A Response to "The Brilliant Blog"

On "The Brilliant Blog", Annie Murphy Paul posted on the topic of interest.  For the sake of putting more interesting reading material on my blog, here is my response which I put in the comments area of her post:

Annie,
The question of interest is one that I have had to tackle from multiple angles in my classroom. I teach in a project-based-learning environment, and in order for the project unit to be successful, student interest is a must. Interest is what keeps students engaged so that group conflicts and management issues are minimal, moves the class forward in exploring class content, and motivates them to complete the project assignment.

I appreciate your even-handed treatment of both aspects of interest, whether to elicit and invoke it, or let it emerge on its own. However, what I have observed in my classroom leads me to disagree with the import that you place on extrinsic motivation and how it can take the place of intrinsic motivation without undermining it.

A project unit I develop may have authenticity, academic rigor, applied learning, active exploration, adult connections, and assessment practices (commonly known as the “6 A’s”), but if I have to resort to pedagogical manipulation in order to inspire a student to tackle a project, the results will be less than desirable and I will soon have to try again to extrinsically motivate him.

What I find is the better approach, which you touch on only briefly, is the idea of leveraging a student’s interests to engage him. When the student can see how course content can connect to his already existing world, things become much easier.

Thank you for your thoughtful critique on interest and intrinsic/extrinsic motivations. I’m interested to know what others have to say on this topic.