Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us By Daniel Pink

Nevertheless, with 159 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us has been an extremely popular book and has been praised by numerous educators (“About Daniel Pink”, n.d.). For example, both Lent (2010) and Parker (2012) present anecdotal evidence as examples and suggestions of how the ideas offered by Pink could be applied in an educational setting; however, what lacks is a deep pedagogical analysis to support these ideas. Furthermore, in part three, Pink offers a section for parents and teachers which also lacks pedagogical foundations. This critical review will therefore examine Pink’s proposition and model of motivation through the lens of pedagogical theories and emerging educational

So what does this look like in education? Starkey (2011) suggests that creativity is the penultimate learning experience and that sharing the knowledge is the ultimate goal (p. 25), a concept supported by Siemen’s (2004) connectivism learning theory, where learning and knowledge rests on a number of opinions that when connected allows us to know more (2004). The knowledge that students create and share, for example, through blog posts and most importantly the comments, can be challenged, debated and critiqued allowing the learner to revisit their ideas, revise and create new knowledge in a move towards mastery (Yang & Chang, 2012). The concept of knowledge as a continuous state of evolvement suggests that there is always more to learn where perhaps “the joy is in the pursuit more than the realization” (Pink, 2011, p. 125). The application of connectivism as a learning theory to motivate students could well be compatible with Pink’s assertion that “mastery attracts precisely because mastery eludes”

In Chapter Three, he claims that there are two types of people: Type I, who seek intrinsic rewards and Type X, who seek extrinsic rewards such as pay rises. In a latter section, he makes a sweeping statement that all children start out as Type X personalities but offers no evidence to support this idea (p. 185). Furthermore, Pink makes several references to Carol Dweck’s Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (2006) and one can’t help consider Ikheloa’s contention that this association with the Stanford Psychology Professor is a deliberate marketing strategy (2012). His personal interviews with popular academics Csíkszentmihályi, Deci and Ryan may also be a promotional ploy. Indeed, throughout the book he recalls conversations with his interviewees, and while this gives the impression of authority through his depth of primary research, the transcripts are not included to verify his claims.

Although Motivation 3.0 model appears to remain an unproven theory, as it is largely based on SDT, it could certainly serve as partial framework for developing twenty-first century skills and promoting intrinsic motivation in school. While it is clear that each of the three elements, autonomy, mastery and purpose, are interrelated, the model may be better served by restoring SDT’s relatedness to foster socially engaged learning. We should consider if students want to connect and collaborate with others in meaningful