Meaning and Importance of Motivation

Learning and motivation are two of the most important elements in education. Without motivation, teaching cannot succeed. If learning means reaching the competencies a curriculum sets, then motivation is the art that makes that learning succeed. Through motivation, a teacher can move a whole class forward in an effective way.

Motivation is of two kinds: inborn and acquired. Many factors affect how motivated a learner is, and there are many ways to increase motivation in learning. Learning is a complex task, so the factors that influence it have to be managed properly. Problems that come up during learning can make it even more complicated and difficult. Such problems should be recognised and dealt with in time.

Picture two students in class 10 who learn the same lesson from the same teacher. One of them dreams of studying science after the exam, so she revises every evening. The other cannot see any reason to study, so he gets bored a few minutes after opening his book. They have the same teacher, the same book and the same time. The only difference is the force pushing them forward from inside. That force is motivation.

The English word motivation comes from the Latin word Movers. In Latin, Movers means to move forward or to be active. So, by the meaning of the word itself, motivation means moving ahead or becoming active.

You can see this meaning in everyday life. A boy who has spent the whole day playing hears that there is a test tomorrow, and he gets up and starts his homework. Whatever moved him from sitting still to getting to work is motivation.

The meaning of the word gives the basic idea. To make it clearer, psychologists and educationists have defined motivation in their own ways. Three of these definitions are given below.

Put side by side, the three definitions show that motivation does three jobs:

• It starts the work of learning by arousing the learner.
• It keeps that work going instead of letting it stop halfway.
• It gives the work a direction, so the learner moves towards the behaviour that is expected.

Educationists agree that motivation is a process used to keep learning going and to carry it through to completion. To motivate someone is to give them energy, zeal, eagerness and enthusiasm. A person's behaviour is directed by their inner desires, wants and needs. Every kind of learning needs some motivation behind it, and people act on the basis of that motivation.

Motivation is the element that helps a person put behaviour into action. That is why children need motivation to become interested and active in learning. Motivation is the process that brings a child's wishes and wants to life. Learning without motivation cannot be effective. Because motivation is the foundation of learning, it plays a key role in classroom teaching.

Think of a girl who wants to play the madal at her school's annual function. She practises every day and does not give up even when her hands hurt, because her wish to play well at the event keeps pushing her on. Her inner want has given her energy and eagerness, and that is what carries her learning through to the end.

The importance of motivation in learning can be set out in five points:

• It helps bring about the change in behaviour that learning aims for.
• It helps the learner choose the right behaviour and so moves learning forward.
• It helps teaching and learning continue without breaking off.
• It helps make learning effective.
• It gives direction to the teaching and learning process and helps it reach success.

You can see these points at work in a classroom. When a teacher praises a student's honest effort, the student repeats that good behaviour the next day. When a lesson opens in an interesting way, students stay attentive until it ends. In this way motivation steers behaviour in the right direction, keeps learning from breaking off, and finally carries it to success.

A word used very often in the learning process is motivator. Motivation can be aroused in a learner only by using different kinds of motivators in the right way. A teacher's praise, a prize, an interesting game or a dream about the future can all act as motivators.

Different scholars have divided motivation in their own ways. Some call its kinds biological and social, while others call them internal and external. Here motivation is divided into two groups: inborn or biological motivation, and acquired motivation.

The motivators a person is born with are called inborn motivation. Nobody has to learn them or be taught them. Hunger, thirst, sexual urge, desire, sudden strong feeling, irritation, anger, sleep and pain are all inborn motivators. They arrive on their own, along with birth.

These motivators push human behaviour forward in the expected way. Looking for food when hungry, looking for water when thirsty and sleeping when tired are all examples. Because these qualities are also basic human needs, this type is also called biological motivation. A person cannot suppress or control such motivators. This kind of motivation develops naturally.

Its effect shows up in the classroom too. A student who came to school without breakfast finds it hard to concentrate by midday, because hunger keeps pulling his attention towards food. A student who did not sleep well at night starts to doze in class. This is why a good teacher also pays attention to students' biological needs.

Acquired motivation is the knowledge, skills and experience a person needs after birth in order to live a meaningful life or to succeed. Nobody is born with this kind of motivation. It is the motivator that comes from school or society and is needed to change human behaviour.

Acquired motivation is needed for a person to keep learning from friends, teachers, parents and elders, and so to become an effective and steady learner. It is called acquired because it is gained, as the need arises, with the help of other people. Acquired motivation helps a person succeed, fit into society and learn effectively.

Here is an example. When her grandmother fell ill, a girl watched a nurse at the hospital care for her with great kindness. From then on the girl dreamed of becoming a nurse, and she began to study science with real interest. She was not born with this wish. She gained it from something she saw in society, so it is acquired motivation.

Acquired motivation can itself be divided into two parts: individual and social.