January 2012 Volume 15 Number 1 - Educational Technology ...

scaffolding tool called “My Learning console,” which was aimed at enhancing the learner’s motivational selfregulation.
It not only garnered the instructor’s role of facilitating and coaching but also employed technology to
provide motivational elements in the form of intrinsic goals and extrinsic rewards. The design goals focused on the
elements that mediate the interaction of an e-learner with the instructor in order to formulate his or her learning goals
and choice of task. Apart from that, it also focused on how motivation is regulated through the utilization of the
Learning console. The research had its theoretical underpinnings in the work of AlGhazali, an eleventh-century
Islamic scholar; Boekaerts (1997); and Wolters (2003). Table 1 illustrates AlGhazali’s six steps. His concepts of
muhāsabah (to note one’s strengths and weaknesses), mujāhadah (to strive and struggle to get things done),
murāqabah (to perform one’s tasks in ways that is akin to having a higher authority watching), mushāratah (to set
goals to achieve), mu c āqabah (to set consequences), and muātabah (to rebuke, to attempt to turn around) are
translated into pragmatic guidelines that may sustain motivated learning behaviour.
The framework for the design of the scaffolding tool was further based on strategies by Boekaerts (1997), which
were (1) goal setting, (2) maintaining action plan, (3) self-monitoring, and (4) self-evaluation. Strategies such as (1)
self-consequating (students’ establishing and providing themselves with extrinsic consequences for different aspects
of their engagement), (2) environmental control (students’ effort to arrange their surroundings to make completing a
task easier), (3) interest enhancement (students work to increase their effort or time on task by making an activity
more enjoyable), and (4) mastery and performance self-talk (emphasizing or articulating a particular goal or reason
for wanting to complete the task), utilized by Wolters (2003) in his research, were also adapted. Table 2 shows the
scaffolding strategies built into the design of the learning console, which are aimed at transforming environmentally
regulated motivation to self-regulated motivation.
Table 1. Al Ghazālī’s six steps (Adapted from UzmaMazhar, 2002, Six steps towards change)
(1) Mushāratah: to make an agreement or contract (shart = stipulation).
In this step, one must identify and set standards, conditions, limits, terms, and guidelines for the thoughts,
feelings, and actions one is trying to achieve.
(2) Murāqabah: to guard (raqab = guard).
In this step, one must meditate before one’s actions. This requires that one think, contemplate, be introspective,
and keep watch over one’s own self. We function as our own observer.
(3) Muhāsabah: to evaluate self, taking account (hisab = account).
This step involves self-examination in which one takes account of one’s own actions and continuously checks if
one is upholding the agreement.
(4) Mu c āqabah: to punish, to control (āqabah = punish).
For the contract to work, we set consequences for ourselves when we have done something wrong and fail to
keep the stipulations we agreed to uphold.
(5) Mujāhadah: to try, strive (jahd = effort).
In this step, one is fighting against one’s own lower self and inclinations. This is the stage of continuous and
consistent struggle to overcome one’s desire.
(6) Mu c ātabah: to rebuke (atab = repent).
In this step, if one has failed to maintain the contract, he makes the effort to turn around and change his ways
upon recognizing the error.
Table 2. Strategies to regulate the motivation of online learners
Scaffold :
Environmentally regulated motivation→Self-regulated motivation
Elicit confidence through success
opportunities.
Reward competence (provide satisfaction).
Make achievement and improvement explicit
to the learner.
Provide musyāratah (contract) murāqabah
(guard), and muāqabah (consequence).
Allow delving into relevant experiences to satisfy intrinsic
needs or goals.
Maintain diversity in task choice.
Create an environment that enables reflection, selfconsequating,
self-monitoring, and self-talk.
Encourage effort and persistence through continuous
planning for task.
Provide muhāsabah (evaluate), mujāhadah (effort),
muātabah (rebuke) and muāqabah (consequence).
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