Peg Skorpinski photo

Professor Martin V. Covington, cherished mentor, teacher, colleague, and friend, passed away on January 29, 2018, just five months after publishing his most recent work, Life Beyond Grades: Designing College Courses to Promote Intrinsic Motivation. To show the breadth and depth of Marty’s impact and to honor his memory, we present this tribute.

Marty Covington played a central role in the work of the GSI Teaching and Resource Center for more than two decades as a regular speaker at our Faculty Seminar on Teaching with GSIs, a central contributor to our How Students Learn Project, a member of the Graduate Council’s Advisory Committee for GSI Affairs, and as the instructor of a graduate-level seminar on designing courses to enhance student motivation. This seminar was taken by graduate students from across the disciplines and has had a significant impact on the teaching these former graduate students are now doing as faculty members. While Marty’s influence started with graduate students in psychology, his impact and imprint are now felt campuswide and beyond.

The contributors below remember many wonderful things about Marty: the mischievous twinkle in his eye, his laughter, his wide range of interests and hobbies, his curiosity, and most of all his compassion. What is ever present in all of these pieces is a tremendous feeling of gratitude for this remarkable man who made each of us feel valued in every encounter we had with him, whether it be in a classroom, an office hour, a café, on the phone, at a meeting, or over dinner. Marty maintained a belief in the possibility of education to nurture a love of learning and promote a healthy sense of self-worth, in spite of all the challenges. We will stay close to Marty by continuing to believe in and work toward this goal.

The tribute below is a companion piece to the beautiful tribute written by Professor Rhona Weinstein, Marty’s colleague in the Department of Psychology for more than forty years. We are grateful to Rhona and to Marty’s wife Bette for identifying the GSI Teaching and Resource Center as the home for the Martin V. Covington GSI Teaching Development Fund. Contributions to this fund will be used to support programs that prepare GSIs for teaching and acknowledge their successes, in a manner consistent with Marty’s life work and dedicated to his memory.

Thank you, Marty, for being a role model to us all.

Linda von Hoene
Director, GSI Teaching and Resource Center; Assistant Dean for Graduate Student Professional Development, Graduate Division, UC Berkeley; Co-author with Martin V. Covington and Dominic J. Voge, Life Beyond Grades: Designing College Courses to Promote Intrinsic Motivation
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Contributors

Ph.D. Advisees

Chris Gade
Lecturer, UC Berkeley; Ph.D., Psychology, UC Berkeley, 2008, Martin V. Covington, Dissertation Chair

Matt Gingo
Assistant Professor of Psychology, Wheaton College; Ph.D., Psychology, UC Berkeley, 2012

Kumiko Haas (née Tomiki)
Director, Instructional Improvement Programs, Office of Instructional Development, UCLA; Ph.D., Psychology, UC Berkeley, 2000, Martin V. Covington, Dissertation Chair

Bob Kahn
Communications and Media Consultant; Ph.D. Cand., Education, UC Berkeley, 1978

Ted M. Kahn
CEO, DesignWorlds for Learning, Inc & DesignWorlds for College & Careers; Ph.D., Psychology, UC Berkeley, 1981, Martin V. Covington, Dissertation Chair

Dan Kee
Professor Emeritus of Psychology, California State University, Fullerton; Ph.D., Education, UC Berkeley, 1974

Linda M. Platas
Assistant Professor and Associate Chair, Child and Adolescent Development Department, San Francisco State University; Ph.D., Education, UC Berkeley, 2008

Alan Schnur
President, The Schnur Group; Ph.D., Psychology, UC Berkeley, 1981, Martin V. Covington, Dissertation Chair

Liz Soluri
Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Cabrillo College; Ph.D. Anthropology, UC Berkeley, 2010

Derek Van Rheenen
Director, Athletic Study Center; Faculty Director, Cultural Studies of Sport in Education, UC Berkeley; Ph.D., Cultural Studies, UC Berkeley, 1997

Dominic (Nic) Voge
Senior Associate Director, McGraw Center for Teaching & Learning, Princeton University; Co-author with Martin V. Covington and Linda M. von Hoene, Life Beyond Grades: Designing College Courses to Promote Intrinsic Motivation

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Marty’s Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs)

Gretchen Reevy-Manning
Lecturer, Department of Psychology, California State University, East Bay; Ph.D., Psychology, UC Berkeley, 1994

Michael J. Renner
Professor of Psychology and Biology and Chairperson, Department of Environmental Science and Sustainability, Drake University; Ph.D., Biological Psychology, UC Berkeley, 1984

Amy Strage
Assistant Vice President for Faculty Development, San José State University; Ph.D., Psychology, UC Berkeley, 1984

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Seminar Students: Designing Courses to Enhance Student Intrinsic Motivation (Pysch 290i)

Sereeta Alexander
Institutional Research Analyst, Office of Planning & Analysis, UC Berkeley; Ph.D., Education, UC Berkeley, 2009

Tim Bean
Assistant Professor, Department of Wildlife, Humboldt State University; Ph.D., Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, UC Berkeley, 2012

Leah Byrne
Assistant Professor, Departments of Ophthalmology and Neurobiology, University of Pittsburgh; Ph.D., Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, UC Berkeley, 2012

Joe Hickey
Professor and Chair, Chemistry Department, Diablo Valley College; Ph.D., Chemistry, UC Berkeley, 2009

Maxine McKinney de Royston
Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Ph.D., Education, UC Berkeley, 2011

Melanie Miller
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Anatomy, University of Otago, New Zealand; Ph.D., Anthropology, UC Berkeley, 2016

Allyn Schoeffler
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Spring Hill College; Ph.D., Molecular and Cell Biology, UC Berkeley, 2009

Monica Yoo
Assistant Professor, Teaching and Learning, College of Education, University of Colorado Colorado Springs; Ph.D., Education, UC Berkeley, 2010

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Undergraduate Students

Emily A.
B.A., Psychology, UC Berkeley

Nichole Lighthall
Assistant Professor of Psychology, Human Factors & Cognition Program, University of Central Florida; B.A., Psychology, UC Berkeley, 2003

