One of the most commonly asked questions in education is how do we foster a love for learning in students?

…and there is never a straightforward, binary answer!

Once a student falls in love with a subject, the learning process becomes tenfold easier for them.

This is because they are not treating the subject as a chore that they have to do, rather they are treating it as something enjoyable that they want to do.

This is particularly important, and relates to the ‘lightbulb moment’ or the moment of breakthrough a student experiences when they fall in love with their subject!

I will also clarify here that ‘love’ in this context is generally speaking not what we usually associate the word with.

I don’t believe for a second that anyone truly ‘loves’ sitting an exam or indeed studying Chemistry A Level!

What is meant by love in this context is being interested and engaged in a subject to the point where it no longer becomes a task.

I believe that this can be accomplished through a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

Extrinsic motivation is goal-oriented – students are motivated by getting good grades to get into university, financial reward or other external stimuli.

However, intrinsic motivation is where the energy to act comes more from inside the learn.

In his book ‘The Student Motivation Handbook’, award-winning author and high school teacher Larry Ferlazzo describes intrinsic motivation as being ‘the reward is the activity itself.’

He also highlights several strategies that can be implemented to create an environment conducive to intrinsic motivation:

Autonomy – having a degree of control over what needs to happen and how it can be done

Competence – the feeling a student has the ability to be successful in doing it

Relatedness – doing the activity helps a student feel more connected to others, and feel cared about by people whom they respect

Relevance – the work must be seen by students as interesting and valuable to them, and useful to their present lives and/or hopes and dreams for the future

Of course, some of these are more age-related than others, and are easier to implement with slightly older students at secondary level, rather than in early years and primary school, however, they provide valuable food for thought about how to foster a learning environment conducive for a student to fall in love with their subject.

Further Reading: Extrinsic & Intrinsic Motivation Examples – What’s the Difference? (SpriggHR)