24 Learning Motivation DNA®

Learning Motivation DNA® can give you the confidence of your passions and their influence in your life, especially in your studies and career path. Find out about your Learning Motivation DNA® with PQaire's Learning Motivation Assessment today.

There are specific Learning Motivation DNA® corresponding to professions, and PQaire also offers role models of various industries to help you relate your unique identity and future career path to others. But what is Learning Motivation DNA® and where did it come from?

Got Passion?

In 2007, a group of researchers from the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania, and West Point set out to answer the question - what motivates a person to not just learn, but to continue a long journey of learning from start to finish. Their study groups were diversified to represent young students: Ivy League students, West Point Cadets and Finalists in the National Spelling Bee. As a result of this pilot study, the most important discovery made was that intelligence, or intellectual competence, was not the primary predictor of an individual’s success in their corresponding fields of study.

Instead, an individual’s success was determined to be the result of applying one's talent, continuously, over a prolonged period of time. In other words, it was the drive to continue, rather than intelligence, that drives success. The research group further identified the “grit factor” as a combination of persistence and passion for long term goals. Although the word “passion” is not well defined in the report, it does point out that an individual’s passion toward a specific field - loving what they are doing - is the deciding factor for successful learning experiences.

"Give me the kid with a passion to learn and a curiosity to discover and I will take him or her over the less passionate kid with a huge IQ every day of the week." ~Thomas Friedman

Thomas Friedman, author of “The World is Flat”, brought up an intriguing idea which he describes using the equation below:

CQ + PQ > IQ

Where Q is an abbreviation for quotient, C for Curiosity, and P for Passion. This simple equation, though not proven at that time, illustrated his observation that curiosity and passion are the two most important keys to an individual’s pursuit of knowledge. IQ is not irrelevant, but a passionate, curious learner will always make up for a discrepancy in intelligence.

Passion: The Missing Link in Contemporary Education

In 2019, The Harvard Graduate School of Education, admission officers and faculty members from more than 65 top colleges including all Ivy league universities, collaboratively endorsed a project and report titled “Turning the Tide”, written about the much-needed policy change for colleges in the United States. The key recommendations from this report described a holistic approach to education that went beyond academic achievement, such as a student’s contribution to families, communities, and others. This project report discovered that non-academic and value-based attributes are nearly always the best indicators of success. Instead of high test scores and good grades, the individual’s inner passion(s) that drive them to excel on a daily basis are far more valuable and better indicators of how well a student will perform in university and later in life.

These attributes of “passions” were already echoed by Deresiewicz, a former professor and admissions officer at Yale, in his published essay titled “The Disadvantage of an Elite Education”. In the essay, he articulates clearly what needs to be done to transform higher education for young people:

“The system manufactures students who are smart and talented and driven, yes, but also anxious, timid, and lost, with little intellectual curiosity and a stunted sense of purpose: trapped in a bubble of privilege, heading meekly in the same direction, great at what they’re doing but with no idea why they’re doing it.”” ~William Deresiewicz (Former Yale Professor)

To further demonstrate what he describes as “a stunted sense of purpose”, Deresiewicz introduced the concept of PQ (Personal Quality) that summarizes the intangible concepts that are driven by their passions, not just mere academic achievements.

When Motivation Science Met Your Passions

These value-based, purpose-driven passions motivate an individual to learn, overcome challenges and work hard to finish what they started. Listed below are the most basic questions that also intrigued a Yale-trained psychology professor:

What motivates you? What aspects of your life are most meaningful to you? What goals drive your behavior? ~Professor Steven Reiss

In order to scientifically answer these questions, Professor Reiss first asked thousands of people from different cultures and diverse backgrounds about their intrinsic motivations. Although scholars and philosophers had spent centuries studying human nature, Professor Reiss was the first to conduct large-scale, scientific surveys of human purpose and psychological needs. The Reiss Motivation Profile® was developed over a seven-year period. A study conducted by Professor Reiss and his colleagues, who established the reliability and validity of the test, passed a rigorous peer review for publication in scientific journals. The test was also validated by seven independent researchers in Canada, Finland, Poland and the United States. The result of Reese's work is the first comprehensive and standardized measurement of what motivates people. The Reiss Motivation Profile® (RMP) assesses 16 fundamental needs that are inherent and deeply rooted in human nature.

