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Showing posts with label Book Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book Review. Show all posts

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation: Daniel Pink Gets It Right


Courtesy of Google Images

The question of performance rewards for teachers and studentssurfaces from time to time. Do you remember the neighborhood kids whose parents  paid for allAs on a report card?

Most of us think that money talks when it comes to motivation.Daniel Pink is telling us it doesn’t and why. Pink writes in Drive that the best way to encouragehigh performance is to allow people to take charge of their own work, toinitiate and create, and to improve. Amazingly, this results in highsatisfaction as well.

Pink’s research is irrefutable. Get rid of the carrots andsticks and give people an environment in which they can create and explore. Weall want to be part of something bigger and greater than we are. Move overDilbert! Look out Charlie Brown! Give students the tools they need - not Summerhill,but Mountainbrook (Google’s headquarters.)

New Hierarchy of Student Needs:

Autonomy: People want to have control over their work.

Mastery: People want to get better at what they do.

Purpose: People want to be part of something that is bigger than they are.

For more information read:
 http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Surprising-Truth-About-Motivates/dp/1594484805/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332958091&sr=1-1

Watch the TED Talk:http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html



The Culture Code



While we’re thinking about educational reform, and lookingto countries that have high-achieving students, perhaps we should take a stepback and determine whether these ideas will work in America. Clotaire Rapailleprovides an interesting inspection of the things that make us tick as a nationin his book, The Culture Code.  Slice through the author’s braggadocio and you’llfind some worthwhile information to help us understand our motivations.

Rapaille has studied and defined “culture codes” fordifferent aspects of American life. I’ve wondered about some of these issuesbefore, mainly because I feel out of step with them. I’m not a mall shopper,for instance, but I understand that shopping is about “reconnecting with life,”Rapaille’s code for U.S. shoppers. Au contraire, the French code for shoppingis “learning your culture.” I’ve never attended a business after hours orcocktail party where the culture code for work was not apparent. It’s “who youare.” The author says our code for quality is “it works,” i.e. it’s good enough.For perfection the code is “death,” signifying that perfection is unattainable.It’s an interesting, playful read. You can skim the book and come away with adifferent focus on our culture.

Google Images
Now, how about education? We seem to be lodged between arock and a hard place: the factory school of old with its production goals,internal competition and same size fits all mass production vs. the entrepreneurial,customer is always right, decision-making at the level of service andindividualistic programs. What elements are worth continuing as we go forward?What elements not mentioned here will guide us to a first-class educationalsystem for K-12? Rapaille has not coded education. Who or what do you think weare?


Why Did You Do That?


It’s a legitimate question, but don’t expect a reasonable answer. According to professor and author Dan Ariely, we are Predictably Irrational. Ariely calls himself a behavioral economist, but he writes as though he is speaking to you from across the dinner table. He explains studies of human behavior that are engaging and will leave you wondering: how did the human race come this far?         

Teachers, especially teachers of teenagers, will find the people they deal with every day in the pages of this book. And maybe, after contemplation, we’ll understand them better.

See http://danariely.com/ or watch this TED Talk, http://youtu.be/JhjUJTw2i1M

The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything by Ken Robinson, Ph.D.


“The Element is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion. When people arrive at the Element, they feel most themselves, most inspired, and achieve at their highest levels,” writes Sir Ken Robinson. Past work in creativity development, innovation and human resources have led him to this thesis.

In The Element, Robinson pursues the idea that following one’s passion and finding one’s “tribe” (mentors and peers who are in their element) brings each of us to a place of wholeness and creativity.
Designed by Nelllie Jacobs, (C)2008

Enjoy a laugh or two with Robinson on YouTube:  Creativity and Literacy

Robinson says, “My definition of creativity is ‘the process of having original ideas that have value.’ Imagination can be entirely internal.  You could be imaginative all day long without anyone noticing.  But you would never say that someone was creative if that person never did anything.  To be creative you actually have to do something.  It involves putting your imagination to work to make something new, to come up with new solutions to problems, even to think of new problems or questions.  You can think of creativity as applied imagination.”

I think the argument can be made that the happiest people are those who find and live in their element.
This should be the objective of all schools: to prepare an environment in which faculty and students can live and work in their element every day. The electric charge given off by such schools would shock our economy out of the doldrums.

When are you in your element? What do you really love to do and be?