成就动机理论在中国教育背景下的教学实践中的应用

摘要：踊被认为是推动人们不断前进直至他们完成一项任务，以获得成就感或外部奖励的驱动力，当代主流的动机理论是成就动机理论，成就动机理论可以解释为什么有的学生享受学习并学有所成，而有的学生则厌恶学习。因此，它可以用来指导和调整教师的教学实践，从而达到提高学生的学习动机的目的。本文将从能力自我感知论，自我决定论和成就目标论三个方面来探讨如何帮助中国教师培养出有强烈学习动机的学生。

关键词：学习动机；能力自我感知；自我决定；成就目标

[Abstract]：Motivation is regarded as a driving power that impels people to keep on going until they finish a task for getting an external reward or only for a sense of achievement. Currently， a mainstream motivation theory is achievement motivation. Achievement motivation theory could account for why some students enjoy and achieve success in school learning while others are disgusted of learning. Therefore， it can be adopted to instruct and adjust teacher’s teaching practice in order to enhance learner’s motivation. In this article， this theory is especially discussed from the aspects of learners’ self-perception of competence， self-determination and learners’ achievement goals with the purpose of instructing Chinese teachers to cultivate strongly motivated Chinese learners

[Key words]： achievement motivation、self-perception of competence self-determination、achievement goal

[Introduction]：

In every society， some students embark industriously on study and achieve success in school study， while others are disgusted with school study and fail in it. Some enjoy learning in and out of classroom and satisfy with their learning achievement while others hate learning and are anxious for it. Even more seriously， a huge number of students fail to sufficiently tap their own learning potentials and then drop out of school. Lack of motivation to learn could account for students’ those two distinct behaviours. This phenomenon elicits the question of what is the definition of motivation. Motivation is regarded as a driving power that impels people to keep on going until they finish a task for getting an external reward or only for a sense of achievement.

Motivational psychologists divide the definition of motivation in more details and they maintain that motivation is to examine the choice of behaviour， latency of behaviour， intensity of behaviour， persistency of behaviour and cognitions and affective elements accompanying the behaviour. Motivation is a constantly developing field that has underwent much progress in terms of theory in its comparatively short history. Currently， a mainstream motivation theory is achievement motivation. It focuses its visual angel on academic field in order to investigate how to build a bridge between motivation theory and authentic teaching practice and how to let motivation theory facilitate teaching instructions by enhancing learners’ motivation. Recently， achievement motivation theory penetrates into the area of learners’ self-perception of competence， self-determination and learners’ achievement goals which represent a current valuable perspective toward motivation. In this article， those three principles are particularly discussed in order to explore the great value and contributions that the achievement motivation theory could make in the educational field， and to examine how achievement motivation theory could endow teachers with implications and inspirations in terms of teaching techniques to enhance learners’ motivation， especially in the Chinese teaching context.

Brief introduction about historical development of motivation theories

Diverse motivation theories were proposed sequentially in a relatively short history which indicates that the development of motivation theories experience a process of a series of reform. In the 60th， motivation field went through a significant upheaval from mechanism to cognition. Then it ushered in the new theories and concepts like self-efficacy， causal attribution， and attribution theory among 70th and 90th. Novel research works toward the direction of self-perception of competence principle， self-determination theory and achievement goal structure in the achievement motivation area.

