Educational Psychology about Effective Teaching and the Ways Children Learn - Essay Example

In designing instructional approaches and methods, as well as in determining which instructional materials should be used to enhance learning through needs and drives that energize children to learn, one recognized that by appreciating extrinsic versus intrinsic motivation, educators could effectively design methods and use of materials to facilitate a more conducive and effective learning environment. It was just an innovative insight to learn from articles such as that which was asserted by Steven Reiss, reported to be a professor of psychology at the Ohio State University who emphasized “that a diverse range of human motivations can't be forced into these categories of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations” (Intrinsic Motivation Doesn't Exist, Researcher Says, 2005, par. 2). This just proves that motivational theories continue to intrigue different practitioners and their respective studies divulge different findings that are useful in respective professions.

Another insight learned was the use of an effectively developed curriculum “that is thoughtfully planned, challenging, engaging, developmentally appropriate, culturally and linguistically responsive, comprehensive, and likely to promote positive outcomes for all
young children” (National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education (NAECS/SDE), 2003) are crucial towards children’s learning and development.

The topic or topics discussed in this course that you found the most interesting and/or challenging and why.
The comments by Reiss were interesting and challenging since he asserted that there was no evidence that intrinsic motivation exists. In the field of education, however, it was emphasized that “one of the most frequent failures in education is that students rarely say that they find studying to be intrinsically rewarding (Csikszentmihalyi & Larson, 1984)” (Intrinsic Motivation, n.d., par. 4). This is therefore challenging because I would like to confirm if indeed there are failures in motivating students intrinsically, or it is just that there are insufficient factors that promote intrinsic motivation.

At least one topic you would like to learn more about and why.
Thus, this is an area where future studies could confirm and validate whether students could be intrinsically motivated to study. One would like to determine if the problem lies in the absence of factors promoting intrinsic motivation or that the educators need to design appropriate strategies to develop the need and drives in students to make them intrinsically motivated. As such, this is an area where future research and studies in the field of education where motivational theories, particularly focusing on intrinsic factors, could be more extensively pursued. Read More