"Type I behavior depends on three nutrients: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Type I behavior is self directed. It is devoted to becoming better and better at something that matters. And it connects that quest for excellence to a larger purpose."
One of my favorite teacher quotes is "We're not in it for the income, we're in it for the outcome". I would argue that this is true for most teachers that I know. We joined this profession because we want to have a purpose in life and to make a difference in the lives around us. The feeling of having a purpose is a huge motivational factor. Pink describes a study done by some U of R students that highlighted the difference between "profit goals" and "purpose goals". To do this, they studied a group of adults who had been out in the "real world" for 1-2 years. It turned out that the people who sought after "profit goals" were no more satisfied with their lives as they were when they were students. Some even showed greater signs of anxiety and depression. Contrarily, the adults who pursued "purpose goals" and went after jobs that had meaning to them, "reported higher levels of satisfaction and subjective well-being than when they were in college, and quite low levels of anxiety and depression". (pg.141) It is natural for humans to seek purpose in their lives and in their work. Purpose is a huge driving factor in what we do and how we do it. I think as teachers we can and should infuse this idea of purpose into every lesson that we teach. Students will have more of an investment in their learning if they understand why it is important to learn. We need to shift from "how will we learn this?" to "why we are learning this". |
In addition to autonomy and purpose, mastery, is the third part in the motivational 3.0 trifecta. Mastery is a critical component to motivation because it is the pursuit of this mastery that builds so much character. Mastering something is not easy. It takes determination, effort, deliberate practice, and a lot of time. Some would argue that you can never really achieve mastery, but you can sure get close to it. If one makes the effort to master something then it means that is something they really care about and that they're willing to work for. This pursuit takes more than intelligence and strength, it takes true grit- "defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals". (pg.122) A large part of the idea of mastery is flow.
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, describes "flow" as a state of mind in which humans are most satisfied. Flow is when one participates in an experience that is neither too easy, nor too difficult. Goals are clear (and attainable) and feedback is immediate. "It was a notch or two beyond his current abilities, which stretched the body and mind in a way that made the effort itself the most delicious reward." In other worse, during flow, people are doing something that is interesting, challenging, and exciting, but not so beyond their reach that they would feel anxious or stressed about not achieving the goal. "In flow, people lived so deeply in the moment, and felt so utterly in control, that their sense of time, place, and even self melted away....they were engaged." It makes sense that this feeling would be motivating. Why wouldn't someone want to be "in flow" and feel under control but challenged and engaged at the same time? Tasks that are too easy cause boredom and tasks that are too difficult cause stress. If companies designed their programs so that their employees were experiencing flow while they worked, their "work flow" would be excellent. Csikszentmihalyi did an experiment in the 1970's where he essentially removed flow from people's lives and studied their reactions. He found that when taking the "flow" out of people's lives, they almost immediately become sluggish, agitated, and had a general deterioration in mood. From this, we learned how necessary flow is to our lives. Csikszentmihalyi also found that people generally experience flow much more often in a state of work than in a state of leisure. I completely connected to this section of the text. Often times the first week or summer when I am off my normal week's routine, I feel sluggish, unmotivated, and irritable. My mind and body has this strong need to be doing, learning, and accomplishing during the day. My usual way of fighting off these feelings (of sluggishness and irritability) is by going for a jog... which makes so much sense now. I'm not a runner, jogging is a challenge for me, but I can do it, and it feels great when I'm done. I'm experiencing "flow".
The last part of the book is a Toolkit for being a Type I type of person. I especially enjoyed reading the sections on self motivation, Ten ideas for helping our kids, and tips for getting and staying motivated to exercise. A couple of things really stuck with me from this section. The first one asked you if someone were to describe your life in a sentence, what would you want it to sound like? This is excellent because it helps us define our idea of what our purpose should be in life, what we want to contribute to the world, and how we want to be remembered. We're not all going to make as huge of an impression as Martin Luther King Jr., but we all can make a difference. I know personally, I want to touch the lives of my students, and foster a love for learning into their lives. I want to be a loving wife and mother one day. I want to eventually work with other teachers and help them to be the best teachers they can be. It is very humbling to think about your life in that sense. What would your sentence be?
Another big take away I got from this section is just simply providing purpose for our students. Helping them understand why their learning is important and how they can apply it to the real world. I also loved the idea of doing a "FedEx Day" each trimester rather than doing 20% time projects all year long. I think it might serve my class better in this format. I also loved the idea of giving my students opportunity to achieve mastery by teaching their peers. This is a very powerful skill for students.
Another big take away I got from this section is just simply providing purpose for our students. Helping them understand why their learning is important and how they can apply it to the real world. I also loved the idea of doing a "FedEx Day" each trimester rather than doing 20% time projects all year long. I think it might serve my class better in this format. I also loved the idea of giving my students opportunity to achieve mastery by teaching their peers. This is a very powerful skill for students.
Overall, I found the book Drive by Daniel Pink to be interesting, informative, and helpful. It made me reflect and think a lot about my life and the lives of people around me. It made me constantly ask, "how can I apply this to the classroom?", and in general, it just made a lot of sense! (I used the motivational posters that Pink described at the end of the book because I thought they were oh-so-appropriate for showcasing key ideas from this book about motivation.)
http://diy.despair.com/
http://diy.despair.com/
- Pink, D. H. (2009). Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. New York, NY: Riverhead Books.