Getting Motivated
For years, educators have been giving rewards to students as motivation to perform common tasks such as turning in homework on time. House Springs Intermediate School, however, began noticing that students were becoming more and more reluctant to do anything unless they received a prize or reward. So the special area teachers (Art, P.E., Computers, Gifted, and Counseling) decided to make a concerted effort to teach the students the meaning of intrinsic motivation and how it can be applied in various circumstances. First, teachers developed a common definition of intrinsic motivation which is "the desire to work, or do the right thing for the positive feelings within one's self." The school surveyed all students using three questions to find out if they could accurately define intrinsic motivation and/or give an example of it. Only a handful of students knew anything about it. After a semester of consolidated efforts by the special area teachers to teach intrinsic motivation, the three question survey was given again. Not only were the results positive, but the classroom teachers were noticing students becoming more intrinsically motivated to do certain tasks.