That glimmer when students advance from confusion to capability keeps teachers going. We catch quick glimpses into a self-perpetuating drive to learn for learning’s own sake - no carrots or sticks required. Then Monday mornings tap us back to reality: most students won’t intrinsically work on quadratic equations without some external motivation push. Dreaming of solely fueling inner fires risks overlooking what got us to sparks in the first place.
Instilling life-long learning means recognizing mastery of a skill or knowledge set for what it is: a bridge, not a final destination. On the road to competency, we need fellow travelers. Specifically, extrinsic motivations prime the pump for many students until the innate rewards of capability can pull motivation from within.
What Really Drives Us?
Intrinsic energies - inherent enjoyment, purpose, curiosity, challenge-appetite - are not imaginary. But neither are they reliably constant for all students. Motivation fluctuates. So do difficulty levels. Usually not in sync.
Students don’t arrive as magnification-glass toting sleuths innately driven to decode Shakespearean verse just because it now appears on the syllabus. Yet glimmers emerge as reluctant literacy blooms into mastery. The external push got them there.
This interplay lives inside all of us, not just students. Alarms jolts us to get up for work before intrinsic flow kicks in. But once immersed in work, creative energy takes over until the next distracted lull arises. Motivation mingles messily between inner purpose and outer accountability. Why expect any different for those we teach?
Owning Our Extrinsic Reality
As educators, we orient everything around external signposts: points, ratings, prizes, and the most infamous of all...grades. Yet simultaneously, some arbitration tells us we wouldn't need carrots and sticks if students properly self-motivated. Somehow we must shift compliance into engagement by force of our instructional personality alone.
Can we admit this kind sanctimony about extrinsic versus intrinsic rewards risks disarming our own extrinsic tools at work? Let’s acknowledge the extrinsic reward system at the center of our educational systm:
Grades.
Grade-centered education is our baseline playing field as educational system functionaries. Almost no teacher can escape the reality of our role in the extrinsic reward system of competitive grades.
However, within this reality, we can still thoughtfully scaffold emerging inner drive rather than waiting indefinitely at the altar of motivation purity.
Embracing Extrinsics on the Road to Joy
Yes, drilling math facts feels dull next to the euphoria of inventing new theorems. But embracing necessary external hoops need not equate abandoning intrinsically fueled learning as the ultimate goal.
With care and restraint, let’s wield extrinsic motivators to pave the way for emerging competence cravings:
1. Use Hooks Strategically
Extrinsics “hook” preliminary participation where inner drive lags. Temporary game-ified points, challenges and rewards reel in hopeful progress until capability takes over.
2. Bridge with Extrinsic Supports
Next, insert planned extrinsic “supports” to bridge past skill frustration points. Small wins renew momentum when innate enjoyment dips.
3. Spark Self-Efficacy
Finally, transfer “spark” ownership as motivation to progress arises from within. Past scaffolds instill belief: “I can conquer challenges through my effort.”
This cycle simply describes learning itself: we master new skills because we had to, then because we can, then because we inherently love expanding what’s possible.
Ultimately, Nurturing Intrinsic Motivation with Extrinsic Rewards
Maturation in all arenas follows a recurring motif: as children we learn obedience toward available rewards and punishments, then by degrees intrinsic virtues arise to guide principle-centered living thereafter.
Yet we must nurture this progression, not demand it wholesale from the start. Discarding temporary extrinsic drivers once and for all risks never lighting the flames of lifelong learning to begin with.
So let’s acknowledge inner passion as the vision, while responsibly appropriating whatever ethical external pressures progress requires along the way. With care and intention, we can still elevate the outcomes, not just the means. If sparks endure once scaffolds fall away, then the journey has still led where we hoped: to competence-fueled curiosity that education ignited, but no longer needs to artificially fan.
Owning this motivation interplay offers breathing room from either/or thinking. Extrinsic and intrinsic drives dance together, however awkwardly at times, toward the joys of mastery we all share.
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