Motivation and Autonomy in the Elementary School

I have been thinking a lot about motivation lately. During spring break I read Daniel Pink's book Drive.
Pink writes about the science behind motivation, citing a number of studies by various behaviourists. He also looks at some modern business practices that he says help motivate people and are paying off for those companies who have adopted those practices. For example, he talks about 3M and what he calls 20% time or time for employees to work on projects of their own choosing.

According to Pink, the more autonomy individuals have in their workplace the more motivated they are and happier to show up for work. As an educator I wonder how we can give our students and teachers more autonomy?
We all know of students who given the choice of what to do will choose play or research a topic totally unrelated to the course content, so how do we increase autonomy while still meeting curricular outcomes?

Maybe we can have 2 Friday afternoons a month devoted to time for students to explore topics of their choice. What could that look like? One school I worked at for a time had a half day each cycle where students would work with a staff member on something that staff person and the students were interested in. We had some students explore art, drama, music, cooking, various crafts, geocaching and dance. The idea was to help students connect with a staff member at the school in a way they wouldn't otherwise, and to build a sense of belonging so as to reduce student absenteeism.

Did teachers feel more autonomy? Did the students feel more autonomy? I don't know. Was this the goal? I wonder what it would look like if we revisited this idea with even more options. How would we give more options? If we surveyed students and staff about autonomy and motivation before and after having this time to explore what would they say about autonomy and motivation? Would it be different?

Looking at school as a whole, until high school most students have no choices in subjects, time they must do those subjects or what they will do during that learning time. I wonder what an elementary social studies class would look like if students could pick the time period or events they wanted to learn about? Could teachers invite "experts" to visit the class? What would it look like if students were to choose what they would create to show their learning?

How would we motivate teachers to plan for this kind of teaching? How do we motivate teachers to plan their day, week, month and year now? As a teacher what motivates you to plan interesting lessons for students? How do you include student voice and choice in your lessons? What does autonomy look like for teachers in elementary schools? Choosing when to teach ELA or Math? Choosing when to teach writing or the topics in the social studies or science curriculum? How you arrange your classroom, what you are able to hang or use to decorate your room with?

I don't have any answers at this time, but I do have lots to think about. I will keep reading and talking with my colleagues about motivation and continue to share here.
Let me know in the comments what you think about motivation and autonomy for students and teachers. How do we assess motivation and autonomy? Why is it important? Is it important?

I'm Back

I haven't posted in a long time, however because of a book I'm reading for work, I've decided it is time to revisit my blog and maybe make some changes along with a commitment to blog weekly.
I'm reading George Couros' book The Innovator's Mindset  and he speaks about being willing to do what we want others to do as well as the power of blogging.