enhancing learner's motivation

Last night I was chatting with my friend about my students. She asked me about how do I enjoy my teaching. I told her that I found my students too unmotivated to learn. This makes me realize that I am starting to give up or less motivated as I started. I thought I tried everything: I told them why to learn, how to learn, and what to learn. But when given them the freedom to learn by themselves, they seldom learn anything. Actually, I found one of my students is actually less motivated than I first came here. After reading this article about adolescence's brain, I felt that maybe their brain is simply not full-developed. I too have the experience of knowing the reasons to do something perfectly well, or you could say I am fully-motivated, yet I am at the same time totally-inactive. Maybe it's because the part of brain about reasoning and acting is separate. Even learners know perfectly well what they should do, they won't necessarily do it actually. This deterministic view has been hovering over my head for weeks until last night's chat with my friend.

I told myself: Maybe I am not working hard enough. I should continue raising their motivation about learning. As a cheerleader, I can't be defeated first.

And today I read about this article by Csikszentmihalyi, who is cited many times by Tal Ben-Shahar in his Positive Psychology and Psychology in Leadership courses, which I enjoyed a lot recently. The article just confirmed with my thinking. Csikszentmihalyi suggested two ways of enhancing learner's motivation:

1. realistic reassessment of the extrinsic rewards attendant to education.
2. make children aware of how much fun learning can be.

The first is essentially to lead the students to see the future, to guide them to see more broadly; the second is to lead them to taste the present, to guide them see more clearly. If people are doing what they do by evaluating the benefits between future and now, then motivation must relate alot to this evaluation. I have been using stories and student's imagination. But I fail to find many stories to tell and may ways to employ their imagination. And I should also make the stories and imagination relate to their own goals and desires as Csikszentmihalyi suggested. That should be my next step.

roadmap

As a teacher, I don't like to "teach". If I had to teach, I'd rather teach my students how to learn. So the first step is teach them why to learn. Why to learn here and now? Then I want teach them what to learn. What not to learn? And then, in the end: how to learn. It's my roadmap. I will ask a lot of questions. Both to the learners and myself.

transfer or transform?

I've been trying to think about how I should teach my students. Tonight I realized that I am actually doing it in the wrong direction. The right question to ask is why the students should start active learning here and now. The cost of pushing students and transferring knowledge is simply too huge when compared with the benefit of transforming students to learn. One way to teach students effectively may be raise the appeal of the lecture. This is becoming more and more hard because you can't compete with movies and games, and you may not born with a comedian DNA. And even you can be a teacher who can grab the attention of most of the students, there will inevitably be some students who simple find your lectures "uncool" and even listening to your self-directed comedy a waste of time. And the biggest problem of this approach is that students would think that everything about learning should be fun and have a natural appeal, or otherwise it's not worth their time.

That is far from the truth. Learning could be fun, of course. But this kind of "fun" is seldom so obvious and easy to appreciate as a comedy is. Or all the comedy would talk about Quantum Physics while making people laugh. My point is: the appeal of knowledge is seldom "universal", on the contrary, it usually takes a more "personal" appeal that can not find immediate companionship. Robert J. Shiller from Yale find Organic Chemistry interesting - few people could appreciate that, at least not in their first sight. Learning to love one subject may be a process of discovering. On the other hand, we shouldn't assume that all knowledge worth learning should be intrinsically interesting. Because sometimes it simply isn't interesting at all. But we still have to learn the knowledge, because it has some extrinsic meaning. Just like sometimes you have to run or do push-ups to maintain your health. Push-ups can't be interesting and you still have to do it. That's what humans do. Because we can imagine the short term and long term benefit of something. We are enduring some extra work so we could enjoy life better tomorrow.

That's when the second approach comes about: transforming students to active learners. Knowing that the accumulation of knowledge is a long and winding process would prepare learners better dealing with complicated choices in their lives. Knowing that it is hard but it will definitely be fun, they just have to be patient to learn to appreciate it. Because everyone do have the natural inclination to learn and to develop, learning is intrinsically rewarding. Learning is also a process of challenging oneself, to challenge if you can endure the long and arduous learning hours, to challenge if you can resist the temptation of immediate fun, to challenge if you can predict the future, if you can make the right choices, to outperform yourself, to find the real self...

As a teacher, I wish I could help students to find the real appeal of learning - so I don't have to worry about how to teach. :)

hypnotize learner to be future-oriented

I watched an amazing video today by Philip Zimbardo about time. This reminds me about one theory about procrastination which says that people who procrastinate are those who incline to value present more than the future. Of course there is nothing wrong about it, as Ellen Degeneres states: "Procrastination isn't the problem, it's the solution. So procrastinate now, don' t put it off." But when things got so imbalanced that one only lives in the present, there is consequences-as are some of my students who are always playing games and seldom study without the teacher's push.

Sometimes, when I tried to trust them with more freedom so that they could learn by themselves, they always take long time breaks and not study so much as I would like them to be. I reminded them about the imminent test which is 10 days away, they just bury their heads again in their endless gaming and playing.

