Attitude+&+Motivation

=**Attitude and Motivation go Hand in Hand**=
 * E. Caissie**

Attitudes influence motivation, which in turn influences learning and ultimately behavior. A student’s motivation to learn is tantamount to their success. Motivation can be defined as the internal drive directing behavior towards some end. Every instructor has encountered students who are labeled as having a bad attitude. In educational settings the performance that instructors are striving for is student learning, which in some cases can be judged through behavior but not always. It is important to point out to students specific behaviors that demonstrate an attitude. The attitude of a student toward learning comes from within also known as intrinsic characteristic and is not always demonstrated through behaviors. The positive behaviors displayed by the student may only occur in the presence of the instructor, and may not be apparent at other times. For instance a student may have a poor attitude toward a specific instructor but when confronted by the instructor they behave courteously and respectful. The behavior is opposite to the attitude.

Fleming and Levie (1993) summarize three approaches to attitude change; “providing a persuasive message, modeling and reinforcing appropriate behavior. Motivation is what makes individuals overcome the resistance from external forces that influence their behaviour. Internal motivation or self-motivation is what will get the student past his/her resistance to performing a task that he/she has been procrastinating over and moves him/her to taking the first step. Student’s work longer, harder and with more vigor and intensity when they are motivated than when they are not. Some instructors think that a student’s motivation is up to the student and not up to the instructor.

The attitude and needs of learners are personal and not easy for an instructor to address. Adult educators are dealing with groups of students whose needs and motivations are very different. The student’s life experience widens the gap even further. This diversity is very important in learning and instructors must be cognisant when creating instructional design so that there are a variety of motivational techniques that will appeal to a group of diverse students. The applications of motivational theories in education are limited only by one’s imagination.

Performance accomplishments as described by Driscoll (1994) means dividing tasks into chunks and providing students with early success as a method of developing confidence in the student. Verbal persuasion and encouragement is often used to persuade a learner that he or she is capable of succeeding at an assignment.

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=**Attitude as it relates to Motivation**= What is attitude? I believe that attitude is a combination of your state of consciousness or self awareness at the time of the experience, knowledge from previous learned information about an experience and how one feels about things (emotions) relating to the experience. The experience could be just getting up in the morning (hopefully on the right side of the bed) to going to that dentist appointment that you have been putting off or to going for that “dream” job interview that you have been waiting your whole life for. You can have a positive attitude or a negative attitude or one that is somewhere in between. Your attitude is your own and you determine what your attitude will be at any given time. So I feel that attitude can and should be one of your most precious attributes.
 * S-A Norton**

Speaking from my own experiences, if I had a positive attitude generally the outcome was of a positive nature. This could be after hearing something favourable about the experience that I was going to have, or it could be the result of previous experiences I did have. Personally, I am more motivated to do anything if I know that I will have fun, learn more, exercise more, enjoy more, etc. I don’t know of anyone who is motivated to do something that they have no interest in, fear, aren’t good at doing, have no desire to learn or can’t find any use for the what they are supposed to be motivated about. That being said, if I had acquired negative information ahead of time, of a learning event, honestly, that could possibly have planted a seed of doubt that maybe this is not what I am expecting, maybe I made the wrong choice, maybe I won’t do well, etc. These negative thoughts are counter-productive to motivation. A positive response to this would be, I will go to this course, I will make up my own opinion of the situation and I will determine my own attitude towards the desired outcome of my learning.

How many of you have heard the term of someone needing to have “an attitude adjustment”? This rarely, if never relates to someone having a positive outlook on things. It almost always refers to those people who demonstrate a negative behaviour, or have negative thoughts or negative energy/ affect on the learning experience that they are involved in. Those people are in need of this type of “adjustment”. “Fleming and Levie (1993) summarize three approaches to attitude change; “providing a persuasive massage, modeling and reinforcing appropriate behaviour and inducing dissonance between the, affective and behavioral components of the attitude.” I believe that it is within each of us to make our own positive attitude. This attitude will lend itself to more motivation which usually is associated with more energy, more curiosity, more self-confidence and more knowledge just to name a few of the positive outcome or results. Life is too short for being in a bad mood, or having a negative attitude, or making someone’s day or life miserable. So BE HAPPY and GET MOTIVATED to learn something new.