Tomasz Matlak
Sustaining Engineering Manager; B.A., Mechanical Engineering, UC Berkeley, 2006; M.A., Mechanical Engineering, UC Berkeley, 2008

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Faculty Colleagues

Elizabeth F. Barkley
Professor, Department of Music, Foothill College

Seda Chavdarian
Senior Lecturer, Department of French, UC Berkeley

Carol Dweck
Lewis & Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology, Stanford University

Christina Maslach
Professor of the Graduate School and Professor of Psychology, Emerita, UC Berkeley

Charlotte D. Smith
Lecturer, School of Public Health, UC Berkeley

Rhona S. Weinstein
Professor of the Graduate School and Professor of Psychology, Emerita, UC Berkeley

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A Tribute to Professor Martin V. Covington


Ph.D. Advisees

 

A Letter too Late

Dear Marty,

I know this letter is filled with sentiments that should have been delivered to you long ago, I just never thought to send them. When I heard of your passing, I was overwhelmed with remorse. Not because of the way our paths crossed and not because I felt like you had left something undone. I felt remorse because I realized at that moment that I never had the chance to express the deep gratitude I felt for having known you. I never got to tell you how every aspect of my life had changed for the better because of being assigned as one of your GSIs during the Fall of 2002. For some reason, before the news arrived, I always felt that showing you my appreciation for everything you did wasn’t necessary. The unwavering support that you gave, the warm and welcoming environment that I always felt in your presence, and the way we instantly communicated with each other as if we were lifelong friends made me feel as if everything that I needed to say was already spoken.

I somehow thought that I’d told you how grateful I was to be taken under your wing as a first-year graduate student. As I struggled to find a place in the chaotic world of Berkeley’s research driven graduate program, you were there to guide me. When I confessed my strong desire to work towards a well-rounded teaching career instead of one focused on publishing papers and books, you were there to support my decision. When I constantly dragged my feet to leave the place that I’d come to call home, you were there to gently give me that needed nudge out the door. And when I decided to return to Berkeley and take up roots here—primarily through filling the void that your retirement left in the psychology department—you were there to welcome me back. You had to know how much this meant to me—didn’t you?

I assumed without ever asking that you already knew I decided long ago to emulate your attitudes toward your students and peers. I was certain that you were with me as I tried to frame my career after you. I thought that you had to see my attempts to replicate the world you had made when I strove to form bonds with my own GSIs, to motivate my own students, and to create engaging course lectures. It was only after hearing of your passing that I questioned all these assumptions.

I know I can’t undo what wasn’t done. I know I won’t be able to ever say thank you the way I should have. But I can hope. I can hope that you knew how much you meant to me. I can hope that you did see my accomplishments and felt pride in how you helped them come about. I can also hope that everyone that reads this can appreciate how much you gave to those around you. And lastly, I can hope that others, when they had a chance, got to say the multitude of thank yous that you deserved for everything you gave to make their lives better as well.

You will be missed Marty Covington!

Chris Gade
Lecturer, UC Berkeley, Department of Psychology; Ph.D. Psychology, UC Berkeley, 2008, Martin V. Covington, Dissertation Chair
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Dear Covington Clan,

I am going to miss Marty. I know that for so many of us—his students—he was the quintessential professor, a combination of good humor, great wisdom, and of course, a thoughtful provocativeness that kept us on our toes. It’s hard to deny that those qualities drew me in and shaped my approach to teaching as it is today. Indeed, Marty’s ideas on teaching and motivation have been undeniably influential in the larger ecosystem of student achievement that so many of us are concerned with. But those aren’t the reasons that I loved working with Marty, or the ideas that I’ll miss the most.

To me, Marty was the ultimate outlaw. He had his own set of rules. There were no office hours or honorifics, you met over coffee or red wine—the only two reliable sources of brilliant mid-day ideas. Department policies were inconsequential unless they got in the way, in which case they were insufferable and should be abandoned for better ideas. To be his student you were an accomplice to something wonderful, you need not vow to honor or obey, instead you learned to aid and abet. Within weeks of knowing him he gave me his email password and cell phone number and asked me to call if I saw anything interesting arrive. With Marty at the helm, I quickly learned that problem-solving was much less valuable than problem-posing, that coursework was a topic for dinner conversation, that photography was the purest form of psychology, and that mastery was the one true motivation. Regarding the latter—Marty never mentioned this aloud, nor can I be sure that he would agree—but it always amazed me how many questions he wanted answers to, and those are the conversations that I’ll miss the most. Of course, Marty was never stingy in this regard, mastery was for sharing, so, stumbling to keep up, I learned how one should tip a French ferry captain without offending him, how many times to bow in a Kyoto shrine, how competitive water skiing was revolutionized on Big Bear Lake, the manner by which one can assess the authenticity of a turn-of-the-century German submachine gun, how one should go about trading presidential votes with their family in Nevada, and why the cactus is the most photogenic of all succulents. His style was both gregarious and coy, and through it all he taught me to have fun, that there are no boring days, and that we have the very best and most enviable job in the world. It was a Peter Pan moment for me—it got me through grad school. I cannot think of a single conversation with Marty that didn’t involve laughter. Such a gift! He rebelled against the tyranny of the dull mind, and was quick to remind us that life was too important to take so seriously. I will miss Marty, but I’ll never forget all that he opened my eyes to.

Sincerely, and with great gratitude,

Matt Gingo
Assistant Professor of Psychology, Wheaton College; Ph.D., Psychology, UC Berkeley, 2012
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I had the great privilege of having Marty Covington as my mentor and advisor during my time at Cal. Marty played a crucial role in my development as a scholar and teacher, and not surprisingly, his mentorship, scholarship, and passion for teaching continues to influence my work to this day.

Recently, while I was visiting another campus and their teaching and learning center, one of the graduate student researchers asked me if I knew of Marty Covington when I mentioned that I had done my doctoral work at Cal. He was floored and was quite envious when I said I did indeed know him well, as he was my dissertation advisor. It was wonderful to see that Marty’s work continues to have an influence, not only in psychology and the field of achievement motivation, but in teaching and learning at large.

