Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose

Jamie Feild Baker has been reading Daniel Pink lately; Pink writes about motivation for a business audience, but a lot of educators have been excited about his book Drive. A bit like Alfie Kohn, Pink argues that extrinsic motivators--like gold stars, grades and merit pay--can have the opposite of their intended effect.

His idea is to replace the carrot-and-stick approach with "three essential elements:

(1) Autonomy – the desire to direct our own lives (2) Mastery – the urge to get better and better at something that matters and
(3) Purpose – the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.”

Reflecting on Pink's work in her blog, Baker challenges us as teachers to "scrutinize" our curricula for these three elements.

1. Does the work we offer our students include an opportunity for
choice and self direction?

2. Does it offer students a sense of increasing mastery--as opposed to repeating something they know how to do?

3. Is there a palpable "Big Picture" purpose to the work?

Pink and Baker are both admirers of "Google's 20% time," a model which allows Google engineers one day a week to work on something they are passionate about. Word is that our own NWS Curriculum Committee is contemplating the feasibility of a senior "capstone experience." Setting up such a program presents more than a few serious challenges, but Daniel Pink is emphatic about the pay-off of harnessing students' intrinsic interests and giving them practice with problem-solving...that is, solving real- world problems, where answers are often "poorly defined, multi-disciplinary and have several possible answers, none of them perfect."

T.E.A.C.H. Online

Somehow, while wrapping up in South Africa, Jeff found time to forward another interesting resource: T.E.A.C.H. Online. This is an extensive website, but a useful component is the section on teaching emotive or controversial history, which the site defines as history "where there is actual or perceived unfairness to people by another group or individual in the past." Some examples include teaching about slavery, empire and the Arab/Israeli conflict. The link contains practical lesson plans and also some philosophical principles which are interesting to think about.

The first of these is that the best results are achieved when students are invited to participate in specific inquiry questions. Teachers are challenged to create activities that allow independent thinking within "a secure historic and pedagogic framework."

This fine-sounding idea is echoed in another principle, that of interpretations. It's important that students grapple with multiple understandings of a historical event or situation. Students need practice comparing versions of history and assessing the different kinds of evidence, source material and points of view that shape them. This gives students a more nuanced understanding of a particular set of events--and a deeper understanding of the discipline of history itself. One interesting lesson involves annotating a web site which is biased in favor of Israel. The specific inquiry is for students to take note of what is missing and what is emphasized in this account. How might a Palestinian describe these events differently?

I am reminded of the Age of Explo exercise the 9th grade sometimes does, which offers students different accounts of the discovery/despoiling of the Americas by European explorers. Students immediately recognize and appreciate the opportunity this exercise creates: the opportunity to sharpen their judgment and do their own thinking.

Thanks, JB, for sending this interesting website. We are looking forward to getting the next Blair Report live, in real time.

Facing History

JB recently sent me a link to Facing History, which is an amazing resource for Humanities teachers. It offers ideas on everything from teaching strategies to lesson plans to complete units on topics which are already part of our curriculum: Civil Rights, Human Rights, Identity, Stereoptypes, Civic Participation. (The list goes on and on.)

As part of his work with Teacher Education, JB saw a colleague in South Africa present some of the techniques featured on this website. These included a "Quaker Read," a "Shadow Read" and a "Silent Discussion."

The Quaker Read involves reading a text together in class silently, taking time to note words or passages which stand out. Students then offer up their impressions in the manner of a Quaker meeting--if they feel so moved. This sharing can be shaped into a full-on class discussion.

Shadow Reading involves dividing the class into pairs and reading two primary source documents. On the day JB was there, the pairs read two accounts of growing up in the USA in the 50's and 60's: one from the point of view of a black woman from Baton Rouge, LA and one written by a man who grew up in Enid, OK and Hiram OH. Each member of the pair read one of these accounts and responded in writing to a short set of parallel questions. The pair then shared their answers. Finally, they collaborated in writing a script for an imagined meeting between the two authors.

The Silent Discussion format also involved pairing students and having them respond in writing, this time to a primary source which could be either an image or a short text. The pairs wrote their reactions down on a piece of paper without speaking. Maintaining their silence, the pair left their work on the table and circulated around the room, reading and contributing to other "silent discussions." This too was followed by a full-on class discussion.

You can imagine how rich any of these formats could be. Thank you, JB, for sending this suggestion from Cape Town. We look forward to hearing lots more from you when you rejoin us in Quint V.