PSYCHOLOGY OF LEARNING
MUHAMMAD AFIQ SHAHIRI BIN SAPIE
(December 2021)
Table of Content
1. INTRODUCTION
3 - 4
2. HOW MIGHT THE INCREASE OF ADAPTIVE
BEHAVIOUR BE A DISADVANTAGE FOR STUDENTS INTRINSICALLY MOTIVATED TO
LEARN? 5 - 8
3. WHAT ARE THE EDUCATIONAL
IMPLICATIONS OF THE POTENTIAL FOR
CONCRETE REWARDS TO DIMINISH
INTRINSIC MOTIVATION FOR A GIVEN TASK? 9-11
4. CONCLUSION
12
5. REFERENCES
13
INTRODUCTION
In order to be successful, rewards must stimulate the recipient. It is critical to determine what the youngster really desires, either through direct questioning or via careful observation. Often, incentives might be in the form of a chance to do something desired, such as stand at the front of the line or make a statement over a loudspeaker.
Other than that it may also be something tangible, such as a toy or a cookie. It may be beneficial to adopt a token system for older children, in which youngsters get a sticker for each period of excellent conduct. When a specified amount of rewardearned stickers are used, the game is considered complete.
Furthermore, providing students with a reward helps to encourage good and proper conduct among kids in your class. By rewarding students for excellent behaviors such as following class rules, being courteous to one another, and maintaining safety as a priority, you may encourage positive behaviors to be expressed in your classroom. Teachers are able to devote more time to lesson material and interactive activities that engage students in learning rather than to classroom discipline as a result of good student conduct.
Next is if student success leads to student happiness, and in order to have a classroom full of happy kids, instructors could consider using a reward system. Offering incentives to kids who are productive in their study both at home and at school may motivate them to continue their learning. Students are more likely to be motivated to be more productive when they get rewards because they experience a sense of pride and accomplishment.
Finally, When students feel a feeling of belonging and respect in the classroom, they are more likely to experience intrinsic drive to study, according to research. When evaluative components of the classroom are de-emphasized and students feel that they have some influence over the learning environment, internalization may be facilitated more effectively. Furthermore, giving students with activities that are tough yet attainable, as well as a justification for participating in different learning activities, might help them to become more intrinsically motivated to complete such tasks.
HOW MIGHT THE INCREASE OF ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOUR BE A DISADVANTAGE FOR STUDENTS INTRINSICALLY MOTIVATED TO LEARN?
Intrinsic motivation student has the ability to learn without wanting to getting external reward and they usually motivate themselves to learn because they are willing. While extrinsic motivation student mostly depends on rewards to learn something. If teachers regularly give reward to drive positive behavior, later on, the student will be bored with the same reward and they will demand more expensive reward. Don’t forget that the institution of learning is established for every child to go through learning process to make them more prepared for their own future. But, if the student learns not by himself wanting to learn, how long do you thing the knowledge he gets will last? If a student applies adaptive behavior to get reward, do you think he will still learn if there’s no reward? That’s why school should put limitation on the use of concrete rewards since it can be a disadvantage mostly for students who are intrinsically motivated to learn.
Kids that always get reward after competing in certain task given by the teacher
in class can influence his classmates either positive or negative way. He or she can
drive motivation away or give motivation to his fellow classmates. As an example of
negative influence, an extrinsically motivated student said to his fellow classmate
behind teachers back “There’s no need for you to study properly from its root. You just
need to memorize properly and know how to answer it so you can get the reward from
teacher”. In this situation, we can conclude that this kid learns only to get the reward.
While student who are intrinsically motivated will spend more time to study each
knowledge properly because of their passion and love to learn. Some of intrinsically
motivated student take time longer time to understand certain knowledge better.
Extrinsically motivated student can promote bad example to intrinsically motivated
student. Furthermore, if intrinsically motivated student happens to always need to
compete with extrinsically motivated student, he or she will feel pressure or feel that
the learning process is no fun anymore and later, it will result to their passion for
learning decrease or extinct.
The use of concrete rewards to increase adaptive behaviors can create
competitive nature among student. It’s great to create healthy and positive
environment but there’ also a bad side to it. As a matter of fact, competition can make
student develop self-discipline but if teachers not properly handling competition in
education, it can discourage learning.
