In theory, the motivation of students considers the stimulation of their activities in comparison with the activities of other people. This is the process of exposure to specific motives that affect self-determination and the productivity of professional work. Students' motivation affects the choice of a path in specialization, the effectiveness of such a choice, satisfaction with the results and, accordingly, the success of training. The main thing here is a positive attitude towards the future profession, that is, interest in it.
Showing motivation in strong and weak students
Two main factors affect the effectiveness of learning: the level of the cognitive sphere in development and the motivational sphere of the individual. A number of studies have been conducted, and scientists have proven that it is not the level of intelligence that distinguishes a strong student from a weak one. Here the motivation of students plays the most important role. Strong students constantly keep this motivation inside, because they are interested in mastering this profession at the highest level, and therefore receive and assimilate knowledge in full, so that knowledge, skills and abilities are complete. And weak studentsprofessional motivation in such a volume does not seem interesting, it is only external for them, the main thing is to get a scholarship. For some of them, it is important to receive approval from others. However, the learning process itself does not arouse a keen interest in them, and they do not strive to obtain the widest possible knowledge.
Only interest, that is, a positive attitude towards future practical activities, can be the basis for motivating students' educational activities. It is the interest in the profession that is directly related to the ultimate goal of education. If a particular speci alty is chosen consciously, if the student considers it socially and personally significant, then the process of professional training will be productive and effective. Usually first-year students almost all consider the choice made the right one, but by the fourth year the euphoria decreases. By the end of the course, the course is far from being satisfied with its own choice.
However, the interest still remains positive, since the motivation of students' learning activities is constantly warmed up from different sides: these are respected teachers with interesting lectures, and collective classes play a huge role. But if the level of teaching in an educational institution is low, satisfaction can disappear even among those students who were internally motivated. It also affects the cooling of feelings in relation to the profession, the discrepancy between the ideas of the young mind about this profession and gradually emerging real knowledge that brings understanding and sometimes radically changes the originalopinion. In this case, the professional motivation of students may suffer greatly.
Negative factors
Change the attitude to the profession and kill the desire to learn its secrets mainly three things revealed in the study of student motivation:
- Facing a reality at university that is fundamentally different from what the young man had before entering university.
- Low level of training, poor learning ability, body resistance to intense and systematic work.
- Categorical rejection of certain special disciplines, and therefore the desire to change the speci alty, although the student's learning process itself may not cause rejection.
Usually, there are two sources of activity in the motivation of university students - external and internal. The internal source is social and cognitive needs, interests, attitudes, stereotypes, standards that affect the success of self-improvement of the individual, his self-realization, self-affirmation in any kind of activity. In these cases, the driving force of activity is the desire for an ideal model of one's own "I" and a feeling of inconsistency with the real "I". External sources of educational motivation of students, their personal activity are the circumstances in which the life and activities of a particular person take place. This should include requirements, capabilities, and expectations.
The essence of the requirements is compliance with the norms of behavior, activities and communication in society. Expectationcan be interpreted as students' motivation for learning in relation to the attitude of society to education, since this is the norm of behavior, and the student must take it for granted, which will help him in overcoming difficulties in the educational process. Opportunities are created by the objective conditions that are necessary for the educational activity to be promoted widely and powerfully. Here the driving force is the striving for those social requirements that the student's real level of knowledge does not yet meet.
Classification of motives
To study the motivation of students, many classifications have been created, where the motives are separated by significance or by signs of homogeneity in the corresponding groups. For example: social motives, when there is awareness and acceptance of the importance of learning, the need for the development of worldview and the formation of a worldview. These can be cognitive motives: interest and desire for knowledge, when the learning process brings satisfaction. And, of course, personal motives play a crucial role: an authoritative position on the course, personalization, self-respect and even ambition - everything is in play.
Methods of motivating students are aimed at the educational process, and therefore the first two types are used almost always, personal motives in these cases are rarely taken into account. And in vain, because it would obviously bring the result closer, since the assessment of the teacher and the reaction of others helps a lot. Student achievement is greatly enhanced when everything is taken into account - the result is as important as the process. Cognitive andsocial motivation contribute to the preparation of students from the professional side, they effectively form skills, polish skills, and deepen knowledge. However, student motivation methods should also take into account personal motives.
Another approach to classifying motives
The classification of D. Jacobson meets the task very well, where the motives associated with situations outside of educational activities are separately presented. This is a narrowly social (negative) motivation for professional choice: identification with parents or other respected people from the environment, when the choice is due to the fact that the student did not want to fail, and also to take responsibility for an independent decision, sometimes the choice was dictated to him by the usual sense of duty. And the formation of students' motivations in this vein is presented very widely.
This also includes general social motivation: if a student is responsible, he strives for successful studies in order to subsequently benefit society. Another hypostasis is pragmatic motivation, when the prestige of the profession, the possibility of social growth and the material benefits that the profession will bring in the future encourages activity. The development of students' motivation for academic work also includes different motivations:
- This is a cognitive motivation, if a student strives to get an education, willingly absorbs new knowledge, masters skills and abilities.
- Professional motivation is due to interest in the future profession, in its content. Then appearscreativity, and opportunities increase because there is confidence in having one's own abilities, which are indispensable in this profession.
- Very strong in increasing the motivation of students and motives for personal growth, when the basis of learning is the desire for self-improvement and self-development.
To prepare for a future profession, study-related motives and general social motivation are the most important, while pragmatic and narrow social motivation most often have a negative impact on learning.
For teachers
In the methodology of students' learning motivation, the classification made by B. B. Aismontans is also used, which refers to the activities of teachers aimed at these problems. The motives of duty prevail in the teacher's work, in second place - interest and enthusiasm for the discipline they teach. And, finally, communication with students - this should also be included in the mandatory mode of teaching work, so that the diagnosis of student motivation is constantly under control.
