February
2010
Implications of Intrinsic Motivation for Educators: Daniel Pink Part III
Two weeks ago, I had the privilege to hear Daniel Pink speak about his new book Drive, which is all about what really influences human behavior. It’s always interesting to hear what various people pick up from listening to a presentation. My values and life prism filtered the info through the meaning that the surprising results of the research held for educators and the kids served in our schools.
Pink made a point of communicating that, “Yes, people still work for money. They should be compensated for what they’re worth.” Receiving bonuses for a job well done, doesn’t necessarily rev up the DRIVE to be better employees. Perhaps we should think about the bonuses given to CEO’s in our banks and corporations. (Sorry, that’s not the point of the article, but I couldn’t resist).
Surprisingly, money is not the top incentive for a high level of production at work. According to Pink enjoyment of work is based on “Intrinsic Motivation“. People tend to work harder on projects, in which they have freedom to work on their own and create a project related to their job. They’ll stay with the task and persevere for hours, when given the opportunity for autonomy.
Pink described autonomy as self-directed and not controlled management. People could be paid very well, but that doesn’t necessarily lead to joy at work unless they are free to engage in their own project management. As a teacher, I couldn’t help thinking that I would have been much more effective in the classroom, if I worked with some principals, who weren’t into micro-management. We’re losing great teachers in our country and people want to blame it on low pay and discipline problems. However, there is the factor of autonomy that isn’t figured into the equation of teacher retention. I know some extremely bright highly creative teachers, who have transferred to lower paying positions in private schools, due to the “shackles on” atmosphere produced by NCLB. They had a passion for teaching and realized that teaching in public schools was literally destroying their love of education. Taking a substantial cut in pay in a private school with minimal turnover supports the research about the need for workers to have a sense of autonomy.
The 2nd feature of “Intrinsic Motivation” is mastery. Mastery means far more than memorizing facts and passing a test. While grades do motivate students, I saw first hand how working on a project led to far greater comprehension of the facts about history then memorizing dates. When 6th graders, who study ancient civilizations, had to portray a noted figure from a ancient civilization—-Guess what???? They remembered a great deal of information about their assigned character, as they did research on how that person’s life impacted civilization. Getting it right was hugh for these 6th graders. In my opinion, the motivation to play the character made a difference of the amount of information they learned, and better yet the knowledge stayed with them, as they had to process it and create a character portrait of a historical figure. They had a great time and loved learning when given the opportunity. As I listened to Pink, I found myself asking, “What is our goal in education?”If the goal of education is learning, then why not provide the opportunity for inspired action rather than teaching to pass tests.
Pink explained that the last descriptor of “Intrinsic Motivation” has to do with purpose. Service learning offers students an opportunity to learn based on the academic skills used for raising funds to help non-profits and the research they have to play a part in to gather the information to help the charity. With regards to teachers, their passion for children and love of learning inspired them to take many hours of education classes and even gain a Master’s Degree, because they saw teaching as an avocation. They walked in knowing that they were settling to make less money than other career choices would have provides. Again, as time and laws have shifted the role of teaching, I found many of the new teachers in my University classes were ready to quit. They didn’t go into teaching to sit in meetings all day, as most special education teachers do. With a goal to unlock the minds of students with hidden disabilities, there appeared to be a serious difference in their purpose for pursuing the profession and the reality of what the field of special education teaching was all about.
The subject of purpose doesn’t just apply to the teaching profession. All humans seem to have a hugh drive to make a difference and to do something meaningful. Even in the business world, corporate workers want to make a difference. Maybe someone is working for an accounting firm, but they want to ease the burdens of those going through a tax crisis. Zappos.com is a company that sales online shoes and they train their employees to solve customer problems. According to Pink, this is not a waste of human resources; it actually motivates them to work harder. By coming up with creative solutions to make callers with complaints happier, the company actually generates a nice profit.
I realize that I shared about this topic of Intrinsic Motivation with a definite slant toward education. Obviously, Pink’s talk was directed toward the interests of a general audience. However, I believe that it is possible to teach students in a way that reflects a knowledge and implementation of the research related to Intrinsic Motivation.
I’ve seen private schools, who got “Intrinsic Motivation“. Students in these schools were inspired to learn for the autonomy, mastery and purpose that describes the keys to intrinsic motivation. The teachers took a cut in pay, because their spirits were fueled when they came into their classroom to teach in their own way to reach the students.
The private school, that I refer to, is Kirk O’ the Valley Elementary School in Reseda, CA. Their test scores are high and the students still learn the state standards. The school is a non-profit serving children from diverse cultures. Yet, most students receive very high test scores and truly enjoy school and learning. Teachers adopt the same programs for teaching reading, writing math and social studies. Yet, they have the academic freedom to teach these subjects in the way they feel will motivate students to delight in learning. This school really works, as the turn-over is minimal and many parents stay at the school to be part of the staff.
Schedule a visit, if you’d like to see a model of Intrinsic Motivation in Education. Kudos to all their teaching staff, administration and families. Thanks for taking the time and long hours to show that this model of teaching and learning truly is effective.
I’d love to know your thoughts on this subject. How can be help make a shift in our schools to focus more on learning based on Intrinsic Motivation rather than learning to pass achievement tests and benchmark tests?????
Thanks for your comments.
Mary Ann
