Rather than run the standard quizzes and exams, I'd like to design an unconventional course that taps into my students' intrinsic excitement to teach and learn. I'm prepared to takes risks to experiment with new ways to foster authentic curiosity and intellectual community.
The most straightforward way to tap intrinsic incentives is to guarantee an A+ to all students. The problem is that this is easy for unmotivated students to exploit. But by mixing in some social incentives, I may be able to create an environment that, in the first week, makes potential exploiters feel an obligation to their intrinsically motivated peers to either step up or withdraw. Right now I'm imagining a course that mixes a few different kinds of incentives:
* Promote cooperation, reciprocity, and desire for positive peer reputation by making 10% of students' grade the average grade of the rest of their class.
* Promote traditional fear of a bad grade with some conventional assignments.
* Promote experience of intrinsic incentives with a few small assignments that give guaranteed A+ no matter what is turned in.
* Promote intrinsic incentives and sense of reciprocal obligation by giving students the option, independent of grade, to read and rank each other's assignments. Highest ranks get non-grade prize. No ranked papers means no prize. Individuals are motivated both by prize and desire to entertain each other during assignment completion, and by a mix of prosocial incentives during ranking.
This could all go wonderfully, horribly, or both. Either way, it's worth trying. I've experienced some of these from very tenured teachers, and they were powerful to experience, even when I turned out to be lazy. But I don't have a crystal ball. Risks I can imagine include collusion, uncooperative behavior between students, and poor evaluations. Can you anticipate other unintended consequences that I could try to prepare for?
And more importantly, does anyone have ideas for other incentive schemes that could help students engage with their intrinsic motivation or, at least, their sense of obligation to each other? I have a high risk threshold for poor course evaluations, so if there is something you are afraid to try, I may be foolhardy enough to try it for you.
my students take evaluations most seriously so ive tried the following:
(I was sure to include a component of surprise evaluation in my course detail)
Then i adminstered an evaluation in class and evaluated the papers randomly including the fact that i marked the right answers wrong and vice-versa.
This gave two results:
They either approached me and then i asked them to think and justify my evaluation. Secondly situation was when they didnt approach me and i realized that they dont question which is a terrible state to be and tells me for sure that my students are at the rock bottom. In this instance i go by the traditional method of asking questions in class.
Can you blend some student choice into the course - either topics, pedagogies or assignments? I've had "core" topics, then had online polls with choices for sessions/topics in which I had a bit of flexibility.
Another helpful thing I've found is doing an anonymous online survey to obtain THEIR feedback about my course every few weeks, then acknowledge the responses. I use the start/stop/continue format (name things you'd like me to START doing in the course, things I should STOP doing, and things I should CONTINUE doings). Sometimes, the responses are not realistic, but that's an opportunity for me to acknowledge the ideas, then explain why the ideas are/are not feasible. It also helps them feel part of the course design.
Finally, I've used a rubric to score content knowledge AND appropriate expression (coherence, offering reasons/support etc.), critical thought, etc. BUT allowed students to choose the method of assignment (they can choose paper, video, podcast, etc.). This is a little tricky in the assessment, because sometimes students create sophisticated multimedia (ie, high production value) but lack the content/thinking. This can be solved with formative assignments.
Other less conventional but useful assignments are to create a performed rant (a la John Oliver or Rick Mercer) on a course topic - of course, making sure the rant is actually coherent, constructive (not mean spirited) and well-thought out (not empty headed), showing mastery of course content. These can be performed live in class (thus you would evaluate on the spot) or done by video (place a strict time limit!). When I have done this, I've taken the time to deconstruct a good rant (again, Oliver or Rick Mercer), and help students identify criteria to prepare.
Hi, what age range is involved? In my experience, the prominence of cooperative vs. collaborative vs. competitive vs. individualistic motivators generally shifts throughout life, although there are personal variances of course.
Also, how many people are we talking about? Are they only interacting with you and each other in a physical classroom, or virtually as well?
