about personal effectiveness (self-efficacy) are important for determining which behaviors will be undertaken and the amount of effort that will be expended.

• Weiner’s attribution theory says that individuals tend to attribute their successes or failures to internal (ability and effort) or external (difficulty or luck) causes. Some of these imply a high level of personal responsibility; others don’t.

• Mastery-oriented learners try to increase their competence; performance-oriented learners focus on achievement. Students whose need for achievement is strong are typically more internally oriented (have an internal locus of control) and are conse- quently more likely to accept personal responsibility for the outcomes of their efforts.

• One of the important goals of education is to develop self-regulated learners—learn- ers who accept personal responsibility for setting learning goals, selecting appropri- ate strategies, and implementing them.

• Most cognitively oriented, motivation-driven classroom interventions attempt to foster the development of mastery rather than performance orientations.

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Posttest

1. Ms. Manley-Crockett claims to use a humanist approach in her classroom. Which of the following would CONTRADICT this claim? a. She gives rigorous tests with each subject. b. She uses a student-focused approach to teaching. c. She provides students many opportunities for success. d. She is concerned with both affective and academic individual growth.

2. In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs motivation theory, a person who has needs in one area or level of the hierarchy a. relates best to class material that relates to those needs. b. moves quickly to the next (higher) level to avoid dwelling on those needs. c. slips or regresses to meet needs at a lower level. d. cannot function well at higher levels until lower-level needs are satisfied.

3. Negative reinforcement a. is the same as punishment. b. results in decreased behavior. c. increases the probability of a response. d. removes something positive from the organism.

4. Emma edits her essay very carefully and has her sister look it over because she wants her teacher to think that she is a capable writer. Emma’s motivation would most likely be a. performance goals. b. incremental. c. mastery goals. d. helpless goals.

5. Ms. Talmidge claims to teach her students how to be self-regulating. Which of the fol- lowing would CONTRADICT this claim? a. She models self-regulation for her students. b. She discourages students from practicing strategies. c. She scaffolds the learning process with students. d. She discourages performance goal orientations.

Answers: 1(a), 2(d), 3(c), 4(a), 5(b)

Critical Thinking Exercises • Compare and contrast the educational implications of humanism and behaviorism.

What are classroom examples for each approach? • Research the meaning and origins of the human potential movement. How is it

related to humanistic approaches to education? • What is your preferred learning style? Describe the characteristics of the educa-

tional approach(es) most compatible with it.

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• Illustrate how human needs are hierarchical. What educational implications can you draw from this?

• How would you incorporate arousal theory in the classroom? • How would you foster self-regulated learning in your classroom?

Web Resources For an overview of humanistic psychology, visit:

http://www.simplypsychology.org/humanistic.html

http://www.ryerson.ca/~glassman/humanist.html

For information on a current, computer-based approach to open education, visit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHQp33rbg5k

Answers to Chapter Pretest

1. True. Research has shown that the assignment of grades can create a competitive school environment among students.

2. True. The Jonah complex describes individuals who choose to satisfy other needs rather than striving for self-actualization.

3. False. Boredom is a more prominent problem than overexcited students, although teachers should strive to keep students at a moderate level of arousal.

4. False. Self-efficacy is determined by actual experience, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and emotional state.

5. False. Locus of control is the belief that our actions are a result of internal (such as intelligence or skill level) or external factors (such as fate or luck).

Answers to Chapter Posttest

1. Humanistic approaches in the classroom focus on social and personal development of the students through constructivism and successes rather than test-driven results and direct instruction.

2. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, basic needs take priority over metaneeds and people will not focus on high-level needs before the lower-level needs are met.

3. Reinforcement can be used to increase desired behavior. Negative reinforcement involves removing a factor to increase the occurrence of the desired behavior.

4. Performance goals motivate those who want others to recognize their competence and avoid unfavorable judgment. Emma editing her paper to receive her teacher’s approval is an example of a performance goal.

5. Teaching students learning strategies can encourage self-regulation and develop mastery goals.

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http://www.simplypsychology.org/humanistic.html

http://www.ryerson.ca/~glassman/humanist.htmlhttp://

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHQp33rbg5khttp://

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Key Terms arousal As a physiological concept, refers to changes in functions such as heart rate, respi- ration rate, electrical activity in the cortex, and electrical conductivity of the skin. As a psycho- logical concept, refers to degree of alertness, awareness, vigilance, or wakefulness.

attribution theory A cognitive motiva- tional theory concerned with predictable consistencies in what people interpret as the causes of the outcomes of behavior. See also external locus of control, internal locus of control, locus of control.

basic needs Maslow’s term for lower-level needs, such as the physiological needs or the need to belong, to love, and to have high self-esteem. Also termed deficiency needs. See also deficiency needs, growth needs, metaneeds.

circles of knowledge A generic term some- times used to describe a variety of coopera- tive, small-group learning approaches that stress face-to-face interaction, peer help, and rewards for group activities rather than for individual activity.

collaborative learning See cooperative learning.

competitive learning A common instruc- tional approach in North America where students work against each other to see who is best. See also cooperative learning, indi- vidualistic learning.

conflict management A program designed to teach individuals acceptable ways of resolving conflicts (negotiating, compro- mising, taking turns, explaining, listening, apologizing, mediating, using humor, and invoking chance).

cooperative learning An instructional method where students work together in small groups so that each member of the group can participate in a clearly assigned

collective task. Also termed collaborative learning. See also competitive learning, indi- vidualistic learning.

deficiency needs Maslow’s expression for basic needs, so called because they motivate the person to act when a related deficiency is sensed—for example, a deficiency of food leads to eating. See also basic needs, growth needs, metaneeds.

