I’ve been writing a series this year where, in each post, I share five pieces of “wisdom” I’ve learned during my 23-year teaching career.

You can see Part One here and Part Two here.

Here I go again ...

1. We need to stop talking “motivating students” and, instead, starting thinking about “creating the conditions in which students can motivate themselves.”

Soooo much time is spent discussing ways teachers can motivate students. Yes, it’s possible to motivate someone for a short period of time—inspirational speakers do it all the time. But, just as most of our passion dissipates the day after hearing a rousing speech, our students’ motivation will also likely take flight the day after our heart-to-heart conversation or after they’ve received points on the behavior chart.

Extrinsic motivation (like points on a behavior chart) might work for tasks requiring little critical or creative thinking. But it’s a whole different ballgame when it comes to motivation for creative or critical thinking, which is what we need to do the most of in our classrooms.

That’s where intrinsic motivation comes in, and researchers have found that creating the conditions for it to flourish requires supporting student autonomy (choice is one strategy), competence (increasing the odds of student success, for example, through providing scaffolds), relatedness (supporting students through group work is one way), and relevance (perhaps by challenging students to reflect on how they can apply what they’re learning in the future).

Read about more specific strategies to support student intrinsic motivation here and here.

2. Stop telling students what to do.

A new study has come out which basically finds that students will be more likely to use retrieval practice (pushing yourself to remember something that is not in front of you) as a study strategy if you explain the reasoning behind it and why it works.

Really, the far more important point this study makes is that our students, like us, are more likely to do something if we’re shown it’s in our self-interest to do so OR, even if it’s not in our direct self-interest, we’re more likely to do it if someone has taken the time to respect us by explaining a logical reason for their request.

Whether it’s related to getting students to use retrieval practice, or getting English-language-learner students to reduce their use of Google Translate when writing, or encouraging students to choose more diverse small groups, our students deserve these explanations—even if is “harder” than just telling them what to do.

3. Schools are mysteries, not puzzles.

Security expert Gregory F. Treverton originally developed the frame of puzzles and mysteries. Puzzles can be solved through logical analysis and have a clear conclusion. Mysteries, on the other hand, contain many ambiguities with lots of moving parts that have to be identified.

Treverton suggests that many problems are not solved and, in fact, are made worse because we all tend to have a bias toward approaching challenges as puzzles instead of mysteries and miss important information and opportunities.

I’ve previously written for EdWeek about what this looks like in classroom management, but I think it holds true for just about every aspect of day-to-day work involved in running a school, how education researchers approach their work, and all aspects of education policy.

4. Power is not a finite pie.

During my 19-year community-organizing career that took place prior to my 23-year teaching career, this idea was central to our work in negotiating with decisionmakers: If we get some power from you, that doesn’t mean you get less because power is not a finite pie. If we get some power, then the size of the pie itself increases in size with more possibilities and opportunities created for everyone.

The same holds true with schools and the power dynamic between the district central office and principals; with principals and their school’s teachers; and, yes, with us teachers and our students.

There are many ways we teachers can share power with our students, and many connect with creating the conditions needed to support intrinsic motivation. What do we have to lose if we try some of them out?

5. Emphasize assets, not deficits.

Who among us does not occasionally complain about the shortcomings of our students, their families, and, in my case, my basketball teammates? And it’s safe to say they all do the same about us!

We’re all human, but it’s a good bet (supported by research) that our lives would be better, and our teaching would be more effective if we, instead, focused on the assets others bring to the table.

Whether it’s focusing on the multiple languages and resilience many English-language learners bring to the table instead of their lack of English skills, or looking at all the teaching opportunities in the “mistakes” students make in their work, I suspect we would all be in a better place if we teachers spent more time being, as journalist Jo Napolitano said, “talent scouts instead of deficit detectors.”

By the way, a few of these opinions have previously appeared in my teacher resource-sharing blog.