My New Areas of Study: Motivation, Habits, and Success

I have been in teaching, training, or designing instruction in various capacities for roughly the past 13 years. For the past 6 years, I have studied in the field of educational technology and instructional design and have earned 2 graduate degrees and published several articles in the field. I have found a home in this field, and it has been a great joy to learn what I have about instructional effectiveness.

The Purpose of Education
At the broadest level, one could state that the purpose of education (and by extension instructional design) is to enable an individual to live a successful, meaningful, contributing life. I believe that I have a basic grasp of how to help students gain knowledge and skills, but I believe I have an opportunity to understand more about how I can positive influence students to adopt outstanding habits, build their motivation, and help them move forward with success in their lives.

A Shift in My Research Interests
I am now beginning to feel a shift in my personal research interests. I have realized that some of the most important aspects of a student's success learning do not occur outside of an individual (e.g. the instruction we present to a learner). In the field of educational technology and instructional design we tend to focus on doing something to students to influence there learning and behavior. I know from research and experience that using effective strategies to provide students with learning experiences is vital to helping a student succeed. However, I also believe that the internal motivation, habits, and characteristics of a student are perhaps even more important than the external strategies we use to help instruct them.

Learning About the Internal
All of my own research has focused on what the instructor or instruction (external to the student) does to engender learning. I have asked fundamental questions about what good instructors do, what strategies more effectively help students learn, and what steps designers can take to create effective instruction. I will never stop seeking the answers to these questions; however, there are other fundamental questions about learning that I plan to start to investigate.

My Emerging Interests
Among other things, here are the general topics that I am interested in learning more about. These are areas that I have some knowledge of, though my knowledge is more peripheral and perhaps biased.


Motivation

• What are the psychological and neurological features of motivation?
• What creates the motivation to act in an individual?
• What strategies can be used used to influence and create motivation in an individual?
• What are the most effective strategies for influencing motivation in an individual?

Habits

• What are the psychological and neurological features of habits?
• How are habits formed?
• How can undesirable habits be eliminated or modified?
• How can positive habits be created and automated in a person's life?
• What strategies can be used to help others eliminate undesirable habits?
• What strategies can be used to engender positive, automated habits in another individual?

Success

• What are the psychological and neurological features of success?
• What makes an individual successful in achieving meaningful, difficult goals?
• What strategies can be used to help an individual be successful in his or her own life?

AECT 2012: Summary of my Conference Experiences

#AECT

This is my summary post for the he AECT 2012 International Convention. I had an outstanding experience and in previous posts I blogged some of what I learned throughout the week. If you missed the conference, these links share my experiences.

I feel like I met my goals for the conference - I met some great new people, got oriented to what is going on in the research, and got to interact with old friends. Below is a summarizing list of the blog posts that I wrote about the conference this year. Thanks AECT for a great conference!

Before the Conference
Here are a few posts before the conference and during the drive from Columbus to Louisville.

• AECT 2012 International Convention - Looking Forward!
• Traveling to AECT 2012
• The Galt House Hotel and Suites

At the Conference

• Day 1: Ontology, TCL, and Opening Social
• Day 2: Part 1 - Microscenarios
• Day 2: Part 2 - Problems With Sampling in EdTech Research
• Day 2: Part 3 - The Future of the Field of Educational Technology
• Day 3: Part 1 - Sharing Your Work as an Academic
• Day 3: Part 2 - Invisible Forces That Influence Instructional Design
• Day 3: Part 3 - EdTech Dojo Podcast

Day 2 AECT 2012: Part 2 - Problems with Sampling in EdTech Research

This post is part of a Multiple Part Series on the 2012 AECT Convention.

#AECT 2012

Went to a presentation by Patrick Lowenthal on some of the issues that we come across in higher education research. He discussed a few interesting key points:

• We assume that we know what the research shows. For example: "Most of the research in _____ is quantitative in nature." Unfortunately, this is often just an assumption and it may not be totally accurate. A systematic review often reveals that our assumptions are incorrect.
• We often have issues with our research because we do convenience sampling. For example, the research done in some forms of online interaction nearly all focused on classes in education-related fields in higher education. This tends to skew our view of what education is like. Anyone going into education most likely had a nice educational experience, so they might approach their learning in different ways. 

Patrick asks a key question:

These kinds of ideas are appropriate and important for researchers. We base our assumptions about instructional design on the models research we are exposed to. And we base our work on those assumptions. This is a pretty scary proposition, and it implies that we often do this in other areas of life. I have my assumptions on how things work - instructional design, business, higher education, nutrition, etc. - but these are only based on what I know, on what I think based on my limited experiences and exposure to the environment. By gaining knowledge of what is actually there and identifying my own assumptions, I could potentially increase my personal ability to be effective at what I do.

This is related to something my philosopher friend at Franklin University continually hammers on. We live, believe and behave based on our assumptions about life.  However, he argues that most people usually do not base their assumptions on evidence or logic, and this can have disastrous consequences. I hope to write more on this when I have a little time.