I concur, but I think that assessments sometimes aren’t measured correctly and if feedback isn’t included, it does make it difficult on the learner. Measuring is subjective and it makes it challenging to understand the accuracy sometimes, but it can have an impact on your intrinsic motivation, it’s like extinction in Operant Conditioning (I think).

Great point of view and I like your reflection! I think grades to some extent are seen as a representation of who we are as learners and fear manifests itself into a ball of doubt, because its like our self-worth instead of the investment we input into our learning, so we fail to take risk. I think going outside of the box expands the endless possibilities of learning and academic exploration.

LikeLike

Great point of view and I like your reflection! I think grades to some extent are seen as a representation of who we are as learners and fear manifests itself into a ball of doubt, because its like our self-worth instead of the investment we input into our learning, so we fail to take risk. I think going outside of the box expands the endless possibilities of learning and academic exploration.

LikeLike

Without assessment, there needs to be other avenues for feedback. If my advisor never read my lit review then I would have never improved my writing. Granted, he never put a letter grade on it, but at some point it was deemed “complete.” I think the culture of teaching to the test is what has to be changed first. My question is who will do it first? Primary or higher ed?

I like it. Assessment could be a very useful two way tool. If students new that their responses on the tests could shape the class, that could get interesting. Maybe it could be a section of the exam, maybe it could be the whole thing. I don’t think we can trash testing and assessment just yet, but… we could tune it to be more than just a metric. I know that there are subsets of psychology that focus on the impact of survey questions, imagine if we could harness that kind of information to use the tests as teaching aids as well.

LikeLiked by 1 person

I concur, but to some extent intrinsic motivation depends on the individual and teaching and learning strategies. I’m not sure if intrinsic motivations of learning have more significant role in learners behaviors than extrinsic motivations, because some learners are motivated by external factors, like grades, praise, rewards and etc., but internal factors is what propels the learner to work unyieldingly. This reminds me of Operant Conditioning, it’s like positive reinforcement equates to strengthening a behavior.

It’s as if the external motivator has representation over something of value to the individual, so to use the example, grades become more sufficient when the outcome is more meaningful. So, extrinsic rewards can be effective, but appropriate, credible measures such as performance assessments could present more of an intrinsic motivation rather than a grade no feedback, so this has possibility to be an effective intrinsic cause, rather than an extrinsic reinforcement in its whole.

I relate to a lot of what you are saying. For me, I find myself wondering if I am looking too much towards the future and not focusing enough on the present. There is a Star Wars Yoda quote talking about one of the main characters: “All his life has he looked away…to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. . . what he was doing.” I think that sometimes describes me. My mind isn’t always focused on what I am doing right now. I think it’s hard, because we have so much stress and uncertainty in our lives right now. The present and the future become a balancing act as does imagination and reality. We need all of these elements in our lives, but we can’t allow for one to take over the other. I think it’s because we can’t balance all of these that we lose so much.

LikeLike

It is certainly a good point! Maybe what we are aiming to do (reflecting upon and trying to figure out new ways for teaching and learning) is really a little “subversive” strategy, viewing the current mindset about educational that you described. It make s me think that it is more important than ever – it is really sad to see entire generations limited by this mindset. Thanks for your input on this!

In this stage of my academic career, I agree that I no longer require grades to motivate me for my classes. However, I must admit that if it wasn’t for my impending preliminary exams, I would not be revisiting much of the crucial material I learned during my first two years in graduate school. I was lucky enough to study abroad in New Zealand during undergrad, where class grades were based EXCLUSIVELY on our final exam grade. I learned very quickly (through failing my first class, Genetics) that I absolutely needed graded milestones to keep me motivated throughout the semester. While this doesn’t apply to every student, I do think it applies to many. I believe the need for external motivation is even greater for younger students, or those who have not yet learned how to be professional learners.

I think you proposed a very interesting prompt: “we should clearly think about deeply the significance of intrinsic motivations”. It seems a great idea for me! It makes think about HOW could we start and maintain a living reflection and discussion around this theme – maybe we could collaborating in groups aiming to think further and deeper about intrinsic motivation and proposing applied experiences in educational settings.