Fantasy

A fourth factor influencing individual motivation is fantasy, which plays a role when learners use mental images of situations that are not actually present to stimulate their behavior. {Fantasy is an individual factor because a person can use imagination to motivate learning without involving other people. Of course a fantasy could involve other people, as when a person imagine using skills learned in a particular class to win a competition.} By engaging in activities related to learning, learners may use their imaginations to meet challenges, satisfy curiosity, exercise control, or experience interpersonal motivations (discussed next) without directly participating in the imagined activities themselves.

There are three factors that influence the degree to which fantasy influences intrinsic motivation:

•  Emotional elements can make learners more willing to engage in an activity by making it fun or exciting to participate. This usually involves building a game around the learning activity.
  
  Examples of ways to use emotional elements of fantasy to stimulate intrinsic motivation:
  
  
  • English students may imagine themselves as baseball players while they study vocabulary words in a computer game with a sports motif that rewards rights answers with singles, doubles, and home runs.
    
    
  • History students could play a Jeopardy-style game based on the information they are required to study.
    
    
  • Young math students could play Number Munchers, a computer game in which a little creature races around a board and gobbles up correct answers (Figure 5.1). {They could use this game in place of ordinary flash cards.}

• Cognitive elements can make learners more willing to engage in an activity by enabling learners to imagine themselves actually using the specified skills in real life.
  
  Examples of ways to use cognitive fantasies to stimulate intrinsic motivation:
  
  
  • A young swain reading Romeo and Juliet could imagine himself using a similar approach to gain the affections of the love of his life.
    
    
  • Mathematics students may imagine themselves using math skills in their future careers as adults.
    
    
  • Young math students could play Market Place, a computer simulation in which children run simulated lemonade stands. {This game also includes emotional elements of fantasy (because it makes learning a game), but the emphasis is on using skills in an imaginary "real-life" setting.}

•  The Number Munchers game (cited above under emotional aspects) is an example of an exogenous fantasy. There is little obvious connection between the munching and the math.

• The Vocabulary Baseball game (cited above under emotional aspects) is an example of an exogenous fantasy. There is little obvious connection between the knowing the vocabulary words and playing baseball.

Review Quiz 5

Which of the following teachers is (are) appealing to fantasy in order to enhance motivation?

1. _____ Mr. Santucci lets his students play a computer game in which they "shoot" numbers that are answers to math problems, much like in the arcade game Alien Invaders.
   
   
2. _____ Miss Stephens gives each of her economics students $10,000 in imaginary money, and they try to make more money by investing in the stock market and keeping track of daily stock prices.
   
   
3. _____ Professor Vockell puts quizzes like this one throughout this chapter to help students determine whether they understand what they are reading.
   
   
4. ____ Mrs. Hahn tells her students that if they do well on the unit quiz, she will take them on a field trip.

    

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Motivating Through Fantasy

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Introduction
Motivation
Intrinsic Motivation
Challenge
Curiosity
Control
Fantasy <<You are here>>
Interpersonal Motivation
Summary of Intrinsic Motivation
Motivating Through Curriculum
Reinforcement and Punishment
Affective Aspects of Motivation
Physiological Aspects of Motivation
Cognitive Aspects of Motivation
Needs and Motivation
Self-Efficacy
Attribution Theory
Development and Motivation
Motivation as a Personality Characteristic
Teacher Expectancy
Social Aspects of Motivation: Classroom Structure
What Teachers Can Do About Motivation
What Parents Can Do About Motivation
What Students Can Do About Motivation
Chapter Summary
Annotated Bibliography
Footnotes
Answers to Quizzes