My fondest memories of Marty will always be of the weekly meetings we had starting the beginning of my third year of graduate studies, when Marty agreed to be my graduate advisor and mentor. We met every Monday morning at a cafe and discussed my research interests, teaching, and during football season, the 49ers. It felt we were just having coffee every week talking about all sorts of things, but in reality he was taking time to get to know me, learn how I thought, and nurture my scholarly interests.

Another anecdote from my time with Marty was when I took my orals. On the Friday before my exams, Marty made it a point that I was not to open any references or notes over the weekend, assuring me that I was ready and there was nothing more I could do. He told me to just relax and enjoy my weekend. Then he handed me an envelope. It contained a pair of his season tickets to a 49ers game! I did not once worry about my exams and I did indeed successfully pass my exams.

I will be up in Berkeley in May 2018 for a meeting. It will be the second time I will be visiting the campus since graduating in 2000. I wish he were still here with us so we could have coffee and catch up. I am forever grateful for having him as my mentor, and I will miss seeing him when I am back on campus.

Kumiko Haas (née Tomiki)

Director, Instructional Improvement Programs, Office of Instructional Development, UCLA; Ph.D., Psychology, UC Berkeley, 2000, Martin V. Covington, Dissertation Chair
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I first met Marty Covington as an undergraduate student in his 1966 Psychology 1 class. At that time, I was a math major, but I was interested in psychology and I needed a “breadth-requirement” course. I couldn’t have picked a better class and professor for my introduction to the field than Marty. From childhood autism to cognition, Marty introduced us to the field of psychology. He was a great lecturer—a consummate showman, infusing his lectures with audiovisual aids, theatrics and some magic (Marty was an amateur magician)—holding the class’s attention to the closing bell of each lecture. His small-group discussion sessions were like mini seminars, led by highly knowledgeable teaching assistants.

In the middle of my junior year, when the Cal Math Department suggested that I find another major, I chose psychology. And, when the psychology professor who had been assigned to advise people whose last names began with “K” was too busy to help me chart my course load and graduation path, Marty agreed to become my undergraduate faculty advisor, providing the guidance and support I needed.

A year after I graduated from Cal with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, I enrolled in the Graduate School of Education at Cal, with the goal of obtaining a Ph.D. in educational psychology. At that time, I was offered a job developing and leading the Math and Computer Education program at the Lawrence Hall of Science—a unique science museum and science education laboratory located in the hills above the Berkeley campus. The dissertation study and research I wanted to do focused on how people learn in informal settings, such as museums, and how computer technology could be harnessed in this regard. Because I was enrolled in the School of Education, Marty couldn’t be my thesis advisor, but he eagerly agreed to serve on my dissertation committee, along with my advisor and another professor. I’ll never forget the day that I defended my dissertation proposal because it snowed in Berkeley that day. But Marty invited me in from the cold and set a warm, collegial mood for my grand inquisition.

I also came to know Marty on a personal level. Along with other graduate students, I was invited to his home on several occasions. Once, I remember him pulling out a deck of cards and baffling all of us with his mysterious production of four aces from a shuffled deck. At that time, Marty and Bette lived in Moraga, but they had a “getaway” retirement home at Sea Ranch on the coast, north of Pt. Reyes. Marty and Bette let me stay at their Sea Ranch home on a few occasions. On one of those occasions, in 1983, I proposed marriage to my wife, Lynn. The last time Lynn and I saw Marty and Bette was at Sea Ranch, after they had retired there quite a few years ago. Marty and I shared an interest in photography, and I remember while Bette was cooking brunch, Marty showing us gorgeous prints of photographs that he and his son had taken in Bryce Canyon, Zion, and Canyonlands national parks.

I recently mused to Lynn that it had been a long time since we visited the north coast, and that we should drive up there and pay Marty and Bette a visit. Alas, while we can still visit Bette, Marty is gone. We’ll miss him!

Bob Kahn 
Communications and Media Consultant; Ph.D. Cand., Education, UC Berkeley, 1978
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Marty Covington  In Memorium

Like so many others who knew and worked with Marty, I was very sad to hear of his recent passing. Both his family, Cal and the University of California have lost a great teacher, mentor, researcher and educational innovator.

I met Marty nearly 50 years ago when I first took his Psych 1 class at Cal—while I was majoring in one of the first undergrad degree programs in the world in the then new field called “computer science.” My older brother Bob Kahn and several of his Cal undergrad friends had all taken Marty’s Psych 1 class, where they were introduced to his new innovative programmed instructional approach to developing creative thinking and problem-solving skills in children, The Productive Thinking Program. This program was developed with two other members of the Berkeley psychology faculty, the late Richard Crutchfield and Bob Olton, as well as Lillian Davies, all of whom are also sadly no longer with us.

I remember several things from Marty’s Psych 1 class, foremost of which was watching Saul Bass’ Academy Award winning film on creativity, Why Man Creates, and also finding out about the pioneering psych research work being done on creativity and creative people by many on the Cal psychology faculty and IPAR— now called the Institute for Personality and Social Research. Marty also told of an encounter he once had with the late Aldous Huxley, philosopher and visionary author of Brave New World, at a coffee house on Telegraph Ave: Huxley predicted that one day, computers might be used to help teach, improve knowledge and skills and even possibly creative thinking and expression. Both of these parts of Marty’s Psych 1 course changed my professional trajectory—and helped launch me later into the new field of computer-based and technology-mediated interactive learning.

I also remember taking another of Marty’s courses on programmed instruction during the tumultuous year of 1970, when Cal faculty and student protest over the bombing of Cambodia, the Draft and the Viet Nam War led to holding a large number of classes off campus. We reconstituted this class to focus on ways to use programmed instructional technologies to develop ways of educating others about issues related to the War. That was also the year in which demonstrations on campus led to helicopters dropping tear gas, as well as to calling out the National Guard.

A year later—and this was over five to six years before another new field called “cognitive science” was born—I decided to apply for graduate study in psychology at Cal, having only taken a total of three courses in psych. It was only through Marty and Richard Crutchfield’s advocacy that I believe I was accepted into a special interdisciplinary “Group 3” of the Berkeley psych Ph.D. program in Fall of 1971—as my chances of admission into almost any other graduate psych Ph.D. program would have been slim or non-existent.

