We had an online discussion in my class the other day regarding student motivation. What an outstanding topic!!! In education, we spend millions of dollars and hours on the newest crazes. Here is a list of some education buzzwords, old and new:
outcomes-based education
common core
National standards
flipped classroom
graphic organizers
authentic assessment
formative assessment
ACT
SAT
Block scheduling
rigor and relevance
portfolios
Standards-based grading
multiple intelligences
cooperative learning
rubrics
NCLB
IPADS
accomodation
constructivism
IEP
EDP
manipulatives
etc, etc, etc
Very few of these in my experience (20 years! now) have made our job any easier. I have been able to spend a couple of days in the last month with 14 VERY motivated learners. They are all 11-12 grade students who are interested in research for science. Teaching them is easy. It would not matter if you used SBG, OBE, IPADS, or if they had an EDP or IEP because they WANT to learn and love to learn.
Today's education focuses on things like learning targets and standards. So, I have for the first time put all of our "learning targets" on the board. They stay there for the whole unit. Our test is now ONLY over those learning targets. In fact, each LT has it's own question or set of questions that are grouped together on the test. So, this should make education so much easier, right? All students know what we are doing each day, what we are doing it for, and what the test (sorry, summative assessment) will be about at the end of the unit. They should all have no problem getting an A in the class and for sure passing the class. I have done all of this extra work to help them INCLUDING ALLOWING THEM TO REDO ANY PART OF THE TEST THEY NEED TO! So, this should make education easier right?
No, unfortunately, no. All of this has not really changed grades in 9th grade biology, 11th grade anatomy or AP biology much at all. Maybe a hard-working student who needed direction learns more because they study and redo the test but that is about it. In our school, we had just as many 9th graders fail first semester as we did last year before all these changes. We have had just as many students fail anatomy (an ELECTIVE!) as before. Why? None of all of this gobbledy-gook has changed the real problem in education (a problem that has been present since the beginning, I am sure!). Unmotivated students. I spend 90% of my time trying to "help" students who really dont want help but need to pass to move to 10th grade. So, what is the answer? Our politicians threaten us with NCLB and reduced funding if we don't get unmotivated students to pass.
Where is the outcry from teachers for PD on motivating students? Where is the outcry from administrators to provide PD on motivating students? I have not yet found a university class on student motivation and ideas for doing this. Much of our PD is on motivating TEACHERS! We dont need motivation. We need to motivate students. If we can find a way to motivate them, all other problems go away.
