What Next? How to put Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose to Action. - Summer Reading Reflection 3

The whole way through Drive: The Suprising Truth About What Motivates Us I kept wondering, “Ok this is great and makes sense, but how do I use this new knowledge??” I think I felt this way because while Pink kept saying that these three elements of motivation were the key to performance and satisfaction in every aspect of our lives, most of his examples took place in the business world.

It was during my reflections that I was able to stop and really think about how I could promote autonomy, mastery, and purpose into an Agricultural Education program and even into other areas of my life. Discussing what I had read with Mr. Fellenbaum was also very beneficial because he provided examples from his own classroom and gave me another perspective.

Daniel Pink must have known that people would be reading his book and thinking “OK but HOW?” because I flip the page to begin the 3rd part of the book and it’s titled "The Type I Toolkit". Pink starts off by saying, “This is your guide to taking the ideas in this book and putting them into action”. Here are the key takeaways I took from Pink’s toolkit that I can use to bring autonomy, mastery, and purpose into my own life and into the classroom:

1. Reflect, and keep asking the important questions.

“A great man is a sentence.” - advice from U.S. Congresswoman Clare Luce to President John F. Kennedy.

Something that really stuck with me from this section of Drive is that one way to hone in on purpose is to think about “your sentence”. Pink gives the example, “Abraham Lincoln’s sentence was: ‘He preserved the union and freed the slaves.’” Forming your sentence and keeping it in the back of your mind seems like a good and relatively easy way to stay motivated, especially when things become frustrating. So - what’s your sentence??

The next step to staying motivated is to reflect each day and ask yourself “Was I a little better today than yesterday?” This helps you see progress and to not get frustrated when you don’t achieve something as quickly as you’d like.

While this can definitely be used in your individual life, I also think this tool can be used at the beginning of the school year. You can have your students write down their major goal for the school year and every day on their ticket out have one component be to answer one way they have improved from yesterday. It would be interesting to see if that improved student motivation and thus their performance/engagement in the classroom.

2. Engagement, not compliance, is key.

The second major concept I got from Pink’s toolkit is how important it is to engage your students. By promoting engagement instead of compliance you are bringing those three crucial elements of motivation into your classroom. Homework is one area I feel that this concept especially applies.

I remember when I was in high school I would spend most weeknights doing homework all evening. Literally all evening, from the time I got home to the time I finally let myself go to bed (with a break for dinner). While some of that homework was engaging and actually helped me learn, a great deal of it, in the words of Pink, “stole my free time in the service of a false sense of rigor”. And some of it was just pointless and time consuming. I say all of this because when I am a teacher I want to make sure any homework I give has a true purpose and is engaging, and not just something my students complete because I told them to complete it. Here is a three-question test for homework to help determine if the assignment is actually worthwhile:

1. Am I offering student any autonomy over how and when to do this work?
2. Does this assignment promote mastery by offering a novel engaging task?
3. Do my students understand the purpose of this assignment?

3. Motivation won’t magically appear over night.

I think it’s important to keep in mind that you can’t expect to make a change in how you run your classroom or your own life and expect the results to be immediate. It’s also good to remember that the changes don’t have to be huge and/or occur all at once. Even a small step in the right direction is important. All of Pink’s examples talk about how employers resisted at first and how it took some time for everyone to adjust, but once they did things improved and pretty much everyone was happy with the change. This is something I definitely want to keep in mind though the coming year, and when I have my own classroom someday.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It challenged my thoughts, provoked discussions and reflection, and ultimately changed the way I see motivation. I’m looking forward to using and sharing this knowledge in the fall as I prepare to student teach!