For the project, as I describe in the video, I proposed a qualitative study using a combination of interviews and practitioner research to look at the relationship between grades and motivation in high-achieving 11th- and 12th-grade students.
External rewards diminish intrinsic motivation for a task; this is a robust finding in the psychology literature. However, since grades are an external reward, does this also mean that the presence of grades diminishes intrinsic motivation for learning? Causality would be incredibly difficult to determine with the myriad factors that could affect motivation, but I proposed to explore the relationship between grades and motivation with students who were on the cusp of completing their K-12 careers.
(My original intent had been to continue into the Ed.D. program and pursue this research as my dissertation. However, life threw me a curveball, and a move to California changed my plans.)