In the morning, while correcting my morning work, I noticed my focus student possess extrinsic motivation rather than intrinsic motivation, as learned in my learning & development course. This entails that Billy listens cooperatively and works hard during morning work solely for the purpose of the reward that he could possibly obtain. Because he knows that he may get candy or positive checks, he may not work hard for the sake of gaining skills and knowledge.
This is a tough situation, and my focus student's participation is often low. Is the lack of intrinsic motivation worth the increased participation exhibited by Billy?
However, the bright side to these morning work rewards is that they are performance-contingent rewards rather than task-contingent rewards. Thus, according to my educational psychology book, this would increase intrinsic motivation as rewards are given for performing well on the task, rather than just completing the task. However, should awards be given for participation and effort (task-contingent rewards) as to encourage all students? There are definitely pros and cons to both.
The majority of my day after this consisted of organizing candy for the students. The students then had singing practice for the Veteran's day concert. This allowed me to see more of my students' personalities as they performed. I saw various goal-oriented behaviors including mastery avoidance and approach, as well as performance avoidance and approach.