2.Literature Review

2.1 Learning Motivation 

The purpose of giving rewards to pupils is to stimulate and maintain ones motivation. Psychologists define motivation as an internal process that activates, guides, and maintains behavior over time.(Murphy&Alexander, 2000) In other words, motivation is what gets one going, keeps one going and determines where one is trying to get. According to Williams and Burden’s (2000) research related to motivation that motivation is a state of cognitive and emotional arousal, it leads to a conscious decision to act and maintain a period of sustained mental or physical efforts in order to attain a previously set goal.

For motivation, there are various theories,such as the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs(Maslow,1954), Attribution theory(Wiener,1994),self-efficacy(Bandura,1997) and Expectancy theory (Edwards, 1954& Atkinson, 1964).

In Maslow’s theory, the human needs are pided into deficiency needs(physiological,safety,love and esteem) and growth needs( the need to know and understand things, to appreciate beauty and self actualization). When students fulfill all the deficiency needs, they will develop the growth needs and finally step into the stage of self actualization,which means “ the desire to become everything that one is capable of becoming”.(Maslow,1954). By analyzing the theory, motivation will be developed by the premise of fulfilling the deficiency needs, such as be paid attention and be loved. Using the theory in education, teachers should pay due attention to every student, love them and cultivate their confidence.    

The attribution theory is developed by many scholar, Weiner’s theory is wildly used in educational case,which focused on achievement (Weiner, 1974). He identified ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck as the most important factors affecting attributions for achievement. The attribution to ability and luck belongs to inner attribution and the attribution to task difficulty and luck belongs to extra attribution. The ones with inner attribution are inclined to be successful. Thus, teacher should guide students to attribute their achievements in internal, controllable and stable elements to cope with challenges.

If students believe they can achieve something, motivation will be easier to stimulated. This idea is raised by Psychologist Albert Bandura, who has defined it as self-efficacy. According to Bandura's theory, people who are self-efficacy. In other words, those who think they can do things well— are more likely to do difficult tasks to prove ones’ ability rather than avoid doing the tasks. Teachers should encourage learners to face with difficulties and explore ones’ potential.

Expectancy-value Theory is a theory of motivation based on the belief that people’s efforts to achieve depend on their expectations of rewards. It was developed by Edwards(1954) and Atkinson(1964). Here is a formula, which can clearly show the relationship between motivation and perceived probability of success(Ps), incentive value of success( Is). Motivation( M) = perceived probability of success( Ps) × incentive value of success( Is). From the formula, the difficulty of the challenge and the rewards giving by the end of the task are elements should be considered by teachers, who design the class tasks.

All the motivation theories should be taken into consideration in classes to motivate students’ motivation. What is more, the motivation theories can evaluate whether the rewards-giving method has achieved the desired results or not. To be more specific, after the rewards-giving,whether students’ intrinsic motivation have improved; whether students have attribute their achievements in internal, controllable and stable elements to cope with challenges; and meeting with great challenges ,whether students believe they can achieve them or not.