{"id":401,"date":"2019-08-06T14:52:23","date_gmt":"2019-08-06T14:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-oneonta-education106\/?post_type=chapter&p=401"},"modified":"2025-06-18T16:44:34","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T16:44:34","slug":"9-3-differences-in-learning-and-motivation","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-hvcc-education106\/chapter\/9-3-differences-in-learning-and-motivation\/","title":{"raw":"9.4 Differences in Learning and Motivation","rendered":"9.4 Differences in Learning and Motivation"},"content":{"raw":"
\r\n\r\nBeyond the extensive list of diversity elements above, as a teacher, one will also be faced with the variations of ways in which students learn, feel about themselves as learners, and are motivated to learn (or not!).\u00a0 In future courses that you will take to prepare yourself for being the best possible teacher, you will learn much more about these factors, but for our purposes, let\u2019s take a brief look at each of these.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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Differentiated teaching and learning<\/h2>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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\r\n\r\nHaving an understanding that students learn differently and that certain subjects are best taught in varying ways will lead you to seek out many teaching strategies. Having a large toolkit of such strategies will help you to accommodate your students\u2019 needs.\u00a0 This can also be referred to as differentiated learning or differentiated instruction. Differentiated instruction, according to Tomlinson (as cited by Ellis, Gable, Greg & Rock, 2008, p. 32) is the process of \u201censuring that what a student learns, how he or she learns it, and how the student demonstrates what he or she has learned is a match for that student\u2019s readiness level, interests, and preferred mode of learning.\u201d\u00a0 By the time you are ready to teach, you should be prepared to differentiate your instruction in many ways, which will all be based on your knowledge of your students and how they learn best.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\"differentiated\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
\r\n\r\nThe image above provides additional information about differentiated instruction. For the full article, you can read this blog post: https:\/\/helpfulprofessor.com\/differentiated-instruction\/<\/a>\r\n\r\n \r\n

Motivation<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_402\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"761\"]\"Motivation\" The above is a great representation of how motivation affects learning (by Giulia Forsythe, CC By 2.0, https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/gforsythe\/45033113111<\/a>[\/caption]\r\n\r\nMotivation to learn is very complex, and includes one\u2019s own developmental level, beliefs in the value of learning (in general or something in particular) and the belief in one\u2019s ability to be successful (academic-self-concept comes into play here).\u00a0 In future classes, you will study educational psychology.\u00a0 One definition from that discipline for motivation follows.\r\n\r\n\u201cMotivation is an internal state that activates, guides and sustains behavior. Educational psychology research on motivation is concerned with the volition or will that students bring to a task, their level of interest and intrinsic motivation, the personally held goals that guide their behavior, and their belief about the causes of their success or failure\u201d (k-12 Academics.com, n.d. retrieved from https:\/\/www.k12academics.com\/educational-psychology\/motivation<\/a> ).\r\n\r\nAs a teacher, you are tasked with helping to motivate your students to learn.\u00a0 As with diversity, it is best to begin by knowing about yourself first.\u00a0 What motivates you?\u00a0 What motivated you when you were a student? What did your teachers do to motivate you?\u00a0 Did it work for you?\u00a0 Did it work for everyone in your class?\r\n\r\n\u201cOne of the most difficult aspects of becoming a teacher is learning how to motivate your students. It is also one of the most important. Students who are not motivated will not learn effectively. They won\u2019t retain information; they won\u2019t participate and some of them may even become disruptive. A student may be unmotivated for a variety of reasons: They may feel that they have no interest in the subject, find the teacher\u2019s methods un-engaging or be distracted by external forces. It may even come to light that a student who appeared unmotivated actually has difficulty learning and is need of special attention\u201d (n.d., retrieved from https:\/\/teach.com\/what\/teachers-change-lives\/motivating-students\/<\/a> ).\r\n\r\nStudents who are highly motivated to learn are what some might call easy to teach, because they want to be there.\u00a0 They want to learn.\u00a0 Students who are completely unmotivated can be more difficult to reach.\u00a0 They may seem like they don\u2019t care. There are many reasons for this, and we will look briefly at these when we discuss social and emotional learning.\r\n\r\nAcademic Self-Concept<\/strong>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_403\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"750\"]\"\" https:\/\/pixabay.com\/illustrations\/self-esteem-self-liberation-1566153\/[\/caption]\r\n\r\nAs noted by Wilson, Del Siegle, McCoach, Little and Reis (2014), \u201cAcademic self-concept represents how students feel about themselves as learners in school contexts and has implications for both student achievement and well-being\" (p. 111).\u00a0 The authors go on to state that a student\u2019s \u201cacademic self-concept informs their perception about not only their current tasks and school-related activities but also their future goals and academics\u201d (p. 111).\u00a0 In your future practice with students, you will discover that students with strong positive academic self-confidence may be more likely to take on challenging tasks, complete projects, and seem more motivated.\u00a0 In light of the definition, this would make sense.\u00a0 If you think you can be successful, you will be more willing to try.\u00a0 If you think and believe that you will NOT be successful at something, then it would follow that you would be disinclined to try something new or challenging.\r\n\r\nUnderstanding how academic self-confidence affects your students will assist you in developing lessons and procedures that will help them to be successful.\u00a0 A teacher can have a positive effect on a student\u2019s academic self-confidence.\u00a0 Pay attention to those students who seem to feel that they can\u2019t do anything well, or that they won\u2019t be successful.\u00a0 Find opportunities to give them specific positive feedback and support them in areas of weakness.\r\n\r\nTemperament<\/strong>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_404\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"288\"]\"Children Kids playing with marbles. Photo by Tup Wanders;Source: https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/tupwanders\/83092660\/. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nPerhaps you have spent time with a number of infants. How were they alike? How did they differ? Or compare yourself with your siblings or other children you have known well. You may have noticed that some seemed to be in a better mood than others and that some were more sensitive to noise or more easily distracted than others. These differences may be attributed to temperament. Temperament is an inborn quality noticeable soon after birth. According to Chess and Thomas (1996), children vary on 9 dimensions of temperament. These include activity level, regularity (or predictability), sensitivity thresholds, mood, persistence or distractibility, among others. The New York Longitudinal Study was a long-term study of infants on these dimensions which began in the 1950s. Most children do not have their temperament clinically measured, but categories of temperament have been developed and are seen as useful in understanding and working with children. These categories include easy or flexible, slow to warm up or cautious, difficult or feisty, and undifferentiated (or those who can\u2019t easily be categorized).\r\n\r\nReflection:<\/strong>\r\n