During my grade school years I
remember too few incidents that positively affected my intrinsic motivation
towards learning. A positive educational experience that I do recall was during
my 6th grade social studies class however, one that inspired my full
participation and subsequent learning about the subject. My teacher’s name was
Mr. Holmes and we were learning about economics and commerce. The activity and
assignment were for students to choose a business that would be part of a
classroom city we were creating to study the barter system. Mr. Holmes provided
guidelines for the scenario, requirements for the businesses to be included, what
to include for representing hubs in a commerce system, delineating form, and the
amount of currency to be dispersed among student pairs. The goal was to develop
a successful business in our representation of a barter system where the top
selling team would receive a prize (I can
not recall exactly what the prize was since it was many, many years ago). For
the final activity, we would spend at least one class period interacting with
each other’s business models, and related products, to experience first hand
how a commerce system worked. We paired up with another student and decided
upon our business model and what was to be our retail items, our budget for trading
items with other students, and what would be the designated price of the items
we were supplying. Once we had our business concept developed, we designed the
building using a refrigerator box and paint, trying to create an ideal design
of commercial display for our product as instructed. It was our responsibility
to create the box, with our partner as an after school activity, prior to
bringing it in for the final project day. I remember this experience because it
included something that was fun and personalized in the activity, and my
classmate and I were both inspired to perform well. It included crafting and
make-believe, which for a 6th grade student was a spectacular
element to include for any homework assignment. The active learning presented
an opportunity for student interactions, which supported our understanding for
the basics of economics involved with supply and demand. I remember that the
trade system for student currency became very interesting almost immediately
when the first student team used all of their currency, because one team had
bartered a popular item at a very high price (I do not recall what the item was).
It created quite a communication stir about budgeting; the remaining
student team’s analyzed the error, questioning the cause, and offering ideas
about how it could have been avoided. Afterwards, the student interactions,
regarding bartering and budget became more carefully decided upon as we
continued the economic activity during the remainder of the class period. I
remember that my teammate and I did not win the final prize but we sure did
have fun and truly enjoyed our learning experience, each of us making genuine
efforts toward the activity. This learning experience inspired motivation
because it was a student-centered activity, we were directly involved in the
details and action that created the learning. It included elements that were
relevant to personal interest and play; these are essential items that are part
of inspiring intrinsic motivation in the student. The teacher’s reinforcement
of intrinsic motivation for learning in the student, promoting their effort
required to learn, must include a draw, keeping the learner engaged in the
process by creating a pleasant experience, relevant to their interests, and show
acknowledgment for their active participation. The elements in educational
activities should relate to the knowledge previously attained by the student and
create transfer for their learning new concepts in the subject matter. In this
instance it involved the concept of a bartering system, reflected by wanted
items and the trade of currency which, for the 6th grade student is
relevant to the awareness of purchasing power from family experience with
shopping, i.e.; groceries, clothing, luxury items, etc. My early education experience was many years
ago and there are, unfortunately, many more memories of negative experience
than positive. I believe that this fact remains true, that negative experiences
cause a much harsher effect on a student’s psyche and will result in
detrimental effects to their learning. Therefore, the provider of an education,
the teacher, must strive to promote the positive and avoid the negative with prodigious effort. This
effort, towards creating an advantageous learning experience for the positive
intrinsic motivation to learn in the student, is represented in the preceding
example of my own positive grade school experience.
An example of an experience that negatively affected my psyche
towards learning occurred in a 9th grade AP English/Language Arts
class. The teacher’s name was Ms. Anderson for whom my sister had previously
been a student of in the language arts a few years earlier. She had been a
teacher at the High School for years, teaching both freshman and senior year AP
language arts courses. She had tenure in the teaching staff and was considered
an expert in the department, as well as received rave reviews by my sister and
her friends, whom had been her pupils. At the start of my freshman year in her
class, she created the most absolute, negative experience towards the intrinsic
motivation to learn by her approach to feedback on my first assignment. The
assignment was a short essay, the subject we were writing about I do not
recall, and she was returning the graded papers for students to review in
class. She called me to the front of the room, had me stand beside her desk in
front of the blackboard, and asked me to discuss my essay with her. I inquired
what it was, about the paper that she wanted to discuss and she then preceded
to berate my writing, stating examples and analyzing the errors in front of
everyone, speaking loud enough for all of my classmates to overhear. I was
extremely embarrassed and did not know how to respond. She then handed me back
my essay, which she had written her feedback with red ink all over, and told me
how disappointed she was in my work, that she knew I could do better. She mentioned
teaching language arts to my sister previously and proceeded to praise her,
declaring that she was a fantastic writer, which was why she knew I could do
better. She explained this last statement of comparison to the class more than towards
myself.
The example of my high school teacher’s inappropriate feedback on effort
towards learning was shameful, on the part of any teacher but especially one
who was a supposed expert in the field. By no means should anyone have to experience
humiliation and be singled out for comparison with another student, treated so
inhumanely in front of others, especially during their precarious transitional
time as a freshman in High School. This negative event resulted in my voluntary
displacement from the AP English course for my senior year and my decision to
be placed in remedial English instead, just to avoid her. I never wanted to be
in the presence of that horrible teacher ever again, especially as her student.
The behavior she presented is an example of how a teacher can negatively impact
learning and academic achievement in their students. If I hadn’t experienced
such unwarranted mistreatment for my effort towards learning, I may have a
better self-esteem and self-efficacy for the subject of language arts. To this
day I still do not feel that my writing is a strong suit, regardless of my
intelligence and understanding that one person cannot permanently label this of
my ability. This personal experience imparts first hand knowledge and awareness
for the emotional impact to self-efficacy a teacher’s incorrect feedback can
create. I had previously been a very good language arts student, creating a
young author, award winning book during my elementary education, and
participating in literary clubs during my middle school years. I had family
support and praise for my efforts towards school and always had been confident
of my advanced academic ability. Unfortunately, having a teacher compare my competence
to that of my older sibling, who had always been a mentor of mine, for which I
aspired to be like, negatively influenced my self-view of ability in the
subject, so much so that it changed my academic pursuits thereafter. I cannot
rewind the resulting course of action taken for my remaining K-12 education but
the personal experience clarifies the importance of providing positive praise
and encouragement, with appropriate feedback as a teacher. There should never
be a time in the course of any student’s schooling that warrants the comparison
of their effort and achievements to another, especially between family members.
This comparison, however one might view it as boosting student effort so that
they may reach the level of the one they are being compared to, actually
creates tension and anxiety for a student, which will never promote their
learning achievement. Teachers must
provide students with a safe environment for learning, emotionally and
physically. This means that a student should never feel that they are in
competition for academic achievement with anyone other than themselves. A
competitive nature in the approach to education does not create a safe learning
environment, for those students who may be below grade level ability, or those
who are highly capable but may be struggling with a concept or technique to
achieve. The recognition of effort in the student, the support of their
attempts with praise, and lessoning the negative impact of failures and defeats,
are the key components to providing a supportive figure for inspiration of their
intrinsic motivation to learn. A teacher can be a leader and guide students
towards academic success but only with the positive influence to self-interest,
self-esteem, and the capabilities of the self towards learning. My personal
experience with education and recollections in the examples presented are
exactly what a positive experience represents as a model of effective teaching
and conversely, what the negative example represents in what to avoid for
successful promotion of intrinsic motivation to learn in the student
