A topic of interest for me in the profession of teaching is how to use students’ interest to motivate them to learn. I think that this is an interesting topic for me because I think that the easiest way for students to learn any topic is for them to be interested so they are motivated to put in the effort to learn. Many teachers can probably recall a subject or topic that they learned as students just to get a passing grade and move on. If there was little or no interest in the subject matter, you would likely be motivated solely by getting a good grade to pass the course or to put on your report card and wouldn’t remember much about the topic after finishing the class or school year. However, if there was interest in learning about the topic, then there would be more motivation to learn the topic and actually remember it after the school year comes to an end.
Context To Real-World Problems
A key learning technique that teachers can use to encourage interest in a topic is to make learning contextual to real-world problems (McCarthy, 2014). Students cannot see how core concepts are represented in the world beyond the classroom (McCarthy, 2014). First, teachers need to find out what students care about and like to do (McCarthy, 2014). Students need to be given choices, so they can choose activities that align with their interests (McCarthy, 2014). Students should also be given choice in what they produce for assessment (McCarthy, 2014). If students are making something they care about, they will more easily spend more time making it (McCarthy, 2014).
Using Both Intrinsic And Extrinsic Rewards
During a class discussion in EDUC 1301, Learning and Development, on fragile interest as a learning key, teacher candidates defined intrinsic rewards as a feeling of accomplishment that students get after learning a topic or subject matter and extrinsic rewards as external motivators, such as certificates, gold stars, high grades, and others, to complete a task. A discussion among teacher candidates in the class demonstrated that they felt that a balance of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards should be used to encourage students to learn a topic or subject matter. They felt that using extensive extrinsic rewards would motivate students to learn for the reward and not for genuinely wanting to know more about the subject matter or topic. They also felt that using only intrinsic rewards would be challenging to motivate every student to learn. Using a balance between extrinsic and intrinsic rewards was widely believed to be the best approach to developing interest and motivating students to learn.
Experiences As A Student
The challenge of developing interest in students was exhibited in my experiences as a student. I had teachers that used a variety of extrinsic rewards to motivate us as students to develop an interest to learn a variety of topics so that we could develop an intrinsic reward system for learning. In elementary school, I had a teacher that distributed play money for good behaviour and learning habits, like homework completion, throughout the school year. At the end of the school year, the teacher would bring in prizes that we could buy with the play money. This extrinsic rewards strategy was useful as a motivator to develop good learning habits and class behaviour; however, it led to competition among students for the rewards or prizes. I also had a teacher in elementary school that attempted to incorporate new technology, such as computer games, into teaching concepts in social studies and history. This incorporated technology as a way to interest students about topics in history so they were intrinsically motivated to learn about the topic to succeed through levels in the game as an extrinsic reward. This strategy was useful for students who became interested in succeeding in the game and then developed an interest in the topic to learn further, but didn’t interest some students who didn’t understand or want to succeed in the game. These methods demonstrate how extrinsic rewards can be used to develop an intrinsic reward system to learn a subject matter or topic.
Therefore, it can be a challenge to use students’ interests to motivate them to learn. Students may approach a topic or subject matter only to get a passing grade and move on. Teachers need to make learning contextual to real-life examples. Teachers need to balance intrinsic and extrinsic rewards by including some extrinsic reward to encourage students to begin to explore new ideas and topics and ensure that this exploration leads to a development of an intrinsic reward that provides students with interest and motivation to learn more about that topic.
McCarthy, J. (2014). Learner Interest Matters: Strategies for Empowering Student Choice. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/differentiated-instruction-learner-interest-matters-john-mccarthy
RaviT@OTU
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