Motivating Without a Carrot and Stick:

Increasing Intrinsic Motivation in 21st Century Students

Analisa Shinn

Abstract
This paper serves as a reflection on a year-long process of trying to improve the intrinsic motivation of
high school digital photography students, without applying any methods of extrinsic motivation, such as
bribes or rewards. Multiple studies have shown that todays students are not as motivated to do well in
school, even in chosen electives classes. This paper reflects on the successes and losses from trying to
improve intrinsic motivation in a group of 63 digital photography students.

Introduction
In todays fast-paced, technology-driven society, many schools are finding that student motivation has
drastically declined, especially in the high school population. The research conducted through the
course of this study had the goal of increasing the intrinsic motivation of students in the realm of their
digital photography class.
The digital photography class taught at Claudia Taylor Johnson High School in San Antonio, TX,
is an introductory level course, designed to teach students with an interest in improving their digital
photography skills. The course is open to all levels of students, and welcomes all forms of digital
cameras from smartphones to DSLRs. The course starts off with the most basic concepts, then builds
both in the realm of taking and editing photos as the year progresses. This course is offered as a fine arts
elective, and has a pre-requisite of Art 1, so only students who have already met their fine arts
requirement may join the class. Because of the pre-requisite, the student population of the class is
comprised of sophomores, juniors, and some seniors. The course is conducted in a computer lab; all
computers are equipped with Photoshop CS6, and students must supply their own camera equipment.
Students use Google Classroom to conduct and turn in all necessary work.
The digital photography students are given two weekly assignments: a writing assignment which
is used to introduce the next photo concept being taught, and a photography assignment, for which they
must take their photos outside of class time. Students are told from the start of the year that they are
expected to spend 1-2 hours per week taking photos on their own time so that they may use class time
for photo editing. This study came about because of the number of students who were consistently
failing due to not having taken their weekly photos.
Area of Focus Statement
The purpose of this research was to find ways of successfully increasing students intrinsic motivation to
help with their success in my class. For the purpose of my action research project, I posed the question:
If I implement strategies to stimulate intrinsic motivation in students, such as encouraging students to
actively design class curriculum, will it improve students attitudes and participation towards my class,
as measured by qualitative data collected through surveys given periodically throughout the course of
the year?

Research Questions
1. What leads students to a lack of motivation in the digital photography classes?
2. What are the best strategies to implement in order to help students increase their intrinsic
motivation towards my class?

Literature Review
In considering my own high school education, I do not recall ever having a lack of motivation to do well
in my schooling. I was a very driven student, and was consistently striving to please my teachers and
mother through my grades. Additionally, there was not as much of a stress on the use of technology in
the classroom when I was in school. My teachers very often lectured behind a desk or podium, and
students were expected to take notes over their lectures. Beyond the school walls, technology such as
cell phones and computers/internet were just becoming widely used, and were still relatively
simple/primitive.
In contrast to my education, students today are completely inundated with technology. In fact, it
is rare to see students without smartphones in hand, using Snapchat, Instagram, or whatever the latest
social media app may be. Because of the increase of technology in students personal lives, teachers are
also being encouraged to increase the use of technology within their classrooms. Gone are the days of
lectures and note-taking; now it is up to teachers to make each lesson as exciting and inviting as possible
to capture the attention of their students. Because of this shift from learners to teachers in the realm of
educational responsibility, students no longer need to have intrinsic motivation to succeed. Instead,
teachers are expected to use the carrot and stick methods of teaching, guiding students along using
incentives, rewards, and bribes.
As I began researching my topic, my primary focus centered around finding methods for
increasing intrinsic motivation in students. I was pleased to find a number of scholarly articles that
centered on the topic, but there was one in particular that most guided my personal research. An article
by authors Kusurkar, Croiset, & Ten Cate (2011) offered twelve tips for increasing intrinsic motivation.
The first tip they offered, Identify and nurture what students need and want (Kusurkar, et al, 2011),
provided me with the basis for my research in regards to my digital photography classes. I applied this
method both at the start of the year to determine what students hoped to achieve from taking my class, as
well as periodically throughout the year to see if their needs were being met, or if their wants had
changed. The third and fourth tips, encourage active participation and encourage students to accept
more responsibility for their learning (Kusurkar, et al, 2011), were applied through asking students to
help design the class curriculum after the initial survey of wants, and revise the curriculum after follow-
up surveys. Tips five, seven, and eight encouraged regular guided feedback and support, which I
provided through individual comments on every photography assignment students turned in. In these
comments, I included at least one success and one constructive criticism to help students improve on
future assignments. One of the most useful tips to my own teaching was that of giving rationale to
uninteresting lessons (Kusurkar, et al, 2011), which I used regularly in the start of the class, since I
primarily had to teach less interesting lessons in order to build on them later. The final tip that I
employed regularly was that of giving my students options wherever possible.

