Competency and Motivation - Part 1
Welcome to the 2009-2010 school year and another series of short essays designed to make research and historical precedents applicable to the day-to-day tasks of raising great children. Our discussions this year will focus on issues of competency and motivation. Competency is verified ability. It is based upon what we have really accomplished. Competency leads to efficacy, the realization that we are effective in life and from here we develop our sense of personal value. Motivation describes internal drive. When motivated, we are roused to action and productivity. Together, competency and motivation help shape our sense of self-worth.
Since the late 1950’s research in the field of human development has recognized that the need for competence is innate. We humans want to be able to do things, and once we can do something we want to get better at it. Robert W. White (1959), a pioneer in this field, suggested that to develop as a human being is to attain greater competence. As competency increases we feel satisfied and fulfilled.
We frequently see this phenomenon played out in children. One of my grandchildren is a two-year old toddler, Jonah. During his last visit he established his competency for throwing away rubbish for “Papachuck.” I would give him a piece of crumpled paper from my desk. I assigned him a never-before-attempted task of throwing the paper away in a rubbish container. I said, “Jonah, throw this in the rubbish can.” He gave me a puzzled look. I repeated the request, pointed at my crumpled paper, and motioned toward at the rubbish container a few feet away. Finally, he took the paper, walked to the container and dropped it in. Immediately I declared, “You did it!” He looked at me with great satisfaction and beamed, “I did it!” he said. Then without further provocation boasted again, “I did it!”
You can guess what happened next. He walked back to me, grabbed another piece of paper off my desk, marched it to the rubbish, dropped it in, and with the biggest smile called out, “I did it!” Not only was he establishing his competency for throwing things away in the rubbish container, he apparently wanted to get better at it. Before long, he continued his quest for increased competency by dispensing my notebook, my pen and the TV remote control into the trash (we are talking about competency here not perfection).
The same, although more sophisticated scenario, is played out among elementary and middle school students. Often in my math class, I will take pains to make math assignments relatively challenging yet likely to be mastered. The result is similar to Jonah’s trash can conquest. With time and support, the math students “did it.” They got the problems right, and then they want to do more problems. They are proud of themselves and before long identify themselves as “good at math.” They established a degree of math competency.
An even more sophisticated example occurs when we work with students in the National History Day competition. For nearly five months students intensely read, research, synthesize and write. It is an absolutely grueling process for students and teachers. You would think that after such an experience students would vow to themselves never to get involved with “that” again. But in fact, the opposite is true. Even if students do not win the competition per se, they have developed extraordinary competencies in the process; upon the completion of the competition, they are already discussing what topic they will do the following year. In fact, even though some of these students are graduating eighth graders they even wonder if they can still do History Day in high school. The hard work does not dissuade them from further rigor. They are motivated. They have accomplished something; they have proved their ability and they feel great about themselves.
By Charles Debelak
