I will continue to offer ideas to encourage the learning of your children and students. And today I will talk about motivation, which, in reality, is the true engine of learning and is a topic on which I am consulted a lot also in the context of teaching with White Pedagogy.
We are designed to learn what really interests us. If something does not interest us, we will forget it sooner rather than later and it will not leave a true mark on our experiences. Learning with pleasure is indispensable, since we also don't want children to learn content under enormous pressure of life or death, right?
Watch the child
Children show us what interests them. If we are talking about our children it is much simpler, because simply observing we can detect the issues that are currently exciting you and, detected, bring them back to them in greater depth and develop them to be able to "pull the thread" and expand even to other topics.
Dinosaurs, animals of the world, volcanoes, sports, eating and "decomposing", medieval knights and pirate adventures, art ... are things you can start to propose. From each question of your children you can draw thousands of ideas.
Keep an "educational diary" and learn to "pull the thread"
One proposal that I usually make to parents who feel more lost is to bring a "educational diary" in which, poop night, spend five minutes to write down the topics that day have been of interest to the child and take a few minutes to get some ideas to develop.
An example. Today our son was excited playing with his buildings making a city and asked us about the shape of one of them (a church, the town hall, the streets ...).
The next day, always attentive to the child does not get bored, we can approach those buildings around us and discuss their functions. That is experiential learning, "pull the thread" and make knowledge of the medium in the medium itself.
Motivation in the classroom
When we talk about motivate in a classroom We can think that it is more complicated, because logically not all children are going to be excited about the same things. But a teacher with empathy and creative ideas knows how to make children create their own projects and express common themes.
In addition, it must be taken into account, that there is usually a general curriculum to follow, although if we talk about Infant children this is much more flexible even. Even so, although the teacher will have to be more active and propose the topics, the possibility that children choose them, are divided into groups according to topics of interest, is enormously educational and also involves a practical learning of real social skills of cooperation and team research.
Respect learning styles
It is very important to know how to detect learning style of each child as well and allow him to learn in a way that everyone learns best. Any learning is better and more lasting if it is experiential and memory, natural human ability, is exercised remembering things that matter to you.
There are children who learn by observing, there are children who do better by listening and speaking. Others, those who tend to be less understood, are those who need to move and touch and act to assimilate what they learn. There are children who want to draw and color freely and others who feel comfortable with preset tabs. Everyone deserves the same respect and attention.
Understand memory
An example. Does a child have a good memory if he does not remember the letters but if the names of all the Pokemon? Of course. You will learn the lyrics, sure, you don't have to be overwhelmed if you don't recognize them yet with four years. In our society you will learn to read, sure.
Another example. As you know, I have a degree in Medieval History. I know the list of the famous Reyes Godos. I don't know it because I have memorized it, but because each one of them became my "friends" and I enjoyed their history and the details of their actions.
It's like when you know the name of your friends, you don't need to memorize them, you know them because they matter to you and leave an imprint on your neurons. If we understand that memory is a human faculty that is exercised using it and that what we memorize really is what matters to us We will have things much clearer.
Children love to learn, if a child is unmotivated and has lost curiosity and passion, we are teaching him in a way that is harmful to him. Rather than worrying about giving them instructions on how to learn, we should ask ourselves if we should learn how children learn to teach them better. I have it clear and A key is to know how to motivate them or, rather, not to lose their motivation.
