According to Pink,

“What’s alarming is that our business operating system– think of the set of assumptions and protocols beneath our businesses, how we motivate people, how we apply our human resources– [is] built entirely around these extrinsic motivators… [This] is actually fine for many kinds of 20th century tasks, but for 21st century tasks, that mechanistic, reward and punishment approach often doesn’t work and often does harm.”

Because extrinsic rewards narrow human focus and concentration, they seem to work really well for tasks that involve a simple set of rules and a clearly defined result. But when the task involves utilizing creative thinking and complex problem solving skills, extrinsic motivation appears to hinder productivity. The problem, says Pink, is America’s economy requires the sort of problem solving skills that are based on creative thinking. In other words, today’s problems require the sort of conceptual, the sort of creative thinking that extrinsic rewards seem to hinder.

If we accept Pink’s argument, then what should businesses do? Pink suggests building a new management system based on intrinsic motivation rather than extrinsic motivation. Moreover, this new operating system, should be based on three important psychological principles:

1. Autonomy– The urge to direct our own lives
2. Mastery– The desire to get better and better and something that matters
3. Purpose– The yearning to do something in the service of something bigger than ourselves

I spent the past few days thinking about how Pink’s argument might be applied to education. I think most educators would agree that today’s educational model is based almost entirely on what Pink would call an extrinsic motivational model. Simply put, students are rewarded for good behavior and specific types of productive academic performance and punished for poor behavior and specific types of unproductive academic performance.

A potential problem with this model, at least in today’s context, is it tends to narrow the educational focus of schools to discrete and, often times, simplistic forms of learning outcomes. At a time when today’s global employers expect their employees to possess the types of problem solving skills that involve complex thinking, innovation, and creativity, our students are participating in a learning model that promotes 20th century thinking skills. Rather than learning how to effectively integrate complex pieces of information into meaningful arguments, quickly process information, or creatively solve real-world problems, too many public school students are stuck in 20th century classrooms surrounded by chalkboards, wooden desks, and unimaginative teaching. This classroom promotes a different set of life skills that may have been beneficial during the industrial age, but today’s economy demands something very different.

Perhaps what is most alarming about the learning model prevalent in most public schools is its reliance on extrinsic motivation to foster the development of 20th century skills. In the age of NCLB, schools are being forced to narrow their academic focus in order to meet the myriad of state and national accountability standards. As government accountability efforts pressure schools to demonstrate improvement, schools are tempted to rely on the types of extrinsic motivators outlined in Pink’s lecture.

If Pink is right, how might we apply his analysis to public education? I think the answer is our schools need a different educational model, a new type of management system based primarily on intrinsic motivation. This new teaching  and learning approach should emphasize a radical notion of self direction. In other words,the 21st century learning model should build effective learning experiences that incorporate student autonomy, learning mastery, and individual purpose. Learning experiences that incorporate these skills tend to foster a healthy sense of motivation and individual purpose for the learner. In a time when the extent of student apathy and disengagement seem to threaten the very success of many of our schools, a new model that promotes motivation, self-direction, and individual responsibility couldn’t come soon enough.

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With the emergence of social media technology in the classroom, teachers are finding innovative ways to promote student learning. As educators become more sophisticated in terms of utilizing Internet and mobile-based technologies to share information, they are taking advantage of new and exciting opportunities to improve their teaching practice. One particular area of interest to me is the way in which this sort of technology might improve the critical thinking skills of high school students.

Perhaps the most difficult task for a high school teacher is promoting critical thinking in the classroom. As students navigate through the giant web of state-mandated curriculum and federal testing requirements, many of them fail to develop the thinking skills necessary to succeed in college and the work world beyond high school. By graduation, high school students find themselves disinterested and unprepared. Perhaps this is why recent studies have shown American students not only lack the basic skills necessary to be successful in today’s global economy but too often they graduate from high school lacking the most important skill: creativity.

