incorrectly, the students enthusiasm and inner desire to learn can be incapacitated. This undermining occurs because extrinsic rewards create a dependency between the behavior and the reward. "The answer to this problem lies in the nature of rewards and communications which they contend have either one of two aspects: controlling or informational" (Deci and Ryan, 1981, p.8). Deci and Ryan define that the function of the controlling aspect is to bring about a certain behavioral result that is desired by the one who is giving the reward. The function of the informational aspect is to provide information to the recipient that is relevant to their performance. Even though every reward contains these two aspects, the conveyance of the reward determines its effects on intrinsic motivation.Applications In an experiment where two groups of subjects were paid prior to completing a task. One group was paid controllingly and the other was paid informationally. The group of subjects that were paid informationally were more intrinsically motivated to complete the task (Enzle, Ross, Rosenfield, Folger, and Adelman, 1980). This experiment supports the fact that informational reinforcement enhances intrinsic motivation. This idea can easily be applied to the classroom with use of both tangible and verbal rewards. "The important point from the studies mentioned is that the effect of rewards and communications on intrinsic motivation depends on whether they are interpreted by the recipients as being primarily informational or primarily controlling" (Deci and Ryan, 1981, p.10). This application is very important in schools because rewards and communications are essential parts of educational systems (Deci and Ryan, 1981). Concluding RecommendationsThe eclectic view of the concept of motivation to learn must then be acknowledged because even though it is ideal to be intrinsically motivated, to discard implementation of extrinsic forms of motivation or avo...
