The Use of Extrinsic Rewards

The public library launched a program called “Reading Challenges for kids” in the summer of 2005. The intention of the program was to motivate kids to read and prompt the joys of reading. Kids who checked out the most books from mid- May to August 1st received free pizza coupons and T-shirts.

The first week of August, we determined the winners by looking at the kids’ library cards. During the award celebration party, I talked to the kids who were the “most read.” I asked them what they thought about the reading challenge. How did they feel about the accomplishment they reached? Many of them told me that they liked the reading challenge because they received pizzas and t-shirts. When I asked them which books they liked the most and least, they were unable to name one. Actually, some of them avoided answering me. Apparently, those kids felt guilty about the experience (did not actually read the books); and they did not have a sense of accomplishment even though they were the "winners."

 The facts are:

• It is an "if then" extrinsic motivation system; it does more harm than good (Pink, 2009, p. 49). (Deci, 1995, p. 54) classified it as a pay-for-performance" motivational technique. Sadly, what did we really teach the kids? The shortcut or the fastest way to get rewards.
• The program encourages cheating, shortcuts, and unethical behaviors (Pink, 2009, p. 59); kids checked out library books simply for adding up the “checked out number” on their library cards to win the competition. Did they read the books? Most likely they did not.
• I do not believe that the program increased the kids' reading motivation. When the reading challenge ended, those “most read” kids disappeared – no pizza, no reading! - "people work only to the point that triggers the reward, and no further" (Pink, 2009, p. 58)
• The rewards actually gave to the kids who checked out books rather than the kids who read the most books. This might be discouraging for the kids who really read the books they signed out. Their library cards showed that they checked out fewer books than those "most read" kids did; this implies - the extinguishing intrinsic motivation and crowding out good behavior (Pink, 2009, p. 59; Deci, 1995, p. 51).

In my opinion, the reading challenge program was a failure in term of motivating reading. The use of rewards to motivate kids to read is theoretically a good concept. However, offering extrinsic rewards to motivate children for signing out books simply will not work. The reward system should facilitate motivation and encourage children to remain enthusiastic about reading after the reward system was terminated. Here are changes that I would make to the program:

• The reading challenge program would require the “most read” kids to present or describe a staff selected book they read before they received the rewards.
• The program should focus on the joy of reading in some informative way, such as setting reading goals for each child. Goals are based on reading ability, number of books, number of pages, or number of minutes. When they meet the reading requirements, they will receive the rewards - Teachers and parents will play the important monitoring role for the reading progress.

Learned Helplessness, Fear of Failure, and Failure of Success

Learned helplessness

Learned helplessness is considered a negative motivational condition that psychologists have been studying for decades and suggest that this condition can be unlearned. Yet in my opinion, it is not absolutely unlearned.

My first cousin attempted to sing in front of his sixth grade class and the tragedy ended with everyone having a strange fixed sympathetic look (reality sunk in). Obviously, this affected his future attempts at singing. This negative motivational condition (sense of helplessness) had a great impact on his childhood and adulthood. He accepted that he cannot sing and never tried to correct the sense of helplessness.

Many factors affect events that generate helplessness. I think it depends on individual whether the sense of helplessness can or cannot be corrected. I grew up quiet and shy in a collective society. I felt that speaking up was an unthinkable behavior and I felt that there was nothing I could change. I found myself in a very different world when I first left home and enter college. Exposed to the open-discussion learning environment, my sense of helplessness has gradually disappeared. In my case, the learned helplessness is undone.

Fear of Failure

The feeling of failing is a very negative motivational condition. The consequence of amotivation can have tragic consequences. A common phenomena in the Asian culture, is the common occurrence of student suicide because of the low academic achievements (reported on my previous posting). The students chose death rather than punishment or chastisement from their parents. Occasionally, even the students with high grades fold from the pressure and take their own life. Most recent research suggests that the fear of failure has a greater impact on females than males, which is reflected by the reported suicide cases in Hong Kong.

On the contrary, failure can be a positive motivation if we take the “fear of failure” as a motive to perform well at work and at school. For example, I arranged adult programs at the library. Some programs attract more library patrons than others. I evaluated the low attendance programs and examined what and why the program failed. Was the date and time a bad choice? Or was the program less appealing to the community? I did not want to fail again. The evaluation of the failing programs and the fear of failure served as the guidelines for future programming.

Fear of Success

I have seen people “withdraw” themselves because of the fear of success. I had a classmate who was always at the top of the class. She was praised by teachers, neighbors, and parents. Everyone in the class envied and admired her success. To be accepted to the #1 rank at secondary school was everybody’s dream, but not hers. Her grades suddenly dropped while attending sixth grade. It was unlikely she would be accepted into the best secondary school in town. The fact was that she did not want to attend the best school. The idea of continuing competition with the best students in town for the next six years terrified her. She intentionally regressed and became an average student.

