Friday, September 23, 2011

The magic of progress

Doesn't it feel great to make some progress?

Our business had a particularly good week this week. Great progress in sales. Great progress on development projects. Solved some knotty problems for customers. It feels good.

Most management books talk about work and motivating employees in terms of the rewards that come from work. They assume that people work for the money. But that is as shortsighted as assuming that students work for the grades.

We spend a large portion of our lives working. It feels great when we see the result as meaningful and when we see that we're making progress. The same applies to students. Kids love to learn. It can be seen most clearly in the youngest children, before they've been confused by seeing learning as a way to get attention and praise.

How can we foster the joy of learning? One way is to make progress visible.

• Use run charts to show knowledge growth.
• Use charts to show the reduction of errors.
• Use checklists to show plans and accomplishments.
• Use reviews to not only reinforce learning but to remind students of all they have learned.
• Use and review pre- and post-tests to show students how they've transformed themselves.
• Celebrate progress, milestones and overcoming barriers.
• Discuss progress with students to make them aware of their improvement.

Posted at 8:58 AM Keywords: progress 3 Comments