Intrinsic Motivation & External Rewards
When we use our energy for what we need or want we are said to be "motivated." There are two types of motivation. Intrinsic motivation is motivation that comes from inside (enjoyment, satisfaction). Extrinsic motivation comes from outside (money, grades, detention, awards, prizes). External rewards work in the short term and that's why they continue to be so widely used in education. This is a short sighted method of controlling behavior and and coercing students to do what we want. In the long term it is much more powerful for students to experience positive feelings as a result of setting goals, working hard, and achieving success. This is the connection that will lead to a love of learning, not a sticker, candy bar, or pizza party.
How can choice, relevant goal setting opportunities, self-managed feedback and opportunities to be "gritty," be built in to lessons in an effort to help eliminate stress & threat? How can what we know about motivation be applied to help students "want" to learn? How can teachers move away from the external rewards and instead plan for the internal rewards that exist within the brain and body?
I've learned...
Motivation
- Rewards are consequences that can be predicted and have market value. Do this and get that. Some people believe that the use of external rewards as a motivational tool can reduce the natural development of intrinsic motivation.
- Many teacher use extrinsic rewards in an attempt to change student’s attitudes and behaviors. What we really want is to get students to want to learn without having to coerce them. The more teachers use bribes and rewards, the more intrinsic motivation is conditioned out of their students. We may get what we want at the moment, but in the end I believe we are doing a disservice to our students.
- Inciting fear and the use of threats are some ways teachers use external motivation in an effort to control behavior. Threat creates stress and stress has a negative effect on the brain and learning.
- All students receive reward differently. But when a class has a positive learning experience, a high percentage of students have a positive biological response which will be tied to that learning experience. This serves to build intrinsic motivation.
- The brain makes its own rewards in the form of opiates. These powerful brain chemicals regulate stress and pain. The hypothalamic reward system says, “That was great. I’ll remember that so I can do it again.”
- The more teachers model enjoyment and love for learning, create opportunities for choice, and develop ways to acknowledge and celebrate hard work and success, the more they foster intrinsic motivation.
- Intrinsic motivators include compelling goals, positive beliefs and productive emotions. We can purposefully work to infuse these into the work we do with children.
- Clear, well-defined goals help students think about the future and contribute to positive feelings and beliefs. Having goals and positive beliefs create emotional states in which powerful brain chemicals are released. A feeling of progress is what motivates people to continue trying especially when things are difficult. Seeing progress produces reward chemicals that keep you going forward. Creating systems that help students track and see their progress (not grades) is very motivating.
- It’s important to help kids see the benefits of reaching learning goals in terms of “what’s in it for them.” They need to connect their learning experience with their lives in some way.
- Creating more opportunities for kids to show evidence of their learning increases student’s positive beliefs about themselves and further fosters internal motivation. Creating opportunities for choice with this affects brain states in a positive way.
- Active learning experiences = increase enthusiasm & motivation
- Teachers are constantly giving non-conscious messages. It is important to match verbal and nonverbal communication to positively affect motivation. Kids are smart. They know when we don't mean what we say.
- Creating ways to provide a lot of self-managed feedback to help students gain evidence of progress, success, and mastery fosters internal motivation. It also helps meet the need of power and competence.
- Involving students in decision-making and setting criteria fosters internal motivation and helps meet basic needs.
REWARD
- External control involves using fear and threat if students don't do what we want and using rewards to reinforce when they do.
- Rewards are motivating. They motivate people to work to get rewards. Is that what we want? Offering rewards for doing well works against helping students develop a natural desire to learn.
- We are naturally rewarded internally (with feel good brain chemicals) when we achieve success as a result of hard work. This further motivates us to repeat the behaviors that made us experience those good feelings. Offering external rewards can interfere with the development of connection. Rewarding students for good behavior works the same way. As adults, nobody gets a prize for going the speed limit or not breaking the law. There are logical consequences for all behavior - good and bad.
- Simply recognizing and celebrating individual and group achievement can replace external reward systems and foster an internal desire to learn for learning's sake. Creating learning experiences in which students get to experience the rewards naturally produced in the brain is worth planning for. Simple celebrations work.
- Helping students recognize and become conscious of the the good feelings they are having as a result of their hard work and success is helpful in fostering internal motivation. Asking them how they are feeling after achieving a goal and then affirming those feelings helps in this process.
- Celebrations are different from rewards. They are not held out like a "carrot" to chase, or "hoop" to jump through and they can be as simple as a class chant, high five or academic game.
Thoughts
What do we really want for our students?
