A must listen to podcast

It is not often that I use this space to rave about any one thing in particular. I do however love listening to podcasts and I have written about and recommended them before. Read this post for more details. Yesterday as I always do, I walked my dog and listened to one of my favourites from the Darrel and Tony who are the edtechcrew.

This week they have a fantastic interview with Daniel Pink. If you have never read Daniel Pink’s book ‘A whole new mind’ or his latest ‘Drive’ can I please recommend that you do. Using solid research backed examples Daniel debunks many of our inbuilt ideas about student motivation and our use of carrot and stick rewards in the classroom. So convincing are his ideas that I have found my use of stickers, certificates and rewards has changed. More and more I talk to my class about their need to take responsibility for their own learning and to create their own success in life. More and more I emphasis to them and to their parents that the most successful students will be those not who somehow have the largest amount of inbuilt braincells but those who put in the greatest amount of personal effort. That in the long run it is intrinsic not extrinsic motivation that will make them a success, not just in school but in life.

Whether my year 5 and only ten or eleven year old students really understand my message, remains to be seen but they certainly are understanding how I praise and reward hard work over numbers and letters. How my comments on their work relate to effort rather than achievement. And especially how I am always happy to help any of them, to complete their tasks and to give advice and guidance so that they can create their very best work.

I will not use this space to tell you more about the edtechcrew’s podcast as you simply must listen to it for yourself.

 Getting motivated with Daniel Pink