My Special Interest Groups

I've been thinking about and developing my SIG over the past week or so.

Colleagues 

My colleages at the college where I work are probably my most used and most helpful group. They know the students I work with and the demands on them as well as myself. I have discussed my ideas for motivation as a line of inquiry with a couple of my colleagues on a one to one basis with positive returns but last week during a staff meeting the subject arose regarding concerns of a dip in students motivation. Myself and 10 other members of staff expressed our concerns to the principal and debated on ways we could resolve the issue. Although no solid conclusion was reached a line of questioning has been put forward and the issue has been highlighted. We were able to give discussion to others grievances and propose ideas on how to resolve or improve certain situations. I found some questions that were put forward during this meeting intriguing and I feel these could be developed and used in discussions with students at a later date.

One teacher asked
Is it me? I thought this interesting, are students more motivated for one member of staff more than an other? I understand that students show preferences to different subjects and will tend to be more enthusiastic towards their favourite, but when different teachers are teaching the same genre should this effect motivation to do well generally?  I could ask: Do you feel more motivated in certain classes? Why do you think this is?

Another question was
Why have you chosen to come to college? after all they auditioned and invest a lot (time and financial) to attend and meet what's required of them. Maybe in all that work they have forgotten why they wanted to come in the first place. Could the answer simply be to remind them of their answer to this question (I doubt it could be that simple, but it could help them to re-focus)

 I value my colleagues opinions and feel this will be a important source for me to gather information for my Inquiry.

Facebook groups
Since Module 1 I have begun to use Facebook and other Social Media to help with my professional development. I have joined a number of groups aimed at dance teachers, to give advice and discuss any issues. I recently posted regarding motivation in the hope of finding out how others help to motivate their students

Teacher 1 replied,

Dance captain role. get them to write up a list of quality's a dance captain should have and tell them you will watch out for those qualities in every lesson from each class member and choose a new one each half term or term. It's not always the person who can dance best it is someone who can motivate others and listen to others; who listens to not only their own corrections and who doesn't boss people around but brings a whole class together; maybe even let the older classes choose who they want as dance captain

Another talked about performance,

 I find my students get motivated for performances. We get our students to perform their dance every last lesson before Christmas and the summer holidays. This makes them get more focused knowing they will have an audience.

I find these groups are a quick and easy way to get advice from a large group of people that you may not otherwise have contact with.

Communities 

Dance Teacher's Community

I have set up a community through Google+, called Dance Teacher's Community  in the hope that dancers and dance teachers will share and discuss ideas and thoughts on how to improve their skills in the studio. Already it has helped me to connect with some of my fellow BAPP student to discuss my proposed line on inquiry and give my input and advice on there's. I welcome you to join and get involved in the discussions.

Thinking Aloud!!

I've took some time to do a little research into Motivation and found an article posed by Carl Pickhardt, Ph.D, a psychologist in Austin. Prickhardt’s post in Psychology Today called ‘Motivating your Adolescent to Perform’ revolves around parenting. I found this article highlighted some thoughts for me and clarified others. His debate is one that I agree with. We need to help our children to motivate themselves, not push or persuade them but enlighten them so they will want to achieve.

"The main thing to remember about extrinsic motivation is that influence is exerted from the outside/in, making adolescent effort dependent on external pressure. This is different from intrinsic motivation that works from the inside/out, influence generated independently from desire within. Of the two kinds of motivation, the intrinsic is the more powerful because the adolescent is the source of influence and direction. "I take care of getting homework done because it's my business, not my parents'."

So I knew this... Well I learned about the two types of motivations when studying for my teaching qualifications, so I knew they existed. I suppose until know I hadn't given much thought as to which of the two would be most effective to motivate teens. IT makes sense that Intrinsic would be the more powerful of the two, so this is where my inquiry should head.

“A way to state intrinsic motivation might be, INTRINSIC MOTIVATION = SELF-INTEREST + OWNERSHIP.”I want to take charge of what matters to me and be the one who decides to get it done. I want to do it for my sake, not for anyone else." This sounds like pride speaking.
Parents cannot reward, push, or punish an adolescent into becoming intrinsically motivated, but sometimes they can encourage self-motivation by opening up an exposure or creating a circumstance that stimulates self-interest.”

