In January 2010, Daniel Pink (the author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us) did a presentation at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts (RSA) in London. The RSA commissioned Cognitive Media to produce a whiteboard cartoon based on audio pulled from this presentation. The presentation was posted on YouTube on April 1, 2010 and has been viewed over 1.2 million times. It really is an incredible way to present an idea. The video is 10 minutes long, but is worth the time.
Pink’s research shows that for all but the simplest tasks, people aren’t motivated well by big monetary rewards. As I watched this video I couldn’t help but relate it to motivating students with a grade, its the same thing. Pink’s conclusion is that people are more motivated by autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
Autonomy
This is the desire to be self-directed, to have freedom and independence. Are we providing this to students when we try to get everybody to do tasks in lockstep fashion? Do we encourage students to learn in their own way, even when it doesn’t fit within our plans?
Mastery
Most people/students yearn to get better at stuff, if they can just see the relevance. The presentation makes a good point that many people create substantial things in their spare time for free. Think about all the open source software projects such as Moodle, Firefox, WordPress, etc.
Purpose
People want to feel like there is a purpose for their contributions. That their efforts will make their life, and the world around them, better. It is not just the promise of a good grade or paycheck.
This video also promotes lifelong learning. We have to instill in students that in the automotive service industry you are on a lifelong learning journey. You are not always going to get paid for going to a class, but the rewards of the knowledge has value too.
