<B>Shardha SANDAPEN</B>

Dylan had read about pirates and buccaneers in a storybook. He wondered how they were different. In reading about them, he learned about real pirates who threatened the ships in the Indian Ocean. His curiosity caused him to find out more about the islands in the Indian Ocean, the countries on the East coast of Africa and some Asian countries. He then became absorbed in the era of colonisation and slave trade. Dylan?s desire and energy to pursue his personal study in this area finally faded out, largely because he now became fascinated in another project, but for one whole month he had been highly motivated.

There are some students like Dylan who just start on work tasks and do not require any inducement or pressuring. There are others who seemingly will not work unless cajoled and pushed by whatever means available to the teacher and somewhere in between are the majority of our learners. What we teachers need to know are the different ways to motivate our students. Dylan?s motivation was intrinsic since his own interest in pirates and buccaneers, and his liking for projects and research work had aroused his quest for knowledge. Hence, he had enjoyed that activity. Providing students with work, activities or projects of their interest and liking are highly motivating and meaningful to our learners.

On the other hand, young Laura hates learning by heart. She cannot remember the important names and dates of the French and British rule in Mauritius. But the day the History and Geography teacher proposed that whoever would learn his/her lessons well would get a chocolate, Laura strived hard. Eventually, she could recall the names, dates and facts of the period of colonisation, and indeed, she got her reward.

Laura?s motivation is extrinsic, as her incentive had been aroused by the reward she would get for her successful task performance. Many parents use extrinsic motivation to encourage their children to learn. Don?t we often hear, ?If you have good results for your CPE exams, I?ll buy you a mob?? In the past, it a watch, bicycle, then it became Walkman, computer and now mobiles, MP3 or MP4? The rewards we offer to our children are becoming not only more sophisticated but also more expensive!

Is it the best way to make our children learn? Teachers (parents also) should be alert to the shortcomings of too much reliance on extrinsic motivation. Often it is impairing our learners? inclination to value learning for its own sake since reward is at the basis of learning. It has also been noted that some learners decrease their motivation to perform a task because of extrinsic rewards.

Teachers need to think carefully how to approach the matter. If the material to be learned is regarded intrinsically valuable by our learners then we should not risk undermining intrinsic motivation through the introduction of rewards or incentives. Both teachers and parents need to bear in mind that we cannot always assume that grades, praise, gifts or any other potential reinforcement will act as they are supposed to ? increasing performance. It is advisable to keep extrinsic motivation to those situations involving learners whose level of motivation is clearly very low.

Since, motivation is a powerful phenomenon in the teaching and learning process, teachers also need to adopt those teaching strategies that would enhance classroom interventions and make learning meaningful to our students. First and foremost, the following conditions need to be in place, if our motivational strategies are to succeed:

● Supportive environment: teachers need to create a functional learning climate - well managed, organized, relaxed and supportive. We need to support this environment in which our learners will want to know that they are making definite progress.

● Appropriate level of challenge or difficulty: we should provide tasks within our learners? range of challenge - not too easy or difficult.

● Meaningful learning objectives: we must be consistent in having students learn content and undertake tasks that they perceive to be worth learning.

● Motivation and variation in strategy use: we should also not use motivational strategies in an unrelated and non-thinking way. We should rather be selective and reasoned in our approach by being judicious about the appropriateness of the strategies used.

Hence, some motivational strategies we can use for ensuring our students? expectancy of success are:

● Programming for success: teachers have a significant role in designing work tasks at which our students can gain success through reasonable effort. This includes teachers preparing students with the necessary prerequisite instruction for them to experience meaningful success.

● Teaching goal setting, performance appraisals and self-reinforcement: help our students to perceive the merit of what they have achieved with their successes. This teacher-help includes assisting learners to set goals and maintaining their commitments when undertaking tasks. As well, helping them assess their progress towards achieving their goals and providing them with realistic and specific feedback to enable them form appropriate standards for determining their levels of success.

● Helping students recognize effort-outcome links: we can portray effort to our students as something that eventually will bring knowledge or mastery through persistence and careful work. They should also understand and experience that skill development occurs in stages and over time.

● Remedial work with discouraged students: remedial work for underachieving or low achieving students, encouragement and relieving their stress are only a few of the effective motivational strategies that we can use in class.

To conclude, (or shall I say to begin with), a highly motivated teacher will find ways and means to motivate his/her learners!