Every moment, we face a flood of choices. We could always sit in front of a desk for an hour and learn, but the opportunity cost-the second best choice, the trade-off, is becoming much more attractive than the old days, when there is practically nothing to do besides learning if one is by himself. And the benefit of learning is always long-term, which demands a future-oriented mind to see it. How can one resist the temptation of the moment?

Maybe I could make the learning process funnier. Or I could hypnotize my students to be more future-oriented. As Zimbardo said, it's much easier to hypnotize future-oriented people to present-oriented ones, just like it's much harder to hypnotize someone to be clever. Maybe stories could help to hypnotize them. By looking through the perspective of the stories, one could easily see the future. It's a kind of observational learning.

Maybe that's what leaders do: helping people see the future as it should be. Like MLK did, like Obama preached.

Optimistic

One of my student is talking about the anxiety brought about by the approaching IELTS test she is about to take in 10 days. She has been working quite hard on this. Although she had made quite a lot of progress in past few weeks, she is starting to imagining all the negative outcome of failure.

I told her to build upon what she already has, and don't lose sight of what she has learnt. And even failing is acceptable, because she can still learn much from her failing. I am not sure that really help her much.

As I was studying the Leadership Psychology course, I realized that as a leader, I should be more optimistic, rather than realistic, which I behaved today. I gave her the realistic evaluation, although that's better than her pessimistic self-evaluation. But that's not enough. I should really believe that we are gonna win the battle together. I should be more unrealistic. With this power of authority, the student may believe me. She is a hardworking student, positive thinking surely would help her more. And on the other hand, some of my student is not hardworking yet optimistic. In fact, some of them are totally stress-free. May be they are too optimistic or they choose to ignore the reality and choose to act nothing, which is basically the same as desperate-pessimistic.

In either cases, I should instill into my students the feeling of optimistic. Give them the courage to face reality. Hope I could do better next time.

I shall remember

I received a thanks-giving message from a friend who told me that his younger cousin, who is now in his second year in junior school, still remembers the afternoon playing football in my livingroom when he was in his fifth year in elementary school. I was suddenly striked by some kind of emotion from the past. Yes, how can I forget that afternoon. Doors are gates and me verses he and his cousin. It's a usual afternoon. Maybe it's during the summer vocation, maybe it's a weekend, I can't recall. But we all had a good time. But I was surprised to know that the younger cousin still remembers it. And his brother is telling me this. It's more than remembering. It's his peak experience. It's my peak experience too.

I asked where is his cousin now. My friend told me he is studying in a country middle school now. I can still remember the shy country boy from 3 years ago, when his brother took him to my home. Maybe he will be clever and diligent enough to get into one of the high schools in town, as his brother did. And maybe he could at last get the chance to play football in a football field. Of course he can't play football in a country middle school, kids may able to play basketball, but football is seldom seen in those schools for lack facilities. I kept thinking about this boy. Imagining that he maybe one of the future for the disappointing Chinese football, but he is living in that environment. How, where, with who can he play football? One afternoon may have made football the dream and love of his life, but he may not able to play when he was young and free.

My friend is now in Shenzhen City hunting for a job. Since his graduation, he has took sometime to take the State Judicial Exam and failed. And he is having trouble looking for a job as he is only graduated from a three-year junior college, which is considered inferior than a four year college. Things must be tough for him as he told me that when we are young everything is beautiful and advanture. But I told him everything is still the same, just we are facing the real world and the stakes are higher and we are afraid to try. It's such a easy thing to say! He told me that if he went back during the Spring Festival, he would take his cousin to me, and we shall play football again. I know that livingroom is too small for three of us now, because his cousin is not a small boy anymore. So I told him, if I shall went back home, we could play football in our middle school, where I met my friend. Hope everything goes well with him and his younger cousin.

freedom. don't wait for it, strive for it.

Some believe that what's common is what's natural is what's right. Maybe it's a psychological safeguard system of human mind, if something stayed for a time long enough, nobody questions whether it's right or wrong. That's what happened to all those people who has put up with the system and never thought of fighting back or even taking some changes.

When I was talking to one of my friends about the constraints perpetuated by system, she said: "Freedom is relative". I immediately recognized that it's a sentence taking directly from Marxism doctrine, maybe from middle school Politics textbooks. She is saying the sentence to defend her compliance with the system for we were discussing the time wasted if I joined the party and have to take meetings and writing reports all the time for a Party member status. Her logic is that since we are never in pure freedom, freedom is not worth striving for. I paused to reply. And then I replied with a laugh. It was at that time I realized that we both agree we are constantly living in constraints. And she agrees that we are all jumping from small cages to larger cages. The only difference between us is that she regard what is as what ought to be, and thus freedom is given or taken by the system only, and you need to comply with the system to get more "freedom", e.g. by complying to the party rules or school regularities, one may able to enjoy the member status or get a diploma, with those things, one can ask for more "freedom" from the system. However, I believe we only get the freedom that we deserve, and freedom is not given by the system, nor by selling your present freedom, you could buy more freedom in the future. Freedom is what one strives for, by challenging the system, by breaking the rules, by overriding the context. Took the black people in the States for example, if everyone only saw what they saw, and nobody challenges the existing practices, Obama would never be elected as president. Many Americans have experienced the change during their lifetime. In a personal level, freedom is also what one strive for at the moment. By identifying the constraints of reality, one could create a freer future by challenging them.

