Motivating Learners

by Jennifer Seretan

As stated in our mission, Garden of Learning strives ”to provide students the opportunities and educators the tools that encourage children's innate desire to explore, question, experience, and connect to the natural and societal wonders of the world...."

Too often we see images of children with long, bored faces sitting in a classroom or listening to a parent talking. Too often we find ourselves pulling our hair out, trying to motivate kids to learn what we teach them. What is the problem? Why don't they get it? How can we light a fire under them and spark their interest? How do we encourage curiosity and perpetuate the wonder of childhood? How do we tap into children's natural motivation?

Let's start with a discussion about motivation first:

According to the dictionary, motivation is “the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal; the reason for the action; that which gives purpose and direction to behavior (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/motivation).”

I notice two key words in this definition: “desire” and “purpose.”

In her book, Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't Think and What We Can Do About It, Jane Healy highlighted an interesting conclusion (160): The brain contains a center called the limbic system that is located in the middle brain and is the center for emotion and memory. Notice how "emotion, motivation and memory have such a close physical link in the nervous system." Desire plays an important role in learning.

Before information gets to the middle brain, however, we need to perceive it as stimuli. But, we cannot pay attention to all the stimuli we receive at a given moment, so we choose what to attend to. People cannot perceive, store and retrieve information if they do not want to. This is called selective attention. This is when our brain asks: "How important is it that I pay attention right now?"

Paying attention is only the first part of “learning.” Then, we need to engage in the material. Learning is “making meaning” out of something (Postman and Weingartner, 98).

Finally, we have the choice of remembering what we heard, saw or experienced. We will discuss memory, study skills and brain development in future columns. But, for now, suffice it to say that we learn and remember best in context.

In context; relevance; purpose. This is the part I would like to talk more about. We can try to motivate students with “extrinsic rewards” such as candy, stickers or video games. However, when we do this, we are giving purpose to their desire to “finish” the task or to “do” what you expect of them. These rewards do not give purpose or desire to learn the skill or knowledge you have presented. Did any learning take place, then?

In contrast, intrinsic rewards motivate learning. If the concepts/skills we want students to learn are inherently interesting to the students, they will be motivated to learn them. That is obvious, right? If we introduce concepts or skills to children that are relevant to them, they may be motivated to learn them because it means something to them, from their view and present knowledge of the world. It is less likely to be confusing, frustrating or even uninteresting if they can follow your train of thought. Better yet, if they can “make meaning” by discovering the concept themselves, then, by definition, it is going to be contextual and relevant to them. Therein lays the rub. We cannot “teach” what they do not want to learn. A lesson needs to be purposeful to the learner.

That is not to say that we cannot introduce new topics and skills that they may not have considered before. Postman and Weingartner (1969: 65) tell us "No one has ever said that children themselves are the only, or necessarily the best, sources for articulating relevant areas if inquiry. What has been said is that, regardless of its source, unless an inquiry is perceived as relevant by the learner, no significant learning will take place. No one will learn anything he doesn't want to know." There is little desire to learn things that have no purpose for the learner.

We can provide activities and events that expose children to skills and knowledge that they may have never considered or heard of before. We just need to consider the learner's perspective and appeal to their present level of knowledge or skill and their present interests. We, as teachers, need to build on knowledge and skills the learner has already acquired. For example, if a child loves snow boarding, we could introduce him to music by appealing to his sense of rhythm as he slaloms down the slope, or what makes "a good run" on his snow board compared to a well-composed piece of music.

I challenge every educator to push themselves in this area. I think this means more than suggesting little examples or analogies that relate to what students do in their free time while following the units in a textbook. I think this has to do with structuring our lesson themes, the whole course of study, around what students care about, are curious about and are concerned about.

So, how do we know what is relevant to young people? First, I think we should ask them! We may find one domain that usually intrigues children, and is rich in educational opportunity, is Nature. Another domain is people and history. By exploring who they are and who the people around them are (now and historically), children develop a strong sense of self that can carry them through adulthood as they are faced with challenges and decisions. These are good tools you can use to develop relevance for your curriculum. However, I think it is important to involve the learners in the decision-making. If you want them to be motivated, you must know what they desire to know and what provides purpose in their lives.

So, what do we do with those concepts or skills that we feel children need in order to learn the "fun" stuff? How do we get kids to practice multiplication or penmanship, for example?

The task need not be as daunting as it sounds. I believe that children are intrinsically motivated unless a task is made tedious or distasteful. If teachers and parents can draw on that natural curiosity, the children will lead the teacher/instructor/guide to the things that excite them. This is especially evident in young children. It may be harder to see in adolescents, but I believe it is still there. Children will strive to feed their subconscious hunger to grow in all areas - physically, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, and socially – if given the opportunity. Then, our job is to feed into that curiosity and build on it by offering new learning opportunities that scaffold on previous knowledge. Thus, these learning opportunities will have a purpose.

Returning to our original question, how do you motivate your students? Here are five suggestions.

 - Learn as much about your students as you can. What are their interests, passions, fears, desires?

 - Let them know that you care and want to engage with them in this learning process.

 - Do more listening and asking and less talking. See if you can teach a whole lesson only using questions. Better yet, make as few of those questions rhetorical (with a pre-determined answer) as possible.

 - Be willing to explore with your students. If they have questions that are “off topic,” try to find the time and means to help them investigate the answers (and not just as an extra homework assignment; that seems like punishment!). If you can, use these questions to guide future lessons.

 - According to Postman and Weingartner (74) “educate” comes from the word, “educe” which means “to draw out.” “We can learn only in relation to what we already know.” Start your lessons from what the students know, not on what the textbook chapter says.

 - For those tedious concepts and skills that seem like necessities, first ask yourself, “is this really necessary?” If the answer is yes, ask yourself why? Ask the students why? Is there a way for them to explore situations that naturally present this question of necessity so they can answer it “in context?” If you and the students go into this line of inquiry with an open mind, you may find surprising results. On the other hand, if you all determine that the tedious concept/skill is necessary, you and the students are now on the same page and it has a purpose for the students! It may take awhile to do this, but now they are motivated to succeed.

I could go into much more depth with each of these suggestions, and there are many more possibilities. I only offer these as a place to start. Remember these words:

 - desire

 - purpose

 - relevance

 - context

 - making meaning

 - start with the student

 - and most important, ask questions.

What do you suggest? I would be interested to hear your ideas.

Bibliography

Healy, Jane M., Ph.D., Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't Think and What We Can Do About It. New York: Simon and Schuster: A Touchstone Book, 1991.

Hilgard, Ernest R. and Gordon H. Bower. Theories of Learning, 4th ed., Englewood, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc. 1975.

Postman, Neil and Charles Weingartner. Teaching as a Subversive Activity. New York, NY: Dell Publishing Co., Inc. 1969.

Theories of Motivation in Learning. Richard Teevan and Robert Birney, eds. New York: D. VanNostrand, Co., Inc. 1964.

Seretan, Jennifer. Unpublished Manuscript. Learning Theory. 1996.

Student Learning Styles. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, LTD. 1991.

Student Learning Styles. National Association of Secondary School Principals, eds. 1979.