15 Nov What if I would like as much as I don`t want,
What if I would like as much as I don`t want,
“Success is a ladder you cannot climb with your hands in your pockets,”– said Philip Wylie. So, what should we do to make students take their hands out in order to reach for knowledge with them? What should you do to make them realize the benefits that come from learning, and make a decision about learning on their own?
Motivate, but teach to explore sources of motivation in themselves
“Motivation” comes from the Latin word “movere”, which means “to move”, so it affects taking an action or giving it up. We can decide about it based on two types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic.
The first one comes from within us and makes us feel contentment as a result of performing a particular activity and not only based on its outcome. Students with intrinsic motivation will acquire knowledge willingly and with a belief in his own benefit. They will learn because they want to; not because they are supposed to do so. In this case, the fact of gaining and the achievement of knowledge will become the goal. Students who learn biology because it interests them and, in the future, they are going to be a doctor – this constitutes intrinsic motivation and they do not need additional factors that would encourage them to do a task.
It is completely different in the case of a person who would learn so as to obtain a degree with honours, so as to fulfill parents’ dream and be admitted into a university, or simply from fear, to stay away from problems at school or at home. These are all extrinsic motivating factors that make us do something to get a reward for it or to avoid punishment. Unfortunately, this second type of motivation is much more common at school. Why?
The contemporary culture is called an instant culture by researchers (see Z. Melosik, Popular Culture as a Socialization Factor), which refers to life in immediacy. This culture consists of a triad: fast food (microwave oven, take-out coffee, soup mixes etc.), fast car(instant communication without time or spatial limits) and fast love(”love” without commitment, superficial, focused only on physical satisfaction).
Therefore, young people grow up in the world focused on immediate benefit. Effort = gratification. The reward should – from this perspective – appear immediately after the effort has been made. This is what students expect from the school and teachers. Since I have studied and committed, I want to be positively assessed. When this happens, I’m preparing for the next start, for the next race, for the next medal, for the next prize.
And there would be nothing wrong with it, if not for the fact that such a race never ends because there are still more laps to overcome, and the route runs beyond the school years and reaches adult life. Such an externally motivated person will never feel satisfaction from what he does. He will never feel sated and satisfied, because in this mad run he will not be able to notice his achievements. And this can only lead to growing frustration and even depression.
The student – but also each of us – should therefore slow down, give himself a chance to enjoy success, to see the benefits of the task, the benefits other than the external, tangible ones. So, before we go on, let’s immerse ourselves in what is now.
Every educator should teach such an attitude, regardless of the fact that, as we know, it is forced into the framework of a system focused on the implementation of the core curriculum and moving on to the next issue as soon as possible. A teacher who does not undergo this pressure will not allow his work to be subordinated to the results of tests and examinations; he will teach this attitude and his charges so that they can enjoy the fact of acquiring knowledge, not only the grades they have received for it.
In fact, intrinsic motivation is more durable and oriented, one might say, toward a greater advantage, toward self-fulfillment and satisfaction. In addition, when we are motivated intrinsically, we do not have to pay attention to whether someone appreciates us, whether we are able to meet someone’s requirements, or do well – in somebody’s opinion – we do our job. It is enough that we ourselves are satisfied with ourselves and we enjoy the undertaking we undertake, not only with its effects.