According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP, 2003), each year public school classrooms produce millions of students that fail to read at a proficient level. The social change implications of low literacy are best expressed in a study by the National Institute for Literacy, which found that 70% of prisoners in American jails fall into the lowest two levels of reading proficiency, indicating a troubling correlation between low literacy and potential criminal behavior. As educators search for solutions to the address the lack of motivation in students who cannot read, computers were found to be a useful alternative for delivering instruction; however, there has been little research on the effectiveness of instructional software to provide motivation. The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential of intrinsic motivation as a key component for success when using instructional software in the learning process with at-risk students.

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Keywords: Intrinsic motivation, computers, reading proficiency, instructional software, at risk students, elementary school students, special needs learners, explicit instruction

Volume 1, 2006