By Mr Kwok
This is a continuation of our earlier post, A Checklist of Reasons Why Students Perform Poorly – Are you looking at the right ones?. In it, we discussed the various reasons that could have led to a student’s poor performance. They are all important reasons no doubt but the more we reflect upon them through the lens of our teaching experiences, the more convinced we are that a recurring reason stands out. As in Lord of the Rings, it is the one ring that controls the other Rings of Power. It is also our belief that when this single most important factor is rectified, all other issues will fall into place like a chain of dominoes.
What is this all-important factor then? The heart of the matter is figuratively the heart – the motivation to persevere against hardship and boredom, the desire to improve oneself, the courage to imagine the reality of attaining good academic results. In many cultures, the “heart” signifies strength of character, fortitude and willpower so we shall use the metaphor as such here. (It also represents love though that is obviously not our focus.) Obviously, a “strong heart” confers benefits to all areas of one’s life but we shall limit our discussion to academic matters in this writing.
Signs of a Lack of Heart
Too often, we have seen weak students remaining weak because they lack the heart to focus and work hard. They consciously decide to take the “easy” way out by losing themselves in the world of social media and gaming. Mind you, playing a game or two, reading and sending a post or two can add variety to daily life and destress oneself but being continually glued to the mobile or laptop for social media and games is not okay.
Other signs of a lack of heart in a student include:
- Cannot wait for the lesson to end or want the lesson to end early
- Prefers to guess an answer rather than thinking and working through to obtain the solution
- Prefers multiple choice questions to open ended questions
- Prefers to guess an answer rather than asking for help
- More interested in rushing to get the answer instead of understanding the working involved
- Tends to miss out details or misread the question in their rush to get it over and done with
- Often makes careless mistakes
- Worse still, overlooks entire questions and leave them blank
- Misses out corrections required for his mistakes
- Unable to follow written or verbal instructions well
- Unable to pay attention and tends to be restless or in a daze
- Engages in other activities e.g. talking to another student, stirring up trouble, talking nonsense
- At the extreme, he may even verbalise that he is not interested in his studies.
Naturally, the above signs are not supposed to be taken in isolation. Every student will occasionally act out one or more of the above signs. We are all human and have lapses in our concentration. But for a student to constantly display a combination of the above signs, it is surely a cause for concern.
What can a Teacher do?
In conventional psychology, motivation is split into intrinsic i.e. the student himself wants to do well vs. extrinsic i.e. the student fears punishment or desires a reward. We believe that only intrinsic motivation can be sustainable and helps the student in the long term. However, extrinsic motivation does have its place, especially in providing a scaffold in the right direction for the student to reach for intrinsic motivation.
For us teachers, we do what any good teacher does. First and foremost, our actions should be based on a genuine desire to help our students. Such sincerity cannot be faked and can generally be felt by our students. Other actions that we should take include:
- Give praise or criticism when it is deserved
- Get students’ attention e.g. providing an interesting background to the content
- Actively engage them with the right instructional activities
- Craft the right content with a consideration of their academic ability and level of study
- Provide feedback on their performance
- Reinforce prior learning
Naturally, each of the above actions takes effort and time on the part of the teacher. The more experienced and dedicated the teacher, the more targeted and effective each action becomes.
What can You as a Parent do?
Our belief is ultimately, the parents play the greatest role in a student’s heart. Responsibility further extends to the student’s immediate family or household. To answer the question in the heading, Parents can do a lot, whether in bringing up poorly motivated students or mature students who can do the right thing for themselves. Fortunately, parents can do a lot to remedy the situation.
Putting it bluntly, a student does not turn out without heart overnight. A lot of times, his home environment, his parents’ involvement (or lack of) exert an influence on him though his childhood. Therefore, there are no quick fixes for such a student. He needs more than a pep talk or counseling session to turn over a new leaf. Communication between parents and student is essential but it should never be one-off and has to be sustained.
Parents, make no mistake, time and effort have to be expended. Sacrifices on your end will likely be necessary. You probably have to give up certain hobbies or activities to spend time with your child. Having a drink after work may become a thing of the past as you rush home to bond with your child for that short amount of time before he turns in for the night.
Again, as for a teacher, your concern has to be genuine and felt by your child. Lip service is not going to cut it. You have to tune out everything including your social media to help your child with his homework, discuss with him about his fears and concerns and in general, take a genuine interest in his life. Encourage him when he feels down, share in his joy when he has performed well. The world can be a realistically harsh place but in his growing years, nurture him to the best of your ability to prepare him for the real world.
At the end of the day, how successful you are as a person is also measured by how well your children turn out.
