Chapter 11: Motivating Calvin: Using Problem-Based Learning to Teach Motivation

Early on in my academic career, I began to question the way I taught motivation to the preservice teachers in my educational psychology courses. At the time, I taught motivation in a fairly typical manner. I used PowerPoint slides. I explained the theories. I included activities and discussion. I used a standard educational psychology textbook. It wasn’t bad teaching, but the more I taught, the more I questioned whether my teaching aligned with the motivation principles I was teaching. Motivation theories emphasize such principles as autonomy, authentic activity, involvement, collaboration, and opportunity for improvement (e.g., Ames, 1992; Dweck, 2006; Hidi & Renninger, 2006; Ryan & Deci, 2017). While my teaching wasn’t devoid of these principles, it didn’t seem to exemplify them either. I was also concerned that my students were not learning motivation at a level deep enough that they would be able to effectively apply motivation principles when teaching. I began to contemplate other approaches to teaching motivation, and the more I contemplated, the more I thought about problem-based learning (PBL).