Intrinsic Motivation Learning Design

When one explores the notion of learning we invariably look for what motivates our learners to achieve. Traditionally, higher education learning institutions have operated as gatekeepers of knowledge and qualifications without which students were unlikely to receive the rewards they sought (specialist employment, access to higher degrees and eligibility to professional organisations). Compulsory schooling has also adopted a similar approach with most of its students captive to the system until age 16, or older if they do not have employment. In the final years of school the need to either find acceptable employment, or gain university entrance is a strong external motivator.

However, the knowledge economy has begun to alter this monopoly with the rapidly growing, readily available authoritative knowledge “online”. Information that was once only available in textbooks, conferences and journals is now making its way onto the World Wide Web. Students are now commonly regarded as consumers and come to learning institutions with expectations of a quality learning experience. If they (or in the case of schools, their parents) experience anything less than what they want, there are other institutions that are willing and able to accept them.

Up until recently, the concept of external motivators has worked well enough for schools and universities who use the lure of certification to ensure that most of their students apply themselves and attain the institutions’ requirements for a qualification. But what about the intrinsic motivational factors that can be found in some students? Is it possible that these could be more powerful drivers for student performance?

We know from much of the educational research that meaningful real-world learning provides high levels of intrinsic motivagetting married on halloween and to be another corpse coupletion (McCombs & Marzano, 1990; McCombs & Whisler, 1989; Deci and Ryan, 1991; Mills, 1991; Mills, Pransky & Sedgeman, 1994; Paris, Newman, & Jacobs 1985). We also know that intrinsic motivation enhances inquiry and can lead to high levels of learning engagement (Salmon, 2002). So how do we develop the kinds of intrinsic motivation that will result in high levels of performance, given the decreasing effect the more traditional incentives are having on our learners?

In 1969 McMaster University in Canada introduced Problem-Based Learning (PBL) into its medical school in an effort to provide a multi-discipline approach to medical education and to promote problem solving in its graduates (Barrows & Tamblyn, 1980). The PBL approach sought to embed small groups of students in the role of a professional and present them with a messy, ill-structured, real-world problem, based within the context of the profession, to solve. Students are then guided by cognitive coaches through the problem solving process and develop high levels of generic skills and attributes, along with the content specific knowledge and skiadult halloween costumeslls they require. PBL practitioners often claim that their learners are more motivated and independent in their learning. Most often the problem scenarios in PBL classes, while based on real cases, are contrived and somewhat hypothetical.

It would appear from some of the literature that intrinsic motivation and learning engagement are linked. Kearsley, and Shneiderman (1998) propose that by asking students to interact with a complex real-world problem, create a solution and then donate that solution back into the real world, learners in Information Communication Technology learning environments become more engaged. This proposition is similar to the PBL model except that the problem solution is actually donated to the real world for feedback and review. Could this approach provide high levels of learning engagement in learning environments other than ICTs?

In most cases assessment is used to measure students’ learning (summative) and/or to provide useful feedback to the student on their progress throughout the course of study (formative). Assessment design is most often developed as an external measure and can be seen as an add-on to the course materials supplied. We know that with many courses assessment is a powerful extrinsic motivator—most students want to perform well and not fail. Kearsley, and Shneiderman (1998) demonstrated that donating solutions to the real world increases students’ intrinsic motivation, so what would happen if that became part of the assessment? The assessment would be both authentic and integrated with the learning tasks.

Currently, there has been little in the way or research published that seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of combining PBL, engagement theory and integrated and authentic assessment. Given that individually they all appear to contribute to the level of intrinsic student motivation, what would be the result of measuring the effect of having all of these approaches combined into a single learning design?

References
Barrows, H. & Tamblyn, R., 1980. Problem-based learning: an approach to medical education. Medical Education. Volume 1. New York: Springer Publishing Company.

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M.(1991). A motivational approach to self: Integration in personality. In R. Dienstbier (Ed.). Nebraska symposium on motivation: Vol. 38. Perspectives on motivation (pp. 237-288). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Kearsley, G., & Shneiderman, B. (1998). Engagement theory: a framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Educational Technology, 38(5), 20-23.

