I recently read Drive by Daniel Pink having previously read Thinking, Fast and Slow by D. Kahneman. An interesting coincidence given Kahnemans work is mentioned with Drive.
A significant topic within Drive is the discussion of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and its impact on learning. From an educational point of view this makes for an interesting read given the common use of what Pink calls “if..then” rewards within schools. Pink identifies this style of reward as having limited benefit and often being detrimental to the learning which we seek to engage students in.
Also discussed is how company’s and individuals are changing how they work to take into consideration the issues around motivation. This is interesting in the possible applications of these ideas to education in terms of the potential to rethink the structures and processes used within schools.
Overall the book is easy to read, significantly more so than Kahnemans work, however that said it also doesnt have the same level of detail. The book does have a nice section at the end in terms of ideas and techniques to make better use of intrinsic motivation. Personally I would have preferred this section to be shorter in order to allow for more discussion of the topic in hand.
Overall I found this a useful and interesting book to read which I would recommend given that it tries to provide a new perspective with which to look on motivation.
P.S. Thanks to David Patterson (@PD40Days) for pointing out that an RSA Animate video exists based on a talk given by Daniel Pink on the concepts included in his book, Drive. You can view the video here.
Technology and Learning 