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