Editor鈥檚 Note: This is the fifth post in a series called 鈥淎 Look Back.鈥� In it, I鈥檒l be highlighting a particularly insightful response an educator has provided in a past column.
Past posts in this series have included:
Today鈥檚 鈥淎 Look Back鈥� features a response contributed by noted author Daniel Pink about student motivation.
It comes from a column headlined ., which also includes a video response from Professor Dan Ariely and suggestions from a number a number of other educators.
You might also be interested in an interview I did with Dan titled , as well as other posts on .
Dan鈥檚 latest book is :
I鈥檓 not sure there鈥檚 any single bullet solution to this problem. But there are a couple of things teachers could do鈥攂oth of which take on the issue of 鈥渨hy.鈥� The first is to probe why the student isn鈥檛 motivated. Is he bored by the topic? Worried that he doesn鈥檛 have the ability to master the material? Irritated about something else going on in his life? I鈥檓 not suggesting turning teachers into therapists鈥攂ut trying to surface the source of the demotivation might help us remove it as an obstacle.
Another is to examine 鈥渨hy鈥� from a different angle. I鈥檓 convinced that some students aren鈥檛 motivated to learn particular subjects because they have no idea why they鈥檙e learning it. Authority figures tell them how to do something鈥攂ut never explain why they鈥檙e doing it in the first place. Connecting today鈥檚 material to what they鈥檝e already learned, what鈥檚 happening in the wider world, what the student is already interested can offer context that鈥檚 otherwise missing. Again, there are no easy answers to this one. But these might help a little.