Motivation; Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic

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Have you ever wanted to learn a foreign language or play an instrument? What inspired you to accomplish this new task? While we are all inspired to learn different things throughout our lifetime, not all students are driven to learn for the same reason. Over many decades, extensive research has been conducted in the field of educational psychology. Through this research, psychologists have identified two basic classifications of motivation: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. From a young age, we as human beings are all curious and interested in exploring and learning new things, without the need for incentives provided by external sources to do so. This is the self-motivation force known as intrinsic motivation. Therefore, the rewards and benefits associated with a student passing a particular course are not as gratifying to them compared to their own personal interest and desire to learn new and more challenging material. For example, Tim is a student who has always enjoyed writing. Next semester, Tim wants to take the advanced English Composition course offered at the high school he attends. He knows the course will help him attain a scholarship from the school he has chosen to attend, but in addition, Tim really wants to become a writer. Tim perceives the advanced English course as being very useful to him in his quest to become a future journalist. He understands the course will be difficult and at times very mentally challenging, but in return, he will learn a lot of new writing techniques to make his writing more... (citation omitted).

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