What Drives My Motivation?: Exploring Dr. Robyn Jackson’s Will-Drivers Framework
In Angela Watson’s Truth for Teachers Episode 191, Angela and Dr. Robyn Jackson discuss the framework for identifying a student’s will-driver, and how teachers may use that framework to take steps to overcome issues with seemingly unmotivated, disinterested students.
Dr. Jackson’s framework defines four types of will drivers: Purpose, Belonging, Mastery, and Autonomy, and a belief that each of us has a dominant will driver, a manner that most motivates and engages us.
To better understand the roles within this framework, we can consider what motivates each dominant will-driver to invest energy in a task:
Mastery-driven kids want to know how to be successful or achieve mastery
Belonging-driven kids want to know who this connects them to, or how this defines them
Purpose-driven kids want to know why this is meaningful
Autonomy kids want to know what they are being asked to do and what decisions they can make for themselves
Look closely at your students and how their responses embody their dominant will-driver
Dr. Jackson describes simple variations in language and delivery that can connect more effectively with a student’s dominant will-driver.
A belonging-driven student, for example, will feel seen and honored by a teacher who helps define who they are. Telling this student she is a hard worker or a good friend to a classmate in response to an action will affirm in them what they are striving to be.
In the same interaction, a purpose-driven student will be motivated by confirmation that her actions were meaningful. To let this student know, “Your work here has helped you become a better reader” or “That classmate has a big smile on her face now. You've made her feel good,” you affirm them based on what they find most meaningful. You are supporting their understanding of the why.
When we look at our students and allow for some time to analyze their negative and positive reactions to various circumstances, we can start to pinpoint their will-driver.
In my recent experience struggling to motivate a kindergarten student whose behavior was becoming increasingly defiant and disengaged, I applied Dr. Jackson’s framework.
I noticed this student would push back at just about any directive, even where to play at recess (classes were assigned different sections of the playground during COVID for contact-tracing purposes). She would refuse to leave the room to go outside when I was certain that she really did want to play outside with her friends. She’d told me as much earlier when it was time to complete classwork!
This, and several other clues, led me to believe this student was Autonomy-driven. She wanted choices.
I started reframing the way I spoke to her. “Giving her choices” was still defining what she would do on my terms. So instead of saying, “Your choices for where to sit are...” I said, “Where will you decide to sit?”
Instead of reprimanding, cajoling, or pleading with her to follow directions and do what I asked -requests that she flatly refused- I reminded her that everything she did was her decision. I couldn’t, and wouldn’t try, to force her to do anything, and that I was there to help her learn. The decision to do so was hers and hers alone.
We are still working through crafting a classroom in which her will-driver is honored whenever possible. As Dr. Jackson points out, autonomy-driven kids have it really hard in school because opportunities for genuine choice are rare, but these kids don’t want anarchy, they just want to know they have options.
Armed with that understanding, I was able to reframe a negative discourse that had started to form in my mind about this student. Looking through the lens of a student’s will-driver helped dispel deficit-based assumptions about that student’s motivation, academic ability, or personality.
And wouldn’t we want the same from others?
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