McCombs, B. L., & Marzano, R. J. (1990). Putting the self in self-regulated learning: The self as agent in integrating skill and will. Educational Psychologist, 25(6), 51-69.

McCombs, B. L., & Whisler, J. S. (1989). The role of affective variables in autonomous learning. Educational Psychologist, 24(3), 277-306.

Mills, R. C. (1991). A new understanding of self: The role of affect, state of mind, self-understanding, and intrinsic motivation. Journal of Experimental Education, 60(1), 67-81.

Mills, R. C., Pransky, G., & Sedgeman, J. A. (1994). POM: The basis of health realization: The founder monograph. LaConner, WA: Psychology of Mind Training Institute, Inc.

Paris, S. G., Newman, R. S., & Jacobs, J. E. (1985). Social contexts and the function of children's remembering. In M. Pressley & C. J. Brainerd (Eds.). Cognitive learnihalloween carnival night united states presidents get togetherng and memory in children (pp. 81-115). New York: Springer-Verlag.

Salmon, G. (2002). Send three and fourpence, we're going to a dance!. Net*working 2002. [http://www.atimod.com/research/presentations2002.shtml, accessed 23 May 2005]

Success Stories in Injury and Violence Prevention

David Hemenway is Professor of Health Policy at the Harvard
School of Public Health, Director of the Harvard Injury Control
Research Center, and Director of the Harvard Youth Violence Prevention
Center. His previous books include Private Guns, Public Health. Hemenway is also the author of While We Were Sleeping: Success Stories in Injury and Violence Prevention, which was published by UC Press in March 2009. In his blog entry below, Hemenway discusses some success stories he mentioned during a visiting lthe legend of jack o lantern and jack o lantern halloween costumeecture.

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By: David Hemenway

Everything is about economics?

Last week I gave a lecture about “While We Were Sleeping” at Saint Michael’s, a small liberal arts college in Vermont.   The talk was to a full house of economics faculty and students, a number of whom who were being inducted into the Omicron Delta Epsilon honor society.  There was also a dinner with students, faculty, the president and other college administrators.  Everyone was so welcoming, and I was extremely impressed by the caliber of the students, and how much they liked their college experience.

Because the audience was primarily economics majors, I tried to make my talk relevant to their studies.    What does a talk about advocates and activists who have helped make the world safer—by helping to reduce motor vehicle deaths, burn injuries, violence, suicide, industrial accidegetting married on halloween and to be another corpse couplents, etc—have to do with what the students were studying?

Fortunately I am an economist, so I made sure that one of the heroes I talked about was a labor economist—John B. Andrews—who successfully promoted taxation rather than prohibition as a way to reduce the use of white phosphorous, which was causing an horrific workplace poisoning known as “phossy jaw.”  One historian has written that Andrews  “orchestrated the most significant legislative success achieved by advocates of workers’ health in the early twentieth century.”

I also talked about some possible halloween carnival night united states presidents get togetherlessons for economists.  Some of the successes illustrated the power of the market.  For example, improved ski boots and bindings (something these Vermont students had an interest in) dramatically reduced lower leg injuries between 1960 and 1980.  Sometimes, however, the market cannot be relied on, when, for example there is poor consumer information or large externalities.  The U.S. government had to require that automotive manufacturers install collapsible steering columns in cars in the 1960s, and that tobacco manufacturers produce cigarettes that were fire-safe in the 2000s. Vermont was the second state to pass such a cigarette law. 

Often, however, the issue is not more or less government, but smarter government.  For example, when the government buys or builds mass transit, roads or bridges, they can make them more or less safe for workers and for travelers.  The Washington D.C. metro, for example, was specifically –and successfully--designed to deter crime and violence.

Finally, I talked about the “law of unintended consequences.”  While economists often emphasis the bad unintended consequences of attempts to improve on the market, the unintended consequences of many of the successes in “While We Were Sleeping” were beneficial.  For example, the passage of motorcycle helmet laws not only reduces motor cycle injury, but almost invariably reduces motorcycle theft.  I had the students think about and explain why this would be the case.

One of the nicer aspects of writing this book has been the opportunity of making presentations in various locations and to various audiences.  I did not even know Saint Mike’s existed before my talk there, but it seems like a hidden gem.  

