Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T19:11:27.246Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

14 - Intrinsic Motivation and Creativity in the Classroom: Have We Come Full Circle?

from PART II - VOICES FROM THE RESEARCH

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2016

By
Beth A. Hennessey
Edited by
Ronald A. Beghetto  and
James C. Kaufman
Beth A. Hennessey
Affiliation:
Wellesley College
Ronald A. Beghetto
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut
James C. Kaufman
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut
Get access

Summary

As I organized my ideas in preparation for the writing of the original version of this chapter, I came to realize that my thinking and my research efforts had almost come full circle. Now, half a decade later, that circle is closer than ever before to becoming closed. Almost 35 years ago, I moved to Denver, Colorado, to begin my career as a fledgling teacher. My experiences in my mixed-age classroom filled with five-, six-, and seven-year-olds kindled within me a deep interest in motivation and creativity of performance. My concerns about what our educational system was not doing to promote student growth in these areas became so great that I eventually left my elementary classroom to return to school myself. I was convinced that it was the field of psychology, and more specifically the study of the social psychology of creativity, that could best provide the answers I was looking for. As a graduate student and later as a professor of psychology, I have been almost single-minded in my attempts to answer empirically the question of how best to structure classrooms so that they are most conducive to student motivation and creativity. Over the past 40 years, researchers in this area have contributed literally hundreds of investigations to the psychological and educational psychology literatures; for my own part, in the last few years, I have even been bold enough to end a few chapters or monographs with a “laundry list” of what teachers and school administrators should and should not do if student intrinsic motivation and creativity are the goal.

Our research has lead to the establishment of a number of models of the intersection between intrinsic motivation and creativity of performance (Amabile, 1996; Hennessey, 2003; Hennessey & Amabile, 1988), rubrics that are now widely accepted by investigators in the areas of social psychology and related specialties. The so-called Intrinsic Motivation Principle of Creativity (Amabile 1996; Hennessey, 2003) on which much of our work is based has even been the subject of heated professional debate (Eisenberger, 2003; Eisenberger, Armeli, & Pretz, 1998; Eisenberger & Cameron, 1996, 1998; Eisenberger, Pierce, & Cameron, 1999; Hennessey & Amabile, 1998). While initially disconcerting, I have come to see this argument as the sincerest form of flattery, as only established theories garner sufficient criticism and ire to be considered controversial.

Type
Chapter
Information
Nurturing Creativity in the Classroom , pp. 227 - 264
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alexander, P. A., Kulikowich, J. M., & Jetton, T. L. (1994). The role of subject matter knowledge and interest in the processing of linear and non-linear texts. Review of Educational Research, 64, 201–252.Google Scholar
Alexander, P. A., & Murphy, P. K. (1994, April). The research base for APA's learner-centered principles. Presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA.
Amabile, T. M. (1982a). Children's artistic creativity: Detrimental effects of competition in a field setting. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 8, 573–578.Google Scholar
Amabile, T. M. (1982b). Social psychology of creativity: A consensual assessment technique. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43, 997–1013.Google Scholar
Amabile, T. M. (1983). The social psychology of creativity. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Amabile, T. M. (1996). Creativity in context. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Amabile, T. M. (1997). Motivating creativity in organizations: On doing what you love and loving what you do. California Management Review, 40, 39–58.Google Scholar
Amabile, T. M., Goldfarb, P., & Brackfield, S. C. (1990). Social influences on creativity: Evaluation, coaction and surveillance. Creativity Research Journal, 3, 6–21.Google Scholar
Amabile, T. M., Hennessey, B. A., & Grossman, B. (1986). Social influences on creativity: The effects of contracted-for reward. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 14–23.Google Scholar
Amabile, T. M., Phillips, E. D., & Collins, M. A. (1994). Creativity by contract: Social influences on the creativity of professional artists. Unpublished manuscript, Brandeis University.
Anderman, E. M., & Maehr, M. L. (1994). Motivation and schooling in the middle grades. Review of Educational Research, 64, 287–309.Google Scholar
Barron, F. (1968). Creativity and personal freedom. New York: Van Nostrand.