As I understand it, the creative student has highly developed critical thinking skills and is able to formulate relevant questions. The obvious importance of critical thinking to student success is not only confirmed by educational research but by the experience of business and community leaders too.  In fact, a recent study, Ready to Innovate, found that the ability to think critically about problems and find creative solutions are the most important attributes business leaders look for when evaluating candidates. According to the business leaders surveyed in the study, creative thinking involves, at a certain level, that a person exhibit such things as curiosity, the ability to recognize new patterns of information, integrate knowledge across disciplines, and, most importantly, the ability to identify problems. Perhaps the most important aspect of these skills, in terms of promoting critical thinking in high school, is the ability of the learner to formulate meaningful questions and articulate thoughtful answers.

Unfortunately, many high school teachers fail to promote this type of thinking in the classroom. A brief visit to a typical high school classroom will prove as much. Students sit quietly in desks, rarely engaged, while the teacher lectures about state-mandated curriculum with the expectation that the students will reproduce the material on the soon to be taken multiple-choice exam. Perhaps this is why American students lack the critical thinking skills necessary to compete in today’s global economy.

The author Tony Wagner thoughtfully analyzes this problem in his recent book The Global Achievement Gap. According to Wagner, all too often public school teachers fail to develop the types of skills normally associated with critical thinking, particularly the skills that enable students to ask good questions.

One important way for high school teachers to promote critical thinking in the classroom is by simply encouraging students to ask good questions. Effective questioning techniques help students analyze academic problems. By asking appropriate questions, students find themselves able to identify problems and, with some guidance, articulating solutions. Utilizing social media technology to stimulate and manage classroom discussions presents an interesting and, perhaps, effective way to accomplish this.

Taking advantage of social media technology to facilitate discussion can make it possible for students to explore the multifaceted nature of academic problems in a way that is normally difficult to achieve in a classroom setting. Where the usual high school curriculum presents standardized information in preparation for year-end mandated exams, this technology may enable high school teachers to foster critical thinking by enabling them to build unique learning situations in which students explore complex academic topics. Moreover, by utilizing the innovative networking features associated with this technology, students can share ideas, work with other students to solve complex problems, and improve their ability to ask thoughtful questions.

The four types of social media technology that seem most promising in this regard are weblogs, podcasts, wikis, and Twitter. What makes these types of social media technology so promising are their accessibility to both teachers and students, wide-spread use in both education and the private sector, and their relevancy to students. Moreover, because these technologies can be used to foster unique technology-based interactions between students and teachers, they present a wonderful opportunity for educators to develop meaningful student-to-student and teacher-to-student discussions. These discussions, of course, represent opportunities for students to develop better thinking skills as they work to understand complex information and formulate thoughtful questions and responses.

There are certainly challenges to using this technology in a typical high school classroom, however. Perhaps the biggest challenge with social media technology is its newness, if you will. Although teachers are experimenting with different ways to use this technology to foster critical thinking and build collaborative teamwork in the classroom, the success so far is limited at best. This means teachers interested in utilizing social media technology are left with few examples of best practices to follow.

The inherent complexity that results from integrating different types of social media technology with traditional high school curriculum presents significant challenges also. Utilizing social networking tools (e.g., Facebook or MySpace) in conjunction with collaboration (e.g., wikis) and multimedia tools (e.g., Flikr or YouTube) is a very difficult task for a high school teacher who has limited experience with this type of technology.

There are other challenges that should be noted. Often basic technology limitations (e.g., lack of resources, school policy, etc.) make it difficult to utilize social media technology in the classroom. Another problem is this technology requires a significant investment in terms of training and resources if teachers are to effectively design and manage learning activities. Perhaps the most challenging limitation for a high school teacher is time. Is it reasonable to expect high school teachers to spend countless hours developing specific learning activities that use social media technology when they are already strapped for time?

At this point I’d like to hear from you. For those teachers or administrators who utilize social media technology in the classroom, please provide your thoughts. Has this technology enabled you to improve student learning? Has it helped your students develop the skills necessary to ask good questions and, more importantly, think critically about academic topics? Have you found it difficult to create projects or curriculum that require integrating two or more of these programs at the same time? I’m looking forward to your comments.