identifying and solving motivational challenges for teachers and students in the

Identifying and solving motivational challenges for teachers and students in the transition from a traditional knowledge-transmission educational system to a

knowledge-based system

John M. Keller Professor Emeritus

Florida State University, USA

Introduction

It is inspiring to read the goals that were set forth for this conference. There can be many different goals for educational curricula. For example, the primary goal of a curriculum might be to preserve one’s culture by teaching its religion, ethics, and history. A curriculum can also focus on basic skills education which was a primary focus with the beginning of the industrial age when the demand for literate and skilled workers grew exponentially, and it is still the dominant focus in many traditionally oriented schools and colleges where the focus is on the acquisition of established knowledge. However, a curriculum can also focus on change as in the present conference which is concerned with the transition to a knowledge-based curriculum. This approach does not necessarily supplant the other approaches; it builds on them by providing an educational system that supports the development of higher levels of human potential as well as better meeting the needs of individuals and their society in the face of the enormous and continuing growth of knowledge and technologies which are far too massive to be assimilated by any given individual.

Developing a knowledge-based curriculum is not easy. It requires, among other things, that the teachers and students are motivated, deeply motivated, to engage in this new process. In fact, we can say that learner and teacher motivation stands at the apex of learning and performance. Without having appropriate kinds of motivation and the will to pursue goals, there will be little if any significant achievement in schools. This was stated dramatically by Terrel Bell, a former Secretary of Education in the United States who said, “There are three things to emphasize in teaching: The first is motivation, the second is motivation, and the third is (you guessed it) motivation." And, we can expand this observation to apply to all areas of excellence in human performance.

However, there are many levels of motivation and only one of those levels will result in successful change. It is that the participants in the change process are intrinsically motivated; that is, people must really to want to make the changes. It is not enough for teachers, for example, to say, “I know I should change my teaching methods,” or even to acknowledge that, “I am required to change my teaching methods.” People have to be willing to give the new methods a fair try-out and to really want to change over to the new teaching methods. In other words, deep seated desire is necessary.

As in any major change management process, the transition to a knowledge-based system will require full administrative support, but even if there is such support, there will be motivational obstacles to overcome. This presentation will describe a motivational design process, called the ARCS model, that provides guidance for identifying challenges and designing solutions regarding people’s motivation to change and to learn. It has been used successfully in educational settings in many parts of the world and can be incorporated in the present situation

This paper begins with a brief overview of some of the characteristics of knowledge-based systems, especially in regard to teaching and learning environments, and the implications of this approach for the design of such systems. Next, the paper will describe the motivational design process, known as the ARCS model (2010) which provides guidance for understanding and systematically influencing people’s motivation. The third part of the paper will provide specific explanations and examples of how this process applies in teaching and learning, and the final part describes some of the requirements of administrators to build motivation and support for implementing this new approach.

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Knowledge-based systems and schools

Much has been written about knowledge-based systems in education, the private sector, and even entire societies. Within a knowledge-based system, knowledge is viewed differently than in a traditional knowledge-transmission system. In the latter, knowledge is considered to be contained within books, libraries, and the minds of the experts who are professors, teachers, and senior practitioners. Their goal is to transmit this knowledge to the younger generation by means of lectures, research assignments, and examinations. This type of knowledge, often called explicit knowledge, consists primarily of information (the periodic table, multiplication tables, names of the geographical subdivisions of your nation) and results in products such as exams, library research reports, and other formal assignments.

In a knowledge-based society the focus is on what may be called tacit knowledge; that is, how can we guide our students (and teachers) to become users and generators of knowledge? It includes the question of how can we capture the expertise and wisdom of the experts in the area that we are studying. For example, instead of just teaching science students how to conduct an experiment which generally means that they will learn the “scientific method” and then have them apply this method to developing a project for a science fair, the bigger challenge is to ask how can we help them learn how scientists actually think and proceed in their work. Advances in science, and in any other area of human performance, come not from the rigid application of a prescriptive process, such as the scientific method, but from creative thinking enriched by experience which leads to insight and meaningful questions to ask. The scientific method, or any other systematic procedure, is just a tool to be used in the process of investigation.

Thus, in a knowledge-based society, knowledge is viewed as those things that people do with information (tacit knowledge) combined with experiences that build competence and insight in a deeper way. In a knowledge-based system students would be expected to acquire pre-requisite information and then use it in the context of problem-solving, conducting meaningful applications in authentic learning applications, and generating new knowledge on their own. By new knowledge we refer to the independent efforts of students to expand their own knowledge. It reflects what is meant by the expression “know-how.” For example, an accomplished senior teacher is generally able to manage classrooms full of students, cope with unexpected and challenging problems, engage students in meaningful ways, stimulate desires to achieve, and help students feel good about their learning experience. If asked how he or she accomplished this, the teacher is typically unable to provide a full and complete explanation. These complex skills come from a depth of knowledge and experience. A challenge in a knowledge-based system is how to both transfer this tacit knowledge to others while building the capacities of novices to develop their own expertise.

