Intrinsic And Extrinsic Motivation In The Classroom

Reward a behavior and it increases, right? Well, that's what I've been telling you, but it isn't always true(Kohn, 1993). Sometimes, rewarding a behavior makes it less likely occur in the future. When? Under several conditions: Some rewards have insulting implications, such as "Son, I'll give you 50 cents to mow the lawn. The poor pay ( "reward") is demeaning. Glowing praise can sometimes imply that you have limited ability, such as when people say to you, "It's great you did so well!" and it is clear that they didn't expect you to do very well. If the basic message is that they think you have little ability, that is not rewarding.

Rewards may reduce the intrinsic satisfaction we get from an activity. Many people resent rewards systems; they feel they are being treated like a child or in a mechanical, impersonal, manipulative manner.All this opposition to rewards makes it hard to establish effective systems. By recognising and balancing both extrinsic and intrinsic reinforcement perhaps we can get our motivational systems to work better.

For instance, suppose John had decided to stop procrastinating for one semester. If his grades improved a lot, that would have reinforced studying. But grades are extrinsic, and as long as his grades are good enough, he is okay. But, John has done nothing to increase his intrinsic satisfaction, such as "this is interesting stuff" or "I'm proud of myself" or "I like learning useful information." If his grades don't go up and stay up, he may give up and resort to playing again. John needs to be aware of and work on getting moreextrinsic and intrinsic reinforcement for studying.

There are a variety of specific actions that teachers can take to increase motivation on classroom tasks. In general, these fall into the two categories: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic	Extrinsic
Explain or show why learning a particular content or skill is important Create and/or maintain curiosity Provide a variety of activities and sensory stimulations Provide games and simulations Set goals for learning Relate learning to student needs Help student develop plan of action	Provide clear expectations Give corrective feedback Provide valuable rewards Make rewards available

As a general rule, teachers need to use as much of the intrinsic suggestions as possible while recognising that not all students will be appropriately motivated by them. The extrinsic suggestions will work, but it must be remembered that they do so only as long as the student is under the control of the teacher. When outside of that control, unless the desired goals and behaviors have been internalised, the learner will cease the desired behavior and operate according to his or her internal standards or to other external factors.