APS Family Innovation Network

We put together a few quick notes about what the research says about motivation, relevance and self-regulation. Take a look and see if they spark anything you might want to try this week before our meeting on Thursday, January 21!  Motivation:  There’s a difference between “extrinsic” motivation (getting benefit/encouragement from outside yourself - treats, praise, rewards, etc) and “intrinsic” motivation (feeling a sense of satisfaction/benefit from inside yourself).  It is generally better to cultivate a sense of intrinsic motivation - it tends to lead to greater life success.  Feeling a sense of success tends to sustain motivation and persistence. For example, reminding young people about a success or a positive memory just before they start working tends to help sustain motivation.  https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1081372.pdf   Relevance:   Connecting to things a student is interested in tends to increase motivation and improve memory and lear...

TL/DR: Families care a lot about increasing the relevance of what their children learn, improving motivation and enthusiasm for learning, and helping their children self-regulate and self-manage. They will be trying strategies in these three areas (relevance, motivation/enthusiasm, self-regulation/management) over the next few weeks. We got to these insights by including diverse perspectives, making sure everyone felt valued, and by doing authentic work together.  We have held two meetings of the Family Innovation Network, on December 3 and 17. The APS Office of Innovation and the Center for Innovation in Education partnered to create the Family Innovation Network to help families to learn from each other and support positive practices in learning and healthy development while they are supporting remote learning. The Family Innovation Network also creates a conduit for the district to learn about the innovative practices that are emerging from families and schools across the distri...