Intrinsic Motivation Development and Creativity in the Classroom

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that we used when we created them.”

-Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein is one of the most highly regarded and brilliant scientists that we have ever seen in this world. If you look beyond the numerous theories and papers that he proposed and published, Einstein also wrote about learning and thought. I challenge you to keep this quote in mind during reading this post. We will come back to how Daniel Pink and Einstein are related and interconnected later.

“For artists, scientists, inventors, schoolchildren, and the rest of us, intrinsic motivation – the drive to do something because it is interesting, challenging, and absorbing – is essential for high levels of creativity.”

-Daniel Pink, Drive (p. 46)

Daniel Pink writes about different techniques of using and developing intrinsic motivation that ultimately leads to creativity development. Intrinsic motivation is KEY in the development of high-level creativity.

How do we develop intrinsic motivation?

Daniel Pink writes about three essential areas that as educators we can probe and expand upon to grow our students’ intrinsic motivations (remembering that intrinsic motivation is individualistic to each student): Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. Through developing these elements, intrinsic motivation is developing because through the pursuit of the three, students are really building upon the internal motivation to complete tasks.

Autonomy

• Pink uses autonomy to mean self-direction (p.86)
  • As educators, we need to give our students the ability to (somewhat) direct themselves.
  • Giving some room for self-direction allows for students to take ownership over their learning, leading to more interest in what they are trying to learn because they have some stake in the process.
• There are 2 vital elements:
  • Making decisions: “‘You decide what you will make.’” (98)
    • Students need to be able to have some autonomy over their decisions. (No, this does not mean you get rid of any classroom management!)
    • Allowing students to exercise choice in options gives them some more decision over actions.
      • Choice boards are an example of homework choice for students. They have to do X number of squares (activities) per week, but they have choice over what they want to complete.
  • Time management: “Without sovereignty over our time, it’s nearly impossible to have autonomy over our lives.” (101)
    • When giving students time to work during class – give them some unstructured time in which they can determine how they spend it (within reason).
    • When giving students projects, you can suggest a time outline for working on it, but ultimately stress it is the students’ decision how they spend their time.

Mastery

• In the classroom, the goal is always “mastery” of the topic or unit.
• To foster an environment of trying to master topics, as an educator, you should focus on what Pink deems as “Goldilocks tasks.”
  • “…Goldilocks tasks – challenges that are not too hot and not too cold, neither overly difficult nor overly simple.” (118)
• There are 3 laws that Pink claims need to be understood to foster mastery.
  • First, “mastery is a mindset.” (121)
    • Using Carol Dweck’s theory of growth mindset.
    • As a teacher, you must foster an environment where students believe that intelligence is not fixed and they can continually learn and grow – especially after mistakes or setbacks.
  • Second, “mastery is pain.” (124)
    • Teachers need to instill a sense that students need perseverance and determination to reach their goals.

• Third, “mastery is an asymptote.” (127)
  • As a teacher, you need to instill the sense that mastery can never be reached.
  • No one is a true master of anything! Much like science is always looking for truth, it can come as close as possible, but there is no absolute truth in science.

Purpose

• “Autonomous people working towards mastery perform at very high levels. But those who do so in the service of some greater objective can achieve even more.” (133)
• Students will perform better if they have purpose behind their work.
  • If there is a greater meaning to their work, then students will have a greater passion and interest in the material.
• Teachers need to find the connection to REAL LIFE for their students. They need to develop a WHY does this matter for their students.

Developing Intrinsic Motivation in the Classroom

• One possible activity for a chemistry classroom: Open Sourcing
  • This is based off of the principle of open source programs, such as R or Firefox.
  •  Given a unit focusing on the Periodic Table (C.PM.2: Periodic Table)
    • Students will research and create a blog post about anything concerning the periodic table from the elements, to periodic trends, to different element properties, to elements in the real-world
    • This class blog site will work like an open-source website or program in that it allows students to add what they want to add. Their post can be on anything that they would like concerning the unit.
  • This activity would be intrinsically motivated because the students would be excited and have their own purpose for completing their blog post the way that they would like.
  • This lesson fosters the creativity and passion about the topics. The students will be given the opportunity to go beyond what they are taught just with the curriculum.  

• Another possible activity for a science classroom: feedback trains
  • This would be fostering non-tangible rewards and pull students towards an intrinsic motivated process.
  • After any lab experiment that the students complete and a lab report is required, each of their drafts will go through a “feedback train.”
    • Students will get together in small groups and review each of their peers’ work.
    • They will be required to find X number of good things about the report, and X number of improvement areas.
    • The caboose of the train would be the teacher reviewing the final draft before submission – giving the same positive and negative feedback.
  • This works through pulling on the students’ internal motivation to get better and improve.
  • The collaborative work will also serve as an internal motivation as they want to help others the best they can, so that others will help them.
  • The positive and improvement areas will be a good practice to attempt to slowly change mindsets – from fixed mindsets to growth mindsets.

Intrinsic Motivation and Creativity

As we can see, using different techniques to develop intrinsic motivation, teachers are inevitably increasing the creativity of their students. Through being intrinsically motivated, students are able to think about problems in a different light. This creativity can lead to solutions. This is what Einstein was talking about before. Through focusing on development of intrinsic motivation, which Pink talks about, we can solve problems the way Einstein discusses.

@DanielPink book Drive talk of intrinsic motivation is crucial in developing creativity in classrooms. Intrinsic motivations = creative results. The classroom is the birthplace for the future creative problem-solvers. #EDT431 #scienceeducation #futurecreativeproblemsolvers

— Colleen Jaycox (@Miss_Jaycox) October 6, 2020

*Please note that the (#) are page numbers to Daniel Pink’s book, Drive.

Pink, D. H. (2009). Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Riverhead Books.