Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation - good talking points re: merit pay

[proud2BlibKansan]

Career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don't: Traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think. Listen for illuminating stories -- and maybe, a way forward.

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html

[mzteris]

1. sounds a lot like

why "giving grades" to a lot of kids does harm as well.

Learning for learning's sake - for the love of learning - is a much better motivator for kids who haven't been jaded by the "grading system".

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. He clarifies there is a big difference between rewarding for success at repetitive tasks

and tasks requiring deeper thinking.

I have long advocated non graded schools. Let's teach kids to learn and enjoy it rather than earn grades and think they are smart.

[mzteris]

3. Amen!

Here are some other "education related" talks you might find interesting"

http://blog.ted.com/2006/06/sir_ken_robinso.php

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/sugata_mitra_shows_how_kids_teach_themselves.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/tim_brown_on_creativity_and_play.html

http://blog.ted.com/2008/09/why_we_dont_und.php

[mzteris]

4. here's the thing about "repetition"

" . . . Repetition is a part of learning, parents and educators agree, but research shows gifted children need far less repetition than most students. Once a gifted child has shown mastery of grade level concepts, or worse, mastery of concepts grades beyond their current level, then what is the value of more repetition?

The gifted child realizes quickly that B follows A, or even further, that C, D, and E come quickly after. He understands inherently why this is, how each step works, and he wants, and needs to continue his progress. But the teacher must gear instruction to 95% of the children in her class. She must proceed from A, to B, to C, and so on, with many repetitions at each step, to reinforce the progression. It will be a very long time until she is ready to address the gifted child's thirst to know what comes after E, after A is introduced and he makes the leaps to B, C, and D in quick succession. This is not progress for a gifted child, it is torture.

Worse, the gifted child often comes into the grade knowing 80% or more of the school year's material. For the gifted child, it's not a matter of repetition of what you're learning. It's a matter of repetition of what you knew when you walked in the classroom door on the first day or school. . . ."

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/never_say_bored.htm


Upside-Down Brilliance: The Visual-Spatial Learner
"Visual-spatial learners are individuals who think in pictures rather than in words. They have a different brain organization than auditory-sequential learners. They learn better visually than auditorally. They learn all-at-once, and when the light bulb goes on, the learning is permanent. They do not learn from repetition and drill. They are whole-part learners who need to see the big picture first before they learn the details. They are non-sequential, which means that they do not learn in the step-by-step manner in which most teachers teach. They arrive at correct solutions without taking steps, so “show your work” may be impossible for them. They may have difficulty with easy tasks, but show amazing ability with difficult, complex tasks. They are systems thinkers who can orchestrate large amounts of information from different domains, but they often miss the details. They tend to be organizationally impaired and unconscious about time. "



I can't find the reference right now, but I've read where research shows that unnecessary repetition can actually impair a gifted student's learning process.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Sadly as long as we are in this testing mode

we will have more and more of this rote learning crap.

[LWolf]

6. Tell the feds, and the states as well,

to cut us loose. Do away with the standards and accountability movement that seeks to standardize instruction and uses test scores to bludgeon schools into compliance with those goals....

and we'll see more appropriate service for all students, especially all those that fall outside statistical averages.