Student Motivation

I recently had an informative and discouraging conversation with two senior students, both of whom I have had in previous courses. Both did well in those courses. I asked them what would get students intrinsically motivated about the courses they take. The discouraging part of the conversation was that neither student could think of an answer. From their perspective, grades are the motivating force for students. Grades lead to a diploma.

At the start of each course I teach I ask students why they are taking the course, what they want to learn, how they prefer to learn, what would make the course energizing and productive for them, what would make the course boring. It isn’t long into the course before I realize that the answers the students gave to my questions were what the students thought were the politically correct replies to give. My courses are highly participatory. I strive to keep students engaged with the subject of the course. I relate the material to their current lives. Yet I find it difficult to tap into the intrinsic motivation of students. I have done numerous experiments in my courses around motivation. Each experiment confirms that students are primarily extrinsically motivated by grades. Nontraditional students are the exception. They are usually clear about why they are in college, what they want to learn from their courses, and how they can apply what they learn in their lives.

I can usually keep students involved and entertained and hopefully they learn something. Most student feedback I receive on course evaluations is positive. What eludes me is how to have students intrinsically motivated to learn the course material. I attend the seminars, read the studies, apply the methods, but I still have not found a satisfactory approach. All motivation is self-motivation. It cannot be imposed from outside. How, though, do I tap into the students’ intrinsic motivation?

One reason I may find it difficult to find an answer to my question is that many students are not intrinsically motivated to learn what they are offered in college. Both the students I talked to are unsure what they want to do after graduation. They are in college to get a degree. They are not earning a degree in order to further a particular goal. This is where nontraditional students tend to differ from many traditional students. Older students have chosen to resume their formal education as a means to achieving a larger goal. Unless a student has a reason for learning a particular subject, that student will rely on extrinsic motivators to get them through a course.