I was struck twice recently by the link between motivation and learning. My 12 year old son was determined to prove to us that he could care for the Bearded Dragon (Australian lizard) he desperately wanted for Christmas.

So before Christmas he did loads of research and created a folder with sections for care, nutrition etc. He watched Youtube videos on how to house, feed and look after dragons; he prepared a timetable showing how he would look after it before and after school; he prepared a budget showing how he would be able to pay for its food (live crickets mostly!), in short a business plan.

What has really impressed me since he’s collected him, Dexter, is his amazing knowledge of Bearded Dragons – ‘his skin goes darker when he’s a bit cold so that the dark colours absorb more light’ – ‘I’m just checking his tail for tail rot – it goes a bit grey if he has it’ – and so on. How, and more importantly, why has he learnt all this – he’s hugely motivated … really interested in the subject, vested interest in keeping him and alive and loves sharing his knowledge with his friends (who are now also very interested in Dexter and asking for daily updates at school).

Similarly he came home bouncing having had an excellent result in a history assessment. When I explored this with him he was very clear that if he is interested in something (or the Teacher makes it interesting!) he puts a lot of effort and enthusiasm into learning it. His history teacher is very creative in his teaching methods, his maths teacher is not!

I have always believed that learning is a voluntary process and that the time spent trying to ‘force’ people to learn something could be better spent helping them to want to learn – then they will find out all they need to know for themselves, practise the skills until they master ‘it’ and use their passion and enthusiasm to interest others and get them to want to learn ‘it’. I am strong believer in self-directed learning and through coaching and facilitating enjoy helping people to find a reason to want to learn what they need to learn for their jobs.

I think the local reptile specialist will be seeing an increase in 12 year olds wanting bearded dragons!

Margaret Burnside
Jan 2012