Detrimental attitude or emotional state of student

Despite the factors within the school curriculum and teaching approach that can cause difficulties in learning, it seems that most teachers, psychologists and researchers still tend to focus almost exclusively on so-called ‘deficits’ or weaknesses within the child to account for learning problems. Even parents tend to assume immediately that there is something ‘wrong’ with their child if school progress is unsatisfactory.  So, it is necessary for us now to examine factors associated with the child that can also cause problems in learning.

Detrimental attitude or emotional state
Almost all children first enter school with a positive attitude. They are generally keen to take part in classroom activities and they expect to be successful when attempting everything the teacher asks them to do. However, it doesn’t take long for some children to experience failure or personal inadequacy. Perhaps something they try to do does not work out well – a drawing turns out badly and other children laugh at it; or when asked to write the numeral 12 on the board the child writes it as 21, again resulting in embarrassment.

The child is quick to realize that if he or she stops drawing pictures and avoids being called upon to write on the board, the chances of being ridiculed are greatly reduced. This is the beginning of the well-known ‘failure syndrome’ in which the child, through fear of getting something wrong, avoids participating fully in important learning activities, and thus begins to fall behind other children through passivity and lack of practice. Some children will try to protect their feeling of self-worth by refusing to attempt any task the teacher sets for them. They would rather be thought of as naughty and disobedient than run the risk of revealing that they can’t do the work.

The effect of failure on a child’s confidence and motivation can be devastating. It must be acknowledged that failure is not a pleasing experience, and given sufficient exposure to it almost any student will develop
avoidance strategies. From a child’s point of view, the basic message of the ‘failure syndrome’ is that, ‘If at first you don’t succeed, maybe you will never succeed’. The ‘failure syndrome’ probably accounts for many
instances of ongoing learning difficulties and avoidance behaviour across all school subjects. The effects of early failure are cumulative.

Constant failure can lead to the state called ‘learned helplessness’, in which the child comes to believe that he or she is incapable of succeeding with anything new the teacher introduces. The child cannot conceive of
being able to succeed through personal effort and has to rely instead on strong support from others. This encourages the child to become passive and dependent rather than active in learning situations. Learned helplessness greatly impairs motivation and participation.

Learning difficulties can also be caused if a child is distracted by anxiety about some aspect of family life, such as arguing between parents, fear of parental separation, illness or financial problems. Other worries may relate
to friendship difficulties within the peer group. This type of worrying or anxiety can prevent a child from concentrating in class.
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Capturing The Student's Mood

Capturing the mood of the student is essential to capturing a mind. Sometimes, even before setting up the course objective, the professor must first respond to students’ moods. For example, one day you might notice that the students are unusually tense. You become aware of a change in rhythm, or the way they entered class. Perhaps it is body tension: sitting with heads down; talking abruptly, loudly; and ignoring your presence. Maybe you overhear the chatter when the students walk in to the classroom.

You ask a question and learn, perhaps, that they just came from an incident in the previous class: a difficult midterm, the announcement of the new business 100K winner (for a startup), once, a (seemingly) unfairly challenged student. Perhaps, with only 10 minutes between classes, they will not have had time to digest news, or commiserate about an especially difficult test. (In some institutions where departments plan with each other, the professor will have a calendar showing all scheduled exams and papers and can anticipate student stress points.)

Instead of commencing that day with your material, begin explicitly with the students and their mood. Invite them to discuss, briefly, their fears, or the facts, or their excitement. The professor simply acknowledges this mood, hears what is going on, and, perhaps, reflects on it. This moment, in effect, reverses the physiological changes that had occurred in the students’ nervous systems. Their reactions have been quieted by their own examination and evaluation In a facilitator’s guide, it is a checking-in activity. By acknowledging the pressures they feel, or whatever they are feeling, and providing witness to their moods before putting them into the task at hand, the professor will help them put aside the previous incident. From brain research, we know, in effect, that hyperarousal takes over the bulk of a frontal cortex’s resources. Once freed up, the frontal cortex can focus on something else. And information obtained in the process of discovering your students’ moods will add to your understanding of their needs, your knowledge of who they are, as well as what else is occurring in your institution. It may even lead you to make new connections in your course to the students’ interests.

Motivation
Having attended to the mood, the professor will want to explore student motivation. It is not enough to tell students they need to know your subject matter, or that you have some unique slant on what they already know. Telling them the subject is useful is not even enough motivation for the student who already realizes its relevance. The student will need to understand two things: why the material is relevant and what knowledge they are missing.

When dealing with adult students who are professionals, this is especially important. Some courses may lend themselves more towards motivating learning than others. For example, a student’s interest in Futures and Options may be obvious. The student may know very little about the subject, and may be totally unfamiliar with the language. This makes it easier to get them to acknowledge that they are missing information.

However, they can guess scope and context in order to relate the subject matter to what they intuit or have experienced in their jobs as relevant. In some courses, Human and Organizational Behavior, for example,
students tend to take their knowledge for granted. The language is familiar; the solutions posed may sound like common sense—all adding to their sense of competence. Still other courses may seem unique but not fulfilling of a pressing need. One MBA required course, Conceptual Foundations of Business, essentially a course in business ethics, consistently received low course/faculty evaluations. But when alums were asked, three years out, which core course was of most value to them, this one received the highest ratings. The students had by that time experienced the ‘startle factor’—its relevance to their security and success. Still, involving the student during the semester proved difficult.

Motivating students to learn
To create an urgent need to learn is a little like trying to arouse someone from sleep. You want to increase alertness. Our brains attend to multiple stimuli, from within and without. ‘Novelty and reward are the two primary forces that direct the selection of where to focus our attention. The novelty system takes note of new stimuli. The reward system produces sensations of pleasure, assigning an emotional value to a stimulus, which also marks it for memory’ (A User’s Guide to the Brain, John J. Ratey). An ‘emotional’ value—key to long-term memory as well as motivating attention—means actively involving the students. The professor will help students ‘experience’ their needs, or help pinpoint more precisely where they are ignorant: through a case, a
discussion, a problem set, an example, or a role play. Recognizing in a graduate level course that some in the class are novices and others are experienced, the professor will acknowledge this difference implicitly or explicitly. The professor’s meta-communication, communication about the communication, to the knowledgeable will make clear the relevance of this material to them. Or, she will explain that for them this review and their involvement can be useful to those who are inexperienced. If possible, she will show how their knowledge might need refreshing or updating, or at least, invite them to bring their related practical experiences into discussion.

Motivating students can be simple and practical. One professor I know always brings extra copies of the assignment given out, and when asked about it by someone who missed the previous class, states, ‘Would I forget about you?’ In other words, her administration and housekeeping role is personal with her students. It is simple awareness, for example, that after 50 minutes of class, students need a stretch break. We can do many things that make it easier to help them manage the learning process.
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