How Maths Mastery Fosters Intrinsic Motivation In Learners
Picture a moment when you knew you were experiencing learning at its best. What made it such a meaningful experience? How did that experience impact your motivation for further learning?
Psychologists like Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky have wrestled with the question of how we learn since the 1960s and debate continues to this day.
Behaviourists vs Constructivists
Behaviourists uphold the belief that knowledge is a “passively absorbed repertoire of behaviours” (Wray, 2014) while Constructivists reject this, maintaining that knowledge is actively constructed by learners as a cognitive process.
In Behaviourist learning theory, motivation is often extrinsic depending on rewards and punishments while in Constructivist learning theory motivation is largely intrinsic, depending on the learner’s inner drive.
A third learning theory, known as Social Constructivism combines the two. Here, learners are partially motivated by rewards but because of the active, social nature of their learning, they also draw on their own inner curiosity and drive to learn.
Inspired by Vygotsky and Piaget, among other educational psychologists, maths mastery programmes like Maths — No Problem! draw largely on the Constructivist and Social Constructionist theories in ways that sustain and nurture intrinsic motivation. Peers collaborate, anchor activities are explored and journaling enables reflection — providing an environment where the active process of learning can take place and where intrinsic motivation is developed rather than stifled. This approach blends naturally with a focus on relational rather than instrumental teaching approaches in maths as proposed by mathematician and psychologist Richard Skemp.
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