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Motivating the Gifted Child

Encouraging Independent Learners

Alison Brown – Educational Consultant & Advocate for Gifted www.advocacy-for-kids

OUTLINE •  Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation •  “Currency” of the day •  Individual goal setting •  Need for appropriately paced and

challenging material •  Organization •  Time management •  Work Habits •  Study Skills

MOTIVATION ISSUES Where & When?

•  School work / homework •  Music practice •  Sport or extra curricular activities •  Around the house •  Behavior •  Responsibility

Intrinsic vs Extrinsic

•  INTRINSIC MOTIVATION: •  Tasks or actions completed for the pure

enjoyment of doing the task, with no obvious reward or consequence

•  EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION •  Tasks or actions completed because of

extrinsic rewards, consequences or praise that follow

Age Differences •  Research shows that intrinsic motivation

drops significantly from 3rd Grade through to 9th Grade

•  A greater awareness of,

and reliance on extrinsic incentives (marks, advanced placement etc) often undermines intrinsic interest

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MOTIVATION •  Self motivation

–  Enjoyment of task –  Ownership of decisions & plans –  Understanding the purpose in doing something –  Knowing how they will benefit .....

•  Intrinsic motivation

–  If / when task has meaning / purpose –  If / when tasks are sufficiently challenging to engage

•  Extrinsic motivation

–  Students reward themselves (set goals & rewards) –  Parents / teachers offer rewards

EXPECTATIONS •  What do your parents expect of you? •  What do you expect of your parents?

•  What do your teachers expect of you? •  What do you expect of your teachers?

•  What do your friends expect of you? •  What do you expect of your friends?

•  What do you expect of yourself?

SCAFFOLDING •  Part of our job is to provide structure,

routine, guidelines •  We need to model, encourage & praise •  It will eventually become routine

•  BUT … it is so easy to forget to follow

through

Individual Goal Setting •  Goals need to come from them (not us)

•  Once they have set their goals, ask …

“How can we help you achieve these?” (get them thinking about it)

•  Also ask …. “How do you plan to accomplish that goal?”

GOALS Want to / Need to / Have to

MOTIVATORS

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Internal Locus of Control

•  This is a decision ….. •  Children choose to accept it, or to allow

others to “carry them” •  Are we enabling them? •  What will encourage a child to accept an

internal locus of control? –  Real consequences –  Understanding that their choices

result in +ve or –ve consequences

“I want to work in IT cyber security”

“Growth” vs “Fixed” mindset •  Do students believe their abilities are

“innate” or “developed”? •  Do they see challenges as opportunities to

acquire or improve skills? •  Does encountering difficulties mean you are

not intelligent? •  Students need to believe that they can

actively influence their likelihood of success

“Growth” mindset

•  Acknowledge the benefits of EFFORT •  Recognize “cause & effect” relationships •  Change the environment to fit your needs •  Adjust to the existing environment to

achieve success •  Learn to let go of fruitless ideas or

hopeless situations (Del Siegle)

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Delayed Gratification

•  Speak openly about this skill •  Warn students about being side-tracked •  Teach coping skills ….

–  Set a timer –  Make a note of what is on your mind –  Make arrangements (to talk / look / watch / do)

at a later date –  Use the distraction as a reward or break (once

earned)

Currency of the Day

•  Many kids come up with these themselves •  Or you can use them to motivate •  Will differ for all children •  Will change over time •  Must be meaningful / of value to them

WHAT IS YOUR CHILD’S CURRENCY?

Piano Violin Homework Attitude TOTAL

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

TOTAL: Reason for deduction:

$6.00

$5.50

$5.00

$4.50

$4.00

REWARDS •  Set goals – THEN reward yourself •  Set OUTCOME goals not TIME BASED goals

–  (some kids will just wait it out)

•  Use a clock or timer to help them pace themselves •  Estimate the time each task will take •  Plan a short break or small reward every hour

–  e.g phone a friend, have a hot chocolate, walk the dog

•  Never take a reward until you earn it •  Don’t let a small reward mean the end of study

•  (e.g. getting distracted watching TV for hours)

It’s what you achieve not how long you sit there!

REWARDS

-  Outcome based NOT time based -  Varied NOT predictable –  Increases with effort / complexity / product

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Need for Appropriately Paced Curriculum

•  It is very hard to be motivated to listen to, learn, practise & memorize something you already know!