Bem, D. (1972). Self-perception theory. In Berkowitz, L. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 6, pp. 1–62). New York: Academic Press.
Brophy, J. (1999). Toward a model of the value aspects of motivation in education: Developing appreciation for particular learning domains and activities. Educational Psychologist, 34, 75–85.Google Scholar
Cameron, J., & Pierce, W. D. (1994). Reinforcement, reward, and intrinsic motivation: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 64, 363–423.Google Scholar
Campbell, D. (1960). Blind variation and selective retention in creative thought as in other knowledge processes. Psychological Review, 67, 380–400.Google Scholar
Chen, J.-O., & Gardner, H. (2005). Assessment based on Multiple-Intelligences Theory. In Flanagan, D. P. & Harrison, P. L. (Eds.), Contemporary intellectual assessment: Theories, tests, and issues (pp. 77–102). New York: Guilford.
Collins, A. M., & Loftus, E. F. (1975). A spreading-activation theory of semantic processing. Psychological Review, 82, 407–428.Google Scholar
Condry, J., & Chambers, J. (1978). Intrinsic motivation and the process of learning. In Lepper, M. R. & Greene, D. (Eds.), The hidden costs of reward (pp. 61–84). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Conti, R., Amabile, T. M., & Pollak, S. (1995). The positive impact of creative activity: Effects of creative task engagement and motivational focus on college students’ learning. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 1107–1116.Google Scholar
Cordova, D. L., & Lepper, M. R. (1996). Intrinsic motivation and the process of learning: Beneficial effects of contextualization, personalization and choice. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88, 715–730.Google Scholar
Crutchfield, R. (1962). Conformity and creative thinking. In Gruber, H., Terrell, G., & Wertheimer, M. (Eds.), Contemporary approaches to creative thinking (pp. 120–140). New York: Atherton Press.
Csikszenthihalyi, M. (1990). The domain of creativity. In Runco, M. & Robert, A. S. (Eds.), Theories of creativity (pp. 190–212). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1993). Flow. New York: Harper Collins.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1997). Creativity: Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention. New York: HarperCollins.
Dansky, J., & Silverman, I. (1975). Play: A general facilitator of fluency. Developmental Psychology, 11, 104.Google Scholar
deCharms, R. (1968). Personal causation. New York: Academic Press.
Deci, E. L. (1971). Effects of externally mediated rewards on intrinsic motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 18, 105–115.Google Scholar
Deci, E. L. (1972). The effects of contingent and noncontingent rewards and controls on intrinsic motivation. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 8, 217–229.Google Scholar
Deci, E. L. (1992). The relation of interest to the motivation of behavior: A self-determination theory perspective. In Renninger, K. A., Hidi, S., & Krapp, A. (Eds.), The role of interest in learning and development (pp. 43–70). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985a). The general causality orientations scale: Self-determination in personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 19, 109–134.Google Scholar
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985b). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York: Plenum.
Dewey, J. (1913). Interest and effort in education. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Duckworth, E. (1996). “The having of wonderful ideas” and other essays on teaching and learning. New York: Teachers College Press.
Eisenberger, R. (1996). Reward, intrinsic interest and creativity: New findings. American Psychologist, 53, 676–679.Google Scholar
Eisenberger, R. (2003). Rewards, intrinsic motivation and creativity: A case study of conceptual and methodological isolation. Creativity Research Journal, 15, 121–130.Google Scholar
Eisenberger, R., Armeli, S., & Pretz, J. (1998). Can the promise of reward increase creativity? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 704–714.Google Scholar
Eisenberger, R., & Cameron, J. (1996). Detrimental effects of reward: Reality or myth? American Psychologist, 51, 1153–1166.Google Scholar
Eisenberger, R., & Cameron, J. (1998). Reward, intrinsic interest, and creativity: New findings. American Psychologist, 53, 676–679.Google Scholar
Eisenberger, R., Pierce, W. D., & Cameron, J. (1999). Effects of reward on intrinsic motivation – Negative, neutral, and positive: Comment on Deci, Koestner, and Ryan. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 677–691.Google Scholar
Fazio, R. H. (1981). On the self-perception explanation of the overjustification effect: The role of salience of initial attitude. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 17, 417–426.Google Scholar
Fischer, K. W., & Immordino-Yang, M. H. (2008). The fundamental importance of the brain and learning for education. In The Jossey-Bass reader on the brain and learning (pp. xvii–xi). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Flink, C., Boggiano, A. K., & Main, D. S. (1992). Children's achievement-related behaviors: The role of extrinsic and intrinsic motivational orientations. In Boggiano, A. K., & Pittman, T. S. (Eds.), Achievement and motivation: A social-developmental perspective (pp. 189–214). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Garbarino, J. (1975). The impact of anticipated reward upon cross-age tutoring. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32, 421–428.Google Scholar
Gardner, H. (1989). To open minds: Chinese clues to the dilemma of contemporary education. New York: Basic Books.