The shift toward knowledge-based learning systems means that knowledge is viewed more as a tool than a repository of information with a greater emphasis on the development of attitudes and skills that enable the learners to become more self-directed and in charge of their own knowledge development. This has several implications for the design of learning environments:

Personal obligation for learning. Students must acquire “learning how to learn” skills if they do not already have them. Also, they must be motivated to be self-directed learners.

Being able to judge the validity and utility of information. The World Wide Web contains a vast amount of information and virtually none of it has to meet any criteria for truth and validity. Anybody can post anything they wish and present it as facts or the results of research. People using the web must acquire digital literacy (Gilster 1997) which means that they have to learn how to validate the information that they accept and use.

Virtual classrooms & digital learning environments. Utilization of technology is an important component of a knowledge-based system. Learning systems must provide these learning and organizational structures.

Group and organizational requirements. A knowledge-based learning environment includes group communications, group problem solving, and interchanges among the members of a learning group. Thus, it is necessary to provide these capabilities.

Instant learning and performance support: electronic performance support systems (EPSS). An EPSS (Figure 1) is a computer-based system that provides virtually all the tools and supports that enable a person to achieve a high level of performance. This can be a highly effective system to

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use in a knowledge-based learning environment. It provides many capabilities to the individual teacher and student, and also facilitates collaboration among people.

Figure 1: An electronic performance support system for teachers and students

In many ways teachers and students already have EPSS capabilities due to the voluminous applications and resources that are freely available online. These environments are also called resource-based learning. But, an EPSS system is more than this. It includes an element of design to ensure that relevant applications and tools are available for specific projects.

In summary, a knowledge-based system has the potential for providing a richly supported learning environment with the goal of developing higher-order knowledge and capability in regard to both performing complex cognitive tasks and generating one’s own knowledge and insight. But, just providing an array of technological affordances is not enough. One could ask how often available technologies such as mobile phones, access to social media including Facebook and Twitter, and access to enormous data bases are used by students to support learning and personal growth instead of recreation and social networking. Probably very little. To use these tools in support of learning requires that participants be highly motivated to take advantage of this opportunity and have direction and goals in their efforts. In the next section, a description of some of the motivational challenges faced by teachers and students is followed by a description of the ARCS motivational design model.

Motivational challenges and design process

The job of teaching, like the requirement of being a high performing student, contains many obstacles to building and sustaining personal motivation. For example some of the questions asked by teachers are:

What are the critical things to know about learner motivation?

How can I determine if I have a discipline problem or a motivation problem?

How can I motivate kids when I don’t have any money for prizes and other rewards?

Can I have a real and meaningful influence on learner motivation?

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How can I find time to deal with motivation when my teaching requirements are so heavy?

What can I do when my own motivation is low?

What are some specific tactics that I can use to motivate students?

How do I decide which motivational tactics to use – intuition, personal appeal?

How can I make my class interesting and fun and still keep my high academic standards?

What do I do if I don’t have a “magnetic” personality that appeals to kids?

Students also have their lists of motivational challenges. A few examples are:

How can I be motivated when the instruction seems to be useless?

How can I stay awake and learn when the instruction is boring?

Why can’t I take classes that I want to take?

How do I overcome my fears when I am not confident about learning a given topic or task?

What do I do when I have emotional problems in my life that interfere with learning/

These are but a few of the many, many motivational obstacles that teachers and students could list. The question is, how does one respond to all of these obstacles? It would be extremely difficult to create a separate answer to each one of these obstacles as well as continue to provide answers to the potentially endless list of other obstacles that could be identified. Fortunately, there is a process that can be used to evaluate the primary motivational problems that teachers and students encounter and to create strategies for solving them. It is called the ARCS model of motivational (Keller 1987; Keller 1987; Keller 2010) and it provides a systematic, ten-step approach (Keller 1997) to designing motivational tactics into instruction.

