NUR 635 Module 8 Motivation Paper Example

Why Capable Students Disengage: Applying Self-Determination Theory in a Nursing Pharmacology Course

[Student Name]

Southern New Hampshire University

NUR 635: Teaching and Learning for Nurse Educator

Module Eight Motivation Paper

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The organization, setting and figures below are a composite written as a model document. No real employer, client, colleague or patient is described.

Why Capable Students Disengage: Applying Self-Determination Theory in a Nursing Pharmacology Course

Faculty often explain disengagement as a lack of motivation, as if motivation were a fixed quantity a student either has or lacks. Motivation research suggests a different view: the kind and strength of students' motivation depend partly on the learning environment, which faculty shape. This paper examines falling engagement in a nursing pharmacology course through self-determination theory. It argues that three common patterns of disengagement trace back to a shortfall in one of the theory's three needs, and that modest course changes can support those needs without lowering expectations.

The Problem

In the composite second-year pharmacology course at Harborside University, completion of the low-stakes spaced retrieval quizzes, which are designed to support long-term memory, fell from 91% after the first unit to 64% by midterm. Faculty conversations with students suggested at least three patterns, represented here by three composite students. Maria puts in 30 hours of paid work each week on a telemetry floor, often falls behind and feels she can never catch up. James worked for six years as a pharmacy technician, finds the early content repetitive and skips the quizzes because they seem pointless. Aaliyah struggled with chemistry in her first year, now says she is "just not a science person" and avoids the quizzes because low scores confirm her fear. All three are capable, and all three passed the first exam.

Self-Determination Theory

Ryan and Deci argue that three needs underlie healthy motivation: autonomy, feeling that what one does springs from one's own choices and values; competence, feeling capable of doing it well; and relatedness, feeling connected to and cared about by others. When social contexts support these needs, people tend to develop more autonomous forms of motivation, in which they value an activity or find it interesting, and show greater persistence, performance and well-being. When contexts thwart these needs, motivation tends to become controlled, driven by pressure or reward, or to disappear (Ryan & Deci, 2000). A review of motivation in medical education found that motivation was associated with learning outcomes and that features of the educational environment could influence the quality of students' motivation, although most studies were cross-sectional (Kusurkar et al., 2011).

Reading the Three Patterns

Each student's disengagement maps onto an unmet need. Maria's problem is competence under constraint: she wants to succeed but has so little time that falling behind feels permanent, and each missed quiz deepens the sense that she cannot be effective. James's problem is autonomy: the quizzes feel imposed and irrelevant to what he already knows, so he has no reason of his own to do them. Aaliyah's problem is competence as belief: she interprets difficulty as evidence of fixed inability, so avoiding the quizzes protects her from confirming it. Relatedness runs through all three. The course is large, and none of the three students has a relationship with a faculty member who might notice them drifting.

What About Growth Mindset?

Aaliyah's belief that she is not a science person resembles what researchers call a fixed mindset, and growth mindset interventions, which teach that abilities can be developed, have become popular. The evidence is more modest than the popularity. In a national experiment with more than 12,000 secondary students in the United States, a brief online growth mindset intervention improved grades among lower-achieving students, and the effect held mainly in schools where peer norms supported the message (Yeager et al., 2019). The effects were small on average and depended on context. For Aaliyah, a mindset message alone is unlikely to be enough; it needs to be paired with experiences of success that make the message believable, which brings the discussion back to competence.

Supporting Competence

Several changes can support competence. Quizzes will allow two attempts, with the higher score counting, so that a first low score becomes information rather than a verdict. Each quiz will open with one question most students can answer, building early success. For students like Maria, a flexible window of five days for each quiz, rather than a single due date, accommodates work schedules. Faculty will send a brief message to students who miss two quizzes in a row, not as a warning but as an invitation to a 10-minute check-in, which also supports relatedness. For Aaliyah and students like her, faculty will add a short note to returned quizzes that names one specific thing the student did well and one strategy for the next attempt, such as drawing the coagulation cascade before answering reversal questions. Feedback of this kind treats difficulty as a sign of what to practice next, which makes a growth message concrete rather than abstract, and it gives the student evidence of her own progress that a general encouragement cannot.

Supporting Autonomy and Relatedness

Autonomy can be supported without abandoning structure. Students will be told explicitly why the quizzes exist, citing the evidence on spaced retrieval, rather than simply being assigned them, because understanding the purpose of a task helps students value it. Students like James will be offered a choice at each unit: complete the standard quiz or, if they score above 90% on a short screening item set, complete an advanced case question instead. Relatedness will be supported by assigning each student to a faculty mentor for the term, with one brief meeting in the first month, and by keeping stable case groups so that students know their peers. These changes treat students as partners in their learning rather than as subjects of compliance.

Evaluating the Changes

Quiz completion will be tracked by unit and compared with the previous term. A short version of a validated motivation questionnaire, given at the start and end of the term, will show whether students' reasons for studying shift toward more autonomous motivation. Faculty will also note whether students who received check-in messages re-engaged.

Conclusion

Maria, James and Aaliyah are not unmotivated in any fixed sense. Each is responding to a course environment that, for different reasons, fails to meet a basic need. Self-determination theory explains their patterns and points to practical changes, second attempts, flexible windows, explained purposes, meaningful choices and a faculty relationship, that support competence, autonomy and relatedness while keeping the course's expectations intact.

References

Kusurkar, R. A., Ten Cate, T. J., van Asperen, M., & Croiset, G. (2011). Motivation as an independent and a dependent variable in medical education: A review of the literature. Medical Teacher, 33(5), e242-e262. https://doi.org/10.3109/0142159X.2011.558539

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68-78. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68

Yeager, D. S., Hanselman, P., Walton, G. M., Murray, J. S., Crosnoe, R., Muller, C., Tipton, E., Schneider, B., Hulleman, C. S., Hinojosa, C. P., Paunesku, D., Romero, C., Flint, K., Roberts, A., Trott, J., Iachan, R., Buontempo, J., Yang, S. M., Carvalho, C. M., . . . Dweck, C. S. (2019). A national experiment reveals where a growth mindset improves achievement. Nature, 573(7774), 364-369. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1466-y