Motivation: The Cause of Doing Work or the Effect?

Here's a question I'm thinking about during the first weeks of school: Is motivation the CAUSE of doing the work of learning or the EFFECT?

As it turns out, it's both.

Motivation gets us to try the work of learning.

When I think of my students this year who are most resistant to doing the work of learning, it's clear they are struggling to believe certain things about the work.

Specifically, their hearts are trying to figure out whether or not this work is worth believing in.

• Does this teacher actually care about me? Does he know what he's doing? Is his passion real? (These are Credibility questions.)
• Is this work actually valuable? Does it matter? Is it interesting? (These are Value questions.)
• When the work is hard (and for some of my students, the work I guide them through and expect of them is quite hard, even this early in the school year), they're wondering: If I try my best at this, will it matter? Will it pay off? Will I succeed? (These are Effort and Efficacy questions.)
• Do people like me actually work hard in school? Am I the kind of person who reads, who asks questions, who works with the teacher? Or am I actually the kind of person who avoids work, who resists curiosity, who resists the teacher? (These are Belonging questions.)

Even five days into the school year, these heart-level questions are showing their symptoms, with those symptoms being that the student will tend toward avoiding work if they can.

And so there are a few basic things that I'm doing to help my students see that the answer to all those questions is yes. These are things like:

• Tracking attempted moments of genuine connection (MGCs)
• Giving a 30- to 60-second mini-sermon each class period
• Being clear and concrete with how to do the work of learning in my room (i.e., Woodenization)
• Communicating what success is in my classroom and connecting that definition to their lives (i.e., using my Everest Statement)

But outside of those basic Will to Learn tools, I'm also making sure of this: every class period, for every student, I'm using any power I have to require that students do the work of learning.

Why?

Because the Five Key Beliefs of student motivation aren't just a cause of doing work, they're also an effect.

Motivation comes from the work of learning.

Motivation doesn't just precede doing the work of learning; it also results from the work of learning.

Let's think back on those questions I listed that our demotivated students are asking in their hearts:

• For the Credibility questions, when I prepare lesson after lesson of simple reading, writing, speaking, knowledge-building, and thinking, and when I check for understanding throughout the lesson and intervene quickly when students aren't working, I demonstrate that I care, that I'm competent, that I'm passionate. When they experience that, in this classroom, the teacher won't just passively accept the not doing of work, but at the same time the teacher won't belittle those who are resistant, their sense of my Credibility begins to grow.
• For the Value questions, the more new words I can get them wondering about, new topics I can get them thinking about, new challenges I can provide them with, the more they start to think, “Wow, we do a lot of work in here.” And that sends a message: this work is important. And the more they learn, the more they'll tend to Value the subject. (I discuss this at greater length in Strategy #5 of The Will to Learn, which is called “A Feast of Knowledge: Or, Teach Stuff, Lots.”)
• For the Effort and Efficacy questions, it's as we're doing the work that Woodenization works best. John Wooden didn't teach tying shoelaces or passing the basketball through direct instruction alone. As quick as he could, he got players doing the work he was describing with his clear instruction. While doing that work, he gave feedback. As he noticed patterns in student understanding or error, he taught into those. And it's also as we're doing the work of learning that questions about success rise to the fore — so when I define success for my students, it's best done in the midst of doing work.
• And for the Belonging questions, the best shaper of Belonging is undoubtedly the doing of things. When my children were younger, no amount of mini-sermonizing or MGCing could have convinced them that they were swimmers. What they needed was clear, brief instruction on basic swimming sub-skills and then immediate, in-the-water, no-opt-out practice. It was the actual swimming that quickly changed their sense of identification with the act.

So when in doubt these next weeks, what I'm going to keep doing is planning for lessons that are filled with the work of learning, from bell to bell. (Because after all, the “the bell is our boss” poster means something — we've got a job to do between the bells, and that job is to build knowledge and practice using that knowledge in pursuit of mastery.)

And so, paradoxically, motivation is both the cause AND the effect of doing work.

Teaching right beside you,

DSJR