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The lighter and more comfortable the better
The more comfortable and easier to learn, the higher the results. It is a fact. It is confirmed by studies that took place in different countries - from Iran and Kazakhstan to Russia and Australia. Everyone agrees on this, and cultural differences do not have a significant impact. So, according to a study conducted by employees of the University of Medical Sciences in Iran, academic performance, motivation and student satisfaction with the educational process are directly dependent on the characteristics of the educational environment. Therefore, "teachers and course leaders should provide the best learning conditions with a variety of support systems for students."
An important aspect of the educational environment is the emotional assessment of subjects studied at the university . Those that appear to students to be âboringâ or âunnecessaryâ are often given to them worse. The negative perception of a particular discipline negatively affects academic performance; positive - contributes to getting good grades . Students themselves directly associate interest in subjects and their successes. So, positive results in senior courses can occur more often as practical work in the specialty appears.
Another significant component of the educational environment is the attitude towards teachers , their abilities to motivate students and encourage them to learn. A study conducted at the Tambov Pedagogical Institute, suggests that the quality of teachers is most important for freshmen. âYesterday's applicants have high hopes for the teaching staff. They highly appreciate its impact on their attitudes towards learning. This is the most powerful factor for them, âthe work noted. The teachers themselves, it seems, are sometimes inclined to overestimate their influence on students and schoolchildren - from the banal "without my lectures you cannot understand anything in the subject" to the idealistic "you need to love children, otherwise they will not learn."
In this sense, an emotional performance by an American teacher with 40 years of experience, Rita Pearson, looks like a good example. Her colleague once said, Pearson said during a speech: âIâm not paid to love children. I get paid to teach them. And they should be engaged. The question is closed". âChildren donât learn from those whom they donât like,â Rita Pearson told her, and tore off the thunderous applause of the audience.
But almost everyone can remember how much the teacher or subject could not like the university, but the exams went well and the knowledge was preserved. Is there a contradiction here?
Itâs possible to study well âthrough I canâtâ
Changes in the usual presentation of the material and the transition to other teaching methods can cause some discontent, negative emotions or cause stress. This is understandable: it is difficult to refuse the established stereotypes in studies. However, this does not always lead to poor results. In addition, positive emotions do not always contribute to them.
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A lot of research was done at Harvard Universityâs Department of Physics this spring. In the classes, two forms of training were used: passive and active. And they looked at the attitude to the educational process . In the first case, traditional lectures and seminars were held. In the second - interactive classes in the âquestion-answerâ mode, and students solved problems by working in groups. The role of the teacher was minimal: he only asked questions and offered help. The experiment involved 149 people.
Most students did not like the interactive format. They were outraged by the fact that they had been given responsibility for the process, complained and claimed that they had spent too much effort in comparison with listening to lectures. Most of them asked that all subjects in the future be taught as usual. The level of negative perception of the educational process, determined by a special method, was more than half higher after classes conducted in an active form than traditional. The final test of knowledge showed: the results of interactive classes were almost 50% higher. Thus, despite the negative perception of âeducational innovationsâ, academic performance has increased significantly.
Of course, positive emotions are needed. But not so simple. They can distract from study, found out at the University of Arizona. In addition, the role of the teacher and how much he likes, can not always determine the quality of the educational process. âStudents can and do learn from people they donât like. Our brain does not turn off due to the fact that we critically evaluate the one who transfers knowledge to us. I didnât like the school biology teacher, but I still remember the cell structure, â said Blake Harvard, Ph.D. and high school psychology teacher at an Alabama school.
TL; DR
- You can show good results in difficult conditions, for example, if the teaching methods are unusual and subjectively perceived as uncomfortable and create too many additional problems.
- Learning is influenced by many factors, including the individual qualities of the student, from the characteristics of the nervous system to motivation and self-confidence.
- Of course, the connection between the effectiveness of studies and the comfortable atmosphere at the university or the qualities of teachers, in general, is and is really important, but this is not a key factor.
What else to read on the topic in our blog:
- How to test knowledge in practice, get benefits when entering a master's program
- How to "learn to learn" - improve mindfulness
- To memorize, but not to cram - learning "on the cards"