University Times

In a Q&A session following his Oct. 10 talk on motivating students (see related story this issue), psychology faculty member Christian Schunn asked Pitt head basketball coaches Agnus Berenato and Jamie Dixon for insights on how they motivate their student-athletes and how their techniques might translate to the classroom.

“Your classroom is your court; my court is my classroom,” Berenato said, stressing that a teacher’s own passion level is important when it comes to motivating students to learn.

The coaches agreed they have an advantage over professors when it comes to getting to know their students. “We’re with them 24/7; you only have them three hours a week,” Berenato told the faculty audience. “We know everything about our kids.”

Mars vs. Venus

The coaches acknowledged a gender-based difference in how men and women learn and are motivated.

Men’s coach Dixon recounted a conversation with his sister, who had coached women’s basketball at West Point, about preparing for a big game. “She told me they had an ice cream party the night before the game,” he said.

As for his men’s team? “We’re not having any ice cream parties with our guys. That’s the best way to sum up the differences,” he said.

Women’s coach Berenato said that stopping for ice cream as a team is a favorite road trip ritual. And, she said, “I’m a big question girl,” asking her athletes about their feelings. “With women, feelings are very, very important.”

In Dixon’s practice sessions — which Berenato can watch from her courtside office in the Petersen Events Center — he is able to correct his players in ways that would leave her players in tears.

The women players take constructive criticism very personally, she said. “Women are so different and it’s so true. They have to like you; they don’t have to respect you. … Also, women remember what you say for constructive criticism,” she said. “They remember every time you tell them what they need to do, and fail to listen to the other 10 things you told them they did positive,” she said. “Men … they want to play, and I think that’s a big difference. It’s the feelings and emotions, whereas the guys probably don’t carry that into the game.”

Dixon said his players’ desire to someday play pro basketball is one motivator. Fear works, too, even if it’s not the best tactic, he said.

One basic motivation he stresses is “don’t embarrass your family,” he said. “That’s our simplest motivation.” Encouraging them to make their friends, family and hometown proud can provide a positive motivating force.

He also looks to senior members of the team for leadership in inspiring and motivating the group.

Dixon said the coaching staff uses real-life examples when there’s news about athletes in other programs who’ve gotten into trouble. “We’ll read that to them right after practice and show what it could do to somebody’s career.”

Coaches also need to build trust and demonstrate respect for their players by being “consistent and fair in how you treat kids,” he said.

Whether it’s a walk-on or the team star, Dixon said it’s important to make every player feel important. They need to know you care about them off the court as well, he said.

Passion and flexibility

To better motivate students, professors would be wise to demonstrate their own motivation and passion and be willing to make changes when necessary, Berenato said.

Just as in basketball practice, where a coach can tell by the first drill whether it will be a good practice, she said, “If it’s not going well, you have to make a conscientious choice as an educator to change the course of the class.”

If motivation is flagging, “You have to teach in a different way,” she said. In practice, she can get angry, or make the girls run, which they hate. “Or, I can say, ‘Let’s finish this drill and pick it up tomorrow’” and move on to 3-on-2, 2-on-1 drills to change the pace.

She said professors have an obligation to find what will motivate their students. When students text under their desks or otherwise demonstrate they’re not paying attention, “You can’t say ‘get out’ or ‘your parents are wasting their money,’” she said.

She advised the faculty, “Have interaction with them. Throw them out a question — ‘What are your goals?’ Kids today are really needy. They all want to feel important and they’re entitled,” she said. “So feed it. I don’t care — feed their ego.”

Coaches have an advantage:  “Our kids come motivated. We can recruit our kids,” Dixon said. “If I’m going to have to motivate a kid, I made a mistake two years ago in recruiting.”

Dixon said many of his players are the first in their families to attend college. “Their first priority is basketball,” he said, adding that his staff tries to increase their motivation in the classroom. Perhaps they’ve never been encouraged to strive for a 3.0 GPA. Pushing them to go beyond their limits — especially in the classroom — starts early, Dixon said.

Emphasizing the value of their scholarship and the opportunity they’ve been given can reinforce recognition of how fortunate they are to be here and to realize what they’re working for. “Sometimes they forget how tough this is,” he said. “Emphasize what the goal is at the end.”

