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The Transform your Teaching podcast is a service of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio. Join Dr. Rob McDole and Dr. Jared Pyles as they seek to inspire higher education faculty to adopt innovative teaching and learning practices.
This is the Transform Your Teaching Podcast. The Transform Your Teaching Podcast is a service of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio. Hello, and welcome
Ryan:Welcome to this episode of Transform Your Teaching. In today's episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Dr. Jared Pyles kick off a new series called Stirring Motivation. Thanks for joining us.
Jared:Well, Rob, it's time to launch the first series of 2026.
Rob:It is a new day.
Jared:Are you excited? A new year. Very excited. I'm excited. I could tell.
Rob:I'm very motivated for this one.
Jared:You're very motivated. Thank you for
Rob:saying that.
Jared:Really, because I'm not, and I'm trying to stoke my own intrinsic motivation.
Rob:Yes. It starts with yourself.
Jared:It really does. And we're gonna talk about that a bit more in-depth in this episode. But we've been playing with the idea of motivation. I feel like we kind of hit at it in an episode, in one series, and maybe pick it up again somewhere else, but we haven't really done an entire series devoted to the idea of motivation. It's always played a role in some factor or another.
Jared:But now in this series, we're starting 2026 with a pointed you said earlier, a mining expedition
Rob:Right.
Jared:Into the idea of motivation. And I have to tell you upfront to you and to our listeners, I'm excited, but I'm also intimidated.
Rob:I think that's fair. I think anytime anyone starts peeling back the layers of something like this, like, there's always this trepidation because you can't help but look in the mirror a little bit.
Jared:Right? Right.
Rob:In terms of, okay. As I look at these pieces, then I just naturally, I'm gonna start asking myself, reflecting on my own behavior, reflecting on those things. And I don't think as believers that anything bad can come of that, if if I can say it that way.
Jared:Sure.
Rob:Could you take the wrong path? Most certainly. But if you're following after Jesus, I don't I don't think there's any reason to fear an exploration of this. If anything, just an excitement of what will we find and how's my life going to change? How will the lives of my learners change
Jared:Yeah.
Rob:As a result? Mhmm. And I think just understanding these things. I'm looking forward to a lot of conversations that we're gonna have. We're gonna dive into defining at least a snapshot of what we've seen in the literature Yep.
Rob:And putting that before our listeners, but also looking forward to having some professionals
Jared:Yes.
Rob:Of which, you know, you and I, we would say we're educational professionals, which I believe we are. But in terms of, like, getting into the psychology, understanding it from that perspective Yeah. And a biblical perspective together, that's not necessarily our degree.
Jared:No. Not even close.
Rob:But there's a whole host of gold here, I think Yeah. Educationally for ourselves and for our listeners, and, I think it's just a great journey for 2026 to to go down.
Jared:I think my other trepidation with this is it tends to put people in boxes. You know, we've had you and I have had several conversations about crucial conversations and, how I think it's just this person acts like a hot dog, so you have to talk to them like a hot dog. This person's a hamburger.
Rob:Formulaic and algorithmic.
Jared:Yeah. I don't like it. Well, people act this way if they look like this or if they act like this or if they've demonstrated this in a previous assignment, they are this type of person. So I'm I'm afraid of that part of it too.
Rob:Go to line five.
Jared:Yeah. Right. This is how it's like the choose your own adventure books. Go to page 65 to figure out how to interact with the student. I feel like it becomes formulaic and prescriptive, but maybe it won't.
Jared:I don't know. We'll
Rob:see. No. I I don't think it will. I think if anything, we're looking for tools.
Jared:Yeah.
Rob:Right? Right. We're looking for tools to help our listeners, to help ourselves, to understand because, you know, both of us are teaching. You know, we remarked upon that today. I'm this is my third year finishing up my third year this semester Mhmm.
Rob:Of teaching business ethics. And I can tell you there's been I I've seen just the gamut of different people. Could I generally put them in certain categories? Probably. You know?
Rob:Sure. Those that are going after the grade, those that wanna understand, those that have no clue why in there they're in there, and they're just there because they were told they had to do this in order to complete the degree. Yeah. And there are other things that are more important to them. Right?
Rob:Like getting married, getting a job. Some of them may already be married, and they just wanna be done with their degree.
Jared:Right.
