Characteristics of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation (continued)

Buy this book »

Aside from the fun that people have while engaging in activities they enjoy, we can ask whether intrinsic motivation bears any relation to learning. Do students learn better when they enjoy the content, or can they learn just as well if their goal is to please the teacher, earn good grades, or stay out of trouble with parents? We can all remember times when we were intrinsically and extrinsically motivated to learn. Students can learn for intrinsic or extrinsic reasons. Nonetheless, working on a task for intrinsic reasons is not only more enjoyable, there also is evidence that across grade levels, intrinsic motivation relates positively to learning, achievement, and perceptions of competence, and negatively to anxiety (Gottfried, 1985, 1990; Lepper et al., 2005).

These benefits presumably occur because students who are intrinsically motivated engage in activities that enhance learning: They attend to instruction, rehearse new information, organize knowledge and relate it to what they already know, and apply skills and knowledge in different contexts. They also experience a sense of self-efficacy for learning and are not burdened down with anxiety. In turn, learning promotes intrinsic motivation. As students develop skills, they perceive their progress and feel more efficacious about learning. Heightened self-efficacy and positive outcome expectations raise intrinsic motivation and lead to further learning (Bandura, 1986, 1993).