Lighting the Motivational Flame

          

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          Getting students motivated may be one of the biggest challenges that a teacher has to experience. A teacher can create what they think is the perfect lesson or the ideal assignment, but will find that some students, or all students, will not be invested. Sometimes it simply feels like lighting a match that has been left in the rain for days – an impossible task. Students are often bored during the school day, but what can a teacher do about that? Often educators will implement different strategies in the classroom to try and get students motivated, incentivising students to do work by offering small prizes (i.e. stickers) or creating a points system that allows students or groups of students to acquire points by performing certain actions (i.e. cleaning up the classroom, behaving well in class) or even for doing their homework. The points would then build up to them earning a prize, ones I have come across typically are pencils, candy, and bookmarks. Almost any class I have worked in has had some sort of incentive system in place and through my experience, it does not seem to actively impact how the students act in class – at the introduction of the incentive system students will try and please the teacher, but as the year goes on, interest is lost and is sometimes completely disregarded by the students.

            The problematic nature involved with incentive systems is that they only focus on instilling motivation through extrinsic means. Extrinsic motivation, as defined by Drake, Reid, and Kolohon (2014), is that motivation is driven through extrinsic rewards, such as prizes, and is a type of motivation that does not positively impact students in the long term, but rather is a short term solution to a huge problem. Inspiring students to be motivated through extrinsic methods does not typically incite intrinsic motivation in students later on. Motivating students intrinsically means that students participate in doing their work or performing certain actions because they get satisfaction from it (Drake et al., 2014) – students are not doing work because they get a tangible reward from it or to please the teacher, but because they get personal enjoyment from performing the task. I argue that trying to get students intrinsically motivated to do school work, rather than through extrinsic methods, allows for life long learning to occur. The issue with trying to stimulate intrinsic motivation within students is that there is not a clear-cut method for teachers to use, whereas giving out prizes or even using grades as an incentive is much easier and manageable to do.

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Kusurkar, Croiset, and Ten Cate (2011) offer tips that educators can use to get their students intrinsically motivated, or going back to the match metaphor, to light their fire. Teachers can begin by structuring their classroom and teachings that acknowledge what the students need – building lessons off of what the children need and enjoy allows for learning to occur that is actually interesting to the students and serves to stimulate their interests (Kusurkar et al., 2011). Using extrinsic rewards to get students interested will inevitably backfire when students do not have any real interest in the lessons being taught, but by catering to their needs as individuals, interest is more likely to be sparked within the students. Another way for a teacher to motivate students intrinsically is by encouraging students to be active participants within the classroom. Allowing students to have discussions, engage in group work, and control the flow that the lesson takes allows them to be active agents within their own learning, rather than passively accepting the information that the teacher gives them (Kusurkar et al., 2011).

An example of intrinsic motivation would be a student actively enjoying reading, which a teacher is able to facilitate in all their students by presenting reading in a way that can appeal to many students. Often times when teachers introduce reading to students, little choice is given to the students since they are all made to read one book whether they enjoy the content of the book or not. Doing something like this can serve to deter students from wanting to read if they are always given content they do not find enjoyable. Teachers should allow students the choice of picking a book they want to read, even creating an assignment off of this such as a book report, where a student is able to pick any book of their choosing and decide what they want to write about the book. Giving students choice is the key to intrinsic motivation and can allow teachers to work with students strengths and passions by giving them agency within their own learning. 

Motivation is a complex topic to discuss because often times what is considered extrinsic and what is considered intrinsic can be subjective – doing something for a good grade can be seen as extrinsic, yet many students are intrinsically motivated by grades and can be a true incentive for them to work hard because it provides feedback on the work they are doing and allows them to grow as students. Moreover, implementing methods to develop intrinsic motivation may seem daunting for many teachers because often times it means they must change their teaching style, whereas adding extrinsic rewards to the classroom generally does not effect the teacher directly. I would argue that it is the teachers job to facilitate intrinsic motivation within students and that the proper measures to do this begins with the teacher doing research as to the methods they can implement within their class (Kirk, 2015). Being able to understand exactly what intrinsic motivation means, reading scholarly articles on what teachers can do, and by speaking to fellow colleagues about the strategies they use can give a teacher a deeper and a more in-depth understanding of what they can do to get students intrinsically motivated. Having a class of students who are not motivated can be troubling to a teacher, but beginning with getting to know the students and their preferred way of learning can be what it takes to spark their flame. 

References

Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom

            Assessment: Engaging the 21^st Century Learner. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University

            Press.

Kirk, K. (2015). Motivating Students. Retrieved from          

            http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/affective/motivation.html

Kusurkar, R. A., Croiset, G., & Ten Cate, Th. J. (2011). Twelve tips to stimulate intrinsic

            motivation in students through autonomy-supportive classroom teaching derived from

            Self-Determination Theory. Medical Teacher, 33, 978-982.