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Project #1 Acts of Motivation

Part 3
Lauren Houston
University of West Georgia
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The two motivational issues that I encountered were my mom’s lack of daily exercise and the
need for separation of work and home life.

The lack of daily exercise had been an ongoing issue in my mom’s life. She had struggled with
her exercise schedule, or lack thereof, for years. She couldn’t find a regular routine for
exercising. She wasn’t home at the same time each day. She was working on something for
school (She is a teacher.). There was always something else that needed to be done. I could tell
that there was something in her that needed the exercise. It is commonly known that exercising
is good for your health. She would consistently say that she didn’t feel in shape and didn’t feel
great overall. Ironically enough, she would say the same thing to me over and over—that I
needed to exercise, but didn’t take the advice herself. When it was time for me to work on this
project, this motivational issue was very clearly my first choice. I knew that this would be
something measurable and helpful for my mom.

The theory that I relied on for this motivational issue was the Attribution theory. This theory
includes giving feedback. The Motivation in Education book says that the positive feedback
needs to be accurate. If the feedback isn’t sincere, then it won’t do any good. (Schunk, Meece,
Pintrich, 2014, p. 118) My mom exercised each day during the duration of the project. We
talked each day about how she was feeling. I encouraged her while she was exercising and
during our talks. I used this feedback time to share with her that she was doing a good job. We
also talked about the fact that she was starting to exercise like she had wanted to.

I also wanted her to attribute her feelings of lower stress and general better health back to her
exercising. The book also talks about the relationship between effort and ability and how
someone over age 13 is able to see the difference. (Schunk, Meece, Pintrich, 2014, p. 112) She
was able to connect that the effort that she put into working out and exercising regularly helped
her to release some of her stress that she otherwise would have continued to feel. It also helped
her unwind and take a mental break from work. When we talked after the project, she said that
she felt much better after she had been exercising and said that she wanted to continue the
exercising routine. The main goal of the motivational act was for her to attribute her feeling
better to the exercise so that she would continue working out.

During the project the acts that I performed were encouraging her to exercise, exercising with
her, and talking about the exercise after each session. I encouraged her to exercise each day. I
wanted this to become a routine that she could continue after the project had ended. I also felt
strongly that her being in a routine would help her to stick with her goal of exercising more. I
thought that once it was within her routine, she would continue the exercise without much
thought. I exercised with her to help motivate her to go. In personal experience, it’s easier to
exercise when someone does it with you, so I wanted to be that exercise buddy. We also talked
after each exercise session about her stress levels compared to before the exercise, whether or not
she enjoyed the exercise, and her overall feelings after the exercise.

The effects of the motivation included her getting into an exercise routine, her exercising, and
her feeling less stressed. She started sharing that the exercise gave her a break from work and
helped her to unwind. She said that it was nice to be out in nature and enjoy being outside. In
the end, she was able to attribute her more peaceful feelings (less stress) to her exercise. She
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also ended up motivating my dad to join her for a few walks after the project. This served a dual
purpose- having a buddy to exercise with, and getting him to do this type of exercise as well.

The second motivational issue that I chose was my mom’s consistent school work at home. I
listened to her say many times that she wanted to get better about leaving school on time and not
working on school work at home when it wasn’t necessary. She would come home from school
and get on the computer to work. She would look for assignments, videos, or create activities to
teach her students. While these things are important, she was spending many hours outside of
work doing this each week. She would also talk about work after school as well.

This caused her to be focused on work all day and all evening. She didn’t get the break that she
needed from work. She didn’t have time to relax… and she could tell. She expressed feelings of
stress and frustration that she didn’t take a break from work and was always working on school
work when there were other things at home that needed to be done. This was an ongoing
problem. She tried several times to control the time spent on school work outside of her hours,
but didn’t have success. I knew that this would also be a good motivational project for me to
choose.

For this motivational issue I used the Goals and Goal Orientation Theory. I felt that this was a
good theory since she could come up with a goal and work toward it. She could also do self-
checks to see how she was progressing toward her goal. According to the book and Maslow’s
Heirarchy of Needs, her need to do her best and find the best resources to use falls under the
highest level of needs under growth at the Self-actualization need. (Schunk, Meece, Pintrich,
2014, p. 173) This is not a negative thing, but can make relaxing and separating work and
home time difficult. She needed to set a goal for how long she would spend on the school work
and then stop and do other things not related to school. The book also refers to a need having a
duration for the behavior. This connects back to her desire to do her best, but within a time limit.
(Schunk, Meece, Pintrich, 2014, p. 172)

The acts I performed included helping her set a goal and make sure that it was a reasonable goal.
I also talked with her about how she was progressing toward her goal each day. I wanted her to
have a good goal that she could work toward, and that might even be challenging, but one that
she could still achieve. We talked about how she was doing with leaving school work in that goal
time frame and separating out the work and home life.

I was able to encourage her to stick with her goal, but overall, she did most of the work on her
own. She was passionate about making her goal and as a result did well with reaching her goal
and setting a new one. Once she reached her goal, she was ready to keep going and create a goal
that would challenge herself further. The one she chose originally was drastically different, but
after we talked we found one that was a reasonable time frame and she agreed.

The effects of the motivational acts were positive. She did much better at realizing when she
was working and doing too much school work. There were still days that she struggled. There
were still days that she needed to work on more school work and there always will be in the
world of education. Even with this, she was able to realize how much time she was spending
with the school work at home, and make efforts to leave the school work to business hours. She
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could see a difference in herself when she stopped focusing on school work all of the time. She
was able to take more of a break from work and relax during her off-hours. I know that this will
be something that she continues to work on. Even if she has days when she doesn’t bring school
work home, there will also be those days where she has the temptation to work on school for
hours. She will have to be diligent to not slip back into this routine. I want to continue to help
hold her accountable to her goal in the future. Overall, I think this goal has made a positive
impact on her life.

