Week 3, Option #2: An educational counseling need of interest to me is the need for more intrinsic motivation promotion as a means of changing behavior and improving academic success. External motivation is the dominant driver of academic behavior, especially before higher education. In other words, students often study and perform academically in order to get good grades, or reach another external goal which is only tentatively linked to the subject material. Educational counselors too often fall prey to attempting to motivate "unmotivated" students through external rewards or punishments. Of course, this common practice comes from the work of Behaviorists, which have been institutionalized throughout formal education systems. The need to inspire students to achieve academic success through intrinsic motivation, learning because of a genuine interest, is crucial for "deep learning" because only through this approach is the subject matter made relevant to the student. Educational counselors should foster intrinsic motivation by identifying ways to link a student's own personal interests to specific academic material or to education/school in general. Dr. Beth Hennessey gives a great presentation about intrinsic motivation, creativity, and how to apply these concepts to shift educational structures:

“Cultivating Intrinsic Motivation and Creativity in the Classroom” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2eRnhBvI_I

The need for educational counseling to emphasize intrinsic motivation over external motivation is crucial to foster creative and critical thinking in students. It is worth asking the question, "What might intrinsic motivation in schools look like?" When some educators hear the phrase "intrinsic motivation" they may associate it with the movement to eliminate grades altogether. However, there is empirical evidence that simply removing grades does need increase intrinsic motivation over time, and that getting negative feedback in a grade doesn't necessarily decrease intrinsic motivation (Weidinger, 2017). These findings cast doubt on the notion that poor grades are the primary cause of students' weakening intrinsic motivation (Weidinger, 2017). So promoting intrinsic motivation through educational counseling may not look like an attack on formal grading, but it should look like personalization of material. In my view, flexible, individualized, open-ended assignments that allow students to learn about course material through a "lens" of interest to them is the best way to promote intrinsic motivation in education.

As Professor Dorothy Espelage explained in our course videos, bullying is definitely a problem in education. While bullying may not be an epidemic, there is no denying the impact it has on affected children. As we learned in the course, power dynamics and self-esteem/confidence are essential elements of bullying. Interesting findings in the psychological literature provide evidence that intrinsic motivation is actually correlated with self-esteem, while external motivation is not (Chen, 2007). It may be that those students who are self-motivated, who have a genuine interest in learning, may have higher confidence which can potentially act as a buffer to the negative psychological effects of bullying.

Educational counselors need to focus on intrinsic motivation cultivation because it is an overlooked approach to fostering student development. Studies show that students’ school‐related intrinsic motivation is often considered a primary determinant of academic achievement, engagement, and school functioning in general (e.g., Corpus & Wormington, 2014; Wigfield et al., 2015). Therefore, by emphasizing intrinsic motivation as a means of academic engagement over external motivation, educational counselors can help students improve their grades, self-esteem, creativity, and critical thinking, as well as increase the amount of long-term knowledge students obtain through their experiences in school.

References

Chen, L.-F., Hua, L.-Q., & Luo, N.-F. (2007). The relationship between university students’ self-esteem and intrinsic/extrinsic motivation preference. Chinese Mental Health Journal, 21(1), 28–31

Corpus, J. H., & Wormington, S. V. (2014). Profiles of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations in elementary school: A longitudinal analysis. The Journal of Experimental Education, 82, 480–501. doi:10.1080/00220973.2013.876225

Weidinger, A. F., Steinmayr, R., & Spinath, B. (2017). Math grades and intrinsic motivation in elementary school: A longitudinal investigation of their association. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 87(2), 187–204. Doi:http://dx.doi.org.proxy177.nclive.org/10.1111/bjep.12143

Wigfield, A., Eccles, J. S., Fredricks, J., Simpkins, S., Roeser, R., & Schiefele, U.(2015). Development of achievement motivation and engagement. In R. Lerner(Series ed.), M. Lamb & C. Garcia Coll (Vol. Eds.), Handbook of child psychology and developmental science, Vol. 3, 7th ed. (pp. 657–700). New York, NY: Wiley.