I first came across Daniel Pink in his TED Talk speaking about motivation whilst thinking about systems of rewards in education, his Google Talk focuses on the same area. His focus is business, but much of his thinking rings true for education.

Some points to consider, with some educational thoughts-

We do things for our own sake because they are interesting- intrinsic motivation.

40 years of research in behavioural science shows that carrot and sticks work, but in narrow bands- in other situations they do harm.

Incentives work for tasks requiring mechanical skill. When rudimentary cognitive skill is needed, incentives decrease performance.

Practitioner offering rewards for the best piece of work/completion of work on time- you lose nothing if the work is not your best or not completed on time.

Punishment may encourage poor behaviour. Punishment becomes the ‘payment‘- this is worth paying to break the social convention of the community.

Lateness- late detention signals that the convention is not met by all, payment for breaking the convention outweighs the ‘risk’.

For work that is simple carrot and stick motivation techniques work.

Money is a motivator, but people have to be paid enough- when people are paid enough they concentrate on their work.

What motivates people?

Autonomy – freedom to be active and engaged, without carrot and sticks. i.e. 20% time at Google.

We have an urge for self-direction and autonomy.

Allow students to choose their own focus and topics- showing back their results.

Staff CPD inset?

Mastery – our desire to get better at something. The biggest motivator for an individual is making progress.

Purpose- we want to be part of a purpose that is larger than ourselves.

Infrastructure

I’m lucky to work in a school where we have a stable network, that has been maintained and developed over the last ten years by a great set of support staff.

Still to be persuaded on the VLE- but I’m keeping an open mind.

Administration

Technology has had a huge impact on the time needed to complete administration tasks.

Teaching and Learning

How I prepare to teach, and the media I use when teaching, have been influenced by technology.

Though technology has changed the format and materials I use  to ‘present’ lessons, access to I.C.T. resources still limits the experimental type learning that I would like to use within the classroom.

Professional Development

One of the greatest impacts of technology upon  my professional development over the last ten years, has been the ability to access the resources and views of other practitioners.

It leaves me reflecting on the impact that technology might have over the next ten years…

So for the last year, ten areas that I need to improve within my practice and professional life-

I need to be less controlling- practitioners need a classroom ‘presence’, this control exists within the classroom because of detailed planning and long-term behaviour management. A major proportion of my practice is somewhat traditional, but I think I need to create time and space for students to work independently of my presence, the so called holy grail of independent learning.

I struggle with group work- It still fills me with fear, and I know it doesn’t reflect my preference of intrapersonal learning. I think this is linked to control; I struggle with the dynamics of successful groupings, ensuring ‘on task’ time, and the monitoring of quality. I need to observe other successful classroom practice in the near future and begin to incorporate this into my own.

I like students to ‘do’ more- I really enjoy kinaesthetic-type learning activities, and it’s something that I’ve been slowing incorporating into my practice, but once term time begins I find it increasingly difficult to spend the time needed to prepare for such activities.

I need to be more challenging- working in a truly comprehensive establishment with mixed ability classes, I have to ensure that lessons are accessible; though I think I’m still not challenging students. I like to incorporate a more challenging range of activities into my practice, to take students’ out of their comfort zones.

I’d like students to take the control of I.C.T. – I think I use I.C.T. effectively within my whole class practice, but I want to develop more tasks where students use I.C.T. to solve problems, report and present their findings.

I want to develop more depth to students’ work- irrespective of ability, I haven’t spent enough time helping students construct and develop arguments; part of this requires an AFL approach.

I need to be more rigorous with my feedback- one of the areas that I feel I’ve made progress with this year is my marking- I’ve set time aside during my PPA to regularly mark a set of books, but I still need to be more specific in my geographical feedback to students to help aid their progression.

I like to get out more- as a geographer it should be a done thing, but I would like to make greater use of outside learning, particularly around the campus where I work.

I haven’t solved my homework issue- a continuing issue for me, see previous post.

I need to develop a thicker skin- I need to be more resilient in the face of professional challenges, something which I struggle with, I get disheartened easily.

I feel better now; have a drink on my behalf… Welcome 2010

I think over this period my career has taken three phases

Establishing- at the start of my career I was establishing myself as a teacher, coping with demands that this entails.

Engaging- after the challenges of establishing myself within the classroom, I think I then began to engage with the wider subject community- in part to enhance my practice and as an opportunity to seek external challenges.

Refocusing- external engagement encouraged me to evaluate my practice within the classroom, now that the challenges of establishing myself had subsided, I began to focus on the quality and effectiveness of learning opportunities. During this time internal challenges developed, that I was able to engage with, this somewhat limited the time that I had to work with other external partners.

I now feel comfortable in the role of an ‘educator’, but over the last two years, for personal reasons, I feel I have lost the confidence to engage with challenges both internally and externally, it’s something I hope to rediscover over the next year…

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