Um apontamento muito breve para registar umas leituras. Incrível como um documento com 3 páginas consegue sintetizar tudo aquilo que se pensa e que se tenta transmitir aos outros. Aos que começam agora.
O documento é o seguinte:
Technology and Motivation:
Can Computers Motivate Students to Read?
por Quality Quinn, senior advisor to CompassLearning and noted author and literacy consultant e está disponível em http://www.compasslearning.com/CompassFileUpload/60Technology_Motivation.pdf
Algumas ideias importantes:
A ideia de que uma das principais funções do professor é motivar, envolver, despertar a curiosidade.
“Motivation means having the desire and willingness to do something. Teachers who want to motivate
students to stay on task, increase their knowledge and skills, and improve their ability to process
information must guide the initiation, direction, intensity and persistence of learning behavior. But
how do we as educators do that?
Most researchers agree on the following five key factors that impact motivation:
• Challenge: Students are motivated when they are working toward personally meaningful goals
whose attainment requires activity at a continuously optimal level of difficulty. This condition is
known as the Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky) and is vital to the learning process. (…)”
A ideia de que, segundo a revisão da literatura, há, pelo menos 5 factores-chave que influenciam a motivação: desafio, interesse, grau de envolvimento, sucesso e recompensa.
“• Interest: Motivation is impacted by the learner’s level of interest in the activity. An optimal level
of discrepancy between present knowledge and skills, and what could be if the learner became
engaged in the activity, will influence motivation for the task. Novelty also initiates interest.
When the activity is novel, the learner may become curious about engaging in a new learning
experience. (…)”
“• Level of Concern: Even the most disenfranchised student will respond to a concern for their
progress and well-being as people as well as learners. Students need to have consistent and
authentic feedback. (…)”
“• Success: When students discover or are put in a situation to feel satisfaction and accomplishment,
it initiates motivation or continues it. (…)”
E agora a ideia principal, na minha opinião: a de que é uma tarefa árdua a do professor, ter todos estes níveis em conta, continuamente (e eu acrescentaria, e ensinar num contexto de uma avaliação formativa autêntica) e que as tecnologias da informação e a sua capacidade de armazenar, responder, diferenciar, agregar e desagregar de múltiplas e atractivas formas revelam que a tecnologia e a motivação são importantes aliadas.
“Given these five motivation-influencing elements, the case can be made that the teachers’ shoulders
are not broad enough to assess, design, and apply supplemental reading and writing to every belowlevel reader at the appropriate level of difficulty. However, when you examine the fundamental strengths
of information technology—specifically software—and its ability to store, respond, differentiate,
aggregate, and disaggregate in vivid, multi-modal ways, it is clear that motivation and technology are
a “natural pairing.” If you don’t believe the research, ask a student. As one student boldly put it, “The
computer doesn’t think I’m stupid!” “