I personally believe these three motivational conditions cannot be corrected without great effort, support and possibly psychological assistance.

Online Learners and ARCS Model of Motivation

The most distinguished characteristic of online learners is that instructor and students are physically apart from each other and the campus. Yet they are part of the campus learning community and the expectations are the same as on-campus students. Library services play an important part of their academic activities just as the on-campus students; they need to obtain the searching skills to conduct academic research. Most academic libraries provide a single-traditional classroom literacy instruction course to the on-campus student during the orientation week of each semester. The hands-on sessions focuses on library resources and facilitates student success in their programs. Inevitably, online students are simply excluded due to the fact that they are geographically apart from the campus library. There is a misperception that online students enter programs with advanced technology skills being computer literate/savvy computer users. The implication is that those students possess advanced skills in retrieving needed information for their classes by using online databases. However, library instruction courses are typically not included in their curriculum.

Librarians and researchers have been exploring new ways to motivate students in literacy instruction classes for decades. Many motivation theories are being examined, especially Keller’s ARCS model. The ARCS research model can be found easily when applied to the traditional classroom setting (Keller, 1987; Small, 2000; Keller, 2000; Small et al, 2004; Namura et al, 2007) To date, there are only a few articles discussing online learners and information literacy instruction. Some researchers suggest to accompany courses with an “embedded” librarian (Edwards et al, 2011), while others propose integrating library instruction into the online curriculum (Lee, 2000; Kumar & Ochoa, 2011). These researchers focus on the instructional design rather than motivational aspects.

As a campus librarian for a college where most learners are non-traditional students, I am in the process of designing a virtual library instruction class. My main concern is motivation; how does one inspire learners attending the online literacy session? I have found articles that provide information and strategies of designing an hour length online literacy class (ChanLin, 2009; Huett et al, 2008). Yet, I am unable to locate articles that specifically discuss the motivational aspects of online literacy instruction class. In Huett et al (2008), the authors studied the effect of the ARCS-based strategies and the effective ways to support online students. In their study, they focused on one of Keller’s motivational strategies, confidence. How can the other three elements (attention, relevance, and satisfaction) of Keller’s ARCS model be ingrained into an online instruction class? Are there any motivational models that have been examined and used to engage students in an online setting? What types of instructional formats are preferences in engaging students in an online instruction?

References

ChanLin, Lih-Juan (2009), Applying motivational analysis in a Web-based course, Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 46(1), 91-103.

Edwards, Mary, Kumar, Swapna, & Ochoa, Marilyn (2010), Assessing the value of embedded librarians in an online graduate educational technology course, Public Services Quarterly, 6(2-3) 271-291. doi: 10.101080/15228959.2010.497447.

Huett, Jason Bond, Moller, Leslie, Young, Jon, Bray, May, Huett, Kimberly Cleaves (2008), Supporting the distant student: The effect of ARSC-based strategies on confidence and performance, The Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 9(2), 113–126

Huett, Jason Bond, Kalinowski, Kevin, E., Moller, Leslie, Huett, Kimberly Cleaves (2008), Improving the motivation and retention of online students Through the Use of ARCS-based e-mails, The American Journal of Distance Education, 22, 159-176. DOI: 10.1080/08923640802224451

Keller, JOhn (1987), Development and use of the ARCS model of instructional design, Journal of Instructional Development, 10(3), 2-10.

Keller, John (2000), How to integrate learner motivation planning into lesson planning: The ARCS model approach. Paper presented at VII Semanario, Santiago, Cuba.

Kumar, Swapna & Ochoa, Marilyn (2011), A program integrated approach to online information literacy instruction. Proceeding of the 17th Sloan ANnual Consortium International Conference on Online Learning, August 9, 2011.

Lee, Cheng-Yuan (Corey) (2000), Student motivation in the online learning environment, Journal of Educational Media & Library Sciences, 37(4), 367-375.

Namura, Kaori, Ikeda, Maiko, Yashima, Tomoko (2007), How can teachers motivate their learners in the classroom?: An exploratory study based on the ARCS model, Language Education and Technology, 44, 169-186.

Shellnut, Bonnie J. (1996, November 13), John Keller: A motivating influence in the field of instructional systems design. Retrieved September 1, 2011, from http://www.learningdomain.com/Keller.Bio.pdf

Small, Ruth (2000), Motivation in instructional design. Teacher Librarian, 27(5), 29-31.

