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When Choice Motivates And When It Does Not Summary

492 Words2 Pages

I discovered a large gap in my knowledge of the educational system where I governed the laws of my educational approach based on my experiences in the public school education system. In my experiences, the classes that succeeded were ones in which I was given the most leeway about the assignments, not restrictive classes where all that was taught and tested on was the curriculum prepared beforehand. Therefore, I found the article “When Choice Motivates and When It Does Not” by Idit Katz and Avi Assor a very intriguing read. As it states in the abstract, choice needs to be presented in a way that benefits student’s learning processes. As a student, it is discouraging that in high school thinking and self-fullfilment in the academic realm needs …show more content…

As stated on page 434 of the Katz and Assor article, “A growing body of research demonstrates that [complex decision-making] environments can lead both adults and children to rely on non-compensatory decision-making strategies, which are less complex, demand less cognitive effort, and lead to decisions that are cognitively less optimal” (Katz, Assor 2006 pg. 434). Reflecting back onto my prior academic experiences, I understand how complex decision-making environments were set into place in several of my classrooms. This was true because otherwise, with ultimitely free choice, us as students would decide to leave the classroom and drive home. “In order for choice to have a positive effect on motivation, the options should differ markedly in terms of their importance to the participants, so that the chooser finds at least one of them to be more relevant, interesting, or important” (Katz, Assor 2006 pg. 433). This means that in a future classroom, the idea of choice needs to be relevant to what the student needs are in order for the choice to be effective in the academic discipline the choice is presented in. Additionally, this choice needs to be one the student would find interesting and rewarding and most likely to choose for their self-actualization in the

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