I remember happily nodding along with the platitudes about intrinsic and extrinsic motivations during grad school. The information fit within my ideals about learning for learning’s sake. Intrinsic motivation– the motivation to learn and perform for a feeling of internal satisfaction– was in my mind the golden standard. Rewarding students, a form of extrinsic motivation, was detrimental to the health of the learner, would sap their love of learning, and would create generations of lab rat-like students performing their tasks for a stipend of sugar-laden M&Ms.
After all these years, my understanding of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is quite different, and I recognize that the relationship is much more complicated than my nascent understandings.
Appropriate Rewards
I learned that rewards were bad, and ultimately demotivating. And sure, I don’t think that kids should get a sticker or a lollipop because they had the decency to help clean a shared space, or the wherewithal to complete 5 math problems. But, what about recognizing legitimate effort, or building community. It seems completely appropriate to me to reward constructive behavior– “Great, we all finished our math sets in productive manner, let’s go outside and have a few minutes extra recess!”
The Intertwined Nature of In- and Ex-trinisic
I’m not a very good capitalistic, but some people are. I suspect none of the researchers and theorists who are anti extrinsic rewards have any aspirations to be their region’s top salespeople. Why is the pink Cadillac of Mary Kay so famous and sought after? It’s a reward that is valuable and recognizable. The salesperson who achieves that level of sales is a top go-performer who, I am sure, gets immense satisfaction from her own skill, but also chooses to perform in a company that rewards through bonuses and prizes. To be a successful salesperson indicates a wide portfolio of knowledge and skills. Perhaps that salesperson would not have been as successful without the hunger for those rewards.
Motivating Activities
We have a responsibility to make sure that we are providing activities to our learners that are challenging, fulfilling and worthwhile. Our learners will not be motivated to perform if the activities are not at the appropriate level. This means creating activities that are relevant, and explaining why they are relevant. Some activities are more challenging for students, and it’s easy for students to try to dismiss them as too hard. Explaining that this is a critical skill in their desired careers can help. Explaining why you are asking them to do this can help. Explaining that you, as an adult, still practice this skill can help. It’s harder to sound authentic about the long-term rewards of the skills they are practicing if the skills or the tasks aren’t relevant. Figure out if tasks are busy-work, and excise them if they are.
Leveling the Playing Field
The biggest adjustment I have made in my view of extrinsic motivators is related to how students of different economic status are rewarded or not. There are many ways that young people are rewarded– some healthy and some not so. There are many different rewards and incentives that affluent students get. Some are very clearly tied to academic achievement, and others not so much. Some are constructive, and others detrimental. Presented without judgment, here are some rewards I have observed in affluent young adults around me: cars, trips abroad, apartments, cash, clothes, cell phone plans, technological devices and so on. I don’t so much observe parents giving student a set amount of money for earning a particular grade, as I observe parents brokering a deal like “You may keep the car, if you get good grades, but you will lose privileges to it if you get a D.” That seems like a completely reasonable external motivator to me. But I have been in discussions about providing stipends for low-income students to attend classes, and the conclusion has been, “We don’t want to give rewards for students doing something that’s good for them.” But that happens all of the time. Overall, it’s good for students to achieve high marks. High enough, and they will get recognized, receive awards and perhaps scholarships.
I’ve come to see stipends for low-income students as having multiple benefits. It IS an extrinsic motivator. Sometimes, getting a student in the door is the first step to her discovering and developing her strengths– extrinsic motivation becomes the gateway to intrinsic motivation. It also compensates for the loss of time to other tasks. Most of the students that I work with have many responsibilities. They take on jobs to help support their families, and to pay for their own expenses. They take care of other family members. Their absence is a burden for their family. The promise of a monetary reward can make the difference in their parent granting them permission to be absent from other responsibilities. The stipend can be a motivation to continue the course or activity. I don’t think stipends should be tied to attendance. It should be tied to performance, and a meaningful increase in students’ skills and perception of their own value is worth the usually meager stipend offered.
Extrinsic rewards, artfully applied, can kick start intrinsic motivation in vulnerable populations. We shouldn’t allow the specter of ubiquitous participation trophies handed out at junior soccer leagues to limit our deft use of extrinsic motivators.