Small, Ruth V., Zakaria, Nasriah, & El-Figuigui (2004), Motivational aspects of information literacy skills instruction in community college libraries, College & Research Libraries, 65(2), 96-121.

Constructive criticisms

One of my cohorts addressed the important of giving criticisms to others. I think what she refers to is the "Constructive criticism" not the "Destrcutive criticism".

In my opinion, constructive criticism:
(1) should not be a judgment;
(2) should be a similar to professional conversation;
(3) assists wrtiers/students in identifying their strengths and weaknesses;
(4) improve performance and the analysis skills.

It is the "criticism with kindness."

Motivators and Demotivators..

I am taking a class on motivational aspects. One of my readings is very interesting - motivators and demotivators.

Motivators:

According to Spitzer, the characteristics of motivators include fun, variety, input, stake sharing, choice, responsibility, leadership, social interaction, teamwork, using strengths, learning, error tolerance, measurement, goals, improvement, challenge, encouragement, appreciation and significance (pp. 67-78).

When reading the description of the motivators, my former boss, the Director of the Chinese University Press came to my mind. He has all the “qualities” that Spitzer mentioned, most importantly, he set himself as an example. He gave constructive criticisms and provided feedbacks in a timely manner. Once the print was offset on a publication, which made a complete wreck of the book. He claimed full responsibility and made a public apology to the author.

Demotivators:

It is my impression that Spitzer identified the major demotivators at the workplace related to the management teams. He pictured those demotivators as politics, unclear expectations, unnecessary rules, poorly designed work, unproductive meetings, lack of follow-up, constant change, internal competition, dishonestly, hypocrisy, withholding information, unfairness, discouraging responses, criticism, capacity underutilization, tolerating poor performance, being taken for granted, management invisibility, over-control, takeaways, and being forced to do poor-quality work (pp. 43-58).

Throughout my library career, I have seen managers who exhibited demotivated behaviors. I worked with a library branch manager who was lacking the simplest of management skills. To make matters worse, she was unorganized and unpredictable. The monthly staff meeting literally was not existed. Her unprofessional behavior had a tremendous negative impact on motivation and performance. Most of us were seeking opportunities to transfer or new employments. Those who had great courage and made complaints to the main library were dismissed abruptly by the collaborative human resource office. No one dared to challenge her, shamefully including myself. We all felt powerless and defeated. Eventually, an employee wrote directly to the county director's office, her unprofessional behavior was finally recognized and she was demoted and transferred to the main library. Unfortunately, many good employees had already fled the intolerable work environment.

In his book, Spitzer (p. 42) emphasized that we “need to declare war on demotivators.” He provided steps for reducing demotivators (p. 59). Yet I did not see how these steps could apply to my former manager.

Librarian was arrested for reading banned book. Seriously?

Oh boy I couldn't believe what I read - Amanda Jackson, the library director was arrested last Friday simply becuase she read banned book! Wait for minute - I thought we are living in a free country - the United States of America. What is going on at Gadsden Public Library? - Oh well, well,...

I guess I am getting too old to understnad the world.

She certainly is "Librarian the Brave"!!

Autumn has arrived

Looking outside ... Leaves are falling down. I begin to see the "fall color." Oh boy, where is the summer?

Here is one of my favorite Chinese poems (Tang Dynasty) that I learned as a little girl. I found myself feeling homesick....

《山居秋暝》("Mountain Living In An Autumn Night")
 (唐) 王維  Wang Wei

空山新雨後, 天氣晚來秋。
With passing rain, Mountain is fresh,
With cooling air, autumn night has arrived.

明日松間照, 清泉石上流。
Moonlight shining through the pine trees brightly,
Crystal waters flowing across pebbles.

竹喧歸浣女, 蓮動下渔舟。
From bamboo groves came,
I heard the giggling noise of the returning silk washing young girls,
I heard the lotus swaying from returning fishing boats.

随意春芳歇, 王孫自可留。
The flowers are yielding their last fragrance,
I am certainly always be here.

Citing sources...

Citing sources plays an important role in a research project. Yet, should we concnetrate on the study and research  not the "mechanical operation" (citing sources)? - I have seen many students that they are struggling with citing sources. They feel that iof they do not cite correctly (style), it is the indication of the failure of the research project. Wrong, wrong!

By the way, there are so many software that students can use for citation. Most software only needs the author names, title of the book or article, ISBN/ISSN to create a APA or MLA cformat citation.

There is no need to be stressful for citing sources.

APA 6th edition and doi number

Hack! I learned something news two days ago. A nursing faculty chatted with me in the hallway. She asked me what is "doi" number? She said that she realized that most databases now include the doi number on the front page of the full-text article.

