Motivating People to Learn: ...And Teachers to Teach

2009 Gregory Pastoll. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 6/2/2009

ISBN: 978-1-4389-1647-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-8932-9 (ebook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2008909493

Contents

To Set the Tone

Foreword

Book Outline

Acknowledgements

Note on the Limitations of Motivational Advice

Introduction

Part 1

The relation between motivation and meaningful learning

1.   Meaningful Learning and Motivation

2.   Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation

Part 2

Qualities of the motivational teacher

3.   The Ability to be Yourself

4.   An Exemplary Sense-Of-Life

5.   Willingness to Learn

6.   Sensitivity to Learners

7.   A Perspective on Humour

8.   Flexibility

9.   Lucidity

10.   Tolerance

11.   Ability to take each learner seriously

12.   Self-Discipline

13.   Credibility

Part 3

Strategies for designing learning activities based on intrinsic motivation

14.   Starting with the Learners’ Questions

15.   Constructive Competitiveness

16.   The Right Level of Challenge

17.   Interpreting Original Data

18.   Hands On: Learning by Doing

19.   Freedom to Play with Ideas

20.   Shattering Complacency

21.   Giving Constructive Feedback

22.   The Opportunity to Excel

23.   The Means to Judge their own Progress

24.   Co-Operative Learning

25.   Exposure to Motivated People

26.   Checklist : The 12 Strategies

Part 4

The effect of grades on student motivation and the advantages of using a portfolio system instead of grades

27.   The effect of grades on student motivation

28.   The motivational potential of a portfolio system

29.   Conclusion

APPENDICES

30.   Word Misconception Test

31.   A Typically Motivational Design Project

32.   Motivating the Staff of a Teaching Department to Engage in Educational Improvement

About the Author

To Set the Tone

One day, the head of my department told me that his counterpart at another university had just been awarded a grant of two million pounds for a research project to identify students at risk of failing. He thought I was going to be impressed by the size of the grant. But I wasn’t. Instead, I was particularly unimpressed with the needlessness of such a project in the larger scheme of things.

Almost without thinking, I said to him: "I wouldn’t need two million pounds to tell you which students were at risk of failing. What do you mean? he retorted, clearly irritated with the apparent flippancy of my remark. But I was not being flippant. I was deadly serious. I replied: I would ask the students a simple question when they walked in the door for the first time: ‘Do you want to learn, or do you want to pass?’ And those who replied that they wanted to pass, would be at risk."

He didn’t get it. But I stand by what I said, all the more strongly as time goes by. Those who want to learn, risk nothing. What can you lose? If you have a desire to learn something, no matter how slowly you go about it, you are bound to learn at least a small part of what you set out to learn. There can be no failure, so long as there is the tiniest bit of progress. But, those who say they want to pass, risk failure. The very fact that you agree to let another sit in judgment of your capabilities means there is a chance they will find you wanting. In these two opposites lies the clue to the failing of our western schooling system.

Foreword

John Cowan

former Professor of Learning Development, the Open University

I once defined teaching as the purposeful and deliberate creation of situations from which motivated learners cannot escape without learning or developing. In tabling that statement, I was, I assure you, merely trying to make the point that teaching is much more than instructing, more than telling and then asking for what is told to be given back. I have for a long time wanted to state my commitment to that form of teaching which is about the facilitation of learning and development, and which is learner-centred, and not teacher-directed.

However, people often take me up on this issue. I have got into trouble on many occasions on account of my implicit admission that I cannot accept responsibility for being effective if a learner is steadfastly determined to eschew motivation, for whatever reason. Questioners have asked me sharply how and where I stand on the issue of motivation, then? My honest reply has been that I consider the first responsibility of the teacher is to do everything in his or her power to engender motivation.

I point out that this is why many of the most highly regarded teachers are not described by their learners in terms of their scholarship, or teaching ability-but for their enthusiasm for the subject and for what learning and development in that subject can entail. For my own part, I tell the questioners that I hope I am enthusiastic about what I teach, and those whom I teach. Nevertheless, however hard I try, I cannot always overcome the resistance of he who has been sent on the course against his will, she who feels she has nothing worthwhile to learn here, he who is burdened by private concerns and responsibilities over which I can have no helpful influence, or she who adamantly denies from the outset the basis on which my subject is founded.

Consequently, I often worry if there are learners who are not motivated, and for whose lack of motivation there are less clear cut reasons; if perhaps my teaching is one such reason. So it is that, like many other teachers, I would be attracted by the title of this book to pick it up, and skim read it-to see what it may offer in respect of this vexed problem for teachers. For like so many other teachers, I am constantly asking myself What can I do more effectively to motivate my learners to apply themselves, to learn and develop, to aspire to higher and higher standards, which they will be able to achieve without brain surgery or by working ridiculously harder?