Rob:You know, there's just all sorts of types that you're going to face. But I think, generally speaking, there there are similarities that you can you can gather. And I think what we're getting ready to do Mhmm. Is talk about, one, some some different theories that are out there. Also, talk about what the literature says is, like, six stages of motivation or anytime you talk about it in terms of a of a framework.
Rob:So we're gonna get into that. Before we do, I think we need just a little introduction and defining
Jared:just motivation on its own. Sure. So first off, this information we're sharing today is based off of and I feel like you wanted me to do this. These names I am going to butcher. Why am I the one that gets to butcher all the names?
Rob:It's fun.
Jared:I'm sure it is. So this article is a literature review on different, ed motivational theories and it's from Erhani and Wizhnia, and that's the best I can do so don't ask me to do it again, from 2023. So they did a scope, they did a literature review, broad scope of these different motivational theories and they present them, and this is what we're gonna use to present to you.
Rob:Which is basically a framework.
Jared:Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a six step that we're gonna talk about in this or six stage framework in this episode.
Jared:But you know, to really break down the word motivation, it comes from the Latin, again, you're making me butcher this one too, Mover. Yep. Is that how you say it? Yep. Meaning to move.
Jared:Basically, motivation provides the energy for action and is defined as the process where a goal directed activity is instigated and sustained. So there's a goal and it's the defined as the process to get towards a goal, the activity that gets towards a goal.
Rob:Yeah. And and I think one of the things our listeners maybe they remember this from from school. You took one one course or maybe two weeks out of a out of course, and your eyes glassed over when they started talking about all these different theories, and you're you you felt like, you're stuck in some sort of maze, and there's some cheese somewhere. And our listeners may feel that way to some degree too, but please realize this is probably one of the most looked at, studied concepts in psychology as a whole in in human studies and and looking at ourselves, what motivates us to do things? What pushes us to do certain things that other people won't do or things similar to what other people do?
Rob:It it's just this continual curiosity. Yeah. And I think as educators, why is that so important? It's very important because you want people to move from point a to point b. Mhmm.
Rob:You want them to go from where they don't know something about your content to where they do. And not only do they know something, but most most often people want them to appreciate it, you know, value it in some way, and see how it benefits them in their everyday lives or even in their careers or what have you. So we just assume that it's there. Oftentimes, we talk about it. We've talked about it with self determination theory, which we'll get to here in a minute.
Rob:But it's very important for us to just take a moment and say, this is not going to be inaccessible. We are going to try to continue to make sure that we keep it clear. Yeah. And we'll For
Jared:my own.
Rob:Bring in well, we're gonna bring in guests. You and I are not gonna sit here and No.
Jared:Thank you.
Rob:Pontificate on all these things because then, you know, our listeners really would be lost. So
Jared:The blind leading the blind in that case. Yeah.
Rob:So, let's at least make a frame here. And, why don't you walk us through the first segment?
Jared:Sure. So in this previously mentioned article whose names I will not butcher again, they have six stages that they say, someone goes through of the action they call it the six stages of the action model. So the first one is the situation. So you imagine oh, we're gonna put the article in our show notes, but there's literally a a box and there's an arrow. Actually, the first one, I'll explain that in a second.
Jared:The arrow is two ways. Mhmm. So the situation is the first box on the left, and it's the social, cultural, and environmental context in which the motivated actions take place. It serves as the overarching context for the entire action sequence and interacts intimately with the individual self to evoke specific motivational tendencies. So the situation you find yourself in.
Jared:The next box to the right of that is self, and this is where there's a I just mentioned in the definition there, but basically situation and self have a two way arrow. And so they're gonna interact with each other throughout this entire thing. But the self, they identify it as the starting point of motivated action. This is the agency, this is the, you know, is it the needs, the values, the beliefs that motivate the self to the next step, which is the next box, and this is a now we're back to the one directional. So self pointing towards the next box, which is the goal, Mhmm.
Jared:Which is the cognitive representation of an action's anticipated incentives and consequences. So the self sees the goal, so they start. This is the goal or the end point where they wanna end up their outcome. So then after that is the action. This is the physical or cognitive behavior performed to either approach a positive goal or avoid a negative one based on whatever the goal is previously.