Some student can drive themselves to learn while others need encouragement
or motivation and that’ s where we need the present of external stimulus which is
reward. Once the reward is present, the student aim will change toward the reward.
But what happen if the reward is easily given? The student will lose its independent
self and tend to cling on the reward. In certain cases, if the reward is no longer serve,
the student will no longer follow the adaptive behaviors. The dependency to the reward
may lead to the changes of attitude of some student. Imagine, a kid always gets the
latest toy whenever he does homework, but one day, when his aunty take care or him,
she didn’t give toys to the kid after he finish his homework. He asks many times and
still didn’t get the toy. So, he starts to throw tantrum because of the privileged he
usually got no longer exist. Later on, the kid starts to ignore his homework as a protest.
It’s the same as the student case, when there’s no longer reward, so they no longer
want to develop adaptive behaviors. So, in the end, the intrinsically motivated student
who are willing to learn becomes unwilling to learn. That’s the reason why teacher
should plan properly on when to us the concrete reward.
Other than that, Intrinsic motivation also defined as the doing of an activity for
its inherent satisfaction rather than for some separable consequence. When
intrinsically motivated, a person is moved to act for the fun or challenge entailed rather
than because of external products, pressures, or rewards. Intrinsic motivation occurs
when students are engaged because of internal rewards, like a love of learning or
interest in a subject. When a student has an intrinsic desire, he or she does not require
any form of incentive or punishment to do things because the activity itself has been
able to meet the satisfaction and the internal needs of the student. This statement
makes it clear that not all behaviors can formed through a reinforcement scheme. This
is because there are certain behaviors it is done because the individual in question
gets some form of satisfaction internal or an intrinsic motivation resulting from it
(Mahmood Nazar Mohamed, 1990: 294).
Behavior modification is a way of managing classroom discipline and is
appropriately used to address problematic behaviors, whether negative or positive.
The purpose of using behavior modification is to change the negative behavior or
misbehavior of students detected in the classroom to positive behavior and then
resolve the behavior. These steps are done to create a disciplined and conducive
classroom climate so that teaching and learning activities run smoothly.
Interpersonal methods are things related to the way people are treated another.
There are many types of good interpersonal skills such as communication, conflict
management, and empathy for others. Communication skills are one of those
interpersonal skills good that people can use in their daily lives. Communication is very
important in understanding the world around and others. Students are also able to build
relationships with new people when communicating which is effectively intertwined. In
addition, students are able to communicate well with everyone when we come up with
ideas that build discussion. Conflict resolution can also be made when effective
communication occurs. In conclusion, communication is important for interpersonal as
it plays a large role in adaptive skills.
A person forms perceived abilities from the assessment of his abilities by others.
Perceived abilities from the assessment regarding his actual abilities. The higher a
student’s achievement, the more likely the student is to assess himself or herself as
capable. These perceived abilities affect how the student feels about himself. Students
with high perceived abilities are more likely to have self-confidence. These students
love challenges, have a curious nature and act independently to achieve skills.
Individual behaviors and tasks are influenced by their abilities and ways of controlling
situations. A positive self -concept gives confidence to the individual that he or she is
capable of performing a task. In addition, individuals can determine their own tasks.
He will be involved in the task as well as the goals that bring success to him. An
individual will only have a self -concept that he is capable of and can control his efforts
if he has the intrinsic motivation to strive high. There are various ways that can be done
to help students in improving their intrinsic motivation.
In conclusion, the relationship between teachers and students is forged through
teaching and learning in schools. Teachers should observe teaching and learning in
the context of using materials that aid in teaching. In addition, teachers also need to
be aware of the processes experienced during teaching, namely the implicit elements
that stimulate the smooth process of teaching and learning in the classroom. Motivation
in learning cannot deny the presence of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in
approaching human motivation.
WHAT ARE THE EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE POTENTIAL FOR CONCRETE REWARDS TO DIMINISH INTRINSIC MOTIVATION FOR A GIVEN TASK?
Extrinsic motivation (concrete rewards) involves doing something to obtain
something else. Concrete rewards are things given to the students by others, like
grades, free time, and other things. Extrinsic motivation is often influenced by external
incentives such as rewards and punishments. It is a tangible recognition of one's
endeavor. While Intrinsic motivation involves the internal motivation to do something
for its own sake. An intrinsic reward is an intangible award of recognition, a sense of
achievement, or a conscious satisfaction. Below are the educational implications of the
potential for concrete rewards to diminish intrinsic motivation for a given task.
