Is your child experiencing study blues?
Once upon a time somewhere in the deep jungle a Sparrow, Monkey, Penguin, Elephant, Fish, Seal, and Dog all tensed up… were lined up in front of the teacher. And the teacher said, “for a fair selection, everybody has to take the same exam: Please climb the tree.”
You can imagine this scenario in front of your eyes, what you see… many confused, & worried faces starting to lose their confidence except few. What this story tells us that we all are unique and we have our own ways of learning.
However, our current education system does not acknowledge that and every day we are asking them to climb a tree. Which is tough. What we experience at the end are study or learning blues.
Experiencing study blues is common with many students. Therefore, it is important to understand what causes study blues and how we could arrest them to some extent so that students are motivated to learn.
Morale support: it is very easy to categories or label children. In most of the cases, invalidation by parents and teachers is the biggest cause which affects students’ interest and self-confidence. It is quite natural for us to look at their problems through a lens (I call it) TTWWADI (That’s The Way We Always Did It). That approach cannot work in every case. That might have suited you… as you are different than them. Hence, it is important for parents to put themselves into their kid’s shoes and understand what they are going through? What is not working for them? For every problem, tuition cannot be a solution (we had a student client who was going for three math tuitions – what do you think would be the outcome?… A brilliant grade in math… or more confusion?). When I interact with teachers during workshops I emphasis that teaching and learning are two different processes happening in two different people i.e. teacher and student (the teacher is teaching while the student is learning). Therefore, while teaching it is very important for the teacher to understand to whom she is teaching? Therefore, better and empathetic relationship can be a solace for children and can reduce their learning blues.
Self-studies: One of the famous quotes by Plutarch (AD 46-AD 120, famous Greek Biographer) says it all. He says, “Mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.” These days students run from pillar to post, from one class to another. And literally, there is very little or no time for self-study. Self-study means the devotion of time and attention to gaining knowledge of an academic subject without assistance from a teacher or tutor. It is time to assimilate knowledge, synthesis, finding the real-life applications of the learned things. Homework cannot be categorized as self-study. Instead of quantity, it is the quality that matters. Therefore, the student then resorts to mugging which can be deceiving at times and can be challenging in the later years.
Lack of motivation and planning: I guess given a choice we would be doing some other activities than studies. The reasons are simple, many of us would consider studies or learning to be boring and not exciting. So, the question is… how do we make studies or learning exciting and motivating? Carol Dweck, Stanford University Professor of Psychology, advocates about growth mindset and how it can help the student change their perspective while dealing with day to day problems and challenges. Its all about success, bread, success. Efforts rather than intelligence are valued more as it produces positive outcomes. Growth mindset also tells a student, how to build a performance step by step and create reasonable but consistent improvement.
Brain Integration: it is very important for students to understand as to how the brain facilitates learning? What activities they should perform quite often so that their brain integrates and performs well for the effectiveness, concentration, focus, memory, cognition, and self-efficacy. Contemporary research in the field of neuroscience and neuron plasticity gives us solid evidences that it is very much possible that we create new circuitry in our brain which helps us to memorize well, grasp difficult things with ease and keep us agile for complex problem-solving.
So, I would consider that study or learning blues are quite natural and they can occur in one’s life. With the right approach, methods, techniques, and mindset it can be reduced significantly.
©Vijay Sonawane @ 9920204727