After a ffew click ... Voila! Doi stands for digital object images. Some of the open access scholarly journals are available on the web. However, agter a certain time of period, the links might not be working. With the doi number, researcher can retrieve the article via crossref.org.

According to the APA style 6th edition, it requires to include the doi number at the end of the citation.

I am wondering what will be next after "doi"?  - Embracing the technology!.

Expectations too high to reach?

Less than a month, two students committed suicide in Hong Kong - one was only 14 years old. Why? It happens every year. Students shortened their lives simply because receiving low grades from teachers. Isn't it life that simple?

....

Individualism vs Collectivism?

In 1981 William Ouchi put forward an idea of motivation. He states that society should "develop a complete unity of goals between individuals and the community such as that an autonomous individual would naturally seek to work hard, cooperate, and benefit the community."

Ouchi's theory might work in a collectivism society such as Japan where "groups" benefits" are put before individual's. It is a very inspirational idea; yet will it work in the Western societies? I doubt. When we talk about the theory of motivation of particular groups, we cannot deny that we need to understand the "cultural background" of the people in the group.

When we address intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation, in my opinion, yes, it is "self" thing; yet the "self" are influenced by the culture or the environment in which we brought up - it shapes what we belief.

Leaving librarianship? Being pushed out of the library world?

I chatted with one of my colleagues the other day. She told me that some of her friends were librarian; yet due to the current economy situation, they were laid off and unable to land a library job. Thus they were "forced" in some ways to take on whatever jobs they got - full-time clerical position or any positions at the university.  

Two years ago, two full-time library support staff in my department were "let go" - they were laid off. Recently the university library was "examined" and assessed by an "outside" company. The report indicated that the library is over-staffed. It seems that the second wave of laid off will arrive soon - you can imagine how low the morale at the library.

I am afraid that someday I might be forced to leave my beloved librarianship....

Concepts and constructs

There is one class that discuss concepts, constructs, and operatinal definitions in research. Sounds confusing. To make the matter worse is that the instructor is unable to give a clear explanation or examples.

Donald Copper and Pamela Schindler (2003), Business Research Methods define those terms in plain language (pp. 41-43).

Not the reasons to quit your doctorate studies

It is not fun when you have to quit your doctorate studies after investing so much your energy and money to the program. I have just read some "advice" from a former PhD student. The not so-good reasons for quitting include:

(1) You have so much trouble with your advisors and professors;
(2) You have a low grade for your course work;
(3) You hate group projects;
(4) You have an unprofessional instructor for one of your courses.

However, a good reason to quit is that the doctorate studies affect your personal goals and life style. Ot the stress too much to take....

An exceptional well-done movie: Summer in Genvoa

I have been studying for hours - so I picked up this DVD at the library: Summer in Genvoa. I thought it's a romantic relationship movie. SO I put it in the DVD player and was ready to fall asleep soon.

Surprise! It turned out that it's a movie about how a family deal with grief and come to learn about themselves - the mother died in a car crash unexpectedly. Five months later, the academic father brought two girls with him and move to Italy to start over.

It's a sad story. To make the story more saddness is the city of Genvoa. Genvoa is an old city. The back alleys and the maze of streets darkened the inner turmoil of each of the family....

It is a well-done film and I watched the whole movie without falling asleep.

Keller's ARCS Model of Motivation in education

Keller, John's ARCS motivation model identifies the four characteristis, which are widely used for research in education:

Attention: arouse and sustain [students'] interest
1. perceptual arousal
2. inquiry arousal
3. variability

Relevance: connect lives, needs and interests of the students to the content
1. goal orientation
2. motive matching
3. familiarity

Confidence: create a positive expectation for student success
1. learning requirements
2. success opportunities
3. personal responsibility

Satisfaction: intrinsic and extrinsic reward for effort
1. intrinsic reinforcement
2. extrinsic rewards
3. equity

Questions:
1. How to apply ARCS Model to an actual lesson plan?
2. How to apply ARCS Model outsdie the classroom?

An Inspirational quote from Lao Tzu 老子

千里之行，始于足下
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step"

I have been busy with my courses assignments. Sometimes I feel overwhelming and incompetent... Some of the Chinese inspirational quotes came to my "recuse"!

This familiar proverb expressedthat the whole journey (whatever the  journey is. It can refer to life journet; or a journey to obtain a doctorate degree) is contained in the first step referes undoubtedly to the importance of beginnings, to the necessity of getting off to a right start in anything that one undertakes.

