Growth and Self-Determination to Maintain Motivation as a Teacher

¶ … dealt explicitly with motivating students to learn, the concept of self-motivation presents an altogether different quandary to teachers. According to Jere Brophy, much research has been done into maintaining motivation in situations where there is a readily perceivable goal or outcome; he gives the example of reading a book. However, he maintains that the challenge of mastering a particular discipline or skill leaves us attempting to respond to a process without an object. Given the lack of this object, we are left without a finish line and its talismanic appeal.

My decision to enter teaching was one that was based on my desire for a specific lifestyle, my perceived aptitudes, and what one might call a natural proclivity for filling the role of an instructor that is in turn based on an interest in the subject matter and extroversion. However, the struggle with motivation is one that results mainly from fatigue and a sense that there is no forward motion. In students, such concerns are overcome, as there is a constant sense of forward motion.

Brophy contends that motivation results in students when learning goals and activities are either already perceived as self-relevant or can become so perceived because they lie within the learners' motivational zones of proximal development. Whereas the first of these contentions doesn't apply to the teacher, the second is of interest to us because teachers may create goals for themselves in the same sense that goals are created for students. However, illustrating such sets of goals presents us with a different challenge entirely.

Both sets of goals rely on one's ability to find a motivational zone of proximal development. However, a teacher behaves optimally when he or she is able to repeat the task of presenting material or concepts to students in a way that they find appealing and able to digest. Whereas a teacher can create rewards, a teacher is rewarded in other ways; notably remuneration, tenure, and the positive feedback of others.

It is not believed to be the students' responsibility to provide this feedback, but it is almost psychologically essential for them to do this in order for the teacher to continue to perform well. As a teacher, I will attempt to overcome boredom with my work by constantly finding new ways to educate myself. By this, I hope to avoid such problems.

However, I will also try to look for new sources of feedback, so that I don't only look to my students to judge the day-to-day validity of my teaching skills. Peer organizations have traditionally been an aspect of this; involvement in activities related to the school has also played their part. These activities might enhance my role as a teacher more than would traditional hobbies outside school; fellowship with other teachers could facilitate the implementation of theme-based education.

Howard Gardener, a pioneer of this method of education, explains it by saying that several teachers co-ordinate a part of the curriculum around a theme and have students engage in activities relating to it. This method of teaching reflects research done into learning styles and multiple intelligences. When neophyte teachers are compared with their counterparts with ten or more years of experience, one notices that both have a distinct set of strengths.

Younger teachers will be quick to implement new methodologies based on learning styles, but in many respects their approach may seem wooden to those with more skill. However, once teachers are comfortable with their quality of teaching, it is difficult for them to adopt even the most intuitive innovations. In my teaching career, I've taken efforts to try to counteract this duality by getting more schooling and also finding a mentor who has taught at the same grade level as I for more than 20 years.

This way, I hope to avoid some of the initial mistakes that condemn teachers to meeting new teaching innovations and even new technology in the classroom, with hostility. What we know about learning styles allows us to present information in a way that students will find more receptive, but an element of trial and error still exists in finding a suitable methodology.

Often, teachers go with what teaching style suits their personality - for instance, an extroverted teacher who commands attention while speaking will have a natural proclivity to teach using lectures and presentations, whereas a naturally analytical teacher will rely on providing feedback to a student's work. As I progress into my career as a teacher, the employment of these and other methods will allow me to determine what I am most comfortable with. Finding my preferred teaching methodology, and through it a reputation among students and peers, will provide me.