Post 383: Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation

Post 383: Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation East vs West

In Western culture, students learn because of intrinsic motivation that is they are motivated from within to want to learn a new subject. Students learn because it is something they really want to do. If students achieve high grades because they are truly interested in the subject.

In Eastern culture, students learn from extrinsic motivation. That is students learn or get good grades to please their parents.  This pleasing of the parents is part of the Confucian philosophy of respecting your elders. Confucianism is a vital part of Chinese culture.

In the West, parents want their child to be happy, to learn socialization skills so that the child can learn to get along with others, or have friendships with other children, have fun hobbies to do in their spare time. Learning should not be forced upon the child. Learning is made attractive and fun so that the child wants to learn from within--this is the intrinsic motivation aspect.

In the East, parents mold their children into what the parents want their child to be. Children are expected to obey their parents. Children get good grades, learn new skills, and study hard to please those parents. The goal is to learn a lot about math, reading and become the best in the class. Chinese children are not expected to have a lot of school friends or to learn to socialize.

Instead, Chinese parents want their children to get into Ivy League schools to become successful engineers, lawyers, or doctors. This takes a lot of studying. Therefore, extrinsic motivation lies in the Chinese student doing everything to please the parents, please the grandparents, please the teacher, please the school and abide by high society standards of education.

Should a Chinese student fail, then it brings shame upon the parents and upon the family name. If a child gets just a 99.999 then the Chinese parent says, "What happened to that .1%?" Nothing but perfection 100% is acceptable on every test in every subject.  Chinese/Asian students are put under tremendous pressure by their parents, by their teacher, by their school, and by society to succeed. Some Asian students who have failed, have committed suicide.

One could say that the entire Asian culture is based on extrinsic motivation--pleasing others while Western culture is based on intrinsic motivation--pleasing yourself to find your own path in life.  Asian parents have garnered the nickname 'Tiger Mom' based on a book by that name about Asian parenting.

Have you noticed in what ways your Asian students demonstrate extrinsic motivation in your classes?