I just watched the following video clip and it reminded me of a book I recently read – Drive by Daniel H. Pink.
At work, at home, at school … what is the secret of motivation? How do we find it in ourselves and encourage it in others? More to the point as teachers, how do we motivate students to want to learn? Daniel Pink identifies three core elements that, together, fuel our drive: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. If we are given the freedom of self-direction (rather than being ‘managed’); the opportunity to engage ourselves (rather than being compliant); along with enough challenge to spur a sense of purpose, we will be motivated.
That’s all I’m going to say about the book because I highly recommend that you read it. More importantly, I don’t want to risk doing it any disservice — any summary I may give can’t possibly have the same impact as the author’s own words.
While reading Drive I kept thinking of how I could change the way I do things, in and out of the classroom, to unearth more motivation. Lifelike Pedagogy appears to be one approach that would do it in the classroom … I may just pick up their book.
What a prevalent topic for the times. I am definitely motivated to read the book Drive after reading this blog post. This video was also very well done. I am glad, as an educator, that this topic on the transition of teaching and the times is being talked about all over the web.
Thanks Joanne. Much of what I’ve read lately has been more around updating the tools that we use in instruction (i.e. bringing technology into the classroom) in order to give students more relevant and ‘employable’ skills.
While I certainly agree that we should be doing so, I also believe that it’s just as important to revisit the pedagogies that we employ as well. At the core, don’t we want students to become lifelong learners? Won’t that be essential to their future success? Motivation is the key.