In my experience, the amount and type of attention and feedback that adults give children in the classroom has a huge impact on their internal motivation.
If you think about three types of attention, positive, negative and neutral- when the majority of the attention in the classroom is neutral (noticing what the children are doing, without putting either a positive or negative spin on it)- children are most likely to be motivated to achieve things on their own. If the majority of the attention is negative, some children's primary motivation becomes avoiding "getting in trouble", while other children decide that negative attention is better than no attention and develop disruptive behaviors that interrupt other children's ability to play and learn. It seems like things should go best if the majority of the attention is positive, but in observing classrooms where this is the case, I've noticed that children tend to become focused on pleasing the teacher by doing the things they are being praised for. rather than independently pursuing their own interests. Internal motivation is replaced by a focus on pleasing the teacher. When the teacher is simply noticing the children most of the time, without assigning either positive or negative values to it then children focus on their own learning and motivation.
For this to work, of course there needs to be enough attention. If children feel there is a scarcity of attention, then they will focus on whatever gets the teacher's attention.
A few examples of the three kinds of attention:
Positive attention: "Lashandra, what a beautiful painting". Negative attention "LaShandra, we don't mix the paints, keep the blue brush in the blue paint and the red brush in the red paint". Neutral attention, "LaShandra, I noticed you're using a lot of red and blue paint today.. Do you want to tell me about your painting?"
Obviously, teachers will need to correct children's behavior sometimes, and some positive attention builds relationships. But in the best classrooms I've seen the majority of communication is neutral, followed by positive attention with negative attention a distant third. This seems to result in relaxed classrooms where children are motivated by their own desire to learn and solve many of their own problems.
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[Meg] [Thomas]
[Early childhood consultant
[St Paul ] [MN]
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-23-2017 03:51 AM
From: Angele Passe
Subject: Building intrinsic motivation in kindergarten
The teacher is probably already using large and small group. She can then facilitate group discussions ( with dictation) about motivation, "good" work vs. "not so good", personal satisfaction with good work and positive behaviors, etc. This could be enhanced with reading, writing and acting out stories. So literacy and social emotional learning at the same time!
an extra thought is to remember that developmentally and temperamentally first graders need some external motivation to create an internal image of motivation. So differentiated
strategies with the vocabulary of motivation such as affirmations tailored to each child such as: "you worked hard on this -task-and it turned out so well. You showed motivation! Good for you!"
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Angele Sancho Passe
consultant, writer
BlueWater Associates
Minneapolis MN
Original Message:
Sent: 09-22-2017 04:43 PM
From: Kim Hughes
Subject: Building intrinsic motivation in kindergarten
Greetings to each of you! I just left a K classroom where I am just beginning to coach/mentor a first-year teacher and she is looking for ways to intrinsically motivate her students. Her classroom links meaningful relationships, social-emotional learning, and classroom management as she uses a community model of discipline rather than a competitive model. What are some strategies she might consider to help her students motivate themselves intrinsically to be and do their best?
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Kim Hughes
Conscious Connections LLC
Wake Forest NC
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