A beautiful poem 勸學

勸學 [唐]顔真卿
三更燈火五更鶏，To burn the midnight oil, to get up at the crack of dawn,
正是男兒讀書時。It's the time for the studying.
黑髮不知勤學早，If you pay no attention to study when you are young,
白首方悔讀書遲。You will deeply regret when you are old.

A Japanese translation ...
http://www.k2.dion.ne.jp/~osafune/kansi/kangaku/kangaku.htm
三更燈火五更鶏，朝早くから夜遅くまで・・・
正是男兒讀書時。この時間こそ正に男子の勉強どきぞ
黑髮不知勤學早，若者は早起きの勉学を知らないが
白首方悔讀書遲。老いの読書で、始めてその遅きをしり後悔する。

Disadvantaged students at the college

Yesterday afternoon a colleague from Student Affairs Office came to the library, requesting me to assist a at-risk non traditional student for registering classes.

After the student left, my colleague made a comment about that student. She criticzed that our school shouldn't accept taht student at the first place. My colleague is from Urkaine. She does not understand the "open policy" of the US colleges. I told her that we shouldn't make any judgements/comments on anyone who is different. She went on and on, saying that the Academic Dean has made a big mistake... (sigh)

Why can't people accept for who we are?

Ten years ago in September..

Where was I on that particular day?

I said goodbye to my father and went to work as usual that beautiful Tuesday morning. Around 9 a.m (Kansas time), one of my colleagues rushed in (she was late) and yelled, "We were being attacked!" I was at the front desk. The library just opened the door for public. Soon, I heard people talkking, talking, and talking ... withou knowing what happened. It's unusual scenc at the library. I knew something BIG happened, but I dared to ask - I just started my new job at the public library two weeks ago.

The library big TV was turned by someone. We all watched and/or listened to the news and witnessed the twin tower building collapsed in New York city. We were silent and confused. Many of us tried to be "normal" and performed our duties as usual. But there was one thing on my mind - I needed to call home. My 87-year old father was alone at home.

When I arrived home that evening, my father was sitting on the rocking chair quietly. At that moment I knew that he wanted to go back HOME. He always felt that he was an "outsider"of this country. The attacked on September 11,was a personal feeling, like the japanese American had when the Pearl Harbor was attacked 60 years ago.

It seemed that New York City was far away from Kansas, but we all have the same amount of disbeliefs.

Why we do what we do

I believe that motivation is unchangeable and not a research area until I read Edward Deci's book, Why we do what we do: Understanding self-motivation. This book changes my persception of what is a research field. There are so much in this small book - discover your "true self," "controlling motivation and autonomy-supportive motivation," "intrinsic and extrinsic motivation." - the author skillfully explains these "unfamiliar" psychological terms by offering daily life examples. In addition, the author also provide soio-cultural theory of motivation - the impact of culture on individual's motivation.

If you are interested inhuman psychology, this is a book that you cannot miss. Some negative comments of this book are bold generalizatin and lack of solutions. I disagree. Read it and make your own judgement.

Paperbacks and E-book

There is an article in American Library, titled "Paperbacks endangered by e-book" (sigh). Technology changed and at the same time, I feel that the joy of touching the apper and flipping the pages will soon be disappeared! In many ways I am sl glad that I was NOT born in the digital age. I have experienced the joy of reading a REAL book, not via a machine. I won't be surprised to see our books GONE and replaced by kindle, ipod, e-book, and whatever the new reading machine is... I am just hoping that it won't happen in my life-time. I am a REAL book person.

I am getting too old.

September ALREADY!

Today is September 1st. The summer is GONE! Time passed fast. The temperature is still lower 90s in the Midwest. With the strong wind blowing, you kind feel that the summer is leaving and the fall is coming to take over. Three quarter of the year 2011 are GONE!

Are we chasing the time? Or the time just are slipping away silently from our daily lives?

Student Assurance Services by ages?

The University of Wisconsin Milwaukee sent out the flyer of student assurance services with charge rates. I was astonished to notice that the charge rates depends on ages. The older you are, the more you will be charged if you get on the insurance plan. Isn't it consdiered "age discrimination"?  Well, probably not. It is insurance rates. The company can set up their services fees.

I do not understand the world anymore.

It's no laughing matter

We had a faculty orientation yesterday evening. I sat next to one of my former colleagues at the for-profit college I worked. He mentioned that he also left that college because "too much going on" at that college. He was an English composition 1 insturctor for the disadvantaged students. He had four students in one of his classes. Three were forced to drop out because they had to go to jail! One of the faculty members who sat besides me couldn't help but burst out laughing. He surely drew everyone's attention immediately. Oh boy! Drop out from the class because of going to jail? It's certainly NOT a laughing matter!