Motivation

Today in class we watched a TED talk video where Dan Pink talked about motivation. It was called “Dan Pink on The Surprising Science of Motivation”. Here is the video:





He stated motivation comes from autonomy, mastery and purpose. When a person is intrinsic motivated rather than extrinsic motivated then they are more likely to do well, as a student I think a lot of my motivation is extrinsic, as I want high grades to get into university, but it is intrinsic, as I want to become an elementary teacher and feel very passionate about it. I have always been an average student. Last year in college I worked hard to get my C’s, but last semester I did very well. I even surprised myself when I achieved the principals list. I worked very hard that semester, as I was very worried about getting into university next year, but I was very stressed the whole semester, and therefore, not very happy. My performance was high, but I did not enjoy what I was doing. I was going through the motions to get the grades. I hope one day I reach mastery in my learning, as I will hopefully look forward to do the work and enjoy it. I think I will feel this way when I become an elementary teacher, because I feel very passionate about working with children. I think the big thing about motivation is being happy. If you are not happy about what you are doing then you are not going to do well and want to do it, as you will have to force yourself to do the task at hand. I hope when I become a teacher I help my students feel motivated in what they are supposed to learn. I think teachers help student’s motivation, as student’s can tell if a teacher wants to be there or not. For instance, I have a teacher this semester that you can tell that he does not care about the class I am in. He tells us what else he has to do and that he is very busy. I feel that my class is on the back burner for him and I feel that is not fair to me and the other students; because the teacher is not very motivated in teaching me, I am more very motivated in the course and learning from him. This course has a lot of assignments and I have trouble doing them, because the teacher does not care, so why should I? There are classes that I can tell that the teacher is passionate in what they are teaching; therefore, I feel more motivated in learning the course material. Since, they are passionate about the material they make the class more engaging and interesting. I hope to do this when I become a teacher.