This is a superb, sobering and provocational talk….
Educators need to reflect upon it…
Parents need to think about…
Students should be consulted….
“ I have never met a de-motivated pupil”
Your reaction to that statement may be one of incredulity which could result in you not reading the piece that follows – and when I tell you I stand by that statement then you’ll may even consider the possibility that I am either delusional or at least a bit ‘out there’.
So before you stop reading let me explain.
When we use the word motivated we generally have an internal representation of an individual who has the ability to be focussed, on task and able to complete a project that has been set.
In terms of pupils we often imagine motivated pupils as being fully engaged in the learning process; undertaking work set with a high degree of positivity.
However ‘motivation’ could be seen as that certain something which encourages an individual to engage in a behaviour which ‘moves’ them from one emotional, physical or environmental ‘state’ to another. In essence all behaviour is motivated by something… even inaction can be said to have some internal or external motivator.
Perhaps when we say that a person is ‘de-motivated’ we are really saying they are not behaving or moving in a ‘direction’ we think they should be.
We could consider every behaviour as being the result of MOTIVES, MODIFIERS and MODELS.
Our MOTIVES are our basic needs or drives. We can consider these drivers has having an biological, physiological, emotional, social and aspirational base.
We do not however, always behaviour directly on the whim of these drives. How we respond to these needs are MODIFIED by our values, attitudes and beliefs AND we defer to MODELS of behaviour which we have produced results in the past or have been observed in the actions of others.
The psychological make-up of the individual in this framework is seen as being the interplay between the unconscious drivers and internal modifiers.
In terms of LEARNING (which can be considered in behavioural terms and as a result of engaging in learning activities) students will engage positively or not depending upon a mix of unconscious “decisions”. These “decisions” are influence by the individuals own perception of:-
RELEVANCE of the learning objective (What’s in it for me)
EMOTIONAL CONNECTION to the learning activity or objective
COMPETENCE and SKILLS in terms of ability to undertake the task
In this mix there will also be the degree of compliance (or not) the student demonstrates in the learning situation.
COMPLIANCE may, in some cases drive pupil with a low estimation of their competences to excel because they like (or fear) the teacher; like (or dislike) the topic; deference to social groups which hold learning in high regard (or not).
The attached presentation below outlines some key points which could be used to promote debate about learner motivation. (There is also a PDF on Learner Motivation on the XTRA Ressources Page).
In short educational tasks are motivational IF..
They are RELEVANT (having a clearly defined purpose), EMOTIONALLY ENGAGING and given a REAL WORLD CONTEXT.
If a pupil perceives a task to be beyond their self-defined skill level they may become anxious.
If a pupil perceives a task to be below their self-defined skill level they may become bored.
When perceived skill level is just below the challenge of the task the learner; has emotional connectivity relevance and context we may find that there will be an increase in learner motivation.
Penair Parents Session 24/01/12 PowerPoint can be found here : Penair240112
Whilst accepting that philsophically education is about more than passing exams, the reality is that examinations are part and parcel of the learning journey.
The number of young people who approach their end of school or end of year examinations in a stressed, underprepared way is disproportionate to the amout of effort schools put into giving support and advice.
Sometimes young people are their own worst enemies in this regard. They are given the advice and support but are either not interested at the time it is given OR simply do not take it in in the ‘form’ it is given.
The workbook below is designed as a weekly programme which allows students to focus on what needs to be done with regards exam preparation AND offers practical advice on how to set about ‘revising’.
It is available from
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/alan1152
Everything You Wanted to Know About Revision
So another school year has passed – not sure where the time is going.
I looked at my diary and found that the series of various school workshops booked as early as last March have now moved from ‘pending’ to ‘active’.
On Monday I will be in Helston School offering some, hoepfully, motivational and forward-looking insights for the new Year 11.
I guess the challenge is to find out what kind of useful things to say to the class of tomorrow….
I mean afterall they will have heard much of the educational rhetoric that we, as educators, are so keen on quoting BUT the issue is that the world is very different now to when many of the current educators where wearing the ‘final year of school’ shoes.
