About two weeks ago, I attended a lecture (hosted by GIML) by Dr. Dina Alexander on "Inspiring Intrinsically-Motivated Students," at RIC. I honestly feel like it changed how I am going to look at teaching and assessment forever.
Dr. Alexander's presentation was really fascinating! The information was well-organized, well-presented, and addressed on one of the biggest challenges that teachers face: getting students motivated to learn.
Getting students motivated in music class seems like a no-brainer, but for some reason, many students still are not. If you're in band or chorus: shouldn't you enjoy practicing? Music is fun, right? So why don't the majority of students practice?
It's been awhile since I took my educational psychology class, but it's starting to come back to me now. Just to catch you up if you're not familiar with these terms:
Extrinsic motivation: students are motivated by external factors, such as working towards a material reward or avoiding punishment
Intrinsic motivation: students are motivated by internal factors, such as the joy of doing a task or the drive to improve one's skills
Dr. Alexander explained that psychologists have done experiments to see how the two different types of motivation affect student performance. Here's one that she explained that stuck out to me:
A group of children was divided into two groups, each child in a separate room. Each was told that they would be testing out puzzles for a toy company. One group was told to complete as many puzzles as they could. The other group was told that for each puzzle they completed, they would be given a cash reward (for example, $1 per puzzle). The purpose of the experiment was to see which children (paid or unpaid) would be more interested in completing the puzzles.
Which completed more?
After the allotted time had passed, an adult came into the room and told the child that their time was up; the adult said they had to leave the room for a few minutes, but would return shortly. After leaving and observing the child through the window, the psychologists found that the children who were given a cash reward (extrinsically motivated) stopped working on the puzzles and did something else for the few minutes they were alone. However, the children who were not paid (intrinsically motivated) continued to work on the puzzles even after they were told they no longer needed to!
How does that make any sense? Shouldn't the students who were given a reward be more motivated to complete the task?
Dr. Alexander explained that according to the Self-determination Theory of Intrinsic Motivation, people are naturally curious and intrinsically motivated, but we will become extrinsically motivated when rewards are involved. By attaching a reward for completing a task, it makes the task seem undesirable, and decreases the value of the task that we are asked to do in the first place. For example: if you practice clarinet for 15 minutes, you can watch TV. That is actually sending the message, "practicing is not as fun as watching TV, so get the boring task out of the way first!"
Wow. I never thought of it like that.
She also explained that grades can become a reward, which results in students becoming extrinsically motivated to practice. They are motivated to get an A for doing the minimum work instead of aiming to improve their playing...I already knew that I would hate giving grades, but now I'm going to hate giving them even more. And since teachers are usually required to give grades for music class, we need to find ways of grading that don't diminish students' desire to learn.
The takeaway: Dr. Alexander gave an alternative scenario in which students are intrinsically motivated to improve. Her suggestions: Do not diminish the value of learning (or practicing) by giving a reward. The joy of learning music is a reward all on its own! Give students the opportunity to discover that joy themselves. Show your genuine interest in their progress and improvement over time instead of emphasizing interest in their grades, and they will be much more likely to see practicing and making music as enjoyable rather than a chore. That motivation will make a significant difference in their performance in the long run.
This workshop really opened my eyes to issues of motivation and grading, and I definitely feel like I'll be using this information to design my classroom grading policies if I have to create one when I start teaching. After all, since the goal of music education is to help students discover a love of music, we should do everything that we can to help them make that discovery. ♫
