Sir Ken Robinson shows us that motivation does not only come from one source, it may come from a reward system but it may also come from a sense of purpose. The video "Changing education Paradigms explains to us that the reward system is flawed when it comes to the expectance of people working harder in a cognitive dependent job when offering them a monetary reward, than when the job consist of mechanical skills.
This brings a great insight into how teachers are suppose to interact in their classroom, when expecting an increase in performance from their children.
We want to decrease rewards and bring forward an opportunity to increase payout without them being concerned about the final rewards (most likely a grade). For instance, in today’s classrooms teachers’ focus entirely on the graded work, which in turn the students concentrate their motivation on getting the correct solution and looking forward to the high grades at the end of an activity. This system becomes a dire obstruction to student’s development, concerning where motivation is coming from and creativity because the teacher do not give children an opportunity to learn that there is more than one correct answer.
Teachers need to contribute to the growth of a child’s motivation by allowing students to open up their creativity and allowing them to discovery their different ways of approaching a problem. Motivation can be reached through various aspects including challenge and mastery, self-direction, personal satisfaction, and contributing to the future.
Challenge and mastery motivates a student to conquer something because they want to get better at it for that simple, personal satisfaction that is obtained at the end of an activity. They learn something for them to tackle on the activity the next time. Self-direction is motivation through direction of your own path. You allow students to personally choose their direction in which they want to overcome a problem, or allowing them to choose a topic of preference. The personal satisfaction they gain through learning about a topic of their choosing is a motivator that pushes them to discover more aspects then just the single solution. When you focus on the contribution that you will make, you are being motivated to seek out a solution that influences future history and the lives of other people.
It is a new era and with it comes a new ideology that motivation must take on.
I would recommend watching the video "Changing Education Paradigms" it will truly give you a new insight about the current educational system.
By: Berenice Hernandez
Source: YouTube - RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
Berenice,
ReplyDeleteI like your point of view towards motivation. When one focuses their hard work just to obtain a reward, one misses the real purpose of the activity. I agree that challenge and mastery, among other things, are a good way to boost your motivation.
Carol Pineda
I see exactly what you're trying to say and the video gave me more of that insight and I agree in this change that we, as people; who are now out of high school and have kids or will have kids soon, should take. To try and make them "come alive" in school. Bring kids together rather than have them do things alone.
ReplyDeleteNow, even though I agree with it, I just couldn't help but think, "If teachers, the ones who would undertake this method; if not all, start this new method, would they keep up with it?" Most people will start something and keep up with it for a short while, if not dedicated to it, and then kind of... procrastinate, if you will, in continuing to move it along. Not everyone is the same but, hopefully, everyone sort of unites in doing so for our next generation of children and so on and so forth.
This is a great method and it will work. We just need that nudge and continue to have it until everything becomes used to, therefore, making it natural for everyone when in the classroom.