If you are a school teacher, you already know that the way students feel impacts how well they learn. Motivating learners to become self-directed for life often starts with helping them gain insights into their emotions and building skills that help them be more resilient. Of course, parents often assume this role as well, motivating their children to do their best in school. Social-emotional learning programs help to build the foundation for motivation.
A Helping Hand
A successful program for motivating students empowers their growth by combining research and interactive content to fuel the necessary changes in their brains. New thinking pathways lead to personal growth and development. When students are challenged mentally, they are given opportunities succeed. When mistakes happen, students learn to balance these experiences out with successful experiences. Over time, they realize their mistakes are opportunities to improve — not failures.
Helping Students Help Themselves
While research and science help students become more motivated to learn, there many subtle things teachers and parents can provide a student that are far more significant.
Setting goals and nurturing aspirations are two small things that can have a significant impact. When students develop a positive vision of their possible selves, they see how their present actions can affect future outcomes. This leads to self-direction. Being motivated to complete goals can help students move forward in a positive direction. The ability to guide themselves means students can also pick their directions and adjust their course when needed.
Students are also better off when they learn resilience, along with goal setting. Reaching any goal gives them a genuine sense of accomplishment and confidence to build on in pursuit of more goals. And resilience helps them keep moving when they hit bumps in the road on the way to achieving that goal.
