Massage Student Motivation - Part 4

Continuing my discussion of International Journal of Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork's article A Qualitative Investigation into Why the Motivation of Massage Therapy Students Changes over the Course of Their Professional Education from parts 1, 2, and 3...

So What Does It All Mean?

So far we've established that over the course of a massage program, intrinsic motivation decreases and extrinsic motivation increases in students (see the article above for the study). To summarize:

1. Students become more aware of financial responsibilities (debt load)
2. Students grow to understand the contributions and limitations of their work (effectiveness)
3. Students place more value on their skills as they realize the commitments required in their education
4. Students begin to make associations between professionalism and their career. They identify with being a professional and what that implies.
5. Interaction with seasoned professionals (faculty) moderates students' idealism with "realistic altruism"

How Can Massage Educators Use This Information?

So it is a fact that students experience decreased intrinsic motivation and increased extrinsic motivation over the course of their program. Dr. Finch concludes that this isn't actually a problem, but a natural progression and reflects a healthy change in attitude. They learn a more balanced perspective.

As educators, we need to be conscious of this shift, and address it appropriately as we bring our students along. We need to be cautious about not injecting the realities to quickly, which may disillusion new students at the outset. At the same time, we need to make sure that students recieve the realities "on schedule" to achieve the balance necessary by the end of their training. We must ensure that we include this transformational process as part of the training, not a side-effect. It deserves some focused attention and even to be raised to a conscious level in the students as well.

It requires also a conscious effort to maintain the altruism through the end. Instructors must be careful to moderate the realities so that the ideals of their students aren't shattered. The idealism should be fostered and molded into something tangible that the students can use. In my classes, I teach my students to build their altruism into an intentional plan. It helps to have a target, or quota for their altruism - I teach 10%. It helps the students to have that target - that way they don't feel guilty about not giving anything away, have it as part of their plan to give something away, but don't give away the farm. This principle can also help to stave off the problem of viewing clients as numbers, or as a means to an end - becoming too extrinsically motivated.

As teachers, we have to be conscious of giving our students what they need in its proper time. This study shows that their exposure to us is a part of this process. We have to bring our students along as they are ready and not introduce them to all of our "realities" too soon. We also need to make sure that as we teach professionalism, we cultivate their altruism as part of the process.

Happy teaching!

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