AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
ANALYSIS OF A LESSON IN THE CONTEXT OF THE ACTIVATION AND MOTIVATION OF
STUDENTS
a
VERONIKA NIKODEMOVÁ
Faculty of Education, Constantine the Philosopher University,
Drážovská cesta 4, Nitra, Slovak Republic
email:
a
veronika.nikodemova@ukf.sk
Abstract: Effective management of students’ education activities during a lesson is
determined by many factors. The motivation and active work of pupils during
education belong to those factors that substantially affect its final effectiveness. In this
regard, the contribution, by its theoretical part, offers a teacher’s view on quality of a
modern lesson, through several findings acquired by the method of micro-educational
analysis. At the same time, the contribution, by its empirical part, interprets findings
acquired on a sample of teachers of higher secondary education about their subjective
conception of motivational influence during education.
Keywords: motivation and activation, micro-educational analysis, auto diagnosis of a
motivational influence of a teacher during the lesson.
1 Motivation and activation of students during a lesson
The many views and definitions regarding what motivation
means is provided by the literature of educational and
psychological orientation. Its ambition is to provide the same
principles, fundamentals and theories related to learning,
teaching, upbringing and education. It does not aim to provide
teachers with finished guidelines and procedures of how to
achieve certain cognitive and non-cognitive objectives, or how to
specifically motivate students to study (we all know that the
teaching situations are too complicated for this), but it rather
seeks to cultivate the teacher's thinking about teaching, given the
study of these principles, fundamentals and theories that it
conceives. If, however, many teachers think of it in respect of
either or, despite the long-term interest in the issue of motivation
and its elaboration – some students are and others are not
motivated, then such simplification further prevents them from
using different types of motivation, especially in situations when
they fail with a certain type of motivation. According to E.
Petlák (2014, p. 61) "the area of motivation is sufficiently
developed in our literature. Unfortunately, in practice, it is not
paid the attention it deserves. Years of our own practice in
schools and knowledge of the real educational process
(observation, qualification and later attestation and testing of
teachers) lead us to the finding that mostly just ordinary
motivational methods apply in practice, for example, talk,
updating of the curriculum, problem as a motivation, but other
motivation possibilities are also used but less."
At this point we do not want to deal with what motivation is. We
do not want to draw attention to its essence expressed by the
character of the question Why? Why does a person behave how
they do, why does a person do what they do, why do they strive
for this and not for something else?, which is otherwise the most
distinctive for it. We do not want to stress either that motivation
is a complex of mental processes that produce, direct, and
maintain human behavior in a certain direction, that for the
school environment it is a "change and movement" situation,
which encourages students' learning process..., i.e. what is well
known about it through definitions. In regard to the results of
empirical studies obtained to date, we rather strive to highlight
motivation in the context of the requirements for its appreciation
during education. As a matter of fact, the study of the literature
convinces us that the very notion of motivation is not only
known and widely used, but is also well developed.
The 80s already meant a significant incentive to start drawing
attention to the context of its comprehensive mission within
teaching. For example, J. Skalková notes at the time that many
researches conducted in connection with the issue of failing or
poor-achieving students clearly prove that the true and primary
cause of failure is often not the intellectual inability of students
to master the curriculum, but the deficiencies and faults in the
motivational sphere. (In Langr., L., 1984). Motivation, which is
currently understood as a way of encouraging and supporting
students to study, to turn learning into a hobby, a factor of
personal growth and self-realization, is construed as a clear role
for the teacher. In order for the advantages of motivation to be
fully demonstrated in the classroom, the teacher is required to be
able to involve the students in a variety of active learning
activities, or even various ancillary or preparatory activities
throughout the lesson. This requirement, clearly intended for the
teacher, arises from the following statements: "The most
valuable is the knowledge that the student gains through hard
work and effort." "The best way to learn is to do something, the
worst way to teach others is to speak it." "Tell me and I'll forget;
show me, and I will remember; let me do it and I will
understand." (In Turek, I., 2014, p. 23). The previously
mentioned shows us that teachers, as far as possible, should be
fully aware that almost all of their activities carried out in the
classroom influence the motivation of students to learning, either
in a positive or negative direction. Pedagogical and didactic
literature for teachers of all types and levels of education often
supplements the significance of motivation and activation of
students during lessons by several subjective ideas of the authors
or formulations of general principles, what to do and how to
achieve a desirable motivating-activating effect.
For example, M. Boekaerts (In Dvořák, D., 2005) formulates a
synthesis of motivation principles that the teacher should have in
mind for effective learning. These are:
Motivational beliefs that may significantly contribute to the
creation of favorable pedagogical situations for study by
students (unfavorable motivational beliefs hinder learning,
i.e. when students expect failure, they are not motivated to
learn, while positive motivational beliefs promote and
facilitate learning, i.e. students who understand the
importance and value of learning activity are less
dependent on the teacher's external impulses, incentives
and rewards);
A student's confidence about the objectives they should be
focused on (students who are focused on coping with
curriculum learn more than students who are focused on
themselves – ego orientation);
The perception of efforts by students affects their approach
to learning (students expect that efforts will lead to results);
Defining objectives and evaluating them (so that the
students can develop their own motivational strategies,
they need to be guided to it and informed about how they
are doing - feedback);
Deployment to achieve goals and willpower (students need
to be guided to the development of willpower and also
need the surroundings to provide feedback on how they are
doing);
The need to reconcile diverse objectives (students learn
with more commitment at a time when learning objectives
in harmony with their personal goals).
The author B. Blackburn (2005, pp. 88-93, In Nikodemová, V.,
2014) argues that a lesson will be optimally efficient,
motivating-activating only when teachers are freed from myths
about motivation. On examples of school practice she attempts
to explain the most common forms of misconceptions about the
motivation that the teacher may acquire through experience and
years of teaching. These are:
Myth 1: The student is just not motivated;
Myth 2: You can motivate someone;
Myth 3: You cannot motivate someone;
Myth 4: You cannot deprive someone of motivation.
Other authors who define and explain some recent views on laws
affecting student motivation for learning during lessons, also
include K. Kruszewski (1991, p. 263-267). According to him,
the following principles apply to improve motivation:
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