The Candle Problem

This is a response to the TED Talk by Daniel Pink:

He talks about what's called the Candle Problem. It was fascinating that incentives don't necessarily boost performance. In most problems encountered in occupations now require creative thinking. You aren't just given information in a book you need to know for your job and when you learn it you are ready to go. In the research Daniel Pink talked about, incentives work great with this kind of work. But, as teachers we need to boost creative problem solving skills. With technology all around us, everything changes and people get bored. Creativity is needed. We need to think of new ways to do things. With a narrow focus and incentives, we will not progress to be the most advanced in the world. As teachers, we need to give students other reasons to think and work on something. Not just grades or prizes. Extrinsic motivators might get participation, but (according to the research) in many cases it will decrease thinking power and performance.

But, how do you get students involved without incentives? Daniel Pink has three answers (but he seemed to be talking about business). He mentioned autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Purpose makes sense. If you have a reason to do something, you are more likely to do it and put your all into it. I’m not sure what he meant by mastery, but it seems like it can be a motivator to do something if you will be better at what you do and eventually be a “master”. Daniel Pink does discuss autonomy and mentions the known evidence of its success in companies such as Google. I agree that teachers need to give autonomy to students. In order for them to be creative, they need to be in control of where they are going. As teachers, I think our job is to guide them along the way to make their paths fulfilling, educational, and fruitful.