Motivation and Personal Autonomy
Summarized from Deci, E. L. (1995). Why we do what we do: The dynamics of personal autonomy. New York: Putnam & Sons.
Everyone has experienced it: You can bring a horse to water…..The million dollar question always comes back to… how to make the horse drink!!
It can sometimes be a similar situation in your classes. You’ve prepared your syllabus and what you think are interesting activities, but students sometimes just don’t seem to be interested or involved in the learning. What can be done to help motivate students? Or better yet, how can we design our courses to encourage students to find that all important internal motivation that really supports long-lasting behavior?
Edward L. Deci (University of Rochester) in his text, Why We Do What We Do: The Dynamics of Personal Autonomy (1995) explores the heart of this important issue. Take a moment to consider the conditions that go into your own motivation. When are you motivated to do something and why? Now consider the effects on your own motivation when you are asked to do something by someone in authority. What qualities need to be present to illicit a motivated and/or interested response from you? How is this situation similar to what students face in their classes?
Deci writes that allowing for personal autonomy can play a key role in developing internal motivation. Having a sense of personal autonomy, or self-determination, means that a person feels that their behavior is self-chosen and not imposed by an external power. Research has shown that people have an internal need (much like the needs of the body) for this sense of personal autonomy. Recall the working conditions that led to the violent acts by workers in US Post Offices in the mid 80s as an extreme example of what can happen when people do not have control over their personal autonomy.
Now take the idea of personal autonomy and apply it to what occurs in your classroom. To what extent do students have choice or determination over how they learn the material in your classes or how they complete assignments? Deci points out the fine balance that must exist between setting goals and limits within the classroom, while allowing for a sense of autonomy by participants and the link this has to student motivation. Here are some of his recommendations that can help your students to become more intrinsically motivated:
-
Understand your students. Put yourself in their shoes as you design and develop activities and assignments.
-
Employ autonomy support rather than power and control by actively encouraging student self-initiation, experimentation, exploration, and responsibility
-
Set limits as needed, but use encouragement to motivate students to obtain goals rather than using pressure, threats, rewards, or punishment.
-
Avoid controlling language and allow for choices as much as possible within your course framework
-
Design your classes so that students can see a relationship between their behaviors and their desired outcomes. If no amount of hard work is going to get them the grade they want, then what's the point. Conversely, if little effort is needed to get the grade, then why bother to explore more deeply either.
-
Feeling competent helps students be more intrinsically motivated. To be competent, they need both the strategies and the capabilities for reaching desired outcomes.
-
Provide novel experiences related to course objectives
Deci reports that when giving seminars, he often hears instructors say, "But our students prefer to be told what to do. They don't like having the freedom to choose. They just want to be told what they need to do to get the "A" ". He writes that this may be the result of too many years of being controlled in learning environments and that it might take time to help students to rediscover the joys of having their own choice in things.
How much choice, then, is adequate? Because clearly, not all students are ready for all levels of decision-making. How can instructors set limits and at the same time support and promote the autonomy development of students?
-
When possible, let individuals be involved in the limit-setting process. The group can decide together on class rules, assignment due dates, and preferences.
-
When you must set the limits, avoid the use of controlling language and acknowledge the resistance that people may feel. Show that you understand their perspective.
-
Give the reasons for the limits you have set. Help them to understand it in the context of the greater good
-
Make the limit as wide as possible and allow for choice within it.
-
Consequences for stepping outside the limits should be fair, well thought out, and clearly articulated. Stick to it and be consistent. Consequences should not be punishments, but natural occurrences that encourage responsibility and good decision-making.
Try incorporating some of these strategies into your fall courses and see if they make a difference in your and your students' motivation levels!!
Other relevant books:
Svinicki, M. D. (2004) Learning and motivation in the postsecondary classroom. Bolton, MA: Anker.
Raffini, J. (1996) 150 Ways to increase intrinsic motivation in the classroom. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
back to top