But it was my interest in how interactive computing might be used to both model and understand human thinking and problem-solving, both active areas of early AI/artificial intelligence work in other universities, and my association with co-founding the Math and Computer Education Project at the Lawrence Hall of Science that provided me a way to explore this new area of educational and psychology research. We were also one of the first places to use and do research on the just commercially published The Productive Thinking Program as a core curriculum element of innovative programs for academically talented, “high potential” elementary students from underserved communities, as well as for new public education programs we developed in teaching problem-solving skills.

After my first two years of grad school, Marty supported an almost unprecedented personal request from me to take a leave of absence to go live and work in Israel—and he and Bob Olton would also later support my application for an NIMH pre-doctoral fellowship while I was still living in Israel. This showed how much Marty was willing to go beyond standard grad school policies in order to support the creative and non-academic development of his students. When I returned in 1975, Marty became my advisor after the death of Richard Crutchfield, and I became one of his TAs for Psych 1. The following year, I initiated and led his nomination for the Cal Distinguished Teaching Award, which he received in 1976.

By this time, Marty had begun to shift his own interests from early creativity research and development of the cognitive skills of creative thinking to issues of motivation, what we now call “emotional intelligence” and their relationship to a growing issue in undergraduate life, students’ “fear of failure” and its deleterious effects on students’ self-worth. Dr. Richard Beery, then at the Cal Counseling Center, had brought some of these issues to Marty’s attention, and they co-authored Self-Worth and School Learning as one of the first books to address these issues as they related to student achievement and motivation. At the same time, Marty wanted to use his Psych 1 course as a living action research laboratory to explore alternative ways to redesign this large and popular undergraduate course via a better understanding of student motivations, incentives, and alternative forms of instruction in order to better engage students’ intrinsic, rather than just extrinsic, motivation. So starting between 1976 and 1978, he developed a year-long proseminar that included a group of us who were Teaching Assistants for his Psych I course to prepare us to completely design and take full instructor responsibility for teaching Psych 1—not as Teaching Assistants, but actually as full Instructors of Record. So, in the spring quarter of 1978, I and five to six other psych grad students each taught our own Psych 1 courses to an average of 150-200 students each. This was, of course, virtually unprecedented and had many risks—and we all had to deal with our own “fears of failure” in doing this. But Marty’s mentorship, together with the kind of action research and reflective community we had with one another made this one of the most important projects of my and my fellow grad students’ early careers.

My own Ph.D. research involved the first time a Cal psych grad student had ever used new personal computers which were just beginning to come into the market for research on thinking and learning. I found Marty as my Ph.D. thesis chair to be quite open and flexible, since again, we were breaking new ground. My work on developing an early interactive computer game to both assess and help develop strategic thinking skills, what would later become known as “metacognition,” took place with high school students in a secretive environment using the world’s first personal computer systems designed and developed at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, or Xerox PARC. Thanks to the flexibility of Marty and others on my committee, I was able to complete my dissertation nearly three years later in 1981, as I had taken on a consulting and later full-time job at Atari.

So for all Marty’s own innovations, his R&D interests in creativity and its development in children, and his realization of how little was truly understood about motivation and how it needed to be re-thought to support a type of student success that did not diminish students’ self-esteem and continued engagement in learning, I am forever grateful for his teaching, his mentorship and his friendship. Many thousands of students at Cal, but many more millions of students around the world will continue to benefit from his work. In re-reading his book, The Will to Learn, I realized that in our own DesignWorlds for College & Careers college admissions advising and coaching practice in 2018, we are now still dealing with the risk of students equating self-worth with their grades, prizes, extrinsic rewards and achievements. This continues to lead not only to anxiety and “fear of failure,” issues that Rich Beery, Marty, and his many research colleagues addressed, but it also increases depression and stress even before students enter college.

So may all of us and members of the GSI community at Cal continue Marty’s legacy—and take an even deeper dive into his over 40+ years of this work—to ensure meaningful education can become the wonderful creative and lifelong adventure Marty envisioned it to be.

Ted M. Kahn
CEO, DesignWorlds for Learning, Inc & DesignWorlds for College & Careers; Ph.D., Psychology, UC Berkeley, 1981, Martin V. Covington, Dissertation Chair
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Marty was a mentor extraordinaire. He changed my life. I was a member of a small seminar (or perhaps it was an independent study) of five or six undergraduates led by Marty and Bob. This experience led me to Ed Psych. (Marty’s Ph.D. was also in Ed Psych at UC’s School of Education.) Marty continued to nurture my development in grad school. For example, I was a TA for his Psych 1 class even though I was not in the Psychology Department. I was very fortunate to have had both Marty and Bill Rohwer in my corner as a Ph.D. student.

Warm regards,

Dan Kee
Professor Emeritus of Psychology, California State University, Fullerton; Ph.D., Education, UC Berkeley, 1974
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Marty welcomed me into his office, “Hi, come on in! Want half?” He pointed toward a muffin on his desk. I hadn’t been sure what to expect. I was a first-generation college student beginning the first year of a Ph.D. program. I had gotten an e-mail stating that Marty Covington was to be my secondary advisor. I wasn’t sure what a secondary advisor was, but thought I’d better meet him to make sure I was doing whatever I was supposed to be doing with a secondary advisor.

As I sat down, he leaned back in his chair and asked me questions about my interests and why I had come to UC Berkeley. During the conversation he shared too. At one point, he gestured toward the small printer in his office and said that he was a little bit “old school” and initially thought maybe it was a toaster. All geared to make me relax and feel at home. It worked. I walked out of his office later thinking, “Wow, maybe I really can do this Ph.D. thing!”

Over the ensuing years, I met with Marty often and took two of his classes on teaching. We talked a lot about imposter syndrome. I, like many others in graduate programs, frequently wondered how in the world I had been accepted to the Ph.D. program. Everyone seemed so much smarter than I did. And, the more I learned, the more I realized that I knew almost nothing! He assured me I belonged and pointed out how much I had learned and was able to use this knowledge effectively as a graduate student instructor in my own classroom.

