The drive to engage and motivate students is a critical factor in their ability to learn and retain knowledge. Developing these for learners creates the conditions where they are giving their attention and want to learn.
Motivation comes in two forms: extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic is often related to a drive to finish, to achieve and obtain the rewards. It can also be driven by not so positive forces. Intrinsic on the other hand is all about pursuing learning for the interest, fulfilment, and even joy it can bring. I can still remember the moments in the classroom where my engagement turned to intrinsic motivation that has fueled a lifelong love of some subjects.
Students who are intrinsically motivated tend to develop higher engagement levels and achieve greater academic success. It can also lead to a deeper involvement with learning across the board. In reality, we have to achieve learning through combinations of engagement and motivation and sometimes through sheer effort of will.
Extrinsic motivation is by far the easiest to generate. The push to achieve grades, avoid failure (real or perceived) and the desire to achieve rewards are relatively simple to execute in the classroom. These are the mechanics of motivation, and they are important to drive learning. Test scores must be achieved, but what about the more subtle intrinsic motivation? How do we trigger personal interest and enthusiasm for the inherent pursuit of learning?
Some of the barriers to developing intrinsic motivation are:
- Overuse of extrinsic rewards: a sole reliance on rewards and grades can diminish the intrinsic value of learning.
- A lack of autonomy: students with little or no agency in how they learn or how they demonstrate their learning quickly become disengaged.
- An overcrowded curriculum: it’s hard to give space to developing intrinsic motivation when it counts.
- Engineering motivation: it takes planning and time to create the right conditions.
Curiosity
A great starting point is to create a moment that triggers a strong feeling of curiosity. Curiosity feeds motivation. The more curious, the more we need to engage and discover. One great way to do this is by using immersive content. Immersive content comes in all shapes and sizes, from full blown virtual reality, augmented reality, games based learning, to all the immersive content we have always loved such as books, films and music.
Curiosity Through Immersive Learning
Immersive content can provide a powerful, disruptive moment that makes students stop in their tracks, generating an intense level of curiosity and prompting full attention.
Immersive technologies like Sandbox AR provide an exciting opportunity to engage students on a deeper level. The app allows students to explore historical events, scientific scenarios, geographical environments, and their own created worlds in an interactive, virtual space. Once made, students can scale them up and inhabit them. This powerful sparking of curiosity works on so many levels. Students feel they are experiencing their created world in real life, and this fosters a strong connection with the underlying concept or topic. By making learning more tactile and engaging, students are drawn into the material and motivated to learn for the sake of discovery itself.
By integrating such innovative tools into the curriculum, educators can create meaningful connections between learning and the real world, fostering autonomy, curiosity, and a love of learning that lasts long after students leave the classroom.
AR experiences like those offered by Sandbox AR bridge the gap between abstract concepts and real-world understanding. These tools transform passive learning into active exploration, sparking curiosity and personal interest, the essential drivers of intrinsic motivation.
By integrating such innovative tools into the curriculum, educators can create meaningful connections between learning and the real world, fostering autonomy, curiosity, and a love of learning that lasts long after students leave the classroom.
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