Since this problem is so much on almost every teacher’s mind, Greg Pas-toll’s book is timely. It is also disturbing-not merely because it fails to provide instant recipes for success with unmotivated learners, but because it takes us deep below that immediate question. It asks us to do more than formulate a glib definition of teaching, like that one of mine, and instead to reconsider in fine detail what we stand for, in terms of teaching and learning. He takes us into the implications of that. He poses disturbing questions-and, like all good teachers, he prompts us towards thinking through our own answers, and our own responses to this issue of which learning activity will prove motivational. He does all of this in a form which exemplifies the qualities of which he writes-the features of teaching which motivate learners, not least of which are lucidity, enthusiasm and the use of many relevant and thought-provoking examples.

Few thoughtful readers will complete even a first reading of this text without feeling better able to cope in their own situations with the challenge of that question about what we can do more effectively to motivate our learners. Most of us will find many of our answers in the values and implications which Greg Pastoll in such a readable and clear way urges us to revisit, with his powerfully facilitative assistance.

Book Outline

School has a habit of adversely interfering with people’s attitudes to learning. Through the use of grades and other extrinsic be-haviour-shapers we have managed to take the joy out of learning, and manipulate learners into performing without integrity.

Because of this, on the whole, schools turn out students who are inclined to be devious, disrespectful, disenchanted and lacking in will-power. Naturally, not everybody is like this, but enough people develop enough of these characteristics to justify blaming school for a really serious and far-reaching social problem: an adverse effect on the entire attitudinal make-up of our society.

This is no exaggeration. Our schools and universities constitute, in the main, a manipulative environment. Students in such an environment have only three options. They can learn to become manipulators themselves, or remain ideal subjects for further manipulation by others, or become rebels. Despite the glorious-sounding promises of institutional mission statements, students are entering society soured and jaded through having been manipulated.

We can only change this regrettable situation by removing all sources of manipulation from the process of schooling.

Our first priority is to revise the basis on which the outside world measures the progress of a student’s learning. This is essential because the form of assessment we use dictates almost exclusively how a student will approach his or her studies. We have to think long and hard about the way in which our assessment practices affect the long-term morality of students. In the field of general education, we may have to move away from a system where grades are awarded, as a prerequisite for restoring meaning to education. In the field of career-specific training, we have to re-examine whether our assessment practices actually promote the skills being sought in the workplace.

Our second priority is to revolutionise the basis on which students are enticed to put energy into learning. To do this, we have to discard many traditional teaching methods, in favour of learning activities in which students can feel for themselves the power of intrinsic motivation, the kind which comes from direct enjoyment of the activity of learning.

A student’s learning behaviour is generally shaped by a combination of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. I am not suggesting to any teacher that extrinsic motivational strategies should be discarded altogether. I use them myself, and sometimes they really do the trick. What I am suggesting, is that once we know more about intrinsic motivation, we can consciously deploy strategies that use this form of motivation to shape learning behaviour. Throughout this book we shall be examining the nature of and the possibilities inherent in intrinsic motivation.

This book deals with four main themes:

■   The relation between motivation and meaningful learning

■   Characteristics necessary in the motivational teacher

■   Strategies to create learning activities based on intrinsic motivation, and

■   The way that grading affects the motivation of students, and how a portfolio system avoids these pitfalls.

The principles put forward here apply to all learners, in all fields of study, from pre-schoolers to postgraduates.

In this, the first revision of this text, I have added more anecdotal material from my teaching experience during the last two years. I have also been more specific about the way in which a portfolio system should be used, and the reasons why it is being used inappropriately in some educational agencies.

Acknowledgements

This book is based on experience, and on my observation of the processes of teaching and learning, which have fascinated me since I was a pupil in school. Almost all of the many teachers and learners I have encountered have contributed to that experience. Some have helped me to gain insights by doing the right thing, others by doing the wrong thing. Some have known they were engaging with me in the exploration of better ways to teach. Others were unaware of doing so. I am grateful to them all.

Over the years I have been privileged to know many fine teachers whose efforts, integrity and enthusiasm have been an inspiration to me. Some of them do wonders, despite the imperfect systems within which they have to work. Some are not even particularly popular, until their students realise, years later, how much they learnt from those people.

These exemplary teachers are too numerous to list here. I wish I could, truly, because they have done so much toward the development of the ideas contained in this book. I have acknowledged a few of them by name in the text, in cases where they were responsible for originating particularly memorable techniques or principles, or where they furnished me with first-hand anecdotes to use.

As an exception, I would like to acknowledge one teacher in particular, for awakening in me, at the age of 13, the realisation that a teacher could get the best out of a pupil, if only he knew how. This was my high school geography teacher, Dawid Botha, long since departed from this world. May he rest with a smile in his ever-twinkling eyes. He fanned the fire in mine.

