Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivators include fascination with the subject, a sense of its relevance to life and the world, a sense of accomplishment in mastering it, and a sense of calling to it.

Students who are intrinsically motivated might say things like the following.

Advantages: Intrinsic motivation can be long-lasting and self-sustaining. Efforts to build this kind of motivation are also typically efforts at promoting student learning. Such efforts often focus on the subject rather than rewards or punishments.

Disadvantages: On the other hand, efforts at fostering intrinsic motivation can be slow to affect behavior and can require special and lengthy preparation. Students are individuals, so a variety of approaches may be needed to motivate different students. It is often helpful to know what interests ones students in order to connect these interests with the subject matter. This requires getting to know ones students. Also, it helps if the instructor is interested in the subject to begin with!

Source: Matt DeLong and Dale Winter,Learning to Teaching and Teaching to Learn Mathematics: Resources for Professional Development, Mathematical Association of America, 2002, page 163.

Extrinsic motivators include parental expectations, expectations of other trusted role models, earning potential of a course of study, and grades (which keep scholarships coming).

Students who are extrinsically motivated might say things like the following.

Advantages: Extrinsic motivators more readily produce behavior changes and typically involve relatively little effort or preparation. Also, efforts at applying extrinsic motivators often do not require extensive knowledge of individual students.

Disadvantages: On the other hand, extrinsic motivators can often distract students from learning the subject at hand. It can be challenging to devise appropriate rewards and punishments for student behaviors. Often, one needs to escalate the rewards and punishments over time to maintain a certain effect level. Also, extrinsic motivators typically do not work over the long term. Once the rewards or punishments are removed, students lose their motivation.

Source: Matt DeLong and Dale Winter,Learning to Teaching and Teaching to Learn Mathematics: Resources for Professional Development, Mathematical Association of America, 2002, page 163.

Furthermore, research indicates thatextrinsic rewards can have a negative impact on intrinsic motivation. In one series of experiments, psychologist Edward Deci had two groups of college students play with a puzzle called Soma. One group of students was paid for each puzzle they solved; the other wasnt. He found that the group that was paid to solve puzzles stopped solving puzzles as soon as the experimentand the paymentended. However, the group that wasnt paid kept solving the puzzles even after the experiment was over. They had found the puzzles intrinsically interesting. Deci argued that the group that had been paid to solve puzzles might have found the puzzles intrinsically interesting as well, but the extrinsic, monetary reward had reduced their intrinsic interest.

Source: Ken Bain,What the Best College Teachers Do, Harvard University Press, 2004, pages 32-33.

Source: Ken Bain,What the Best College Teachers Do, Harvard University Press, 2004, pages 40-41.

James Middleton, Joan Littlefield, and Rich Lehrer have proposed the following model of intrinsic academic motivation.

The challenge, then, is to provide teaching and learning activities that are both stimulating and offer students a degree of personal control.

Source: James A. Middleton, A Study of Intrinsic Motivation in the Mathematics Classroom: A Personal Constructs Approach,Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, Vol. 26, No. 3, pages 255-257.

Following are some research-based strategies for motivating students to learn.

Sources:

When encouraging students to find your subject matter interesting, use cues to show students the appeal of the subject matter.

Source: Matt DeLong and Dale Winter,Learning to Teaching and Teaching to Learn Mathematics: Resources for Professional Development, Mathematical Association of America, 2002, page 168.

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