The major beneficiary of my acts was my mom. She is an elementary school teacher. She taught
three years before I was born, then took time off (twelve years) with my sister and I when we
were young. She was out of the education world for a while, and things are very fluid and
change often in education. She went back to teaching when my sister started kindergarten. She
has been teaching for 15 years since then.

Since she started back she has taught two different grade levels. She started out in fourth grade
teaching all subjects. She then moved down to second grade teaching all subjects. She went
back to fourth grade to teach only writing (five segments a day). The next year she taught three
segments of reading and writing. This year she teaches math and science and social studies. She
has changed what she teaches for three years in a row. She hasn’t had consistency of curriculum
in a while and is feeling overwhelmed with the changes. This year is the first time she has taught
fourth grade math in about ten years.

She has expressed feelings of stress and anxiety over the amount of material that she is not used
to teaching. This is one reason that she spends so much of her time on school work outside of
school. She studies and finds new ways to show them math concepts. She also is spending a lot
of time creating materials since all of her content is new this year. I believe that this is one
reason that she was feeling stressed and overwhelmed with the amount of time she was spending
on school.

Though the motivational goal was to spend less time on school work, I know that when she is
preparing to teach something she is unfamiliar with, she will have to work more. This is just a
part of teaching and is necessary. The goal was meant to focus more on getting the job done
well, but quickly, and not spending excess time working. There have been times when she is
looking for something online to use in the classroom and finds that she spent an hour looking and
didn’t find what she wanted. There are other times she spends hours creating something, only to
find that a week later she didn’t need it. Many of these things will regulate as she teaches the
curriculum again next year and knows from experience what she will need.

The setting of the first act was after school hours and outside in the neighborhood. My mom
enjoys spending time outside in nature. She also likes exercising in the neighborhood since it
has flat areas and hills, so this seemed like the perfect setting. The setting of the second act was
after hours and in the home environment. This act targeted the separation of work and home, so
the home environment was the intended setting for the motivational acts.
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I have learned many things about motivation throughout this project. I learned that we can do
things to motivate each other. Motivational acts don’t have to be earth-shattering events, but can
be little things that help someone else achieve something.

During the first act, I was able to help my mom see the benefits of a healthy lifestyle by
including a walk in her daily routine. She was able to take a mental break ad enjoy some stress-
free time. The first time we walked, she struggled some with wanting to get home to work. She
was talking about everything that she was stressed about and the different tasks that she had to
do when the walk was over. My mom always has a list of things that need to be done, but these
things that she was focusing on were specifically school related. The next time we walked, this
type of conversation wasn’t as frequent. Over time this feeling faded and she ended up taking
the initiative to exercise on her own.

My mom was able to attribute the fact that she was feeling better and less stressed with the
walking and exercise routine. She even started asking my dad to join her in the exercise. After
the project duration ended, she even expressed wanting to start hiking on a regular basis, which
would have been out of character for her before this project. Through this part of the project, I
found that I actually enjoyed encouraging and motivating her to exercise. I felt like I was doing
something to help her. She frequently helps me out, so being able to do something that would
help her was a nice change.

During the second act, I was able to help my mom work toward her goal of leaving school at
work. She had struggled with this issue for a long time, so her working toward a goal was
perfect. It allowed me to keep her accountable. I learned that my mom was a pretty motivated
person in general. She set her goal and really wanted to achieve it, since she saw the need in her
life. I was able to help and guide, but in general, after the project was started, she was able to
hold herself to her goal.

She was very motivated to work toward her goal because she knew it was an area of her life that
needed to change. I also learned that I needed to do some of this myself. As a teacher, I tend to
mull-over ideas and thoughts about school and student work. While this can be a good thing and
very helpful (just like with my mom), I need to be able to turn it off and leave school work alone
after hours when possible.

I also learned that, personally, I enjoy motivating people. I have seen this some within teaching,
colleagues, and friends. Through this course I have also started to see signs of when people are
trying to motivate me. I see it when they encourage me to do something, consistently, but aren’t
too pushy. I see it when I have someone holding me accountable for goals that I have set for
myself.

In general, I learned that motivation can come from the outside, or the inside. It can have
outward rewards, or inward ones. I found that helping others and motivating them can be
difficult, especially to get down to the specific motivational issue. For my project, I knew the
subject very well. But in life, you don’t always have the luxury of motivating people that you
have known for forever.
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Throughout this class I have been able to see different ways to motivate people. I have seen
different strategies along with their explanation in scenarios. I think the scenarios from the book
and acts of motivation were the best way for me to learn the motivational theories generally since
they are the real-life application and many of them related back to the classroom. I also liked
them because I was able to see how people were thinking in relation to the motivational theories.

Most teachers only know students for a year. Finding ways to motivate them within that time
frame can be more difficult, especially if the motivational issue arises within the first few weeks
of school. Not everyone is motivated the same way. As a teacher, you have to find the way that
works best for the specific student that you’re working with for that specific situation. An
academic motivational issue would need different motivation acts from a social motivation issue.
Every individual is unique and while some basic needs are consistent, motivational needs are
different based on the individual.

I look forward to finding the different motivational interests that my students have. I look
forward to seeing the things that naturally motivate them. I also look forward to seeing what I
can do to influence their motivation. I want to help my students and motivate them the best ways
that I can.
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References:
Schunk, D.H., Meece, J. L, Pintrich, P. R., (2014) Motivation in Education Theory, Research,
and Applications