The Effects of Accelerated Reader (AR) as an Extrinsic Motivation Tool for Improving Gifted Students’ Reading Levels

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of extrinsic motivation provided through an Accelerated Reading program (AR) on gifted students’ reading levels as indicated by a voluntary test. Fifty-six gifted students enrolled at two middle schools located in central Georgia participated in this study. Twenty of the students received extrinsic motivation through AR during this research. Thirty-four of them also read through the AR program, but without any additional extrinsic motivation. Their scores on the voluntary test indicate that the group who did not receive extrinsic motivation actually gained more between the pretest to the posttest than the group who did receive extrinsic motivation, even though both groups of students made some gains from the pretest to the posttest. One implication of this study is that intrinsic instead of extrinsic motivation may be more effective for gifted students. Another implication for future research is to compare the effects of intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation on improving reading across different groups of students including regular education, special education, and gifted students