Toward the end of my program, Marty served on my orals and dissertation committees. While I was terrified going into the room for my orals, Marty and my committee purposely made an effort to ensure me that they were on my side and that they wanted me to succeed. That didn’t stop them from asking hard questions—Marty in particular! But, I felt the warmth and support all the way through. At the end of my orals, I was asked to leave the room while they deliberated my fate. Soon a member of the committee came and got me and brought me back in. I had passed! There were smiles all around the table, especially a broad one coming from Marty. I had done well, and they had enjoyed the process (and I think had fun?!), listening to me talk about the knowledge I had gained and the excitement I still felt about education.

I kept in touch with Marty over the years. He remained a stalwart supporter of me and all students—exuding hope, enthusiasm, and unfailing good humor. Much of what I do with my students stems from lessons I learned from Marty: Interact with each and every student genuinely. Be willing to constantly revise one’s teaching to get closer and closer to the primary targets—student engagement and learning. And, especially, use my own love of learning to engage students in their learning. Thank you, Marty. You will be missed.

Linda M. Platas
Assistant Professor and Associate Chair, Child and Adolescent Development Department, San Francisco State University; Ph.D., Education, UC Berkeley, 2008
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Marty Covington was one of the most important people in my life.  He served me—whether he knew it or not—as a teacher, a motivator, an inspiration and a friend.  Quite simply, I would not have studied psychology, found a passion, earned a doctorate from Berkeley, taught at Cal, and gone on to my career without him.  He opened doors and, more importantly, possibilities I did not know existed.  For that, I am eternally grateful.  (I also would not know how to alphabetize over 500 research forms with great speed and precision had it not been for Marty, but that’s a tale for another day.)

Of the many stories I have about Marty, one stands alone.  In my sophomore year at Cal, as a student in the College of Chemistry, I was wait-listed for the introductory course in Organic Chemistry.  I needed five units and I needed them quickly.  ‘Try Psych 1,’ I was told.  And so I did.  I’ll never forget the experience of walking into the large lecture hall in Dwinelle Hall, hearing music being piped through the sound system and Dr. Martin Covington standing on the stage surrounded by his graduate student posse.  Music?  In a lecture hall?  And then he began and I knew I was home.  That was Marty Covington.

You are and will always be in my heart, Marty.

Alan Schnur
President, The Schnur Group; Ph.D., Psychology, UC Berkeley, 1981, Martin V. Covington Dissertation Chair
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Marty supported my work at a time when I worried no one would understand or facilitate my shift in dissertation research. From the first day, he welcomed me—a relative outsider from another department on campus—and offered the value of his insights and experience. His participation on my dissertation committee helped me explore a new body of literature and strengthen my own research. I also had the privilege of taking his graduate seminar (co-taught with Linda von Hoene) about teaching and course design, and I continue to implement many of these same ideas in my own teaching today. I like to think that Marty’s work lives on in all of his students and in all of the students they will teach going forward.

Liz Soluri
Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Cabrillo College; Ph.D. Anthropology, UC Berkeley, 2010
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Marty was a mentor to me as a graduate student at Berkeley, leading me to believe that I could be a scholar and a teacher. I have sought to be both, a process of development that continues to this day.  I did not see much of Marty these past years and I am sorry for that. We often forget about the finality of life and hope that those we like will always be there for us.  I will miss Martin Covington and will remember him with great fondness.

 Derek Van Rheenen

Director, Athletic Study Center; Faculty Director, Cultural Studies of Sport in Education, UC Berkeley; Ph.D., Cultural Studies, UC Berkeley, 1997
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Marty had so many wonderful qualities and I have many fond remembrances of him. His warmth, generosity, gentle kindness, and ever-positive manner made a deep impression upon me.

His brilliance as a thinker, teacher, and writer were made evident to me numerous times. He was a true scholar-teacher who did not simply train graduate students, but inspired and nurtured them, something too rarely seen in academia these days. In my case that meant because of Marty I studied and worked in a field that was far from my research focus because of his strong personal appeal and because of the compelling nature of his work. Learning from him about self-worth theory was a revelation that transformed my life in multiple ways and continues to do so.

Yet, to me, Marty was more than a teacher, mentor, and collaborator. We shared countless meals and conversations together and they have made an indelible mark on me. From these conversations—which roamed over intellectual topics to be sure (and often included his little assignments to “write up a couple paragraphs” on an idea I’d shared), but also included discussions of career, family, and parenting—I took away valuable life lessons. From Marty I saw how to lead a life of meaning, purpose, growth, and connection while making a career in the university.

What I learned from Marty about working with students is to appeal to their highest, most noble values and aims. Encourage your students, and create conditions that make it possible for them to act from their best impulses, their finest motivations. You and they may well be surprised, and more often than not gratified by the results.

Dominic (Nic) Voge

Senior Associate Director, McGraw Center for Teaching & Learning, Princeton University; Co-author with Martin V. Covington and Linda M. von Hoene, Life Beyond Grades: Designing College Courses to Promote Intrinsic Motivation
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Marty’s Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs)

 

As a graduate student in the psychology department at Berkeley, I participated in the GSI training program that Marty created. I was in the program during the 1991-1992 academic year, working as a GSI for Marty during the fall, then teaching my own introductory psychology class in the spring. Four other graduate students were doing the program at the same time that I was, and we had frequent group meetings with Marty. Marty had some planned topics of discussion for those meetings but we also sometimes ended up discussing spontaneous topics. I often reflect back on those discussions; I learned a great deal from both Marty and my graduate student colleagues who were in my cohort. The experience was invaluable to me. The academic appointment that I have had for the past 24 years is primarily a teaching position, at a “teaching” university, California State University, East Bay. My university has an extremely diverse student body, racially/ethnically and socioeconomically, with many students who are differently abled, and with many first-generation college students. Teaching such a diverse group can be challenging. I am continuously grateful that I learned a wide variety of techniques and approaches from Marty’s program. Marty also taught us about social skills appropriate to teaching at the college level, and to empathize with our students. Every time that I grade a student paper I remember Marty’s mantra: When you write your comments, begin by saying something positive about the paper that the student has written.

