PLE: Motivation

Motivation can always be a tricky thing when teaching. Some students are extremely intrinsically motivated, while others need some sort of extrinsic motivation in order to do well. I think that, as the teacher, I need to be able to know which students are motivated intrinsically and which students are extrinsically motivated. The classroom then need to be run accordingly. If many students are extrinsically motivated, I think there needs to be rewards for doing homework, completing assignments, or reaching a class average grade on a test. If the entire class gets a reward, I feel like students are more likely to 1) work together in order to prevent letting others down and  2) work harder in order to receive the reward, especially if it is something that students will actually enjoy. Intrinsically motivated students need to be given individual goals. I think that if I push these students to try harder things, then they will push themselves to attain a new level of knowledge. Ultimately, I think that motivation techniques depend on the students within the classroom and the classroom as a whole.