- Get Good Grades
- Make their parents happy (With Grades)
- Get a Good Score on the ACT
- Get into a good College
- REPEAT 1 & 2
- Get into good grad school/Med or Law school (if you're really shooting for the stars!)
- REPEAT 1 & 2
- Get good job
- Find good spouse
- Have 1.6 kids
- Live in the burbs
- Own a nice car
- Own a vacation home
- Retire with fortune
- Squander money on grandchildren
- Die
Now where in here does it say anything about the incentive to be happy? Or to learn something? I'd like to possibly teach my students to have the incentive to learn something in my class for a reason, to be able to apply what they've learned and maybe be happy learning something without the need for stress to follow 1-16.
If you are a biker, then you have already discovered intrinsic motivation: you ride for the JOY of the ride. It isn't about exercise (though that happens). It isn't about eating pie (although, that happens too!).
ReplyDeleteBiking is living, stretching, breathing and pressing into the wind.
True learning happens in the classroom in much the same way--the red gradebook and the tests are just to keep us pedaling down the road. And then, we wait for it---TAILWIND!! That moment when a student looks at me and exclaims, "I GET IT!!"
Intrinsically motivated learning typically arrives without warning--but, generally ONLY after countless worksheets, lab reports and assessments which have kept the students working, even when they wanted to quit. Teachers "pull" the kids on the windy day and then swing to the back of the peloton as a tailwind starts to blow.
Happy Teaching!