For my own part I will keep promoting the four Key Skill areas of :-
BUT how to get the message through in a way that makes sense to the students and cuts through the political and educational agendas of schools, parents and government.
Certainly in the eyes of many parents and government officials all that seems to matter is the quality and number of examinations each young person ‘takes’, ‘sits’ and ‘passes’. Of course schools and professional educators are in the business, one would hope, of going beyond the limitations of ‘examinations’ and exploring ways of engaging young people in achieving beyond their potential whilst developing and inspiring them to take an active role in society; hopefully disuading them from joining the cult of anti-intellectualism. (see http://www.alanjonesuk.co.uk/2010/05/cult-of-anti-intellectualism.html ).
So in order to get you thinking about your own educational agenda and ideas have a listen to this from Sir Ken Robinson…
I found this report on an American ‘blog’ – quoted in its entireity below…
U.K closer to Removing Climate Change from the National Curriculum
If a government official’s recommendation is followed, children in the United Kingdom will no longer learn about “climate change.” Instead, British science teachers will go back to teaching “the basics” of that subject.
Earlier this year, Education Secretary Michael Gove called for a review of the nationwide standardized curricula in core subjects. Upon announcing the review, Gove promised to reverse the “profound mistakes” made by the previous government and to restore “academic rigour” to the classroom.
http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-mainmenu-26/europe-mainmenu-35/7876-uk-closer-to-removing-climate-change-from-national-curriculum
To be told or to be encouraged – the educators conundrum.
Research carried out by Elizabeth Bonawitz and Patrick Shafio published in “Cognition” recently addresses the question as to whether teachers should ‘tell pupils’ the way things are or encourage them to ‘explore’ and ‘play’
Remember in the review of the National Curriculum in which Michale Gove (Education Secretary) was reported as saying “lessons should emphasise the learning of facts and equip children with essential knowledge” and “every child must be given a “profound level” of mathematic and scientific knowledge” (The Guardian 20th Jan 2o11)
Remember the collectibe sigh of educators who saw this as yet another call for a return to ‘traditional’ approaches that ‘served us well in the past’. Well that may be the case BUT we are living in a society where ‘knowledge’ is growing exponentially… it has been suggested that technological knowledge is doubling every 72 hours!!!
So how can ‘facts’ be treated as being anything other than the learning of ‘temporary information’?
Historical “facts” are matters of interpretation and cultural perspective. (I like the provocative statement that History is a set of lies we agree upon)
Scientific Theories can best be desrcibed as ‘temporary statements of how things work’ which are open to review and change in the light of new discoveries.
In philosophy the nature of ‘truth’ and ‘fact’ form the heart of the debates philosophers engage in.
So, does not the rhetoric of Gove suggest that ‘facts’ are permanent and unchangeable?
This is a very worrying suggestion.
As said elsewhere in my other writings I would maintain that there are four key skill domains which need to be developed..
a) The ability to ACCESS and ASSESS information
b) The ability to COMMUNICATE IDEAS effectively in a range of media
c) The ability to MANAGE SELF
d) The ability to MANAGE CHANGE
Of course there are ‘ideas’ which need to be shared as the basis upon which to build new ideas, but these are not necessarily to be given the status of ‘fact’.
The skills within each of the above ‘domains’ can be developed within a context of exploration, discovery and play rather than within a framework of having to learn a series of ‘facts’.
Knowledge is not Understanding nor does it necessarily bring Wisdom.
Now here’s the real educational challenge… Encouraging Creativity
Real creativity stems from the ability to share, communicate and think.
It requires those involved in creative endeavour to feel that they have something to bring to the table; a degree of confiidence.
It requires those involved in innovation be be able to consider and invoke change.
It also requires “domain knowledge” – for example Mozart could be creative because he had come to understand the nature of muscial scales and harmony. This understanding would have come from tuition and guidance as well as being encouraged to ‘play’ with ideas and perhaps ‘bend some of the rules”.
This domain knowledge requires the individual to free to engage in the collection and assessment of information – not necessarily facts.
My fear is that the ‘teaching of facts’ creates the false idea that the learner simply needs to be ‘told stuff’, moreover once ‘told’ and ‘learned’ then there is no need to ‘question’.
