Teachers can support students’ intrinsic motivation in a number of ways

The last BIZ Learning Café for teachers at the School of Business this spring held on 20 May focused on the topic of intrinsic motivation. The guest speaker was Alli Mattila, a study psychologist for the School of Business students.

‘The most common reason for business students to contact a psychologist is a lack of motivation to study. Almost as common is the student's feeling of not getting anything done. The next most common reasons for contacting a study psychologist were a lack of confidence in their own abilities as a student, the negative impact of mental health problems and other personal challenges on their studies, and a feeling of being an outsider at university,’ said Alli Mattila. 

However, 2/3 of the respondents to the Spring 2023 freshmen survey said their motivation to study was fairly high. Around 40% of those who had been admitted to the school on the basis of their matriculation exam grades said their motivation to study was fairly low.

Intrinsic motivation is built on basic psychological needs

Intrinsic motivation is defined as doing something for one's own pleasure and personal satisfaction. Intrinsic motivation is influenced by four psychological needs: autonomy (free will, choice of action based on one’s own values), competence (a sense of competence, the right amount of challenge), belonging (a sense of connection and belonging) and benevolence (doing things that are useful to others). 

‘It's good to think about these basic human psychological needs in your own teaching because you can add all of these in different ways. You can increase student autonomy, for example, by inviting a few students from among the students to participate in the decision-making process when deciding how to run a course. You can increase students’ sense of competence, for example, by being very clear about what is required in the course and by keeping the workload reasonable,’ said Alli Mattila.

Alternative methods and other forms of support

Many professors and lecturers at the School of Business are actively thinking about how they can support different types of students in their everyday lives. For example, Apurva Ganoo, a lecturer in entrepreneurship, says he uses Presemo and similar tools a lot to ask questions. ‘Especially if the lecture hall is big and there are a lot of students, many students don't like to ask their questions out loud. That's when Presemo works well,’ he says. 

‘I also talk about psychological safety, for example, in the first lecture of the course and also instruct on how to work well in a team, if there is group work on the course. In addition, I always ask students to come to classes with an open mind, as students themselves can bring a lot of new ideas and thoughts to the discussion. In addition, I try to help students in other ways than just responding to psychological needs. For example, I make sure that my presentation slides are clear and that the learning materials are easily accessible, and I also recommend podcasts and videos on the course topic, in addition to literature. Many people enjoy listening and watching the content.’

Professor Tiina Ritvala and Assistant Professor Iiris Saittakari, both from the subject of International Business, also shared an example from their own course. ‘In our course, activity points can be obtained alternatively by a written reflection after the lecture. We have received lots of praise from students for this alternative method. It seems to have facilitated the learning of different learners on the course.’

‘Attendance and active participation in lectures is an essential part of learning. Therefore, activity in lectures accounts for 10% of the final grade. Oral activity in class can also be replaced by a short written reflection on the discussion. If the student chooses the latter option, they should write a 150-200 word commentary on the topic discussed in class and submit it by 8 pm that evening. It is possible to get maximum points for participation without submitting a written output, as it is indeed an alternative way of demonstrating oral participation in a lecture,’ Tiina Ritvala and Iiris Saittakari explain about getting activity points.

Johanna Bragge, Principal University Lecturer, says that based on course feedback, students appreciate flexibility that increases their autonomy. Flexibility is provided by features such as lecture recordings, independent online exercises and flexible timetables for submitting exercises. 

‘In my Management Information Systems course, exercises must be submitted on Friday evenings as a rule, but they can also be returned on Sunday evenings with a small loss of points (-10%). Working students in particular appreciate the extended submission, although the purpose of weekday deadlines is to support leisure and recovery, which are also important for students.’

‘Gamification and practical application of theories have also been praised in our business simulation-based capstone course, where teams of 4 students compete against each other in the same product market. Similarly, the relevant technology skills needed for practical work life clearly motivate the students to study them, and to qualify in them - even after minor challenges - which provides repeated experiences of success,’ says Johanna Bragge.

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N.B.! Dear teachers (professors and lecturers) of the School of Business,

• The materials for the BIZ Learning Café events can be found on Teams: BIZ Teachers Teams > General > Files 
• The next BIZ Learning Café will take place on 20 August 2024 at 13.30-15.00. On that occasion, we will have as our guest David Brown, Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Arizona, and the topic will be "Teaching in Excel". Invitations will be sent out shortly.