The ARCS model incorporates a needs assessment procedure to analyze the motivational strengths and weaknesses (gaps) in the target audience and existing instructional materials which provides guidance for the creation of motivational objectives and measurements. It provides guidelines for creating and selecting motivational tactics and follows a process that integrates well with instructional design and lesson planning (Keller 2000 February). The analysis of motivational needs and corresponding selection of tactics are based on four dimensions of motivation which were derived from a synthesis of research on human motivation, and are known as attention (A), relevance (R), confidence (C), and satisfaction (S). These categories resulted from a holistic synthesis of motivational concepts and characteristics (Keller 1983; Keller 2010) and conducting a cluster analysis of the concepts and characteristics based on similarities and differences in attributes. Elaborations of the following concepts and scholarly citations can be found in Keller (2010)

The attention category incorporates research on curiosity and arousal, interest, boredom, and other related areas such as sensation seeking These concepts illustrate the importance of incorporating a variety of tactics to gain learner attention by the use of interesting graphics and animations, visual or verbal scenarios that introduce incongruity or conflict, mystery, unresolved problems, and other techniques to stimulate a sense of inquiry in the learners. It is also important to incorporate variability in one’s approaches, because no matter how interesting a given tactic is, people will adapt to it and lose interest over time.

Relevance refers to learners’ perceptions that the instructional requirements are consistent with their goals, compatible with their learning styles, and connected to their past experiences. A key component of relevance is goal orientation which, as demonstrated in traditional achievement motivation research has been proven to facilitate motivation and achievement. Learner goals can be extrinsically motivated, as illustrated by the need to pass a course to be eligible for a desired opportunity, or intrinsically motivated as when the learner is engaged in actions that are personally interesting and freely chosen. This condition of intrinsic motivation is an example of self-determination leads to sustained goal-oriented behavior. In recent years it has been popular in the literature of constructivist psychology to refer to certain aspects of relevance as “authentic” learning experiences (Duffy, Lowyck et al. 1993). However, this is not different from the long tradition in education and training that demonstrates the benefits on learning and transfer when knowledge and skills are taught in their contexts of application (Travers 1977). Other motivational concepts that help explain relevance are motives such as the needs for achievement, affiliation, and power, competence, and flow.

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The third category, confidence, refers to the effects of positive expectancies for success, experiences of success, and attributions of successes to one’s own abilities and efforts rather than to luck or to task challenge levels that are too easy or difficult. This is accomplished by helping students establish positive expectancies for success. Often students have low confidence because they have very little understanding of what is expected of them. By making the objectives clear and providing examples of acceptable achievements, it is easier to build confidence. Another aspect of confidence is how one attributes the causes of one’s successes or failures. Being successful in one situation can improve one’s overall confidence if the person attributes success to personal effort or ability. If the student believes that success was due to external factors such as luck, lack of challenge, or decisions of other people, then confidence in one’s skills is not likely to increase. This category of confidence includes some of the most currently popular areas of motivational research, two of which are self-efficacy and attribution theory.

If the learners are attentive, interested in the content, and moderately challenged, then they will be motivated to learn. But to sustain this motivation, the fourth condition of motivation is required -- satisfaction. It refers to positive feelings about one's accomplishments and learning experiences. It means that students receive recognition and evidence of success that support their intrinsic feelings of satisfaction and they believe they have been treated fairly. Tangible extrinsic rewards can also produce satisfaction, and they can be either substantive or symbolic. That is, they can consist of grades, privileges, promotions or such things as certificates, monogrammed school supplies, or other tokens of achievement. Opportunities to apply what one has learned coupled with personal recognition support intrinsic feelings of satisfaction. Finally, a sense of equity, or fairness, is important. Students must feel that the amount of work required by the course was appropriate, that there was internal consistency between objectives, content, and tests, and that there was no favoritism in grading.

These four categories provide a basis for aggregating the various concepts, theories, strategies, and tactics that pertain to the motivation to learn (Keller, J. M., 1987a). They represent the first major part of the ARCS model, which is the synthesis of the vast motivational literature into a simple and useful number of macro-level concepts. They also provide the basis for the second major feature of the ARCS model which is the systematic design process that assists you in creating motivational tactics that match student characteristics and needs (Keller, 1987b).

The ARCS model contains a ten-step design process for the development of motivational systems in work and learning settings (Figure 2). The first two steps, which are parts of the overall analysis components of the process, produce information about the status quo and provide the basis for analyzing gaps and their causes which are done in the third and fourth steps. Based on these analyses, in Step 5 one prepares objectives for the performance improvement project and specifies how they will be assessed. There are then two steps in design. Step 6 consists of brainstorming within each motivational category to generate a rich list of potential solutions. Step 7 is more critical and analytical for the purpose of selecting solutions that best fit the time, resource, and other constraining factors in the situation. The final step includes both development and evaluation, and is similar to any other development model.

