Chapter 10 page 201
Integrating the Five Perspectives
This section presents a way to integrate all of these perspectives into a single framework. Expectancy-value
theory provides a basic framework into which all the other perspectives fit very nicely. According to
expectancy-value theory:
Motivation = Value of Goal x Expectation of Success
You can increase motivation by increasing either the value of the goal or the expectation of success.
First, how can you increase the value of the goal?
- Increase interest (interest perspective).
A. Use more interesting tasks or topics. This is obvious.
B. Use group work. This naturally increases interest because of the social interaction. - Increase perceived relevance to larger goals (interest perspective). Either explain how the
current activities are relevant to larger goals, or choose goals that do in fact have more relevance. - Increase autonomy. The value of engaging in the task will increase when learners have some
autonomy in how they approach the task.
Second, how can you increase the expectation of success?
- Increase students’ belief that they already have the ability to succeed.
A. Improve students’ knowledge and strategies so that they are in fact more likely to
succeed. In other words, improve students’ ability to do a task. If students gain strategies
and knowledge that helps them succeed, they will have a much higher expectation of
success.
B. Teach students to attribute success to effort rather than ability. If students come to
believe that successes result from effort rather than from natural ability, they will develop
an expectation that they already have the ability to succeed and that they will be successful
if they make effort. One way to do this is for teachers themselves to attribute students’
successes to effort rather than to ability (e.g., “This was an excellent paper; I can tell that
you put a lot of work into finding the evidence to support your main points.”).
- Increase students’ belief that they can improve their ability.
A. Foster the belief that ability can be changed because ability is a combination of
knowledge and strategies, all of which can be learned. If students think that ability is
fixed and innate, they will not believe that there is any point to trying to get better. If
students think that ability is fluid and learnable (because ability is nothing more than the
knowledge and skills that you have), then
B. Foster the belief that ability can be improved by making effort. If students become
convinced that they can improve by making effort, then their expectation of success will
increase.