I skipped most of the classes in college, refused to take part in any activities related to politics and the Party, absented from most of the meetings, and ignored most senseless calls by the authorities. But when I graduated, I feel freer and happier than others who have complied. I feel my life is not wasted. And because I have taken my time more seriously and learned more things by myself, I actually enjoy more freedom to choose in career than others. And I want continue doing that. It feels great.

civil servant exam madness

Tonight I was chatting with two of my friends about their future. They are so depressed and worried about their future. Both of them are preparing the Civil Servants Exam, which is madness in my eyes. About half a million people would take the exam this year, and the chances of being employed by the goverment is about 1 percent. And the test taker have to prepare the exam using several large volume books, it must be more than 1 thousand pages. All those books are about Marxism and politics and all those boring things which would make me mad. One of my friend has took several such exams all over the country since she graduated from college. It's been over one year, and she is still trying. She has failed several times, and I tried to console her by saying that it's gonna be her turn now. I wasn't sure about that. In fact, I know several others who are also preparing the exam, who hope they could somehow make it to the interview and may even get the job as a civil servant, which means well-paid and higher status in one package. No need to worry about the future, because it's an "iron bowl".

Maybe they can persist and eventually their dreams would come true. But I am looking at the same Chinese madness again: why do so many people count on this chance instead of taking the time to learn real things, to know themselves and be their true selves and realize their true potentials. Is it because that everyone just don't know what they truly want? And then they started to pursue what all others want. Lost in education? Rather than illuminate the students to discover about their true self, this educational system has successed in doing one thing: making the students losing their true selves and identity.

I've seen enough people choose to forgo their dreams, enough people laugh at their childhood dreams, deny them, enough people told me that they don't know why they are choosing their major, enough people told me that they don't know what to do after graduation. It's just common here. But I think this is abnormal.

I believe that if one knows himself good enough and know what he wants, if one has a high sense of purpose, he could lose sight of all the rules and override the context, he would have the power to raise from most marginalized environment.

But it is always easier said than done. That's the problem.

Some teaching reflections

As a teacher, I found that I am endowed with the power to be heard. Although they are free to choose whether to listen to your advices or act upon it, and sometimes they actually didn't follow what you are saying, but they will at least nod and pretend that they are actually listening to you. This is what I realized when I am talking to one of my students about his learning and he is at same time doing something else. :)

Still, that's a great power. How can I harness this power to influence their learning? How can I transform them into automatic learners?

I found that my students mostly are learning for negative motivations: fear to lose the exam, the stress from peers, the push by the teachers.

How can I transfer those motivations and learning patterns into active and positive learning?

True learners take control of their own learning process. Teacher is just one element of his learning environment. But for my students, teacher is the center of their learning. To the extend that if there is no teacher orders, there won't be any self-directed learning. This vicious spiral need to be stopped.

How to predict the future and be happier?

According to Daniel Gilbert.

People tend to ignore good advices foolishly. It happens frequently, since people overestimate their own uniqueness and usually consider advice from other people as irrelevant. Why are people so optimistic about their personal uniqueness?
a. They know themselves better than other people.
b. They enjoy thinking about themselves as very special.
c. They tend to overestimate individual uniqueness in general. Social scientists care about similarities, but other people care about uniqueness!

Maybe that's what I encountered when I was trying to give some advices to my students. I usually don't expect them to "get it" immediately. But I do want them to take serious consideration of my advices sooner. What shall I do?

One thing suggested by Gilbert is:

One thing we can do is improve our "self-knowledge", knowing what we want and knowing at what points we are really unique, or "just similar" to other people. Such knowledge supports our adaptability, it helps us to select relevant information, and it helps us to make better decisions.

Know Thyself. As inscribed in the ancient Temple of Apollo at Delphi, that is the first step to predict the future. To understand what we truly want, and what we are capable of. As a teacher, I should first take the step to know myself, and then by asking questions and giving candid feedback to the students, guiding them to know themselves better. I encourage the learners to ask themselves the same questions, and ask the to trust their instincts sometimes and trust their teachers other times.

I also love to ask them what they want to do in the future and what do they like to do. I told them that we can seldom imagine what the future would be after 2 or 5 years from now. As I can never imagined that I wanted to be a teacher 5 years ago, and I never would dream about that I might actually be admitted to a graduate school in the States, a lot of things has changed in the few years. And things could change so radically when we are young and all we do is learning. So I love to ask them to let loose their imagination. Because we can never imagine what the future is, but by dreaming, we can at least push the reality towards what the future should be.