As in any systematic design process, motivational system development begins with collecting information (Steps 1 and 2) and analyzing it (Steps 3 and 4) to identify motivational characteristics and gaps which lead to objectives (Step 5). In this process, there are two difficulties in determining the degree and nature of a motivational problem. First is that problems resulting in symptoms of demotivation may not be due to motivational causes. People can become demotivated as a consequence of what is, in fact, a capability or opportunity problem. For example, people who do not have and cannot get the skills required to perform satisfactorily will soon learn that they cannot succeed to a satisfactory degree. They will develop low expectations for success, or even feelings of helplessness, and will be demotivated as evidenced by lowered levels of effort and performance. However, the cause of the problem in this example is lack of skills.

A Simplified Approach

This model has been applied to various types of learning environments such as classroom instruction, self-paced print, computer-based instruction, and multimedia, but these applications have been limited in scope and function. Furthermore, due to the fact that the full ten-step model can be more time consuming and detailed than is necessary in some application settings, a simplified approach was created by Suzuki

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Figure 2. Ten-step motivational design process

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(Suzuki and Keller 1996) for use in a computers in education project at junior high demonstration school in northern Japan. It reduces the majority of the design activities to a single matrix in which the results of one’s analysis and design decisions can be portrayed.

In Sendai, Japan, a team of 25 teachers in 8 subject areas at Sendai Daichi Junior High School had been developing computer application projects for several years as part of a demonstration project sponsored by the Japanese national government. During the last two years of the project, they were asked to incorporate systematic motivational design into their process. Suzuki (Suzuki & Keller, 1996) developed a simplified approach to motivational design because the full, seven-step model would require too much time for training and implementation. The goal of the simplified approach was to ensure that the teachers would identify key motivational characteristics in the learners, the content area to be taught, and the hardware or software to be used. The teachers then evaluated this information and prescribed tactics based on identified motivational problems. This process helped ensure that teachers avoided the inclusion of excessive numbers of tactics, or tactics derived from their own preferred areas of interest without regard to the characteristics of the students and the situation.

The resulting design process is represented in a matrix (Table 1). In the first row, the designer lists salient characteristics of the learners’ overall motivation to learn. The second row contains the designer’s judgments about how appealing the learning task will be to the learners. The third and fourth rows ask about learners’ expected attitudes toward the medium of instruction and the instructional materials. Each of the entries in these rows has a “plus” or “minus” sign to indicate whether it is a positive or negative motivational characteristic. Based on the information in these first three rows, the motivational designers decide how much motivational support is required and what types of tactics to use. They refer to reference lists of potential tactics (Keller and Suzuki 1988; Keller and Burkman 1993) and how to create their own based on the identified needs.

In this example, the teacher determined that confidence is the only real problem area, and he listed some specific things to deal with it. He also listed some specific tactics for the other categories, but they serve to maintain motivation instead of solving a specific problem.

A benefit of his application of this process was that in his initial motivational plan, before he applied this process, he had a much longer list of tactics that he thought would be exciting and motivational. After doing the analysis and applying various selection criteria that are listed in the training materials on motivational design, he realized that his list of tactics would be too time consuming, and would actually distract from the students’ intrinsic interest in the subject as revealed in his analysis. By using the design process, he was able to simplify the motivational design and target it to specific needs.

An evaluation of the effectiveness of this motivational design process (Suzuki and Keller, 1996) verified that the teachers were able to use the matrix accurately with only a few entries not being placed appropriately, and more than two-thirds felt that it definitely helped them produce a more effective motivational design. Some teachers had difficulties with the analysis phase, which indicates that this is a critical area to address in training people to use the process.

This simplified design process was modified and used to develop a prototype of motivationally adaptive computer-based instruction (Song 1998). The formal motivational design process requires an audience analysis which influences which motivational tactics are included in the learning environment. However, learner motivation changes over time, and in sometimes unpredictable ways. In a classroom or other instructor-led setting, an expert instructor can continuously gauge the audience’s motivational condition and make adjustments as appropriate. But in self-directed learning environments, such as computer-based instruction (CBI), this type of continuous adjustment has not been a feature. Once the instruction has been designed and “packaged,” everyone receives the same program, with the exception of limited branching and other learner control options. These options can have a positive effect on motivation, but they do not adequately reflect the range of motivational conditions that characterize learners at different points in time.

