WARNING! This website is no longer actively maintained. It is an archive of 2 years work by Doug Belshaw who now blogs at dougbelshaw.com...
Three items in my RSS reader stood up in a row for me to see the links between them. The first is a 1993 New York Times article linked to by lifehack.org entitled For Best Results, Forget the Bonus. It talks about the need to develop intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivation - something we should be doing in schools. How do we do this? Through students engaging in their learning! Take ‘Now I see the teacher’s point of view’ in the EducationGuardian this week: students should be encouraged to reflect on their learning, behaviour and life in general. And if you manage to pull this off in your classroom, you should have no problem with students rating you on various websites (see Let students rate their teachers). 
Popularity: 2% [?]
Of course, this discussion hinges on whether you believe there really is such a thing as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. I’m not sure where I fall, but the more I learn about learning theory and the more I delve into theorists, the more I think this discussion holds no bearing, as there really is no such thing as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Not sure, but I think that’s the opinion that will solidify as the studies continue.
Thanks for an always fantastic blog, Doug.
Chris
Having coached for nearly 14 years, I do adhere to the notion of a range of motivations and motivational climates, but I digress. There is some interesting comment on the notion of motivation by Alan November in his pod casts.
@Chris: Could you point me to some reading on the ‘third’ way between intrinsic/extrinsic motivation please?
@Kristian: Likewise, have you a link to the podcast(s) by any chance?