Student learning depends on many factors and many people are involved, such as parents, teachers, school districts, friends, and the student. In my opinion, the student is the most responsible for his or her own learning. Although I agree that teachers and parents play a significant role in student learning, a student will have a low chance of learning if they are not motivated to learn. Motivation to learn can be either intrinsic or extrinsic but it is up to the student to decide whether or not they value learning enough to be motivated. Even though parents, teachers, and school districts give out awards to students who achieve a certain level of learning, it is solely up to the student if they choose to learn and work towards these goals. In my own experience, I have seen many students object to the simplest learning task when the reward was well worth it. Some students simply refuse to work towards learning. This may not be entirely the fault of the student. The involvement of parents is a major role in student learning as well.
There are many parents who stress the importance of education and learning to their children. Unfortunately, there are also parents who do not teach their students the value of education. This causes some young children to ignore the importance of learning, which means that they do not put forth much effort into their education. Nevertheless, there are still students who strive for success in learning without the support or encouragement of their parents. This may mean that other people, such as teachers, are motivating them to learn. Teachers play a very important roll in a student’s education. These are the people who are working to increase the knowledge of students and motivate them to learn on their own. In my opinion, this should be the goal of every teacher: promote self-learning. Meaning a student should be an aggressive learner and seek out education. However, this will be very difficult to do if the student is not intrinsically motivated to learn.
Students are the ones who will gain the benefits of learning and they must be aware that there are benefits. I believe that a student who realizes this will be a very effective learner and will truly care about his or her education. The student may adopt this belief from a parent, friend, or teacher, which is what almost every student does. But the most important factor here for learning is that the student enjoys, strives for, or seeks out knowledge. These actions are driven by the student’s beliefs, which govern what he or she values. If a student values knowledge, he or she will be the most influential factor in his or her learning. Therefore, my breakdown for learning responsibility is:
- 50% Students
- 30% Parents
- 20% Teachers
Rob,
ReplyDeleteI like your viewpoint on the motivation of students. I think that many of us as pre-service teachers underestimate the power of motivating students through goal setting or having effective activities to captivate student interest. I also liked your point about the involvement and expectations of the parents. If parents don't expect much from their kids than it definitely makes our jobs harder as teachers to be able to reach the students who have learned such ignorance for learning at such a young age. It is very important for the parents to show students that learning is important to their growth and that they must want to grow as an individual in order to succeed in anything. Good post!