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Table 1. ARCS simplified design matrix: Elective unit on using international e-mail

DESIGN FACTORS

ARCS CATEGORIES

Attention Relevance Confidence Satisfaction

LEARNER CHARACTERISTICS

Elective course, High interest (+)

High commitment (+)

Low skills in typing and in conversational English (-)

Newly formed group of students (-),

but familiar teacher (+)

LEARNING TASK

(Learners' attitudes toward)

New, attractive, adventurous (+)

-High public interest to the Internet (+)

-Useful in future (+)

-Limited access to computers (-)

-Seems difficult (-)

-First exposure (-)

-High applicability of acquired skills (+)

-Exciting outcome (+)

MEDIUM: Computer in this lesson

(Learners' attitudes toward)

Interesting new use as a networking tool (+)

Familiar as a stand alone learning tool (+)

Unstable network connection may make students worried (-)

Immediate feedback (+)

COURSEWARE CHARACTERISTICS

(E-mail software)

English usage (-) Participatory for every students (+)

MOTIVATIONAL TACTICS FOR THE LESSON

Minimal tactics required:

-Emphasize opportunity to communicate worldwide

-Demonstrate immediate transmission and response features


-Demonstrate how it extends one’s communication capabilities

Necessary to build confidence:

-Set objectives cumulatively from low to high

-Team teaching with an Assistant English Teacher

- Use translation software


Provide reinforcement by receiving messages from “network pals”

In the CPI program, it would be possible to include a large number of motivational tactics to cover a broad range of motivational conditions, but this would most likely have a negative effect on motivation and performance. The reason is that when students are motivated to learn, they want to work on highly task-relevant activities. They do not want to be distracted with unnecessary motivational activities. For this reason, the motivationally-adaptive process (Song 1998; Song and Keller 2001) was designed to sense a learner’s motivation level and respond adaptively. The amount and types of motivational strategies in the lesson were automatically adjusted based on the self-reported motivational states of the learners.

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Integration into Lesson Planning

The results of this motivational planning can be incorporated into a typical lesson plan that contains the lesson title and objectives together with a listing of topics, instructional strategies, motivational strategies, resource requirements, and time estimates (see Keller, 2010 for examples). The motivational design template combined with the lesson plan template has several benefits for the teacher. They allow the teacher to

“See” the overall architecture of the lesson

Check the lesson for balance of content and activities

Easily check to see if there is variation in approach (that is, that the same pattern of instructional or motivational techniques are not used over and over again)

Critically review the contents, instructional tactics, and motivational tactics in terms of internal consistency and fidelity to the lesson and course objectives, and

Obtain reviews and feedback from other people who can easily review the structure and content of the lesson.

Additional information about this model together with tools and examples for using it can be found in Keller (2010). This model is very practical and has been used in many projects and research studies around the world. Following are a few examples of studies that help establish the validity of the model.

Validity of the Model

As can be seen in the literature of motivational design research, the ARCS model has proven to be valid and stable over the years and in virtually all cultures at all levels of education even though there are many differences in the practices used to achieve them (Keller 1999; Keller 2010). More specifically, with respect to the validity of the ARCS model, construct validity was established by the way in which the principles were derived from the synthesis of motivational literature and by subsequent tests of their discriminant and predictive validity. Naime-Diffenbach (Naime-Diffenbach 1991) demonstrated that if specific attributes of instructional materials related to each of the four principles are manipulated independently, students’ motivational reactions vary consistently with the manipulations. Specifically, she enhanced the attention and confidence elements of a lesson that was otherwise rather neutral with regard to motivational features. She found significant results which demonstrated that the four components of motivation could be varied independently of one another. Small and Gluck (Small and Gluck 1994) tested the perceived similarity of elements of the four categories and confirmed their categorizations.

There are many examples of empirical studies that support the validity of this model. For example, Chyung, Winiecki, and Fenner (Chyung, Winiecki et al. 1999) used the ARCS model in combination with a systematic needs assessment process to design and implement t interventions that would decrease the dropout rate in a distance learning program. Their results indicated that there were improvements in both learning and motivational reactions in all four motivational categories (attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction). Also, there was a significant reduction in the dropout rate which decreased from 44% to 22%.

A study of motivation and performance in a distance learning class, by Chang & Lehman (Chang and Lehman 2001) provides another example. They used the ARCS model to guide the development of a set of tactics that were designed to facilitate easy scanning of online text, reduce the word count on a screen compared to printed text, improving the quality of quizzes as a motivational tool, and incorporate more interactive features. The investigators found a significant improvement in learner perceptions of motivation and in scores on a comprehension test.

The motivational concepts represented by the components of the model define the conditions under which students are likely to have high levels of motivation and persistence in their immediate environments and also have positive levels of continuing motivation (Maehr 1976) to learn more about the given topic. However, a limitation of these categories is that they do not, in and of themselves, explain what motivational tactics to use or when to use them. Both of the preceding studies used the ARCS model as a basis for analyzing their audiences and prescribing strategies for the motivational issues they identified. Thus, it is necessary to employ the motivational design process when applying the model.

