I recently asked an educational
leader, "How do you motivate unmotivated students?" He said,
"Read The Pedagogy of Confidence" by Dr. Yvette Jackson.
I have only read the introduction of
this book, but I now feel a light glowing in my head. Actually, that light is a
glow. Dr. Jackson writes that confidence that comes from competence - having
the ability, knowledge, or skill to do something successfully - actually
creates a glow in your brain. When you are good at something, you gain more
confidence. When that happens, and you start to believe in yourself more, you
start to burn glucose that results in our brain "glowing" from this
energy. This response makes us feel stronger and surer about ourselves and our
abilities. This leads to more motivation - even from our athletes who we label
as unmotivated.
Success -> Feeling Competent ->
Build Confidence -> Gain Motivation
We live in a society that focuses on
and celebrates winning at all costs. We privilege and praise work, and one of
the worst things that we can be called is a 'loser.' If we lose enough, or if
we don't show success in something, we can develop feelings of incompetence
that dim the light on our passion and leave us unmotivated.
Failure -> Feeling Incompetent
-> Lose Motivation
This can also lead to a focus on what
we and our athletes can't do. Our focus on our weaknesses can be so strong that
we undervalue our strengths and cause us to become even more unmotivated.
Dr. Jackson states the key to getting
out of this rut and motivating the unmotivated is asking "What are your
strengths?" and, "What are the strengths of your athletes?"
When we believe in people, we focus
more on their strengths and what they can do. When we focus on their strengths,
we ask questions like, "What do they do well?" and, "What do
they do the best?"
Our athlete's motivation to work and learn is directly affected by our confidence in their potential AND in our confidence in our ability - as coaches, teachers, and parents - to nurture and cultivate this potential.
We show our confidence in our
athlete's ability to learn and grow by fearlessly articulating and supporting a
belief that everyone can learn and grow, and by believing in our ability to
help everyone learn and grow.
EVERYONE CAN LEARN AND GROW, AND WE
HAVE THE ABILITY TO HELP EVERYONE LEARN AND GROW
Motivating the unmotivated begins
with standing up against a deficit culture that focuses on weaknesses, and
cultivating confidence in your ability to build on your strengths and the
strengths of others. It then requires finding ways to earn small victories that
build up our competence and confidence.
MOTIVATION COMES FROM CONFIDENCE.
CONFIDENCE COMES FROM COMPETENCE.
Your culture, your team, and your
locker room must be an oasis that inspires, encourages, and motivates learning,
growth, and hard work. It is generated by a culture that accommodates and
assimilates the many different cultures of the people that make up the team. A
shared culture that accepts, appreciates, values, and integrates the many
different cultures of the people that make up the team is a strong culture
through which motivation can grow.
Remember, motivation starts with
belief in yourself and belief in those you coach and lead. Belief grows from
competence. Small, successful steps lead to more competence and more
confidence. More confidence leads to more belief. More belief leads to more
motivation. More motivation leads to more success, and the cycle continues.
And never underestimate the power of
meaningful and positive relationships in this process. Building relationships
and building bridges between what you are teaching, and the lived experiences
of our athletes tells them that we value who they are and the lives they have
outside of sports. Show them that you appreciate the reciprocal relationship
necessary to make our team an oasis in which they feel like they can
confidently grow.
Jean Piaget once said, "People
shape themselves to fit their world." Focus on your strengths and the
strengths of the people you lead so they can shape themselves to fit in a world
where they are successful.
Start by asking yourself, "What
do I do well, what do I do great, and what do I do the best?"
Ask yourself, "How can I do more
of what I do great?"
Ask yourself, "Which athletes
have I impacted the most, and what did I do to impact them?"
Then go motivate the unmotivated and
change lives.
All people are
intrinsically motivated to succeed, and when students/athletes aren’t
motivated, the question to pursue is, “What is being done to engage them and
focus their attention?”
The catalyst
for motivation is engagement, and engagement results in focused attention.
Somewhere
between apathy and wild excitement, there is an optimum level of engagement.
Developing
interests and connecting to personal experiences stimulate motivation.
Motivation
depends on context, and it is important that we recognize how their lives
affect their motivation.
Conditions that
motivate our students and athletes are positive beliefs, personal goals, and
productive emotions.
Conditions that
demotivate our students and athletes are associations from the past that
provoke negative feelings, past failure, irrelevant content, or a lack of
respect.
When we have
goals, confidence, and believe in ourselves, our brains release dopamine and
endorphins – powerful pleasure chemicals. They reinforce motivation.
The keys to
engagement for motivation for all of us are relevance, challenge, feedback, demonstrating
and building confidence, and positive beliefs.
Confidence is
built through recognizing and using our gifts and strengths.
References:
- Jackson, Yvette. "The Pedagogy of Confidence." Teachers College Press, 2011.
No comments:
Post a Comment