Motivation is an important, underlying, ingredient to a successful classroom. While some students are intrinsically motivated to learn simply for the sake of learning, others require direction or even extrinsic motivation to get them participating in classroom activities. It is evident to me through students’ attitudes and behaviors in the classroom as to which subjects a certain student is motivated to pursue and which will take some form of coercion.
To say that a student “is motivated” implies either an intrinsic motivation (to learn for the sake of learning or to learn because of an interest in a subject) or an extrinsic motivation (a reward for finishing a task). In my class, I always attempt to focus on intrinsic motivation, but this does require some coercion and effort on my part. While some students are genuinely interested in learning for the sake of learning, most do not have the attention span to do so. For this reason, I attempt to make all lessons engaging and relevant to students. A student becomes much more motivated to read a book when that book shares fascinating information about his favorite subject: dinosaurs. A student becomes more motivated to learn about how systems balance when he or she gets to build bridges or experiment with balancing objects. These are simply ways that I nudge students into becoming motivated to learn – and often by engaging students in activities, they thoroughly enjoy these activities without realizing that they are “working.”
I also employ extrinsic motivation in my classroom. While I would prefer not to use it at all, in some cases, it is necessary. Extrinsic motivation, like offering class points for good behavior during specialist time, is something I mostly use for behavior routines. While I wish students were intrinsically motivated to be quiet in the hallway or behave appropriately during specialist time, at this age they are so egocentric that these routines have to be practiced repeatedly in order for them to learn them. These are not behaviors that are intrinsically understood at this age. For this reason, I offer extrinsic rewards as a reminder to follow these behaviors. I do believe there is a place for extrinsic motivation, especially for young students.
In a perfect world, all students would be intrinsically motivated to learn and pursue knowledge; however, in any classroom there are students who do not have this desire. For this reason, I take my role as a teacher to mean that I sculpt and create lessons that will be engaging and relevant to my students – thus motivating them to participate and learn. I also employ strategies of extrinsic motivation in the areas of routines and behavior that my students are yet to truly understand and be motivated to follow on their own. I find that a combination of these two types of motivation coupled with students’ own interests and desires to grow in knowledge make an engaging and growing learning environment.
