On finding that motivation to get children to become educated, off of the Front Page Sections, translated…
For children who aren’t interested in school, no matter how the test questions are written, and whether if it has anything to do with what they’d studied,, it’s all, too trying. The UDN papers asked the middle school math teacher, Liu to share how to help the students find their loves of learning back again.
Q: it’s hard enough to teach the kids how to do the problems, and my own child hated studying, what do I do? Am I doing something wrong in encouraging her/him?
There is a group of children who’d felt that sense of helplessness, with no motivation for their studies whatsoever. At this time, the external incentives are too important, getting the student interested in math, telling her/him that math is fun would NEVER work, instead, “if you finish these problems, I’ll buy you a chicken steak” would work way better.
But, you must be careful, when you utilize these external motivations. If doing one math problem, you give your child five dollars, and, making a passing grade would get them half-an-hour’s worth of game time on the cell phones, or, giving them an iPhone for making a hundred on the sectional exams………you will need to increase the degree of the rewards, and in the end, the child can’t see the point, and, then, the rewards would not work anymore.
I’m not saying, that the rewards system is ineffective, but to use it as a match. The matches are used to light up the charcoals, to light up that engine of the children’s willingness to learn. For instance, I’d given the chicken steaks to my students who’d met their learning goals, but never given them once classes are over, instead, I’d, given the foods to them during math class, having them come up one by one to get the foods, and, that way, the child would NOT just be eating the chicken steaks, but also, the look of envy, of “I wish I could” from their fellow students, and that, would be, a sense of pride that nothing ELSE can possibly, replace.
And, you can also, try to ignite that motive for learning on the inside. The cram study books on the markets today, all stated that they’re excellent for learning, that they can get your child ahead of their classmates, but even as the adults are buying these materials, for the students who’d hated learning long ago, it won’t be, effective, and it can easily turn into that final straw that crushed their motives for learning.
If the parents are willing to accompanying their young on the learning processes, have the students take out their texts, and help them manage only the problems on the textbooks. As the children can understand the assigned materials, then, add more from the outside, that way, the child won’t have more than s/he can chew.
And, if your children have troubles managing the textbook problems, the adults can the more basic problems for the child to practice them first.
And so, there may be a need for the extrinsic motivations of learning to get set up for the child, and, after awhile, after the orders of things got established, then, slowly, help the students, internalize the motivations for learning (i.e., I am doing this problem, because I want to know how it’s done, or I want to get the answers), and then, expand it outward. Learning isn’t overnight, and you can’t force a kid who HATED school, to love it instantly, but you can take steps, measures, giving them the motivations, so they can at least, pass their classes.
Life, the Obstacle Course 