Martin V. Covington – författare

Achievement behaviour in schools can best be understood in terms of attempts by students to maintain a positive self-image. For many students, trying hard is frightening because a combination of effort and failure implies low ability, which is often equated with worthlessness. Thus many students described as unmotivated are in actuality highly motivated - not to learn, but to avoid failure. Students have a variety of techniques for avoiding failure, ranging from cheating to setting low goals which are easily achieved. In Making the Grade, Martin Covington extracts powerful educational implications from self-worth theory and other contemporary views of motivation that will be useful for everyone concerned with the educational dilemmas we face. He provides a comprehensive, insightful review of research and theory, both contemporary and historical, on the topic of achievement motivation, and arranges this knowledge in ways that lead to imminently practical recommendations for restructuring schools.

Achievement behaviour in schools can best be understood in terms of attempts by students to maintain a positive self-image. For many students, trying hard is frightening because a combination of effort and failure implies low ability, which is often equated with worthlessness. Thus many students described as unmotivated are in actuality highly motivated - not to learn, but to avoid failure. Students have a variety of techniques for avoiding failure, ranging from cheating to setting low goals which are easily achieved. In Making the Grade, Martin Covington extracts powerful educational implications from self-worth theory and other contemporary views of motivation that will be useful for everyone concerned with the educational dilemmas we face. He provides a comprehensive, insightful review of research and theory, both contemporary and historical, on the topic of achievement motivation, and arranges this knowledge in ways that lead to imminently practical recommendations for restructuring schools.

This book introduces the basic principles of motivation as they apply to classroom learning and management in a readable, non-technical form. Covington argues against the popular notion that the problems existing in schools today stem primarily from a lack of student motivation. Instead, he asserts that students are motivated, sometimes even overly motivated, but often for the wrong reasons. Traditional teaching methods, including conventional grading procedures and an emphasis on competition, can contribute to student demoralization, and Covington identifies the ways in which students respond to misguided incentives. For some students, motivation is directed at avoiding failure by avoiding participation. For others, demoralization leads to withdrawal from an educational system that they believe to be irrelevant to their lives. Still other students are driven to prove their worth by outperforming fellow students. The book suggests practical, concrete ways that teachers can use classroom incentives to inspire a desire to learn.

This book introduces the basic principles of motivation as they apply to classroom learning and management in a readable, non-technical form. Covington argues against the popular notion that the problems existing in schools today stem primarily from a lack of student motivation. Instead, he asserts that students are motivated, sometimes even overly motivated, but often for the wrong reasons. Traditional teaching methods, including conventional grading procedures and an emphasis on competition, can contribute to student demoralization, and Covington identifies the ways in which students respond to misguided incentives. For some students, motivation is directed at avoiding failure by avoiding participation. For others, demoralization leads to withdrawal from an educational system that they believe to be irrelevant to their lives. Still other students are driven to prove their worth by outperforming fellow students. The book suggests practical, concrete ways that teachers can use classroom incentives to inspire a desire to learn.

This book raises the question of whether or not educators can promote intrinsic motivation among college students when they seem overwhelmingly focused on grades. Indeed, can there be life beyond grades? The answer is 'Yes'. A love of learning can coexist, even thrive, in the face of competing pressures from grades. Drawing on recent, ground-breaking classroom research, the authors articulate a new understanding of the causes of the stalemate between intrinsic and external motivation, so that a reconciliation between them can be achieved. Then the authors apply a powerful set of motivational and pedagogical principles to lay out a step-by-step blueprint for designing and teaching college courses that promote intrinsic motivation as a primary educational goal in its own right, above and beyond knowledge and skill acquisition. This practical blueprint draws on authentic case study examples from a variety of subject-matter disciplines.