What motivates us to study?
You may well say that when we are discussing the motivation of eating, sleeping and so forth we are talking about "natural processes" for which there must be " natural motives" built in the mind. Surely, however, as "studying" is not a natural process there can be no motives designed to activate the mind towards it. The answer to this problem lies in the fact that many, if not all, motives are capable of adaptation to the circumstances in which they are to be used. The following motives probably play a large part in making us want to study or create desire for studying, providing we are reasonably competent to tackle the material involved:
- Curiosity, i.e. the natural tendency to want to find out as much as possible about happenings about your surroundings.
- Ambition, i.e. the sophisticated manifestation of aggression turned not towards other people but towards problems, hurdles, promotion, etc;
- Competition, i.e. the desire for self-respect, social acceptance and respect from others by being able to cope with problems and life as well as if not better than they can;
- Interest, i.e. the feeling that a subject or problem is worth tackling and overcoming for its own sake.
The Importance of Motivation
From what we have just mentioned it is obviously very important that we should constantly strive to control and direct our motives in a manner most likely to improve our studying efficiency. This is a very difficult task to advise on but the following practical hints may be given:
- Always try to understand the material you are studying , the reasons for studying it, the need for success, purpose of studying etc. A lazy student can often be strongly motivated by failure in a mock examination or terminal test when he/she realizes that a greater effort is required it eventually he/she is to succeed.
- Knowledge of how you are progressing acts in much the same way. To write essays and answer tests whose marks are not told to you or even to follow a two-or-three-years course with no definite assessments during its continuation can greatly reduce motivation in a student. Many teachers believe that for best motivation an encouraging mark (i.e. not too depressingly low but not so high that the student rests on his laurels) should be given wherever possible.
- If you believe your work to be important or interesting motivation is generally good. You can visit other related pages of this site for more information relating study.
- Competition is another excellent form of motivation either with:
- Other students in a similar situation to yourself ( providing that you do not always excel or come at the bottom of the group):
- Yourself by keeping records of how much your performance has improved during a given period of time.
Back
|
|
