Motivation, Communication and Learning

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Introduction

In this paper the impact of motivation in learning will be considered and the correlation between communication, motivation and learning explored. A comparative analysis will be conducted of the basic criteria of behaviourism and humanism theories and a critical analysis will identify similar and distinctive characteristics of these theories. Will also focus on the attribution theory and its connection with the motivation to study. The analysis of the theory will provide an opportunity to identify the level of effectiveness of its use and if there are imperfections to analyze them. If teachers do not understand how students learn, then teachers have no acceptable ways of figuring out how to teach them.

Motivation for learning plays a significant role in the organization of educational process. Motivating learners is the essential task in education which can and should be managed. To identify motivation it is necessary to define the concept of motive. Motive is the inner prompting of an individual to a particular type of activity, including communication and behaviour which is associated with a specific satisfaction need. Deci and Ryan (1985) hold the view that intrinsic motivation is the natural tendency to seek out and conquer challenges in the pursuit of personal interest and using capabilities. When people are intrinsically motivated, they do not need stimulus because the activity itself is rewarding.

Motives may serve not only needs but individual interests, beliefs, attitudes and values. When motives encourage certain activities (in our case the process of learning) are not directly related to them they are called extrinsic to these activities. When the reasons are directly related to educational activities, then they are called intrinsic. In this case the individual is not really interested in the activity for its own sake, but only about what is gained by doing it. Extrinsic motives occur when activities are performed due to external factors such as pressure from relatives or teachers, achievement of certain position among peers. When a learner solves the problem, the extrinsic motivation of this action can be: the desire to get a good grade, to demonstrate the ability to solve problems, to achieve teacher's praise, etc. Intrinsic motives in this case are an interest in the process of solving the problem, results, etc. Intrinsic motives include interest in the process of activities, interest in the outcome, the desire for self-development. It should be considered that the motive is always on the one hand the intrinsic characteristic of learner's consciousness prompting to work. On the other hand, this inducement may originate externally from another person. Extrinsic and intrinsic motivation will be considered in the paragraphs devoted to behaviourism and humanism theories.

Communication is a complex process of establishing and developing contacts between people. Communication between people helps to develop and build the character. All teachers themselves need to know the subject, relate to the child correctly, assess the situation, time to draw conclusions and to express themselves creatively. Pedagogy is necessary to determine the ability to control communication with students to promote its positive impact on the individual and leveling negative motives. Realization of these possibilities needs to improve the efficiency of the educational process. It is important to note that pedagogical communication is a multifaceted process, during which communication gradually develops mutual understanding and interaction between the teacher and students. Without these skills teacher can hardly expect the trust of children, as well as the understanding and interest in the subject.

During conversation, people often consciously or unconsciously, tend to control the interlocutor to change their views in the right (for the speaker) direction. In other words, they have an impact on the behavior itself or the thinking of the interlocutor. A way of communication can influence when a person applies to consciousness, feelings and human experience in order to form his new installation. If an appeal to the emotions accompanied by the other person, it can affect not only the mind but also the feelings, and this, in turn, makes the information more convincing, increases the effectiveness of perception. The art of persuasion is the ability to win over others, it is logical to justify and explain their position and translate thought into speech.

1. Comparative analysis of the basic criteria of behaviourism and humanism theories

Behaviorists apply two main methodological approach to the study of behavior: observation in the laboratory, artificially created and under controlled conditions, and observation in the natural habitat. Most of the experiments carried out by animals behaviorists, establish of reactions in response to environmental influences transferred to humans. Behaviorism had shifted from experimental practice psychology studies human behavior to the study of animal behavior. Experiments with animals allowed implement better control over the research environment in relationships with behavioral reaction to it. The simpler the psychological and emotional condition being observed, the more assurance that the connection will not be investigated distorted concomitant psychological and emotional components.

According to the behavioral view, pioneered by theorists such as Pavlov (1927), Skinner (1953) and Watson (), an understanding of learner motivation begins with an analysis of rewards and incentives present in the learning environment. A reward is an attractive object or event supplied as a consequence of a particular behavior, and an incentive is an object or event that encourages or discourages behavior. For example the aim to get a good degree is an stimulus, but a good degree plays the role as an award.

Skinner concludes that punishment informs what not to do, but does not indicate what to do. Punishment is a major obstacle for learning. Punishable behaviors do not disappear, they always come disguised, or is linked by other forms of behavior.

If the teacher resorted to punishment as a reinforcements, promising to provide bad score, learner becomes more attentive and focused, so the teacher achieves positive results. However, by resorting to this kind of reinforcement constantly the teacher may face the opposite learner's reaction because there is the likelihood of disturbance. Eventually the punishment does not lead to the expected results and the punishment does not help the student.

Praise also has an impact on the student in different directions. When a learner puts a lot of effort into performing a task, praise will be perceived as a reward and motivation for further education will increase. However, if the learner was able to perform the task fairly simply, then praise will not have a strong influence on the motivation.

