How intrinsic motivation among students is born and killed.

During the learning process, two types of motivation drive students to acquire knowledge and
participate – extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic motivators are deadlines, rewards, parental
expectations, and they work only short-term. Enforcing students’ internal drive to learn is harder,
as mostly it comes from love of learning or interest in a subject, but effects of it are long-term. In
this work, I am going to look into the question of intrinsic motivation in learning-teaching
process from different angles to better understand it.

“How to encourage intrinsic motivation in the clinical teaching environment? A systematic

review from the self-determination theory” by Cesar Orsini, Phillip Evans and Oscar Jerez tells
how to encourage intrinsic motivation. Self-determination theory focuses on human motivation
as well as on the degree to which one’s behavior is self-motivated and self-determined.
According to the theory, there are three basic psychological needs, without which it is hard to
achieve intrinsic motivation. These needs are autonomy, competence and relatedness. Educators
need to encourage students to make decisions on their own; foster inter-personal relationships so
that learners feel connection and belongingness to a community. To satisfy the need of
competence it is crucial not to challenge students too much but accordingly to their abilities so
that they feel capable of performing. Research has shown, that having satisfied these needs,
increased interest, commitment, effort, and satisfaction significantly rise.

Beth A. Hennessey in “Intrinsic motivation and creativity in the classroom: Have we come full
circle?” explains what creativity and intrinsic motivation are and what tactics can undermine it in
students. Studies have shown that by promising a reward for a task, intrinsic motivation and
creativity levels significantly decrease. The negative effects of extrinsic motives last during the
whole life, from preschool age until the adulthood. Supervision, competition with other students
and deadlines turned out to be killers of motivation as well, with the expectation of evaluation
and judgment from the peers having the most negative effect of them all. The effect of evaluation
on creativity and intrinsic motivation is a complex issue, as it may have positive effects on
extrinsic motivation and in certain cases enhance the intrinsic drive as well.

Teachers are the most important participants of learning process, as they are the ones creating the
environment, in which students spend a significant amount of time. That’s why Syed G. A. S.
Bukhari, Shireen G. Jamali, Abdul R. Larik, and Muhammad S. Chang look into factors that
foster internal motivation in teachers in the paper “Fostering intrinsic motivation among
teachers: Importance of work environment and individual differences.” When researching
motivation in learning environment, most often the focus is on students, so what drives teachers
to effectively carry out their responsibilities is unfortunately vastly understudied. In a school
environment there are multiple variables that positively affect educators’ intrinsic motivation,
such as support from colleagues and administration, career growth, and, most importantly,
interpersonal relationships both with colleagues and administration.

In conclusion, internal motivation is one of the crucial parts of learning-teaching process and
demands a complex approach. It is important to know not only what promotes intrinsic
motivation in a student, but also what kills it. Self-determination theory has proven itself
beneficial, meaning that teachers should focus on students’ autonomy, competence and
interpersonal connections, and pay special attention to factors undermining creativity. It is also
important to make better conditions for teachers as they need to be motivated, too.
References:

1. Orsini, C., Evans. P. & Jerez, O. (2015). How to encourage intrinsic motivation in the
clinical teaching environment? a systematic review from the self-determination theory.
Journal of Education Evaluation for Health Professions, 12(8).
https://doi.org/10.3352/jeehp.2015.12.8
2. Hennessey, B. A. (2010). Intrinsic motivation and creativity in the classroom: Have we
come full circle? Nurturing creativity in the classroom, Cambridge University Press, 329-
361. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511781629.017
3. Bukhari S. G. A. S., Jamali S. G., Larik A. R. & Chang M. S. (2021). Fostering intrinsic
motivation among teachers: Importance of work environment and individual differences,
International Journal of School & Educational Psychology, 11(1), 1-19.
https://doi.org/10.1080/21683603.2021.1925182