Man acts with some purpose or motive. When he is hungry, he asks for food and eats it. Here hunger is a motive. Due to this motive he is guided to collect or prepare or purchase food. Thus, every human action has a motive behind and man acts only to fulfil certain needs. Therefore, motives are regarded as the raw materials of human nature.
Motives are the driving force for action. Motivation is stimulation for activities. It leads an individual to action. It gives him speed as well as direction. It creates a tension and a mental disequilibrium. Consequently he does something and fulfils his needs. Thus, his mental tension or disequilibrium is removed and he feels at ease by achieving his goals and satisfying his motives.
Motivation is that driving force which impels or stimulates individual’s actions, determines his speed and direction of actions. Thus motivations have important functions. Firstly, it initiates action; secondly it keeps the action going by controlling the speed and thirdly it gives direction to the action. For instance, when thirst is felt, the individual initiates his action and continues that action in the direction till water is found and his thirst is quenched after drinking the water. The intensity of one’s thirst determines his restlessness or speed of his search for water.
The individual, as he gets a motive, experiences a mental tension and becomes restless. This initiates action which continues at a particular direction, till he reaches the goal and feels satisfied. Thus, a motive is defined, “as a tendency to activity initiated by a drive and concluded by an adjustment.”
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According to Klausmmeir, a motive is “a state within individual that under appropriate circumstances initiates or regulates behavior in relation to a goal.” When an individual develops a motive, he feels the need for action and acts in a particular direction to achieve the goal.
Motivation and Learning
Motivation is an important factor in the learning process. It stimulates the learner to activities which provide learning experiences in order to achieve learning outcomes or reach the learning goals.
Motivation is, therefore, called the art of creating interest in the pupils, where it is not felt or not available adequately. It also helps sustaining interest of the child till the learning goal is reached by him. It involves arousing, sustaining as well as directing desirable conduct in the children.
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The learner is required to achieve certain objectives and his motivation plays an important part in engaging himself in the appropriate activities. If there is lack of interest, attempt is made by the teacher to create interest in him. This is done by adopting suitable methods, using interesting audio-visual aids and linking the goals of learning with the needs and interests of the learner. It becomes the duty and responsibility of the teacher to improve the conditions of learning through motivation. Unless adequate motivation is generated in the learner, learning can not be effective and meaningful. The pupil when properly motivated gets himself interested and involved in the learning process.
Motivation directs the learner’s behavior towards the desired goals of learning. The pupils should feel satisfied with the learning experiences and achievements that he can make through learning. Thus, in motivation the teacher has to define the objective, provide suitable incentives, and create proper atmosphere generates emotional interest and induce a state of satisfaction in the pupils. The success for the teaching learning process largely depends on motivation or making the pupils to do things that the teacher wants him to do.