I think I might need some suggestions on how to increase students' intrinsic motivation. I am looking forward to reading the other posts on this topic for suggestions. I have found it interesting to see how extrinsically motivated students are. In 4th grade if a treat was offered as a reward students instantly wanted to do a good job. I thought a lot about intrinsic motivation when I would see examples like that.
One way I try and increase intrinsic motivation is by helping students to realize that the whole class needs to work together to get through the day and accomplish tasks in the room. When students are in the classroom they are there to learn, work with the peers and support each other. If one student is continually disrupting the class that student is making it difficult for others to learn and the class can not accomplish what needs to be done. I think that helps students realize that everyone in the room is important and we all need to do our part to make the day a good one. Also, in math class, I think helping students to connect math to their everyday lives and helping them understand that what they are learning now is important for their futures is beneficial. If students understand that they are more likely to pay attention and take the work seriously.
You're right to point out that the culture we set up in our classrooms goes a long way toward encouraging intrinsic motivation. When you explain a rule, for instance, and you frame it in a way that show how the whole classroom community benefits when everyone follows the rule, you're encouraging a collective effort--that's more intrinsic than extrinsic. When grades are minimized, and a reflection on how much learning happened is maximized, then you're oriented toward an intrinsic value.
ReplyDeleteLanguage has a lot to do with why kids are motivated. You might like to read my response to Julie's post because I wrote back to her about the power of language. When we strive to imbue kids with a sense of agency, control over the outcome of a task based on effort, smarts, and strategies, we're naturally promoting intrinsic motivation.
Praise, rewards, bribes--as you pointed out, those take the focus off learning, being a good person, contributing to the whole. As soon as we offer a reward, students know the task we're asking them to do must be unpleasant (and if it is unpleasant, why are they doing it? Make sure you can justify its value!).