Motivation when it’s something
you would rather not do.

It’s hard to avoid articles and posts about finding flow at work – or similar ideas such as being in the zone or finding your purpose. I like these ideas, because they remind us that where we can, we should be striving for more than just getting the job done, or earning a salary. But it’s also true that they can be over simplified and find your passion has come to somewhat grate with me (and perhaps even rather devalue the notion of passion). So how do we use notions like this in school and avoid framing everything around some rather impoverished view of education such as ‘you need this to get a job and be financially secure’?

Of course, there is a lot to be said for having a job and being financially secure, but as motivations for students, these are toxic causes (see Nickerson et al for more on this). So we constantly seek to provide a stimulating environment so that what we do at school is intrinsically motivating; and we seek, wherever we can, to avoid extrinsic motivators such as rewards and punishments (of which the long-term job and money ideas, and the fear of not having them, are examples).

That said, it would also be naive to think that everything is always enjoyable. Sometimes, things can be a slog, or just plain boring – we all know that. But even if we could avoid these things at school (which we cannot) we would be doing our students a grave disservice if they left without ever meeting and overcoming challenges which were not in themselves enjoyable. That would hardly prepare them for life after school; because sometimes intrinsic motivation is impossible. As I have been thinking about what motivates students, and how we can pursue notions of student autonomy, I’ve realised that the familiar everyday linear axis of extrinsic / intrinsic motivation is oversimplified.

Psychologist Tim Kasser make this come alive with a simply everyday example: The demands of life are such that all of us…. have fewer experience of flow than we might like. For many of us our routine consists less frequently of climbing mountains and having moments of deep interest at work than of taking out the garbage and engaging in rote tasks. But even though these latter tasks only rarely provide intrinsic motivation, we can still feel more or less autonomous and authentic or controlled and alienated while we are doing them. Put differently, we can take out the trash because we really value a clean hygienic house, or because we feel pressured by our spouse or conscience.

This really resonated with me. I know I can attack dull tasks with enthusiasm and energy when I can place them as part of a bigger picture, and see their purpose. That is, I can still be motivated to do these tasks autonomously, if I understand how they fit, in the long term with my interests and values.

It turns out that there are indeed further ways of thinking about this than the familiar intrinsic/extrinsic distinction. In their seminal work in this area, Ryan and Deci identify two intermediary forms of motivation, identified and introjected motivation which I think are really helpful categories for us teachers and parents, as we seek to support students and children to do certain things.

We can use Kasser’s example of taking the trash out to understand these. For our kids it’s not likely to be a great task intrinsically, but it can fall under identified motivation if they genuinely value a clean house; if the only reason we do it is because we nag them then it’s probably introjected motivation; and if they do it for fear of a punishment then it’s clearly extrinsically motivated. 

Why does any of this matter? Do these subtleties make a difference? I think they do. These categories allow us to think about how to get our students or children through the dull bits, and stick with things when they are tough. We can go toward the extrinsic/introjected end and either demand, threaten, nag or guilt-trip students into compliance; these strategies may get the immediate outcomes we want (eg complete the homework) but they are likely to foster a low sense of autonomy and push students to feel controlled rather than in control. Importantly, adopting these strategies likely means that students won’t replicate the desirable behaviours without further pressure. The solution even if we cannot make tasks intrinsically motivating, is to seek identified motivation where we can show how even a relatively undesirable task aligns with things that they value. In the case of doing homework, this might be laying the foundation for successful lessons the next day or developing competence and expertise or a connection to some future career. While these may be a little remote and perhaps take more work than a simple instruction, if we can get through to students, our children, then it means they are more likely to internalize the thinking – and hence for the behaviours to continue in the longer term. All this comes down to the famous start with the why mantra.

The effects of staying at the intrinsic/identified end of the scale are significant. Ryan and Deci note that as we shift from early childhood toward teenage years how well these extrinsic regulations are internalised predicts both quality of functioning and wellness. 

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The need to be able to focus on the mundane things in life when necessary, and also to place them in a broader context (and so to see how they contribute to our purposes and missions) is not a new one, and we often start the New Year with various resolutions which are more often temporary fixes than genuine changes. These additional categories of motivation may offer a better way of inducing us to act more closely in line with our long-term desires. A lot, therefore, depends on our perspective, and we probably all know from our own experiences that while it can sometimes appear that nothing has changed on the outside, everything has changed on the inside. It’s true for students, and true for teachers. The same idea is more beautifully expressed in Wu Li’s Zen Kōan:

Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.
After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.