Research carried out by Elizabeth Bonawitz and Patrick Shafio published in “Cognition” recently addresses the question as to whether teachers should ‘tell pupils’ the way things are or encourage them to ‘explore’ and ‘play’
They suggest that “the efficient learning of specific facts may lead to the assumption that when the adult has finished teaching, there is nothing further to learn—because if there were, the adult would have said so”
Reading the full article and the associated research validates what many excellent educators already knew instictively. Discovery through play and exploration is more empowering.
I would also propose that play within the context of developing specific skills within the four ‘skill domains’ mentioned above is the best way to prepare young people to be active within a world that does not exist yet; to undertake work and careers which are no currenlty on offer and tackle the problems and challenges we do not yet know are problems and challenges.
Dryden and Vos a number of years ago wrote the same thing – they were calling upon educators to realise that what children are being taught to interact with the world as it WAS and as it IS and not necessarily what it WILL BE when their pupils take their place within society.
Alan
Read the full article here : The Economist
I’ve just returned from a couple of really interesting days in Wiltshire.
On the 27th of May I presented some thoughts about “modelling learning” to an HLTA Conference.
What a great group of inspired and inspiring people. For me it was an honour to be the “two slices of bread” either side of a sandwich that had Michael Rosen (Children’s Laureate 2007 – 2009) as an exciting ‘filling’.
Michale’s talk was superb, and I was pleased to note that the ideas he shared were very closely aligned to those I had presented in the morning session and was going to present in the afteroon workshop.
Of all of the things Michael Rosen spoke about his “four essential qualities” of a learning activity struck the deepest chord with me.
What are Michales four essential qualities of learning activities and materials?
DISCOVERY : INVESTIGATION : INVENTION : CO-OPERATION
Does the work you ask learners to be involved in call for DISCOVERY (and that’s not simply filling the blanks on a worksheet or completing some kind of comprehension exerise)?
Does the work you ask learners to be involved in call for INVESTIGATION – exploration, research, information finding?
Does the work you ask learners to be involved in foster INVENTION – ‘what if?’ thinking; creativity and application (innovation)?
Does the work you ask learners to be involved in call for CO-OPERATION – working with others, in teams, collaborating, sharing?
Perhaps these four simple questions could help transform learning – what do you think?
On the 28th I was again fortunate to be invited to offer a few thoughts on effective communication to Langley School’s Staff and Governors at their training day. The venue was incredible and the staff warm, welcoming and passionate about their school and the children in it.
As someone who has the privilidge of visiting schools, speaking to teaching teams and local authority managers I am constantly being reminded of the passion and drive so many educational professionals have when it comes to wanting the very best for the learners in their charge. It seems that inspite,or perhaps because, of the political football our education system as become, at its very core there beats a heart which remains commited, true and set upon doing the best that can be done with the resources that are at hand.
Education is a topic about which everyone has an opinion… many of those leading the educational debate at senior levels seem to be out of step with the real needs of learners and educators and are so far removed from the ‘chalk face’ that they do not understand the impact of their latest initiative or educational experiment.
The people trying to do the joined up thinking are the people working hard to implement the initiatives whilst still striving to maintain the quality of learning in their classrooms. They are doing so, on the whole, in the absence of time for professional dialogue and personal reflection on the bigger issues. The professional educators are distanced from the educational policy makers (professional politicians)…
Seems rather crazy to me…
Ah well
As promised the materials used in the two conferences can be found on the XTRA materials page. Please feel free to download as an aide memoir for the topics discussed.
Alan
Well, almost but not quite.
As promised I’m trying to catch-up with all of the material I did say I would be posting on this blog.
So, for all of those who were interested in the revision materials you can find the following templates on the links below.
If, however, you would like a complete workbook and guide on revision techniques and approaches (from which the templates below are taken) it you can find it at LULU .
The templates below will be of most value and meaning to those who have attended my recent workshops on exam preparation and motivation but they will be useful to all those planning their personal revision timetables.
