Literature update

I have been spending quite some time over the past few weeks  researching literature based on motivation. At the start of my researching process I wanted to find out about ''motivation'' in general to give me an idea of the subject before expanding my knowledge on it.

I found out that psychology has a lot to do with motivation, motivation is in us all but there are many factors in which affect a student's motivation. For example; it could be their previous achievement history or their attributions to success or failure what either motivates them or de-motivates them. This is just one minor example and I have looked deep into the factors affecting motivation. Why have I done this? I asked myself this question the other day as I read my inquiry title which is ''What are the different strategies dance teachers use to create motivation?'' Firstly, I realised why I had spent so much time looking at theories of motivation and what affects and enhances student motivation. It was because in order to move on and look for strategies used to stimulate motivation, I needed to know what affects it in first place, allowing me to find valid and reliable strategies to motivate students. Secondly,  create? can teacher's really create motivation? Paula commented on this and it made me think that, actually no one can create motivation. We can stimulate and sustain motivation in a student but I suppose create wasn't the best word to use

I found five theories that seemed compatible, but some theorists had expanded more on what they were proposing, whilst other's argued certain points. I didn't want my literature review to be based on just theories of motivation. It was a good starting point for me to thoroughly research these theories but after all I am looking for strategies.

I have now came up with a new idea for my literature which is based on all of the research I have done but not with the structure I had originally planned and had in mind. One theorist I spent some time researching was John Keller, he came up with the ARCS model. He suggests there are four categories teachers need to consider before trying to enhance motivation. These are: attention, relevance, confidence and satisfaction. These four categories represent conditions required for a person to feel fully motivated. I am now working on condensing my research on the theories of motivation and relating it to these four categories.

Where I am at - Module 3

Hey,

Hope you all had a lovely summer off and feeling refreshed ready to start again!

Over summer I spent a lot of time researching literature related to my inquiry which is on motivation and how to motivate students in a dance class.

I have found that there is an awful lot been said about motivation and although I am wanting to find out about motivating students in a DANCE class, I seem to have got deep into researching motivation in general which has been very helpful as I can relate these theories to my own teaching practice, which is allowing me to use what has been said and see if it does have an effect on the students in my own classes.

I have also carried out 4 observations and I am now at the point of analysing these observations and relating what I seen in the obs to the literature I have researched. I carried out my first interview last week with newly devised questions that I put together after I received feedback from module 2. This interview didn't seem to give me the information I was hoping for so now I am back to re-thinking my questions and reflecting on why the interview didn't work? For example my very first question was how do you motivate your students? Well the teachers answer was obvious to me, ''It depends on the type of person and character'' This is what has been said in most of my researched lit, that motivation is down to the personality and behavior of the student and it is the teachers responsibility to know which strategies are best suited for different behaviors. So how can I change that question? That's where my thinking is now...I need to make my questions more specific! If any one has any ideas for me I would really appreciate it as I aim to carry out my next interview in the next week or so!

Hope everyone is doing well!

Mel
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