The behaviorist method is directed at the extrinsic motivation for learning. Motivating by the extrinsic approach means that there is a high probability that the acquired knowledge will be quickly forgotten when the expected reward is received, that could be a good grade, achieving summative accreditation or attaining wealth. When extrinsic motivation is not supported by the intrinsic, the whole learning process may fail. However, when extrinsic motivation is supported by intrinsic, and where intrinsic motivation dominates, success in learning is more likely.

Radical behaviorists such as Skinner(1953) and Watson(1924) take the stance that psychologists should study only external behavior environmental irritants and stimuli. But is it right ethically to conduct certain parallels between humans and animals? Life is multifaceted, and people are very versatile. Depending on the situation, where a person is, on the stage of the personal development, the problems they are facing, the most appropriate, the most useful may be one or other of the existing theoretical approaches in psychology. Consequently, pluralism is a perfectly natural phenomenon.

Humanistic psychology grew out of the need for a more positive outlook of the human personality than had been suggested in the theories of behaviorism. The main representatives of humanistic psychology are Rogers(1969) and Maslow(1970) they argue that people are born with the desire to grow, create and love that they have the ability to manage their lives. Humanism rejected the suggestion of behaviorist point of view, which is characterized as a deterministic oriented approach strengthened "stimulus-response" and the basic theories are built on the study of animals. Humanism considers human as fundamentally different from other animals, mainly because people are conscious beings and are able to think, they have a mind and language. Humanist's psychology experiments on animals, such as rats, pigeons or monkeys were given little value. The study of these animals can say very little about the human thought, behavior and experience.

The basic concepts of humanistic psychology are: firstly the emphasis on conscious experience is that usually distinguishes as the principle of humanistic psychology. Secondly distinguishing feature of humanistic psychology is belief in the holistic nature of human nature. Thirdly principle of humanistic psychology is a focus on free agency, spontaneity and creative power of the individual. Behaviorism does not agree with humanistic psychology direction as behaviorism just focuses on strict determination of human behavior. The last distinguishing feature is the principle of humanistic psychology, the study of all the factors and circumstances of human life. The humanistic approach certainly does not agree with behaviorism as behaviorists offer study only of individual facts, but not all.

Another factor that makes a comparison of behaviorism and humanistic psychology is their approach to motivation. According to behaviorism terms, external stimulus acts on the body and leads to a reaction. In this case stimulus can be positive and negative. Most often, the positive answer to the question "so what if I did?" And negative - "what if not?". Thus, in behaviorism theory the motivator appears as a stimulus. And the task of the body is to adapt and achieve a condition which is called homeostasis. Thus, behaviorists focus on biological orientation motives.

2. Critical evaluation

Behaviorism.

The main disadvantage of behaviorism is the underestimation of the complexity of mental activity, the excessive rapprochement psyche of animals and humans, ignoring the processes of consciousness, higher forms of learning, creativity and self-identity. Although some aspects of this trend appear simplistic and are unable to explain behavior in its entirety, the main achievement is that it has made the study of human action scientific rigor and showed how it can be controlled. The evolution of behaviorism demonstrated that its original principles cannot stimulate the progress of scientific knowledge about behavior. Even psychologists raised on these principles came to the conclusion about their failure, it is necessary to include in the main explanatory notions of psychology concepts, the internal "mental" plan and other behavior, and to address the physiological mechanisms of behavior.

· Behaviorism is not pointed at human's self-development, ignores the personal, individual characteristics, considering that using a variety of stimuli can be obtained by a person with the necessary qualities and arbitrary behavior;

· Behaviourists believe that everything is predetermined and depends only on the reflexes which control human's desire and needs;

· All mental phenomena are reduced to the reactions of the organism;

· Personality is not considered in general;

It should be noted that the conclusions which scientists made concerning this issue, were built on the basis of animal experiments, which were transferred to humans. Thus, it appears that the behaviorists did not distinguish the difference between man and animals, putting them on the same stage of development, which, in my opinion, is unacceptable.

Humanism.

The humanist approach was applied to a relatively small area compared to the other approaches. Thus, its contribution is limited in areas such as therapy, abnormalities, motivation and personality.

· Humanism consciously denies the scientific approach to the study of man.

· Belief in free will is in direct opposition to deterministic laws of science.

· The result of scientific constraints implies lack of empirical evidence in support of key theories approach.

However, the advantage of this is that humanism can gain a better understanding of the behavior of individuals through the use of qualitative methods such as unstructured interviews. This approach also helps to prove a more holistic view of human behavior.

Human life is a process of continuous choice by the person responsible for it. Man is a creative being directed towards the fullest possible realization of oneself, to identify and develop the capabilities and abilities to achieve the purpose, to find the meaning of his/her own existence.