•  We want our students to be enthusiastic and excited about learning

The primary factor for chronic underachievement in gifted students appears to be a lack of recognition and support for intellectual potential during the early school years. When highly intelligent children are not challenged academically at an early age, they find the work too easy, become bored, develop poor work habits and often have negative feelings towards school. Under achievement is an appropriate response to what they perceive as unrewarding work and the same students who are not motivated at school often demonstrate high levels of intrinsic motivation in their extracurricular interest areas. In contrast when the curriculum content is relevant to the child's potential and ability and is challenging high levels of motivation naturally occur. http://www.giftedservices.com.au/handouts/Underachievement%20in%20Gifted%20Students.doc

UNDERACHIEVEMENT

What motivates bright kids in school:

as reported by five very bright 9th Graders

•  Good grades •  Avoiding detentions •  Finishing quickly … free time •  Pride / satisfaction •  Joy of engaging in specific activities of

interest •  Excitement in learning / discovery •  Extrinsic rewards …

•  Money / gifts •  Privileges / social •  Computer time / screen time

MODIFYING CURRICULUM •  Open-ended tasks

–  Modified worksheets (blank space) –  Differentiated projects –  Bloom’s / Gardner’s grid

•  Providing choices •  Independent research projects •  “Hardest first” system

–  “Instead of” / NOT “as well as” •  Higher order thinking skills •  Increased complexity •  Challenge activities •  Small ability groupings within classroom

–  Maths / Literacy •  Small group withdrawal for extension •  Across classes ability groupings

–  Science / philosophy / problem solving / creative writing •  Interest groupings •  Contract-based learning system / Mentor Programs

ORGANIZATION •  Time – more on this later •  Work space

–  Room – kitchen / bedroom / dining room –  Desk / shelving / lighting / sound –  Stationery – have a complete set at home

•  Books and papers –  Ring binders / folders / plastic pockets / clips –  Color coding / subject coding

•  Locker –  Set it up to work well …. –  Stack books –  leave space for your bag etc. –  Clean out once a week –  (don’t let loose papers accumulate)

TIME MANAGEMENT

•  Timetable –  Be honest & realistic – LIST EVERYTHING –  Put everything in to see what time is left

•  Diary –  Use it / read it / write in it –  Plan ahead – mark in future dates –  Work BACKWARDS from due dates

•  TO DO lists –  Monthly / daily / hour blocks

•  Juggle plans if necessary –  Adjust to changes around you –  Re-prioritize if you don’t get things finished

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TIMETABLE TO DO LISTS ….

WORK HABITS •  Establish good work habits:

–  Read your diary –  Check your TO DO lists –  Sit at your desk each day –  Get things ready the night before –  Read ahead 2 weeks in your diary –  Ask for help (don’t labor over problems)

•  Understand your body clock

–  Are you a morning or evening person? –  What is your most productive time of day? –  What sort of ‘mood’ is conducive to study / work?

WORK HABITS

•  Eat and sleep well –  Eat a balanced diet –  Don’t skip meals –  Sleep 8 hours each night

•  Exercise and keep active –  Have a regular sporting activity or take a walk

or bike ride as a break during study –  Work in half hour or hourly blocks

(then take a break)

Work Habits •  Maintain a good balance between study and

social activities –  Having a party or outing to look forward to can give

you incentive to finish something –  Maintain your friendships and give yourself relaxing

and ‘chill out’ time

–  Cut back on part-time work & extra curricula activities when things get busy or you feel overwhelmed

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HOW TO STUDY

Because gifted children learn so easily, many of them do not develop adequate study skills. They never learn how to learn because they don't have to. But at some point they may be faced with a challenging learning environment, and when they do, it is important to know how to study properly. Gifted children need to be challenged, and they need to learn to develop the study skills to handle those challenges. http://www.mycinnamontoast.com/gifted.html

PERSEVERANCE •  Most have had little experience in needing

to do this –  (things have been too easy)

•  Embarrassment / feeling inadequate •  Don’t like doing things in a sub-standard

way (give up rather than look bad)

•  Need to learn that things can get better ... LITTLE BY LITTLE / DAY BY DAY

PEANUT BUTTER SANDWICH Analogy

•  Summer Camp –  cooking class (I would have no motivation to learn to make a peanut butter sandwich at a cooking class)

•  Rural Fire brigade

(But when my father and brothers are out fighting a local bush fire, I will stand and make peanut butter sandwiches for hours, to make sure our fire-fighting volunteers are fed!)

PERSEVERANCE

GOOD ORGANIZATION, TIME MANAGEMENT & STUDY SKILLS

REWARDS

GOALS

INTRINSIC MOTIVATION EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION

LOW CHALLENGE OR INTEREST HIGH CHALLENGE OR INTEREST

TASK OR SITUATION

IN SUMMARY •  Bright kids will not always

be motivated by the task itself

•  Sometimes the end goal serves as the motivator

•  Until students can see an end goal, we need to use extrinsic motivators to teach them the skills of perseverance and application

•  We want to provide children with strategies and skills so that they can move from relying on extrinsic motivators and can assume an internal locus of control