Pariksha SaathiLesson 10 of 10 · Child Development and Pedagogy
How Children Learn and Why They Fail: Motivation, Emotion and Child-Centred Education
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Motivation
Motivation is the inner state that arouses, directs and sustains behaviour towards a goal. Intrinsic motivation comes from the activity itself - curiosity, interest, the pleasure of mastering something - while extrinsic motivation comes from outside rewards and pressures such as marks, prizes, praise or fear of punishment. Intrinsic motivation produces deeper and longer-lasting learning; studies of the overjustification effect found that rewarding children for an activity they already enjoyed reduced their later interest in it. Edward Deci and Richard Ryan's self-determination theory says intrinsic motivation grows when three needs are met: autonomy (some choice), competence (tasks that can be mastered) and relatedness (belonging). Carol Dweck's work on mindsets shows that children who believe ability grows with effort keep trying after failure, so teachers should praise effort, strategy and progress rather than calling children clever.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
Abraham Maslow (1943) arranged human needs in a hierarchy: physiological needs (food, water, sleep), safety needs (security, freedom from fear), love and belongingness, esteem (respect, recognition, self-respect) and, at the top, self-actualisation, the fulfilment of one's potential. The lower four are deficiency needs and self-actualisation is a growth need; lower needs must be reasonably met before higher ones can motivate. A hungry child, a child afraid of being beaten or a child who feels she does not belong cannot concentrate on fractions. That is why the mid-day meal, a safe and fear-free classroom and a teacher who makes every child feel accepted are preconditions for learning, not extras.
Cognition, emotion and attention
Interest, joy and curiosity open the mind, while fear, anxiety and humiliation narrow attention and block memory. The Yerkes-Dodson law states that performance improves with arousal only up to an optimum, beyond which it declines, so moderate challenge helps but heavy pressure harms. The Yash Pal Committee report Learning Without Burden (1993) and NCF 2005 both warn against the joyless burden of rote learning, and the RTE Act 2009 bans physical punishment and mental harassment (Section 17) and asks that the child be made free of fear, trauma and anxiety (Section 29). Attention is the focusing of consciousness on a stimulus; it is selective, and its span is short in young children. Novelty, movement, interest and personal relevance hold it, so teachers vary activities and link lessons to children's lives.
Why children 'fail'
The CTET syllabus puts 'fail' in quotation marks for a reason: much failure belongs to the system rather than the child. Causes include teaching that ignores what children already know and their alternative conceptions; a medium of instruction the child does not understand; a curriculum and examples cut off from her life; rote learning and fear of punishment; poverty, hunger, illness and child labour; being a first-generation learner with no help at home; undiagnosed vision, hearing or learning difficulties; and low teacher expectations, since children tend to live up or down to what is expected of them - the Pygmalion effect studied by Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson (1968). Labelling a child as weak or holding her back usually deepens the problem. The teacher's job is to find the cause and change the teaching.
Learning difficulties
A child with a specific learning disability has average or above-average intelligence but a persistent difficulty in one area: dyslexia in reading and spelling (confusing letters such as b and d, slow decoding), dysgraphia in handwriting and written expression, dyscalculia in number sense and arithmetic, and dyspraxia in motor coordination. Specific learning disabilities are among the 21 disabilities listed in the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016. A slow learner, by contrast, learns all subjects more slowly because of below-average general ability and needs more time and repetition. Both need early identification, multisensory teaching, extra time, a supportive class and, where available, help from special educators - never ridicule.
Child-centred and progressive education
Child-centred education puts the child's needs, interests, experiences and pace at the centre of the curriculum. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in Emile (1762), argued for a natural education that follows the child's development. Johann Pestalozzi stressed the harmonious development of head, heart and hand and learning from real objects. Friedrich Froebel, a German educator, founded the kindergarten, a 'garden of children' in which children grow like plants through play, songs and his 'gifts' and 'occupations', with the teacher as a gardener. Maria Montessori, an Italian physician, opened the first Casa dei Bambini (Children's House) in Rome in 1907; her method uses a prepared environment, self-correcting didactic apparatus, sensory training and freedom within limits, so that children teach themselves (auto-education) while the teacher observes and guides. John Dewey, the American pragmatist and author of Democracy and Education (1916), taught that education is a process of living rather than mere preparation for later life, that children learn by doing and solving real problems, and that the school should be a miniature democratic community; his student William Kilpatrick developed the project method. In such classrooms the teacher is a facilitator, not the only source of knowledge: she plans experiences, asks open questions, builds on children's ideas and language, and keeps fear out of the classroom.
Key facts
- Intrinsic motivation (curiosity, interest, mastery) gives deeper learning than extrinsic rewards; rewarding an activity children already enjoy can reduce their interest (overjustification).
- Self-determination theory (Deci and Ryan): autonomy, competence and relatedness nourish intrinsic motivation.
- Maslow (1943): physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, self-actualisation; a hungry or frightened child cannot learn - hence mid-day meals and fear-free classrooms.
- Yerkes-Dodson law: performance rises with arousal up to an optimum and then falls - moderate challenge helps, heavy pressure harms.
- RTE Act 2009: Section 17 bans physical punishment and mental harassment; Section 29 asks that the child be free of fear, trauma and anxiety.
- Pygmalion effect (Rosenthal and Jacobson, 1968): teachers' expectations shape children's performance.
- Specific learning disability: average or higher intelligence but difficulty in one area (dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia); a slow learner is slower in all areas.
- Froebel - kindergarten, play, gifts; Montessori - Casa dei Bambini (Rome, 1907), prepared environment, auto-education; Dewey - learning by doing, Democracy and Education (1916).
- Rousseau - Emile (1762), natural education; Pestalozzi - head, heart and hand; Kilpatrick - project method.
- Teacher as facilitator: plans experiences, asks open questions, builds on children's ideas and language, and keeps fear out of the classroom.
Quick revision
Intrinsic over extrinsic motivation; overjustification; Deci-Ryan autonomy, competence, relatedness; Maslow 1943 physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, self-actualisation; Yerkes-Dodson optimum arousal; Learning Without Burden 1993; RTE Section 17 no physical punishment; much 'failure' is the system's; Pygmalion effect 1968; SLDs in RPwD Act 2016; Rousseau Emile 1762, Pestalozzi, Froebel kindergarten, Montessori 1907, Dewey 1916, Kilpatrick project method; teacher as facilitator.