Motivation
and the brain
The
controlling vs. Expression paradigm
An
all-too- common question often asked is “ how do you motivate participants ?”
the answer is both simple and complex. First of all, even the question shows a
misunderstanding of the real nature of motivation. The human brain loves to
learn. In fact, its survival depends on leaning. Learners have already
motivated themselves for much of their life. Their brains have hungrily
absorved information, integrated it, made mearning out of it, remembered it and
used it at the appropriate moment thousands of times. Therefore the question, “
how do I motivate participants,” says more about the asker than the
participants.
One
thing it says about the asker is,that their context for asking is not learning,
it’s control. The question they are really asking is, “ how can i control their
behavior ? the truth, the real answer, will make no sense in the paradigm or
context of control. You have to leave the to get an answer that makes sense. Is
your paradigm that your job is to be a learning catalyst ( one who lights a
fire for learning ) or that of a “ presenter “ ( one who stands and
delivers-once the participants are under control ) ? in the paradigm of a
presenter , there are many ways to motivate temporarily. In the paradigm of a
learning catalyst, its a moot question. After all, in brain- based learning
environment, the learners are already motivated-just the way they already were
before walking to class. Management guru Dr. Deming said that “ all human being
are born with intrinsic motivation. They don’t need someone to stand over them
and motivate them.
The
folly of labeling learners
The
unmotivated learner is myth. Rarely are the most motivating conditions for
learning met in a typical context. This may explain why so many have been
labeled as “underachievers” or uninterested. To even arrive at business or a
classroom requires some sort of motivation. It may be positive or negative, but
it has gotten them there. Once the learner is in the seat, either they are
bringing a new strong motivating attitude with them or the presenter need to
eicit one. The demotivated learner’s negative belief and behaviors are usually
triggered or reinforced by an artificial, unresponsive school environment.
Identifying, classifying, grouping, labeling,evaluating, comparing, and
assessing these demotivated learners has done little to solve the problem.
There
is no such thing as an unmotivated learner
There
are, however, temporary unmotivated
states
That
schools, presenters on the participants
Themselves
can trigger
Each
learner is either motivated from within ( intrinsic ) on from the outside (
extrinsic). All of the following de-motivate learners and drive out of them any
possibility of instrinsic motivation.
·
Coercion, control and manipulation
·
Weak, critical or negatively competitive
relationship
·
Infrequent or vague feedback
·
Outcome base earning
·
Inconsistent policies and rules
·
Top-down management and policy making
·
Repetitive, rote learning
·
Sarcams, put-down and criticism
·
The perception or irrelevant content
·
Boring, single-media presentation
·
Reward systems of any kids
·
Teaching in just one or two of the
multiple intelligences
·
Systems that limit reaching personal
goals
·
Responsibility without authority
·
Hopelessness in achieving academic
success
Most
presenter use both instrinsic and extrinsic forms of motivation. As a resut
much of the good thing that are done by a presenter are undermined by themselve
or others. The obvious choice is to have your learners motivated mostly from
within. To do that, it btakes a more brain based approach. The researcher on
motivation is both powerful and persuasive.
The
school environment for the most learnersis quite antagonistic towards the
brain. Educators would iteraly be astonished by the motivated learning
accomplished in a brain compatible environment
Should
the environment be all smiles hugs and easy grades ? absolutely not. The brain
thrives on challenges and variety. Stanford bioogists separated amoebae
cultures into three petri dishes. One was the control, the ohther gave the
amoebae and abundance of food, ight and heat. The third gave the amoebae enough
of each but not excessive. In fact the am ounts were randomy varied. You might
guess the results : the third amoebae
culture developed the strongest and lived longest. Can you apply that to
our own environment ? maybe : don’t punish the participants excesssively or
make everything so easy they never grow. When learners are required to figure
it out, to earn what they get and develop themselves, they will grow more.
Instrinsic
vs extrinsic motivation
Motivation
refers to the state within a person or animal that drives behavior toward some
goals ( Morgan and King 1986 )
Motivation
refers to all the internal conditions that stir up activity and sustain
activity of an individual. ( Guliford 1967 )
Motivation
can be described as "goal to be achieved through certain behaviors “ (
Cropley 1985 )
Much
of the extrinsic motivation charactheristic originate in the home life.
Feuerstein says extrinsically –motivated learners tend to avoid dissatisfaction
by focusing on the ease, comfort , safety and security afforded in non task
conditions. “ each of those factors has
been identified as being ‘ culturally responsive “. Translated this means ,
they were brought up that way. While we have ittle influence on those factors,
we can influence others. Organize learning around the way the brain naturally
ikes to learn. Researcher bishop makes
the distinction very well :
“
young people are not lazy. In their jobs after school and on the football
field, they work very hard. In these environments they are part of the team
where individual efforts are visible and appreciated byteammates. Competition
and rivalry are not absent, but they are offset by shared goals, shared suksek
and external measures of achievement on the sports field , there is no greater
sin than giving up, even when the score is hopelessly one- sided. On the job,
tasks not done by one worker will generally have to be completed by another.
