Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation Towards Learning, The Personal Experience

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 6^th 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 6^th 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 6^th 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 9^th 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