He later wrote a book titled "Who am I?" It has become a New York Times bestseller. [A Traditional Chinese version of "Who Am I", translated by Dr. Kung-Li Deng, is scheduled for release in the summer of 2022]. Professor Reiss' RMP provides constructive guidance to educators and parents by demolishing the reasons behind poor academic performance. Reiss has succeeded in identifying up to six learning motivations that impede students' academic performance. His findings show that systematic mapping and classification of different learning styles (or personalities) is required to fully represent all students.

A Big Data Approach to Learning Passions (24 Learning Motivation DNA®)

Searching for a quantifiable measure of inner motivation or passion for learning, Dr. Kung-Li Deng (Coach K) and Dr. Jeng-Bang Yau have joined the support for the use of Big Data science. Based on an unsupervised cluster analysis of over 3,000 people, Dr. Deng first discovered four major motivational clusters. Each consists of a subset of individual passions. These four clusters are named after their disciplines: Producer, Entrepreneur, Administrator and Integrator.

Each passion has its own position and weight within each cluster. Put together according to

[Figure 1]

relative coordinates, Dr. Deng was able to create a "motivation map"[see Figure 1] to

express the individuality of a person. Based on this map, Dr. Yau surveyed hundreds of college and graduate students and professionals to find out what drives them to learn. Each interviewed client will be further mapped to a future major or career after receiving a map of motivation. His research initially focused on STEM subjects, but later expanded to more general areas such as arts, Economics, Education, Politics and Social Sciences.

From Dr. Deng and Dr. Yau’s cluster mapping, 24 passions associated with learning were identified [Figure 2]. Each passion is uniquely defined spreading over 6 different fields, or clusters of learning types. These fields, represented by different background colors in the table are highly correlated with Taiwan’s new “108 Curriculum” proposed to guide educators in Taiwan’s recent movement to modernize the educational system.

Known as 24 Learning PQs or Learning Motivation DNA®, a close analog of human DNA with a combination of all 24 passions, can uniquely represent a person's unique learning style. You can then cross-reference with similar profiles in the database to identify viable college majors or career paths. PQaire, a startup specializing in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for learning, has successfully implemented an assessment based on 24 Learning PQs or Learning Motivation DNA®. This assessment uses a situational survey to effectively examine each test taker's intuition for a particular scenario. The answers are then compared to the global database and a separate learner profile report is created to be used as guidance and advice.

[Figure 2]

The Learning PQ Assessment is a simple, easy-to-use assessment with a total of 10 scenarios and 96 questions. PQaire uses advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) to instantaneously extract the data input by the assessment taker, run it through the Big Data database, and generate a detailed report instantaneously. PQaire's Learning PQ offers what no other assessment, test, or evaluation can:

It accurately uncovers your intrinsic motivations.

Applying the 24 Learning Motivation DNA®

Everyone has the same 24 Learning Motivation DNA®, but with varying degrees of intensity. This is where the true power of motivational science comes into play. This is a way for you to know yourself and reveal the uniqueness of your identity in relation to your passion and motivation in life. Learning Motivation DNA® gives you confidence in your passion and its impact on your life, especially your research and career path. With a specific Learning Motivation DNA® for each profession, PQaire's Learning PQ Assessment and Report also offers a variety of industry role models to help connect your unique identity and future career path to others.

Looking at examples of successful people's life stories can give you additional motivation to pursue your passion. Not only does this help build confidence in your future, but it can also open up new career paths that you thought were impossible. There is a specific Learning Motivation DNA® that is relevant to each type of carrier and industry, and a Learning PQ assessment will help you better identify and understand Learning Motivation DNA® and discover future research plans and possible career paths.

Unlike other types of assessments and tests, PQaire's Learning Motivation Assessment is based on decades of research in motivational science and Big Data, leveraging Artificial Intelligence to provide accurate and objective results. PQaire also offers a personal learning map related to STEAM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) and a career with a clear and accurate future backed by real science.

Take the PQaire Learning PQ Assessment today and connect with a coach to help you dive deep into your passions for learning. Find out where your passions lie, and discover ways to unlock their potential and apply them to your life. PQaire coaches are professionals at reading your report, analyzing your passion quotient, and making recommendations on how to apply your Learning PQ to our life, no matter how old you are or what areas of life, learning, and career you have interests in.

Rather than just offering an assessment, Learning PQ helps you to uncover the intrinsic motivations that drive you, so you can engage in a more productive, successful, and fulfilling life of learning.