Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic
This is an area that I need to enhance in the next year. I think if I can get my students motivated intrinsicly they will suceed in their careers even more.
EDWARD, fantastic goal. You will also want to be cautious concerning confusing motivation for lack of certain essential skills. Examples include information literacy, technology literacy, study skills, and learning disorders. Many times we as faculty fail to see the forrest for all the trees we must navigate and lump together several factors into one term we use for motivation. Make sure you know your students well and understand any differences between motivation and these other factors.
James Jackson
I completely agree with Edward. I feel that if I can motivate my students more than they can be more intrinsicly motivated to do their best. It was very nice to get the some information about how we as instructors could make some motivation be both intrinsic and extrensic.
I hope that i can do more things to motivate my students intrisically because I feel without intrinsic motivation a student may be rendered unmotivated.
Diane, both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations can be used to move students forward. The intrinsic however tends to be more powerful once the student relates a focus of career versus just classwork to get a job. It is more deeply rooted.
James Jackson
At my Institution it is sometimes very difficult to really get to know my students, as we only have them in our class for 3 weeks, and then they move on to their next class. Using positive reinforcement to motivate them whenever possible and giving them a review of covered materials at the end of each class, highlighting key points seems to help.
willy, I agree that 3 weeks can be a challenge. Is there any way of sharing information among the group of faculty about your student body? For example I have seen situations where an institution has a Student Affairs department and student information is made available that focuses on student retention and student success factors. The ability to have access to such resources can assist in your ability to know more about your students as they come an go within your specific course. Just an idea worth researching.
James Jackson
We have both older and younger students at our school. It seems that the older students are Intrinsic, they seem to enjoy the fight to learn, where the younger students seem to be Extrinsic where they are all about the rewards, not caring as much as how they got there. If they would focus more on how they got there, they may retain the information for life.
Don, do you ever have the older students share their experiences with the younger students? There could be some great value in having the younger students hear from the older ones how their intrinsic values give them a sense of fulfillment more than any of the extrinsic values they receive in the way of material items. You can be wealthy and miserable at the same time but if you love what you do you will never work a day in your life. Thanks for any thoughts you can share on this topic.
James Jackson