Boosting skills

A faculty member asked how to approach highly motivated students who are accustomed to being on top, then meet a task that they can’t master immediately.

At Pitt, “every student on the court is a star in their own right,” with MVP, all-conference or all-state honors in their high school careers, Berenato said. Suddenly, they are surrounded by similar stars. “They find out that everyone else is the same or better,” she said. “Women struggle much more, I think, than men.”

Whereas men tend to devote themselves to practice, practice, practice, women can lose their confidence and security when they face the prospect of not measuring up, Berenato said, pointing out the gender differences once again. She said, “I always tell my student-athletes, ‘It doesn’t matter, keep practicing.’”

Pulling the player aside and giving them some individual attention can be useful, she said. Dixon agreed that different methods work at different times, adding that it’s important not to push too hard when a student is down or deflated.

They don’t want to let their teammates down or look bad in front of their peers, he said. One-on-one pre-practice sessions provide an opportunity for individuals to work on problem areas without the entire team nearby. Individual attention and help with the problem areas demonstrates that the coaches care, he said.

Insight into individual differences and moods is important as well. “Every kid is different too, and different at different times,” Dixon said. If they’re feeling good and have played well, they can withstand a little tougher coaching than if they are down, he said.

The buck stops with the coaches when it comes to motivating players, Berenato said, stressing the importance of recognizing how best to handle different personalities on the team. Some players need to be taken aside and corrected quietly, while others respond to the opposite tack. For some, “If spit wasn’t landing on their face, I wasn’t getting through to them,” she said.

The half-time talk

So what do coaches tell their team at halftime to get that extra motivation?

“There’s often times where I just go off, and you probably can’t go off,” Berenato told the faculty audience. Small adjustments and saving anything new for the second half are among her strategies, she said.

“With women, it has a lot to do with motivation. Sometimes you just have to turn the fire up a little bit and hope they react to it.”

On the men’s team, “We don’t panic if we’re not playing well,” Dixon said. Sticking to the plan and making small adjustments is his strategy, adding that a positive self-fulfilling prophecy can be beneficial: “Our guys believe we’re better in the second half.”

In the context of the second half of a two- or three-hour class, Berenato joked that her half-time motivational strategies would include ice cream, Oreos or Jolly Ranchers. “I don’t know who would take a three-hour class,” she joked. “I don’t have the attention span.”

Like coaches, teachers have to recognize that students have only so much to give physically and mentally. “You really have to pick and choose how much you want from your kids,” she said.

Dixon said integrating activities that boost energy for slow times is important — for his team it’s competition drills or scrimmaging that lights the fire. Keep that high-energy activity in hand for such moments, he advised.

What’s important

In response to a faculty member’s inquiry about any “aha” moments as they looked back, the coaches showed that it’s not just X’s and O’s that matter.

Dixon acknowledged that his important lesson was learning to reserve judgment after getting a report that one of his players — who’d recently been slipping in his grades and performance — had been arrested. Admittedly furious, he said the player was fortunate to be met by an assistant first the following day. “He says he wasn’t out,” the assistant told Dixon.

“I’d already convicted him,” Dixon admitted, only to discover someone had been impersonating his player and using his name.

“Keep an open mind. Find out. Make sure,” he advised, adding that had he blown up at the player it likely would have destroyed their respect for each other. “Make sure you have all the information first.”

Berenato’s revelation came as a coach at Georgia Tech in a game that followed the death of a player in a traffic accident. Mid-game, as the opposing coach was screaming about a call and play was whistled to a halt, her “aha” moment came.

Berenato thought to herself in the heat of the moment: “Do you know one of our players just died? Do you know we were just at a funeral eight hours ago? What am I doing here?”

It became clear then, she said. “Really, it’s about who we are. … It’s not about what you do. It’s not about the X’s and O’s but it’s all about us being educators.” Berenato said she determined then that “X’s and O’s will never take that priority. But being an educator and being a person and trying to teach and educate will always be important. We don’t ever know how long we’re here.”

—Kimberly K. Barlow

Editor’s note: Links to the discussions are posted at www.cidde.pitt.edu/teaching/fall-instructional-development-institute.