Centre for Intrinsic Motivation

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What is INTRINSIC MOTIVATION?

Intrinsic motivation is a natural drive, a spontaneous curiosity and interest that pushes us to learn, grow, and take on challenges without needing external rewards or pressure.

Its like, 

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We believe lasting change in education comes from within when teachers feel trusted, supported, and connected to their purpose. That’s why our work is about building the conditions where motivation thrives,  More than forty years of research shows that intrinsic motivation leads to better learning, higher performance, creativity, and overall well-being.

At the Centre for Intrinsic Motivation, we’ve seen how this powerful force can help solve many challenges in India’s education system. By fostering strong role models and building trust at every level, teachers and education officials become motivated from within — supporting children to learn and thrive.

Our Philosophy

The most critical problem in education isn’t a lack of resources, but a quiet crisis of lack of motivation and burnout. This crisis undermines all other educational efforts, so we built our entire model around a single, powerful truth: a teacher’s intrinsic motivation is the most valuable asset in any classroom.

The Centre for Intrinsic Motivation (CIM) builds habits that help teachers stay motivated not for a month, not for a workshop cycle, but for the long run. We do this by designing systems that support reflection, community, and ownership.

The philosophy of Intrinsic motivation stands on three key pillars:

Autonomy

The desire to direct our own lives.

mastery

The desire to continually improve.

Purpose

The desire to do something that matters.

We don’t stop there. We integrate this with a proven framework for Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) to enhance self-awareness, self-management, and relationship skills. The synergy between these two—intrinsic motivation and SEL—is the powerful engine that drives real change. It’s the core of what we do, and it’s the reason our solutions work.

Meet the team behind our intervention >