The impact of autonomy on workers was what really set me off and inspired me to try letting my students become self directed learners. I wrote about that in an earlier blog. It works but I need more practice as do they. One thing that I see that is really affected by letting them run the class themselves is the engagement of the students. They are all paying attention, all the time. We have to have our students want to learn before they can learn. Autonomy and motivation are vital to that. On page 122 Carol Dweck is quoted as saying, in part, “After all, their goal is to learn, not to prove they are smart.” Rethinking about this I can connect it to the curriculum audit my school just had done. Much of the talk about assessments was about formative assessments that would drive the teaching. We do need to have our students show what they have learned, not just that they CAN learn. Formative assessments can guide what we teach next, or reteach now.
I also like the chart that showed that mastery was not an attainable goal. I like that from both the teaching and learning sides. When I think I know all I need to know to be a good teacher, I am finished being a good teacher. I remember an evaluation I had after my first year of teaching in a public school. My principal told me he was happy with my teaching. I told him that I was glad he was happy, but that I wasn't. I could see a lot of things I wanted to improve upon. We both agreed it was better he was happy and I wasn't rather than the other way around!
Drive is a book I will keep in my bookcase ( when I haven't loaned it to a friend to read) and refer to when I need to shake my teaching up a bit again. There are surprising truths in it and as a teacher, motivation for our students and for us is vital.
I too have experienced the same lack of motivation amongst students when I have offered extrinsic rewards.You really know when they are "into" something, and are enjoying the assignment or lesson, and they definitely don't need extrinsic motivators for those "flow" moments.
ReplyDeleteI even having problems with merits, merit day and student of the month. It sets up students that make me uncomfortable. Everyone goes to the auditorium and one kid gets picked. Perhaps its effective, I am not sure.
ReplyDeleteThat said I really have a problem with the academic awards in high school where the entire student body goes to watch the athletes honored without academic or art recognition. Equal should be equal- but it makes for a very long program.
We had a discussion at school recently about recognizing and motivating with merit activities. After reading Drive, I am not in favor of classes competing to do good acts. If I don't think I can win, I often don't try to compete. Kindness should not need to be rewarded but should be its own reward. It seems to me that too often kids won't do something without a reward. As Pink said early in the book, pay your child once to take out the garbage and they'll never take it out for free again. Would you?
ReplyDeleteI agree that sometimes extrinsic motivation doesn't seem to work to motivate students, but in my experience with special education students, on some days it was only the extrinsic motivation that got a student to complete his/her work. I don't necessarily agree that there should or shouldn't be extrinsic motivation, I think that it all depends on the situation and the student you are trying to engage in learning.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking that intrinsic and extrinsic rewards are all tied to what we value...and in schools, what we want our children to value. Pink explains that we are all naturally motivated intrinsically until we 'unlearn' that by being offered extrinsic rewards. Part of what I'm thinking is that extrinsic rewards might be effective on a short-term basis, but intrinsic would have a much longer-lasting, deeper impact, generally.
ReplyDeleteI too found that as I read Drive I was thinking about the changes I could make in my classroom; it also made me think about things that could be done when the time comes that I enter the administrative world. And like you I feel that I can always improve on my teaching. Any time I fill out a survey for a company or what have you I rarely give the highest rating because I feel there is always room for improvement. The same can be said for teaching evaluations. In my district evaluation is first in line when it comes to "RIF" (we are one of a very few who have it set up this way) - tenure is third in line (with certifications second). If our evaluation tool was solely used as a teaching improvement tool than I suspect "exceeds" might be checked off less often than it is now due to the extrinisic reward that is currently tied to our evaluation tool.
ReplyDeletehis is my first time i visit here. I found so many entertaining stuff in your blog, especially its discussion. From the tons of comments on your articles, I guess I am not the only one having all the leisure here! Keep up the excellent work.
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