When I first started teaching I used all the commonly used motivational tools. I used stickers and other tokens as the proverbial “carrot” dangled before students in an effort to get them to comply, and withheld them if they did not. Over the years my thoughts about these practices and my own methods have changed drastically. Participating in Eric Jensen’s 6-day Teaching with the Brain in Mind conference and supplementing that educational experience with my own reading were instrumental in this change. I wish I had known then what I know now. Actually, I wish that a basic course in brain compatible learning had been part of my undergraduate teacher preparation. Over the years I have eliminated the use of extrinsic motivation techniques and substituted them with thoughtful planning that meets students needs and regularly celebrating success during class. I believe, as most who have put some time into studying how the brain learns do, that we need to do all that we can to foster a child’s natural intrinsic motivation mechanisms and that means getting rid of the carrot (or stickers, tokens, toys, pizza parties etc.). These are the definitions I work with.
When I first started teaching I used all the commonly used motivational tools. I used stickers and other tokens as the proverbial “carrot” dangled before students in an effort to get them to comply, and withheld them if they did not. Over the years my thoughts about these practices and my own methods have changed drastically. Participating in Eric Jensen’s 6-day Teaching with the Brain in Mind conference and supplementing that educational experience with my own reading were instrumental in this change. I wish I had known then what I know now. Actually, I wish that a basic course in brain compatible learning had been part of my undergraduate teacher preparation. Over the years I have eliminated the use of extrinsic motivation techniques and substituted them with thoughtful planning that meets students needs and regularly celebrating success during class. I believe, as most who have put some time into studying how the brain learns do, that we need to do all that we can to foster a child’s natural intrinsic motivation mechanisms and that means getting rid of the carrot (or stickers, tokens, toys, pizza parties etc.). These are the definitions I work with.
Motivation – The force that drives us to use energy to get what we want or need.
Extrinsic Motivation is being motivated to earn a reward or avoid a punishment. “If you do/don’t do this… you will get/not get that…
Intrinsic Motivation refers to engaging in a behavior because it is personally rewarding in some way – doing an activity for its own sake as opposed to doing it to get something else.
Celebration is a way of recognizing success or achievement after the fact.
I believe as educators we need to think in terms of what we want for our students in the long run and not be short sighted because, quite frankly, the use of extrinsic rewards does work with some… but not all. There will always be some kids that don’t care about the "stuff" being offered. But all kids do have a built in reward system just waiting to be tapped. Ask yourself these questions.
Extrinsic Motivation is being motivated to earn a reward or avoid a punishment. “If you do/don’t do this… you will get/not get that…
Intrinsic Motivation refers to engaging in a behavior because it is personally rewarding in some way – doing an activity for its own sake as opposed to doing it to get something else.
Celebration is a way of recognizing success or achievement after the fact.
I believe as educators we need to think in terms of what we want for our students in the long run and not be short sighted because, quite frankly, the use of extrinsic rewards does work with some… but not all. There will always be some kids that don’t care about the "stuff" being offered. But all kids do have a built in reward system just waiting to be tapped. Ask yourself these questions.
Do you want to contribute to condition the “What do I get/What will you give me if I do this?” attitude in regard to things that actually have intrinsic value? Or, do you want to plan to help your students reap the rewards their bodies provide naturally (dopamine - feel good neurotransmitter associated with reward) which will then naturally motivate them to repeat the activity or behavior. Do you want kids to learn to value the learning or the reward? Do you want students to find the intrinsic value in participating in a physical activity or do you want to have to continually offer tokens to get them to do it? Do you want kids to find the enjoyment and reward of reading a great book or do you want them to do it because they will get to go to a pizza party if they read the prescribed number in a given time period and get left behind if they don’t? Do you want students to practice positive character traits because it “feels good to do good” or because they will avoid punishment or earn stickers if they are kind? Do you want kids to connect positive feelings with a job well done or to the prize they pull out of the bag? Can we, as educators find ways to celebrate success without holding the carrot out for motivation, bribery or coercion? Food for thought… I know where I stand.
John Spencer makes some excellent points in his blog “Classroom Leadership – Rewards are like Crack”. In a nutshell, he contends that kids are getting addicted to the rewards we keep offering and not the behavior, activity or habit. There is definitely a better way to go about motivating our students. Just add dopamine to the lesson plan. Dopamine is the brain’s reward chemical and there are many ways teachers can plan for its release. There are two very simple ways I have found effective. The first is one of the foundations of Becky Bailey’s book Conscious Discipline. She maintains that you get more of what you notice. If you continuously notice inappropriate behavior you’re sure to get more of it. If you continuously notice what you want - you get more of it.
Imagine a class of second grade students participating in some fitness centers as an instant activity. The kids are running from center to center choosing different activities to challenge muscular endurance. One little girl is really working hard holding her body straight in a plank penny stack center. I might say something like “Wow, look how hard you are working to hold your body straight in that plank position. That takes a stick-to-it attitude and is making your muscles stronger.” Pretty soon everyone within earshot is planking up and stacking pennies with the straightest little bodies you could ever hope to see. And that little girl just got a shot of dopamine. And you have the opportunity to keep it flowing. What do you bet that every time she tries that move her body is just as straight?
