Challenging+Tasks

// "Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly." ~ Proverb //
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What is the link between motivation and challenging tasks?
Wlodowski (2003) lists **enhancing meaning** as one of the factors of the Motivational Framework for culturall y responsive teaching. Under this factor, he refers to enhancing meaning as "creating ** challenging ** [emphasis added], thoughtful learning experiences that include learner's perspectives and values" (2).

In //Diversity and Motivation: Culturally Responsive Teaching// (1995), Wlodkowski and Ginsberg argue that despite advances in philosophy, education is still largely based on the behaviourist model of extrinsic motivation (166). There is a heavy reliance on grades and tests. They argue for a more intrinsic focus that means the "**goal is significant because it allows the learning to occur in a particularly challenging or fascinating way, not because its achievement should dominate or be the ultimate criterion of learning**" (my emphasis, 167).

As Wlodkowski and Ginsberg (1995) so eloquently put it: === "You need the mountaintop not so much to reach it but because it creates the climb. The goal provides the routes, the journey, the challenge. We need the goal because its accomplishment to a large extent determines the means. That's where the treasure of learning lies" (167). ===

Student Engagement, Active Learning and Challenge
Wlodkowski and Ginsberg (1995) see learner engagement as crucial for increasing the meaning and challenge in learning. Challenging tasks often include the following factors:
 * Relevance - the learning needs to mean something to the student
 * Active learning - making meaning from "searching, evaluating, constructing, creating or organizing some kind of learning material into new or better ideas, memories, skills, values, feelings, understandings, solutions, or decisions" (Wlodkowski and Ginsberg, 1995, 168).
 * Engagement - this includes dialogue between the learner and the instructor but also self-expression
 * Goal-like quality - as said previously not because the goal is the end result but rather it provides the means
 * Capacity - engagement "requires and contains some degree of capacity, skill, or knowledge on the part of the learner" (Wlodkowski and Ginsberg, 1995, 168). It is also capacity building and often demonstrates mastery.

Wlodkowski and Ginsberg believe that challenging and engaging learning activities often lead to what Csikszentmihalyi referred to as the **experience of flow**. Flow, which is also referred to as optimal experience, occurs when people act with complete involvement (EduTech Wiki). Csikszentmihalyi, refers to complete involvement as "autotelic," a state where action and awareness merge and the activity becomes worth doing for its own sake, and the body begins to act in an almost automatic mode. In this TED Talk, Csikszentmihalyi discusses the idea of flow which he parallels with the secret to happiness. == media type="custom" key="23437440" align="center"

Csikszentmihalyi identified 8 dimensions of the flow experience, these include:
 * 1) Clear goals and immediate feedback
 * 2) Equilibrium between the level of challenge and personal skill
 * 3) Merging of action and awareness
 * 4) Focused concentration
 * 5) Sense of potential control
 * 6) Loss of self-consciousness
 * 7) Time distortion
 * 8) Autotelic or self-rewarding experience

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Motivation Requires a Meaningful Task*
(*taken from Frey and Fisher's article title)

Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher (2010) in "Motivation Requires a Meaningful Task" examine the importance of creating meaningful and challenging tasks "that are tailored to the developmental, academic, and social needs of students" (30). Interestingly, the research which was focused primarily on high school students showed success with group work. The work of Frey and Fisher reiterates the point Elizabeth F. Barkley makes in //Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty//, in which task challenge is an essential factor in motivation. Frey and Fisher (2010) highlight the **TARRGET** framework which stands for **task**, **autonomy**, **recognition**, **resources**, **grouping**, **evaluation**, and **time** (see diagram below).

A key component of this framework is collaboration. By learning collaboratively, students are able to pool their knowledge and help each learn concepts. Frey and Fisher's observations were that when a task was sufficiently difficult enough, students needed to work together. In addition, group work can build motivation among individual members "who are encouraged by the others to participate and are valued for their contributions" (33). The authors stress the importance of "meaningful" in that in addition to being challenging it needs to be relevant to the learners.

Strategies for Increasing Challenge in Learning
In //Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn//, Raymond Wlodkowski offers the following strategies for increasing the challenge in learning:
 * Introduce contradictions or disturbing data and information (168)
 * Play the devil's advocate - this challenges the learners' thinking and causes them to further develop and elaborate on their argument (169)
 * Chose an activity with a demanding goal to achieve or a difficulty to resolve (173)
 * Create a risk of failure in the task or assignment, note not in a reckless way (133)

Mastery Goals versus Performance Goals - How Does this Effect Motivation
Carole Ames and Jennifer Archer (1988) undertook a study of students' learning strategies in an attempt to see if how motivation was effected by mastery goals, those goals where "importance is attached to developing new skills" (260), versus performance goals. Ames and Archer found that **when learning goals emphasized mastery**, students reported they were more likely to use "effective learning strategies, **prefer tasks that offer challenge**, like their class more, and believe that effort and success" were linked (264). Their findings were published in the //Journal of Educational Psychology//, in "Achievement Goals in the Classroom: Students' Learning Strategies and Motivation Process".

The Key to Success? Gri t
In this short TED Talk, Angela Lee Duckworth discusses the role of "grit" in the ability of learners to succeed,

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References:
Ames, C. and Archer, J. (1988). Achievement Goals in the Classroom: Students' Learning Strategies and Motivation Processes. //Journal of Educational Psychology//, 80(3), 260-267.

Duckworth, A.L. (2013). Key to Success? Grit. TED Talks. Retrieved from @http://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_the_key_to_success_grit.html.

EduTech Wiki. (2013). Flow theory. Retrieved from @http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Flow_theory.

Frey, N. and Fisher, D. (2010). Motivation Requires a Meaningful Task. //English Journal 100(1)//, 30-36.

Wlodkowski, R. (1993). //Ehancing Adult Motivation to Learn: A Guide to Improving Instruction and Increasing Learner Achievement//. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Wlodkowski, R. (2003). Fostering motivation in professional development programs. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education,98, 1-13. [|http://www.raymondwlodkowski.com/Materials/Fostering%20Motivation%20in%20Professional%20Deve] [|lopment%20Programs.pdf].

Wlodkowski, R. and Ginsberg, M. (1995). //Diversity and Motivation: Culturally Responsive Teaching//. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.