In 2008, I found
myself reflecting on the concept of motivation in learning as I took on the
challenge of creating a 1 minute video to submit to Google as part of my GoogleTeachers Academy Application.
I started
to think back about those times in my classroom where students were immersed in
the flow of learning - times when I had
to kick them out to attend their next class; times when they came in after
school and on weekends to finish projects;
times when they asked to take classroom tools home so they could keep
working on their projects. What did those times have in common?
In his book, Drive, Dan Pink
identifies Autonomy, Mastery, and
Purpose as the keys to motivation.
Reflecting back on the project based learning environment I had
designed in my classroom, I’d say that Pink’s research is spot on.
According to Pink
- People want to be self directed
- People want to get better at stuff - they seek the challenge of mastery (especially if it accompanies making a contribution)
- People want to be parts of ‘teams’ or “organizations” with a purpose.
As educators our challenge is to create learning
environments that give our students the opportunity to latch on to a sense of
purpose, so they can seek the mastery of skills
necessary to contribute to that purpose and give them the autonomy to
contribute to that purpose in a way that honors their skills and passion. This is not an easy tasks. It takes a masterful educator who is
purposeful in his/her instructional design to achieve this. And there will be false starts; there will be
recalibration; there will be projects that plainly don’t come together. There is no easy recipe. But one reoccurring element that I found in
the most motivating learning designs was “authentic audience. Thus was born the inspiration for my one
minute video on motivation.
With so many examples of students being motivated by authentic audience, the tricky part was editing it down to one minute. I managed
to squeeze in examples of students
- blogging as part of Students 2.0
- creating podcast and newscast
- producing videos such as the 802 You Tube video that went viral and was featured in the New York Times
- composing music that was being mentored by professional composers as part of the Vermont Midi Project online community
Yet, despite the research and the increased availability of
tools and opportunities that the digital age culture provides us to learn with
an authentic audience, schools and organizations continue to design
motivational schemes based on carrots and sticks.
People don’t want to be treated like a horse. Get rid of carrots and sticks and bring on
autonomy, mastery, and purpose as you design a learning environment that yields
high performance in your students.
To learn more about Pink’s theories of motivation check out Vermont
principal, Larry Fliegelman’s blog post ‘19 Top Ideas for Education in ‘Drive’ or
RSA short video animation summarizing key concepts from Drive.
Think about experiences where you as a learner or your students' motivation lead to amazing
learning. Share what this experience looked
like. What elements contributed to the
motivation? When you think about these successful experiences, do you see Maslow, Herzberg, Vroom, Alfie Kohn, or Dan Pink’s theories at play?
