The power of internal motivation

A new study carried out at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, shows that internal motivation is far more powerful than instrumental motivation. Internal motivation means wanting to do something for the sake of doing something, whereas instrumental motivation has to do with the material benefits you'll get, such as good grades or a high salary.

Here in Hong Kong, there's no shortage of instrumental motivation. I'm worried, though, about our lack of internal motivation.

Students here want to do well in their classes to get higher marks. These higher marks, in turn, increase their chances of gaining entrance into a prestigious university and securing that coveted, high-paying job.

Motivation through fear is also common in Hong Kong where children as young as two or three years old fear punishments from their parents if they fail their kindergarten admissions interviews.

What you don't see a lot of, however, is internal motivation. Among the interesting findings of the West Point study, one stands out: of the 11,320 cadets studied, those who had strong internal motivations and weak instrumental reasons for attending consistently outperformed those with strong internal and instrumental reasons.

If it's true that instrumental motivation actually hinders progress, then the ramifications are huge. In the education world, it means it's time to re-learn why we learn. We need to stop celebrating every time a child gets high marks or gets into a prestigious school.