Chapter 11

1.      Consider the theories of motivation that we discussed in class.   Which theories of motivation are most helpful and instructive for you?  How can they enhance motivation and affect your students? 

Since I am going to be a teacher for the deaf and hard of hearing I am really going to need to take multiple motivational theories and alternate which ones I will be using depending on the student’s needs.  First off I am going to need to take the time to learn what will fuel my students.  As Maslow’s Theory points out (Ormrod 373) if the physiological needs are not first met then it will be difficult to build upon the sandy foundation.  If the students are hungry then they will not have the ability to focus on the materials at hand.  I want to be sure that my students feel safe and that they can trust me in order to fully be able to function in class.  Knowing they can ask questions in class and not worry about feeling insecure will help to get all course material flowing.  Since my students are going to have more obstacles to overcome then hearing students there will be many chances for the flood waters to start bombarding our building blocks and if the foundation is not solid then at any moment our castle could use some repair.  Once the students feel like they belong we can finally work towards building their self-esteem.  Deaf and hard of hearing students that have parents that are not fluent in Sign Language (whether ASL or a Signed-English format) will have low self-esteem to start with before even loading them down with new terminology and classroom theories.  With building their self-esteem and helping them to see how they can excel beyond what others think someone that is deaf or hard of hearing should be able to do, then my students will have a chance to view the great potential truly inside of them! 

I would truly hope to have some students that are fueled by intrinsic motivation, but understand that a fair amount will probably be more of an extrinsic motivational route (Ormrod 364).  Just depending on what style brings the most out of my students will alter either a rewards or goal motivational plan.  I would hope to be able to get the students’ parents involved and aim towards also letting science projects work as self-esteem builders.  If you can motivate and show a student how much fun science can be then many doors will begin to open.  Once a door is open then the possibilities will be endless!