Adolescent development
Week Two: Achievement Motivation and Career Development
Achievement
Achieve What?
What is achievement?
A personality trait concerning setting and meeting high standards
Discussion: What are high standards?
Achievement is an accomplishment
Perfectionism and failure ( a problematic term)
Success begets success
Amount of Risk-Taking Matters
Low risk
Not overly challenging, high chance of success but little reward
High risk
Very challenging, low chance of success but high reward
Discussion
Do we challenge teen enough? Is the current generation lazy? Should we let kids fail?
Why Do Achievements Happen?
Agency: The ability to make connections between one’s actions and a desired outcome (Piaget operational thinking)
Agency is often discounted:
Perception of luck
Gender and humility
Minority groups and affirmative action
Less stigma about being bad than stupid
Discussion
Describe a time when you took on a challenge
Did you succeed or fail? Why?
Did success or failure have to do with you or other external factors?
Motivation
Why Try?
Motivation
Latin “movere”… to move
Internal drive that activates behavior and gives it direction
Goal-oriented
Motivation and Needs Theory
Adolescents strive for higher goals only when more basic needs are met (Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs)
Physiologic needs
Safety
Belonging/Love
Esteem
Self-actualization
The “so what?” questions
Motivation
High correlation with the executive functions of planning, organization, decision-making, learning, and self-assessment
Teachable skills vs. pep talks
Motivation and Expectancy
Unless there is an alternative vision, the future is only an extension of the past and present
Hope is found in the future
We can lend vision, self-esteem, and confidence, (borrowed self-esteem) but eventually they need to be claimed. Success is the claim (owned self-esteem).
Discussion
How can we help teens envision what they have not yet experienced?
Two Kinds of Motivation
Intrinsic Motivation
Brings personal satisfaction
No other reward
Extrinsic Motivation
Influenced by the expectations of others
Brings a reward or avoids a negative consequence
Common example: “I need to complete service learning in order to get into a good school”
Discussion about Extrinsic Rewards
Should everybody get a trophy?
Do extrinsic rewards lessen the search for intrinsic rewards?
Should we pay at-risk teens to attend school?
Gray Article: Is Psychological Membership in the Classroom a Function of Standing Out While Fitting In?
Examines motivation in a social context, in contrast to most articles that examine motivation as an individual trait
Gray uses the term “achievement emotion” to highlight that motivation is not just cognitive
Standing out and blending in are not opposite ends of a continuum. Both facilitate learning.
Standing out is as important as blending in. Distinctiveness+ being special in some way
Westpal et. al.: Achievement Emotions
Emotions felt during classroom learning are critical to student’s learning outcomes
Enjoyment
Hope
Pride
Anxiety
Disappointment
Boredom
DeBacker and Routon Article: Expectations, Education, and Opportunity
Article introduces the notion of “culture of despair”: Parents with low expectations tend to have lower investment in their child’s success. They don’t expect that schools will have the necessary resources to assure success
Does expectation become a self-fulfilling prophesy? When we have low expectation, we lessen achievement motivation
Discussion
Do we, as professionals, also have a culture of despair?
Creating an Achievement Environment
Theoretical Foundation: Lev Vygotsky
Sociocultural Theory. The social/cultural environment matters. Environment can be considered as all the elements of Bronfenbrenner’s microsystem.
Learning is social. The person with more knowledge conveys knowledge to the adolescent in the context of a relationship
Discussion
Can you motivate a child you don’t like?
Doll Chapter: Enhancing Resilience in Classrooms
Ecological perspective: The “felt experience” of the classroom may contribute more to success than individual interventions
We don’t need to spend time coming up with assessments because we already know what contributes to resilience
Discussion: Do we spend too much time on assessments?
Factors That Contribute to Resilience
Relationships
Teacher-student
Student-student
Collaboration and connectedness (mesosystem)
Autonomy and Self-Regulation
Agency
Self-control
Optimism and Hope
Expect success
Ross Greene: The Explosive Child
Adolescents should name their own challenges
Adolescents are capable of coming up with their own solutions
Reason the alternatives
Choose the best options
Professionals need to have behavioral success expectations
Discussion
Are adolescents capable of “fixing” schools? What can student do to create good classrooms?
First Generation Students
First generation is not just a college issue
Differences are not skill differences
More likely to work: Impact on study time, out of class activities, Faculty interaction
Prefer to live at home
Collective mindset: represent family and community
Pressure to succeed
Less mentoring, but not due to less caring
How We Can Help
Mentoring
Academic community home
Involve family
Cultural and spiritual connections
Acknowledge financial challenges
Support during family losses
Career Aspirations
Holland’s Inventory of Basic Interests
Realistic = doers
Investigative = thinkers
Artistic = creators
Social = helpers
Enterprising = persuaders
Conventional - organizers
Volodine and Nagy: Vocational Choices in Adolescence: The Role of Gender, School Achievement, Self-concepts, and Vocational Interests
Vocational interests matter, but so does school success
School success creates vocational identity (“I’m good at math”, for example)
Vocational direction is determined by interests, perceived capabilities, and self-concept
Discussion
How can I think about the future if all my energy is going into the present?
What about kids not going to college? Do we stress college too much?
Are we preparing adolescents for career development using an outdated model based on lifetime careers?