Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation

Here are two stories about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. In both cases, I had different relationships with my teachers and was therefore affected by their feedback in very different ways, and I was also influenced by different combinations of external and internal motivating factors.

First, an event where I was inspired to perform:

 
I am a Spanish teacher, and chose this career path 100% because of my high school Spanish teacher. I was fortunate to have her from grades 8-12 (I went to a small school), and learned so much from her that I was almost fluent by the time I graduated. I remember attending the first day of all of my classes in 8th grade: biology, algebra, English, Spanish, etc. and not knowing what to expect from any of the teachers or subjects. I have a very clear memory of going home that afternoon, feeling that my Spanish teacher was the warmest, most understanding, caring, and motivating teacher I had ever had.

As a student who cared about my GPA and my academic performance, I had a lot of intrinsic motivation. (In fact, I had probably too much. I would later drop two college classes when I discovered I was on track to get an A-, rather than an A.) I did well in classes, and knew I was a good student, and would get frustrated with teachers on the rare occasions that they criticized me or offered me feedback. Wasn't it enough that I was getting all A's?! I was not at all open to hearing how I could better myself or how I could learn from my mistakes...that is, until Spanish class. Up until that point, I got good grades just for the sake of getting good grades, but when I got to Spanish I, my teacher made me realize that I could do well on something because I wanted to do well on it. I started doing my work because it was satisfying and rewarding to work through a difficult piece of grammar, or write a page-long story in Spanish...that made sense! And when my teacher gave me feedback, I could tell by her delivery that she was motivating me to dig deeper and produce something even better than I thought was possible, because she actually cared and believed in me.

A specific time that I remember her inspiring me to perform was when I chose to complete my Senior Project (a children's story book) in Spanish. She became my adviser for the project, and challenged me to create something that was complex, creative, and personally meaningful. In this case, I was inspired by her belief in my abilities and her patience and constructive feedback.

In my final year of Spanish with her, she gave me the Spanish award, which she called the "you-can toucan." This award, she explained, was for those students who always persevered, and pushed themselves to do their very best.

Of course, I was also inspired to succeed in Spanish class due to external motivating factors. My school had a "study abroad" program in Mexico City, and after I participated during my sophomore year, I realized that the language had a real world application. Even though I was getting good grades and enjoyed what I was learning in class, I realized how unprepared I felt when I had to use Spanish for even the simplest of tasks, while in Mexico. This experience made me realize how valuable, and personally relevant, the content I was learning in class was. Unlike some of my other classes (ie. chemistry, math, biology), I could see exactly how I could use what I was learning in the real world, and that helped motivate me to actually want to learn it.

And now an event where I was completely deflated and I lacked the intrinsic or extrinsic motivation to get myself out of my slump:

When I was in high school, my chemistry teacher was not the most sympathetic teacher, especially to those students who clearly didn't show an interest in the subject. He had his clear favorites, and didn't seem to put out too much effort with the rest of us who weren't science people.

One particular instance where I remember feeling deflated was when we had to do a large, independent project on an element from the periodic table of elements. I had zero interest in the subject, could see zero relevance to my life, and felt like my teacher was going to give me zero motivation to succeed. And so...I didn't succeed. It is the only time that I can remember failing something in school. Although I wasn't motivated to do the project, the bigger problem was that my teacher did not provide us with checkpoints throughout the project, so he could make sure we were on-task and headed towards success. The way I remember it is that he assigned the gigantic project...and then several weeks later, it was suddenly due. I remember being completely caught off guard.

I was so embarrassed, I talked to my mom, who suggested I meet with the teacher, to see if there was anything I could do about the "F." We met, and he explained that he didn't get the impression from me that I cared at all about the class. I explained that I didn't find it interesting and that I couldn't see how I was ever going to use any of it once I left school. He   offered to let me choose a topic that did interest me (from within Chemistry), and complete a smaller project for half credit. All of a sudden, things were might be sort of interesting, now that I thought about it. He then explained that I could choose how to deliver the information: paper, poster, booklet...and all of a sudden, I was almost interested in the project. It was that easy: let me make the topic personally relevant and interesting, and give me choice, and all of a sudden I'm a different sort of student.

Of course, experiences like these greatly influence what kind of teacher I am. 

I begin every single unit by having students relate the vocabulary to themselves. This unit is about championships, contests, and competitions, so I had the students pick out ten words from their vocab list that apply to their lives and make a connection (write the name of their coach next to the vocab word, "coach,"). Tonight, for homework, one of their tasks is to find a picture or object that relates to the vocabulary. Tomorrow, we will be using the props in vocabulary games. I know, from previous units, that my students LOVE any chance to talk about themselves and share with their classmates and friends.

I also try to provide them with choice, whenever possible. Letting students be in control of some aspect of their education makes them more willing to participate and more excited about becoming involved in the learning experience.

I make sure that I connect with each student, every day. While my students are doing their warm up activity, I go from desk to desk, handing back papers and projects, answering questions, and generally just "checking in." I make sure that I provide oral motivational feedback, compliment a student when they have remembered to do their homework or when they got a better-than-expected grade, etc.
And lastly, I try to make each student determine why they should do well in Spanish. For some students, it might just be to pass the foreign language requirement, so they can get into a state university. For other students, it might be so they  can communicate better with their Spanish-speaking relatives, or to get into AP Spanish, or study abroad.