On the Intrinsic Motivation for Young Students to Learn

A question came up earlier this year in a meeting that, on the surface, seemed like a fairly easy one to answer: Do elementary-age students have the intrinsic motivation to learn? And, as most answers to these types of questions go, they were varied and diverse. But, like most questions related to education and psychology, the answer, in my opinion, was more complicated than initially thought.

I was curious about our use of the word "learn". Dictionary.com says that it is "to acquire knowledge of or skill in by study, instruction, or experience."

So, one answer might be that the typical, say, 4th grader does not have an intrinsic desire to learn by reading a book or receiving instruction on a given academic subject. Sure, most kids don't have the motivation to learn that way. (Well, unless they are reading the instructional booklet that came with the coolest and newest Lego set on the market.)

But, that answer is assuming that learning occurs only through instruction or study (and by study, we might automatically assume this means to read). And, I don't think of the average elementary-age child as learning that way.

But, let's go back to the question: Do elementary-age children have the intrinsic motivation to learn. And my answer is a definite yes...with some further refinement of the word "learn."

If you put a child in a room with a chair, a desk, and some toy blocks, the typical child will choose to explore the blocks. If left the freedom to choose, he will build structures with the blocks or stack them, or create something with them.

If you put a child in a room with a chair, a desk, and play-doh, the typical child will explore the play-doh; feeling it, manipulating it, building with it.

Now, this seems like "well duh" educational psychology at its best. But, it answers the question. Yes, children have an intrinsic motivation to learn if we define "learn" as explore, create, or manipulate and not "study through reading or instruction". The average child has a strong desire to learn. That is, in fact, what a child is designed to do. Children are designed with an intrinsic desire to understand and manipulate their surroundings. It is how they will be molded into competent and intelligent adults within a society.

So, our charge as elementary teachers is to think of learning as something done beyond the desk and chair. Learning is something children do naturally through exploration, creation, and manipulation.