This makes me think of the difference between my 7-year-old twin 2nd graders and my two 17-year-old seniors. My 2nd graders are still excited and very eager to learn. On the other hand, my 17-year-old seniors have spend the last 4 years doing everything in their power to get good enough grades to get into the college of their choice and get out of high school. They have learned that they need to do just enough to get the desired grade. The no longer have that self-motivation or that 7-year-old eager to please mentality. This is exactly what Schank means when he stated that “Natural learning goals that have to do with increased understanding or increasing one’s power to operate successfully in various endeavors get replaced by artificial learning goals that have to do with acceptance, approval, and socialization. One barrier I can see to the GBS is that students do not share the same interest. It might be hard to keep all students engaged. Also the lack of technology could be a factor. This model would seem to also take a lot of planning on the part of the instructor.
This also fits in with what I am teaching right now in Computer Applications I. We have just started objective 3.02 which are the design principles. To make this activity relevant and interesting to my students, I have created a project for them to do. The goal of this project is to teach the design principles as well as teaching the benefits of knowing your target audience. I have each student take on the role of a travel agency. They are to create a logo, slogan and company name. Using Publisher they create 5 publications making sure each publication follows the rules associated with the design principles as well as identifying the age of their target audience for each publication. We spend a week on this project and they love it. If I had more time, I would love to use more technology to turn this into a dynamic activity.
It is a challenge to pinpoint the sources of motivation and interest of people individually. To steer students away from artificial goals, an educational program can be structured around a rubric rather than a letter/number grading system. The student can also be given the chance to evaluate their learning experience and it helps them think more deeply about the topic.
ReplyDeleteI like your idea for the travel agency project. It has a clear objective and potential for real life application. The students can practice professional skills. What are the objectives like later in your Computer Applications course? Would you be able to expand on the travel agency project?
Great anecdote about your children. It's sad that children grow out of wanting to learn for it's own sake and learn only what they need to know to game the educational system. Perhaps that in in itself is valuable skills but it doesn't speak well of schools. I hope that school isn't the reason for this but I'm afraid it's often the case. Schank make some good points about the demotivating context of schooling when skills are taught in isolation and simply as a means of making the grade or passing a test. In fact he made so many interesting points I looked him up and found he has a very interesting background, professor at Yale, Stanford and later Northwestern, and now entrepreneur and . I've been following his blog lately and it's an interesting read.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea with your class! I'm sure they can use what they learn in that project in many different areas in the future.
ReplyDeleteKerry,
ReplyDeleteI have noticed that several of our classmates have mentioned diminishing motivation in students from the time they enter school until they finish school. What do you think happens in those years? Do you think Goal-Based Scenarios can help?
Karen-I am not sure what happens. I look at my own children and wonder what happened?
ReplyDeleteGinny-I have a lot of projects in my CAI class that I have created. All of them are geared toward real life situations. Since I am an elective I want my students to know how what I am teaching them applies to the real world.
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