Motivation-9/12

In the special education classroom, motivation is crucial to the success of your students. Most of these students have been ridiculed and estimated to not have the skills to achieve. As their teacher, you need to make them excited to learn and help them believe that they can learn. 
Although the use of reinforcements are highly argued in the educational field, in special education instruction the use of reinforcement to motivate students is widely used. In my special education textbook, Strategies for teaching students with learning and behavior problems by Vaughn and Bos, the use of reinforcements is recommended. However, reinforcement can be as simple as giving a student positive, descriptive feedback. Programs for more tangible reinforcements are also discussed. It is important to keep your students motivated in succeeding by offering a variety of reinforcements for their choosing (reinforcer menu). Positive reinforcement will make the child feel successful when they are learning. This in turn will motivate children to keep succeeding. Extrinsic motivation can be somewhat superficial, but if used correctly a student can benefit greatly.
Children in special education usually enter the classroom with the idea that they are going to fail. Due to this thinking, it is imperative for the teacher to build up a child's self worth. This can be done by setting higher goals for the student to achieve, believing that the student will achieve these goals, and motivating children to reach your high expectations. It is very important that a child does not create a negative self fulfilling prophecy due to their disabilities. If students are taught to expect more out of themselves, intrinsic motivation will begin to rise.
Due to the experiences that I have had in special education classrooms, I have concluded that reinforcement, or extrinsic motivation, needs to occur to get students motivated to work. While this is not ideal, it is much more practical to motivate children by tangible rewards than it is to mold their self worth. However, teaching students to be intrinsically motivated will still have a place in my classroom. I plan on using a token reward system. This means that a student will receive a check mark every time they show improvement or working hard. At the end of each day, students can trade in their points for a variety of reinforcement options spanning from lesson homework questions, free time, and tinker toys.
It is time to get students who have disabilities excited about school. No longer are the days where these children are told they will never achieve close to what their peers will. A lot of people in this class are general education teachers, and I hope they take the knowledge that all children can succeed in their own ways with them into their careers. Motivate them appropriately, and you will be amazed.