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Rethinking student motivation
Why understanding the ‘job’ is crucial for improving education
Click here to download the full white paper.
By Clayton M. Christensen, Michael B. Horn, and Curtis W. Johnson
September 2010
This white paper is adapted from the forthcoming second edition of Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns (McGraw-Hill, September 2010) by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael B. Horn, and Curtis W. Johnson.
In most school reform efforts the focus is on the schools. The question we typically ask is, “Why aren’t schools performing as they should?” Perhaps a key reason we’re so dissatisfied with the state of public K-12 education is that we’ve been asking the wrong question. If we asked instead, “Why aren’t students learning?” perhaps we might see things that others have yet to perceive. After all, it’s the children’s performance that should concern us. The performance of a school is little more than the sum of the performance of its students.
In Disrupting Class we explained that prosperity is a bittersweet reward. Poverty often serves as an extrinsic motivator for some students, as it causes them to endure monolithic, batch teaching of subjects like math and science. When prosperity has removed this source of motivation, the solution must be to make learning intrinsically motivating. Student-centric learning will play a key role in addressing this challenge. The purpose of this paper is to draw upon another model from our research on innovation to dive more deeply into students’ motivation to learn. If children are motivated to learn and if we enable each one to learn effectively, we will have an education system with a great performance record. As the late educator Jack Frymier often said, “If the kids want to learn, we couldn’t stop ’em. If they don’t, we can’t make ’em.”
To continue reading, click here to download the full white paper.
Thanks for including me. I’ll send any thoughts generated along after I read it.
peter
I can’t wait to read and analyze your latest. Thank you for sharing. While I am still supporting e-Learning KY, it sure feels great to be back in MD teaching around the corner from Whitman at Westland. After reading, I am sure I’ll have some “from the field” feedback. Cheers, Norka
Congratulations! I am excited to read it and appreciate the invitation to offer feedback.
Chris
Love the perspective and the reframing of the issue. Also, I bought a milkshake yesterday for exactly the reason you cited in the article.
I just finished reading “Disrupting Class…” for the leadership class in which I am currently enrolled. I couldn’t help but wondering the whole time I read it, “How did they know what I was thinking?” The authors put all the research and explanations behind my thoughts – by far, it is one of the most motivating and enlightening books I have ever read. Anyone who truly understands where we are as a society and where we need to go, will not be able to put this down! I can’t wait to get my hands on the latest edition!
Thanks for this valuable resource. Understanding what motivates students should be where teachers start as they plan classroom activities. Perhaps some of your readers will also find the free resources at my blog helpful. DrDougGreen.Com. Included there is a book summary of Daniel Pink’s book on motivation “Drive”. Thanks again.
Douglas W. Green, EdD
Thanks for the resource! It’s great to find an article that takes a step back and looks at the bigger picture.
“They want to feel successful and make progress, and they want to have fun with friends.” Can’t argue with that. And it’s not just students -aren’t they the core jobs for most people?
Thank you for reframing my understanding of my job. This is causing my to reflect deeply on my practice.
And thank you, Heidi. Thanks also for the link to the PBS work!