Article Readings #14: INTRINSIC MOTIVATION AWAKENS QUALITIES FOR STUDENT SUCCESS

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Intrinsic Motivation Awakens Qualities For Student Success

Essays on Teaching | By: Raymond Gerson (06/11/13) Views: 467

There is a vast amount of research which has demonstrated that intrinsic motivation leads to greater creativity and productivity than extrinsic motivation. And yet most schools and businesses primarily use carrots and sticks such as grades, money and fear of failure to motivate their students and employees. 
External motivators are frequently used for both students and teachers. External rewards and punishments sometimes work well when people are attempting to complete simple tasks and problems. They do not work as well for tasks that require critical and creative thinking which our students will need to obtain and maintain a good job.
When students are motivated from within to learn they awaken inner qualities which are needed for success in school, career and life. These qualities include resilience, determination, courage, ability to focus, self-discipline and the ability to overcome procrastination.
How can educators help students to generate intrinsic motivation? According to research studies reviewed by Daniel Pink, author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, there are three elements which are an important part of intrinsic motivation. These elements are autonomy (desire to be self-directed), mastery (desire to learn and improve at something that matters to us) and purpose (desire to serve a cause larger than ourselves).
What can educators do to help students to generate intrinsic motivation? The following types of assistance can help:

1. Provide students with a few different choices of assignments or the opportunity to do them in a variety of ways. Allow them opportunities to use their creative and technology skills. For example, students could be given the choice of writing a paper about the subject, creating a video or Power Points, writing a poem, drawing or covering the subject by creating a song.
2. Give them opportunities to practice and get better at something that matters to them.
3. Provide opportunities for them to discover a purpose that they feel passionate about.

When students are interested in achieving a particular goal then the motivation to pursue it will come from within them. Their interests and natural abilities can become a starting point for learning if they see how the school work is relevant to their lives. This will bring out their best qualities which they will need to be successful in school, in their careers and in their lives.
Reference:
Pink, Daniel. Drive: The Surprising truth About What Motivates Us. Penquin Group. New York 2009.
Copyright 2013. Raymond Gerson


REACTIONS:  

Being an educator is no easy task or duty. You are the source of learning and facilitate them. Everything that you teach to your students must be true and correct. An education must be a banker of the many methods and strategies of teaching in the learning process, a sympathizer to his students knowing their interest and needs, a parent surrogate and a many professional and personal characteristics must have. But as a teacher, there's no room for you to demand or select the kind of students you want to handle. You are one of the person in the world to handle number of students with the individual differences. And that individual differences includes their races, family backgrounds and socio-economic status, characters, needs and interests. And speaking of individual differences, the question is what kind of motivation the teacher will prefer to use or apply?

I agree that educators should prefer the intrinsic motivation in motivating their students, beacuse upon practicing this motivation, it penetrates from the heart and mind to do work, knowing they can benefit from it. I myself prefer intrinsic motivation because this leads me to discover things on my own, it helps me become more resourceful, learn new strategies, and it is not just for completion but for application. Because if we say completion, you do it just for the sake of complying what needs to be done and not to acquire quality learning out of it. But in your ticket to the next level of development.

So as for me, it is really a quality instrument to prefer intrinsic motivation. Though extrinsic motivation is not bad at all, this may also be useful at certain times only. Intrinsic motivation should be practiced more than that of extrinsic.