Data Collection
For this research, data collected was primarily qualitative in nature, and was conducted primarily
through our Google Classroom platform. When there was occasionally a question over a students
answer or response, I would approach them personally to clarify.

Data Sources
- Surveys Students filled out surveys regularly throughout the class in order to provide me with
insights as to what they were enjoying and what they were struggling with in regards to my class.
Beyond the primary survey to find out what they hoped to achieve from being in the class, all
surveys were concluded with the final question being if they felt their grade (good or bad) was
justified and aptly earned.
- Journaling Students are regularly asked to reflect on assignments. During this reflection they
are asked to explain what they enjoyed, what challenged them, and what they might like to see
done differently in future assignments.
- Assessments Beyond their regular photography assignments, students are tested approximately
once per month on knowledge they should have learned in my class up until that point. While
some of the tested information is cumulative, other parts cover new knowledge. The theory with
using assessment data was that, as their motivation to succeed in my class increased, so would
their assessment scores.

Data Analysis and Interpretation

In reviewing the collected data, the following themes emerged.
Outside Factors Weighed on Student Motivation
In reading over the answers to the survey questions, students often cited their jobs, excessive homework
loads, and lack of a vehicle as their reasons for why they regularly did not have their weekly photo
assignments completed on time. Often, these students were enrolled in a number of Advanced
Placement classes, which resulted in multiple hours of homework each week, and most also stated that
they had part-time jobs that took up the majority of their time on weekends. Due to their time being
stretched so thin by these other commitments, they often could not find the time to complete
assignments, especially if those assignments required participation from other people (models).
Motivation Did Not Necessarily Coincide With Assessment Results
Some of the students that appeared to be highly motivated (appeared to be through their completion
and success with photography assignments, and their answers to survey questions) did surprisingly
poorly on their assessments. In questioning them about their seeming lack of understanding through
assessments, I learned that they did indeed understand the concepts being taught, but were otherwise
unfamiliar or uncomfortable with the use of the corresponding vocabulary. Unfortunately, this therefore
skewed the results of the assessments.
Most Students Felt Their Grades Were Fair Failing or Not
When asked in the surveys if students felt their average adequately represented the work they had done
in my class, approximately ninety-five percent said that, yes, they felt their grades were a good
reflection of their work. In the case of those students that were failing due to missing assignments, all
agreed that it was their own fault that their grade was low, and all admitted that their grades were fair.
Surprisingly, some of the more high-achieving students commented that they felt their grade was too
high for the quality of work being turned in.
Students Still Sought Extrinsic Motivation Tactics
When students were asked through surveys what I as their teacher could do to further encourage their
success in my class, many commented that they would like my class more if I offered weekly rewards
for work done or for good grades.

Action Plan
Based on the themes mentioned above, I plan to make the following changes to my action research in
the future:
- Increase the explicit importance of relevant vocabulary early in the course to help students
understanding of relevant concepts. By insisting students learn the jargon of the class early on,
 they will be more likely to use and understand it appropriately throughout class assessments,
therefore making the correlation of motivation and success on assessments more evident.
- Improve personal rapport, both personally with my students and from student-to-student, by
conducting more face-to-face interactions. Because the course is computer based, most
instruction is conducted through the online forum of Google Classroom. I will strive to conduct
more face-to-face instruction, personally speak to my students about their artwork more, and
conduct peer critiques in partners to build classroom relationships. I feel that because of the
isolation that is innately created in a computer based class, it is easy for some students to feel
distant and that makes it easier for them to care less about the course.

Final Thoughts
Although I did not have quite the results I had hoped for in my first round of research, I did see an
increase in student scores when comparing this year to past years results. Therefore, I do feel that my
methods have had an impact on my students as a whole, but I am still struggling to find ways to
motivate the few students that seem impervious to the methods I have employed.
In reflecting on my results and designing an action plan for future study, I do feel positive going
forward that I can continue to reach my students in better ways. I believe that the more personal
interaction will have a great improvement on my results, and the increased importance on vocabulary
will certainly help all students improve their assessment scores. While some students may always seek a
carrot to get them moving, I am hopeful that many of my students will see an increase in their
motivation towards my class as long as I continue using the methods that I spoke of previously.

References
Hendricks, C. (2013). Improving schools through action research: A reflective practice
approach (3rd ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.

Kusurkar, R. A., Croiset, G., & Ten Cate, T. J. (2011). Twelve tips to stimulate intrinsic
motivation in students through autonomy-supportive classroom teaching derived from Self-
Determination Theory. Medical Teacher, 33(12), 978-982. doi:10.3109/0142159X.2011.599896
Lei, S. A. (2010). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: evaluating benefits and drawbacks from
college instructors' perspectives. Journal Of Instructional Psychology, 37(2), 153-160.
Mills, G. E. (2014). Action research: A guide for the teacher researcher (5th ed.). New Jersey:
Merrill/Prentice Hall.