Dharti Patel, Pharm.D.
PGY1 - Pharmacy Resident
Kaiser Permanente
Mid-Atlantic States Region
In his Ted Talk “The Puzzle of Motivation”, Dan Pink discussed ideas surrounding motivation and negative impact of incentives on performance1. He briefly differentiated between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and its impact on functioning. Motivation as it relates to learning is very relevant to our course. Furthermore, Mr. Pink covered another important area, which was how commonly rewards are used as motivation to drive performance. Part of relating to our learners is understanding their personal purpose for choosing what they do and what drives them to achieve goals. I believe part of being a teacher is guiding our learners in the right path of accomplishing their goals and pushing them to exceed expectations. However, nowadays motivation is often times reinforced by rewards and appraisement.
The concept of positive reinforcement, “the process of recognizing and rewarding a desired behavior in an effort to encourage its continuance,” is constantly applied in various day-to-day activities2. While the reinforcement theory has its advantages, it also poses several disadvantages. It allows our learners to form a habit of inputting effort in exchange for a reward. Our learners should realize that their own effort will aid personal as well as professional growth. Now, there is where motivation and personal goals plays a role. While positive reinforcement relates to extrinsic motivation, our learners should be taught to depend on intrinsic motivation. In the TED talk, Dan Pink mentions a key point made by Dan Ariely – that higher incentives led to worse performance. In other words, rewards in workplace and education can negatively impact mindset. While that sounds surprising, it is actually logical.
In my opinion, motivation is a key factor in excelling in almost anything we do. Sure, there may be some external drivers, e.g. salary, credential, etc, that push us towards our goals. But, the internal drive should be largely responsible for our accomplishments. An individual should be striving to reach the end goal for personal satisfaction and growth. Relating it back to our learners or pharmacy students, many times they become too focused on grades. While I would agree that grades are very important to most learners, it is not an ideal marker of measuring performance. Some students have the capability of pulling all-nighters to cram all the information into their brain prior to the exam. However, those same students will not be able to retain or store that information for long-term use. Good grades may help to score an interview or look great on paper, but it will not necessarily enhance an individual’s performance or quality of work. On the other hand, if that same student was studying a little bit of information every day and applying it, they are more likely to think in-depth and be more successful in their practice.
Dan Pick mentioned three elements associated with motivation and performance – autonomy, mastery and purpose. Independence or ability to self-govern directly impacts learning because the individual carries the responsibility for guiding their own learning. Earlier in this course we discussed about whether or not pharmacy students were adult learners or not. In my opinion, placing that responsibility on our learners would allow them to have meaningful experiences, however a question that may be posed is whether or not we can expect our learners to be accountable? As teachers we play a pivotal role in providing a guided experience to aid in their learning and achieving independence in practice.
As today’s teachers and learners, our motivation is easily impacted by external factors rather than personal satisfaction. External factors may play a different role person to person, but it directly affects the quality of our learning and work in both good and bad ways. In some ways incentives may be helpful in achieving results faster but in other ways it may compromise the quality of work we do. In summary, as we move forward, we should focus on our intrinsic motivators to drive our personal and professional growth.
References:
1. Dan Pink at TEDGlobal 2009. The puzzle of motivation. https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation?referrer=playlist-the_most_popular_talks_of_all#t-779246
2. Joseph C. Why is positive reinforcement important in workplace? https://smallbusiness.chron.com/positive-reinforcement-important-workplace-11566.html
3. Benabou R and Tirole J. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. https://www.princeton.edu/~rbenabou/papers/RES2003.pdf
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