REVISION needs to be undertaken positively, with intention and a clear idea of what needs to be learned. Ideally revision is something that you do regularly, it is not something that ‘has to be done’ at the end of a course.
REVISION is about REVIEWING what has been learned and IDENTIFYING what need to be learned.
SWOT : A Template for defining your strengths and weakness in a subject as well as defining who/what can help or hinder. Use this tool to define what needs to be learned and how you can best get support in learning it.
ActiveRevision : Active Revision is about using a planned revision session to maximise learning. Avoid the trap of thinking that reading through your notes is ‘revision’. The active revision framework is designed to allow you to identify what needs to be learned clearly; how to set about using revision time in a structured way and how to ensure that you learn what you set out to learn.
PlanningTime : Knowing how you use your time is the first step in managing your time. Whether you like the idea or not preparing for a examination requires you to plan your revision. There are so many ways to sabotage your good intentions when you allow yourself to be sidetracked by time-wasting activities. Planning your time will actually result in you worrying less and having more time to focus on the things you want.
The workbook, Everything you Wanted to Know about Revision – but were afraid to ask, is a concise guide to the techniques covered in the workshops I have been running.
Sections include thoughts on motivation, learning, memory, exam practice and approaches, stress management and revision techniques. It’s written in a no-frills way and contains practical exercises for the student to complete in order to meet their own revision needs.
The original version of this book was used as part of the Aim Higher Initiative in Cornish Schools and since then abstracts and earlier editions of it have been used by schools throughout the UK.
It is now available as a 68 page printed book or e-book from Lulu.
Alan
There’s no such thing as a demotivated student!
All human behaviours are motivated by something – some need, desire or aspiration. When we say someone is not motivated perhaps we are really saying that they are not motivated in the direction we want (or need) them to be.
Many models of human motivation are overly simplistic and the discourse as to whether someone is internally or extrinsically motivated is obviously a superficial one. An individuals motivational style is perhaps determined as much by their personality (another complex construct) as the situation they find themselves in. So, whilst some behaviours are ‘needs’ driven, others may be to do with aspirations, beliefs (both empowering and limiting) and expectations.
Perhaps we can consider individual motivation in terms of learning to be about:-
General Motivation – an indiviudals personal approach and attitude to a task as defined by their behaviour
Internal Motivation – their attitude to self-directed goals
External Motivation – the extent to which behaviours are defined and driven by others
Internal Causality – the individuals beliefs/attitudes about ownership and responsibility for success
External Causality – the individuals beliefs/attitudes about other things controlling their ownership of success
Interest/Value – the ‘intrinsic’ value, relevance and importance of what is being learned
Competence - the individuals perception of their own skill levels in order to undertake/complete the task
Confidence - the emotional state in which competences can be combined in order to foster exploration
An individuals application to a task can be considered as being defined by Expectancy Theory in which the perception of success (expectancy) is related to the ability to connect that success to some kind of reward (instrumentality) and the outcome having value (valance).
Csikzentmihayli in his book FLOW ( Harper & Rowe 1990) connects learner motivation to their personal perception of their own skill level when considered against their personal perception of the difficulty of the challenge.
Steven Reiss makes an interesting point about the ‘reality’ of intrinsic motivation.
The article below is taken from Research News
Intrinsic Motivation doesn’t exist!
COLUMBUS , Ohio – While some psychologists still argue that people perform better when they do something because they want to – rather than for some kind of reward, such as money — Steven Reiss suggests we shouldn’t even make that distinction.
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Steven Reiss
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Reiss, a professor of psychology at Ohio State University , argues that a diverse range of human motivations can’t be forced into these categories of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Psychologists say intrinsic motivations are those that arise from within – doing something because you want to – while extrinsic motivations mean people are seeking a reward, such as money, a good grade in class, or a trophy at a sporting event.
“They are taking many diverse human needs and motivations, putting them into just two categories, and then saying one type of motivation is better than another,” said Reiss, who outlines his argument in the current issue of the journal Behavior Analyst.
“But there is no real evidence that intrinsic motivation even exists.”
