I have been struggling with motivation these last couple of days. Not only personally but professionally and more specifically with my students. I struggle everyday to motivate my students to work. Everyone I talk to always seems shocked that kids don't want to work in the art room. They always say "When I was younger and I had art, you couldn't stop me from working on the project." Some of my students are not this way, they just don't see the value in putting in the effort. This morning I listened to my TED talks on my drive to school, which I do everyday I'm not chatting with my dad, and I had the joy of listening to Dan Ariely discuss motivation. While his discussion was particularly on the the motivation of people at work, I began to think how can I use this research to motivate and inspire my students.
I began to ask questions like; do you think that giving the students an opportunity to be apart of their learning, to feel like their learning has weight (more weight than just a grade) do you think this could inspire more motivation in them? Do you think if we stopped giving the students power points to copy down and worksheets to fill in the blanks that we MIGHT motivate them more? All of the evidence out there states that the old way of teaching is just that old. It's antiquated and out of date, these students are not inspired by the old way of doing things. Just like the old way of managing and treating employees is out of date and doesn't inspire high work ethic, the old way is not inspiring our students. We have to change this and the art room has to be the first place to demonstrate this change.
Yes! Dive in!
ReplyDeleteI think authenticity is severely overlooked in all facets of public education. The question is asked so often ("why are we doing this?") that we don't even bother to give it an answer anymore. We tell kids that they are doing it because they have to, to get a grade, to graduate, so that they can pass a test, etc. None of that matters to them. None of it.
When we start to figure out what matters to kids and meet them there with our curriculum, then it clicks. Then it lasts through the summer and into the next year, where they will use what you taught them as it is embedded in their new world view to learn even more.