Students will learn what they want to learn and will have great difficulty learning material that does not interest them. Clearly, student motivation is crucial to learning. Although the focus of much of a student's motivation is beyond a teacher's control, there is much that we as teachers can do to influence the motivation of our students. While such interest in students in itself can be motivational, as you read the following material, bear in mind how knowledge about your students will play a role helping you to avoid problems, diagnose problems as they happen, and influence your students. Motivation is usually considered either intrinsic or extrinsic.
Intrinsic motivation is internal.
It often satisfies basic human needs. . . Extrinsic motivation is externally motivated and includes many things that the instructor can do, including grading, providing encouragement and friendship, and so forth. The difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are not always sharp. . . . We will start by discussing several ways to motivation that are either clearly intrinsic or clearly extrinsic in nature. Next we will discuss some theories that address extrinsic and intrinsic motivation.