Gardner, H. (1991). The unschooled mind: How children think and how schools should teach. New York: Basic Books.
Gardner, H. (1993 [1983]). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books.
Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence reframed: Multiple intelligences for the 21st century. New York: Basic Books.
Gerrard, L. E., Poteat, G. M., & Ironsmith, M. (1996). Promoting children's creativity: Effects of competition, self-esteem, and immunization. Creativity Research Journal, 9, 339–346.Google Scholar
Gottfried, A. E. (1985). Academic intrinsic motivation in elementary and junior high school children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 77, 631–645.Google Scholar
Gottfried, A. E. (1990). Academic intrinsic motivation in young elementary children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82, 525–538.Google Scholar
Greene, D., & Lepper, M. R. (1974). Intrinsic motivation: How to turn play into work. Psychology Today, 8, 49–54.Google Scholar
Guthrie, J. T., Wigfield, A., Metsala, J. L., & Cox, K. E. (1999). Motivational and cognitive predictors of text comprehension and reading amount. Scientific Studies of Reading, 3, 231–256.Google Scholar
Hanna, J. (2005). Mind, brain, & education: Linking biology, neuroscience, & educational practice. Harvard Graduate School of Education News (June 1). Retrieved May 12, 2008 from www.gse.harvard.edunewsfeaturesmbe06012005.html.Google Scholar
Harackiewic, J. M., Abrahams, S., & Wageman, R. (1987). Performance evaluation and intrinsic motivation: The effects of evaluative focus, rewards, and achievement orientation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 1015–1023.Google Scholar
Harter, S. (1978). Effectance motivation reconsidered: Toward a developmental model. Human Development, 1, 34–64.Google Scholar
Harter, S. (1981). A new self-report scale of intrinsic versus extrinsic orientation in the classroom: Motivational and informational components. Developmental Psychology, 17, 300–312.Google Scholar
Harter, S., & Jackson, B. K. (1992). Trait vs. nontrait conceptualizations of intrinsic-extrinsic motivational orientation. Motivation and Emotion, 16, 209–230.Google Scholar
Hennessey, B. A. (2000). Rewards and creativity. In Sansone, C. & Harackiewicz, J. (Eds.), Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: The search for optimal motivation and performance (pp. 55–78). New York: Academic Press.
Hennessey, B. A. (2002). The social psychology of creativity in the schools. Research in the Schools, 9, 23–33.Google Scholar
Hennessey, B. A. (2003). The social psychology of creativity. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Psychology, 47, 253–271.Google Scholar
Hennessey, B. A. (2004). Developing creativity in gifted children: The central importance of motivation and classroom climate (RM04202). The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented Senior Scholar Series. Storrs, CT: NRCGT, University of Connecticut.
Hennessey, B. A., & Amabile, T. M. (1988). The conditions of creativity. In Sternberg, R. (Ed.), The nature of creativity (pp. 11–38). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hennessey, B. A., & Amabile, T. M. (1998). Reward, intrinsic motivation, and creativity. American Psychologist, 53, 674–675.Google Scholar
Hennessey, B. A., & Amabile, T. M. (1999). Consensual assessment. In Runco, M. & Pritzker, S. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of creativity (pp. 347–359). New York: Academic Press.