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Applications of the Model

The ARCS model can be used by teachers to examine and improve their own motivation as well as the motivation of their students. The research shows that enthusiasm is one of the characteristics of highly effective teachers. However, it is difficult if not impossible for most human beings to always feel enthusiastic about everything they do. Also, teachers usually have some topics they enjoy teaching and others that do not greatly interest them. When the teacher is not interested in the topic, it can be very difficult to inspire their students’ motivation to learn that content. To assist teachers in examining their own motivation and their readiness to incorporate tactics that will motivate the students, I have prepared a checklist that combines some elements from previous publications with some new elements. The following job aid (Table 2) can be used in the lesson planning phase to assist in making notes about motivational attitudes and ideas. It can also be used during the process of teaching the course when motivational problems seem to be occurring. One could say that this process supports the knowledge-based approach by including the teacher in the self-directed approach to expanding their own knowledge.

Table 2. ARCS self-analysis and process questions

Attention Basic Questions Regarding Teacher’s Self-Assessment and Student Attitudes

Am I excited about this learning experience and how I can make it interesting?

Are the students going to be interested? What tactics will stimulate their curiosity and interest?

Subcategories and Teacher’s Analysis Questions

Capture Interest (Perceptual Arousal):

What can I do to capture their interest?

Stimulate Inquiry (Inquiry Arousal):

How can I stimulate an attitude of inquiry?

Maintain Attention (Variability):

How can I use a variety of tactics to maintain their attention?

Relevance Basic Questions Regarding Teacher’s Self-Assessment and Student Attitudes

Do I believe that this learning experience will be valuable for my students?

Will students believe it is valuable? What can I do to help them believe it is important?


Relate to Goals (Goal Orientation):

How can I best meet my learner’s needs? (Do I know their needs?)

Match Interests (Motive Matching):

How and when can I provide my learners with appropriate choices, responsibilities, and influences?

Tie to Experiences (Familiarity):

How can I tie the instruction to the learners’ experiences?

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Confidence Basic Questions Regarding Teacher’s Self-Assessment and Student Attitudes

Am I confident in my ability to lead this learning experience effectively and interestingly?

Will the students feel confident about their ability to learn this? What do I need to do to help them be confident?


Success Expectations (Learning Requirements):

How can I assist in building a positive expectation for success?

Success Opportunities (Learning Activities):

How will the learning experience support or enhance the students’ beliefs in their competence?

Personal Responsibility (Success Attributions):

How will the learners clearly know their success is based upon their efforts and abilities?

Satisfaction Basic Questions Regarding Teacher’s Self-Assessment and Student Attitudes

Do I expect to have positive feelings about this learning experience?

What can I do to help the students feel good about their experience and desire to continue learning?


Intrinsic Satisfaction (Self-Reinforcement):

How can I provide meaningful opportunities for learners to use their newly acquired knowledge/skill?

Rewarding Outcomes (Extrinsic Rewards):

What will provide reinforcement to the learners’ successes?

Fair Treatment (Equity):

How can I assist the students in anchoring a positive feeling about their accomplishments?

Having done the analysis, the next challenge is to create interesting and meaningful strategies to incorporate into your instruction. Following are three strategies as examples.

Example 1: Developing independent research skills. An important requirement for kids in a knowledge-based society is to be able to use disciplined approaches to formulating and answering questions; in other words, to be able to do independent research. This can be taught at an early age as evidenced by a teacher and the northeastern part of United States. As a special resource teacher she was responsible for a group of fifth and sixth grade students who were engaged in a year-long independent research project. The students would report to her at the learning resource center at various intervals and there would be rather long periods of time between class sessions devoted to this project. Therefore, many learners could be expected to have serious problems with relevance and confidence during the year. She expected that the learners would have trouble sustaining interest in a project that did not have immediate assignments and feedback, they may have doubts from time to time as to how important the project really is, and they may doubt that they can really do all the work that will be required. Therefore, the teacher used the ARCS model to develop an overall strategy with appropriate tactics to counteract these motivational obstacles. Here are just a few examples of the many tactics (Keller, 2010) that she used:

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At the beginning of the course, show visual representations of projects completed by previous students. This helps stimulate curiosity and also build confidence that if other students have done this, that they can do it, too.

Use "mini newsletters" in between class meetings to share information about project topics and progress. This helps sustain curiosity and a sense of relevance during the semester.

Use a theme for the year that is related to an area of interest for students of this age. For example, they wonder what is going to become of them in the future, so a theme that asks them to project themselves into the future would allow them to select topics of current interest and relate them to the future. This supports relevance by having a personally meaningful theme that engenders a deep level of interest.