When
a learner drops out of scholl, he is not unmotivated, he just wanted a more
responsive environment, which the world outside of school’s cimate. Poicies,
presenter methodoogies and systems, we can keep the focus on earning and hook
learners in for a lifetime.
Let’s
say a learner seems unmotivated all week long. Presenters say that he has no
motivation or concentration . but on Saturday he has guitar lessons. He
practices for hours without any bribe or external motivation. This activity
make quite a statement about how much the brain love to learn.
There
is a great deal of disagreement among researchers regarding what promotes
intrinsic motivation. In fact an
interesting question is “ should 100 %
intrinsic motivation even be desired ? many would say no . regardless, here are
characteristics of intrinsically motivated
learners. They :
- Seek
to exercise control over their environment
- Seek
stimulation, activity and incongruities
- Have
little or few feelings of inferiority
- Have
high self- concept and contextual beliefs
- Prefer
chalenge, problem-solving and novelty
- Have
high expectations of success
- Get
satisfaction from responsibility and achievement
- Have
strong self efficacy to maintain
Feelings
of competenceand self determination
This
list can suggest many strategies for developing greater motivation. But other
condition can be developed in a earning context, many of which are relatively
simple to do. This is important to realize, especially since “ actual ability
is relatively independent of motivational determinants of achievement “, says
feuerstein. Drawing from the combined work ofthe authors singer, glasser,
lozanov, hart,wlodlowski, murphy and donovan, we can outine what thebrain needs
for optimal motivation :
Condition
and strategies for eiciting intrinsic motivation
1. Meet
perceived need and goals
The
brain is disigned biologically to survive. It will learn what it needs to earn
to survive. Make it a top priority to discover what needs your earners have and
engage those needs. If participants need what you have,they are interested. If
the content reates to the students own personal life, they are interested . for
example, six- year old participants have higher needs for security, predictability
and presenter acceptance than a 14 year old learner. Their need are more likely
to be peer acceptance, a sense of importance and hope. An 18 year oold learner
is more interested in autonomy and independence. Use what’s appropriate for the
age level of your participants.
2. Provide
control and choice
Creativity
and choice allow the earner to express and feel vaued. The opposite of this
manipulation, coercion and contro. Control and choice lowers stress and drawa
out what the learner realy wants to do and learn
3. Positive
social bonding
This
comes in many forms : a presenter they like, a classmate they like or partners
and teams they like. Again this reduces helpness and stress
4. Curiosity
We
all know that inquiring minds want to know thats the nature of the human brain
keep engaging curiosity-it works! Newspaper tabloids and electronics tabloids
have played off our curiosity for years. Witness all the stories about elvis,
aliens, charles and diana, o.j simpson, ceebrities and UFOs
5. Engage
strong emotions
Engage
emotions productively with compelling stories, games, personal examples,
celebrations, rore-play , debates, rituals, music, we are driven to act upon our emotions
because they are compelling decision-makers.
6. Nutrition
Better
nutrition means alertness. Learn about
how we think, learn and want to improve. Write up a list of suggestions, give
to participants or parents or both. Suggest specipic brain food ( eggs, fish, nuts, leafy dark green
vegetables, appleas, bananas and others mentioned essewhere in this book ).
7. Use
multiple intelligences
They
can really hook learners in : spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal,
verbal-linguistic , intrapersonal, musical- rhythmic, mathematical- logical .we
are particularly motivated when we can do something in an area that we have
already developed as one of our seven inteligences.
8. Success
stories
How
have past participants done ? what obstaces have they overcome to sukses ? any
famous ? any who have made major contribution ? these stories form structure that
creates a mythology of success. Just walking on to the campus of a famous
university like oxford, harvard, stanford ,wharton or notre dame can elicit
feelings of motivation.
9. Acknowledgments
These
include assemblies, certificates, group notices, team reports, peers who give
compliments, presenters who praise appropriately. These give the brain positive
associations which continue to fuel further actions.
10. Frequency
of feeback
Make
it your part-time job to make sure
earners get far more feedback each class, use peers, charts, discussion, peer
presenting, projects, rore-play. The all- time best way to motivate the brain
is with information: immediate and dramatic
11. Physiological
states
Learn
to read and manage states. There is no such thing as an unmotivated earner,
only unmotivated states. Elicit anticipation and challenge states. Learn to
manage your own states to get the best out of yourself.
12. Provide
hope of success
Learners
need to know that’s it’s possible for them to succeed. Regardless of the obstacles
or how far behind, hope is essential. Dr. Gelenberg of the university of
arizona anddr. Jerome frank of johns hopkins strongly belief that hope works
like a powerful drug and is essential to restoring demoralization.
13. Role
model joy of learning
Sinceover
99 % of all learning is non conscious, the more you get excited about learning,
the more motivated your learners are likely to be excited
14. Celebrations
These
include peer acknowledgment, parties, food, hi- five’s, chers, etc. These
create the atmosphere of success and can trigger the release of endorphins
thats boost futher learning
15. Physically
and emotionally safe
The
environment should be emotionally safe to make mistakes and physicallly safe
from hazards or other participants. Safe to ask any question and safe to make
contributions. Physical needs met for lighting, water, food. Movement and
seating.
