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.

Teaching and Learning Styles

My name is Anna, and I live in Huntington Beach. I am currently pursuing my Master's and Single Subject Credential in Spanish. I spent three years teaching Spanish at the elementary and middle school level at a private school in Costa Mesa, and have been a long term substitute Spanish teacher at a public high school for most of this school year. Languages are my passion, and getting to share them with students is the best. I am energetic, creative, and try to make class fun for everyone.

All of my classes are made up of diverse student populations, and it can be a challenge creating activities and implementing a plan that works for everyone. The key is differentiation (and time management). I think that I intuitively knew to differentiate instruction, even before I knew that "differentiation" was a word. It just makes sense to expose students to content material in a variety of ways.  In my classes, we learn through singing, drawing, writing, acting, speaking, and listening. My current classes are block periods, and are 100 minutes long. That's a lot of time to spend trying to engage high school students! Because of this, I make sure to divide the period up into social and individual activities, movement games and seat work, speaking and reading, using multimedia and drawing. Hopefully, by the end of each class, I have provided an opportunity for each individual student to work with the material in a way that makes sense for him or her.

I don't really like taking personality tests, because I feel that my responses change depending on what I'm talking about. For example, I am social when I'm in front of my students, but tend to be more of an introvert as soon as I'm off the clock. I DO, however, see the value in comparing my teaching style to my students' learning styles. For example, I do not learn through music, but I know that many of my students do, so I need to make sure I don't teach only in the ways that are comfortable/helpful to me.

Metarasa Personality Test

According to the various personality tests, I am surprisingly well balanced, which I would imagine is a good thing in a teacher. I am either an ESTP or a ESFP, but my answers fall right along the center line, meaning I am not an extreme of either option. As an ESTP, I am an "action oriented problem solver," and "enjoy getting things done, and taking action to solve practical problems," whereas as an ESFP, I am an "action oriented people person" (Team Technology, 2017). Both of these descriptions make sense for teaching; teachers need to be flexible, action-oriented, but also have people skills. I had similar results from the other surveys.

This year, I have a lot of high achievers and low achievers in my classes, with a relatively small percentage of my class lying in the middle third. I also have a lot of boys, so the energy level is pretty high. Due to this, I need to make sure I include activities that are action-packed and let students use their bodies and socialize. I also have a lot of studious, focused students, who are detail-oriented and crave structure. For these students, I need to make sure that I use graphic organizers, present the agenda every day, and show charts and graphs. Although my personality test indicated that I am fairly well-balanced, I do think that I tend to work better with the energetic boy personality type. Therefore, I need to make sure that I also provide structure for my students who don't learn the same way as these boys. I am also more action-oriented, rather than someone who thinks for awhile about something before acting. However, many of my students need time to contemplate an assignment before beginning. I can cater to these students by mentioning an assignment well in advance of the actual due date, so that these students can think and plan. I am also open-minded about assignments, allowing students to take an idea and run with it in whichever direction they prefer. However, I have a lot of students who are uncomfortable with this, and would rather just have black and white instructions, so they know exactly what I want and expect from them. To help with this, I can create assignments that offer choice, with detailed expectations for each option, and then also include a "make-your-own" category for those students who are comfortable thinking outside the box.

The most important thing I learned from thinking about how my personality will affect my relationship with my students and how I teach is that I need to be flexible and make sure I don't only teach in a way that matches my particular personality.


References
*Team Technology (2017). Metarasa personality page. Retrieved from https://www.metarasa.com/mmdi/questionnaire/