References Fleming, M., Levie, W. H. (1993). Instructional Message Design: Principles from the Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences. Educational TechnologyPublications, Englewood cliffs, New Jersey, 1993. Frith, Connie ( PDF] Motivation to Learn – University of Saskatchewan // . // Wlodkowski, Raymond J.(2003). Fostering Motivation in Professional Development Programs, Source: New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, no. 98, Summer 2003, Wiley Wlodkowski, R. J. (1986). Enhancing Adult Motivation To Learn, Jossey-Bass Publishers Wlodkowski, Raymond (1999). Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn: A Comprehensive Guide for Teaching All Adults – 2nd ed. San Francisco, CA. Jossey-Bass Inc., Pub.

help on how to format text =**Attitude and Motivation in On-Line Learning**= Attitude is a learned behavior and, is highly susceptible to change. Krathwohl's Taxonomy theory states that a learning attitude is developed over time, and that past learning experiences affect future learning experiences. This is evident in adult students considering returning to school to further their education. An attitude is your mind's response, to going where your ability and motivation strive to take you. Attitudes usually come from feelings, and feelings can change quickly and easily, you can't always believe your feelings if they are changing often. Attitudes, initiated by quick changes in feelings can lead to negative attitudes, and you can either let them get you down, or you can rise above them.
 * E. Caissie**

From a personal perspective my attitude has let me down and fed my fears of failure. I thought about taking the PID Program about 7 or 8 years ago, but my fears held me back from applying. I questioned myself “what if I’m not successful in the program, what will my peers think so I put the program on the back burner until about a year ago when I changed positions at my place of work. The change in jobs has given me the confidence in myself that has changed my attitude towards learning and the workplace. The preferred qualification for my new position was a Provincial Instructor Diploma. The change in my job also changed my feelings and how I thought about future learning. Since the PID program was web based and could be taken via distance I decided it was time to enroll in the program. It has been suggested that a student’s level of technical skills is a predicator of a student’s success in distance learning. (Buchanan, 1999; Noah, 2001). My level of technical skills provided a positive experience in distance learning. With the use of technology distance learning has enabled universities and colleges to extend learning opportunities to many students who would not otherwise be able to participate in the benefits of education due to time and location constraints (Gunawardena & McIsaac, 1996). In distance learning settings, asynchronous online discussions have become widely used to support student interactions. An asynchronous online discussion is a text-based computer-mediated communication that allows human-to-human interaction without time and location constraints (Romiszowski & Mason, 1996). Almost all current web-based course management systems, such as, Blackboard, and Moodle, have a component that supports asynchronous online discussions. Research suggests that asynchronous online discussions have many positive impacts on distance learning. Online discussions enable convenient interactions among learners and instructors. This interaction extends collaborative knowledge construction and information distribution outside of classrooms (Lipponen, 2000; Paavola, Lipponen, & Hakkaraine, 2002; Scardamalia Bereiter; 1994; Xie, DeBacker, Ferguson, 2006) and supports cognitive and metacognitive engagement and complex reasoning and argumentation (Brown, Ellery, & Campione, 1998; Hoadley & Linn, 2000).

Attitude toward the class and confidence in technology skills is related to participation in online discussions. Similarly, motivation and self-regulation have also been identified as important to success in online learning (Artino, 2008). These different findings suggest a possible link between motivation and students’ attitude toward a class and the confidence they have in their technical skills. Understanding students’ motivation aids in identifying issues that influence their motivation and facilitates the exploration of instructional strategies for promoting students’ motivation and consequently the quality of online discussions. References:

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