Thursday, March 24, 2016

Chapter 8: Motivation and Learning

          The most intriguing part of the chapter for me was defining motivation.  The difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is interesting to me.  Extrinsic motivation is related to doing a task that has a means to an end, a reward, such as a pay raise.  If you are extrinsically motivated you are influenced by outside factors when completing a task.  If you are intrinsically motivated your desire is rooted in challenge, curiosity, and mastery.  Intrinsic learners are motivated from within and are usually motivated by trying to achieve mastery in what they are doing.  In my opinion I believe that the most successful people are those who are intrinsically motivated.  I think that these people are more likely to persevere when things get tough because they are motivated from within which is a much harder motivation to break then a motivation grounded on something that can be taken by someone.  If you are motivated by external factors and those factors suddenly disappear someone is more likely to stop trying without the incentive no longer in front of them to chase.

            Daniel Pink talks about motivation as well and discusses terms such as autonomy, mastery, and purpose.  I love these three words that he associates with motivation and the definition attached to them.  Autonomy is yearning to direct your own life.  I think this is vital for any adult learner.  I think as an adult learner you need to have control over your own life in order to learn.  The next term used was mastery, which is the compulsion to progress and improve around things that matter.  I think to achieve mastery you have to be extremely intrinsically motivated, because mastery takes a long time to achieve and there will be setbacks along the way.  The final talking point was purpose, which encompasses working for something larger then oneself.  The idea that if you put others first you will in turn be rewarded is a very real thing.  

2 comments:

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  2. Hola, Blake, I like how you talked about very important key points for this chapter. I see very informative and straight to the point the way you defined extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. In ths aspect, I agree with you, it is more important to be intrinsicly motivated because the reasons to do something come from within and they are easier to handle when difficulties to achieve what we want rise. In regards of what Daniel Pink says about motivation, your summary again focuses on explaining autonomy, mastery, and purpose. The way you explained them is very clear and now I understand why it is important to follow this process to accomplish results. Thank you for such a clear summary of the chapter!

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