Learn & Earn 2 (Secondary): Week 3: Motivation Exploration

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Week 3: Motivation Exploration

Here's a great short interview I stumbled upon on NPR last year while driving to work. In it, Daniel Pink (author of A Whole New Mind, as well as other books) discusses motivation and what he learned while writing Drive, a book about, of course, motivation.

Before you can tackle this week's assignment, you'll have to listen to the 4-minute interview.

This week you have two options for your "assignment." Choose whichever one suits you. (NOTE: You may think that this week's post isn't really about a new technology tool, but you'd be wrong! :) NPR and our very easy access to the wealth of material there is a wonderful way to bring outside voices into your classroom. When you get a chance, do some exploring.)

Option A
Play the interview for your students and conduct a discussion around a question like this, "It seems like Daniel Pink is suggesting that providing external motivation like pay (or, perhaps points/grades) decreases rather than increases motivation. Do you think this is true in school? Do points motivate or de-motivate you? What would happen if I didn't give you points?"

Report back here some of the insights students share.

Option B
Reflect on Pink's ideas in relation to the way you motivate students in your classroom. What issues does he raise for you?

Comments (27)

Logging you in...

Dashboard | Edit profile | Logout

Logged in as

0 Vote up Vote down

Ethan Smith · 752 weeks ago

There have been several points along the way during my career that felt like epiphanies. I decided to try a new grading scheme where I didn't grade any work other than formal assessments. The result (which wouldn't have been surprising to Mr. Pink) was ultimately that students became more sophisticated over time at being self-directed learners. They learned to make good choices about what assignements to do and to let me know when what I was offering them wasn't going to support their learning. I was grading fewer papers than at any other time during my career and yet I knew more about what my students could and could not do than I every had before. I think it would be a beautiful thing if our learning communities all across our system did a book study together on this book.

2 replies · active 749 weeks ago

0 Vote up Vote down

Melissa C. · 752 weeks ago

I think his ideas are quite interesting - especially since most kids seem to operate under the "How can I get the most points?" system. Reading Ethan's post, I am curious how you went about implementing this policy of only grading formal assessments - Was the district in support of this? What happened to the kid who struggled in an assessment environment (as alot of kids do)? I love the idea...would love to hear more about the implementation!

In terms of motivating students in the classroom without points, I am honestly a little stuck. Sometimes there are concepts that are intriguing to students and the desire to learn can be motivation enough; however, in my subject, when we deal with topics that are dryer and less exciting to cover, I wonder how we can motivate kids to do the work beyond a point system. Still trying to wrap my brain around it all... :)

8 replies · active 749 weeks ago

0 Vote up Vote down

Kelly Kim · 752 weeks ago

I chose option A for this weeks assignment. I played the recording for my junior special education language arts class. I am not 100% sure that the class was able to completely follow all that Pink spoke of as they didn't always understand some of the vocabulary that he used. After discussing it together most of my students said that points on assignments and money from parents as a reward for good grades is a huge motivator for them. They said that they are not really motivated internally. Remember that these kids have pretty low reading and writing skills and are ultimately at-risk kids so I am not sure that they are a good sample group to pull from. I am not sure that Ethan's experience above would work well with these guys but it's cool to see that it worked with his group of students. :)

5 replies · active 749 weeks ago

0 Vote up Vote down

lshanin · 752 weeks ago

I find that when "things are fun and interesting", it really can be a motivator in some subjects, especially the art classes that I teach. Kids want to do art because it is fun, and they love being creative. I don't see this working quite as well in a subject that is "hard" for the student. The examples that Daniel Pink mentioned were adults who were capable of doing their jobs easily, they were simply allowed to be creative and use their own brains, not a written dialog. No one wants to feel like a puppet. For a student who is learning a difficult concept and has to work hard just to understand, that I feel is a different matter and much more complex. The motivations for learning are extremely varied. I love the subject of motivation and find it fascinating, I have written his name and book titles down. I will read his books (because I find the subject interesting, probably not because I am getting points). :)

2 replies · active 749 weeks ago

0 Vote up Vote down

Laura Bennett · 752 weeks ago

I don't know if I fully agree with the idea that external motivation decreases motivation. I think if you have a person who is naturally motiviated to do well, the addition of something like points as external motivation often seems to only motivate them more. At least, that is the way that we have raised our children to think. I don't assign points to all of my assignments, but the students don't necessarily know that, because there are students who will blow an assignment off if it '"doesn't count." Our society places value on doing something to get something and I think it would be really difficult to change that mentality in the classroom. That being said, I think it is a great idea, the concept of students being motiviated simply to learn, not to earn an A.

0 Vote up Vote down

Hilary Hall · 751 weeks ago

I know I'm a little late, but I've often wondered about how I use my grading system and what it provides students, and how it benefits or may hurt them. I think that the whole idea of education is that there is external motivation (in a way)- you need to learn the skills for future jobs. I think that points are often a way to measure how well students have mastered those skills. I have seen a direct correlation in my classes with the students who do the homework (often those that strive for getting extra points, doing extra credit, etc.) and those who are better with French and absorb more of the cultural aspects. I don't know what would happen if I got rid of as many external motivations as I could- and I might pose this question to my students.

0 Vote up Vote down

Rhonda Ham · 751 weeks ago

The discussion about external vs. internal motivation is fascinating. I have found in my experience that what motivates one person does not motivate another. I have found this to be true whether it is a student or an adult. When in the classroom I had times that a grade was not the motivator for the studnets and there were times when I found they did motivate students. I do think it is a subject worth reading more about.

2 replies · active 749 weeks ago

0 Vote up Vote down

Patty Stillmaker · 751 weeks ago

I think it was an interesting interview. I am also trying to wrap my head around the concept and how it would work in the classroom. Students at the middle school level are looking for confirmation of their abilities and so outside motivation works well for them. If they were given this freedom to shine would they and what would it look like? I'll need to think about how and when to implement this into my teaching. I think one way would be to give more choices for students to present their knowledge during projects. Thanks for putting this idea in front of us. Interesting.

Learn & Earn 2 (Secondary)

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Week 3: Motivation Exploration

Forgot password?

Comments (27)

Post a new comment