Marty was a highly skilled teacher. He was also a kind person. I treasure the time that I spent learning from him. As long as I teach (and after I stop teaching, too), I will continue to be affected by having known Marty.

 Gretchen Reevy-Manning

Lecturer, Department of Psychology, California State University, East Bay; Ph.D., Psychology, UC Berkeley, 1994
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Remembering Marty Covington

Context matters: I came to Cal in 1979 to work with Mark Rosenzweig, bringing with me a master’s degree and a couple of years of experience as a high school physics and chemistry teacher. In fact, I had been part of an NSF-funded curriculum development project. My plan was to be a college professor, and I had received the good advice from my father (also an academic) that I should be as intentional about developing my skills as a teacher as I was about gaining research expertise. I sought Marty out when I arrived and, because I had research funding, we agreed that I would plan to check in with him later in my program. We continued to talk from time to time, and I arranged things with Mark that I could be one of Marty’s assistants for the Intro Psych course in my fourth year (1982-83). Marty then asked me to serve as his “Teaching Associate” the following year. (I don’t know what shape the program took later; at that time, there was one associate per year, and that person had additional duties and was paid a bit more.)

Without meaning to impugn anyone, I’ll say that many of the faculty in that era were researchers whose attitude about teaching seemed to be that they taught classes because it was required. It wasn’t that they were hostile or indifferent to students; they tried to do a good job with their classes (some were excellent teachers), but the culture required that they see themselves as scientists first; many gave the impression and some said outright that they viewed teaching as a necessary inconvenience. There was an aura of respect around professors who had sufficient external funding that they could “buy themselves out” of classes. Intentionally or not, graduate students got the signal that teaching was less valuable than research, even though it was well known that the likely career path would be at a college or university where teaching was a big part of the day-to-day life, and where the quality of teaching got more than lip service. (Never mind that, in practice, we’re still pretty bad at evaluating teaching for the things that really make a difference in students’ preparation.)

In that environment, Marty was a happy iconoclast. He believed that teaching was noble and important, and although he sometimes expressed frustration that his view wasn’t more widely shared, he wasn’t about to change his belief. And he acted accordingly. He modeled respect for our students, and insisted that those in his sphere demonstrate that respect. His meetings with his teaching assistants and associate were rarely logistical; we had good conversations about pedagogy, educational philosophy, and how to do something meaningful in a class despite whatever situational constraints may exist. Marty guided those conversations with humanity, the ability to ask hard questions in a gentle way, and a sense of humor. Most important, we could see him put his ideas into practice: Even though it was a large lecture (my own section was about 225, but I think his was close to 400), his Introductory Psychology course was far less traditional than most; he wasn’t dispensing knowledge so much as leading a conversation. I’ve now taught the first psychology course heaven-knows how many times (I stopped counting at 50 a while back); I know that my own approach to the course and the rest of my teaching in several disciplines was—and continues to be—shaped by what I learned from Marty Covington during my work with him.

Rest in Peace, Marty. You were one of the good guys.

 Michael J. Renner

Professor of Psychology and Biology and Chairperson, Department of Environmental Science and Sustainability, Drake University; Ph.D., Biological Psychology, UC Berkeley, 1984
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Although Marty was never my “official” mentor, his impact on me was nothing short of transformative.  Throughout my career as a faculty member, and more recently in academic administration, I have drawn on what I learned from him, every day:  How to help students build effective learning tools and dispositions so that they can push themselves toward accomplishments they’d never imagined were within their grasp; how to help faculty find their footing and then map out and navigate personally and professionally fulfilling careers; and how to take joy in life’s journey and in the people you meet along the way. What good fortune to have known and worked with such a kind and wise and genuine human being.

 Amy Strage

Assistant Vice President for Faculty Development, San José State University; Ph.D., Psychology, UC Berkeley, 1984
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Seminar Students: Designing Courses to
Enhance Student Intrinsic Motivation (Pysch 290i)

 

In addition to being an excellent teacher, Marty was an excellent teacher of teachers! He taught so many of us how to take a student-centered approach in the work we do, for the benefit of student achievement and learning. Marty, as well as his great contributions to both research and the student experience, will be greatly missed.

 Sereeta Alexander

Institutional Research Analyst, Office of Planning & Analysis, UC Berkeley; Ph.D. Education, UC Berkeley, 2009
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Psych 290i fundamentally changed the way that I design and teach my classes (and, I suspect, had a strong hand in my getting the faculty position I have today). It’s also pretty much the only experience I’ve had where somebody uses the pedagogy that they’re teaching in their teaching. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to an hour-long lecture on active learning strategies! Marty had the good sense to actually apply his methods in the class, and that was so refreshing and meaningful. Marty had a profound impact on my career in a very short period of time. He’ll be deeply missed.

 Tim Bean

Assistant Professor, Department of Wildlife, Humboldt State University; Ph.D. Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, UC Berkeley, 2012
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Once in a great while, we are lucky enough to have the opportunity to learn from someone who alters our trajectories for the better. For me, and for many of his students, Marty did just that. Marty taught us how to teach, and through this work, he has permanently impacted the lives of his students, and in turn their students. Marty’s empathetic approach to pedagogy and his work developing methods by which intrinsic motivation could be cultivated are a fundamental contribution to teaching. The principles Marty developed are equally valid in every discipline, and one of my favorite aspects of being a co-instructor for Psych 290i (Designing Courses to Enhance Student Intrinsic Motivation) with Marty was observing how students in the course applied the concepts he taught to subjects as varied as Nuclear Physics and Ancient History. Marty formed our approach to teaching, and made all of us better instructors. Marty will be remembered as a true friend, and the most wonderful of human beings. I am grateful to have been able to count him as a friend and colleague. He will be deeply missed.

