After the holidays, children and adolescents resume classes, some with much encouragement after the well-deserved rest for having obtained good grades, but many others without the necessary strength to face what awaits them: 5 months of hard work.
If we ask any Primary or Secondary student about their motivation towards study, most will answer that they study because it is supposed to be the right thing to do, because their parents oblige them or because it is the way they have to obtain that wonderful gift when summer arrives. Why does this happen?
The reasons why they are not motivated to study
Whether it's homework, preparing a job, or studying for an exam, most parents often hear complaints. Normally, we attribute these complaints to the fact that our son or daughter is lazy, however, behind a lack of motivation to study there can be many reasons such as:
1. A boring or little pedagogical material.
2. The fact of having failed in that subject in the past.
3. Problems of a personal nature, such as lack of confidence in one's ability.
4. Little connection with the teacher or the group-classroom; and many more.
But whatever the reason that makes a student move away from books, it is always possible to awaken the illusion to learn, and it is in learning precisely where the key to motivate is.
Study to learn
But mom, what is the use of studying this? This is a question that all parents listen to sooner or later, and then, secretly, they often discuss with the partner or a friend.
The problem is not what needs to be studied or what teachers teach in class, but rather what the student learns is presented with absolutely no connection to real life. To better understand this, we will illustrate it with an example: the study of the Declaration of Human Rights.
Normally, Social Sciences books contain a topic in which one of the questions is "what are human rights" and another "what are human rights". What's more, this is even a subject from which opponents of all the police forces in Spain are examined. But you read the subject and it seems cold. It feels like you are reading a list of things that are "supposed to be important," but you don't really know why.
Well, in knowing what the key is for, what if instead of reading the topic, students had to speak by email with a descendant of the Nazi holocaust or who had participated in the fight against Apartheid in South Africa?
Motivating requires everyone's effort
It seems easier said than done. That is why when parents who come to my courses or who read my articles ask me "Jenny, why do teachers make it so complicated?" I always answer them the same: because changing the teaching method in any teaching system is very complicated. But it is also something that teachers do not have much help with.
I am convinced that the key to motivating students is in the collaboration between the educational team and the family. Therefore, whenever I work with families, I inform them of the importance of becoming familiar not only with the educational system of their country, but also with other aspects, such as the educational style of their teacher, with the study material of your child, the way in which he is tested or the limiting beliefs that he or she may have towards the task of studying.
It turns out that to motivate your child you have to study a lot of things too. Are you motivated for it? .
