Michele DiPietro

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Motivating Millennials

• Michele DiPietro
• Associate Director, Eberly Center for Teaching
  Excellence
• Carnegie Mellon University
• dipietro_at_andrew.cmu.edu
• http//www.cmu.edu/teaching

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Basic Premise

• "Learning results from what the student does and
  thinks and only from what the student does and
  thinks. The teacher can advance learning only by
  influencing what the student does to learn."
• - Herbert Simon

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Objectives

• At the end of this workshop you should be able
  to
• List behaviors that influence learning
• Identify misconceptions about motivation
• Discuss how theories of motivation apply to
  student learning
• Discuss implications of Millennial theory for
  student motivation
• Generate pedagogical strategies to enhance
  student motivation

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Agenda

• Introductions
• Brainstorming How Motivated Students Behave
• Explaining Students Motivations
• Practical Strategies

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II. What Do Motivated Students Do?
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Reasoning about Motivation

• Definition
• A process that stimulates, directs and sustains
  behavior
• (e.g., Kleinginna Kleinginna 1981 Franken
  1988 Beck 1978 Steers Porter 1987 Mitchell
  1982 Bandura 1991)

Learning and Performance
Motivation
Behavior
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Reasoning about Motivation

• Common pitfalls in reasoning about motivation
• Projecting our motivation onto students
• Forgetting about competing goals and interests

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III. Explaining Student Motivation (1)

• Motivational Systems Theory

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Goals

• Get rewards, avoid punishments
• Allocate resources efficiently
• Developmental goals (Identity, Autonomy,
  Belongingness, Purpose)
• What are some implications for pedagogical
  strategies?
• How does this relate to Millennials?

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Important issues on goals

• Without a goal activated there is no motivation
• Activating multiple goals strengthens motivation
• Activating competing goals diminishes motivation

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Emotions

• All else being equal,
• Motivation is enhanced for activities that
  engender positive emotions
• Motivation is decreased for activities that
  engender negative emotions

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Personal Agency Beliefs

• Outcome expectancy
• Agency
• Beliefs about the environment
• These together amount to expectation of success

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Issues about PABs

• What would impact the expectation of success for
  Millennials?
• Attributions
• Feedback
• Scaffolding
• Clear expectation, outcomes, criteria

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The Role of Personal Agency Beliefs in Motivation

Supportive Environment
Unsupportive Environment
(-)
Value
(-)
()
Value
()
Expectancy
Expectancy
(-)
(-)
()
()
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IV. Practical Strategies for Improving
Motivation

• Capitalize on Intrinsic Motivation
• Introduce the course each topic in interesting
  ways
• Show enthusiasm and immediacy behaviors
• Present material at a difficulty level that
  communicates respect
• Use varied and creative style of teaching
• Increase degree of control or choice
• Focus on higher level outcomes - application,
  analysis, synthesis and evaluation
• Couch assignments in terms of what they may do to
  master or gain competency in material rather than
  what is required.

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Practical Strategies continued

• Avoid Extrinsic Motivators
• Exercise care when describing the need for grades
• Grades as rewards vs. grades as a reflection of
  mastery
• Use the weakest external motivators as possible
• Minimize competition

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Practical Strategies continued

• Maximize Optimism Regarding Outcomes
• Develop positive expectations about students
  chances of success
• Provide clear, concrete information about how to
  succeed in your class
• Monitor the level of difficulty of tests
  assignments
• Provide students with encouraging information
  about future outcomes (frequent and early)
• Minimize Fear of Failure
• Limit the impact of one bad performance
• Actively attack negative expectations
• Contextualize the role of failure

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Practical Strategies continued

• Improve Students Attributions
• Discuss the effects of attribution with students
• Consider alternative causes of success and
  failure
• Help students focus on controllable causes
• Help students understand their emotional
  reactions to success and failure
• Be mindful of inadvertent low-ability cues

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Summary and Conclusions

• Be wary of misconceptions that characterize our
  views of students motivations.
• By becoming aware of the complexity of students
  motivations, you will be more successful in
  motivating them to learn.
• Motivating students is not a Herculean task -
  there are simple, practical ways to motivate
  them.