 

Photograph by Marty Covington (Provided by Leah Byrne)

 

 Leah Byrne
Assistant Professor, Departments of Ophthalmology and Neurobiology, University of Pittsburgh; Ph.D., Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, UC Berkeley, 2012
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That 290i class from ten years ago is still always on my mind when planning out my syllabi, problem sets and even just day-to-day language with my students (I’m now a tenured professor and department chair at Diablo Valley College).  It was equal parts teacher training, philosophical revolution and badly needed therapy participating in those discussions and reading the early drafts of Life Beyond Grades: Designing College Courses to Promote Intrinsic Motivation.  I know more certainly than almost anything else that it’s made me a better, more compassionate and more engaging teacher.

I ache for the loss of Marty’s spirit, his borderline mischievous grin and his brilliance in his work, and I look forward to his work being carried forward and all of us carrying him in our hearts.

 Joe Hickey
Professor and Chair, Chemistry Department, Diablo Valley College; Ph.D., Chemistry, UC Berkeley, 2009
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I’m so sorry to hear about Marty’s passing.  As a student in his Motivation and Learning class several years ago, I always found Marty to be both insightful and welcoming.  Coming from the Graduate School of Education, I wasn’t sure what to expect out of a psychology class.  What I found was a professor deeply concerned with helping students maintain their love of learning and helping Graduate Student Instructors find their love of teaching.  While many of the strategies about course design from that class still remain with me, my strongest and dearest memory is that the class was filled with laughter and humility.  A rare treat in graduate school and a lesson I try to take with me into every course I teach.

Rest in Power, Marty.

 Maxine McKinney de Royston
Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Ph.D. Education, UC Berkeley, 2011
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This is such sad news. I was just talking about our fantastic 290i class yesterday with a colleague and I mentioned how lucky I was to have taken a class with the famous, brilliant, and kind Marty Covington. Please pass on my condolences to Marty’s family, he will be missed by so many people in so many different communities that he touched. My thoughts are also with you and the many close colleagues that worked with him, I am sure you will all miss him very much.

 Melanie Miller
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Anatomy, University of Otago, New Zealand; Ph.D., Anthropology, UC Berkeley, 2016
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It was many years ago that I took Marty’s course on designing courses to enhance motivation, but it has unquestionably been of lasting value to me in my career as a faculty member at a liberal arts institution focused on teaching. His faith in the possibility of intrinsic motivation was inspiring, and I use the tools and skills I developed in his class every time I design a new course.

 Allyn Schoeffler
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Spring Hill College; Ph.D., Molecular and Cell Biology, UC Berkeley, 2009
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Marty was such an inspiration—just an amazing positive force and spirit! At the time I took the course (290i), I was a graduate student instructor and researcher who was working under the supervision and direction of faculty members. The course helped me to look ahead to designing my own courses independently in the future. It was an extremely valuable experience. Marty was a great facilitator and always listened to students. He provided a space where honesty, respect, and collaboration was highly valued.

 Monica Yoo
Assistant Professor, Teaching and Learning, College of Education, University of Colorado Colorado Springs; Ph.D., Education, UC Berkeley, 2010
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Former Undergraduate Students

 

My heart fell when I heard that Marty passed away. As a teacher, mentor, and all around superb human being, he was enormously influential in my life.

I met Marty as a freshman at UC Berkeley, in his Introduction to Psychology class.  I remember that class vividly, where we students tried to create age-appropriate toys for our “fantasy children” that we used as models for child development throughout the class, and I thought this was quite the innovative exercise for introductory psych!  I was thrilled when Marty generously invited me to participate in his graduate seminar the next semester.

Indeed, I was so honored to work with Marty for what turned out to be many years.  I was astonished by the breadth of his psychological knowledge and expertise that he would gently weave into his interactions with me and with everyone in the academic circle around him.  He seemed to see through various lenses, but seamlessly navigate between different fields, modeling a kind of acrobatic agility in thinking.  He would channel this ability into his work on studying learning, always, of course, trying to make the environment better for learners and teachers alike.  I’m afraid at the beginning I had little to offer in the way of expertise, but he invited me to join him nonetheless, as he was always a compassionate collaborator.  And he gave me so much training, by being a patient and kind teacher, good-humored and acting with the intention to inspire.

But the most cherished moments I had with him were the playful times when he would tell me about being a magician, or he would try to convince me that he had been on the cover of a photography magazine (where he had clearly photoshopped himself in).  He was an accomplished photographer and would tell me about his photography adventures; his prints of landscapes were stunning.

Over the years, I think Marty must have written at least five versions of letters of recommendation for me, as I progressed on to master’s and doctoral education, and to various jobs.  But these were not perfunctory letters of recommendation—he would write them wholeheartedly, and I would come away with the sense that I had a true ally in Marty. And I did.

I am unendingly grateful that Marty took me under his wing.  My life was so changed, shaped, and inspired by him!  His passing is so painful—but his memory will be a blessing.

 Emily A.
B.A., Psychology, UC Berkeley
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Fifteen years ago, Dr. Martin Covington was my instructor and then faculty supervisor for the Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program at UC Berkeley. In the years since, I have thought about Marty fondly. At a university the size of Berkeley, I often felt like a cog in a wheel, but Marty made me feel like I had the power to affect change and got me excited about a career in research. I recall thinking his workshop on student motivation was the first time a professor had ever asked for my advice about a research project. What I remember most is how his trust and respect for students allowed me the confidence to think like a scientist and feel like a valued collaborator on his research team. At the end of that apprenticeship, I had resolved to continue with research. That experience provided me with just the right push to move ahead with my grad school dreams. Today, I am an assistant professor of psychology, with student mentees of my own, teaching undergraduates about motivation, and trying to pass the torch to the next generation of young scientists—just like Marty taught me.

 Nichole Lighthall
Assistant Professor of Psychology, Human Factors & Cognition Program, University of Central Florida; B.A., Psychology, UC Berkeley, 2003
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Many people know that Marty was a great magician. But what is less known, is that he also taught psychology for a few years, at a small school named UC Berkeley. And he appreciated a good joke or two.