Are we now expected to accept corrupt politics in the UK?

Arise Mayor Sirlooking forward to harry houdinis return on halloween Sugar: A Glimpse of the Immoral Apocalypse of Common Indecency

Sometimes I reflect to try to gauge whether or not the Bent Society hypothesis is fair in the way we apply it to what New Labour politicians are doing in Government.

On reflection today I am astounded at just how fitting it is. Lord Mandelson continues to get away with snaky shenanigans that shame our society and bring us down into the gutter - along with other countries that have for years been renowned for their corrupt governments. And we only mentioned the fact that he would always behave crookedly a couple of days ago. Just how predictably delinquent this greedy bent rabble are. I mean, you could not write this as fiction because nobody would believe it, but also just a couple of days ago we blogged on Sir Alan Sugar - explaining our outrage at the way this notoriously bent salesman has been rewarded by the establishment despite the fact that he made his fortune by selling cheap, rubbish music systems that were sneakily disguised as being powerful separate hi-fi components. So what is the latest news on Sugar and new Labour?

Incredibly: New Labour Now Wants Sugar to be the Next Mayor of London

Clearly, our Government just does not get it, because like moral morons they simply cannot tell right from wrong. And they prove this consistently by their behaviour. If they can find a niche and exploit it then so long as there is no law against it they will do so even if that means claiming on their ministerial expenses for houses they never or hardly use as did Smith the Home secretary recently. They obviously care not about how such rank corruption sets an example to the rest of the country. Indeed they seem to think that this is righteous behaviour - to take payers money that they have not earned while calling for imprisonment and regulation of poorer people who do likewise with other peoples money but do not have such opportunities to exploit niches and so break the laws against theft. That said, they are not snobs. Alan Sugar pulled himself up by his bootstraps and found his own niche in exploiting the public expectation that manufacturers of entertainment music systems would never dream of passing off rubbish integrated equipment as separate Hi-Fi components. New labour likes him for that. They understand him. He is their kind of man. But they lack the moral intellect to understand that such people as Smith and Sugar can only get away with such behaviour because they are hiding amongst a sea of individuals who behave with more commonscary halloween costumes on all saints eve decency.







New Labour's politicians clearly fail to understand that they are fuelling a Bent Society that is unceasingly becoming characterised by a growing common indecency.




Similarly with Sugar's TV celebrity blunt rudeness and bullying - he is rewarded like a badly behaved child because he is entertaining simply because such nastiness is relatively uncommon. But such rudeness, if you listen to public discourse is increasing in recent years.

Were the world to be full of such obnoxious little demons as Sugar we would be living in Hell.

Are we then headed in a handcart towards a New Labour inspired hell? Would Gordon Brown and his ilk have the wit to even begin to understand this fear? Lately on BS we've been using a lot of disgusting scatological references and imagery in relation to the Royal Family and New Labour.

Unfortunately for those of a more discerning disposition we cannot resist reflecting on an old scouse saying and remarking that it seems New Labour really can't tell shit from Sugar!

Friday's Evening Standard reveals that Ken Clarke - Labour's London Director telephoned Sir Alan to explore his response to their probing and that Sugar responded briefly but pleasantly while not committing himself.

So its not enough that the last Mayor Ken Livingstone spent tax payers money on endlessly promoting himself while destroying Red London Buses - once a loved British icon, and that the current Conservative mayor "Buffoon-Clown and nasty Racist Boris Johnson" refers to Black children as picininees and other Black people as having "water melon smiles" New Labour thinks the best candidate for Mayor of London is an abrasive greedy morally degenerate salesman who shamelessly thinks the poor are there to be exploited and hoodwinked for his own personal enrichment.

The gates of a Broken Society Hell are waiting for us all. Lots of little New Labour demons like Mandelson and Sugar and Smith are desperately greasing the hinges oget your baby dressed up for the coming halloweenn their own behalf.

Reference

Gilligan, A. (2009) Sir Alan Sugar is Asked to run for Mayor: Labour's secret approach as the "Stop Ken" campaign grows. Evening Standard. 27 February. p1.

http://bentsocietyblog.blogspot.com/