Various theories of achievement motivation are proposed under the cognitive approach which emphasises the leading role of the individual representations of their abilities.

motivation communication behaviourism humanism

3. Attributive theory of motivation

Representatives of the attributive approach to motivation focus on how people make sense of what happens to them, how they explain things that they see and experience. Weiner (1985), the theorist of attributive approach, developed the theory of achievement motivation as the expected value. He suggested that expectations of further results are determined by what the individual thinks about the causes of success and failure: attributing failure with insufficient efforts will enhance motivation of achievement, but attributing lack of ability will reduce it. Weiner and Kukla, (1970) discovered that people with high (resulting) achievement motivation perceive success as a link with ability and effort, and failure as a result of a lack of effort. Individuals with a low achievement motivation believe that the reason for their success is the measure of a task's difficulty or luck, and cause of the failure is the lack of ability. These results become understandable if it is taken into account the fact that people with a high achievement motivation are inclined to evaluate their ability more highly, and in contrast, people with a low achievement motivation under evaluate their ability.

Weiner (et al., 1971) developed a model of causal attributions, according to which the causes of behavior are based on: (1) internal or external to the individual, and (2) relatively stable or unstable over time.

There are four factors related to attribution theory that impact on motivation in education: ability, effort, task difficulty and luck.

Ability is an internal and stable factor over which the learner does not exercise considerable direct control.

Effort is an internal and unstable factor over which the learner can exercise a lot of control.

The task difficulty is an external and stable factor that is largely outside the learner's control.

Luck is an external and unstable factor over which the learner exercises very little control.

For example, a learner has gained a good degree and it could be attributed to their abilities, and their capability in the subject. Or it could be attributed to their efforts, it is believed that the learner studied hard to complete the task. Attribution can be linked to an attitude toward the task, its simplicity, supposing the questions, task or the test were easy so the learner has solved it without issues. Also, a learner receiving a good degree can attribute it to luck, associating this with the fact that the teacher asked questions based on exactly what he/she studied.

Upon receiving a bad score a learner may doubt their abilities in the subject; or come to a conclusion that he/she was not adequately prepared for the task. Also the learner can attribute their failure, assuming that the test was extremely difficult; or he/she was not lucky because of a lack of time to learn the necessary topic.

Emotional components are an essential part of the process of motivation.

Stability parameter is associated with emotions, reflecting the idea of the ??future results. For example, stable causes of failure (insufficient capacity, complexity of the task) generate feelings of hopelessness, apathy. That is the negative emotional experience assosiated with the conviction that there is no improvement in the future. In contrast, attribution of failure due to unstable causes like a hazard, a lack of effort or a bad mood should result in higher expectation of success in the future than through stable attribution of causes like direct effort and luck.

The parameter of locus is primarily associated with pride and self-assessment by other emotions. When a person believes that the reason for the success is their ability, effort or any other personal characteristics (rather than the teacher's help or the problem's simplicity), then the person is inclined to be proud of the result. On the contrary, in case of failure attributed to internal factors, there is a decrease in self-esteem. Weary (1978)reached a conclusion that people have a tendency to hold themselves accountable for the positive results of their activities, attributing success to internal factors; but tend to blame others for failures this occurred with them attributing failure to external factors thus helping them to retain their self-esteem.

The parameter of control, according to Weiner's hypothesis is associated with emotions directed toward the person (guilt, shame) and toward others (anger and pity). People feel guilty if they have failed, the cause of which considers the controllable factors. On the contrary, a sense of shame is more likely when the failure, according to the subject of the action occurred because of some reasons that are beyond its control such as low abilities.

4. Critical Analysis of Attribution Theory

Stability of causal attributions has been questioned. Thus, according to the attributive theory, ability is considered as stable, but, for example, luck as unstable. However, Dweck (1986) argued that the ability of a person may be perceived as unstable, similar to the efforts, and luck rather as something stable. In the latter case, people tend to think of luck as an unchangeable fate, that consequently affects their motivation: when something happens to them and they attribute this to the case (failure), they perceive it not as a temporary event which they will be able to overcome in the future, but as something stable and will have to accept it. Study of causal attributions made a valuable contribution to the study of achievement motivation, but the results were quite ambiguous. The connections between causal attributions and motivation indicators such as persistence, the effort level, the choice of tasks and goal setting remains unclear.

Reference list

1. Dweck C.S. (1986). Motivational Processes Affecting Learning. American Psychologist. (Vol. 41. p1040--1048.)

2. Deci E.L., Ryan R.M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behaviour. New York: Plenum,.

3. Rogers, C.R.(1969) Freedom to learn. Columbus, OH: Merrill.

4. Watson, J.B. (1924) Behaviorism. New York: Norton.

5. Weary G.B. (1978). Self-serving biases in the attribution process: A re-examination of the fact or fiction issue. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Vol. 36. p56--71.)

6. Weiner B. (1985) An Attributional Theory of Achievement Motivation and Emotion. Psychological Review.(Vol. 9, p548--573.)

7. Weiner B. (1995). Judgments of responsibility. New York: Guilford Press.

8. Weiner B., Kukla A.(1970). An attributional analysis of achievement motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. (Vol. 15. p1--20).

9. Weiner B., Frieze I.H., Kukla A., Reed L., Rest S., Rosenbaum R.M. (1971).Perceiving the causes of success and failure. Morristown, NJ: General Learning Press.

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