In an article in the New York Times, two scholars explain how best to motivate people in every line of endeavor. Amy Wrzesniewski is an associate professor of organizational behavior at the Yale School of Management. Barry Schwartz is a professor of psychology at Swarthmore College.
They make a distinction between internal motivation and instrumental motivation. Usually, psychologists contrast intrinsic motivation (the desire to do something well) and extrinsic motivation (the desire to win a reward for doing something well). Intrinsic motivation wins every time. Carrots and sticks may work for animals, but not so well for people. And yet our policymakers continue to pursue punitive policies that threaten students, teachers, and principals, as well as promises of bonuses and rewards. These policies fail and fail again, yet The Bush administration, the Obama administration, and Congress can’t give up their devotion to failed incentives and punishments.
Want to read the research?
Read Daniel Pink’s “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.” Or Edward Deci’s “Why We Do What We Do.” Or Dan Ariely’s “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions.” or Andrea Gabor’s book about W. Edwards Deming, “The Man Who Discovered Quality,” especially the chapter on why performance pay never works.
And be sure to check out the report of a prestigious commission of the National Academies of Science in 2011 that concluded that test-based accountability had produced meager improvement. Education Week summarized its findings: “Nearly a decade of America’s test-based accountability systems, from “adequate yearly progress” to high school exit exams, has shown little to no positive effect overall on learning and insufficient safeguards against gaming the system, a blue-ribbon committee of the National Academies of Science concludes in a new report.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
If a gun pointed at your head is “motivator,” then yes, high stakes exams motivate people.
The Obama White House doesn’t really use the carrot and stick method to achieve their goal of destroying the public schools. They use a bat and there is no carrot. The so called carrot of merit pay is ruse to fool people.
I’m reading an early galley proof of “The Teacher Wars, A History of America’s Most Embattled Profession” by Dana Goldstein.
The book will be released in September 2014, and she documents the fact that merit pay has been used before, and the evidence shows that when merit pay is offered as a carrot, average pay for teachers actually goes down across the board driving out the best teachers who leave because they can’t afford to live off the lower pay.
Goldstein points out with historical evidence that most teachers will never get merit pay and those that do will never get as much merit pay as they were being paid before the merit pay changed the pay structure for teachers.
The carrot of merit pay is a trick used by the fake eduction reformers to destroy the teaching profession and weaken the teachers’ labor union.
There’s more. In the early 20th century, Bill Gates had a counterpart who pushed VAM—actually he used a club to force VAM on the schools, and it failed then and will fail again. Studies back then proved the same thing that studies are poring again—VAM is a sham.
What is happening today in public education is nothing new. This is just an age old war that has raged for almost two hundred years in the United States.
In addition, the birth of teacher labor unions was caused by the robber barons who were destroying public education in the 19th century and again in the early 20th century.
Bill Gates, the Walton family, Eli Broad and the rest of them are clones of the critics of public education back then and they are doing the same thing the previous fake reformers did with the same goal—to lower taxes and control the education industry.
In fact, if Bill Gates is successful in turning kids into automatons through VAM, he will be achieving what his counterpart was attempting to achieve back in the 1930s—raising generations of obedient drones for industry. The only reason that earlier Bill Gates didn’t succeed was because of the teacher labor unions stepping in to protect children, teachers and even principals.
But the labor unions back then, like now, were also susceptible to being corrupted by the previous clones of the Bill Gates produced line of one percenters. The only way to stop that is to elect new leadership that can’t be bought off by a Bill Gates.
Catherine Lomas Scott posted this link a few days ago that should be included in any discussion of teacher bashing: https://theconversation.com/why-were-never-satisfied-with-teachers-8654
Posted this today:
“Those who can do; those who can’t teach.” KrazyTA posted the original quote before it was twisted that was quite inspirational; I wrote it down, and now I can’t find it! One of the teachers whose videos you posted was from close to home in a district that has traditionally been considered quite good. The reform mantra has permeated public education.
None of the private-sector jobs I worked through the years was as demanding and stressful as teaching, and I have never heard anyone I knew who worked in the so-called real world of the private sector experience the same challenges. In fact, I think people who can’t teach end up in factories, warehouses, construction, retail, fast food, as accountants doing taxes, as lawyers going to court, etc.
Those who can’t teach, take all the other jobs outside of teaching and that includes the President of the United States, driving trash trucks an eighteen wheelers, plumbers, electricians, members of Congress, governors, state legislators and school administrators.
I’d love to see Obama and Duncan teaching—for one full year without any sick days off—the kids I taught in ninth grade college prep English at Nogales High School in La Puente, California with no security or Secret Service agents allowed in the classroom. There would just be Obama or Duncan and thirty-four kids behind a closed door. Then less than an hour later, the bell would ring, one class would pour out and then next one would rush in for the next class.
During the Gilded Age was actually that much concern about public education?
In public education there never was a gilded age unless it was after World War II, the Civil Rights era and before NCLB.
In September, “The Teacher Wars, A History of America’s Most Embattled Profession” by Dana Goldstein will be released. If you read it, you will discover what I mean
I’m about half way through reading an advanced galley proof. “The Teacher Wars” is a BIG eye opener for me.
Public Education is been under attack by fake reformers for almost 200 years with little time off for embattled teachers of any generation to actually teach without meddling and pressure from and endless stream of fools and idiots.
Reading this book makes it obvious for me that the U.S. is not friendlily or supportive of public education or teacher and never has been even when the majority of parents approve of what the public schools and teachers who teach their kids do.
We are not the first to resist the idiots and fools I call fake education reformers. We had our counterparts in the 19th and early 20th century who fought similar battles. As a resistance to protect public education, we are following the footsteps of incredible people now dead who fought great battles and won many of them.