After the students have selected topics, organize them into small groups to discuss what methods they will use to research their topics and how they will report the results of their research. They will produce a written report, but they will be encouraged to use other communications methods such as building a nice PowerPoint presentation, making a YouTube video, designing a game in which class members participate, or conducting a small drama. This incorporates all four of the ARCS dimensions by building attention, relevance, confidence by means of social support, and satisfaction that will result from sharing the results of their work.

At the end of the semester have a celebration meeting at which students present short descriptions of their work, have refreshments, and receive token rewards such as or school logo items for their work.

The first semester in which she implemented these ARCS-based tactics resulted in much less dropout and loss of interest in the class as well as a higher level of sustained effort and better quality products.

Example 2: Add games and problem-solving activities to increase the perceived relevance of a learning task. And, involve students in the lesson planning and implementation. When teaching topics that the students do not perceive to be relevant or useful, add activities that provide an immediate application of the knowledge to be learned. For example, a mathematical concept such as pi is not generally considered by middle school students to be interesting or relevant to their lives. One teacher solved this problem by introducing a problem of interest to the students. Specifically, he asked them if they like pizza (all of them did) and then asking them how they would determine which pizzas to order if they were going to have a party in their class; that is, which ones would be least expensive. The students suggested that they could simply look at the menus of several pizza parlors and choose the cheapest one. The teacher said, "Let’s see if we can come up with a better method to determine where to get the best price on our pizzas." He then said, "We will need to use pi to determine this." Now, they were interested in learning this concept. After teaching it he said, “Now let's apply our knowledge of using pi to determine the area of a circle to compare the prices of different pizzas. Pizzas come in different sizes from different parlors. Therefore, let's convert the size of pizzas to square centimeters and then we can compute how much each pizza costs per square centimeter." After obtaining the prices and diameters of pizzas from several pizza parlors, the students were able to do the calculations and decide which pizzas to buy. The teacher planed this activity to conclude on "Pi Day" which occurs on March 14 every year. March 14, when converted to numerals (3.14) is equal to the value of pi. The teacher concluded the unit of work by providing the pizzas which provided satisfaction and, in order to extend the relevance of the lesson beyond the classroom, showing video clips of engineers and other people using pi in their calculations.

Example 3: Use social networking applications to more fully engage the students in the class and expand beyond the classroom walls. In a recent innovation by two professors at Syracuse University (Small and Rotolo 2012 in press), students use social media to communicate with the instructor, other students, and even people outside the classroom who become interested in the topic and activities. Their approach would also be effective and appealing in middle and secondary school classrooms. Part of their motivation for incorporating Twitter was that this is an example of a social media that is having a huge impact on the characteristics of a knowledge-based society. At first, they used Twitter discussions during face-to-face classroom meetings. Students were encouraged to bring their personal device of choice – laptop, smart phone or tablet – to tweet during class. Using a class-specific hashtag (hashtags are used on Twitter to group conversations around a topic or event), students were asked to share their thoughts or questions anytime they like providing they are appropriate for the classroom context. This use of Twitter

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provides a “backchannel” discussion that augments the class with tweets which include questions, comments, and even humorous observations, that add levity. Students also share links to additional resources related to the topic at hand which helps to build competence. She also used it in her online class and it provided a useful and motivating channel of communication that helps build a sense of social presence as well as social networking among the students. Another benefit was that people who were not even enrolled in the class would sometimes participate. For example, when she was describing the use of blogs by a major corporation in the USA the account manager for that blog began to participate in the discussion as did the author of one of the books they were using and other professionals who shared observations and comments relative to the course discussions. This type of activity helps the students appreciate the content of what they were learning in the context of society and increased their interest in the topic. It also helped them become quite sophisticated in their use of this social networking technology. In their paper, they describe ways in which they incorporated the ARCS model in the design of the use of Twitter and described some of the motivational benefits exhibited by the students.

These are but three of many examples that could be provided. The point is not to provide an exhaustive list of illustrations, but to demonstrate some ways in which teachers can expand their vision and strategies to teach in a way that supports the growth and development of knowledge-based learning. However, in order for these approaches to succeed, teachers need the support of administrators, and administrators need to learn how to motivate their teachers to engage in these innovative activities.

How does it apply to administrators?