Self-perception of competence principle

White （1959） is a forthgoer to introduce into the concept of self-perception of competence. He proposed that people are intrinsically motivated to develop their competence， and that feeling of competence enhance their intrinsic interest in activities. Babdura （1994） defined the self-perception of competence as students’ own evaluation in how well they could perform in a learning task and how accountable they are for own performance. Since then， many motivation theorists had demonstrated a great enthusiasm in investigating the indivisible relationship between self-perception of competence and intrinsic motivation. A unified result maintained by those motivation theorists is that feeling of competence strengthens intrinsic motivation and positive affection while felling of incompetence weakens intrinsic motivation. This result can be reflected in Pintrich & De Groot’ s statement（1990） “ Students who believe in their own ability to do well in a task engage in more metacognitive strategies， and are more likely to persist at a task than students who do not believe they can perform the task”. Thus， their statement signifies that students’ positive self-evaluation of competence enhance their intrinsic motivation. According to another motivation expert Gottfried （1990）， students who perceive themselves as academically competent tend to be more highly motivated in school task than those who perceive themselves as academically incompetent. Accordingly， Gottfried also emphasizes that self-perception of competence exerts an essential influence on determining students’ motivation orientation. Therefore， it is not difficult to reach the conclusion that it is significant for teachers to adopt appropriate methods to improve learners’ self-positive perception of competence with an ultimate purpose of enhancing learners’ intrinsic motivation. This theory principle needs a special attention from Chinese teachers. China is in a typical examination oriented learning context where teachers is inclined to preoccupy with examination standards and syllabus requirement. Under the guide of examination standards and syllabus requirement， teachers are apt to skip steps in their teaching practice in order to help learners rapidly achieve higher scores. Hence， the real situation in China is that teachers often teach exam-related material and assign extremely advanced task to students regardless of students’ current skill. In such situation， students often experience a serious sense of frustration because they cannot accomplish the tasks successfully. This type of teaching mode definitely is detrimental to students’ positivity and intrinsic motivation. This arouses a realistic issue about how to seek solution to this universal problem in Chinese teaching context. A feasible technique to take is to adjust the difficult degree of the task. Stipek （2002） claims that adjusting the difficulty degree of tasks can increase learners’ innate interest by providing them opportunities to go through the process of gradual competence developing. Information processing theorists contend that optimal prompt and interests derives primarily from a moderate gap between a task and individual’s skill level. Thus， it is not difficult to find that any task which could stimulate learners’ motivation hold the nature of a moderate difficult degree. Based on those theories and findings， a qualified Chinese teacher should be able to help learners establish a positive self-perception of competence by selecting assignments which are moderately challenging and only need learners’ real effort to accomplish. Another ideal technique to choose is to personalise each individual student’s leaning process and assignment. Dornyei’s （2001） declares that a specific role and personalised assignment for everybody is necessary which can bring individual’s advantages into full play and enhance learners’ confidence. In Chinese teaching context， this technique is extremely applicable. Because Chinese classrooms are often big sized and teachers rarely pay attention to every student simultaneously. Unified tasks are often assigned without consideration of individual competence discrepancy， therefore， they could be a great challenge for some students while they are too easy to intrigue interests for another groups of students. Such sort of tasks indeed makes students feel confusing and frustrating. Thus， recently Chinese educational authority advocates a teaching mode of teaching students in accordance with aptitude which could address this problem （In order to address this problem， recently Chinese educational authority advocates a teaching mode by which teachers teach students in accordance with their aptitude）. This advocated teaching mode mainly aims at creating a flexible and personalised learning process for everybody. To be specific， for instance， teachers could design a free writing task only with a topic which could elicit students’ free brain storming. Students could write everything they like or they are skilled at and avoid their weakness. This teaching mode certainly fortifies learners’ self-confidence and positive self-perception of competence in academic tasks.

Self-determination theory

Deci & Ryan （1985） are pioneers who initially propose self-determination theory. They propose that people spontaneously want to believe that they are involving in activities by their own determination―because they want to rather than because they have to. Their theory makes a contribution to differentiate two distinct reasons for people’s engagement in an activity. One is intrinsic reason which explains that people perform an activity for the internally-rewarding feeling of competence. While the other is extrinsic motive which states that people’s behavior is motivated by external constraint such as achieving rewards or pleasing another person. They further claim that people are more likely to be intrinsically motivated to engaged in an activity when their motivation is internal than external. According to this theory， activities and situations should be designed in an intriguing and scientific way to let students feel that they want to do rather than being driven by external force. When it comes to the practical implications， Deci， Ryan（1985） and their colleagues figure out the benefits of providing students more choices and undermining external constrains， which would release feelings of control and promote feeling of self-determination. Cordova & Lepper also （1996） state that students are most motivated when they are given choices and hold some control over their academic work. Those findings demonstrate that the significance of diverse choices is for feeling of self-determination and high intrinsic motivation. How this theoretical knowledge can be applied in the actual Chinese classroom is worth considering. The status quo in Chinese teaching context is that controlled classrooms become a mainstream in which the teacher formulates and decides all the materials and procedures for a rapid and convenient knowledge impartment. Students are always told what to do， how and when to do it and their learning is impelled by an external force. Under such circumstance， they do not have any chance to cultivate a sense of personal responsibility and techniques for managing their own affairs. Thus， an educational reform addressing this problem is inevitable. It can be implemented based on self-determination theory. The strategies below are feasible. An effective strategy is to increase learner’s participation in planning the learning process and to supply them with diverse choices in the process of planning. For instance， teachers could permit learners to choose as many respects of the learning process as possible， like activity， tasks， materials， resources， topics， assignment， pace of learning etc. Students could flexibly determine the even more detailed aspects of the learning process， like the form of assignment. For example， after learning a narrative， students might choose among several assignments. They can choose to jot down a sequel to the narrative story， to recall a similar experience of their own or write a summary of the narrative. All those adjustment methods could decrease external control and intensify Chinese learners’ perception of self-determination. In addition， another useful strategy is to encourage self-assessment and peer-assessment. Allowing learners to conduct self-assessment and peer-assessment hold the advantage of raising learners’ awareness about errors and providing them with an authentic sense of involving in the learning process. All those strategies presented above effectively enhance learners’ self-determination and intrinsic motivation.

