This book discusses the necessary conditions that must exist in order to engage people's intrinsic motivation. In Part 1 of the book, Plink focuses on detailing what he calls "Motivation 2.0", or the incentive-based system on which 19-20th century labor has depended. The book is written with an eye towards business practices, but given that our schools are largely modeled on the same reward-based system as businesses, it does not take an extraordinary leap of the imagination to visualize the connection to teaching.
The problem is, according to Plink, that more recent psychological studies consistently reveal that relying on incentives to motivate people to do more/better work does not actually work. Incentives may produce a short-term boost in productivity, but in the long term it stifles creative thinking and demotivates, For example, one study had participants engage in a solving a puzzle. The control group, who was left to solve the puzzle without external motivations, consistently demonstrated higher levels of engagement, as measured by the amount of time spent working on it. Another group, however, was offered monetary compensation for each puzzle they solved. For a short burst, they became very productive, but their interest soon waned. The next day, when they were told there was no more money for compensation, their interest in the puzzle--which had been fairly high before the introduction of the bonus--was now reduced to almost zero. Plink explains this phenomenon by reasoning that the 20th-century mindset has trained us to associate compensation with tasks that are, by nature, unpleasant. After all, if the task was in itself rewarding, we wouldn't need to be paid to do it, right? We might even be paying to do it! What this means is that as soon as you introduce an external reward (i.e., a paycheck or a grade) to an activity that we would have naturally enjoyed doing just for the pleasure of doing it, our thinking shifts from "play" to "work"--the joy is lost. That is when the “stick” comes in—the fear of reprimand or getting fired. But as Ron Livingtson’s character pointed out in the movie Office Space, “That’s only enough to get some one to work hard enough not to get fired.” Doesn’t this whole concept just seem to capture the essence of the average classroom experience? Kids submitting to the drudgery of assignments with little to no personal investment, prodded along by the promise of a passing grade or the fear of failing [and subsequently repeating the experience all over again.] So what do we do to transform today’s classrooms into an environment where intrinsic motivation can take over? Well, that is what Plink explores in Part 2. Stay tuned. Plink, Daniel H. (2009). Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. New York: Penguin Group.
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