Has there ever been a time where you have so much motivation to start a task? Then when doing the task or right before starting it, it all goes away. At what point is this motivating you to do something and what drives you to do it? It all revolves around two types of motivation which are intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
What is Extrinsic Motivation?
This is when there is usually a reward in place for the student or person performing the task. For example, a grade is a good example of an extrinsic motivator as it drives the student to perform based on the grade. Another example would be cleaning the house for guests to come over. Since there is an outside force motivating you to perform a task, it is extrinsic. Daniel Pink’s Drive would reference how extrinsic motivation is important, it is often overused and tends to be negative at times. When working for a grade, the student focuses more on the grade versus putting their all into the work. While a teacher should not get rid of extrinsic motivation, there needs to be a balance between that and intrinsic motivation.
How about Intrinsic Motivation?
This is when there is autonomy incorporated in the process of learning. The general connection with intrinsic motivation is freedom. When there is choice involved, there is usually motivation to do the task at hand. Pink has described it as a long-term reward that will strengthen the creativity of the person. Intrinsic motivators can develop strong connections to content when utilized correctly. Below is a Youtube video linked to how motivation can affect a person outside of school, but the rest will be a deep dive into the classroom.
Sub Sets of Motivation in the classroom:
- Mastery: a scale where you can determine your confidence. Involved the plateau where students will not progress in their content unless they push through.
- Autonomy: level of self progression where the student is motivated by one self to go forth and do the assessment at hand.
- Purpose: having a reason or a why to do a certain task.
Motivation plays a huge part in the students growth as a whole. Most of the time in a school settings, students thinks of motivation as being extrinsic. That being prepping for a graded assignment or a standardized tests are types of extrinsic motivators present in students learning. That leads to short term recollection and short term motivation that may only last a portion of ones life.
The King of Motivation, Intrinsic Motivators Applied to the Classroom:
Allowing students to have a choice in the classroom will allow them to be more intrinsically motivated. An example of a lesson of this would be to spark curiosity in the students. In Physics, the first big wow moment is the fact that with zero air resistance, the bowling ball and a feather would drop at the same speed and hit the ground at the same time relative to the ground.
Asking students to predict what would happen will give them that sense of creativity and wonder. That sparks intrinsic motivation in the students and would drive them to explore more of the content.
Another way to motivate students is by autonomy. Pink described how autonomy would drive individuals to have a lot more motivation. The most known example is with Google employees. The individual will spend 80% of their work day working on a Google chosen assignment. Then 20% of the time will be spent working on Google, but they would pick their assignment. Given autonomy and self direction, the employees have more motivation overall to go to work and perform tasks as they have choice in what happens from a day to day basis. Giving students that would be impactful as they can have a choice on their project. Having students research superfund sites around the world would be a lesson for Environmental Science. Students will have the option to choose their site in order to learn more about environmental factors. Then setting it up so students then have to present over information with the creativity of free liberty over the slides will give them more motivation. Allowing autonomy for the students to want to learn more and explore their creativity side to be an “expert” in the field they choose.
Conclusion
As a whole, schools need to be more accustomed to allowing intrinsic motivation to be implemented in the classroom. The research shows that there is a large portion of students who learn by intrinsic motivation tend to have more knowledge stored than those who are extrinsically motivated. Below is a research article about the motivators in terms of an IQ test. While the test may start to become outdated, the idea and premise of the results show that intrinsically motivated students perform better than extrinsic students. This research follows what Daniel Pink has stated in his book. Where extrinsic motivation has a more negative impact on students due to the short-term reward system fostered by Edward Deci’s motivation theory.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272775713000216
#scienceteaching #EDT431 #Drive
WHat type of assignments and projects would you give your students ti. increase their autonomy in education?
Something I find interesting is that in classes that are very math heavy, such as physics and calculus, some students may have a hard time getting motivated even if they know how it may be connected to real life due to the internet and calculators. While they may be intrinsically motivated to learn about concepts in physics, such as the one displayed in the air resistance video (super cool, by the way), they may not have any want to learn the math behind it because they can look that up or a calculator can do it for them. Do you have any suggestions for building more intrinsic motivation about math?
I always feel like making the concepts into a game is a really fun way to get students involved without putting too much pressure on the concepts. For example doing something like a gimkit or making math more of a fun concept will help. Also teaching students math in a way that is not sit up and lecture will help students want to learn more in general, but specifically the math end.
I have found that students get disheartened quickly when they face challenges or have to think outside the box. What strategies do you recommend for teachers to sustain motivation in students over time, especially when they face challenges?
I feel like the biggest non motivator for student is distractions in the classroom. So trying to reduce those ideas will help increase the overall interests of the students as a whole.