I will always remember how Marty helped people to better understand others. The classes he taught on pedagogy were not simply about learning to be better teachers, but about being better people, and seeing the reasons for other’s actions.  I had the privilege to learn from him and will fondly remember his positive approach. To this day I try to use the skills he taught in my interactions at work. They transferred well into the ‘non-academic world’ and have allowed me to better understand, approach, and collaborate with others. He will be missed by many people, and I hope that his work will continue to be appreciated, and built upon.

 Tomasz Matlak
Sustaining Engineering Manager; B.A., Mechanical Engineering, UC Berkeley, 2006; M.A., Mechanical Engineering, UC Berkeley, 2008
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Faculty Colleagues

 

My mentor, K. Patricia Cross, introduced me to Martin Covington’s work on student motivation over two decades ago. She was interested in the topic of student motivation herself, and found his four-way typology of motivation—in which he organized students into quadrants based on their low/high approach to success or avoidance of failure—to be a particularly powerful model for explaining the sometimes puzzling behavior of low achieving students. In subsequent years, as I have grappled with how to better understand and promote student engagement in learning, I have referenced his work often. I regret that I never met him in person. Everyone I’ve talked to who knew him speaks of his wisdom, kindness, and deep commitment to students. He will live on in the memory of the many people whose lives he touched, not only as a friend and family member, but through his teaching and scholarship.

 Elizabeth F. Barkley
Professor, Department of Music, Foothill College
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Martin was an exemplary scholar and educator who inspired generations of students and colleagues.  I learned so much from his participation in the How Students Learn seminar series and various administrative committees. But, what I appreciated most is Martin’s kindness and genuine caring for students and colleagues alike. His presence on campus will be greatly missed.

 Seda Chavdarian
Senior Lecturer, Department of French, UC Berkeley
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Marty’s tremendous insights and seminal findings deeply influenced the work of so many of us.


 Carol Dweck
 Lewis & Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology, Stanford University
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_______________________________

 

Marty Covington and I would cross paths many times over many decades—first in Tolman Hall, and later at Sea Ranch. He would always greet me with a warm smile and a twinkle in his eye, and we would share updates on our mutual interests. Primarily, that interest would be about teaching and learning. As we all know, that was Marty’s great passion in life, and he was always focused on understanding and improving the educational process, both by studying it and by practicing it. He was the undisputed “King of Psych 1,” whose courses were legendary. But he was also the gentle teaching mentor to me and many other people, by providing us with opportunities to hone our skills and to improve them with his feedback. After Marty retired, I missed seeing him in Tolman—but it was always a delight to see him on the hiking trails of Sea Ranch. And then when I retired, Marty and Bette provided a lovely Sea Ranch celebration of that event. Thank you, Marty, for being such an inspirational and supportive colleague and friend for all these years!

 Christina Maslach
 Professor of the Graduate School and Professor of Psychology, Emerita, UC Berkeley
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Dear Family and Friends of Professor Covington,

I am one of the many faculty who benefited from the insights and contributions of Martin Covington. His contributions to optimizing the abilities of Graduate Student Instructors at Berkeley were abundant. The entire campus community benefits when our pedagogy is stronger, and for that we are all grateful.

With sincere condolences,

 Charlotte D. Smith
Lecturer, School of Public Health, UC Berkeley
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Final Word

 

Remembering Marty Covington, a Cherished Colleague in Psychology

Our relationship goes back 45 years, when I first joined the Psychology Department, at UC Berkeley in 1973. Marty Covington had been appointed as faculty in 1964 and thus served as an older brother, so to speak.

You might say that Marty and I have been tied at the hip during our entire time at Berkeley. We formed our own group of two. We have been the loyal “outliers” in the department, with our hearts and minds linked to the study of psychology in education—the individual and social factors that shape motivation and achievement, and the classroom features/institutional policies that promote a deeper engagement in learning for students.

We considered ourselves fortunate to be in a building that housed both Psychology and Education, with a shared library, easily accessible to us. Over the years, we wore down the corridor floors leading to the Graduate School of Education to serve on students’ orals and dissertation committees. We co-taught a memorable evening seminar on School Reform, to which we invited graduate students as well as teachers, principals, and superintendents from the community. It was a joy to create this climate of learning—opening the doors of academe to include the wisdom of practitioners in the trenches, and designing a curriculum/set of activities that would challenge existing practices as well as illuminate alternatives. A special highlight proved to be an invited panel of fourth-graders from an Oakland classroom, students who boldly taught us about how to really improve schools.

This seminar was one step in our intensive preparation for a national grant competition to design, implement, and evaluate a new school concept built upon our research findings, and to scale it up for replication nationwide. Happily for our health and marriages, we were not awarded said grant, which tired out a number of the winners, as we were to discover.

But happily for Berkeley, Marty went on to systematically test theories about motivation through experiments in instructional innovations, carried out in large introductory psychology classes. This creative work was to influence generations of undergraduates and graduate student instructors, both in the department and beyond across the campus, through his work in the GSI Teaching and Resource Center. And happily, his most recent book, Life Beyond Grades: Designing College Courses to Promote Intrinsic Motivation, co-authored with Linda M. von Hoene and Dominic J. Voge, was just published in August 2017, by Cambridge University Press, providing his last word on the ingredients of a deeper and more rewarding learning.

Marty and I also shared a love of art and nature. I have terrific memories of a lesson he once gave me in acrylic painting in his studio/study—a glorious room that had sections devoted to his broad range of interests—academic work, painting, photography, his collections, and magic!

Marty will be remembered for so many things. This exemplary scholar-teacher left a legacy of rich understanding about students’ needs to preserve their self-worth in the classroom, about the downsides of expending effort when engaged in an ability-game rather than in an intrinsically-motivated task, and about how to improve instruction. And with this work, available in numerous articles and books, he inspired generations of fellow learners.

As I traveled the world to conferences and when folks saw Berkeley on my nametag, I was always asked, “Do you know Marty Covington?” And when I said, “YES!” they shook my hand, in reverence for my good fortune to share the same department as he did. Indeed, I was blessed to be his colleague and I will miss him.

 Rhona S. Weinstein
Professor of the Graduate School and Professor of Psychology, Emerita, UC Berkeley
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