What really motivates us? Once basic money is off the table (i.e. get enough to buy the basics), there are really three main things that drive us:
1. Autonomy: We like to be self-directed. Pink says employers should realize their employees probably want to do something interesting; they just need to get out of their way.
2. Mastery: It is fun and satisfying to get really good at something (i.e. learning the guitar, working on open source software).
3. Purpose: We want to feel we are doing something important with our lives. Additionally, when the profit motive is not aligned with the purpose motive, bad things happen - a common problem in healthcare!
1. Autonomy: We like to be self-directed. Pink says employers should realize their employees probably want to do something interesting; they just need to get out of their way.
2. Mastery: It is fun and satisfying to get really good at something (i.e. learning the guitar, working on open source software).
3. Purpose: We want to feel we are doing something important with our lives. Additionally, when the profit motive is not aligned with the purpose motive, bad things happen - a common problem in healthcare!
What consequences does this have in education?
I think these apply very well to a teacher’s life, and explain why we will push ourselves very hard - we enjoy our autonomy, we enjoy mastering our skills, and our high level purpose is fulfilling. However, what we don't like is when others try and tell us what to do (i.e. Junta de Andalucía, politicians, other teachers, parents, students), when we are told to master something we don't particularly enjoy (i.e. not all teachers love doing millions of continuous formation courses especially when they are really useless), and when we start feeling like our purpose is to fill loads of papers - bureocracy - instead of focusing on students.
As for students, I think this theory helps explain why we fail so often at helping them. They need to feel they are doing it themselves (autonomy), they need to find something they enjoy mastering (a lot of students don't like homework), and they need to see a tighter link between their actions and their ultimate "purpose" (which is likely to pass their tests).
So as we talk about further doing continuous formation courses, changing constantly our methodology, reforming our educational programmes again and again, and changing the very nature of teaching... let's remember both students and teachers are still human, and will be driven by these old motivations. In other words, when making a change... think deeply about how you can best align autonomy, mastery and purpose - and you will clearly improve your chances of success!
As for students, I think this theory helps explain why we fail so often at helping them. They need to feel they are doing it themselves (autonomy), they need to find something they enjoy mastering (a lot of students don't like homework), and they need to see a tighter link between their actions and their ultimate "purpose" (which is likely to pass their tests).
So as we talk about further doing continuous formation courses, changing constantly our methodology, reforming our educational programmes again and again, and changing the very nature of teaching... let's remember both students and teachers are still human, and will be driven by these old motivations. In other words, when making a change... think deeply about how you can best align autonomy, mastery and purpose - and you will clearly improve your chances of success!
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” (George Bernard Shaw)
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