Jared:And then after that is the outcome, this is the immediate result of an individual's behavior, which can be physical, social, or effective. It's the indicator of whether a person has mastered a standard of excellence or achieved their intended goal. And the last one, the last box in this chain, is the consequences, the long term or varied effects of the action that go beyond the outcome itself, such as rewards, punishment, self evaluation, reflection, achievement, emotions, things like that. So there's the six stage framework, and I'll go through it again. Situation, self, goal, action, outcome, and consequences.
Jared:So this is the framework that these authors have, postulated based on these after looking at the literature and these different theories, they all come back to these six stages.
Rob:Yeah. So we're as we move on here, to start talking about some of these theories that were this that this framework essentially attempts to envelop. And I I I think it's fairly at least what I've read so far, seems to land true when I when I think about it in terms of their definitions. So take some time, read the paper. We'll have a link to it.
Rob:I think it would be beneficial. But having a good framework now lets us talk about some of the prevailing theories that that are out there. So the first one that we're gonna, you know, put before everybody is this expectancy value theory. And this particular theory depicts motivation as a result of what's possible or what's desired of an anticipated action. So there's what you want from something and you're willing to do x, So you'll do x in order to get y.
Rob:Right. So this happens in economics quite a bit. Mhmm. It's kind of very similar to utility theory.
Jared:Or cost benefit.
Rob:Yeah. So you're willing to pay certain amount of money. Right. For a given item, say milk.
Jared:Mhmm.
Rob:But is there a point in time at which you're no longer motivated to spend that much money on milk? Right?
Jared:Yeah. Right.
Rob:So it looks at that relationship and it just it doesn't look at any of the other context of what we'll talk about in some others, but it's just that simple part between the goal and your desire for that outcome and the action that you're willing to take.
Jared:I don't wanna muddy the waters here, but and I don't wanna bring up, my past. But, is risk aversion in here? Do we see the idea of is risk a possible with prospect theory in Kahneman and Tversky?
Rob:Yes. It would show up. I don't know. It would show up probably in the expectancy Gotcha. And value.
Jared:Yeah.
Rob:Basically, what what you're saying what you're referencing for our listeners is Kahneman Tversky with prospects theory would say aversion to loss
Jared:Mhmm.
Rob:Is the thing that will drive the decisions that we make. So they're not necessarily rational. We're not always going to try to make the best decision to get the best outcome. We're going to make decisions based on what we perceive will prevent us from losing something.
Jared:Right. Right.
Rob:And we all have different levels of that. So, yeah, if you're interested in that, I mean, there's plenty out there on on
Jared:Yeah. I have plenty of resources for you if you wanna deep dive into that.
Rob:Why don't you take the next one?
Jared:Sure. So there's also social cognitive theory, which is the interaction of personal behavioral and environmental factors where human agency is subject to the term reciprocal determinism. So basically, that's the we were talking about this, earlier, and we were sitting in my office. The layout of my office, the lights and everything else, those are all the people in the room, like Rob, myself, and Ryan, we're all in the room. Those all can play a factor into, our motivation, and that's what social cognitive theory, refers to there.
Rob:Well, and it'll it places a great emphasis on the social aspects and the and the setting, driving, determining outcome.
Jared:Mhmm.
Rob:And, obviously, we're just reflecting these to our listeners. We're not sitting here and saying to you, oh, this is a 100% true.
Jared:Of course not.
Rob:Please make sure you keep that in mind as you're listening.
Jared:Although I will say, we had a situation last semester where our classroom, the heater, the HVAC went ballistic, and it was, like, 95 in the room.
Rob:That's deterministic.
Jared:Yeah. And we literally could not have class. So the environmental factors in that case, social cognitive theory was spot on. We couldn't do anything.
Rob:The next one is self determination theory, and, it's a very large broad theory, for understanding motivation. And while it might nod to social cognitive theory, it's going to place the majority of the emphasis on the self Mhmm. And the self's determining for themselves what makes them, you know, feel good, what they wanna focus on, and it also is going to discuss the difference between autonomous versus controlled behaviors. So and what that means is I get to choose. In other words, I have determination instead of my environment.
Jared:Mhmm. You have autonomy.
Rob:You have autonomy. Mhmm. Another way, given the example that you gave about the heater
Jared:Mhmm.
Rob:In your classroom. So, yes, this social environment, the environment you were in was pushing you to determine what SDT would say, but you're not you could have done something else. You could have, like, found another room, met outside, gone to the hallway.
