By\u00a0\u00a0James M. Lang<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Kristi Rudenga<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n JANUARY 4, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n Full Article here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Excerpt below<\/p>\n\n\n\n Research on teaching in recent years has awakened faculty members to the importance of cultivating intrinsic motivation in class. The idea is that, instead of relying on grades or late penalties to get students to complete their work, we should turn to more meaningful motivators: the inherent love of learning, the fascinating nature of the subject matter, the desire to belong to a community, the impulse to help others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, most work \u2014 especially the challenging and unpleasant parts \u2014 comes wrapped in both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What follows are some suggestions on how to embrace the power of extrinsic motivation in your teaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Use it to build relationships with students.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n we suggest requiring an office-hour visit as an early assignment in the course or in lieu of a first quiz. Depending on the size of your class, you might ask students to sign up for short slots as individuals or in groups of three or four. During these visits, your conversation could focus on getting to know more about a student\u2019s background and interests. You could offer constructive feedback on an early quiz or assignment. Or you might ask students to come in with their biggest question from the first week of class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However you manage the particulars, this is a great way to use an extrinsic motivator \u2014 in this case, points toward a final grade or a perfect quiz score \u2014 to encourage behaviors that lead to strong student-faculty relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Attach incentives to reading assignments.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you believe it\u2019s important for students to regularly read before class in order to succeed in your course, devote some piece of the final grade to exactly that \u2014 an argument made in a classic text,Effective Grading<\/u><\/em><\/a>. Don\u2019t just assign the readings, ask students to write a brief response to what they\u2019ve read. They could write about the most interesting figure in a scientific article, about the weakest- and strongest-reasoned sections of an essay, or about which passage of a textbook chapter was most confusing and why. Use the\u00a0first few minutes of class<\/a>\u00a0to have students write a response on paper, or ask them to submit their work online ahead of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Give them a little push to participate.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Leverage a bit of light social pressure by moving around the entire classroom, and when you see someone actively avoiding participation, check in with them and encourage them to join a nearby pair. Or sit next to those students and ask, \u201cWhat\u2019s the first step you would take to solve this problem?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n You might also engage in what one of us (Jim) has described as \u201cinvitational participation<\/a>\u201d \u2014 a less intimidating version of \u201ccold calling\u201d \u2014 in which you let students know at the beginning of an activity that you\u2019ll be calling on a few students to share their answer with the class. The knowledge that they may have to share their thoughts publicly is a powerful extrinsic motivator to use their time to develop the best answer they can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Use points to keep students on track during major assignments.\u00a0<\/strong>Both of us have long used what the literature describes as\u00a0authentic assignments<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 i.e., asking students to apply what they\u2019ve learned in tasks that mimic experiences they might encounter in their careers or lives beyond the campus.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the fires of their intrinsic motivation have been temporarily extinguished, extrinsic motivation can help students stay on track. One solution is scaffolding \u2014 or dividing a major assignment into stages, with each one tied to due dates and consequences. Leading up to the final grant proposal, for instance, Kristi assigns students to write a brief topic proposal in Week 7, and draft an outline in Week 11 (worth about 2 percent and 10 percent of the project\u2019s grade, respectively). Such incentives keep students moving forward on the assignment and give them the chance to incorporate her feedback into their final submission at the end of the term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Working for points doesn\u2019t make the assignment itself somehow less authentic or valuable. It\u2019s simply using the structures of the class \u2014 and of college itself \u2014 to motivate students to do their work in a sensible, high-quality way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n