To Want to Learn To Want to Learn Insights and Provocations for Engaged Learning Second Edition JACKSON KYTLE TO WANT TO LEARN Copyright © Jackson Kytle, 2004, 2012. All rights reserved. First published in hardcover in 2004 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-0-230-33820-3 ISBN 978-1-4039-7381-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781403973818 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First PALGRAVE MACMILLAN paperback edition: July 2012 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 T ransferred to Digital Printing in 2012 For Tari, Josi, Blain, Ethan, Eloise, and Hazel—teachers all! Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction xi Part I: To Want to Learn 1 1 Educator as Idealist 5 2 Gritty Reality 17 3 Perspectives on Engaged Living 29 Part II: Brain, Mind, and Body 53 4 Psychology of Involvement 63 5 Learning, Motivation, and Biological Systems 87 Part III: Considerations for Learning and Motivation 109 6 Ten Considerations for Better Learning 111 7 Six Considerations to Improve Motivation 137 Conclusion 149 Notes 167 Index 193 Acknowledgments Without the contributions of friends, colleagues, and critics, my project would have remained on the shelf of good ideas. Among those who inspired me are Professors Al Erdynast, Alan Guskin, Jim Malarkey, Sherry Nicholson, Verbena Pastore, the late Ken Smith and Richard Hathaway, and John Turner. Judith Block McLaughlin helped prepare me to be a college president and, during a welcome sabbatical, gave me a small office at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where this work began. Dalton Oliver was generous in every conceivable way when I was with Vermont College, as has been my colleague Elizabeth Dickey at The New School, now president of Bank Street College of Education. I have had wonderful teachers like professors Fred Hutchins, Paul Cubeta, Richard Christie, Morton Deutsch, Charles Kadushin, Stanley Schachter, and Leo Srole. C olleagues provided material support or read portions at different stages and contributed valuable suggestions: Professors Tom Abshire, Bill Hirst, Kathleen Kesson, Melvin Miller, Andy Schmookler, Roben Torosyan, Matthew Porter, and Eric Zencey, and President Richard Schneider of Norwich University. Chapters in the revised edition benefitted from comments by Don Mankin, Roger Brunswick, Scott Richards, Dagmar Grefe, Leonard Hummel, Chris Mooney, and Suzy Stevens. I am always grateful to Arthur Chickering for his ideas and personal example as an engaged scholar. My assistant then at The New School, Aimee Silverman, provided countless hours of proofing and research for the first edition. Professor Ethan Kytle at California State University at Fresno helped with several chapters. I thought of him while framing my arguments for new teachers. I n the book’s earliest stage, Brian Ellerbeck at Teachers College Press was the very model of a developmental editor. My first editor, when she was at Palgrave Macmillan, Amanda Johnson Moon, provided generous support. Jen Simington read the first edition carefully and every page benefited from her work. My new editor at Palgrave, Burke Gerstenschlager, inspired me to improve the writing and Kaylan Connally was always helpful with production. I would also like to thank the editorial and production staff at Newgen Knowledge Works for their attention to my manuscript. I am responsible for any problems that remain. Introduction And the faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again, is the very root of judgment, character, and will. No one is compos sui i f he have it not. An education which should improve this faculty would be the education par excellence . —William James 1 J ohn Dewey believed that education is a moral undertaking, so let’s start with beliefs. I believe in teachers and all the good that comes from learning. I believe that education is a noble profession because educators of all types hold, in their hands, the possibility of improving another person’s life. While criticism at teachers comes so easily today, from so many directions, this work to which we commit our lives is worth doing. For this noble calling, I believe we can learn to be better teachers, advi- sors, and counselors just as we can become better human beings, both to provide examples to our students and to improve the quality of our own short lives. I have written this small book about big questions in education to provoke and engage educators of every type and age. No silver bullets here and no book in educa- tion uses as many different lenses from social psychology to existentialism to neurobi- ology with which to examine motivation and learning. No book written to educators goes as far from the classroom to look for insights from the theater, sports and hob- bies, religious practices, and our lives in different types of social groups. As we go, my reader will hear a steady refrain of criticism for the burden placed on schools and colleges as well as for the plight of the individual in modern times. All these claims sound immodest—to cover so many topics in one book will, of necessity, leave many questions open. Topics as important and complex as this deserve no less. M otivation and learning are, after all, the core puzzles for teachers and counsel- ors, lying at the very heart of their professional practice. We examine both topics as if holding a Rubik’s cube to be twisted and turned from different angles, trying to find solutions for difficult puzzles and brain teasers. Finally, I hope my book is radi- cal in two ways: first, because it looks for the social philosophical roots of problems with today’s schools and colleges, and, second, because its cascade of ideas provokes new thinking about teaching and learning. A book like this would have made my own path as a learner less bumpy and my work as a progressive educator over 30 some years, more effective. It is not, however, a “how to” book that looks at the small pieces; rather, it is a broad critique of conven- tional thinking about teaching and learning. Neither is it a reductionist drill where xii Introduction the author offers disconnected ideas on how to motivate students-as-objects, a view I find too often in traditional education. 