Hennessey, B. A., Amabile, T. M., & Martinage, M. (1989). Immunizing children against the negative effects of reward. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 14, 212–227.Google Scholar
Hennessey, B. A., Amabile, T. M., & Mueller, J. S. (2011). Consensual assessment. In Runco, M. A. & Pritzker, S. R. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of creativity (2nd ed., Vol. 1, pp. 253–260). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Hennessey, B. A., & Zbikowski, S. M. (1993). Immunizing children against the negative effects of reward: A further examination of intrinsic motivation training techniques. Creativity Research Journal, 6, 297–307.Google Scholar
Hidi, S. (1990). Interest and its contribution as a mental resource for learning. Review of Educational Research, 60, 549–571.Google Scholar
Jussim, L., Soffin, S., & Brown, R. (1992). Understanding reactions to feedback by integrating ideas from symbolic interactionism and cognitive evaluation theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 402–421.Google Scholar
Kelley, H. (1967). Attribution theory in social psychology. In Levine, D. (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation, Vol. 15. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Kelley, H. (1973). The processes of causal attribution. American Psychologist, 28, 107–128.Google Scholar
Kernoodle-Loveland, K., & Olley, J. G. (1979). The effect of external reward on interest and quality of task performance in children of high and low intrinsic motivation. Child Development, 50, 1207–1210.Google Scholar
Knoestner, M. (2012). Democratic education in practice: Inside the Mission Hill School. New York: Teachers College Press.
Kornhaber, M. L., & Gardner, H. (2006). Multiple intelligences: Developments in implementation and theory. In Constas, M. A. & Sternberg, R. J. (Eds.), Translating theory and research into educational practice: Developments in content domains, large-scale reform, and intellectual capacity (pp. 255–276). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Kruglanski, A. W., Friedman, I., & Zeevi, G. (1971). The effects of extrinsic incentive on some qualitative aspects of task performance. Journal of Personality, 39, 606–617.Google Scholar
Lepper, M. R., & Cordova, D. I. (1992). A desire to be taught: Instructional consequences of intrinsic motivation. Motivation and Emotion, 16, 187–208.Google Scholar
Lepper, M. R., Greene, D., & Nisbett, R. E. (1973). Undermining children's intrinsic interest with extrinsic rewards: A test of the overjustification hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 28, 129–137.Google Scholar
Lepper, M. R., Sethi, S., Dialdin, D., & Drake, M. (1997). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: A developmental perspective. In Luthar, S. S., Burack, J., Cicchetti, D., & Weisz, J. R. (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology: Perspectives on adjustment, risk and disorder (pp. 23–50). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Lieberman, J. N. (1965). Playfulness and divergent thinking: An investigation of their relationship at the kindergarten level. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 107, 219–224.Google Scholar
Maehr, M. L., & Meyer, H. A. (1997). Understanding motivation and schooling: Where we've been, where we are, and where we need to go. Educational Psychology Review, 9, 371–409.Google Scholar
Malone, T. W. (1981). Toward a theory of intrinsically motivating instruction. Cognitive Science, 4, 333–369.Google Scholar
Malone, T. W., & Lepper, M. R. (1987). Making learning fun: A taxonomy of intrinsic motivations for learning. In Snow, R. E. & Farr, M. J. (Eds.), Aptitude, learning and instruction: III. Cognitive and affective process analyses (pp. 223–253). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Marks, H. M. (2000). Student engagement in instructional activity: Patterns in the elementary, middle and high school years. American Educational Research Journal, 37, 153–184.Google Scholar
McDaniel, M. A., Finstad, K., Waddill, P. J., & Bourg, T. (2000). The effects of text-based interest on attention and recall. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92, 492–502.Google Scholar
McGraw, K. O. (1978). The detrimental effects of reward on performance: A literature review and a prediction model. In Lepper, M. & Greene, D. (Eds.), The hidden costs of reward (pp. 33–60). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
McGraw, K. O., & McCullers, J. (1979). Evidence of a detrimental effect of extrinsic incentives on breaking a mental set. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 15, 285–294.Google Scholar
Meier, D. (1995). The power of their ideas: Lessons for America from a small school in Harlem. Boston: Beacon Press.
