Desire to learn

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The desire to learn describes the joy or fun of learning. In motivational psychology, the desire to learn is understood as a predominantly variable attitude towards the motivational situation. The scale ranges from listless to highly motivated. What level of activity the individual achieves in the respective learning situation depends on their personal learning experiences. A term from motivation research that is related to the desire to learn is intrinsic motivation . Here learning activities are carried out for their own sake because they are fun . The desire to learn is positively influenced by an affirmative educational field in which the learning experiences made are positively recognized.

The American doctor and psychotherapist Alexander Lowen emphasizes the building-up character of the pleasure in learning in a biological, therapeutic and social sense: “Pleasure is biologically closely linked to the phenomenon of growth, which is an important expression for the life processes taking place. By incorporating the environment both physically and mentally, we grow (...). We enjoy the development and expansion of our existence, the increasing strength, the development of our movement coordination and our motor skills, the deepening and expansion of social relationships and the enrichment of our lives. Those who are healthy have an appetite for life, are eager to learn and want to absorb new experiences. ”Negative learning experiences are usually coupled with negative life experiences and can block the desire to learn.

Historical reference

The term lust for learning goes back to the Bohemian didactician, philosopher and theologian Jan Amos Comenius , who already took the position in the 17th century that the desire to learn is innate. For Comenius, the desire to learn is a prerequisite and guarantee for sustainable learning. In order to experience the desire to learn, he was convinced that the senses had to be in order and that learning should be voluntary. "People, nature is free, loves self-determination and hates coercion." Comenius' position is confirmed by the Austrian authors and filmmakers Langbein and Fochler, who report that the principle of curiosity and the desire to learn has prevailed from birth. A toddler reacts immediately to a new noise and becomes curious and attentive.

Desire to learn in pedagogy

In pedagogy, the desire to learn is rated as a positive learning requirement. It is described as a state in which the learner meets his learning object with expectation, affirms it and wants to deal with it voluntarily and actively. The learner is fully committed to overcoming his ignorance or inability until he has the feeling and experience of having achieved the goal. One of the factors that favorably influence people's desire to learn is a positive basic attitude towards oneself, as well as curiosity and freedom from fear. Factors that can support the desire to learn in school are a learning atmosphere in which the student feels serious and accepted. Furthermore, a learning environment that enables discovering and independent learning and provides sensual and aesthetic materials.

Projects to promote the desire to learn

In many different educational concepts, mostly project lessons or open lessons , the focus of the plans / projects is on enabling and promoting the desire to learn. These forms of teaching offer a didactic framework designed for co-determination and self-determination, which should take into account the diversity and individuality of children and young people. The developmental psychologist Howard Gardner initiated the spectrum project in 1984 . His view was to create an environment that was as stimulating as possible, in which the children could explore their interests and find incentives to make an effort to do something they enjoyed. The psychologist Klaus Urban, initiator of just such a project in Hanover (1990), sums up: It is about “awakening that peculiar creative power that is in everyone, maintaining and encouraging the children's natural desire to ask questions, their curiosity and to appropriately stimulate or support the willingness to experiment and not to spill it. "

Lack of desire to learn

Langbein and Fochler describe the fatal effects on the desire to learn and the harmful consequences for the personality of children if they are deprived of their desire to learn at an early age. The loss of the desire to learn should always be seen as an emergency signal, be it in the case of normally gifted children, highly gifted children or children with learning difficulties. The great importance of the joy of learning for learning success raises the question of the extent to which this is encouraged. The way individual adults (teachers or parents) deal with their learning children, but also the European school system as a whole, should be assessed to determine whether they are conducive to learning. Here, too, the question of the desire to learn is at the center of interest: “Some adults seem to have an almost manic urge to have to squeeze children into given, but not verifiable, meaningful schemes under all circumstances and thereby (...) desire and To stifle the self-confidence of the little ones. "

Desire to learn in brain research

Brain research has now been able to localize a substance in the brain that is involved in the desire to learn. It is the molecule dopamine , a messenger substance that is formed in two places in the brain. He is mainly responsible for feeling good and learning. Dopamine is involved in controlling wakefulness and directing attention: "It increases curiosity, the ability to learn and imagination, creativity and the desire for sex." Dopamine is always released in the brain when a person desires something or someone, and therefore it will called the molecule of will . In addition, a particularly large amount of dopamine and opiate-like substances are released when certain expectations are positively exceeded. The psychiatry professor and neuroscientist Manfred Spitzer summarizes the connection between dopamine, learning and pleasure in his book Learning as follows: “The (...) dopamine system is responsible for the evaluation of stimuli. (...) What is new is important, (...) what is good for us and, above all, what is better for us than we had previously expected. This system drives us, motivates our actions and determines what we learn. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ G. Mietzel: Educational psychology of learning and teaching. Göttingen 2007, p. 344 f
  2. ^ J. and H. Heckhausen: Motivation and Action. 3rd edition Berlin 2006, p. 455 ff
  3. ↑ G. Mietzel: Educational psychology of learning and teaching. Göttingen 2007, p. 349.
  4. ^ A. Lowen: Lust. The way to creative life. P. 65f.
  5. ↑ JA Comenius: Bohemian Didactics. Paderborn 1970, p. 37.
  6. ↑ K. Langbein, R. Fochler: Simply brilliant. The 7 types of intelligence. Vienna, Munich 1977.
  7. ^ H. Helming: Montessori pedagogy. Freiburg im Breisgau 1992, pp. 62 / 133f
  8. ↑ K. Langbein, R. Fochler: Simply brilliant. The 7 types of intelligence. Vienna, Munich 1977, p. 212f
  9. ↑ H. Gardner: The Untrained Head. How children think. 2nd edition Stuttgart 1994
  10. ↑ K. Langbein, R. Fochler: Simply brilliant. The 7 types of intelligence. Vienna, Munich 1977
  11. ↑ K. Langbein, R. Fochler: Simply brilliant. The 7 types of intelligence. Vienna, Munich 1977
  12. ↑ K. Urban: Particularly talented preschoolers. HVA / Edition Schindele 1990
  13. ↑ S. Klein: The formula of happiness. Hamburg 2007, p. 104 ff
  14. ↑ S. Klein: The formula of happiness. Hamburg 2007, p. 104.
  15. ↑ M. Spitzer: Learning. 1st edition Heidelberg 2006, p. 195.