When we talk about what drives us, we usually talk about cars. We don't typically talk about motivation. Without that spark of engagement, we become zombies. At first this doesn't seem so bad. Zombies get to lie back and enjoy being passengers, after all.
However, without motivation, we're brainless, passive sponges at the mercy of those around us.
When you enter college, you'll quickly discover that the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is very different from high school. High school can be a cakewalk when there are teachers that ensure students make it through. In college, the safety net isn't as tight. Professors are there to help, but they won't coddle you if you fall behind.
I knew I wanted to be a high school English teacher by 10th grade. When I tell people my plans, I encounter a handful of different reactions. The majority offer their surprise or condolences; the rest want to hear about that inspirational high school English teacher that wooed me to education.
I don't have that story. I skimmed and Sparknoted as much as possible. I don't think I ever finished an entire assigned reading. In fact, it was my utter lack of motivation that led me to teaching in the first place. If I couldn't be engaged with a lesson in my own supposed domain, what would it take to motivate a class full of infinitely varied students at once?
What drove me, and what drives many students coming out of high school, are extrinsic factors, like reaching the grades I was expected to earn. But rewards and punishments, carrots and sticks, and even high or low grades narrow a student's focus to merely completing a task, rather than taking it in in a meaningful way. Think about how much you remember from middle school, or even high school classrooms. If you're like me, you remember bits here and there from days you were, for whatever reason, engaged. But if you think you'd come up blank if handed a history test from just last semester, you're not alone.
In his essay "How Education Changes: Considerations of History, Science and Values," developmental psychologist Howard Gardner explains how "(e)ven students who get high grades in the sciences at leading secondary schools and universities turn out to have very tenuous understanding of the principal ideas in various subject areas."
A student may get an A in a class, but unless he or she cares about what is being taught, the lesson is unlikely to stick beyond the duration of the class. In fact, Gardner found that "in many cases, they give the same answers to problems and questions as are given by students who have not even taken the course in the first place."
College, luckily, presents the opportunity to turn extrinsic motivators, like others' expectations, into intrinsic ones. Even students with declared majors can take electives to try out and grow in areas that most spark their interest, and straight-forward research assignments often still allow students to apply their individual perspectives and interest toward the assignment.
Motivational speaker Daniel Pink identified three elements of true motivation in his TEDGlobal 2009 speech: autonomy, which he defined as "the urge to direct our own lives"; mastery, "the desire to get better and better at something that matters"; and purpose, "the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves."
Part of this self-directed drive includes realizing that being behind in a class usually has little to do with a set intelligence level. IQ scores, like GPA or class rank, are usually talked about as a stable representation of something that is just there — intelligence or lack of it.
Recent studies, however, show that IQ tests measure a person's motivation to do well more than they measure a quantifiable intelligence. In an April 2011 study led by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania looked at test results among 2,008 boys. Some tests offered money for good test scores, and others offered nothing.
The researchers discovered a relationship: The bigger the incentive, the higher the IQ scores. One explanation is that people become smarter when given money. Intriguing, but safely ruled out by enough celebrities and reality shows. A more likely possibility is that motivation can be manipulated to decide success.
The goal for college students, then, is to realize and follow where their true interest lies, where they are intrinsically motivated to see themselves grow and to apply it to their educational path. If an assignment seems too difficult to tackle, or just not relevant enough to care about, it may be that the student needs a more definite sense of self. They may need something individual and personal to work toward instead of only broad, extrinsic goals.
When I took on this mindset, I was amazed at how easy it was to finish even the little, annoying tasks. I wasn't completing them for some far-off expectation of someone else, but because I knew it would help me become the person I wanted to be.
Much of this also comes from practicing metacognition: Think about how you think and why you do, recognize areas that need work and you'll be more able to control and guide your thinking. Look for common themes among classes and develop a context for how you think about them. This way, when you take in new information, it fits into an established foundation instead floating uselessly in space.
So if the fact that you're paying for it doesn't motivate you, remember college is about shaping an identity. Teachers and faculty might not be there to hold you up anymore, but you can make sure that motivation is harnessed in an even more fulfilling way.
Take in new experiences, look for new ones and drive yourself forward by what interests and means something to you.
Cameron Mount is a junior Secondary English Education major. Reach him at cameronmount@dailynebraskan.com
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