This reminded me again of my discussion with Paula and the question she posted to me, Can you create motivation in others? Apparently not! Not lasting motivation anyhow. But can we stimulate and encourage self-motivation? Or should that be how can we?

I like this line of inquiry I think it has potential and would serve as beneficial not only to myself but to teachers in all subjects, even parents. Perhaps I should be talking to them as well as other professionals. Although this excites me I don’t want to narrow my options too much before I have done more research and looked into other possible lines of inquiry. I am also unsure as to whether this topic is too wide, the potential this has versus the time limit we have unnerves me a little, more research I think.  

“When it comes to performance, there are reasons that parents strive to motivate their adolescent and want the adolescent to motivate herself. Consider just a few: to develop operating capacity, to build confidence, to increase discipline, to create a record of accomplishment, to invest in personal growth, to create future options, and to get a sense of potential that can be fulfilled.
This is why parents consider adolescent apathy the enemy of ambition and why they step in when they see motivation lacking. "It's like seeing him give upon himself. If he doesn't try and try hard he'll never find out what he's capable of!"
What parents often fail to understand, however, is the protective role that apathy can sometimes play in the adolescent's life. Protect against what? The answer is, protect against the risks of caring and commitment. A young person stated his ambivalence about ambition well. "Suppose I give it my all and don't do that good? Do I really want to discover that? It feels safer just to get by."

This sounds familiar…… I wrote about this in Module 1 when discussing what makes me angry or sad and again recently when thinking about possible questions for my Inquiry.
I find I also become angry when children/students subconsciously hold themselves back. Many students I have taught over the years have not reached their full potential as they are too scared to perform to their best ability in class. Its seems the fashion these days to not put 100% into your work, it is uncool to appear eager to learn or to be working hard. Why is being the 'class swot' such a bad thing?
It has been a frustrating constant to which I know feel a little more knowledgeable on. The subconscious lack of motivation to excel may be down to the student’s fear of failure and low self-confidence. This would answer my question on whether self-confidence can effect motivation. But raised the question as to whether it is an issue of low self-confidence or lack of Motivation.

"I can't answer those questions for you," I replied, "but I'll give you another question to consider. For safety's sake, would you rather make a minimal effort and avoid disappointment, or exert yourself and gain self-respect from knowing that at least you tried your best?"

If Self-respect and self-confidence can come from being motivated, can respect and confidence help build self-motivation?

Motivating your Adolescent to Perform by Carl Pickhardt, Ph.D

Can you create motivation?

I've been thinking more about motivation and what pathway my inquiry should go in the process to develop my set of questions. I have touched on motivation and commitment in previous blogs what I have concluded is lack of motivations seems to be more evident with children ages 13+. I would like to do a little research into what influences effect motivation. For example, 

Are children more likely to be motivated if they wish to pursue dance as a career? 

How much does self-esteem or confidence effect motivation?

Is it a confidence issue or an unconscious process? 

Is there something we can do as teachers to help these students express themselves and work to their best ability or is it simply a maturity problem? 

I also mentioned a problem that has arisen in discussions many times with my colleagues at the college I teach, students are 16+. Admittedly we all feel that as students are already pursuing a career in the Arts a level of motivation is already involved, however myself and my colleagues feel that students could show greater motivation towards self-development, when extrinsic motivation may not be present.

I had a discussion with Paula yesterday in regards to my line of Inquiry she posed an interesting question and one I had not thought of before. The idea behind whether we create motivation in others intrigued me. Is it possible to motivate another person? After all we cannot be there constantly to give them the push they need to succeed we can only inspire them to motivate themselves. I remember studying motivation briefly during college when working towards my teaching qualifications. Motivation can be divided into two types: intrinsic (internal) motivation and extrinsic (external) motivation. By definition intrinsic motivation is self-desire, is this something we can influence or is it purely at the control of the individual? Extrinsic is more easily used as it is defined as influences outside of the individual, exams and goals for example. This reminded me of a comment Lizzie Martin left on my blog 'Inquiry Thoughts'. Lizzie made an interesting comment about motivation related to performance in class, she believes that children who perform to audiences on regular occasions are more motivated to re-enact that level of performance in class. Does the motivation to want to perform come from internal or external influences I made comment that although the school where I work does not participate in many performances throughout a school year I find exams are a great extrinsic motivator for my children? Once they are given the goal of an exam date or possible entry of an exam their level of commitment to better there technique and performance increases, as does their attendance and concentration during class.  

