Intrinsic Motivation in My Experience

One class for which my motivation was mostly internal was an introduction to economics course offered by the Campus Honors Program. Economics and economics reasoning of how goods and services are exchanged in society and every person’s life individually was new to me- I had never taken a class on this subject before. My interest of this academic area outside of my major was enough to drive me to learn all that was taught in class and all that was taught in the textbook. Good grades were not hard to obtain; otherwise I might have been tempted to focus more on them. I was now free to ignore this most basic and essential extrinsic motivator in school and do as I was directed or recommended by the professor without biasing the direction of my efforts based on how each assignment or activity will affect the ever-present grade. This seemed to me to be the most trustworthy way of gaining a good grasp of the material and coming away from the course with a working understanding of the impacts of economics in my personal finances, my career in engineering, my home town in central Illinois, and the global markets at large. I wanted to expand my comprehension of the connections in the material that I was starting to make as a newcomer to economics, not regarding the extrinsic motivations present.

A couple of ways the professor helped the learning in this class was by providing illustrative small group activities during class and by forcing active participation in discussion when students offered an answer to his question. Activities usually involved trying to come up with a model for an interesting economic and social situation (e.g. illegal drug trade) based on our limited knowledge of basic principles in economics. In the ensuing whole-class discussion, if student Jane Doe had a reason why the studied event A would happen, could they come to the board and illustrate to the class why on a plot of supply and demand on the chalkboard?

To bring students into a joint exploration of the class material where student and teacher work together to uncover ideas and principles that have been discovered by other professionals in the past- and just happened to be our curriculum for the class- seemed to be an very effective method of making learning a more intrinsically- motivated activity. This is in contrast to the motivation resulting from a class in which the professor just lectures the material and described in a syllabus what will be covered and how grades will be determined. Students just see the syllabus and the memorizable facts from lectures and decide that “getting a good grade and getting out” consists of “playing a game” of catering to the grading rules and emphasis instead of focusing on learning as driver to work in the course.

Outside of the classroom, I am lucky enough to be working in a part time job where my motivation is intrinsic. I work developing sustainable biofuels with ADM in the University’s Research Park. The subject of this work keeps me motivated by knowing the importance of finding a renewable fuel source for the world’s energy needs in the future. Reaching the goal I am working towards would mean vastly better management of our current renewable and nonrenewable resources, a big score in the fight against global warming, and downgrading of large sources of political strife regarding crude oil extraction in unstable world regions. Even if I cannot see an end product or significant steps toward a solution during my time at the company, I am pushed onward by the “nobility” of the cause and the attractiveness of the potential solution. I also do not feel a large pull to accomplish in order to be recognized by other people, but to just be a part of a larger effort to resolve one of the world’s largest issues. Unfortunately, I don’t see how this method of motivation can be transplanted to most other areas of work. However, seeing one’s work as intrinsically positive and impactful to people is sure to lessen the presence of salary, recognition, and other extrinsic motivations which are ever-present in one’s mind.