Sorry, everyone, for my late posting. :(  I put too much on my plate this week and subsequently ran out of time to get it all done.  Perhaps you could say I engaged in self-sabotaging behavior by acting as an overstriver engaged in irrational goal setting, and who now feels the need to apologize as a defensive attempt at self-worth protection... (thank you, Covington!).

The first thing I want to address is that I am fortunate to have read work by this week's authors before; in Fall '09 I took RED 700, which was a research readings course focusing on reading comprehension.  There was a small section and a few articles in the handbook about motivation and its connection to students' comprehension; the lit review I completed for that class is what led me to taking this very course, having come to a heightened awareness about the topic of motivation itself.  I read articles by Wigfield, Ryan & Deci then, which explains why I'm more comfortable with the continuum of motivational stages than I am at sifting through the other various theories and models (although with MAB's helpful chart on the wiki, it's all starting to come together - thank you!!!!)  I find their research to be very helpful in negotiating that tricky place in the secondary classroom, when so much of the "tasks" to be completed are less than compelling in design.  To see these theorists subcategorize motivation to allow for greater variance in extrinsic motives certainly helps to move us away from the intrinsic=good/extrinsic=bad framework.  Because talk about setting yourself up for failure by setting unattainable goals - by thinking we can be 100% intrinsically motivated at all times?  No wonder we're all so tired...

I am very intrigued by Covington's (2000) Goals-Cognition-Achievement sequence.  This relationship helped me to really understand the difference between performance goals and learning goals, and to know that "adopting learning goals was positively associated with deep-level processing, persistence, and high effort, a combination that also led to increases in achievement" (p 177). (So I'll be returning to my assignment #1 and changing some of the curriculum lingo). I was also greatly interested in the discussion of prosocial goals as they relate to achievement goals.  It's certainly true: as our kids get older, they are more likely to encounter competition in their classrooms than they are cooperation.  And yet everything we know now about the 21st century skills says we need to prepare them otherwise; that successful adults will work in collaborative settings and not the factory-model work places of the 19th and 20th centuries.  Yet we still structure our classes, curriculum and grading/ranking policies according to individual achievement, reward or punishment.  Of course, isn't that how we manage our teachers, too? 

The purpose of this blog is to reflect about how the readings are informing our practice.  Well I can certainly promise that what I've read thus far is having a huge impact on how I'm thinking about my role in my classroom, in my school and as a member of my faculty.  When going through my day and completing tasks, how am I being motivated?  Am I going through the motions (much like students filling out worksheets because the teacher said so), or am I engaged in serious inquiry, being creative and taking initiative, and acting in self-determined ways?  Reading about this makes me think again about my juniors, from my head-above-water students just passing a Regents-level course to my AP students duking it out for the 98.  How often are they thinking/wondering/questioning "why" they're completing tasks - and if they aren't, why are we questioning it with/for them?

A few years ago I read an excellent book that I'd like to share with you now.  It's called Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids, by Alexandra Robbins. (Click here to link to the author's website.) This book so speaks to the phenomena we're discussing here: how so much of the beauty in learning has gotten lost in the "game" of learning.  This book traces a group of students as they go through a school year as juniors and seniors in high school, engaged in the college search and application processes.  In between narratives following these teens, the author interjects research about our modern culture of schools and all that affects it: over-scheduled kids being shuffled all over town from one practice to the next; the rise in sports-related injuries in young kids; the college-prep industry of tutors, private schools, and personal advisors; standardized exams and cheating, and so on.  I've had several students read this book in the past few years (and all have responded like I did... why, that's our school!), and this summer I assigned it as summer reading for my incoming AP class (we have a summer reading program that asks students to read at least two books from a large selection revised each year with student input; some advanced classes have specific requirements, but I am not one to engage in immediate assessment on Day 1 - I use it more as a chance to set a cultural tone for the class).  I am really excited to hear what the kids have to say.  Not only does it challenge them because they've read almost no nonfiction, but it will allow us to begin the year by addressing some of the issues we're reading about here with motivation.  I hope to model the introspection necessary to consider and perhaps redefine their relationship with learning - as one in which they're deeply involved and in control.  And maybe they can even enjoy it, while they're at it. :)



CovingtonAnnual Review of Psychology, 51, 171-200.

Eccles, J. S. & Wigfield, A. (2002). Motivational beliefs, values and goals. Annual Review of Psychology, 2002, 53, 109-32.

Robbins, Alexandra. (2006). Overachievers: The secret life of driven kids. Hyperion.

Ryan, R. M. & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, 54-67.