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Chapter 4: Motivate Yourself to Learn, Manage Your Emotions and Be a Resilient Learner

Motivate Yourself to Learn

As the spelling of the word suggests, motivation is what 'moves' us. It is the driving force behind all we do. Our desire to participate in the learning process motivates us to learn. We feel more motivated when the teacher presents the materials more engagingly and excitingly. While this is perfectly fine, we do not always have to be so passive. We can take control of our motivation too and this is what we are going to focus on here.


The power of self-motivation

Students with good motivational competence know what motivates or demotivates them and can use that knowledge to regulate their motivation for learning. Learning to manage motivation is one of the essential aspects of lifelong learning.

To demonstrate this point, consider the following two scenarios you are experiencing:

Scenario #1:

You are reading this article because you need to. You read it for a class and do not want to get a lousy grade. In this situation, you are not excited or passionate about the content, but you know you need to get it done. This feeling of obligation motivates you to do the task.

Scenario #2:

You are reading this article because you want to. You are interested in learning-to-learn (L2L) and simply want to know more about the topic of motivation and emotion. You are willing to invest time and effort in enjoying the learning experience.
So, in which scenario would you be more effective in learning? In which scenario would you be more efficient in learning?

In which scenario do you feel more fulfilled? Scenario #2. Right?

It may come as no surprise that learning for its own sake and your purposes is likely to be more fulfilling, enjoyable, and successful than learning to meet external standards or please other people. While meeting external standards and pleasing other people can certainly motivate us to get things done, that usually make us feel exhausted physically and mentally. The critical concept brought out in Scenario #2 is intrinsic motivation. Not only do we learn more effectively and efficiently when we are intrinsically motivated, but we are also more able to cope with stress and happier when we are doing what we want to do.

How to motivate yourself? This video will give you some idea:

think  Get Yourself Motivated! 

Read the news excerpt below, ask yourself what you have learned from this story, and try to reflect on your own learning experience in relation to it. Ask yourself what actions you will take to increase your motivation to learn.

"A transportation engineering undergraduate student at Tongji University learned mathematics in a unique way. He said he was shocked when he first enrolled in the Mathematical Modelling course. The Math book was like a sealed book to him. Thus, he gradually lost interest in the curriculum. It was not until he read an article about the table tennis playing techniques of Ma Long and Zhang Jike (world-known Chinese table tennis male players) that he was inspired to use scientific and systematic analysis to explain the differences in their catching habits. This allowed him to understand Probability theory and relate the book knowledge to real life. It turned out to be quite intriguing and valuable. With each new mathematical formula he learned, he pondered how to use it in his daily life." source: Never stop to discover your motivation to learn.


References

Manage Your Emotion and Be a Resilient Learner

Look at the picture below and consider what you will do if you are in danger. Will you fight or flight (flee)?

emotion

The fight-or-flight response (also known as the acute stress reaction) refers to a physiological reaction that occurs when we are in the presence of something mentally or physically terrifying (Cannon, 1915) . It represents our ancient ancestors’ choices when facing danger in their environment. They could either run away or stand-and-fight.

Can you think of a time when you experienced a fight-or-flight response? For example, when facing an exam or essay deadline or preparing a presentation in class, did your heart pounding? Were you panting? Or did your whole body become tense?

We may have negative emotions, such as fear, anxiety, disappointment, and nervousness, when facing learning setbacks What can you do to manage your emotions well? And what actions will you take in response to these emotions? Once deciding to accept all the difficulties head-on and choosing to stand up and fight, but still losing at the end, what would you do? To give up, or get back up and keep fighting?

The power of managing emotions and becoming resilient

Jensen (1998) suggests that emotions are a critical source of information for learning (p.78). There is no aspect of learning that does not involve emotions. The emotional component is a large part of it. One who can master emotions can master actions, and the one who masters their actions is the master of all future realities.

What begins in your formative years at school as meta-cognitive social and emotional learning after many missed goals, skinned knees, and broken hearts eventually determines your fortitude as an adult to make your way through sticky spots in life. The familiar comforts of childhood friends, compassionate teachers and principals, and the academically supportive ways of school tend to cushion the fall for your adolescent selves as you build resilience.

College, however, is a whole different beast. In a 2018 study of Hong Kong students, results showed that among university undergraduates, 69% showed symptoms of depression, with 54% suffering from anxiety (Lun et al., 2018) . You may already be experiencing many new stressors all at once, such as busy class schedules, extracurriculars, competing for work, studying, and social demands. Difficult situations can arise at any point, but you might find encountering setbacks and obstacles demoralising or even derailing. Building resilience is key to helping you develop the ability to overcome stressful and challenging experiences. How you learn to handle hurdles will have a lasting impact on your future careers and relationships.

Broadly speaking, resilience means bouncing back from a stressful encounter and not letting it affect your internal motivation. It is not a ‘bend but doesn’t break’ trait; instead resilience is accepting that 'I feel terrible' and 'I am broken' but continuing to grow with the broken pieces together. When you are resilient, you not only adapt yourselves to stress and disappointments that come with learning, you also extend the insight to avoid actions that might lead you to face such situations.

Resilience is our ability to bounce back from life's challenges and unforeseen difficulties,
providing mental protection from emotional and mental disorders - Michael Rutter (1985)

Students who are more resilient have better social and educational performance and problem-solving skills (Coskun, 2014). Developing resilience is also positively associated with happiness and can reduce the stress and anxiety related to challenging situations (Pennock, 2017). For example, if you have developed the capacity to create a compelling and healthy work schedule while accounting for potential sources of delays, you will be more likely to meet your deadlines and achieve your goals with less stress and with a higher potential for success.

How to manage your emotions? This video will give you some practical tips:

think Understand your emotions

Understanding your emotions is crucial to your learning development. At the end of the day, try to complete this table (click to download) to identify your most recent learning emotions and recall what caused these emotions and how you reacted to these situations.. 

 

References