Children's Motivation to Learn

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Intrinsic motivation to learn is something that most parents and educators hope for in their children / students, because when a child truly enjoys learning, daily routines such as going to school, attending tuition, doing homework become such a breeze. Yet to be intrinsically motivated to learn can be pretty tricky - academic content that children are required to learn may not be interesting because of the level of difficulty. In addition, not knowing the relevance to learning certain Mathematics concepts can make learning extra un-motivating.

So how can we help our children be more interested in what they learn, or essentially, be intrinsically motivated to learn?

Tips To Consider

Helping children find relevance in what they learn by sharing why is it important to learn those content. This does not mean telling them to "learn your school work and score well in your exams so that you can be a manager in the future". Relevance means sharing how learning academic content can be useful in their daily lives.

• For example, fractions can be a challenging topic for some children and thus, dreadful to learn. Relevance of it is learning how to divide a big piece of pizza evenly for everyone in the room - (almost) no child would want a smaller piece than their sibling! I was just teaching my Primary 4 students on directions - they just simply love this topic because they find it really applicable to their lives! It was truly a breeze teaching this.

• And if you are one who loves fun, such topic can be converted into an action game! Like, go to the living room, put some tapes on the floor with objects to identify the directions, we can have a fun evening exploring directions and angles!

Relevance is why children are relatively more interested in Science than in Mathematics - they see life cycles in animals (tadpoles v frogs) happening in reality, flowers and fruits growing, observing the magic of magnetism. While on the other hand, Mathematics involve a lot of numbers and may be less "imaginable" for children.

With such support, they will truly be more interested to learn what they are learning!

To internalise the value of learning. Why do we learn? Help your child explore this topic during your daily conversations. It can start off on what they do/learn in school, what do they enjoy most when they are in school (usually recess or PAL time!!) and why, why do they not like certain subjects (is it boring or the teacher?). Then, slowly share with them your experience - but avoid overloading values on your child as this may make the conversation overwhelming. During this process, help them understand why we head to school to learn those challenging content, e.g. so that we can think more and grow our brains, so that we can learn how to talk to our friends better when we do group work. Finding value in learning is one good method to make learning more fun!

Providing choices. This is a tip that we have shared, and only because it is such a powerful and empowering one for children.

• First, providing choices involves choices that would reach the objective (e.g. practising spelling before or after dinner, completing homework in the study room or the balcony).

• Second, they need to stick. If children choose an option not within the options provided, it is important for us to keep to our words.

• Rationalise with them why the objective has to be met. Rewards and punishments may be included, but do remember that eventually, rewards required become bigger and bigger overtime and so do punishments.

What Expert Says?

Provision of autonomy does not equate entirely to independence or individualism. I have heard of parents telling me that they do not want to provide autonomy (or choices) to their children because they fear losing control. On the other end, I have also known of parents giving children free realm of choices without limits. These are very extreme ends and are not what supporting children's psychological need of autonomy mean. Supporting the need of autonomy requires the receiver to think, reflect and make a choice that they want. When it comes to children, adults need to measure if the situation allows children understand and make the most rational choice - if children are not developmentally ready to make a good and informed choice (such as a young child wanting to withdraw from school), adults will need to advise well. It is a challenge to provide and support autonomy, but not unachievable :D

On the first tip provided in this post, what does it mean to internalise the value of an activity? I remember the younger me studying because it was what I was told to do by my teachers and parents. If I were to match it to the Self-Determination Theory's Continuum, I would categorise my motivation to learn then as introjected regulation - me doing my homework involved compliance with an external regulation. Opposing it to someone who do his/her homework because they personally grasp its value towards their chosen career, this person's motivation would be identified regulation. What is the difference, you may ask, since both are extrinsic motivation. The second is more sought after due to the type of autonomy: "I do my work because of my choice, not because of others". With such autonomy, learning would be more motivating!

We Say....

Cultivating intrinsic motivation to learn can be tricky, and there would definitely be days when we would prefer/need a break from learning even if we are intrinsically motivated to learn! Striking a balance between learning and playing is important for children and for us too. If you find yourself wanting to grasp more on this topic to cultivate an intrinsically motivated child, drop us a message, we'd love to share more details!

Leaving you with a thinker at the end of this post: Is it better to be motivated to learn for a better career or to avoid punishment? (Remember, both are extrinsic!) Tell us! :D