While watching Professor Dweck's TedTalk, I connected it with the discussions about motivation in Dan Pink's Drive and a recent "Freakonomics" podcast I listened to on increasing productivity. Basically, Pink shows us though his research that incentivizing employees (or students) through tangible rewards only works for rudimentary tasks that require little to no critical thinking. In fact, external rewards can actually decrease motivation in jobs or tasks that require thought, problem solving, and creativity. According to Pink, the best motivators are autonomy, mastery, and purpose. When given the opportunity to self-direct a project that has personal meaning and purpose, people are more likely to produce quality work, rather than simply responding to outside stimuli.
On the "Freakonomics" podcast on productivity, what stood out to me the most was the conversation about intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. They were discussing the idea that intrinsic motivation is more effective than extrinsic (which aligns with Pink's ideas), and that the praise we give to others can emphasize one or the other, depending on what we say. For example, if you tell a person, "Wow, you did great. You are so smart," it can give the impression to that person and others that they don't have any control over whether or not they do well at something. If they are already smart, they will do well. If they don't think they are smart, why should they try? On the other hand, if you say to someone, "Wow, you did great. You must have worked really hard," it can actually start to increase their internal motivation to work hard because they believe it's something they can control.
This is exactly one of the points that Dweck made in her talk. The type of praise we give to our students can affect their mindset on a project. If we praise hard work or progress rather than intelligence, we are letting the students know that they have control over their work and that they are capable of even more growth. I loved the study she described in which students who were told that neurons form new, stronger connections in the brain when they tried something new, dramatically increased performance compared to the control group. If all people, not just students, actually believe that challenges and effort can make you smarter, there would be more productivity and risk-taking instead of frustration. This is one issue I see often in my students - when confronted with a difficult task, frustration and anger overtake the motivation to persevere. Students need to practice solving difficult problems, and that practice, combined with receiving praise for effort, can lead to an increase in intrinsic motivation.
Rather than just rewarding the end product with an A, maybe educators should look more closely at the NTN agency rubric and the possibilities for rewarding effort and autonomy throughout the process. I don't think this has to be an entire grade in and of itself, but it could be incorporated throughout PBL as a way to motivate students who are trying their best. Going back to Drive, a project that is personally meaningful, relevant, and allows for student choice and self-direction will also increase intrinsic motivation, so the final grade doesn't matter as much as the process of creating the product. Project-based learning has the capability to do much more for students' learning than just mastery of content - it can increase effort, drive, and self-confidence as well.
Hi Jessica,
ReplyDeleteI am going to have to get my hands on Daniel Pink's book. You are the third person to recommend his book to me this year and your explanation of how his research into motivation align with praising effort instead of talent has convinced me I need to read his work. You also shared how both Dweck and Pink prioritize the importance of the praise we provide to students. We need to be mindful that we move past the superficial praise of the person and move into the targeted praise of what they can control such as effort, perseverance, and most of all the process they went through and the tangible evidence of learning that resulted from it.
I appreciate you sharing the connections between Pink and Dweck and the time you took to review the NTN rubric as a possible tool to help define the skills and behaviors we want to foster in students through project based learning. Sincerely, Dawn