Elementary School Scenario

As extrinsic motivation refers to an individual's motivation that is driven by external rewards, and intrinsic motivation is defined by an individual performing a particular task because internally they have decided and reasoned that they will obtain internal reward, the elementary school scenario was selected as there appeared to be more emphasis that could be placed on both types of motivation for the students.

In the case of Bridgett, she needs continual confirmation that she is performing well and doing the work as best as she can, therefore, in redesigning the teaching philosophy and methodology to engage and motivate her specifically, there will be a system of participation grades will be established. Students are motivated by "seeing their progress. If a teacher charts their progress, students become motivated by their own achievements and successes; it's motivating to see your performance going up, rather than staying the same" (Hunter, 2005). While the participation grades are being established for all students, in trying to engage Bridgett to have more confidence in learning and being herself instead of groups, it was my decision to incorporate this with Bridgett in mind. She in essence will experience both intrinsic motivation (confidence booster) and extrinsic motivation (seeing the grades).

Incorporating an instructional intervention to assist Bridgett, there will be an adoption of Response to Intervention technology, or RTI. RTI "includes a combination of high quality, culturally and linguistically responsive instruction, assessment and evidence based intervention. Comprehensive RTI implementation will contribute to more meaningful identification of learning and behavior problems, improve instructional quality, [and] provide all students [such as Bridgett] with the best opportunities to succeed" ("What Is RTI?," 2013). Based on the theories of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, the rationale for RTI incorporation will be to improve the confidence of Bridgett to not rely on me to let her know how phenomenal she is as an individual and as a student. It is my hope that this will change her outlook on learning entirely.

In the case of Walden, to incorporate an engaging and motivating element into the classroom, there will be a reward system that will be established. Walden barely talks in class, so it is my hope that through this reward system that he will begin speaking more as he will feel compelled to receive the small gifts and/or stickers for answering questions and excelling at learning subjects other than science. While science is extremely viable to one’s understanding of themselves and the world, it is the hope of this reward system that was designed to be an extrinsic motivator that Walden will start speaking on other subjects. There appears to be a confidence issue with Walden as well, therefore, intrinsically, Walden will hopefully be motivated to learn other subjects better or as much as he knows and understands science. Individuals need to be engaged "interactive[ly with] his or her environment (Hidi and Harackiewicz, 2000). Therefore, Walden will be able to focus more attentively (an intrinsic motivator) on the subjects taught in class.

To build on Walden's motivation both extrinsic and intrinsic, there will be an incorporation of games with a science slant that will be put into the lesson plan. While the predominance of games will be science oriented, there will be other types of games on other subjects also. It was the decision to use Cram, which is a "web based flashcard maker [where one can] create, share, export and print flashcards for [the] convenience of students" ("Cram," 2013). Reasoning for the use of cram will be to both engage Walden through the use of flashcards, while also providing an interactive experience with him to create his own flashcards that will be useful in learning and for quizzes and tests to hopefully obtain the prizes in the rewards system.

References

Cram. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.cram.com/

Hidi, S., & Harackiewicz, J. M. (2000). Motivating the academically unmotivated: A critical issue for the 21st century. Review of Educational Research, 70(2), 151-179.

Hunter, P. S. (2005). Raising Students Who Want to Read [Professional Paper]. Retrieved from http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/authors/pdfs/Raising_Students.pdf

What Is RTI? (2013). Retrieved from http://www.rti4success.org/whatisrti