Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose: What motivates our students

Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose: What motivates our students

“Allow your passion to become your purpose, and it will one day become your profession.” – Gabriel Bernstein

Conventional wisdom would suggest that workers are motivated by factors like money, power, or recognition, but the research suggests otherwise.  For simple work tasks, monetary incentives work well.  But for tasks that require cognitive skill or creativity, monetary incentives don’t make a lick of difference.  Best-selling author Daniel Pink has studied motivation in the workplace, and he boils motivation down to three main factors: autonomy, mastery and purpose.  These three factors are the key to productivity and fulfillment.  Autonomy refers to our professional and creative freedom.  Instead of a manager saying, “Here is the incentive for completing a creative task”, they should say, “you probably want to do something really cool, let me just get out of the way”.  Mastery refers to conquering something.  It’s why we like to get better at things.  It’s why we climb mountains, study languages, play sports, or learn songs on a guitar. Purpose refers to the greater significance of our work.  We do it because it matters.  We do it to improve things, to make a difference, or to make the world a better place.  All three of these are highly motivating in and of themselves.

As working teachers, we know this to be anecdotally true.  We don’t want to be micromanaged by our supervisors. We are a professionals who bring amazing effort and creativity to the table.  Administrators may just need to synchronize the opportunities and get out of the way.  We are also motivated by mastery.  It is highly satisfying and motivation enough to improve our craft and become more effective classroom teachers.  It is a wonderful feeling at the end of a school year when you know you and your students nailed it and had a fantastic year.  We are motivated by purpose as well.  The teaching profession is perhaps one of the easiest to connect to a larger purpose as we are shaping the youth, and by extension, shaping the future of the world.

Naturally, we ought to apply these truths to our students, who are pretty similar in terms of what motivates them.  If you want them to do amazing things, they aren’t best incentivized by money, rewards, or good grades as much as by autonomy, mastery and purpose. Carrots and sticks work for simple tasks such as establishing routines or managing behavior, but not for complicated tasks.  Our students are going to better perform and find greater satisfaction the same way working adults do, through autonomy, mastery, and purpose.  They want to do something amazing anyway.  Use your executive ability to carve out a space for them to do just that; and then get out of the way.

Want to impact your students? Notice them and say something nice!

Want to impact your students?  Notice them and say something nice!

“Effective teaching is not a simple matter of executing specific behaviors and strategies, because effective teaching is grounded in human relationships” – Robert Marzano from Managing the Inner World of Teaching

I was recently approached by the parent of a former student from three years prior.  She paid me a compliment that I won’t soon forget. “That was really amazing when you wrote that thank you note to my daughter.  It’s actually still on our fridge and she still talks about it.”  I would occasionally wrote thank-you notes to select students who had either put in great effort, set positive examples, or excelled in my class.  These notes would say something like, “Dear student, Thank you for being such a great presence in my class.  I really appreciate that I can always count on you to bring your best every day.” Honestly, the practice of writing notes had become somewhat routine and I hadn’t thought much of it.  This encounter was a reminder of how powerful my words can be for a learner.  

Even for your most challenging students, there will be opportunities to report something good. All students can have good days, good moments, slight improvements or something bigger.  Take the time to let them know that you noticed.  If you aren’t a “thank-you-note” kind of person, send a message on their email or through your digital classroom, or call the student aside to let them know that you are thankful for them, that you pay attention to their successes, or that you care.  Doing so will cultivate teacher-student bonds and strengthen your learning partnerships.  For such a small investment you can reap such mammoth rewards. 

In the same way, positive communication with parents is one of the best practices you can implement. A quick email or phone call letting a parent know that their child did something wonderful only takes a moment. This is especially handy when you might have to contact that same parent later with negative news to report.  By that time, the parent already has had a positive first interaction with you and knows that you care about their child. Similar to positive notes or conversations with your students, positive parent contacts are a small investment of time that can generate a sizable return on investment.

My thank-you notes took just a few seconds to write and I needed to be reminded of how powerful they were.  To at least one student, it meant the world.  It is likely to have had similar effects on other students as well.  I needed to be reminded of that.  Teachers, you are hereby reminded as well.  Pick up the pen, the phone, or the keyboard and let a student know that you care.  And while you’re at it, let their parents know, too.