Effects of Extrinsic Motivation on Montessori Classrooms By Jennifer Banks

Have either of these affected your classroom?

Montessori Classrooms in SC

Action Research Survey 1. Are you currently teaching in a school-within- a-school setting (Montessori classrooms housed in a traditional school setting)? 2. Does your school participate in activities that support extrinsic motivation (such as: awards days, school-wide behavior charts, school-wide rewards, etc.)? Open-Ended Responses: What are your thoughts on Dr. Maria Montessori’s ideas of intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation? Describe how school-wide extrinsic motivators affect your Montessori classroom. 5. In your opinion, do extrinsic motivators help or hinder the independence and autonomy of the children in your classroom?

Surveyed Teachers Don’t participate in using rewards: III Make standards more difficult to earn rewards: I Don’t agree with rewards, but have to use school-wide ones: IIIII III (PBIS- one example)

Research by Zinser, Young, and King… 48 second and third graders---hidden objects in pictures from “Highlights” magazine---given no, low, or high verbal reward after finding 2 After 2 trials- same feedback/level of reward- given ‘free time’ (8 minutes to choose anything to play with) Greatest difference between male and female when given high verbal reward (males devoted more time to the task than females) High verbal reward increases intrinsic motivation in males, but high verbal reward inhibits intrinsic motivation in females Why? It could be that males receive praise as informational while females view it as a means of controlling their behavior. Trend continues with low verbal reward, just not as significant.

Loveland and Olley Research… 24 preschool children in a lab school in Massachusetts--- 34-40 months old (2 ½ yrs- 3 ½ yrs) Began with high and low interest (felt-tip pen drawing) 6 min. 2 groups: expected reward- “Good Player Award” for participation, other group-no reward One week later—reintroduced as a choice Seven weeks later---reintroduced again 3 factors (high/low interest, reward/no reward, 1 wk/7wks): reward led to lower interest, 1 week after having high interest---after 7 wks interest levels returned back to the initial levels

Loveland and Olley Research…(con’t) High interest and expected reward led to more drawing in the experimental time- but drawings were lesser quality than the children not receiving rewards. **Rewarded children with high interest hurried and completed low quality drawings in excited expectation of the reward. “Many studies have demonstrated the risk associated with rewarding children who are already interested in the task.”

Karniol and Ross Research… “… the precursor of intrinsic motivation is a feeling of competence or effectiveness…” “… a person is more likely to perceive himself as extrinsically rather than intrinsically motivated if he is provided with a salient reward for engaging in an activity.” “…extrinsic factors which define one’s performance as competent should generate intrinsic interest in the activity. Thus, when rewards provide the standard by which the individual evaluates the quality of his performance, intrinsic interest should be generated rather than discounted.”

Karniol and Ross Research… “ Rewards which are allocated irrespective of the level of performance may indicate to the recipient that the quality of his performance is not important. Such rewards may be particularly detrimental to intrinsic motivation since they are appreciated in their own right but do not arouse effective motivation.” 57 kids ---4-9 yrs old---summer playground---asked to play games in a mobile trailer----- “slide game” ----answer correctly to make the green light appear Some questions were designated as “success” and some were not- no light

Karniol and Ross Research (con’t) Out of 20 slides…low performance group was told the average was 16 correct. Less than that is deemed ‘below average’. High performance group was told if they got more than 6, then they were better than average, but less than 6 is below average. All were programmed to get 10 “correct” answers- outcomes depended on the parameters above. Reward-driven group was given marshmallows while other group got none…3 marshmallows for 16 correct (impossible since they all got 10 correct), 2 marshmallows for less than 16. Researchers walks away- free play time-NO REWARDS-their length of play time determined level of intrinsic interest *Results: reward undermines interest because it deemphasizes the importance of success. *flip side- child that failed a reward may have enhance intrinsic because it deemphasizes failure

Conclusions: Rewards should not be used in an environment where the goal is intrinsic motivation. This is very difficult in today’s time because of the 21st century mindset of children , but necessary for intrinsically motivated learners.