• Undermine a student’s desire or passion to learn.
According to Tegano, Moran, and Sawers (1991), as cited in Eisenberger,
Pierce, & Cameron (1996), "students who initially display a high level of interest in a
task, an expected reward makes them much less likely to take risks or approach a task
with a playful or experimental attitude. For example, the student could possibly behave
well or study harder only when he or she is offered a concrete reward. Indirectly, It
diminished intrinsic motivation.
• Decrease creativity and intrinsic motivation
The presentation of a reward orients the student to goal-relevant stimuli and
diverts attention from the task and environment that may be used to achieve a creative
solution. Students who are motivated by extrinsic factors complete activities in order
to receive a concrete reward. As a result, it will diminish intrinsic motivation because
they will not work out events on their own but only work to receive a reward like grades,
candy, free time, and other things.
• Negative effects on students' future learning and motivation
The concrete reward diverts motivation away from the achievement of learning
itself and toward an external reward in which the outcome is merely a representation
of the produced behaviour and not what the student internalised or learned due to the
activity. As a result, the use of extrinsic motivators has negative effects on the future
learning and motivation of students. Indirectly, it will diminish intrinsic motivation.
• Lead to helplessness in the face of difficulty as well as selfconsciousness
Henderlong and Lepper (2002) found that when praise is given for exceptionally
easy tasks, it can lead students to believe that they are of low ability level and that their
competence and relatedness will negatively affect their intrinsic motivational
orientation. Because praise is evaluative in nature, it can instil a sense of self-worth
that can lead to helplessness in the face of difficulty as well as self-consciousness
(Kamina & Dweeck, 1999, as cited in Henderlong & Lepper). Giving verbal
reinforcement to students may decrease their intrinsic motivation and have other
negative effects on them.
• The student could possibly behave well or study harder only when he or she is offered a concrete reward.
This could have significant implications because students could display a lower
level of achievement or effort if the rewards are eliminated at some point. Apart from
not being the best learning strategy, it could affect them long-term as, in the real world,
people are not always rewarded constantly.
• Students would anticipate a shift from learning for the sake of learning to learning in order to earn a reward.
This would undermine the foundation on which traditional institutions of higher
learning are built. Dependence on extrinsic rewards may cause problems later in life
(post-school) when there are not typically extrinsic rewards for learning.
• Students will refuse to change their behavior.
If used incorrectly or too often, concrete rewards can cause students to become
set in their ways. Change is a constant in school because every day is a different task.
Students need to adapt to stay competitive. However, if students are accustomed to
concrete rewards for specific behaviours, they may be resistant to change because
they think they might not be rewarded for a different kind of behavior. Students need
to know that concrete rewards are related to outcomes, not just their behavior.
CONCLUSION
The enthusiasm that should be shown to the students is the competition
between them. This is because although rewards are great for giving a paradigm shift
to students to be more diligent. But these days it is very easy for humans to hope for
something without having to properly.
The more perfect thing is where parents and teachers also work together to
give them moral support. In addition, every activity they participate in has the support
of all parties. That can also be the reward of mental psychology to continue to succeed.
Therefore, teachers and parents need to work together to create a healthy
atmosphere such as getting attention and support for what they are doing. When it
comes to the learning process, motivation is the most critical factor to consider. No
matter how well a teacher teaches, if a student is not motivated, it is unlikely that the
intended outcomes would be achieved. Positive reinforcement is one method of
assisting pupils in remaining motivated while studying. Positive reinforcement includes
a variety of methods, the most common of which are prizes, which are most often
utilised by instructors in schools. Indeed, incentives are the most powerful motivators
in anyone's life, and this is especially true for students.
Conclusion is, students that get incentives will almost always be motivated to
retain their current levels of performance or to aim for greater levels of accomplishment.
Furthermore, the influence might be seen by their other students as well. Their buddies
will likewise strive to do their best in order to gain the benefits that have been made
available.
REFERENCES
- Santrock, J. W. (n.d.) Educational Psycology. Dallas: University of Texas
- Wagner, K (February 2007). Intrinsicially Motivated Classrooms a Perspective For Teachs. All Regis University Theses.
- Journal of Student Engagement: Education matters
- Mahmood Nazar Mohamed, 1990: 294
- John W. Santrock, 2021, Educational Psychology
