Motivation & Engagement

Watch

• Teaching Methods for Inspiring the Students of the Future | Joe Ruhl | TEDxLafayette ↗TEDx Talks
• It’s Not What You Teach, It’s What Kind of Teacher You Are | Gregory Chahrozian | TEDxAUA ↗TEDx Talks
• BEST MOTIVATIONAL VIDEO For Students - Sandeep Maheshwari I POWER OF FOCUS ↗Sandeep Maheshwari
• Controlling Your Dopamine For Motivation, Focus & Satisfaction ↗Andrew Huberman
• SALES Is Just Like DATING | Simon Sinek ↗Simon Sinek

Read

• Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us ↗An accessible exploration of intrinsic motivation, arguing for autonomy, mastery, and purpose as superior drivers in modern work and learning environments.Daniel H. Pink
• Mindset: The New Psychology of Success ↗Reveals how one's fundamental beliefs about intelligence and talent profoundly shape engagement, resilience, and achievement in educational settings and beyond.Carol S. Dweck
• Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance ↗Explores the crucial role of sustained passion and effort over time in achieving significant goals, offering insights for fostering long-term educational success.Angela Duckworth
• Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience ↗Unpacks the state of deep absorption and enjoyment in an activity, providing a framework for designing learning experiences that foster genuine engagement and optimal performance.Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New DirectionsA foundational review of Self-Determination Theory, elucidating the nuanced interplay between internal and external drivers of human behaviour and its implications for learning.Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci
• A Goal Theory of Motivation and Self-Regulation for LearningA seminal academic exposition of achievement goal theory, detailing how different goal orientations influence students' learning strategies and responses to challenge.Carol S. Dweck and Ellen L. Leggett

Voices to follow

• Carol Dweck ↗Her pioneering research on 'growth mindset' has reshaped understanding of how beliefs about intelligence influence learning and resilience.Professor of Psychology, Stanford University
• Angela Duckworth ↗A leading proponent of 'grit', she illuminates the critical role of passion and perseverance in achieving long-term goals, often beyond innate talent.Professor of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
• Daniel Pink ↗He compellingly argues for the power of intrinsic motivation, challenging conventional wisdom on incentives in both professional and educational spheres.Author and Speaker on Business, Work, and Behavioural Science
• Adam Grant ↗His insights into generosity, meaningful work, and 'givers' versus 'takers' offer a nuanced perspective on fostering engagement and high performance.Organizational Psychologist, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Glossary

• EngagementEngagement is how involved and interested you are in an activity or task. When you're engaged, you're paying attention and actively participating. For example, if you're really engaged in a group project, you'll contribute ideas, listen to others, and work hard on your part.
• Extrinsic MotivationExtrinsic motivation means doing something to get a reward or avoid punishment from an outside source. The drive comes from external factors. For example, studying hard for a test mainly because your parents promised you a new video game if you get good marks is extrinsic motivation.
• FeedbackFeedback is information given to you about your performance on a task, which helps you understand what you did well and what you can improve. It's essential for learning and growth. For example, when your teacher marks your essay and writes comments on it, that's feedback helping you learn how to write better.
• Goal SettingGoal setting is the process of deciding what you want to achieve and planning the steps to get there. It helps you focus your efforts. For example, setting a goal to finish your science project by Friday means you'll plan out what you need to do each day.
• Growth MindsetA growth mindset is the belief that your abilities and intelligence can be developed and improved through hard work and dedication, rather than being fixed. You see challenges as opportunities to learn. For example, someone with a growth mindset who struggles with a new sport will believe they can get better with practice, instead of thinking they're just 'not good at it'.
• Intrinsic MotivationIntrinsic motivation means doing something because you genuinely enjoy it or find it interesting, not because of an external reward or pressure. For example, reading a book just because you love the story, not because it's assigned homework, is intrinsic motivation.
• MotivationMotivation is the inner drive or reason behind why you do something. It's what gets you started and keeps you going towards a goal. For example, your motivation to study for a test might be to get good grades or to understand the subject better.
• ProcrastinationProcrastination is the act of delaying or postponing tasks that need to be done, often until the last minute. It can prevent you from achieving your goals. For example, instead of starting your essay, you decide to scroll through social media or watch TV, putting off the work until later.
• ResilienceResilience is the ability to bounce back and recover quickly from difficulties, setbacks, or failures. It's about not giving up when things get tough. For example, if you fail a test but then study harder and do better on the next one, you're showing resilience.
• Self-EfficacySelf-efficacy is your belief in your own ability to succeed at a specific task or achieve a goal. It's about feeling capable and confident in your skills. For example, if you have high self-efficacy for math, you believe you can solve even difficult problems, which makes you more likely to try.

Threads 4

Where this connects to other fields, and why it's worth knowing.

• Platform Businesses and Network Effects Business

  Learning apps that chase 'time on app' borrowed their tricks straight from social media's attention machine. But the very metric they brag about to investors, endless engagement, is the one that shreds the slow, deep focus real learning needs. The app grows by feeding on the thing that makes it fail.

• The Meaning of Life Philosophy

  Psychologists say lasting motivation needs three things: some control over what you do, a feeling of getting good at it, and a sense of connection to others. Notice that's basically the meaning-of-life question shrunk to fit a classroom. So a bored kid isn't lazy; the work just feels pointless to them, and that's the real problem to fix.

• Incentives & Rational Choice Economics

  Pay a kid a gold star for every book they read and something strange happens: they start thinking reading must be a chore, or why would anyone be bribing them? The reward accidentally sends a message, and a thing they loved for free suddenly feels like work. The incentive backfires just by what it implies.

• Exercise Science Health

  Pay people to hit the gym and they'll show up, until the payments stop, and then they quit. It's the exact same collapse you see when you pay kids to read. Turns out sticking with exercise and staying engaged in class obey one shared rule: reward something too much and the inner drive to do it quietly dies.