Meier, D. (2002). In schools we trust: Creating communities of learning in an era of testing and standardization. Boston: Beacon Press.
Mitchell, M. (1993). Situational interest: Its multifaceted structure in the secondary school mathematics classroom. Journal of Educational Psychology, 85, 424–436.Google Scholar
Nolen, S. B. (1988). Reasons for studying: Motivational orientations and study strategies. Cognition and Instruction, 5, 269–287.Google Scholar
Pintrich, P. R., Roeser, R., & de Groot, E. (1994). Classroom and individual differences in early adolescents’ motivation and self-regulated learning. Journal of Early Adolescence, 14, 139–161.Google Scholar
Pittman, T. S., Emery, J., & Boggiano, A. K. (1982). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientations: Reward-induced changes in preference for complexity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 789–797.Google Scholar
Posner, M., & Rothbart, M. K. (2006). Educating the human brain. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Renninger, K. A., Hidi, S., & Krapp, A. (1992). The role of interest in learning and development. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000a). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American-Psychologist, 55, 68–78.Google Scholar
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000b). When rewards compete with nature: The undermining of intrinsic motivation and self-regulation. In Sansone, C. & Harackiewicz, J. M. (Eds), Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: The search for optimal motivation and performance (pp. 13–54). San Diego, CA: Academic.
Sarason, S. (1971, revised 1996). Revisiting “The Culture of School and the Problem of Change.” New York: Teachers College Press.
Sarason, S. (1996). Power relationships in the classroom. In Fried, R. L. (Ed.), The skeptical visionary: A Seymour Sarason education reader (pp. 46–57). Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Schank, R. C. (1979). Interestingness: Controlling inferences. Artificial Intelligence, 12, 273–297.Google Scholar
Shapira, Z. (1976). Expectancy determinants of intrinsically motivated behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34, 1235–1244.Google Scholar
Shernoff, D. J., Csikszentmihalyi, M., Schneider, B., & Shernoff, E. S. (2003). Student engagement in high school classrooms from the perspective of flow theory. School Psychology Quarterly, 18, 158–176.Google Scholar
Shernoff, D. J., & Hoogstra, L. (2001). Continuing motivation beyond the high school classroom. New Directions in Child and Adolescent Development, 93, 73–87.Google Scholar
Shernoff, D. J., Knauth, S., & Makris, E. (2000). The quality of classroom experiences. In Csikszentmihalyi, M. & Schneider, B. (Eds.), Becoming adult (pp. 122–145). New York: Basic Books.
Shernoff, D. J., Schneider, B., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2001). Assessing multiple influences on student engagement in high school classrooms. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Seattle, WA.
Silberman, C. E. (Ed.). (1973). The open classroom reader. New York: Vintage.
Simon, H. A. (1967). Motivational and emotional controls of cognition. Psychological Review, 74, 29–39.Google Scholar
Stein, M. I. (1974). Stimulating creativity (Vols. 1 and 2). New York: Academic Press.
Stipek, D. J. (1996). Motivation and instruction. In Berliner, D. C. & Calfee, R. (Eds.), Handbook of educational psychology (pp. 85–113). New York: Simon & Schuster Macmillan.
Thomas, S., & Oldfather, P. (1997). Intrinsic motivations, literacy, and assessment practices: “That's my grade. That's me.” Educational Psychologist, 32, 107–123.Google Scholar
Tobias, S. (1994). Interest, prior knowledge and learning. Review of Educational Research, 64, 37–54.Google Scholar
Torrance, E. P. (1974). Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. Bensenville, IL: Scholastic Testing Service.
Vollmeyer, R., & Rheinberg, F. (2000). Does motivation affect performance via persistence? Learning and Instruction, 10, 293–309.Google Scholar
Yair, G. (2000). Educational battlefields in America: The tug-of-war over students’ engagement with instruction. Sociology of Education, 73, 247–269.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×