I Think I Can

(Aside: Did anybody else have the story of The Little Engine That Could come to mind with this topic? Anyone? No? Okay.)

"You really should be doing more of the readings," it says.

"Watching movie reviews again!? Aren't there more important things you could be doing?"

"Get out and get going!"

These are things I frequently "hear" my conscience, or whatever it is, say to me when I'm neither intrinsically nor extrinsically motivated to do course work or some other task I feel obligated to do. I can't shut it up, and it's right waaay too often. It just never gives up trying to convince me to be a more disciplined student.

Typically, I get enough motivation from grades and wanting to establish a foundation for the future, however one does that, to keep me going. I wasn't very interested in learning about educational organization and leadership, but it was an easy 'A', and wasn't about to let a class like that tarnish my GPA. I also don't care too much for knowing the ins and outs of assessment, but that seems like something of which a teacher ought to have an understanding, so I pay attention and do the work.

Every once in a while, there's a class that just clicks with me. A source of motivation doesn't have to exist outside of myself. The instructor doesn't have to rely on saying things like "This will be on the test." to keep me going. I don't have to remind myself that it's a 4 credit hour course that will have a significant impact on my GPA. These courses are worth their weight in gold. (Hmmm... how do you weigh a class anyway?)

At the beginning of the Fall 2007 semester, I decided to take a TI Graphing Calculator short course. There were a few reasons why I was intrinsically motivated in this course. First of all, it wasn't graded. There wasn't the "I have to get an 'A'" motivation that usually exists. Furthermore, I chose to take the course without having to take it. I received an email, telling me about is availability, and I thought it would interest and benefit me. Along these same lines, the class proved indeed to be interesting, so my curiosity was simply enough to keep me engaged. The class had very visible applications because everything we learned could be immediately applied with the calculators in front of us. Using a calculator for stats work is fun, and I wanted to discover more than just what the instructor was teaching.

It's difficult to pinpoint exactly what makes learning in courses like this one so painless. I hesitate to say that intrinsic motivation stems entirely from curiosity or interest because those things are so vague and they mean such different things to different people. If curiosity and interest are the roots, then the role of teacher is that much more difficult and nearly impossible to master because there is no heuristic for creating a lesson that everyone will find worthy of their attention. At a certain point, it seems like the desire to learn has to come from within or from some uncontrollable source.

It all makes me think of what is "right." Everyone has a different take on what is right and what is wrong. Some argue that there is no such thing. Yet, I'd be hard-pressed to find someone who would say it's okay to kill people or steal from old ladies. It's just... wrong, right? What's our motivation to not kill or steal, though? Is it extrinsic or intrinsic or both. I think it would be pretty scary if the motivation were entirely extrinsic for us. If jail time or fines were the only thing keeping us from causing our fellow man harm, I think we'd be in really bad shape as a society.

C.S. Lewis writes quite a bit about the Moral Law in his book Mere Christianity. He argues that there is a law of right and wrong, known to all humanity and "hard as nails." We know of this law because of certain actions, such as genocide or stealing, we all just "know" are wrong. Thus, the moral law is known intuitively instead of through observation. We often break or ignore it. Breaking it causes us dismay and keeps us from that which would provide us eternal joy. It makes sense to me that a law like this would come from a source outside of myself. There is more than extrinsic motivation that drives my behavior, but I cannot point to anything of who I am as the source of the intrinsic portion. When I point to a source beyond myself, God in this case, choices of right vs. wrong and reasons for curiosity itself make more sense.

There are always more ideas to consider and more questions to ponder. We have the desire to learn because we don't understand everything around us but want to so badly. Sometimes school/learning/studying seems overwhelming to me. Extrinsic motivation isn't enough. There's something inside me that keeps me going even when I no longer think I can. It's beyond my control, and yet I like it that way.