I think extrinsic motivation is easier to understand and control, however what about those classes where extrinsic motivation is harder to use. Although the larger percentage of my work is based around syllabus classes (I do take a few regular free classes) I regularly talk to my colleges who work on the musical theatre course at college. They work with the students to develop their skills of performing professionally once they graduate from college. As there is no grade or exam, no guarantee of a job after graduation does most of the students motivation need to come from within themselves? If the motivation comes from within what can we do to help inspire motivation where it is lacking?  

Is it possible to influence intrinsic motivation?

So which line of inquiry do I feel would benefit myself and my fellow teacher’s best? 

I feel the answer to this question will help me to narrow my focus and help me to pick a line of inquiry that will influence how I conduct classes in future. I feel two lines of focus have presented themselves. One is the way in which self-confidence effects motivation and the effect peer pressure has on an individual’s motivation towards performance, I feel this line of inquiry would be best suited to children aged 13 - 16. My seconded is aimed at college students aged 16+ and would investigate their ability to self-motivate without and strong extrinsic influences and what we as teachers could do to inspire and influence their motivation. 

Experience Versus Education

I find the debate on education versus experience one I have encountered many times. I have heard many graduates state they were rejected for a job due to lack of experience, but how are they to gain experience if no one is willing to give them the opportunity? Alternatively is it possible to learn all that we need from experience alone? Would you be happy for a teacher to educate your child based on a wealth of experience but with no formal training? As Eraut (1991) suggests a degree certificate or qualification validates ones claim to a specialised knowledge. It gives us confidence that that person will be informed, skilled and capable of performing well at their job.

However even the most qualified of people will have something to learn from experiencing work in a profession. I have been teaching for over 10 years and I encounter new experiences every day. Schon (1983) argues that a focused teaching of professional knowledge does not include the same situations or scenario's professionals perceive as central to their practice. I agree with this reasoning, in many of my teacher training classes students can show expert knowledge and understanding of the work with regards to build ups and syllabus theory, but then struggle to relay that to those they teach. Knowing the theory is not enough, to be a successful teacher we need to be able to be adaptable and creative when passing are knowledge onto others. I believe this is what Schon was debating, this knowledge can only be learned though are experience and interaction with students in the studio.

With all this considered I believe in order for us to become the best possible professionals a mixture of both experience and education is needed.  In recent years I feel that has become more recognised as a break away from more traditional forms of education is evident. Universities negotiate and compromise with professions in order to incorporate ideas of professional training which were previously outside higher education. Work based learning is becoming more popular, This BAPP course allows us to use our knowledge based through experience in our fields and gain formal recognition and academic credit for learning that occurs in the workplace. Apprenticeships have once more taken a more prominent place in today’s education. As the understanding of knowledge expands so does our views on how we can gain that knowledge.

This led to the thought of how modern education and people’s views on intelligence have changed. Intelligence was understood and could be measured by a grade received or an IQ score, however, with more people choosing apprenticeships or work based courses to further their knowledge it is recognised that experience is an important part of knowledge and intelligence is not as easily measured as we once thought.

Howard Gardner (1983) proposed the theory of multiple intelligence. Gardner suggested that there are 8 different types of intelligence and that each person has a unique blend of all 8 types of intelligence.

The traditional definition of intelligence is too narrow. Gardner's broader definition more accurately reflects ways in which people think and learn. It credits linguistic and mathematical abilities as intelligence but also classes’ musical, athletic and artistic abilities.  

Schon stated that knowledge should not be categorised as all knowledge: propositional, personal, tacit, process and know how is needed to perform professionally. While I agree that the whole is needed and all knowledge should work together to create a professional, I feel categorising and studying different types of knowledge and where they derive from will lead to greater understanding and better implication of knowledge.  In the same way that we can better understand a person’s intelligence or capability for intelligence based on an understanding of their strengths in each intelligence type, could we determine a person’s ability to perform a job it we discover where their knowledge is routed?

Here’s a link to the Birmingham Guild for Learning website where you can discover your blend of the 8 intelligences.