Operation: Motivation
Matt Champion in the principal at Central Park Public School in Markham, Ont. He’s found that students’ attitudes towards learning depend on their age.
“When you’re working at the primary level, there’s an intrinsic motivation at a young age,” Champion said. “They’re just starved to learn at that point.”
Eight-year-old Michael Jackman is at that point. He wakes up before dawn to get to 6 a.m. hockey practice, strives to get the top scores in math class, likes to express himself through art and is curious about the other cultures discussed in religion class. Michael is a learning sponge. He said he is interested in learning because a new skill or concept brings about a sense of accomplishment.
“You feel good when you get good grades because you’ve worked hard,” Michael said.
Kathy Seal is a journalist who has always been interested in human behaviour. She has written two books on the subject of learning and motivation. Echoing Michael’s reflection, she said accomplishment is itself a motivator.
“That good feeling from becoming competent spurs us on to learn more things so we can get that good feeling again,” Seal said.
As well, she said it’s a survival instinct to seek out new skills and information.
“Psychologists believe that babies are born curious with a desire to learn,” Seal said. “The way evolution has hard-wired them… (this) ability to learn skills enables them to survive.”
Even at eight, Michael suspects that having some sort of skill set makes him a more popular member of society. He said that one advantage of working hard in school is being well-liked.
“Teachers like you more and you’re more popular because people know you’re good at something,” he said. “People want to be friends with someone who is good at something.”
Champion says that learning for the sake of learning tends to wear off as students reach adolescence.
“(Motivation) starts to become more of a challenge when they get older. In Grades 7 though 9… you need to focus more on engagement,” he said. “By the time kids get to early adolescence their shift really becomes social learning. They’re wanting to connect more with peers.
When he taught Grade 7, he found that he really needed to tap into that social dynamic to focus students on learning.
“When you’re working with older students, you’re going to try and get them working groups and engaged in conversation together,” Champion said. “The trick is… to set up structures to stay on task.”
Champion said another way to engage students is to play to their interests.
“One of the things teachers will try is to survey the students to find topics they want to learn,” he said.
Referring to Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, Champion said it is important for teachers to plan activities around different kinds of intelligence. While some students in the class might respond really well to math and logic problems, others will be frustrated. But they might respond really well to activities centered around linguistics or visualizing.
Champion and Seal agree that in addition to a teacher’s attempt to engage students in learning, a child’s home life plays a role in his motivation too. Seal said that young people whose parents are attuned to their needs and feelings tend to be more curious and take more initiative in school and activities.
“When your child has the secure base of your caring and affection, when she knows she will get what she needs from you both materially and emotionally, she’s more likely to venture out into the world confidently to explore it,” Seal said.
Champion said people need to see a benefit to what they’re learning.
“Some kids, if learning doesn’t seem relevent, either to their world today or the world they’re going into, they just tune right out,” he said.
One Grade 8 student at Champion’s school doesn’t see any importance in working hard in school. The student has a brother who dropped out in Grade 10 and now has a job making $15 per hour.
“To the kid in Grade 8, it doesn’t matter. In his eyes, the brother is making a million dollars,” Champion said. “So he’s thinking, ‘Why do I care if I do well in school?’ He can’t see far enough down the road to realise a $15-an-hour job isn’t going to support him for the rest of his life.”
On the flipside of that, Michael Jackman has been raised with the belief that a good education is important so he has always been encouraged to do his best. Michael says he does well in math class because his dad likes math. He likes reading because he can exercise his curiosity all on his own.
“(Independent reading) is a whole new stage,” Michael said. “When you can’t read, you can’t tell what things are. When you can, you can read about all new things you can learn in books and you can read jokes and take up some spare time and it’s fun.”