Let’s not let their legacy die and be forgotten.
And, that’s why I back Governor Bobby Jindal from LA. At first, he was all for Common Core. Then, as time went on, he learned more about it and is now fighting it. People say it’s politics, as he wants to run for the presidency. I don’t believe that. I think he’s a strong man, and he is willing to go up against anyone, no matter who they are. Kudos to him!
He just wants to be against anything Obama is for. He is sucking up to the Tea Party. I don’t trust him at all.
Best way to motivate people is generally to avoid getting in the way of their natural (intrinsic) motivation. The way we typically “motivate” people crushes any real motivation.
Before you tell someone to do what comes naturally you should know what comes naturally to them.
There is no such thing as a pure, abstracted nature to which something comes one way or the other. We are always situated and determined by that. This play is already underway when we fall into it, and we accommodate, dramatically differently, according to what we encounter.
How can we tell the dancer from the dance?
Well, in fact, we cannot.
In the dances I have personally winessed I had no problem whatsoever telling the indivdual dancers from the dance. I think it helps if you get a seat in one of the rows near the front.
In line with their Potemkin Village Business Model for $tudent $ucce$$—the bidness plan that masquerades as an education model—edupreneurs and edubullies and educrats have their own variant of the “carrot and stick” policy.
Although not promoted in so many words, it’s a slicker version of the old-fashioned 20th century system of reward [few] and punish [many].
Put simply: for the unlucky many who [a la W. Edwards Deming] lose the VAM lottery, for example, sticks and clubs and bludgeons generously applied—“the beatings will continue until morale improves.”
And for the lucky few: sticks and clubs and bludgeons, but with not quite so many visible bruises.
Ergo, for the many losers, a humiliating beat down; for the few winners, a lighter touch on the humiliation and the beat down.
Motivation: strive mightily to secure a lesser drubbing in order to avoid a much greater one.
Said system, of course, NOT to be applied to upper management and owners. Remember: Bill Gates was not subject to the stack ranking he applied to all the lesser mortals under him, i.e., the people who did all the work that garnered him unprecedented amounts of wealth, influence and fame.
Remember: the leading charterites/privatizers believe in the above with all their hearts and souls, not matter what foolish little minds think. *Caveat: as applied to those teaching OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN.*
“You don’t lead people by hitting them over the head — that’s assault, not leadership.” [Eisenhower]
And just what did Eisenhower ever do that qualifies him to talk like that?
😎
Well said Krazy, as a side note, the street gangs understand motivation and leadership in a far more functional sense. I predict they will continue to grow in response to the coming dystopia. All I can say is homesteading and subsistence farming looks like a darn good idea. I really fear for our neediest special needs kids, what kind of future will they have? I worry for my grandchildren.
I’d add Carol Dweck’s Mindset: the Psychology of Success to the list as well.
I think a distinction between research and PR skills in writing are getting mixed up in this list of writers. Pink is the latter, not a basic reasercher except as research citations give credibity to his writing. He was a speechwriter before he started on his series of business books. The business style is a narrative with summaries like…..the four ingrediants of the secret sauce, the ten most important…..the way back from five common…..Readers who operate in the business world thrive on this fare, and so do other readers who want the elaborated narrative…like Cliff notes.
This not to say that the topic of motivation is unimportant, especially if you want kids passionate about learning.
It is nonetheless the case that Pink is right. For noncognitive tasks, extrinsic mechanisms meant to be motivating are typically DEMOTIVATING. There’s a LOT of research on that.
This is one of the most robust findings in educational psychology, and its extraordinarily important that people understand it and why the testing regimen runs afoul of what we know about what motivates and what demotivates.
it’s, not its, of course
” Pink is the latter, not a basic reasercher except as research citations give credibity to his writing. ”
If he is able to convey the findings of basic research in a way that ordinary people or even a specific audience find it accessible than more power to him. There is a reason that basic research is not lining the shelves of the local bookstore or library.
At first I thought you were put off by Pink’s book being listed with the works of academics (although Gabor is not), but then your closing sentence really confused me.
I think one has to differentiate between what motivates students, teachers and others who take pride in and get satisfaction from genuine accomplishment and what motivates businesses engaged in education reform.
Carrots (or rather 100 dollar bills) work quite well for the latter and the quality of the product doesn’t matter because there is zero accountability.
And now, let’s make kids take a bunch of tests for NO REASON AT ALL. Diane: Did you see this? Kansas isn’t going to release ANY scores from this year’s tests because of hacking. What a waste of time and money!!!
http://news.yahoo.com/kansas-wont-release-data-reading-math-tests-172014040.html
clearly
and extraordinarily important
“We must help the child to act for himself, will for himself, think for himself; this is the art of those who aspire to serve the spirit.” – Maria Montessori (Education for a New World, p. 69)
Intrinsic motivation is a fundamental concept of Montessori education. We don’t give grades (except when forced) or awards. The kids happily work because it is meaningful to them. They are self-driven to learn because it is in an environment that is natural to them and considerate of their childhood. Their curiosity is allowed to flourish.
Human beings are hard-wired to learn; it is crucial for our survival. But when adults place children in unnatural settings, with artificial barriers that we have imposed, and do not listen to them as they tell us what they need, they do not thrive.
The biggest question we must start asking ourselves, as a society, is “Why do we continue to blame children for our own failures?”
Reblogged this on College Counseling Culture and commented:
I read Diane Ravitch’s blog every day; it should be required reading for anyone in or concerned about education. This entry looks at ways of motivating people. No surprise, intrinsic motivators are more powerful than extrinsic ones. To the list of books I’d add Alfie Kohn’s Punished by Rewards.