16. Use
learners learning style
Provide
both choice in how learners learn and diversity in what your offer. By
appealing to the learners best strategies you will make it more accessiblle.
17. Positive
beliefs
Reinforce
to learners that they can succeed and can do this particular task. Discover
what those beliefs are as soon as posible and work to affect them positively.
All
of the items mentioned above cost nothing and they work. It is certainly more
preparation and work initially, to create a climate of instrinsic motivation,
but it pays off in the long run. Presenters who rely on extrinsic motivation
may be vastly underestimating three things :
1. The
power of their influence
2. The
disire of the learner to be instrinsically motivated
3. The
long term ease in doing it
combining
these, an example might be : learners working on a team, with no academic
grades as a threat, with members they like , choosing how to solve a problem on
a arger personallly meaningful project, with a moderate, but not constricting,
time deadline in a rich, stimulating environment.
Much
learning occurs as a by product of another activity
In
research by wentzel, it was found that optimal learning does not necessarily
require massive motivation. Often, when participants who would not ordinarily
be engaged. Focus on their own self-determination, learning becomes the positive by –product. Ford says
multiple social context provide greater oppotunities for learner goal
attainment and satisfaction. In fact the argument is made that the learners
brain is in a better state for learning when traditional learning is disquised.
In other words, in areas where the learning is a by product of the activity the
learner may excel the most. Multiple contexts for learning are also powerful.
Lozanov utilized games role play and
peripherals to immerse the lerner in an environment in which the learning was
usually only a by product of all ese that was going on
Emotions
are essential key to motivation
Utilizing
the whole brain approach, acknowledging both eft and right hemisphere learning,
says levy “ respects the inseparability of cognition and emotion. She adds that by purposefully engaging your
learners in meaningful emotional processess, you will tap into more of the
students brain
A
top researcher on emotions N.H Fridja says that understanding learner emotions
is one of the key to motivation. Although the presence ofemotions doesn’t
guarantee the content of the problem, it tells the brain this is important pay attention ! emotions
influences.
·
Selective attention
·
Event interpreatation
·
Motivation
·
Prediction
·
Recall
·
Decision-making
·
Problem solving
·
Learning
When
strong emotions are engaged,they so flavor the human experience that the
learner is unable to brimg anything else to conscious attention. Unlike a
typical cognitive thought, once emotions are fully engaged they can not be
hidden or made non consciously without a great degree of effort. In other words, while some learners may be able
to temporarily ignore a powerful emotion for a few minutes, it does need to
have a form of expression. How often are earners distracted from learning by
previous arguments in the halls, at home or in the school playgrounds ?
Emotion run the brain most of the time not our cortex
. lets say that you know that you should do an errandor make a phone call or
pay a bill. You have all the reasons to
do it. Buy you still put it off. For how
long ? until you feel like doing it. Domasio says that emotion and ogic are so
interwoven, we should not even attem;pt to untangle them. His research suggests
taht it’s a bilological survival function to use the emotions to pursue better
decision making strategies.
What
this means to you : by learning to manage our own emotion, we can stay better
motivated to be at our best . by enpowering out learners to be able to manage
their own emotions, they too canbecome self motivated.
Actively
pursue emotion engaging startegies sush as drama, suspense and celebration.
Utilize emotions as an ally and powerful strategy for learning. The evidence is
strong that it will pay off. Becautious, however. Make sure to be aware of any
participants with emotional disturbances.
Choice
remains critical to maintainig motivation
Should
learners be told what to do or should they be given choice? The answer partly
depends on the age of the learner. Regardless of age, however, most learners
are given little choice in their learning situations, which are organized,
routed, facilitated and structured for them by others. That is not good,
according to the research teams of deci and ryan and deci valerrand, pelletier
and ryan.
When
participant are given control over the content and process of their learning,
motivation goes up, say mager and Mc. Cann. But to motivate learners, it is
important to allow them to make choices about personally relevant aspects of a
leaning activity. Students need to be able to align self determined goals with instructional
goals.
In
addition learners who tend to focus more on funand frienship may be abe to be
engaged when there are ample oppurtunities for self determination and peer
interaction. Says wentzel. These provide ways to meet personal goals and to
some degree instructional goals, in other words the more ways the goals can
serve the learners own agendas, the better.
These
are ways to tap into llearning. Excitement and participation levels for many
learners who appear to be unmotivated. Help learners to become more aware of
their own personal, academic, health, socia, athletic, and career goals. A
learner is often wiling to work on a team project because there is another
person on the project that he likes and woud like to get to know better.
What
this means to you :
Design
instructional experiences that allow fore more ways for learners to meet their
own goals. They need ways to show off, meet new people, be an expert in
something, grow, get in shape or become well respected. Implement as many of
the optima motivating conditions possible as much of the time as possiblle.
Avoid nlabeling any learners as a low or unmotivated learner until he has had
the consistent experience of optimal conditions and the chance to prove
himself.