Hello Seth! I´ working exactly in what you are doing! I´m a TecMilenio and nowadays I´m doing a project in a Private School with an online course... It would be awesome to share with you my ideas :) [email protected] Best regards!
Boredom and apathy occur when the challenge is too small;
anxiety and withdrawal occur when the challenge is too great;
curiosity and engagement occur when the challenge is optimal
Source - Kashdan, T. B., & Fincham, F. D. (2004). Facilitating curiosity : A social and self-regulatory perspective for scientifically based interventions in P. A. Linley & S. Joseph (Eds.),
Well, i teach at public university, last year i burned (literally) the class program and propose the students to make a new one, at the end both where similar but in the second one, the students felt engaged and in my analysis, worked harder than previous groups.
Bonnie: Thank you for the questions. The students are undergraduates from all years. They are often excellent students. The course will be about 15-20 people, in person, with lots of interaction.
Ruchi: That's a really wild idea.
Russell and Laura: I think it's a great idea to give students some power to decide course content, and to encourage personally engaging assignments. Thank you, especially Laura, for all of the different ideas.
Krishnan: Thank you for the references. I'm most interested in the case where I start with engagement, and the challenge is self-imposed by the student instead of coming from me.
Maria: I'm not an education researcher at all, but if you still think I have something worth saying, my email is moctodliamg at the same thing backwards.
I often use a thought exercise that I have developed on the basis of John Rawls´s famous theory of (social) justice. The aim is to encourage my students to imagine how society could and should be different and better. The gist of the exercise is as follows.
You wake up on a warm South Pacific Island beach, and look around. You see nine other people, none of whom you know. All of you are young and healthy, but you all have collective amnesia, so you have no idea of your past life histories. You all look behind you and see 10 beautiful beach houses, each with fresh running water and an abundance of fruit and vegetables. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO DISTRIBUTE THESE ASSETS BETWEEN EACH OTHER; AND WHY?
Best wishes, Paul
Hello Professor Frey,
Yes, the answer is easy, get them outside the classroom. If I was teaching them geography, meteorology, principles of science, or aviation (all of which I have taught), I wouldn't teach them about clouds by looking in a book. I would have them step outside and look up to the sky. On mornings, when there are lenticular clouds (flying saucer-shaped clouds) in the sky, I would have them gather around outside and look up so they could predict to all their friends that before the afternoon was over, strong winds would arrive. Having their predictions come true is a very inspirational thing. If they're learning about the sun, at any grade level, have them make a sun dial.
Books should often be thought of as compasses to point students outside to where the real learning awaits, and classrooms should often be thought of as maps to inform students where they really ought to go to learn. If teaching statistics, take students out on the lawn to learn to take estimates of the numbers of blades of grass. If teaching trigonometry, teach them to make their own homemade theodolite or inclinometer and measure the height of a distant mountain peak.
I was fortunate in 5th grade to have an excellent teacher named Mrs. Summers. One day, I let her know that the following day I would not be in class because I would be going to the county fair. I was polite and asked her for permission to be absent that next day. She looked at me with the biggest smile and said, "Have fun! You'll learn more in a day at the fair than you can in a week at school." She was absolutely right.
One of the best examples of fostering natural curiosity can be found in a famous play, "The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail." It's worth reading the script of that play (along with "Walden") to see how best to tap into natural curiosity.
Also, keep in mind that simple miracles are best in teaching for inspiring natural curiosity. Learning about colloidal properties in chemistry and then having students make their own homemade butter from cream and then eat their experiment on salty crackers feels like a miracle to students of all ages in a city. The same goes with making ice cream in a college lab or rock candy. Nobody ever gets too old and mature to enjoy simple miracles, especially if they get to eat them.
Cheers,
Allen
You can use online debates to get them more curious about topic they are interested in and be willing compete for points. I presented a recent conference paper on this teaching strategy with much positive results.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Debra
Conference Paper Debating: A Dynamic Teaching Strategy for Motivating Student...
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