Review: Choose Your Story Series: Extrinsic VS Intrinsic Motivation
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 23, 2014
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for a fair and unbiased review. I'm a reader who is very eclectic. I will read just about any kind of book, even a book for children. I was eager to read this story. I wonder aloud if a child would  read this book, multiple times, for intrinsic motivation?As an adult reading a children's book, I found "Joe, Sam, & Fred's Pirate's Treasure Adventure" quite easy to read. It is definitely meant for young readers. Finding pirate treasure is likely to be engaging for boys as well as girls. I agree that the story has enough action and suspense to keep a child engaged for the duration of the story. The challenge for the adult would be convincing children to read a story again in order to find out what outcomes making different choices lead to. When does legitimate curiosity become nothing more than superficial interest in what the various outcomes are, without deep cognitive engagement with the story itself? I feel this is an important question to consider which has not been answered adequately by research to date.Research from the PISA international reading exam over the past decade suggests that girls would be more likely than boys to repeat the reading for the intrinsic satisfaction of knowing all the outcomes. Boys would probably require some extrinsic motivation to get them to engage on a deep cognitive level. For developing reading fluency and vocabulary, I give this book high marks, but for the development of reading comprehension, I am hesitant to give full marks. I give this book 4.5 stars, and since I can not give such a rating, I feel the lower rating of 4 stars is appropriate, given my doubts about the effectiveness of this book in developing deep cognitive engagement on repeated readings.Reviewed by Thomas Jerome BakerAuthor ofHow to Teach Debating: Theory & Practical Handbook for the Non-Native Teacher,Debate Coach & International English Language Learner Worldwide