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Dr. Jill Blanchard is Senior Vice President of Operations in Ohio, where she leads New Story Schools and Applied Behavioral Services.  

We have many tasks assigned to us as educators. We know it is our role to move our students academically and promote social skills to help them achieve success later in life. In addition to these things, educators must also task themselves with the job of moving our students from being extrinsically motivated to becoming intrinsically motivated young people. 

Most students come to us as young children who need outside praise or tangible rewards in order to be encouraged to do the right thing. Our goal is that by the time they leave us at graduation, they have transitioned to a deeper level of motivation in which they want to do well because of an inner-drive and belief in themselves.   

“I survived because the fire inside me burned brighter than the fire around me.” -Joshua Graham     

Educators can foster this transition in a number of ways: 

• Create a student-centered classroom.  
• Promote mastery goals rather than performance goals. 
• Encourage students’ actions, not their character or person. 
• Provide learning goals and have students take part in forming them. 
• Have high, but realistic expectations. 

Helpful Resources:                                                     

Intrinsic Motivation: https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/27-ways-promote-intrinsic-motivation-classroom

Increasing Motivation: https://education.gov.gy/web/index.php/teachers/tips-for-teaching/item/1899-how-to-promote-intrinsic-motivation-in-the-classroom

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