Achievement goal construct

Motivation is often defined as a goal-directed activity. Goal orientations are connected to a serial of motivational and cognitive processes， which may have a vital impact on performance outcome. Thus goal orientations are valuable area for motivation research. The goal-orientation theory proposed by Ames & Ames （1989） divides goal-orientations into two types： task-focused and ego-focused. Students adopting a task-focused goal are mainly concerned with pursuing learning goals and mastering new skills. Students who establish an ego-focused goal concentrate on demonstrating adequate ability and outperforming others. Those two types of achievement goals lead to distinct consequences in students’ motivation orientation and achievement performance. Graham & Weiner （1996） make a comparison about those two types of goal orientations. They explain that students who seek ego goals often feel stressful and anxious facing challenge， thus they are exceptionally sensitive to informational indicator that might signify their low ability. Thus， ego-focused orientation undermines motivation， especially for students who lack of confidence in their ability. By contrast， students who pursue task goals hold a more positive and optimistic attitude towards their learning performance. Jagacinki & Nicholls’s statement could be a good complementary specification to Graham & Weiner’s research （1984）. They state that compared to ego-focused learners， task-focused individuals rarely attribute failure to low ability， feel more satisfied with success owing to effort， and are more intrinsically interested in the task and virtually perform better. Those studies above suggest that task-oriented goal is valuable while ego-oriented goal is obstructive， especially for students who doubt their aptitude. Actually， both task-oriented goal and ego-oriented goal play a significant role in Chinese students’ learning. Chinese culture places great emphasis on studying hard. Students are motivated by task-oriented goal in some degree. However， Chinese education places a greater emphasis on ego-oriented goal than task-oriented goal. This result may be attained from the fact that all the students prepare hard to get a high scores for university entrance examination. Chinese educational system primarily aims at helping students to pass the university entrance examination which fosters competitiveness and ego-focused goal orientation while does not favor the pursuit of task-focused goal orientation. Besides， Chinese culture is a collectivistic culture which stresses filial piety and family solidarity. Thus students want to have an excellent achievement to cater for parents’ satisfaction. Exposing to such context and enduring double pressure， Chinese students tend to express tremendous anxiety and concern in their learning which is eventually detrimental for students’ motivation and learning performance. Confronting this situation， Chinese teachers should adjust their teaching strategies to guide students in the right track of goal orientation. A highly recommended strategy is to swift learners’ attention to the intrinsic value of task rather than outperforming others. Teachers can assign tasks which fit into learners’ interests by adding fantasy， novel， and humorous element. An interesting and simulating task makes learners eager to learn. Teachers can also provide script comments in students’ exercise books instead of only grades. This strategy can turn students’ attention from outperforming others to making progress in study. Those strategies could steer students to a task-focused goal orientation which is closely relative to a higher intrinsic motivation.

[Conclusion]：

This article investigates mainstream researches on achievement motivation and discusses how those theories can be applied to Chinese classrooms to generate and improve Chinese students’ achievement motivation. In a word， achievement motivation theory is a worth-exploring field that can be adopted to instruct teachers to cultivate self-confident， autonomous and good goal-oriented learners who value learning both in and out of classroom and throughout their lives.

Reference：

Ames， C & Ames， R 1989， Research on Motivation in Education： Goals and Cognition， Academic Press， New York.

Bandura， A 1994， self-efficacy： The exercise of control， New York： Freeman.

Cordova， D & Lepper ， M 1996， Intrinsic motivation and the process of learning： Beneficial effects of contextualization， personalization， and choice， Journal of Educational Psychology， vol. 88， pp715-730.

Deci，E & Ryan， R 1985， Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behaviour， New York： Plenum Press.

Dornyei， Z 2001， Teaching and Research Motivation， Harlow： Longman.

Gottfried， A 1990， ‘Academic intrinsic motivation in young elementary school children’， Jounal of Educational Psychology， no.82， pp525-538.

Graham， S & Weiner， B， 1996， ‘Theories and principles of motivation’ Cognition and Motivation， no. 4， pp 63-84.

Jagacinski， C & Nicholls， J 1984， ‘Conceptions of ability and related affects in task involvement and ego involvement’， Journal of Educational Psychology， no.76， pp909-919.

Printrich， P.R， & De Groot， E.V， 1990， ‘Motivational and self-regulated learning components of classroom academic performance’， Journal of Educational Psychology， vol. 1， pp 33-40

Stipek ， D 2002， Motivation to learn： Integrating Theory and Practice， Person Education， Boston.

White，R， 1959， ‘Motivation reconsidered： The concept of competence’， Psychological Review， no.66， pp297-333

作者介：

覃靓（1986- ）女，汉族，重庆万州人，硕士，毕业于澳大利亚卧龙岗大学，现工作于重庆三峡学院外国语学院。研究方向为英语教学。主要研究兴趣：二语习得，英语教学法，语言测试学等。