For reading my manuscript, and helping to shape it by their astute questions, suggestions, and enthusiasm, my grateful thanks to Gary Cunningham, Philomena Pastoll-Ward, and my ex-colleague and long-term friend Professor Gyorgy Jaros.

I also want to place on record my deep appreciation for the belief in me and my educational ideas demonstrated over the years by my previous publisher, Ralph Shepherd, his colleague Leonard Smith, and also by Graham Elliott, the publisher of my first book, Tutorials That Work. Never underestimate the importance of knowing that someone has confidence in you. It is one of the cornerstones of motivation. Where would any of us be without that? These gentlemen are not the only people who have demonstrated their faith in me. For all of you who have, I thank you.

And, lastly, I want to add a big tribute to uncountable numbers of my students over the years, whose own spark and zest for life has made it not only worthwhile, but a privilege, to have been their facilitator. In no other profession do people have access to such surging volumes of raw heady energy. Here speaks a happy man.

Note on the Limitations of Motivational Advice

No-one can offer a simple prescription for what to do to motivate every learner, because people’s lives are complex, and their personal circumstances lead them to respond to ‘learning’ in many different ways.

In many parts of the world, schools are not preparing students adequately to be self-motivated learners. Students arriving at institutes of higher learning simply don’t apply themselves to their studies, and they don’t appear to be able to focus themselves in order to do so.

In the context of South African school education in particular, there seems to be a prevalent mind-set that if students don’t succeed, it must be the fault of the teachers. It is a dangerous and insidious mind-set, which can only lead to disappointment in the long run. For centuries, educationalists have recognized that if you want to learn something, it is up to you to learn it. Students with the ability to inquire, and the motivation to inquire, can make it to any level of achievement they set their minds upon. Students without these two prerequisites simply cannot. On leaving school, most students of today seem to have lost these essential attributes. One must ask why.

One possible explanation is that when they are at school, there is too little pressure on them to perform. When this is the case, students learn very quickly that they don’t need to bother to do any work, because they are going to pass anyway. Why should it be any different when they get to a tertiary institute? The world owes them a living. They don’t need to work. So, they don’t. And, when they fail, the educational authorities rush to insist that the teachers and lecturers should be doing more. What about the students doing more?

But, before we blame anybody for this, we have to recognize that a student’s inability to focus cannot be ascribed totally to what happens in school. There are three other major factors that have been implicated in this battle: Upbringing, nutrition, and television/computer games. Space does not permit us to analyse these problems here. It is enough to recognize that they are potential causes of the problem that it is very difficult to motivate certain people to apply themselves to their studies.

Another reason why it is hard to give general advice about motivation is this: if you give your class a really tough challenge, some students will respond well to it, but others might give up before they have even started. People have differing psychological responses to being challenged. What works for one, won’t work for another.

However, allowing for the differences between individuals, experience has shown that there are certain conditions that are generally favourable to developing peoples’ appetite for learning. This book identifies some of these conditions, which apply to learners of all ages.

Learning is basically about improving oneself. Because we all want to take charge of our lives, it is absolutely natural to want to know more, and to seek to develop skills, wisdom and integrity. But, sometimes, we get blocked from striving for personal improvement. There are many circumstances that can get in the way of this happening. Some of them are short term, others longer-lasting. We all know about circumstances like these:

Lack of apparent need to learn.

Laura, 17, is at an expensive private school. She is listless and lethargic. She has everything she ever wanted that money could buy, even a car back home. It is certain that daddy will see to her future prosperity. But, she’s aimless. She couldn’t care less about her studies, and she has no idea what she wants to do when she leaves school.

Peer pressure not to rise above your station.

Leon is 15, black, and bright as a button. He goes to a good school outside his neighbourhood, where he has learnt the value of speaking concisely and clearly. But the boys from his own neighbourhood continually threaten to beat him up because his manner of speech is ‘white’.

Information overload.

Sun Mi, 13, attends middle school for eight hours a day, and goes to an institute for extra tuition from 7.30 to 10.30 pm, six days a week. She does homework until 1 or 2 am every night. There is no organised sport and no extramural activity at her school. It is nothing but cram, cram, cram, all day long. Sun Mi is no longer curious about anything. She displays no initiative, and has forgotten how to be playful.

Gross insecurity about one’s world.

George, 11, grew up in Bosnia. He spent most of his childhood in underground bomb shelters. He has witnessed massacres and violent deaths of family members. He can’t concentrate in school, and always appears distracted and fidgety.

Intrusion of more fundamental needs.

Abu, 12, lives in a remote part of Africa, continually plagued by drought. His father is dead, and there are five mouths to feed, so he has had to leave school and go to work. He can’t manage the time to read, as he is always tired, and often hungry.

Frustration at continually being thwarted.

Belinda, 16, really wants to do well in German, which is her third language.