Enhancing Intrinsic Motivation in Early Childhood and Elementary School

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Enhancing intrinsic Motivation in Early Childhood and Elementary School Introduction Motivation plays an important role from when children start school until when they finish school, since “nearly all educators deal with the issue of motivation. In fact, in the first few weeks of school, teachers often mentally group students into the categories of “motivated” and “unmotivated” (Jensen, E., 1998, p. 67,). This demonstrates how important it is to encourage intrinsic motivation from early childhood, as I believe that it is during the first years of early childhood that adults should start teaching children the importance of being autonomous and competent, as it is knowledge that they can carry on to later years. The reasons why intrinsic motivation patters should encouraged from early childhood and the benefits of doing it will be presented along this essay, as well as the benefits of the maintenance of intrinsic motivation during elementary school and some strategies to be successful at preventing children to become unmotivated, or turning unmotivated children into more inherently motivated children. Motivation Motivation is an internal force that encourages learners to follow a direction towards a particular activity and to maintain their interest in such activity (Lei, S.A, 1956, p. 153,). According to Pintrich and Schunk (2002), Motivation can influence new knowledge that individuals obtain and knowledge that they have already acquired (Pintrich, P.R., & Schunk, D.H., 2002, p. 6). In addition, motivation also influences what, when and how individuals get the knowledge. Furthermore, individuals are encouraged to act for many reasons; it could be for receiving an external or a verbal reward, for self-fulfillment, which is intrinsic motivation, or for being obliged to do it.
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