In a post a coule of weeks ago, I discussd retrieval practices as a way to study for tests. One comment I received as, "This sounds exhausting. What do you do about motivation?"
When I work with students, I don't often use the word motivation, but instead focus on the projects and tests that students have. The other day, for example, a student was concerned because with three weeks left of school it felt like she had an insurmountable amount of work. "Should we make a checklist?" "yes," she said. She created a google doc, and with each project we put the due date down with actionable steps needed to be taken to both complete the projects and engage with material that would help her strengthen neuropathways so that she would be ready for a final.
The motivation here, is the urgency of the end of the school year. This is a student who also frequently becomes overwhelmed. So the work could be easily ignored if she let it. However, she has a structure in place (someone at school and also me) to work with her when she becomes overwhelmed. She's familiar with a checklist (a tool) and so she was able to allow both herself to admit overwhelm, the drudgery of the tasks, but also the relief of being able to see what is ahead.
Some of my students need other types of external pressures for motivation. I work with a student, for whom deadlines, does not motivate her. Intermittent deadlines and small rewards, do however. This student had an essay due and has a difficult time saying what is hard for her and instead talks about why she can't complete an assignment. In order to motivate her, I emailed her teacher and parents to confirm what the assignment was and how much time she might have available to do the asisgnment. I then offered a limited choice (both which is supported), "if you don't get it done before we meet again, then let's work on it together." I'm managing her expectations of what's to come and I'm giving her a choice of when she can do the assignment. Lastly, because it worked in the past, I offered a small reward. One that is within my bandwith (not a trip to Europe) and also that would help to create the dopamine needed to create the sense of urgency to do the essay.
Every brain is different and so what motivation looks like will also be different for different folks. What I focus on here are two case studies of different students with different motivations. What we still have is concrete steps to get to the final product, a team of people involved who play different roles and creating experiences so that the dopamine will get to the right place so that the boring task as other "exciting" things attached to it.
In a post a coule of weeks ago, I discussd retrieval practices as a way to study for tests. One comment I received as, "This sounds exhausting. What do you do about motivation?"
When I work with students, I don't often use the word motivation, but instead focus on the projects and tests that students have. The other day, for example, a student was concerned because with three weeks left of school it felt like she had an insurmountable amount of work. "Should we make a checklist?" "yes," she …
In a post a coule of weeks ago, I discussd retrieval practices as a way to study for tests. One comment I received as, "This sounds exhausting. What do you do about motivation?"
When I work with students, I don't often use the word motivation, but instead focus on the projects and tests that students have. The other day, for example, a student was concerned because with three weeks left of school it felt like she had an insurmountable amount of work. "Should we make a checklist?" "yes," she said. She created a google doc, and with each project we put the due date down with actionable steps needed to be taken to both complete the projects and engage with material that would help her strengthen neuropathways so that she would be ready for a final.
The motivation here, is the urgency of the end of the school year. This is a student who also frequently becomes overwhelmed. So the work could be easily ignored if she let it. However, she has a structure in place (someone at school and also me) to work with her when she becomes overwhelmed. She's familiar with a checklist (a tool) and so she was able to allow both herself to admit overwhelm, the drudgery of the tasks, but also the relief of being able to see what is ahead.
Some of my students need other types of external pressures for motivation. I work with a student, for whom deadlines, does not motivate her. Intermittent deadlines and small rewards, do however. This student had an essay due and has a difficult time saying what is hard for her and instead talks about why she can't complete an assignment. In order to motivate her, I emailed her teacher and parents to confirm what the assignment was and how much time she might have available to do the asisgnment. I then offered a limited choice (both which is supported), "if you don't get it done before we meet again, then let's work on it together." I'm managing her expectations of what's to come and I'm giving her a choice of when she can do the assignment. Lastly, because it worked in the past, I offered a small reward. One that is within my bandwith (not a trip to Europe) and also that would help to create the dopamine needed to create the sense of urgency to do the essay.
Every brain is different and so what motivation looks like will also be different for different folks. What I focus on here are two case studies of different students with different motivations. What we still have is concrete steps to get to the final product, a team of people involved who play different roles and creating experiences so that the dopamine will get to the right place so that the boring task as other "exciting" things attached to it.
Comments