Calvin's Motivation

We can see in the above cartoon, and all of the Calvin cartoons that portray him outside of school, that Calvin does have well-developed individual interests outside of the classroom. In this example, we see that Calvin is extremely excited about one of his favorite topics: dinosaurs. We can tell that Calvin has well-developed individual interest outside the classroom because he has taken control of his own interest (in this case being dinousars) and actively researches, studies, and pursues more knowledge of this interest on his own time. It is clear that Calvin is intrinsically motivated when it comes to his well-developed individual interests outside of the classroom.

Calvin has less interest inside the school. As you can see from above he has so much interest outside the school but inside the school his teacher is not triggering his situational interest. The topics that Mrs. Wormwood is teaching are not hitting on the individual interests that Calvin does have. If Calvin's interests are not talked about in class then it is hard for him to care or want to care. For example as seen above Calvin is interested in dinosaurs. Saying that Mrs. Wormwood could do a lesson and connect that lesson to dinosaurs. Maybe have a reading that the students have to do that talks about life as a dinosaur or even the science behind a dinosaurs body or habitat. Calvin also finds it hard to find interest in activities that have no connection to the real world or activities that he feels will not help him in life.