E. Cullen

mural3

Motivation is everything what helps to wake up and keep someone´s interest to do something. Students come to education for many reasons. All reasons are acceptable because any motivation is better than none. If learners are not motivated, they are not able to learn. Most adult students are at the classroom because they want to be. There are called “want to” learners. Some of them are there because they need it for their job. They are “have to” learners. We can distinguish intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is our internal need to do something. Extrinsic motivation represents all other external factors not directly connected to the issue being learnt.

Teacher should increase, sustain and direct student motivation. We should organize the essential motivational conditions. If we want to establish inclusion, we need to create a positive learning atmosphere, full of respect to each other. Next task is to develop attitude, it means creating a favourable disposition to learning through personal relevance and choice. To enhance meaning is important to create challenging and thoughtful learning experiences which include learners´ perspectives and values. Furthermore, we should engender competence by creating an understanding of learner effectiveness.

Adults have to balance a lot of responsibilities which can lead to the barriers against participating in learning. The most common problems are lack of time, money, confidence, interest, lack of information, scheduling problem and problems with child care and transportation. As teachers of adults, we have to plan motivating strategies which show learners the connection between training and final promotion.