PLE 2: Carrots and Sticks

"If we really want high performance...the solution is not to entice people with a sweeter carrot or threaten them with a sharper stick." -Dan Pink

In his TED talk, "The Puzzle of Motivation," Dan Pink argues that extrinsic rewards are far less effective than intrinsic. Although his argument specifically targets the business world, the ideas of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation apply to a wide range of circumstances, including education.

If you have eighteen minutes, watch his whole talk here. Otherwise, I will hit the high points throughout this post.

Personally, I am not a huge fan of extrinsic rewards in a classroom context. As a teacher, my goal is to instill in my students a love of learning. By offering rewards for good work and effort, students often strive to make good grades in order to attain the candy or stickers rather than learning for the sake of learning. In high school, I had friends whose parents paid them for each A they received on their report cards. Even as a student, this concept baffled me. According to Pink, extrinsic rewards harm our work ethic and performance. He claims, "rewards, by their very nature, narrow our focus and restrict our possibility." Instead of extrinsically rewarding students for good grades, parents and teachers should encourage students to set realistic goals and establish a hard work ethic. While extrinsic rewards are not inherently bad, they often yield lazy students.  

Conversely, I believe intrinsic rewards heighten a student's performance. This intrinsic motivation often stems from various factors. For instance, personally, if I am interested in a subject, or if my teacher is passionate about his or her subject, then I am more likely to work harder for the pure desire to learn. Last semester, I took my first education class, Reading Education 430. I was simultaneously taking geography. While the course load for each class was similar, my interest in reading education far surpassed my interest in geography. In my education class, there were no tests. On the other hand, there were several tests in geography. While I vigilantly read every article assigned for Reading Education, I rarely read any article for geography. This perfectly distinguishes between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards in a classroom situation.            

Dan Pink states, intrinsic motivation revolves around the following three factors: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. By assigning projects that allow students to choose topics of interest and express creativity,  teachers increase a student's intrinsic desire to learn the material. Extrinsic rewards often destroy creativity. Although extrinsic rewards might achieve adequate test scores, a successful teacher instills an intrinsic desire to learn in his or her students.