Poster: Education

Abs # 3: Using McGregor's Theory Y as a framework for improving student motivation

Presenter:	Markwell, J. , markwell@unl.edu
Authors	Markwell, J.  (A)   Madhavan, S.  (A)
Affiliations:	(A): University of Nebraska

The title is in recognition of Douglas McGregor's revolutionary treatise in personnel management published over 40 years ago. The gist of the argument is that businesses traditionally felt the need to treat employees with strategies that included coercion or persuasion to generate necessary productivity. This attitude was a consequence of an understanding of human motivation termed 'Theory X'. The essence of Theory X is that people don't normally want to work. The contrasting view of human motivation was termed 'Theory Y' and results in an expectation that employees are naturally motivated to work productively. We believe that McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y have direct applicability to undergraduate education. The first class in a new course shapes the motivation that students will apply to their studies and impacts their learning. Students perceive cues from the teacher that signal how they will be treated during the course and whether they can expect to be rewarded for diligence and active learning. Unfortunately, many teachers have never reflected on how their perception of the teaching-learning interface creates a visible prejudice for the students. We will present an instrument permitting teachers to assess their own belief in Theory X or Theory Y interactions with students.