Designing a school programme that motivates

When adults are set a problem to solve with or without rewards, it is the groups that are motivated by the desire to solve the problem itself who perform better than those who are promised a reward for their efforts. Daniel Pink uses this surprising finding, first confirmed by a study at Carnegie Melon University in 1969 (Edward Deci) to inform his book Drive, on the three things that motivate us: autonomy, mastery and purpose (2009). In this case, the innate drive to master something is what helps these winners solve the problem best.

Tony Wagner in his book Creating Innovators (2012) suggests a similar shortlist of passion, play and purpose. Not only would these characteristics in education motivate students, but it would create students with the spirit to innovate.

It is the motivation element I want to explore in this post and specifically how the IB Career-related Programme can motivate students. What drives school students and how can a programme be designed that creates the conditions for students to derive intrinsic motivation? 

Autonomy

A flexible curriculum allows students autonomy in their choice of studies and also learning styles and performance indicators. Typically, schools allow more autonomy in choice of subjects at age 16-19. An IB diploma student would study 7 subjects compared to perhaps 9 or 10 in the preceding two years. To graduate from a typical high school with a diploma a student might have to choose a minimum of 5 courses per year. This allows students more freedom in their choices. In the career-related programme, students specialise in a career study and must choose 2 or 3 subjects alongside this with no prescribed subjects. This allows the student that has a clearer idea of their ambitions and strengths in school to focus their studies on those subjects they feel most passionate about and that mean the most to them – autonomy in choice and purpose in that students identify these as most relevant to their progression after school.

The nature of the career study also provides opportunities for giving students autonomy in their topics and assignments. Firstly, the BTEC National Diploma in Business has a foundational core of 4 units, but the remaining 8 can come from a range of 42 optional units that might follow an accounting, marketing, retail, management or law pathway for example. Students might choose the career-related programme if they already have an idea of the direction they might take after school, and this wide range of choice will give them the autonomy they are looking for to specialise in an area they are motivated by: A student hoping to go into hospitality might choose human resource management, developing teams and event management; a student with a passion for web design will look at website design strategy, creative product promotion and internet marketing.

Secondly, the continual internal assessment model allows students to demonstrate their achievement of the assessment criteria in a range of ways: business reports, oral presentations, multi-media products and real workplace tasks. This second layer of autonomy can motivate a student by the promise of showcasing their learning in a way that plays to their strengths.

The flexibility of the career-related programme extends to the core of the IBCP programme. Students must continue to develop their multicultural fluency through a language development project, but the choice of language they develop international mindedness through is entirely free: it might range from Mandarin to Arabic, sign language or business German. IB Career-related Programme students explore ethics and critical thinking with a research project on an ethical dilemma in business, but the product can be a film, report, podcast or infographic amongst others, again giving students autonomy in their programme.

A programme with flexibility by design and freedom to pursue interests and play to strengths can be inherently motivating.

Mastery

The motivational experiments highlighted by Dan Pink point to humans’ inherent drive to get better at what they are doing – to achieve mastery. When students are challenged at the right level, they can be motivated for the sake of achieving the task itself, not because of the resulting rewards. But mastery is difficult, requires perseverance and investment in deliberate practice. A more specialised curriculum can allow the time to achieve mastery, as students develop more expertise and deeper knowledge and can invest more time in becoming better at what they do. This would be true of the career study. Students spend twice as long in this specialism than their other high school subjects.

Purpose

If the IB Diploma Programme suits students who learn new content and want to dig deeper, the IB Career-related Programme is for students who learn something new and want to do something with that knowledge straight away

(Jon Halligan, Head of Development at the IB Organisation).

This signals the direct, practical relevance of a career-related programme. Students can see the value of their school experience as the career study applies directly to their ambitions after school. This can have an invigorating effect on high school students. One pioneering student of the career-related programme at ISZL has been able to learn human resource principles and marketing skills for his chosen career in hospitality, another the finance and marketing fundamentals to support his passion as a freelance photographer.

One of the design principles of the career-related programme at ISZL is creating value with real products for real people. The curriculum, in its flexibility, can be designed to challenge students to apply their learning by working for real clients. Students of the BTEC in Business this year have conducted a systems analysis of the sustainability of  ICT resourcing at Thomson Reuters and presented their recommendations for improved performance to executives at the global headquarters. In another unit, they have conducted market research on the emotional connection to the service for a new local hotel resort to support the work experience of two students with ambitions to work in hospitality. Next year, students will start a new business in response to a local need or a gap in the market. Students can see the immediate purpose of their learning.

The IB Career-related Programme has service learning at its core. Students learn that they should strive to work in the interest of something bigger than themselves, a greater purpose. This can be a great motivator. A 2016 Linkedin survey revealed that three quarters of millennials (18-35 yr olds) want a job that matters (purpose over pay-checks).

Combining service learning with a BTEC in Business and the Personal and Professional Skills course, students can make connections that result in innovations through social enterprises, or new products and processes built around sustainability and the design principles of a circular economy. They might design a mosquito net tent for youngsters to sleep under in a fishing village in Ghana where ISZL students work, or provide a service for new arrivals at a local refugee centre.

“Younger employees at the company want to have meaning in what they are doing. A lot of young people are interested in sustainability and what they can do. This generation wants an immediate impact. The challenge is to connect them with projects that have value.” 3M manager

Creating Innovators

A final thought and added benefit of designing a programme that motivates is the argument that this is the most important component of the capacity to innovate.

Teresa Amabile, director of research at Harvard Business School suggests that expertise, creative thinking skills and motivation interact to create innovative people. (1998). Combining the knowledge from IB diploma subjects or high school courses, the skills at the core of the Career-related Programme and in the BTEC Business diploma, and a motivating curriculum, students will achieve their best and develop innovation skills. There is general agreement that to solve the economic, social and environmental challenges in a time of unprecedented change, innovation is what these solutions will be built on.

The International School of Zug and Luzern’s mission has respect, motivate and achieve as its guiding aims. The motivating benefits of the innovative and carefully designed Career-related Programme can meet these aims with successful students, ready to thrive at university, in the workplace and in life in general after school.

“The secret to high performance is our deep-seated desire to direct our own lives, to extend and expand our abilities and to live a life of purpose”. Daniel Pink, 2009