2 And it is not a “self-help” book offering advice without theory or research; although, my readers may find in here practical ideas for improving their practice as well as for building better lives for themselves. M otivation and learning are p roblems of living. For a teacher, are there more impor- tant topics, either personally or professionally? After all, we educators are supposed to be society’s experts. If we do not have this knowledge and cannot guide others to lifelong learning, who will do that work? T eachers need theory, many theories, to inform their practice, and the ideas in the pages ahead have broad application. The chapters build toward an organizing theory that envisions human beings as pattern seekers and meaning makers whose quality of learning and life depend upon the demand environs chosen for work, learning, and play. I hope my readers will use incisive ideas from William James to Maxine Greene to Ellen Langer to develop their own critique of modern education as well as a working theory of teaching and learning, one to be revised many times over a long career, helping others build a just society. I f I have learned anything while working for progressive colleges, it is to think about the whole more than the parts. To my mind, education and living life are closely intertwined. Direction and quality in life—and quality in education—are steering problems about where to go, what to do (and not do), and how much energy to invest. Moreover, the quality of our work as teachers, counselors, and administrators depends directly on what we know about motivation and learning—and how deeply we t hink . Why do I say this? I have worked for six colleges and evaluated many others. How we think about learning and motivation are matters under an educator’s control whereas elements like budget, class size, or school year are not. Our minds are free if we choose to use them. O ne major theme ahead is that we humans respond to clear, consistent, and high expectations. The most powerful tool teachers have, in fact, are the expectations held for their students (and themselves). Better to err on the side of expecting too much (and having to accept falling short) than too little (and not being surprised). We hear about the “tyranny of low expectations” for minority students, which is right if put in odd terms; but holding high expectations applies to teachers, too. Unfortunately, academic standards set by schools of education are uneven, in my experience, and some student-consumers, too, are quick to complain about too much work. As this book tries to model, educators deserve exposure to a range of demanding topics to prepare them as public intellectuals of great curiosity and commitment, as well as engaged citizens who will be leaders in their communities, not just prepared for one type of classroom or school. 3 Topics Of all the problems in living that we humans must confront, motivation is the most important and the least understood. We move toward goals we want, sometimes motivated to self-sacrifice by religious fervor or political purpose. We move away Introduction xiii from threats and things we fear or dislike, sometimes for reasons that prove short sighted. Rapid, unpredictable changes in attention span and consciousness run us ragged all day long, but we learn to cope. We keep moving through the life-world with a peculiar momentum. W hat motivates the countless small acts and endless changes of direction that mark each day of existence? What motivates people to heroic acts? Why do certain actions seem to involve us fully whereas others bring only boredom? How do we understand goals and purposes in motivated acts ranging from studying to passing a course to performing religious devotion to indulging in acts of terrorism? Pulled this way and that by misunderstood forces, we are only rarely aware of our motives. Undergirding motivation and learning are neurobiological topics like the attention system and the nature of human consciousness. How do these function? So, how does motivation work? What does it mean for education? So many stu- dents struggle with school, and education seems always in crisis because, it is said, of unmotivated students who do not want to learn. These immense questions are the subject of this book, and I will use its opening pages to suggest the range of topics we will study, discuss why educators should care, and preview important insights. This book examines motivation and learning from the diverse perspectives of social psychology and progressive education, existentialism and spirituality, and neurobiology and studies of how the mind works. Difficult moments lie ahead because we want to look far and wide for fresh ideas. But if my reader is patient and keeps going, his or her thinking about learning and life will improve. And he or she will be better prepared to lead exciting schools for a new century. Motivation is, of course, an academic topic in psychology with side literatures like behavioral physiology and social philosophy. In addition, staying motivated is a topic that is intimate and personal to an extent unusual in social and philosophic studies. After all, staying motivated in the face of distraction and fatigue is a daily challenge for anyone who must construct a life in a problematic world of ambiguous choices. Setting aside instinctual motives, the mechanics of approach and avoid- ance are not automatic—rather, c onscious, sustained effort is required to build, and rebuild, daily life motivation. And motivation has r hythms not always appreciated. One may enjoy a string of motivated days even without much work, only to find it necessary, suddenly and inexplicably, to have to rebuild the whole project. L earning, another problem in living, is our second major focus. Learning is our species’ most important survival mechanism. If I am good at learning, it is possible to adapt to nearly any circumstance, however dire. If I do not know how to learn, or am unmotivated, survival is compromised. At the very least, quality of life suffers because challenges at work and school are not well used—I do not learn from my mistakes. G ood reasons exist to consider motivation and learning together, to put them in the same phrase, as in the book’s title, To Want to Learn. Most higher-order learning is motivated learning. If a learner is unmotivated, learning is boring or painful, and inefficient on both counts. As Edward Deci and his colleagues have shown, authori- ties resort to extrinsic rewards and punishments like grades to motivate learning rather than look for intrinsic rewards experienced by learners, such as the joy of learning. 4