Developing a Child's Love of Learning

Exploring children's relationship to learning, Gayathri Thirtapura, Founder Director of Parent Musings Services, delved into the differences between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in learning. Her talk “School Parent Partnership in Nurturing the Child's Love for Learning,” explored the ways teachers and parents can foster student learning in a genuine way.

 

“Every child can develop intelligence and and sustain a love learning if they are given the right environment,” she explained.

To create the right environment for fostering intrinsic motivation, Gayathri discussed, creating assessments for children so that they don't even realize they are being assessed, create formative assessments that measure their learning along the way and use them as instructional tools-use results to plan and create future learning opportunities, allow children to explore other activities and avoid competition among peers.

 

She described the impediments of extrinsic motivation explaining, students who are extrinsically motivated (work for rewards and praise from others) stop the task when the reward is removed, choose easier tasks that make them look good, often perform lower than students who are intrinsically motivated (inspired from within) and often possess lower compassion and cooperation.

 

During the question and answer session, participants asked “How can we create an environment that nurtures a love for learning?” Responding, Gayathri explained that experiential learning full of movement based opportunities, peer learning, and providing children with choice all help foster intrinsic motivation.

Leaving us all with much to think about, Gayathri concluded her presentation emphasising the benefits of developing intrinsic motivation in children.