Thanks to Derek for this one.

As I sat in a class this morning watching students labour over a task that only a few seemed genuinely engaged in, the teacher and I discussed what their motivation was for the task. Essentially the only reason they were doing anything in this lesson was to get the grade. Now I can’t say we can avoid this all the time and my other reason for being interested in this in the first place is because Rylee has just hit two and boy can she throw a tantrum at toothbrushing time. So what is needed how can we as teachers/parents avoid the trap of rewards? The site references Alfie Kohn who seems to have quite the library of texts on the subject I will try and find one in the library and see what I can learn.

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation – P2P Foundation