Monday, September 20, 2010

A Schrute buck . . .

I found this interesting video on Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day.  I don't know anything about The Office or Schrute bucks, but I have read some of Alfie Kohn's work.  The video is an amusing look at motivation and what the research tells us about using rewards to motivate.  Kohn makes good points when he asks if students have been given something worth learning and if not, then yes, they may have to be bribed to do it.  This is certainly something to be considered as we think about relevance and rigor in our work.

3 comments:

Jonathan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jonathan said...

I believe a teacher can significantly impact student performance through motivation. Additionally, I find the primary power of Classroom 10 is in its motivational aspects.

After a couple months on the waiting list, I finally was able to obtain a copy from the library of Daniel Pink's book on motivation entitled Drive. Alfie Khon has already been referenced in the first three chapters I've read.

So far I find myself agreeing with much of Pink's hypothesis, that we need a new 'operating system' that supports autonomy and develops the skills outlined in A Whole New Mind to motivate people.
Jonathan

Ethan Smith said...

In my career as a classroom teacher I can reacall maybe a dozen moments that felt like true epiphanies on my journey toward becoming an effective teacher. One of those aha moments was when I realized that the students that were doing their homework and the students who weren't when they were offered points for doing so were the same students who did and didn't when there were no points involved. Why was I spending all that time processing papers to give students points when it was having no impact on whether they would do the work???!!!!
Now, here is what I really want to share. Why do teachers have to discover this on their own? What are the essential conditions that allow people to move beyond a world view that places more weight on how they feel about what must be right than what research shows is clearly the case?