Jared:You know? All those options were
Rob:All those options. Yeah. But, you know, there is the other option of
Jared:If I was actually intrinsically motivated to teach and my students were intrinsically motivated to stick with it.
Rob:Yeah. That would have been but the heat upstairs was Atrocious. Was atrocious.
Jared:So It was on the equator at that point. We should say that self determination theory has come up the most. If you're a fan of the podcast or you've to it, this is where we end up a lot of the times is we end up talking about self determination theory. We, you know, we've talked about in the past, but the idea of the intrinsic motivation versus extrinsic motivation.
Rob:Yeah. You wanna feel like you're in control. You wanna feel like you're competent. Right?
Jared:Right.
Rob:You know what you're doing.
Jared:Mhmm.
Rob:So those things are very important in terms of of self determination theory or what adherence to this would say is probably the better way to go because there's there's only so much coercion Yeah. That you can you can do. Someone's not motivated to do something internally
Jared:Mhmm.
Rob:It's probably not gonna last a whole lot. Mhmm. I mean, it's not gonna last a long time. Right. Although Skinner might say something else, you know, like, all you have to do is just train them and they'll just ring the bell and
Jared:Or Pavlov or something like that. When we were talking about this earlier, I mentioned that the whole adage of don't smile until after Christmas. That was something I heard, in k 12, as an idea of, like, you don't want to be nice to your students because that that somehow would, like, motivate them to be better early on and you set a foundation of like
Rob:because they don't know.
Jared:Yeah. They don't know who you are. Mhmm. So you're setting kind of a foundation for I'm the leader. I'm in charge.
Jared:And then you can kind of graduate your guard down after Christmas. I mean, I don't know. I don't know You're if there's much
Rob:not influenceable.
Jared:Correct. That's the Yeah.
Rob:That's the thing.
Jared:You can't get me off topic. Yeah. Because I'm a leader and I'm important. I show that by not smiling. But maybe a better one is even like, especially this, we'll talk about this in K 12.
Jared:Like if you yell at your students, if you raise your voice at your students to get their attention, the first time it works like a charm. I was a first year teacher. So I felt that, oh, this works. Yelling does work.
Rob:For a moment.
Jared:For a moment. And then the fifth or sixth time I tried it, I was like, wait, this stopped working, and you completely lost it. So maybe that's also part of self determination as well.
Rob:I think so. And then you wanna take the next one?
Jared:So last one we wanna talk about is achievement goal theory, which is motivation by the intention to engage in competence related behavior. They have this theory has a three by two model. Students focus on different standards. They could be task based or mastering the content, self based, doing better than they did in the past, or other based, performing better than classmates. So there's achievement goal theory, the idea that if what motivation is there to them for them to accomplish a task?
Jared:So to be clear to
Rob:our listeners, there are several other theories that that are here that we haven't mentioned yet, and we may mention them over the coming days. We just don't have the time to, like, go into depth in all of those. And so we'll we'll talk about those as they come up with our guests. But we would just say, take some time.
Jared:Mhmm.
Rob:Look at this article that we put out there for you. Just make yourself aware of it, and join us in this in this journey. Yeah. Join us in this journey of exploring these things, maybe thinking of it in ways that you haven't, because I think you'll find something here that will be helpful to you and helpful to your students.
Jared:Yep. Rob, I used NotebookLM to take this article and, you know, if you've never used NotebookLM, highly recommend it. It's a great way of piecing together, study guide materials, or anything for your students. I had it take this article and create a video overview.
Rob:Yeah. I started watching that. That was weird.
Jared:So that that that's an option too. But, yeah, I'm excited to get this started. Like I said, I'm a bit apprehensive, but I think that's just me, you know, following achievement goal theory. I don't really I don't feel competent. I don't have very many competence related behaviors when it comes to, this, but I'm excited to see what happens next.
Jared:Our next episode, we're having one of our distinguished professors here from our psychology department, Betsy Linnell, to come on to talk about these different theories with us and help us not feel, at least help me not feel as stupid when it comes to motivation.
Rob:I'm looking forward to it.
Jared:Me too.
Ryan:Thanks for listening to this episode of Transform Your Teaching. If you have any questions or comments about our new series, feel free to email us at ctlpodcast@cedarville.edu. You can also connect with us on LinkedIn. Finally, don't forget to check out our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog. Thanks for listening.