Have you ever wondered about why in the past the children faced corporal punishment in schools? Why was there a need to punish children while learning? Were the children that much incapable and dull that they were unable to learn things? Or, Was it the necessity for teachers to beat children to make them learn things? If the answer is no, where was the weakness then? Was it in children or in teachers? These are certain questions that need to be pondered up on. It may not be wrong to quote a famous saying here,” You can lead a horse to water, but you can never make him drink. “ This well known saying has some relevance here. You can take children to school, and make them sit in the classroom and deliver your lesson before them but you can not make them understand unless they feel motivated towards the lesson. ‘MOTIVATION’ is an important and unavoidable termin this context of education. Motivation is described as the sustained energized behaviour. Motivation plays a vital role in education and without it one can not think of successful education and learning. Motivation increases persistence and cognitive processes which eventually leads to improved results and performance. It also increases willingness among the learners to get ready for learning.But the question is how to develop motivation? There are several ways to develop motivation among children. The first one is developing growth mind set. You need to break fixed mind set and develop a positive attitude by involving children through different activities. Next is building a good relationship with children and get to know each child so that they may feel at home. Cultivating a positive environment in the classroom is another way to motivate children. You must set goals and layout clear objectives to make them feel unambiguous. By making lessons engaging through speech, tone and pitch variations and by using stories you can easily develop curiosity among your children about the lesson. Further they get motivated by offering rewards and recognizing individual child’s strengths.Moreover youcan provide them with choices so that they may not feel bound in any way. Further more positive competition should be developed in the school to make children feel confident and improve their performance.
Motivation has a pivotal role to play in education in achieving the learning objectives without making use of any kind of pressure tactics that in contrary suppress the feelings, ideas and emotions of children.
Group learning and peer learning helps them to work in collaboration thus enhance their learning capabilities. You should encourage self reflection by making use of formative assessment so that children get to know their strengths and weaknesses. Model Enthusiasm for Learning and be inspirational figure in children’s lives , as you know that Your passion for your subject is contagious for your children. Try to apply their interests and hobbies and find ways to make the material fun for your children. Use games and fun activities rather than lectures and grab their attention with stimulating music. When they feel that their experiences are valued, they will definitely work harder to share their best kind of experiences, ideas, feelings. Give them the responsibilities, get them involved and give them a sense of ownership over what they are learning. Draw connection to real life situations, use technology and their experience to fuel your lessons to achieve the desired outcomes. Give them objectives to achieve goals and start by giving them easy goals, then systematically increase the difficulty level to have them gain confidence and competencies. In this way the children always get motivated in their lives towards the desired learning outcomes and help them achieve goals. Thus motivation has a pivotal role to play in education in achieving the learning objectives without making use of any kind of pressure tactics that in contrary suppress the feelings, ideas and emotions of children.
(The author is a freelancer. The views, opinions, facts, assumptions, presumptions and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the author and aren’t necessarily in accord with the views of “Kashmir Horizon”.)
[email protected]