A second strategy is making sure to plan for celebration (as an eternal optimist I believe there will be something to celebrate in each class period). Although there are many, I will share two methods that I use. One of the simplest I use is with my Kindergarten class. They are always referred to as “Team K.” When I say “Fist in the air” their little fists go up and you will hear a choral “Go Team K.” They get all puffed up and feeling good. When the learning target has been moving into open spaces without bumping into one another and the group was successful they hear “Fist In The Air” and I hear “Go Team K.” BOOM – success and a shot of dopamine. Another simple celebration is “Blast O Base” seen in this video link. This little gem was offered up as a silent auction item at one of our Maine AHPERD conferences and I couldn’t resist. It will sit along a sideline and at the end of an activity or lesson I will draw attention to whatever we might be celebrating and then have all the kids run and give it a celebratory blast. Yes, you guessed it – everyone just a got a little dopamine. Pretty simple, takes only a minute and it even has an added bonus because these celebrations are tapping into reflexive memory.
When dopamine is released, whatever the person is doing/learning at the time is more likely to be remembered. It creates stronger pathway for retrieval. In her article Dopamine and Learning: What The Brain’s Reward Center Can Teach Educators, Martha Burns refers to dopamine as the brain’s “save button.” She does an excellent job explaining how dopamine will help kids remember what they are doing when they get a blast of this powerful little neurotransmitter. I want my students to want more success in my class not more tokens. If I can plan to allow the brain’s reward system to work on its own without using extrinsic motivation strategies the brain’s ability to provide its own reward is strengthened and intrinsic motivation lives on. It takes patience but in the long run I believe this practice will do a lot more for the individual development of my students.
John Spencer makes some excellent points in his blog “Classroom Leadership – Rewards are like Crack”. In a nutshell, he contends that kids are getting addicted to the rewards we keep offering and not the behavior, activity or habit. There is definitely a better way to go about motivating our students. Just add dopamine to the lesson plan. Dopamine is the brain’s reward chemical and there are many ways teachers can plan for its release. There are two very simple ways I have found effective. The first is one of the foundations of Becky Bailey’s book Conscious Discipline. She maintains that you get more of what you notice. If you continuously notice inappropriate behavior you’re sure to get more of it. If you continuously notice what you want - you get more of it.
Imagine a class of second grade students participating in some fitness centers as an instant activity. The kids are running from center to center choosing different activities to challenge muscular endurance. One little girl is really working hard holding her body straight in a plank penny stack center. I might say something like “Wow, look how hard you are working to hold your body straight in that plank position. That takes a stick-to-it attitude and is making your muscles stronger.” Pretty soon everyone within earshot is planking up and stacking pennies with the straightest little bodies you could ever hope to see. And that little girl just got a shot of dopamine. And you have the opportunity to keep it flowing. What do you bet that every time she tries that move her body is just as straight?
A second strategy is making sure to plan for celebration (as an eternal optimist I believe there will be something to celebrate in each class period). Although there are many, I will share two methods that I use. One of the simplest I use is with my Kindergarten class. They are always referred to as “Team K.” When I say “Fist in the air” their little fists go up and you will hear a choral “Go Team K.” They get all puffed up and feeling good. When the learning target has been moving into open spaces without bumping into one another and the group was successful they hear “Fist In The Air” and I hear “Go Team K.” BOOM – success and a shot of dopamine. Another simple celebration is “Blast O Base” seen in this video link. This little gem was offered up as a silent auction item at one of our Maine AHPERD conferences and I couldn’t resist. It will sit along a sideline and at the end of an activity or lesson I will draw attention to whatever we might be celebrating and then have all the kids run and give it a celebratory blast. Yes, you guessed it – everyone just a got a little dopamine. Pretty simple, takes only a minute and it even has an added bonus because these celebrations are tapping into reflexive memory.
When dopamine is released, whatever the person is doing/learning at the time is more likely to be remembered. It creates stronger pathway for retrieval. In her article Dopamine and Learning: What The Brain’s Reward Center Can Teach Educators, Martha Burns refers to dopamine as the brain’s “save button.” She does an excellent job explaining how dopamine will help kids remember what they are doing when they get a blast of this powerful little neurotransmitter. I want my students to want more success in my class not more tokens. If I can plan to allow the brain’s reward system to work on its own without using extrinsic motivation strategies the brain’s ability to provide its own reward is strengthened and intrinsic motivation lives on. It takes patience but in the long run I believe this practice will do a lot more for the individual development of my students.
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