The Positive Effects Extrinsic Motivation Can Have on Intrinsic Motivation in a Math Classroo

Faced with meeting the challenges that school districts have for the pass rates set before them by the state many schools have looked for new ways to engage their students and increase competency in the class. Intrinsically motivated students have always been shown to have a higher success rate compared to the students that do not possess this type of motivation. Likewise, it has also been shown that a rewards based system can increase motivation and competency but not always long term. The idea that extrinsic factors such as rewards reduce long-term motivation and autonomy was challenged in this study. Thus, the relationships that were focused on were those of the lower motivated students in a college algebra classroom compared to the mid-level and highly intrinsically motivated students. The participants of the study were from a North Texas University that has a diverse population of College Algebra students.;This study was performed and analyzed using a quantitative research design, where a paired t-test was used to analyze the overall effect of a reward based system on student's intrinsic motivation. To delve deeper into the effects of a rewards based system an ANCOVA was used to see if students at different levels of intrinsic motivation were effected differently than their counterparts. The results of this study were not in favor of rewards producing intrinsic motivation in students but future research is necessary due the financial, time and other limitations of this study.