Learning motivation is a complex structure, including both internal and external, it is characterized by the stability of the links between directly educational activity and the level of intellectual development. Academic success depends not only on the student's abilities, which he received from nature, but to a greater extent - on motivation. It must be recognized that both of these components are closely related.
Today's problems
The current situation has exacerbated the problem to the limitquality training of specialists. It is a problem of paramount attention among all others today. It is necessary to develop the cognitive activity and creative abilities of students, which is very difficult to do, because too many unpleasant moments have accumulated in this narrowest place in pedagogy. Professional motivation is a driving factor in the development of the individual, since without its formation at the highest level it is impossible to effectively develop the country, including its economy. And year by year there are fewer and fewer high professionals in literally all sectors of the national economy.
The problem is one of the most urgent, since the motivational sphere in the development of a specialist determines not only his internal and external state, but also his approach to fulfilling his duty to society. The motivation of students plays an important role in the organization of the educational process; this is one of the most difficult pedagogical tasks, which, for various reasons, is solved more slowly or not at all. It is difficult for teachers to manage motivational processes precisely because the prestige of pedagogical activity in recent decades has been at an exceptionally low level. It is necessary to create certain conditions for the student to develop internal motives, to somehow stimulate this process.
One cannot blame the huge amount of information that falls on young and not fully strengthened minds for everything, rather, the social policy of the state, especially in the educational sphere, is to blame. Although, of course, media social networks, for example, seriously interfereto motivate students to the educational process, to systematic work, to the search for serious information. The Internet is a huge world where you can get voluminous knowledge on any scientific topic, but students look at pictures with cats and write comments terribly illiterate. There is a search for ways to motivate students so that the Internet helps to gain knowledge, and does not take it away. This is what educators, psychologists and society as a whole are doing, but it must be admitted that it has not yet worked out.
Activity issue
This is also a burning problem. We need new forms and methods of teaching students to intensify their attitude to learning activities. But first of all, it is necessary to conduct a critical analysis of the existing ones. After all, often all training is based on what the student reproduces, remembering only a certain range of factual material: "from now to now." We need creative activity, the desire to look ten pages ahead. Here the roles of teacher and student should be qualitatively reconsidered. Partnerships are needed to make the student an actor. Otherwise, the teacher will not even be able to diagnose the student's motivation or lack thereof.
And to know what motivates the student, what motives encourage him to act, the teacher is obliged to develop and implement an effective system of motivation management methods during the educational process. The main task is the correct organization of the student's activities, including non-educational ones, in order to maximize the disclosure ofinner potential of the individual. However, the structure of such motivation - both professional and pedagogical - for the training of a specialist has not only not been studied yet, it has not yet been built. The strategy of vocational education today should provide increased motivation for professional activities, stimulate creativity, develop the intellectual, emotional, spiritual and volitional qualities of students.
Motivational sphere
It is necessary to study learning motivation in order to identify the real level and possible prospects, zones of influence on the development of a student who urgently needs to indicate new goals and identify basic needs, it is then that the processes of the relationship between the social structure and the formation of worldview categories of the individual will appear. It is necessary to consider all stages of the development of motivational components without exception, since the results are always different, they depend on many factors: cognitive and social motives, on the standard of living, on the hierarchy of the educational community, when immediate motives are subject to their conscious, arbitrary forms.
Incentives must be in harmony with each other, be stable, sustainable and necessarily positively colored, oriented towards long-term prospects in time, be effective and really influence behavior. It is then that a mature form of professional motivation will turn out. At the moment, for most first-year students, internal motivation prevails, then this number decreases, but those who retain this internal core do notlose sight of their goals, despite the impact of numerous external factors.
The formation of motivation
Features of the formation of motivation for each student are an individual process, they are literally unique, and here the teacher's task is to find a common approach, to identify all the complex and even contradictory ways of professional motivation in order to guide its course. First of all, it is necessary to develop a cognitive interest, since without such a plan of activity nothing can be achieved. Therefore, in teaching, the best approach is to systematically monitor the arousal, development and strengthening of cognitive interest. It is the basis of motivation and is powerful both as a means of educating the student and as a means of improving the quality of learning.
Concrete recommendations are developed, communicated to educational institutions and implemented. At the forefront are the improvement of independent work. A lot depends on the teacher himself, on the strength of his teaching influence. They increase cognitive activity and the content of the material to be learned (and here, more than anywhere else, learning motivation is needed), the process of working with new material inspires, where it is possible to put into action the reserves of personality qualities of both the student and the teacher.
Identity Shaping
Motivation of students to study is the pursuit of goals and reliance on the values of professional education, the prospect of meeting the needs of the individual, society andstates. This is what predetermines all current changes in the educational process, including in the motivational sphere. During the course of study, the student's personality must become highly motivated in order to work and live in constantly changing economic and social conditions.
However, it is becoming more and more difficult to study the specifics of this sphere, its structure is rapidly becoming more complex, and this does not contribute to a good mastery of the profession as a whole. Priority becomes the interests of the individual, not the team, the formation of erudition and competence, and not a sense of duty and honor. It is necessary to raise the general culture and develop creativity. The student must be an active subject in society.
The level of professional motivation shows the involvement of students in the educational process, this is what shows that they are satisfied with the choice of profession. It is necessary to study the state of cognitive interest constantly, at all stages of personality development, matching the information received with social motives, with the hierarchical motivational sphere. According to the consistency and harmonious coexistence of various motives, the stability and sustainability of the effect that has appeared, the effectiveness of motivation, one can conclude how high the level of cognitive activity is.
