Critical Reflection 6

Niall Ó Connaibh G00334074

Intrinsic Motivation and Extrinsic Motivation

During my 6th week of school placement, I chose to critically reflect on ‘Intrinsic Motivation’
and ‘Extrinsic Motivation’ during lessons. Having successfully completed six weeks of
placement, the experience of independent teaching has afforded to me the opportunity to
reflect on my own personal teaching. I have come to realize the importance of motivation
during my lessons and the positive results it has produced for me.

Before commencement of school placement 3, I was unfamiliar with the terms ‘Intrinsic
Motivation’ or ‘Extrinsic Motivation’. During my Education Studies module in my third year
of studies, I was introduced to intrinsic motivation by Dr. Pauline Logue Collins. Intrinsic
motivation is when I am motivated by internal factors, such as a sense of self
accomplishment, proudness or pride whereas extrinsic motivation is achieved as a result of
external drivers such as rewards or prizes.

The Italian born Phycologist Maria Montessori promoted ‘Intrinsic Motivation’ over
‘Extrinsic Motivation’ throughout her work. She believed profoundly that the learning
children experience must be for the internal joy of it, not just for external rewards. But this
made me question whether her belief was effective; should there be a balance between
both Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivation and how much motivation is too much?

Through my own personal experience, I think that intrinsic motivation is a key component in
successful teaching and learning. During my delivery of lessons, I promote intrinsic
motivation on a regular basis to benefit the learning of the pupils. “Motivation involves
goals and requires activity; goals also provide the impetus for and the direction of action”.
When I promote intrinsic motivation during the lessons, students aspire to achieve to the
best of their abilities. I was amazed with the results after motivating the students. A prime
example of this can be observed during my Woodwork lessons. I was delivering a practical
lesson in MTW and we were working on Mortise and Tenon joints. One particular pupil had
difficulty producing good Tenon joints. The Tenons were cut to small and the lines were off
centre. I offered practical assistance and demonstrated a sawing process again for him, I
then instructed the student to attempt the joint on his own. On my return to his work
bench, the pupil produced a successful Tenon joint this time around! I praised him and
encouraged him to reproduce the same successful joints on the other rails. I told Student X
that he “was well able to do it”, and that he would have a strong wooden frame if he
repeated the joint again. After a few MTW lesson, student X improved immensely and
produced successful, tight fitting Tenon joints. I was amazed with the results of my intrinsic
motivation. It was evident that student X felt a sense of self accomplishment and self-
achievement. That bit of motivation drove him to excel and achieve/ work to the best of his
ability.

Unfortunately I was unable to motivate every pupil in my class. There is a student, (Student
Y), who has just recently become disengaged with his education. Student Y fails to attend
school most days and doesn’t excel in his subjects. I began to question my own teaching,
was I doing enough to motivate this pupil? Should I have executed extrinsic motivation,
using external drivers such as rewards and prizes to retain him in school? The tutoring
teacher assured me that student Y was like this for every other teacher and subject in the
school and that it wasn’t my fault for his behaviour.

A week later, the student’s retention levels increased. The tutoring teacher would take him
out of other classes to do small projects in the woodwork room. Because of his increase in
attendance, I was able to meet him in the corridors of the school and motivate him to come
in to every MTW class we had together. I was informed that Woodwork is his favourite
subject. The tutoring teacher had student Y making YOYOs and small wooden gifts for his
family. According to (Young, 2007), you should “raise student’s interest levels by linking the
subject matter to their personal interests”. By doing so, the tutoring teacher and I were
instilling intrinsic motivation in him, student Y aspired to work to the best of his ability
because he felt a sense of pride and accomplishment in completing Wooden projects well.
(Young, 2007), suggests, “As part of your ‘toolkit’ to tackle certain problems it can be a
wonderful way to motivate students into doing good, meaningful work”.

Bibliography
O' Grady, M. (2001). Behavioural Science. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan Ltd.

Young, J. (2007). 100+ ideas for Managing Behaviour . London: Continuum International Publishing
Group.