Objective
In
attribution theory, “students attribute success or failure to a variety of
factors such as ability, effort, luck fatigue, ease or difficulty of the exam
and so forth, and their belief is shaped by their perceptions of why they have
succeeded or failed in the past.” (Barkley, 2009)
Reflective
Motivation
is an internal drive that directs behavior towards some end ( (Barkley, 2009) . Motivation enhances
learning by directing behaviors towards particular goals, increasing effort,
energies, increasing the initiation of and persistence in activities. In cognitive
process, motivated learners are more actively relating the knowledge and skill
to real-life application of what they learn. (Eccles &
Wigfield, 1985)
Why do some learners get motivated by challenges while some lose their
confidence? What is the psychological hidden psychological process that
convince the students that they are competent and will succeed given making
more efforts? Attribution theory shines some lights on these questions.
When
the students experience desirable outcomes, attributions help them understand
what caused these events so they can achieve the outcomes again. When they
experience unpleasant outcomes, attributions help them identify and avoid the
behaviors.
Interpretive
Attribution theory explains learner’s causal attribution
for their success and failures. These attributions are categorized into three
dimension (Weiner, 1986)
- Locus – the location of
the cause, internal (individual’s aptitude and effort) or external (teacher,
difficulty of test, difficulty of task)
- Stability – whether the
cause is permanent or changeable
- Controllability –
whether the cause is within individual’s controlThe stability dimension affects expectancy for future success. With outcomes attributed to a stable cause, learner would expect it to occur again; the controllability dimension is related to emotions. “Pity and sympathy are experienced toward others whose failures are caused by uncontrollable factors. In contrast, anger is elicited when others' failures are due to causes within their control.”
The attribution process has three stages
According to attribution theory, high-performing students will approach tasks because they understand that success comes from their ability and effort. Failure is, instead, caused by temporary external causes, such as bad luck or difficult exam. Hence, their self-esteem and self-confidence are not hurt by failure, and success in return improves their confidence and pride. However, low-performing students avoid tasks because they attribute the failure to internal causes but assume success can only be achieved due to external causes, e.g. an easy exam. They start to doubt their ability and don’t believe they can succeed again upon a failure.
Teachers’ response and feedback can affect individual’s attributions. There is a rich social context that individual’s attribution is affected by the social environment including peers, teachers, and parents, who express their emotions, who reward, punish or help
Decisional
As instructors, how can we use attribution theory to
motivate students more effectively? Referring back to three stages of
attribution, teachers should first determine whether success or failure has occurred.
Although the academic standards should be consistent, I believe success is
defined differently on different students. We should recognize and praise a
low-performing student’s progress and also encourage a high-performing student’s
exploration on novel alternate paths. Following this, the teacher should guide
students make accurate attributions. In the event of a failure, it is
beneficial if the students can attribute it to temporary, unstable and external
causes – so they believe that success is still possible. When doing so, we can
give examples, such as, similar questions were answered correctly in a
homework, so that they are capable of the skills, but might just happen to make
a mistake in the test. Attributing failure to a lack of appropriate effort or
strategy could convince the student that they still can succeed if they try
harder or use the right strategy. What if a student repeatedly fails after
making serious effort? Arranging the difficulties of tasks so that students who
work hard are able to perceive themselves as successful sometimes. If the
difficulty level is indeed too high for a particular student due to lack of existing
knowledge, we may have to advise student to take lower-level preparing course
first instead of encouraging them to try their best. For success, it is also
adaptive to attribute success to strategies, efforts, or when appropriate, to
talent or skills, instead of “being lucky”.
In concluding, attribution theory explains how success and failure is interpreted and how this relates to individual’s motivation and future motivation. It is beneficial for instructors to guide the learners to attribute the outcomes appropriately to keep them motivated in future studies.
References
Attribution Theory -B. Weiner. (2014). Retrieved from Instructional Design:
http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/attribution-theory.html
Barkley,
E. F. (2009). Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College
Faculty. Jossey-Bass.
Eccles,
J. S., & Wigfield, A. (1985). Teacher expectations and student
motivation. In In J. B. Dusek (Ed.), Teacher expectations (pp.
185-217). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Pintrich,
P., & Schunk, D. (2002). Motivation in Education: Theory, Research,
and Application (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Weiner,
B. (1986). An attributional theory of motivation and emotion. New
York: Springer-Verlag.
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