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Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation Map

Run the Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation Map MicroSim fullscreen

About This MicroSim

Three columns, and the one that matters is the middle.

Intrinsic motivation comes from the activity: curiosity about how something works, pride in a robot that finally drives straight, the specific pleasure of fixing a bug that has resisted you for twenty minutes. This is the fuel that lasts, and it is the thing a club is really trying to produce.

Extrinsic motivation comes from an outside reward alone: a sticker for every card attempted, points for turning up, a prize for finishing first. These work — briefly — and they carry a real risk. When a reward is attached to something a student was already enjoying, the reward can replace the enjoyment rather than adding to it. Stop the stickers and the behaviour stops too, because you have quietly taught that the sticker was the point.

The middle column is the design target. A reward tied to real, demonstrated skill does not compete with intrinsic motivation, it names it. A badge called after the specific skill it proves. A certificate for a track genuinely completed. A sticker given after a student explains what they built, not for showing up.

The test is one question: would this reward mean anything to somebody who did not get it? "She earned the loops badge" carries information. "He got a sticker" does not.

The practical version for a club: reward what was demonstrated, not what was attended. Attendance points are the easiest system to run and the one most likely to hollow out the thing it was meant to encourage.

How to Use

  • Click each column for what belongs there and club examples.
  • Read the middle column carefully — every example there has the same shape: a reward attached to a specific, demonstrated thing.
  • Try Quiz Me to practise classifying a proposed motivator.
  • Then classify what your club already gives out. Anything landing in the right column is worth redesigning rather than removing.

Lesson Plan

Bloom level: Understand (L2) -- classify

Learning objective: Given a proposed club motivator, the learner classifies it as primarily intrinsic, primarily extrinsic, or a well-designed blend of the two.

Before (5 min). Ask what the club currently rewards. If any answer is "attendance", that is the worked example.

With the poster (10 min). Classify five real club practices. The disagreements are about the middle column, which is exactly the conversation worth having.

After (30 min). Take one purely extrinsic practice and redesign it into the middle column. Usually this means attaching it to a demonstration: not "you came", but "you showed me it working and explained how".

Check for understanding. Ask: "What's wrong with a sticker for every challenge card attempted?" It rewards attempting rather than achieving, so it says nothing about what a student can do — and it risks replacing the satisfaction of finishing the card with the satisfaction of collecting the sticker.

Embedding This MicroSim

Paste this into any page of the book, adjusting the relative path to docs/sims/ for the page's depth:

<iframe src="../../sims/intrinsic-vs-extrinsic-motivation-map/main.html" width="100%" height="726" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Specification

The full specification below is extracted from Chapter 26: Motivation, Badges, and Growth Mindset Coaching.

Type: infographic-overlay (grid)
**sim-id:** intrinsic-vs-extrinsic-motivation-map<br/>
**Library:** Interactive Infographic Overlay (grid-diagram.js, annotation-free comparison poster + rectangular hover zones)<br/>
**Status:** Specified

Purpose: Let a mentor classify a proposed motivator as intrinsic, extrinsic, or a blend of both, and see concrete club examples of each, reinforcing the overjustification-effect warning above with real cases where a badge supports rather than undercuts intrinsic drive.

Bloom Taxonomy: Understand (L2)
Bloom Taxonomy Verb: classify

Learning objective: Given a proposed club motivator, the learner classifies it as primarily intrinsic, primarily extrinsic, or a well-designed blend of the two.

Image style: Flat comparison poster, two vertical columns plus a narrower center column, each with a bold printed column header baked into the image ("Intrinsic Motivators," "Well-Designed Blend," "Extrinsic Motivators")

Image dimensions: 1200x800 (landscape)

Zones (3 columns, each with id, label, color, approximate x1/y1/x2/y2 percentage boundaries, one-line summary, and 3-5 bullet facts):
1. `intrinsic-column` -- color #4A90D9 -- boundaries approximately x1:2,y1:10,x2:32,y2:92 -- Summary: "Driven by the activity itself." Facts: curiosity about how something works; pride in a working robot; the pleasure of finally fixing a stubborn bug; enjoyment of building alongside a friend
2. `blend-column` -- color #7ED6A5 -- boundaries approximately x1:35,y1:10,x2:65,y2:92 -- Summary: "External rewards tied to real, demonstrated skill." Facts: a badge named after the specific skill it proves; a certificate marking a track genuinely completed; a sticker given after a student explains what they built, not just for showing up
3. `extrinsic-column` -- color #F5A623 -- boundaries approximately x1:68,y1:10,x2:98,y2:92 -- Summary: "Driven by an outside reward alone." Facts: a sticker for every card attempted regardless of outcome; points awarded purely for attendance; a prize tied to finishing first rather than finishing well; risk of the overjustification effect when overused on already-loved tasks

showLabels: false (column titles are printed in the generated image)

Interactive features: Click or hover any column to highlight its zone and reveal its full fact list in a detail panel; a "Sort the Motivator" quiz mode presents a new example motivator and asks the learner to click the correct column before revealing the right answer

Implementation: Interactive Infographic Overlay Guide (grid engine) -- `grid-diagram.js` + `grid-overlay.css` render the three rectangular hover zones over the generated poster image; `data.json` holds the 3 zones plus a bank of quiz-mode example motivators per the overlay-grid-data-json-schema

References