The literature on leadership and management is huge, but there are a few basic principles that are of key importance, especially in the context of managing professionals. Some of these principles apply to the orderly structure and administration of an organization, but some apply more specifically to the challenge of motivating those you lead. The principles to be highlighted here are those that foster teacher motivation and performance improvement. An important contrast that is made in much of contemporary leadership literature and both the private sector and in schools is between what is called the "traditional approach" and the "transformational approach." The traditional approach is one in which the leader’s philosophy is, "captain of my ship." This means that the leader’s primary responsibility is monitoring, controlling, maintaining distance, and delegation. These are the traditional subcategories of leadership responsibility. This type of leader can be highly effective in support of managing resources, providing fair and equitable treatment of people, maintaining discipline, and running what one might call a "tight ship." This type of leader typically does not interact much with the teachers because he believes that the teachers are professionals who know how to do their jobs and he will leave them alone unless they have problems. This approach is also called "management by exception;" that is, the administrator only shows up when the teacher is having a problem. Despite this being an effective approach to management, in this environment teachers often do not feel they are being managed as professionals.

In contrast, the transformational approach which is viewed as being the "shepherd of my flock" focuses more on inspiring, guiding, and supporting those whom one leads. In this setting, the administrator is more actively engaged in interactions with the teacher, is aware of their challenges and accomplishments, provides a vision for the direction of the school, helps teachers understand how their work can be brought into alignment with the vision, and feel that they are part of the school "team" than simply an isolated professional working within the system. In this environment, teachers feel supported, rewarded, and are enthusiastic, but it requires more direct involvement from administrator which leaves him less time for other things

These approaches can be blended and implemented depending upon the circumstances in the school. For example, situational leadership (Hersey and Blanchard 1988) which is a tried-and-true model specifies that more of a traditional approach would be used with a new organization or when the organization is undergoing substantial changes. This is because people have uncertainty about their roles, responsibilities, and incentive structures during a time of change. Traditional leadership helps establish sound consistent principles. At the same time, transformational leadership can be introduced as teachers become comfortable in their roles within the new system and this type of leadership can help inspire them to become proficient and even become advocates of the new approach. Thus, in the conversion to a knowledge-based system both of these leadership styles will be appropriate.

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However, administrators will face challenges in trying to implement the change to a knowledge-based system and to incorporate a leadership style that is appropriate. For example, some of the challenges the administrator might face are how to:

Stimulate teachers’ desires to change

Provide guidance on how to fulfill new curriculum requirements

Help teachers be self-directed in changing their approaches to lesson planning and teaching

Help the teachers realize that student-centered learning is not student-controlled learning

Build positive expectations for success in the teachers

Reinforce teachers for good work

The first step in bringing about change is for people to experience a "felt gap" between the way things are now and a better way of doing things. After describing the differences between the current system and a more desirable approach based on a knowledge-based system to provide a formal description of the gap, the administrator can help teachers internalize this perception of a gap and embrace the new approach by using well established management strategies that correspond to the four different categories of the ARCS model. Following, in the four parts of Table 3, is a synopsis of many of these strategies.

Table 3.: ARCS categorized leadership strategies

Attention

Communicate policies, goals, and interesting events

Encourage innovation, as in multimedia development

Demonstrate enthusiasm

Relevance

Provide for goal setting, tangible accomplishments

Be visible (MBWA), model the values of teaching

Support collaborative planning

Provide opportunities for professional development (workshops, individual research)

Confidence

Replace “management by exception” with active management

Provide feedback on performance (confirmatory and corrective)

Attribute successes to teachers’ efforts and ability

Acknowledge the challenges of a teacher’s tasks

Satisfaction

Give task contingent motivational feedback (praise)

Provide extrinsic rewards in accordance with teacher’s needs (when possible)

Reward curriculum improvement proposals with “bonus” resources for special projects (e.g. a small teacher- or team-controlled budget)

Maintain equity in rewarding teachers

The importance of administrators, or leaders, cannot be understated with regard to the change management process that will support the transition to a knowledge-based system. Administrator leadership is a first priority and a necessary condition for change even if it is not a sufficient condition. In addition to the leader’s commitment and direction, motivational tactics such as those listed here must be employed to energize the teachers and guide their efforts.

Conclusion

In summary, there are many important dimensions to a knowledge-based system in contrast to a traditional system and most of these characteristics will be intrinsically motivating to a great many people. However, it cannot be taken for granted that the intrinsically motivating characteristics of the knowledge-

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based system or the willingness of sufficient numbers of teachers to participate in this process will automatically lead to a successful transition. To bring about change there must be high levels of motivation among both administrators and teachers. This paper described the ARCS model of motivation which provides both a conceptual foundation and a systematic design process that can be used to guide the motivation of teachers and administrators and to assist them and developing the attitudes and skills that will lead to successful change.

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identifying and solving motivational challenges for teachers and students in the

Education

knowledgebased curriculum

knowledgebased systems

knowledgebased society

characteristics of knowledge

explicit knowledge

generators of knowledge

type of knowledge

tacit knowledge