Pink argues that the three main areas we can focus on to cultivate intrinsic motivation lies in three areas: autonomy, mastery, and self-purpose. He argues that human beings have an innate inner drive to "be autonomous, self-determined, and connected to one other." Much of the first chapters summarize interesting examples of experiments or case studies that demonstrate this truth- monkeys fiddling with puzzles even when no award was offered (presumably because they enjoyed it), or companies whose profitability and innovative productivity soared when workers were released to work on whatever project interested them rather than be limited to their job description. When these needs of autonomy and self-direction are met, productivity increases precisely because of our desire for mastery. Quality and richness of life also demonstrably increases.
Many leaders of companies, and perhaps teachers "incentivized" to meet performance standards for standardized exams, exert so much control that autonomy and self-direction is severely limited. Yet many psychological studies show that when a bit more freedom is given, performance increases even in the absence of reward.
Pink gives many interesting work-place examples. Often the examples he gives involves companies (one example is Meddius, a computer software and hardware company) with a "ROWE" structuring plan- a "results only work environment." In these environments, people don't have schedules and are free to show up when they choose, so long as the work gets done.
I'm not sure that so much autonomy could be given to an undergraduate classroom as to not require them to show up. But perhaps less emphasis should be placed on attendance? I wonder what would happen if students' grades did not have points deducted because of lack of attendance. Conventional thinking would seem to say that if we did not have their attendance count for 10% of their grade, well, no one would show up. It might be interesting to tell people that on a certain day, they could choose to come or not come, and see who shows up anyway. Or to not consider presence in itself part of attendance policy, but rather placed emphasis on what the student did while present (more of a participation grade).
This of course would be difficult to do in a large enrollment course. This is one read that at our university large enrollment courses are split up into smaller sections once a week for "discussion" sections, like the one I lead.
Regardless of how attendance policies are structured, it is important to cultivate a classroom environment that results in a desire to attend class because it is interesting and dynamic- not because they "have" to go.
One way that autonomy is often respected in college courses is through the research paper. Because students select their own topic, they take ownership in the task of learning about their subject of choice. If possible, an effort should be made to learn about the individual student's passions and interests and apply those to the research project, even if an immediate connection isn't readily apparent.
For example, last semester we had a student who loved video games. "Why don't you write a paper on video game music?" They came up with a great bibliography full of interesting and scholarly sources.
This semester, we are focused on music from about 1700-1880. I have one student who is interested in medicine and wasn't sure what her topic should be. After talking about it with me, she settled on writing a paper about how Beethoven's lack of hearing impacted his compositional choices. Another student is writing a paper on Yankee Doodle. This wouldn't necessarily be a "typical" topic for a course on classical music, but the way she's shaped the paper, it's going to work find, and I can guarantee you she'll be more engaged in writing this paper than she would if we insisted she analyze a Mozart sonata.
I had an undergraduate professor who let me write a paper on the film score of Lord of the Rings as opera, and I was so thankful that he allowed me to write that paper. I learned more about opera by writing that paper than ever would have if my topic had been over Don Giovanni.
Another very successful way we have given autonomy to students is by allowing them to be teachers themselves. In a course at our university centered around acquiring critical listening skills by analyzing musical parameters such as sound, harmony, melody, rhythm, and growth, we ask for "student volunteers" to choose any piece of music they'd like and present it to the class. The students are responsible for breaking these parameters down and explicating them to the class. No extra credit is given. In fact, no grade is given at all, and these student presentations are completely optional. Yet, the response is often overwhelming. Sometimes, so many students volunteer we have really limit the length of their presentations so as to not eat in too much to the course calendar.
All of these examples underscore the importance of autonomy in college classrooms. Some students may come from a background in which they received comparatively little personal autonomy in their education, and trusting them with a little freedom to direct their own study has the potential to really increase their intrinsic motivation.
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