We can all agree that learning is more enjoyable when we are learning something we care about, when we know that it is something, we will need in life again.  However, this is not how education works.  Yes, there are times that we learn something interesting, but most of the time students complain about when will we use this in life and often, I usually reply you won’t, but it will teach you how to problem solve, a valuable life skill.  How then do we motivate students to want to learn and not for the sake of a grade?  Before one can feel motivated it is necessary to meet the lower order needs before higher order needs and students need to feel that they can succeed (Cheng & Yeh, 2009).  As a fledging instructional designer how do I create content that will motivate, when most likely, the students could care less about the content? 

I have found that after most readings throughout the program it has caused me to stop and reflect, how I can be a better practitioner.  I find that I keep coming back to the current educational model is broken and is highly algorithmic with little ability to prove success after failure.  Students are motivated by grades and not intrinsic purposes.  I have seen many students shut down after one failing grade, because we do not afford them an opportunity to learn and correct the failure.  This is because we need to teach X content in Y days.  This leaves no time to address misconceptions and unlearned material leaving students unmotivated.

Is the answer problem-based learning, flipped, or blended learning?  I don’t know, but it is a method often cited when talking about student motivation.  The models are based off a constructivist approach that require students to learn and build from experiences.  Savery and Duffy note that “learning must have purpose beyond, ‘It is assigned’” (Savery & Duffy, 2001, p. 3), this is paramount when we are required to have a certain number of grades a week and work is assigned because a box needs to be checked.  I find myself coming up with reasons why these will not work, and they are excuses because it causes me to step out of my comfort zone.  My most often cited excuses are time and resources.  To run a true PBL course, there needs to be more of me because each team is assigned a tutor (Woltring, Herrler, Spitzer, & Spreckelsen, 2009), and that is just not going to happen in K-12 education.  While I do teach a project-based course, I think in theory I could convert it to a blended PBL course.  Because most of the work would be completed online, it would afford me the opportunity to meet with each team in a somewhat timely manner.  But will it increase student motivation, only time will tell, and I need to be willing to take risks.  The worst that will happen is that it will be a failure, but that is ok, because I can learn from it and move on.

References

Cheng, Y.-C., & Yeh, H.-T. (2009). From concepts of motivation to its application in instructional design: Reconsidering motivation from an instructional design perspective. British Journal of Educational Technology, 40(4), 597-605.

Savery, J. R., & Duffy, T. M. (2001). Problem Based Learning: An instructional model and its constructivist framework. Bloomington: Center for Research on Learning and Technology.

Woltring, V., Herrler, A., Spitzer, K., & Spreckelsen, C. (2009). Blended learning positively affects students’ satisfaction and the role of the tutor in the problem-based learning process: results of a mixed method evaluation. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 14, 725-738.