Activating the Desire to Learn by Bob Sullo

Activating the Desire to Learn

by Bob Sullo

Introduction, Ch. 1, Ch. 6, Ch.11

 

I am thrilled to have chosen a great book. It will be in my personal Library.

Activating the Desire to Learn was written in 2007. Some of Mr. Sullo’s other books are Teach Them to be Happy, Inspiring Quality in Your School: From Theory to Practice and The Inspiring Teacher: New Beginnings for the 21^st Century. Mr. Sullo has a simple and effective style that allows the abstract theories to be easily related to the practical. His case studies and “What you can do”  points at the end of each chapter make it a very practical read.

 

This book is simply about motivation and inspiration. Through the systematic break down of motivations’ components and its relationship to human behavior, a clear strategy emerges that can improve the effectiveness of nearly anyone in leadership, from the teacher to the superintendent. I recognized the principles now in practice within some of the business world, and I can truly vouch for its efficacy.

 

The Introduction

Mr. Sullo begins by asking us to reflect on a task we have been “made” to do. We complete the task, but probably didn’t give our best effort. Then reflect on a task for one of our best efforts. There was extra satisfaction that occurred in our best effort, We FELT something. We remember it with more detail. We may even smile while we’re thinking about it. The difference in the performances was motivation. Where did the motivation come from? Mr. Sullo maintains there is a set of internal needs at our core. We have an intrinsic desire to fill these needs. Motivation is the manifestation of our desires. The book details how we perceive these needs, and as educators, how to use them. For more information on this root concept, it is an approach based on Internal Control Psychology.

 

Chapter 1

Mr. Sullo begins by subtly denigrating the traditional reward-response technique that is still the most prevalent behavior modification model in use today. He explains this reward-punishment model is based on a belief that human behavior is created by external stimulus. Not only does he counter this model for education, but he actually believes it is anti-educational. On the surface this seems a little out there, but he explains that the reward-punishment model conditions students to feel if there is no reward involved, it must not be worth learning. He quotes William Powers, a noted developer of perceptual control theory “People control their own experiences. The only way you can truly force them to behave as you wish is through the threat or actuality of overwhelmingly superior physical force—and even that is only a temporary solution..”

Can’t we relate to times our parents bribed us to do something? The bribe made us instantly know we wouldn’t do it by CHOICE! Choice Theory is a detailed theory of human behavior, and is integral to the understanding of internal control Psychology and therefore internal motivation.

 

The single most important concept of this book is that motivation is INTERNALLY generated. To quote Mr. Sullo “Internal control psychology is based upon the belief that people are internally, not externally, motivated. Powerful instructions that are built into our genetic structure drive our behavior. The outside world, including all rewards and punishment, only provides us with information. It does not make us do anything.”

 

Mr. Sullo postulates that at any given moment, our behavior represents our best attempt to satisfy these four basic psychological needs:

• Belonging or connecting
• Power or competence
• Freedom
• Fun

One important point to make is these are PSYCHOLOGICAL needs. Physical needs can and will supersede these as Maslow so deftly points out.

 

The chapter goes on to detail these four basic needs. But one important point from the chapter helps us to understand this internal control behavior in relation to our current mindset of external control behavior. Cause and effect is inherent as a means of analysis, but Mr. Sullo outlines that the external cause we see was first internalized as information and then interpreted through a filter of our perceived understanding of these psychological needs. This is an important concept because it can help us make sense out of behavior that otherwise makes no sense.

The idea is even though this internal filter could be skewed by unhealthy experiences or false beliefs; it is still what we use to reconcile our reality.

 

Chapter 6

This chapter is a case study of Nathan. Nathan is a 4^th grader.  He is asked a series of questions about school. Nathan has an effective teacher that understands internal motivation and is applying it to the classroom. He outlines the things he likes about the way his teacher manages the classroom and learning.

Besides offering a practical example of how internal motivation can improve the educational process, a discussion on “consequences”. This relates to internal motivation as it gives a student a framework to fulfill his psychological needs externally.

The emphasis the consequences can be good things depending on our choices, and not just bad. The re-enforcement that good choices have good consequence is just as important as the alternative.

 

Chapter 11

This started with a case study of “Dave”. He is a high school English teacher with about 10 years under his belt. He was conditioned by his supervisors that he was considered a good teacher if he didn’t have behavior problems in his classroom. The attitude was controlling the class was more important than his ability to teach. In short, he was conditioned to operate externally for control.

He attended a seminar that explored motivation and introduced him to internal control Psychology.  He began using the principles and quickly began to see results. He took it a step farther and began teaching about some of the fictional figures in their literature assignment and began asking the students explore what the internal motivations were for these characters.  This caused the students to open up and become much more engaged in the readings. It made the characters real to the students. It offered stark examples of how our perceptions are created and how we act on them regardless of if the perceptions were accurate.

 

Several more case studies of high school students are contained in this chapter. Each detailing one of the four core psychological needs. How they were manifested in the student, and how Dave used his new found knowledge of internal control psychology to remedy the situation.

 

Questions

Remember a task you have accomplished where completing the task WAS the reward.

What made it so? How can you instill that into a student?

 

What are ways to get a student “buy-in” to an assignment?

 

What are ways to instill the notion of personal responsibility into a student?

 

In Summary, this is a well written book. Its liberal use of case studies makes application of Mr. Sullo’s hypotheses straight forward. From this book and our previous readings I find his ideas completely realistic. It follows Maslow’s hierarchy of needs by offering a greater detail of how the mind handles the top three tiers. I find no conflict here.

In addition I find this book to became a bridge to help us understand and put in context the ideas and theories presented by Daniel Pink, and the Conceptual age.

“Reaching Both Sides of the Brain, and How We Do it” could have been the title of this book.

The 21^st Century educator must ascend for new skills. This book is most assuredly one rung in the ladder. Bill_H