Motivation in Modern Family

  One of my favorite shows to help me unwind is Modern Family.  I recently started rewatching it, but this time as I watched it I could not help but see all of the connections to the goal-orientations and motivation strategies learned in class. When watching Modern Family, there was one character in particular who stood out because of her performance-approach orientation. Alex Dunphy is considered the brains of her family. However, to achieve and maintain this reputation, she displays many patterns that show her performance-approach goals. 

Alex’s goal orientation is shown in many ways, but especially the way that she looks towards school. For example, “adopting performance-approach goals means committing oneself to striving for hight levels of achievement” (Wentzel & Brophy, 2014, p.25-26). For her, she does not just want to have an A in her classes, but she wants to be the best. This is shown when she does not get excited when she gets an A, because she did not score highest in the class. She is more focused on her scores and looking the smartest, than what she learns and how she learns it for long term memory, or how she has improved as a student.

However, like other students that have performance-orientation goals, her strategies to achieve high grades do not always mean that she studies the information in effective ways. For example, “instead of following their own self-generated agenda, students who adopt performance-approach goals align their study efforts with the teacher’s agenda” (Wentzel & Brophy, 2014, p.25-26). This is very evident for Alex in the way that to study she sits in front of her computer or book all day and night in order to retain the information.

Perhaps Alex adopted these performance orientation goals because she continues to achieve success and the people around her hold her to high expectations. “Performance-approach goals have more positive correlation patterns for students high in perceived competence” (Wentzel & Brophy, 2014, p.24).  From the beginning of the show, Alex was performing well and getting high grades. Everyone also had very high expectations for her. At one point, after a big melt down while studying for her SAT, she told her councilor the not only was it an internal battle to do well, but it was external as well because everyone around her expected her to do well. 

Alex’s goal orientation seemed to be a habit. Although there are not many scenes of her in school, it seems that there were some things that her teachers could have done to expose her to a mastery goal orientation. This is important because, “mastery goals are likely to be associated with a broad pattern of desirable motivational and strategic variables in all learning situations” (Wentzel & Brophy, 2014, p.24). Some things that her teachers could have done are focusing on progress instead of grades only, or providing different ways of assessing the learning so that she could apply her learning beyond just the reading of the textbook.

Overall, Alex represents many students that I have met while teaching and while I was in school. This is the expectation for intelligence in society- do well on tests and SAT scores to show how smart you are. However, as teachers we have a responsibility to students like Alex that have performance-orientation goals. We have the task of showing them the value of application beyond the book and the appreciation of their own personal growth away from their peers. 

Wentzel, K. R., & Brophy, J. E. (2014). Motivating students to learn (4th ed.). New York:Routledge. ISBN 978-0415893527.