Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic Motivators

This is a helpful read for future teachers to know what gets their students up and moving in producing the desired educational results.

Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic Motivators


Psychologists have identified two broad types of motivation to explain how and why students perform well (or not so well) in school: extrinsic and intrinsic.

The real challenge is that most of your students cannot see a clear association between working hard to learn English and a direct and immediate positive outcome. Extrinsic motivators are those that come from outside the self and include such things as praise, extra privileges (can stay up later at night), money (extra allowance), and in some cases even extravagant gifts used by desperate parents as bribes, e.g., "Bring me home an "A" average and I'll buy that PSP or handphone you that you want so much." Conversely, attempting to avoid punishment would also be an extrinsic motivator, e.g., "If you don't bring home at least a "B" average, you'll be grounded for a month and you can forget about your allowance too."

Intrinsic motivators, which are viewed as far more durable, emanate from inside the self and include such things as improved self-esteem, satisfaction of intellectual curiosity, spiritual growth, as well as a heightened sense of self-efficacy and competency, among others. These types of motivators tend to be extremely subjective and, therefore, vary considerably from person to person (Huitt, 2001).