One way to think about the causes of behaviour is to talk in terms of motives.
These are the internal factors that drive our behaviour.
When we say we are motivated to do something, we refer to the fact that something inside of us causes us to act.
If we are demotivated, then the scope of our behaviour tends to reduce significantly.
Many philosophers, starting with Plato, have divided human motives into two categories: reason and emotion.
The first category is concerned with our conscious, rational mind.
That is, the part of ourselves through which we reason, analyse, and pass judgement.
The second category is concerned with our emotions.
That is, the underlying sentiments that form part of who we are and over which we may or may not have much control.
Plato described reason and emotion as two horses pulling us in different directions.
By this I think he meant to characterise the fact that these two parts of ourselves do not operate in the same way. They seek different goals. Goals that sometimes align, and sometimes conflict.
To illustrate, consider how your rational mind says you need to avoid biscuits to lose weight.
But then your emotional self jumps in and says: ‘Oh, one biscuit won’t hurt, and you know it tastes delicious!’
Here we have the two horses pulling in different directions.
Both are part of us. Both lead to behavioural outcomes (to eat the biscuit or to not eat the biscuit). And both may be aligned or in conflict.
It is not always easy to plot a course that reconciles the twin demands of reason and emotion. Sometimes it is. But not always.
The Enlightenment philosopher David Hume suggested that reason is a slave of the passions.
By this I take him to mean that any rational decision we choose to make is ultimately predicated on the things we desire, and that these flow originally from our emotions or sentiments.
We can take much from Plato and Hume to help us think critically about behaviour in the classroom.
Starting with Plato, it is fair to say that a lot of the positive behaviour management we do in the classroom is in part based around helping learners to use their rational minds to temper and direct their emotional selves.
This is not to denigrate or ignore the importance of emotions.
But it is reflective of the fact that unchecked emotion is more likely to lead to negative outcomes in the classroom.
We know, roughly, that the prefrontal cortex is a part of the brain that develops during the period of early childhood to provide a moral, social buffer to the passions sparked by other elements of the brain.
This explains why children at the age of around two can be, at times, surprisingly aggressive or prone to meltdowns.
They have, as yet, not fully developed the capacity to control their aggression – a necessary requisite for living successfully as part of a social group.
However, we also know that an individual who operates without reference to emotions is functionally abnormal. This tells us that some mid-point is preferable.
Learners need to learn how to manage their emotions and how to use reasoning when making decisions about their behaviour.
Restraint must be learned.
Along with rational decision-making.
Turning to Hume, we may reasonably accept that his argument is true.
It seems unrealistic to suggest that men and women are rational beings not driven by their sentiments.
After all, without sentiments, what kind of a person would we be? Would we be a person at all?
These points briefly and inexpertly suggest the fact that Hume’s argument holds for much of our experience.
At root, the reasons we use to make decisions are exercised in relation to the underlying passions we wish to fulfil.
To put it another way, what we want is central to what we do.
Connecting this to the classroom, we find ourselves thinking of learners as being driven by underlying emotions, albeit with these generally manifesting themselves through rational action.
But so too do we conceive of learners as similar to ourselves, if at an earlier stage of development, given as how Hume’s argument is universal in its application.
So where does this all leave us?
Well, I would suggest three points we can take away:
- Our actions are governed by motives.
- These motives are based on emotion or rationality (possibly always emotion in the final analysis).
- Thinking about motives can help us to better understand why learners act as they do.
Motives – Means, Ends and Goals
Leading on from this, we can say that motives are the basis for action and that, often, motives have as their aim their own fulfilment.
For example, if I have the motive of acquiring good grades, I will achieve that end by acquiring good grades.
And, if I have the motive of disrupting the lesson, I will achieve this by seeing the lesson disrupted.
Frequently then, motives are ends in themselves:
- He was motivated by revenge, and he achieved his revenge.
- She was motivated by a desire to do good and this she did.
- They were motivated to be successful, and their grades gave them evidence they had achieved this.
In each of these cases, the people’s behaviour is the means through which they achieve their goal; through which they fulfil their motive.
Seen in this way, we can see why thinking about motives is so important.
It is the driving force of behaviour because it is through behaviour that motives can be achieved.
Two things follow:
- First, if we are for some reason prevented from achieving our goals, we may become frustrated. The degree of this frustration can vary tremendously and depends on many factors. However, one thing we can take away is that learners’ poor behaviour can be a result of them trying to fulfil certain motives. If we act to deal with this, we may sometimes find ourselves facing learners who then become frustrated.
- Second, we all possess a mass of different motives, with these prioritised in different ways at different times. As a basic example, consider how the relative importance of different motives changes as you grow tired. Our body tells us that sleep is necessary and, commonly, this results in other motives being pushed onto the backburner, at least until we have regained our strength.
That we possess different motives has a couple of consequences:
- On the one hand, we as teachers can encourage learners to focus on positive motives rather than negative ones.
- On the other hand, we can help learners to be successful in achieving positive motives; helping them to act in a way that fulfils a goal we both share.
This reminds us that behaviour is learned, that behaviour can change, and that, through our actions, we can teach learners how to behave well.
It also suggests a few practical pointers we can use to underpin our behaviour management:
- Regularly communicating positive goals is a good way to habituate learners into seeing these as worth focussing on. This helps emphasise that achieving these goals is a worthwhile motive, making it more likely that learners will behave positively.
- Many learners, if not all, possess the various motives of wanting to do well, of wanting to succeed, of wanting to gain status, and of wanting to be recognised as an individual. These are all motives we can help learners to fulfil. If they can fulfil them in our classroom, it is very likely they will see our lessons in a positive light. Good behaviour will almost certainly follow.
- We can show learners the relationship between their behaviour (means) and what they want to achieve (ends, goals, fulfilment of motives). Put another way, we can show learners the consequences of their actions and tie this to their own motives. This is a powerful tool through which to mould and develop the behaviour in which learners engage.
