September 2022 Monthly Ed Tip

Want to know how to create a class of motivated and engaged students, or how to energize underperforming employees?  For short-term results, rewards will probably work for a short time period.  But what about long-term productivity?  For lasting results, the conversation must shift to a discussion of extrinsic motivation (i.e., motivation based on external rewards and punishments and the possibility of feeling controlled) vs. intrinsic motivation (i.e., motivation based on “authenticity and responsibility” and a feeling of having choice).

Instead of posing the question, "How can people motivate others?"  Deci asks, "How can people create the conditions within which others will motivate themselves?"  This is an important distinction as it shifts the focus away from extrinsic motivation (i.e., motivation based on external rewards and punishments and the possibility of feeling controlled) to intrinsic motivation (i.e., motivation based on what Deci labels "authenticity and responsibility" and a feeling of having choice).

According to Edward Deci, an eminent expert in the field of motivation, in order to achieve this goal, three basic psychological needs of students and employees must be considered.

Edward Deci is a psychologist at the University of Rochester in New York and the director of its human motivation program.  He is well known in psychology for his theories of intrinsic motivation and basic psychological needs and with Richard Ryan, he is the founder of self-determination theory (SDT), an influential contemporary motivational theory.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation: Intrinsic motivation is when the reward is imbedded in the activity.

Doing an activity because it is interesting and provides its own rewards by satisfying people’s needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness.  This is the prototype of the self-determination concept, i.e., doing the activity for it’s own reward.  You feel a sense of satisfaction, a sense of competence, and a sense of engagement while you are doing the activity.

For an example of intrinsic motivation, look at young children at play.  You do not have to ask the question of how do I motivate my child to play or how do I have to motivate my child to learn through play.  Children just happen to do naturally the things that interest them.  Children are hugely intrinsically motivated and as they are motivated, they are learning.  We have this intrinsic motivation throughout our lifetime but what happens to it as we age, particularly in grades 6 to 9 when we don’t see very much of this in schools.

Extrinsic motivation: Doing an activity because it leads to separate consequences such as a reward or the avoidance of a punishment.  You do the activity to get the rewards versus intrinsic motivation where the reward is imbedded in the activity.

In short, intrinsic motivation:  initiated internally, activity is the reward, and focus on the activity while extrinsic motivation: initiated externally, reward is separate, focus on the outcome

Both are types of motivation that move people to act.  The opposite of motivation is amotivation, which refers to the lack of motivation because it does not produce intentional action.

Deci and his colleague Richard Ryan reanalyzed nearly three decades of studies on the topic of extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation and found that, “careful consideration of reward effects reported in 128 experiments lead to the conclusion that tangible rewards tend to have a substantially negative effect on intrinsic motivation.  When institutions-families, schools, businesses, and athletic teams, for example-focus on the short-term and opt for controlling people’s behavior, they do considerable long-term damage.”  Their writings have contributed to our understanding of why “people rewarded for engaging in activities that bring them enjoyment and for which they are intrinsically motivated may actually become less interested in these activities once rewards are introduced.”

Deci does not unequivocally oppose the use of rewards.  He states: “Of course, they’re necessary in workplaces and other settings, but the less salient they are made, the better.  When people use rewards to motivate, that’s when they’re most demotivating.  Instead, we should focus our efforts on creating environments for our innate psychological needs to flourish.”

And what are those three needs?

The authors opine that “there are three basic, innate, psychological needs that we all have: the need to belong or feel connected, the need to feel competent, and the need for autonomy or self-determination.  When those needs are satisfied, we’re motivated, productive, and happy.  When they’re thwarted, our motivation, productivity, and happiness plummet.”

Deci and Ryan (and colleagues around the world) have explored self- determination and intrinsic motivation in laboratory experiments and field studies that encompass just about every realm—business, education, medicine, sports, exercise, personal productivity, environmentalism, relationships, and physical and mental health.  They have produced hundreds of research papers, most of which point to the same conclusion.  “Human beings have an innate drive to be autonomous, self-determined, and connected to one another.  When these needs are met, the actions of our students, employees, and family members will be rooted not by short-term and inconsistent extrinsic motivation, but by sustaining, ingrained and habitual intrinsic motivation. And when that drive is liberated, people achieve more and live richer lives.”

Every human behavior is motivated.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But many times the motivation is not always obvious.

The real question is not how do you motivate children but how do you create the environment in which your students will motivate themselves.  It is not about doing it to them, it is not about motivating them, it is about supporting them to find their own motivation, to find their intrinsic motivation, to find internalize their extrinsic motivation.

The way to facilitate autonomous motivation is to create a needs supportive environment.

1. Relate from other perspective.  If students are not doing what you want them to do, there is something going on in them, which is the reason for it.  This is the starting place for it is to try to understand it from their point of view.

The easiest way is to ignore their point of view and run over them by using a controlling environment (threats or rewards).  The more difficult way but the more effective way is to understand their perspective and come from there. 

2. Encourage self-initiation and exploration.  Try it out and see what happens.

3. Offer choices

4. Calibrate for optimal challenge.  Do not make the task too difficult or they will get anxious and not be able to complete the task (or in some cases, not even start the task).  But do not make the task too easy because then it is not satisfying.  Therefore, instruction will have to individualize in order for each student to start at his or her appropriate place in the challenge.

5. Give meaningful feedback

6. Provide a rationale for requested behavior.  Make clear what is important about proper behavior but in a way that resonates with them.  A rationale is not, “do this because I said so.”  A rationale is, “how this behavior can help you.”

7. Minimize the use of controlling language/negative feedback.  But use controlling language in a positive and challenging manner.  Sit with a student to encourage thinking about what went wrong, how could you do it better.  We are acknowledging it didn’t go well but I am here to support you rather than just telling you that are incompetent.

Deci cites studies that show the use of the words must, have to and ought in communications changes how that communication is heard.  It is being heard as demands and controls rather than just a piece of information.

Deci cites his studies that after two months in a class with an autonomy supportive teacher, students were more intrinsically motivate, perceived themselves to be more competent, and felt better about themselves.  With the highly controlling teachers, it was in the opposite direction.

Controlling classroom = rote memory

In an experiment comparing a controlling and an autonomy supportive classroom, Deci found that the autonomy supportive students were more intrinsically motivated and had greater conceptual learning.  While the students in the controlling environment had greater rote memory, the rote memory on a reading passage disappeared after one week.  In fact, one week later the students in the autonomy supportive class had greater conceptual ideas of the story than the students from the controlling environment.