Prairie Eydie Learns Something New Part I

 

 

I went to a fabulous professional development session on Friday.  Note.  I have rarely used the words "fabulous" and "professional development" in the same sentence.  It is now Sunday and I am still thinking about what was said on Friday.  Pretty good.  The session was taught by Chris Gleason, Wisconsin's Middle School Teacher of the Year. (Bravo!  Great decision Wisconsin!) 

 

The topic was "Motivation and Assessment."  I was attracted to the "motivation" portion  because I teach struggling 6th and 7th grade readers.  HECK.  I also struggle daily with motivation and need tips.  I am not very motivated to make my bed, even though bed making has been linked to happiness.  Also, I am not motivated to make the meat loaf "cupcakes" recipe I tore out of a magazine three years ago.  Some days I am not motivated to teach my unmotivated students because I am out of ideas of how to motivate.

 

But I LOVE seeing those neat rows of stickers marching across the tagboard.

 

10 minutes into his presentation, Chris said the carrot and stick approach (think gold star sticker chart) to motivation isn't effective and actually decreases the behavior you are trying to foster.  This finding has been replicated in 70+ studies. 

 

 

 

MIND BLOWN. 

 

I have 26 years of using  extrinsic carrot and stick motivation strategies in my classroom. 

• I have stapled individually wrapped lifesavers to vocabulary tests so the students would at least look at the test before slam dunking them in the garbage. 
• I have baked homemade brownies every time a student finished reading a book.  (I think I only baked three pans of brownies all year, which tells you how effective that method was.) 
• One year, candy corn was doled out every time students were sitting in their chairs.  The "Year of Candy Corn" was a particularly rough year, especially when stores stopped stocking candy corn after Halloween.

 

 

 

I have 12 years of using the carrot and stick approach with my children.  Sigh.  I confess, I have used:

• M and Ms for peeing in the Elmo potty
• Weekly allowances for doing chores
• New books for good report cards.  (Personally I don't find the book  reward all that reprehensible.) 

You are probably either thinking:  a) I am a horribly misguided person  who should have known better. OR b) What can be done to motivate people?

 

Here is what I have down in my notes, under the heading - "What DOES Motivate?"

 

1.  Autonomy over task, time, and technique.

 

2.  Mastery because becoming better at tasks matters.  You have to be excited about being bad!  Woot!  Woot!

 

3.  Purpose.  It has to be a cause bigger than yourself.

 

In other words, the activity itself needs to be the reward.   I was trying to process all of this over the phone with my dad last night. 

 

Eydie:  I shouldn't be giving the kids an allowance for doing their chores.

Dad:  Oh.  Why is that?

Eydie:  If I pay them to do something around the house, they will always expect money and will never set the table without being paid. 

Dad:  Hmmmm.

Eydie:  So starting tomorrow I am just going to give the kids their allowance and expect them to do chores around the house.

Dad:  Good luck with that.

 

 

 

 

Maybe before I stop using carrots and sticks with my children, I should head out to buy one of the books Chris recommended - Drive, by Daniel Pink.  I will let you know what I find out.

 

Eydie