How to Motivate Children to Learn?
Motivation can be defined as a state that mobilizes, directs and maintains behavior. Guides the interest of students towards new topics or forms of application of knowledge already acquired.
During learning, motivation is the guiding vector towards the acquisition of new knowledge (Rodríguez, 2006).
They demonstrate a commitment to learning crucial to academic, social, and emotional development.
They find schoolwork interesting and important, immerse themselves in their studies, and invest their energy in reaching their goals.
They look for challenges and see obstacles as opportunities to grow.
Best CBSE Schools in Coimbatore
They show a positive attitude towards learning and the environments intended for it, such as school.
All of the above justifies the need to motivate children to learn and to think of strategies to achieve it. That children feel motivated is important not only for learning, but also for themselves.
Motivation is the magic capable of making them feel as their own, and not as an imposition, the desire to learn . Next, we will present ten strategies to motivate children to learn.
Strategies to motivate children to learn
Before applying one or more of the following strategies, it is necessary to consider, in the first place, if there is something that is discouraging the child from learning.
Second, it would be good to identify the difficulties you are facing . Doing so will allow us to know the situation and the state of the child, placing us in a privileged state to find solutions to the problem.
1. Follow the five C's
For Adriana Ornellas (as cited in Sáez, 2020), the key to motivating children to learn is to carry out learning activities that include the five “Cs”:
Context: Let's help them connect learning with previous experiences and knowledge, so that they can relate the knowledge they acquire with their daily reality. Faced with the abstract, more characteristic of a fully developed nervous system, proposals that are concrete and with an immediate application win. In this sense, it is better for them to try to guess how much everything we are buying is going to cost than for them to do a good amount of sums without context.
Creativity : let us stimulate the creative resolution of real and significant problems . This process is motivating because it shows children the applicability of what they learn and their usefulness in solving problems.
Curiosity : Let's ignite or arouse children's interest in what they are learning. This factor is an excellent mobilizer for the search for knowledge and learning in them, since concerns drive them to seek answers.
Control : Let 's give children the opportunity to influence what they are learning and to choose how they learn it. With this, we help children to develop their autonomy and reinforce their ability to manage their own learning processes.
Colaboration : let's create a space for cooperation, interaction and exchange. Teamwork makes children feel accompanied and supported in the process.
2. Set small, concrete goals
To motivate children to learn, it is necessary to set specific and not too ambitious objectives. Let's try to make them draw a small mental plan with which they feel they can reach them; otherwise, they might get discouraged. This strategy will fuel children's motivation with a sense of accomplishment when they reach the goal.
To set goals or objectives, it is good to take into account their moods and attitudes. In many cases, we will have to intervene in these dimensions before focusing on encouraging motivation for learning.
Best CBSE Schools in Coimbatore
3. Adapt to each child
Each child has their own interests, dreams, needs, and learning styles. Keeping this in mind is important to motivate them.
If we know what they like, what they expect and how they learn, we can propose activities that connect with their way of being.
4. Encourage playful exploration
Gambling is a fantastic activity . Not only does it allow the little ones to have fun and immerse themselves in what they are doing, but they also usually have learning as a final product. In fact, in childhood, where almost everything is yet to be discovered, it is difficult to find a game with which children do not learn.
Now, here we can gain a lot if we know the preferences of each child. Is he calm or can't he sit still? Is it constant or does it tend not to finish what it starts? The answers to these questions will tell us which games to propose.
In this sense, adults tend to be quite clumsy and try to promote games that are in tune with our mood or energy level, when we want children to play.
5. Challenge children
To motivate children to learn we can use the challenge as a strategy. Challenging the little ones with an activity with which they can be successful will put us on the road.
It is advisable to present them with challenges that they can achieve on their own, or with a little help. Nothing happens if they have to face emotions such as frustration for a while, as long as these are not the protagonists or those with which their effort ends.
6. Give children control
Children are more motivated when they can exercise some degree of control over the activity they are doing . For this reason, it is good to convey to them the idea that knowledge can be acquired in many ways, and more so with the means that we currently have.
We can offer them the opportunity to think and create new ways to solve a problem. Making them feel that they can decide about their learning and that they are heard is essential for them to continue working with the idea that they are the center of the process in which they are immersed.
7. Reinforce the process, instead of the result
The way in which we motivate children to learn can make them guide their behavior from performance and not from learning. Although be careful, there is a danger, if we do not do it well, that, in our desire to enhance their motivation, we end up with intrinsic motivation .
In this sense, the reinforcements that work best are those that accompany their own sense of satisfaction : “just like you, I feel very satisfied with how you have worked hard, how you have made decisions and how much you have grown while trying. get what you wanted”; “ I feel very proud of your successes, but even more of your failures, because you have allowed these to be your teachers so that tomorrow you can help your classmates”.
Many times grades do not reflect what a child has learned, so the process needs to be praised. Thus, he recognizes that what is really important is what he does, his effort and not so much his results.
As we have seen, we can easily reinforce them for “ using good strategies on a project, staying focused, sticking with a project when obstacles arise, planning thoughtfully, paying attention to detail ” (Willingham, 2005).
Best CBSE Schools in Coimbatore
8. Create a study plan
To motivate children to learn it is helpful to create a study plan . With it, apprentices will be able to anticipate what lies ahead, in addition to evaluating the path already covered.
The plan is the compass, in the sense that it provides us with decisions already made when it is good that we dedicate our resources to the learning process. Thus, children do not have to spend energy deciding what they are going to study this week because it is already established in the plan.
Within this plan, breaks are important to recover energy . It is easy for little ones to live in a state of fatigue, end up feeling overwhelmed and discouraged by the same agent that used to motivate them.
In this sense, planning helps . It is a compass to know where we are, but also to avoid entering a dangerous zone of wear. If we talk about children and learning, it is best to negotiate with them, so that they can feel that they also have control over this section. In this way we will also be helping them on their way to autonomy.
9. Value learning
Children are more actively engaged in learning when they understand why they are being taught or why it is important to learn a certain lesson. We must constantly look for opportunities to point out the usefulness of what they are learning and invite them to think of other ways to use it in everyday life. This will motivate children because they will discover that learning is something valuable and useful in life.
Motivating is an art; it requires subtlety, but also decision; intelligence, but also enthusiasm . In addition, to motivate another, we must at least accompany him for a while at the beginning of the path, or be available to help. Together we always go further.
Comments
Post a Comment