drives The tendency toward a certain behavior that is brought about by an unsatis- fied need—for example, the hunger drive is related to the need for food. See also needs, need–drive theories.

drive reduction The satisfaction of a need by eliminating the drive associated with it.

emotions Cognitive and physiological states describable with words such as anx- ious, angry, sad, confused, cautious, lonely, and a huge number of similar terms.

entity theory Dweck’s label for the belief that ability is a fixed, unchanging entity. See also incremental theory, mastery goals, per- formance goal.

existentialism A philosophical movement characterized by a preoccupation with existence.

external locus of control A tendency to attribute the outcomes of behavior to factors outside the individual (such as luck or the difficulty of a task). See also attribution the- ory, internal locus of control, locus of control.

extrinsic motives Motives associated with external sources of reinforcement—like food, money, or sex.

growth needs Another expression for Maslow’s metaneeds. So called because these needs motivate behavior not as a result of deficiencies but because of an

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intrinsic need to grow, to become, to actual- ize oneself. These include cognitive, aes- thetic, and self-actualization needs. See also basic needs, deficiency needs, metaneeds.

holistic education A comprehensive term for educational approaches that attempt to remedy what is seen as the failure of tradi- tional education to educate the whole brain.

human potential movement A label some- times used to describe the combination of approaches in education, therapy, and other helping professions that stem from a human- istic orientation and reflect the conviction that the goal of each of these endeavors should be to foster the fullest development of each individual. See also self-actualization.

humanistic psychology A branch of psy- chology whose primary concern is with the development of the self and with the unique- ness of the individual. Sometimes referred to as third-force psychology; the other two forces are behaviorism and Freudian theory.

incremental theory Dweck’s label for the belief that ability is malleable through work and effort. The theory is associated with mastery goals. See also mastery goals, per- formance goal.

individualistic learning A common instructional approach where students work independently and at their own pace. Stu- dent rewards are independent of the perfor- mance of other students. See also competi- tive learning, cooperative learning.

internal locus of control A tendency to attribute the outcomes of behavior to fac- tors within the individual (such as effort or ability). See also attribution theory, external locus of control, locus of control.

Jonah complex A phrase used by Maslow to describe those who avoid and deny their personal capacity for growth and self-actualization.

learning style A unique and important learner variable manifested in differences in biological rhythms (morning versus evening people), perceptual strengths (visual versus auditory learners), sociological preference (whole-group versus small-group instruc- tion), attention span (long or short), and a wealth of personality variables (dependence or independence, for example).

Learning Styles Inventory Version III An instrument used to assess student learning styles. Attempts to assess the relative effec- tiveness of different learning environments and approaches with specific students.

learning together A cooperative instruc- tional technique where groups of four to six students work together on a jointly assigned task using small-group interaction skills.

locus of control An aspect of personal- ity evident in the individual’s consistent tendency to attribute behavioral outcomes to a specific class of causes over which the individual does, or does not, have control. See also attribution theory, external locus of control, internal locus of control.

mastery goals Goals directed toward increasing one’s personal competence. See also incremental theory, performance goals.

metaneeds Maslow’s term for higher needs. Concerned with psychological, self- related functions rather than with biology. These include the need for truth, beauty, justice, and self-actualization. Also termed growth needs, deficiency needs.

motives Causes of behavior. Our motives explain why we engage in some behaviors but not in others.

needs Ordinarily refers to deficiencies in the human organism. Needs can be either unlearned (for example, the need for food or water) or learned (the need for money). See also drives, need–drive theories.

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need–drive theories Motivation theories that attempt to explain human behavior on the basis of the motivating properties of needs. See also drives, needs.

open education A student-centered alter- native to traditional education that empha- sizes personal growth, independence, and cooperation and is not committed to the curriculum-bound, pass–fail, age-locked, grade-locked system of the traditional school. Also termed open classroom.

pain/pleasure principle A common expression for psychological hedonism—the belief that we are motivated to seek plea- sure and avoid pain. See also psychological hedonism.

performance goals Goals directed toward performing well rather than toward master- ing a subject and increasing one’s compe- tence. See also entity theory, incremental theory, mastery goals.

praise Positive verbal comments or other signs of approval.

psychological hedonism The belief that humans act primarily to avoid pain and to obtain pleasure.

reinforcers Stimuli that cause reinforcement.

self-actualization The process of becoming oneself, of developing one’s potentialities, of achieving an awareness of one’s identity; self-fulfillment.

self-efficacy Judgments we make about how effective we are in given situations.

self-referent thought A thought that pertains to the self, that concerns our own mental processes (for example, thoughts that evaluate our abilities or monitor our progress in solving problems).

self-regulated learning A situation in which the learner is responsible for setting learning goals and selecting and applying strategies to reach these goals. Autonomous, self-directed learning.

student-centered teaching Rogers’ expres- sion for an approach to teaching based on a philosophy of self-discovered learning and genuine care for students as individuals.

sympathetic nervous system The part of the nervous system that instigates the physi- ological responses associated with emotion.

test anxiety A characteristic evident in a fear of taking tests and an expectation of poor performance.

VAK model A learning styles model that describes learners as being primarily visual, auditory, or kinesthetic (tactile) learners.

values clarification programs Programs designed to encourage learners to examine their personal beliefs about right and wrong, with a view to improving and clarifying their awareness of their own morality.

values education Instructional programs and strategies designed to teach specific values (notions of right and wrong), thereby promoting good behavior and developing good “character.”

ሁ The Laplanders venerated the bear and called it the Dog of God. The Norwegians called it “the old man with the fur cloak” (Engel, 1976).

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