The issue is more than academic, Reiss said. Many sports psychology books, and books advising how to motivate students and business people, tout the value of intrinsic motivation and warn that extrinsic rewards can undermine people’s performance.
“Individuals differ enormously in what makes them happy – for some competition, winning and wealth are the greatest sources of happiness, but for others, feeling competent or socializing may be more satisfying. The point is that you can’t say some motivations, like money, are inherently inferior.” |
The argument is that people should do something because they enjoy it, and that rewards only sabotage natural desire.
Reiss disagrees.
“There is no reason that money can’t be an effective motivator, or that grades can’t motivate students in school,” he said. “It’s all a matter of individual differences. Different people are motivated in different ways.”
Reiss has developed and tested a theory of motivation that states there are 16 basic desires that guide nearly all meaningful behavior, including power, independence, curiosity, and acceptance. Whether you agree there are 16 desires or not, he said there is not any way to reduce all of these desires to just two types.
In addition to trying to fit all motivations into two types, Reiss said proponents of intrinsic motivation are also making value judgments by saying some types of motivation are better than others.
“For example, some people have said that wealth and materialism lead to inferior quality happiness, but there is no real proof of that,” he said.
“Individuals differ enormously in what makes them happy – for some competition, winning and wealth are the greatest sources of happiness, but for others, feeling competent or socializing may be more satisfying. The point is that you can’t say some motivations, like money, are inherently inferior.”
In the article, Reiss points to some of the problems he sees with the theories and studies connected to intrinsic motivation. One problem is that people who tout the value of intrinsic motivation have several different definitions for what that means, and these definitions change depending on circumstances.
One common definition, for example, is that intrinsic motivation is that which is inherently pleasurable, while extrinsic motivation is not. For example, the argument is that children are naturally curious and enjoy learning for the joy it brings them. Grades, they argue, are an extrinsic reward that fosters competition and makes learning less pleasurable.
However, Reiss said his research has found people show a wide range of curiosity – some people are very curious and enjoy spending a great deal of time learning on their own. However, many people are not very curious and don’t enjoy learning for its own sake.
“There are many children for whom the important reward to them is the grades they get, the competition among classmates,” Reiss said. “This goes against what some psychologists say, who think competition is bad and a non-competitive attitude is good, and that learning and curiosity are intrinsic values that everyone shares. They are pushing their own value system on to everybody.”
Another way of defining intrinsic motivation is the means-end definition, which says intrinsic motivation is doing what we want, whereas extrinsic motivation is doing something to get something else. For example, some might argue that children playing baseball are intrinsically motivated by the joy of playing, while a professional baseball player is extrinsically motivated, by money and championships.
But Reiss said this definition confuses means and ends. A child playing baseball may be satisfying his need for physical exercise, while the professional player is satisfying his parental instinct by providing a good income for his family.
For children and professionals, baseball is a means to two different ends.
Reiss also criticized many of the studies which proponents say prove the existence of intrinsic motivation, and how it can be undermined by extrinsic rewards.
For example, many studies have purportedly shown how people who enjoy doing a specific activity – such as children who enjoy drawing – do that activity less after they are offered rewards. But when the results show the subjects continue the activity even after the rewards are offered, the researchers have argued that this just shows the subjects expect to get a reward and no longer are intrinsically motivated.
“The results are always turned around to prove their hypothesis.”
Also, researchers have assumed that rewards simply make people less interested in the intrinsic joys of an activity. But Reiss said many of these studies haven’t considered the possibility that the negative effect of rewards has nothing to do with intrinsic or extrinsic motivations. Instead, rewards may cause some people to pursue an activity less because of the negative feelings they cause, such as performance anxiety. Avoiding an activity because of performance anxiety related to a reward is not the same as avoiding it simply because the reward undermines intrinsic motivation.
“Too many studies that supposedly prove intrinsic motivation have serious flaws in logic, or too many important uncontrolled variables,” he said. “There needs to be more scientific rigor.”
Contact: Steven Reiss, (614) 292-2390; Reiss.7@osu.edu
Written by Jeff Grabmeier, (614) 292-8457; Grabmeier.1@osu.edu
Article taken from: http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/inmotiv.htm
