At 8:01 AM -0500 1/30/02, Louis_Schmier wrote: > And finally, let's talk about wound and wonder. On to the "great >motivator," at least what so many of us in and outside of education call >the great motivator: the grade. Ah, the grade. If I asked if the grade >was motivation and motivating, most academics would shout, "Yes!!" We >would acclaim and pronounced that the great motivators are achievement, >recognition of achievement, and advancement, all of which are tied into >"extrinsic" stuff. And, of course, the most extrinsic of extrinsic >motitavors in academia is the grade.
No. Carol Dweck has done some fascinating work on achievement motivation which I'm just beginning to learn about. Some people are mastery- or learning-oriented, and some are performance-oriented. You can get pretty quickly at which someone is by asking if they had to choose between a class where they'd learn something and one where they'd get a good grade, which would they choose? This is not to say that prior shaping in K-12 doesn't play a role, but my understanding is these differences show up even in 4-year-olds. It follows that some faculty are learning-oriented, and hence might not automatically assume their students care more about grades than anything else. And it also follows that some students are going to focus on the grade no matter what you do (although if you get a reputation for teaching classes that are not grade-friendly in this way, maybe they will avoid your classes). > > The grade also reminds me of a pay check. On the job, you trade >hours on the right task for money. Like a businessperson, we trade hours >on the right task for grades. We use classic economic theory of reward >and punishment, promotion and dismissal, incentive, status, recognition. >Instead of a pay raise or promotion, we give grades and bestow honors and >grant scholarships. "Won't grades, be they reward or threat, change >behavior?" You ask. Sure--for now. "Won't grades will make students do >what I want. It will make them study for test and work on projects," you >ask. Sure--for now. Actually, if we were honest with ourselves, the >sureity of that "sure" answer would be really a slow, hesitant "maybe." Alfie Kohn's _Punished_by_rewards, a tradebook, develops this thesis in some detail in the context of school, work, and family. The general conclusion is that rewards work to elicit quantity but that they induce dependence (so if you stop rewarding, you stop getting quantity) and they also reduce intrinsic motivation (although for some tasks, there is no intrinsic motivation possible). However, rewards do not increase quality of work, which depends on intrinsic motivation, and they decrease intrinsic motivation, so if you want quality work, rewards are counterproductive. > > Grades. GPAs. Honors. Diplomas. we spend so much time trying to >brain-wash students, and ourselves, into thinking they are important, that >they are money in the bank that create a security for the future. They >are supposedly a guarantee that they will make us healthier, wealthier, >and wiser in the future. It can't be that simple because as great >motivators they obviously get a lousy grade as motivators. Kohn doesn't state it as clearly as he might, but the problem is not with rewards per se. Grades and other indicators of achievement are fine, provided they follow the performance. The problem lies in using them as bribes: I say to you before you do X, that if you do X, you will get Y. Only then are rewards coercive. If I merely give you Y after you do X, there is no problem, because your decision to do X is either because you were going to do it anyway, or because you have observed that it produces Y and have decided you are willing to do X in the expectation of getting Y. Incidentally, this is old news to psychologists. I see an immediate problem with the fact that our syllabi are supposed to state how grades will be determined, but I think that it is possible to give enough information to show that grades will be assigned fairly (including leeway for handling creative responses from students) and where students should put their effort, but not so much detail as to constitute a quid pro quo of exactly what each unit of behavior is worth. Charlotte -- ================================================= Charlotte F. Manly, Ph.D. Psychological & Brain Sciences Assistant Professor 317 Life Sciences Bldg ph: (502) 852-8162 University of Louisville fax: (502) 852-8904 Louisville, KY 40292 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.louisville.edu/a-s/psychology/ http://www.louisville.edu/~cfmanl01 --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
