So for class we got to read Praxis 2.0: Escaping the edu-travelogue. I liked the article and it just further confirmed the fact that I really have no desire to be a teacher because it’s really difficult and the fact that I really rather not touch “institutional learning” (definitely in america) with a ten foot poll because I really wouldn’t know where to start. I mean I am a student…I’ve actually learned about learning in psychology and learning is allllll abouttttt motivationnnn. In general there are two kinds of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic is when you are motivated to do something (study, practice, work) because one is actually interested in the subject and wants to do it for themselves; internal reasons. Extrinsic is like going to school, going to a job, because you want the money or your parents want you to, external reasons. I’m not saying the teachers don’t matter because obviously having a professor who is intrinsically motivated to teach and loves the subject is always better than the one who’s doing it for the paycheck. There’s been studies done which basically have had children playing with markers or games in a classroom and they were doing this intrinsically because they just loved playing with markers/games that were provided. Then, the experimenters split up the group of children and gave half the children rewards for playing and the other half just kept playing. Now, the experimenters recorded how long the children would willingly play. And when they did a follow up they found that the kids who were rewarded played less and less and some eventually stopped playing because the reward (extrinsic motivation) trumped the kids already intrinsic motivation. This is defined as the overjustification effect. Basically, the external reward decreased the child’s pre-existing intrinsic motivation to play. One of my professors compares these studies with kids and reading. Some kids love to read at first but once you add rewards and grades something changes. I believe grades are faulty but they do serve a purpose. I mean there are some schools that evaluate by reviews only (no grades), which I think is a bit better, at least for me. I mean I hate multiply choice test because I cannot express my self and I don’t think it represent my knowledge on a subject. I love essay tests because I can express my knowledge. I guess that has more to do with subjective and objective learning/grading…I am all for creativity in the classroom, too bad there really is no good and bad in creativity though…anyways I digress. I’m not saying intrinsic and extrinsic is all there is to this whole thing because it’s obviously not it’s just an interesting theory I’ve learned. All in all, I like the fact that Melanie addresses the problem and I think she did a great job it’s nice to see a professors prospective.