Teachers use traditional incentive and reward systems with the best of intentions. We're trying to support students' positive behavior and learning. We're hoping to motivate and inspire students to work hard and do well in school. If everyone behaves, we'll have a pizza party. The more books you read, the more stickers you'll receive. On the surface, these systems seem to make sense. They may even seem to work. But in the long term, they do not foster intrinsic motivation or a love of learning. In fact, they often have the opposite effect.In Tackling the Motivation Crisis: How to Activate Student Learning Without Behavior Charts, Pizza Parties, or Other Hard-to-Quit Incentive Systems, award-winning educator and best-selling author Mike Anderson explains* The damage done by extrinsic motivation systems and why they are so hard for us to give up.* What intrinsic motivation looks like and the six high-impact motivators—autonomy, belonging, competence, purpose, fun, and curiosity—that foster it.* How to teach the self-management and self-motivation skills that can make a difference for kids.* How to use intrinsic motivation in curricula and instructional strategies, feedback and assessment, and discipline and classroom management.
Ultimately, our job as teachers is not to motivate our students. It's to make sure that our classrooms and schools are places that inspire their intrinsic motivation and allow it to flourish. Anderson shows how you can better do that right away—no matter what grade level or subject area you teach.
