As promised in my last blog post (“Interactivity Is the True Essence of In-Person Experiences”),

In this paper, I will discuss the following issue: 

“What if, in addition to being present, the student is engaged and immersed in the activity? Wouldn’t that be great?”

Your answer was probably “YES!”

Every educator’s dream is to see their students engaged and immersed in learning activities. We’ve seen that interactivity is essential for students to feel engaged. But how can we help them immerse themselves—with focus and enthusiasm—in the learning process? Unfortunately, there’s no ready-made, foolproof formula for achieving this. But understanding the steps students take to reach this long-sought state helps us make it more likely to happen. 

 

The first step toward engagement is motivation. An unmotivated student does not engage with the proposed (or assigned) activities. In fact, they probably won’t even start them.

 

There are two types of motivation: extrinsic and intrinsic. 

 

Extrinsic motivation is easier to induce, since it can be approached in a more objective manner. However, because it is a factor external to the individual, this approach can lose its effectiveness very quickly, and it is not always pleasant, natural, or even desirable. Any external stimulus that prompts action on the part of the person being stimulated can be a factor in extrinsic motivation. Common examples in the field of education include: tests, mandatory attendance, awards, honorable mentions, grades, encouragement from teachers and/or classmates and/or friends and/or family members, scholarships, professional necessity, social pressure, etc. A major problem with extrinsic motivation is that, in general, it ceases as soon as the stimulus is removed. Worse still, the removal of the stimulus can lead to demotivation. Example: Suppose a student loses a scholarship; most likely, he or she will become more demotivated than he or she was before receiving the scholarship. In the corporate world, several studies have shown that extrinsic motivations, such as pay raises and awards, are not sufficient to keep employees motivated and engaged. Of course, if a person has a very low salary, they will eventually become demotivated due to a lack of recognition or an inability to meet their financial needs. However, it is very common to find unhappy workers earning excellent salaries who, motivated solely by extrinsic factors, have become hostage to these external forces, and work has become a sacrifice for them. 

 

On the other hand, it’s rare to find volunteers who are unmotivated by their pro bono activities. In general, those who volunteer do so out of intrinsic motivation. It’s a personal decision that doesn’t depend on external incentives to happen. What you do out of your own motivation is fulfilling, rewarding, and causes less stress and fatigue. It’s easy to tell when someone is engaged in something out of their own motivation. Many don’t even consider it work. There’s even a popular saying that goes something like this 

“Do what you love, and you’ll never have to work again.”  

I deliberately altered the phrase slightly; it usually says, “you will no longer have to work.” In fact, when you do something because you enjoy it, because you want to—in short, because you have intrinsic motivation to do it—you do it with pleasure and not out of obligation. So, working at what you enjoy doing is still work, but it’s not “work out of obligation.” What is done solely out of motivation caused by external stimuli is viewed more as a commitment, an obligation, or a necessity than as a desire or motivation. 

    

Thus, although it is tempting for us educators to rely on external stimuli to motivate our students—given how easily they can spur action, such as tests and awards—it is intrinsic motivation that must be fostered and made possible. Due to the inherent subjectivity of this type of motivation, there is no way to guarantee that it will occur, no matter how favorable the conditions created for it may be. But it is very easy to ensure that it does not occur. All it takes is for just one of the three basic requirements—which are necessary conditions for intrinsic motivation to occur, as presented in the book *Why We Do What We Do* by Deci and Flaste—to go unmet. These requirements refer to three perceptions that must be felt by the individual. They are:

 

Autonomy: the feeling that we have the power to influence the process, that we are doing something because we decided to do it that way—in short, that we have some decision-making power (often, simply listening to students or giving them options for activities and topics helps improve this perception);

 

Competence: the feeling that we have the ability to do what we set out to do (understanding students’ potential and knowing how to tailor challenges to their abilities is essential, but helping students realize that they are capable is equally important);

 

A sense of belonging: the feeling that we are part of something important, that what we are doing will have an impact on those around us, and that we will be recognized (understanding the importance and meaning of what they are learning, studying content tailored to their realities, having their results shared beyond the classroom, and engaging in collaborative activities are some of the elements that contribute to this feeling).

 

If your student is motivated, you may find that these three feelings are present. It's a shame that the presence of these requirements doesn't guarantee motivation.   

 

I already mentioned in the title that it’s hard to motivate students. I also mentioned right in the first paragraph that there’s no formula for motivating students. But there is one formula that’s very easy: the “formula for demotivating.” Since that’s not your intention, you might not be interested in learning about it. But you should be—so that you can, at the very least, be careful not to apply it inadvertently. So let’s get to it.

 

A Recipe for Demotivation

All it takes is to prevent one of the three requirements for intrinsic motivation from being met.

• Take away a person's autonomy, and they will only do something if they are externally motivated;

• Make the person feel incapable of performing a certain activity, so that they will only attempt it if forced to do so;

• Ask someone to do something whose importance, significance, or impact they don't realize; if they do it, they'll do it grudgingly or halfheartedly. 

 

Now that you’ve learned the formula for demotivation, all you have to do is not apply it. Not applying that formula—that is, not preventing one or more of the three basic requirements for intrinsic motivation to emerge—is an important step toward actually making it happen. I’m sure your teaching methods, your relevant content, and your appropriate use of media, technologies, and methodologies will do the rest. But it doesn’t hurt to take a general look to see if any component of the “recipe for demotivation” has crept into your process.   

 

I hope you enjoyed this post.

 

“Wait a minute!” you might ask me. “At the beginning of this article, you said that ‘the first step toward engagement is motivation.’ What, then, would be the next one?”

 

That’s true. It’s one thing to have the motivation to start an activity. It’s quite another for a person to remain engaged, involved, and immersed in what they’re doing. The state we’d love to see our students in is the one we observe in young (and sometimes not-so-young) gamers, who are so focused on playing that they don’t notice the passage of time or the world around them, making the most of their skills. This state, which can occur in any context—not just while gaming—has a name: Flow. Game designers are very familiar with this theory, developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a psychologist, professor, and researcher who, sadly, passed away last month. Understanding it is crucial for better grasping the factors that keep a person in—or take them out of—the state of flow. Teachers should also be familiar with it.

 

I'll talk about flow in my next blog post. Until then.    

 

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Learn more about the author:

 

Romero Tori is a member of the Bett Educar Board, an Associate Professor (Level 3) at the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo (USP), author of the book *Educação sem Distância* ( *Education Without Distance* ), and maintains the blog “Educação sem Distância.”

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