DRiVE: Part 2

In part 2, Daniel Pink does a fantastic job of explaining the three elements of creating intrinsic motivation (Motivation 3.0) and push past motivation 2.0!

Daniel Pink details autonomy, mastery, and purpose as the three elements that enhance motivation 3.0 and foster Type i people. 

My take away for each element:

Autonomy: Because people are naturally curious and active people can function efficiently in their own way; management influence can hinder the creative thought process. Also, "flex time" is actually control in sheep's clothing! Truly handing over the reins to employees or students to develop a ROWE (results only work environment) is critical to establish autonomy.

Mastery: The desire to get better at something that matters answers the question, Why do it? I want my future students to "forget themselves in the function" and get into the flow of engagement.

Purpose: This provides a context for autonomy and mastery by creating "A cause larger than themselves" 

What does this look like in real life? 

"They vs. We companies (my classroom)"

How will this impact my fall?

I will certainly be observant of type i professors at Penn State. Learning and observing is how I can become more proficient in these areas. This will be useful as I develop my own teaching philosophy.

I will also incorporate autonomy, mastery, and purpose into my assignments and assessments for my students and in the projects I will create in preparation for student teaching.

How will this impact my spring?

Getting students to evolve into type i students will be easier when utilizing autonomy, mastery, and purpose in my classroom. 

I was asked several types about how I can incorporate these theories in my class without undermining administration or other teaching philosophies, and that is a difficult question. My best solution to this would be allowing the students to be autonomous in meeting the requirements of the administration. 

For instance, Bell Work is a requirement at Dover Area High School, to goal of warming up for the day would be a goal for the students to accomplish, but achieving that goal or answering that question would be in the student's control.

Mentorship team feedback

Answering the questions of my past blog has built upon the information gained in this part of the book. Linking the two parts together makes the theory more feasible in a classroom.

DRiVE: Part 1

To prepare for my #PSUAgEd19 Teach Ag Journey, My team of virtual mentors and I selected DRiVE as our summer reading book.

In this book I discovered that intrinsic motivators, which I briefly learned about in a course titled psychology of education, were only discovered by scientists in 1949. We can credit Harry F. Harlow and his rhesus monkeys for starting psychologists down the path of motivation 3.0.

Humans have an inherent tendency to seek out challenges and exploration to interest their minds. We can expect the same from our students. 

My former, Professor Dr. Jessica Schocker, taught me that children are born and enter kindergarten with a natural will to learn. Daniel Pink's book certainly solidifies this. Dr. Schocker continues, that somewhere between kindergarten and middle school, most students lose their inherent will to learn.

In part 1, I learned that once an extrinsic motivator (motivation 2.0) is added, the fragile intrinsic motivators (motivation 3.0) are damaged. Further more, the removal of extrinsic motivators does NOT restore intrinsic motivation, in fact it usually damages it more!

Intrinsic motivation is displayed in multiple ways. One example are companies harnessing the power of "open-sourcing" utilize the labor of volunteers. Wikipedia, powered by millions of volunteer hours around the globe, pushed out Microsoft's encyclopedia. Other open-sourced examples include, firefox, lynix, apache, credit unions, legal briefings, cookbooks, and more! 

While extrinsic motivators have their place, we must be aware of the 7 deadly flaws of extrinsic motivation.

As teachers we must ask what methods should we use to motivate our students. When debating using extrinsic motivators as yourself, "Is The Task Routine?" if yes, extrinsic motivators may be be used, if no, they will cause more damaged than good. Carrots and Sticks do not foster creativity and exploration, but they do increase performance for straight-forward thinking tasks.  

Extrinsic Rewards are not always forbidden in right brained activities either, they can be used sparingly in "now that" rewards, rather than "if, then." For example, sparingly I could say, now that the the unit projects were meaningful and creative, we will spend 15 extra minutes in the greenhouse. This caters to intrinsic motivators more than saying, If you do well on your projects, then we will spend an extra 15 minutes in the greenhouse. 

I look forward to using this information in my classroom. I plan to remember that if the reward is the TASK itself, than there is no short cuts or low-roads to obtain the reward for completion. 

Pink continues to discussion the involvement of The Self Determination Theory and it's role in intrinsic motivation. Type i managers and teachers leverage autonomy, mastery/competence, and purpose/relativeness to motivate students and employees intrinsically. Meanwhile, Type X people use extrinsic reward to motivate their employees.

Stay tuned for part 2!