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This article will help you to learn about how to cultivate learning interest in students.
Interest is intimately related to attention. By interest is meant a sense of attachment or attraction towards a particular object or lesson. While many people have interest in watching movies, other individuals have greater interest in reading novels. In teaching, interest is a matter of highest importance.
Interest has a very special role and place in the process of teaching. Interest is one of those conditions of learning, which must exist in both the teacher and student for teaching to be successful.
Definitions of Interest:
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Everyone possesses some types of interest to which he has some liking. He always gives preference to that particular object. These likings may be permanent or temporary, depending the attitudes and aptitudes. Every individual is selecting in his interest. As William James stated—without selective interest, experience is an utter chaos. Interest alone gives the accent and emphasis light and shade, background and foreground intelligible perspective in a word.
Crow and Crow – “Interest may refer to the motivating force that implies us to attend to a person, a thing, or an activity, or it may be the effective experience that has been stimulated by the activity itself. In other words, interest can be the cause of an activity and result of participation in that activity.”
J.S. Ross – “A thing that interests us is just something that concerns us or matters to us.”
C.V. Good – Interest- (i) a subjective-objective attitude, concern or condition involving a percept or an idea in attention and a combinations of intellectual and feeling consciousness, may be temporary or permanent, based on native, curiosity, conditioned by experience of any preference displayed when choice are available.
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According to Witham, interest is that tendency by means of which, on being involved in a particular experience, we wish to continue in it. According to McDougall, “Interest is a latent attention; attention is interest in action.” According to Drever “Interest is an active form of some tendency”.
It is evident from the foregoing definitions that there is a very intimate relationship between attention and interest. In general the individual performs most of his activities because of his interest in them, while he avoids doing those activities in which he has no interest.
When he is forced by circumstances into performing an activity which does not interest him, it is done as a matter of formality. Interest is a tendency which motivates the individual to engage in a particular activity. The child tries to perform that activity, under any circumstances, which interests him and for that reason he employs all his mental and physical powers in its performance. The child’s internal powers develop along with the growth of his interest.
Types of Interest:
Interest has been classified in a number of ways by psychologists. Some scholars are of the view that interests are related to habits. Taking interest in an object or an activity implies the individual’s identification with that object or activity. It is for this reason Dewey has argued that real interest implies the effort to identity oneself with something through activity.
1. Inborn Interest:
The term inborn interest refers to innate tendencies or instincts, for instance, the child’s instinct to eat, play, laughs, etc. A mother has interest in her child, a hungry man in food, and a child in playing games. Interests of this kind are inborn.
2. Derived Interests:
The term derived interest is used for interests born as a result of feeling or experience, and as a result of derived interests, the individual acquires skill in the performance of a specific activity; this is called the acquisition of skill. The watchmaker can tell, almost at a glance, what is wrong with a watch handed to him for repairs. In the same way, the skillful teacher can at once understand what the problems of a particular child are.
Attention, Interest and Education:
Psychologists have become involved in many controversies on the subject of attention and interest.
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On these subjects, the following three main schools of thought have finally emerged:
1. Attention is based upon Interest:
Proponents of this view argue that the individual’s consciousness focusses only upon those objects in which he has interest. A student taking interest in mathematics focusses his attention only upon mathematical problems.
2. Interest is based upon Attention:
Psychologists accepting this view argue that it is interest which is based upon attention, and they argue that the individual pays attention only to those objects which interest him.
3. Synthetical View:
Attention and interest are like the two faces of a single coin, and hence it is difficult to say which of the two is more important. In the opinion of Ross, interest and attention can be likened to the two faces of a coin. If a person takes interest in a particular object because of interest, then, as a result of attention, he may develop interest in that object. In the opinion of McDougall, “interest is a latent attention; attention is interest in action.”
Factors Affecting Interest:
Hence, both attention and interest influence education in the following manner:
1. Awakening of Interest in the Subject:
It is desirable for the teacher to arouse the interest of the students in the subject being taught so as to facilitate the concentration of their attention on it. When students feel lack of interest in any subject, they cannot concentrate their attention upon it. Their interest in the subject can be awakened by using supplementary materials and teaching aids.
2. Peaceful Atmosphere:
The place in which children are required to study should have a peaceful, calm and quiet atmosphere. If it has cinema halls, markets or shops and restaurants in its vicinity, it will be difficult for the children to concentrate their attention upon their lessons.
3. Gentle Behaviour:
In order to arouse the interest of his students in the lessons being taught, the teacher should consider it an essential condition to behave politely, affectionately and sympathetically towards them. When students have faith in and affection for a particular teacher, they pay extra attention to whatever he teaches.
4. Individual Differences:
Each child is different from every other child in some way or the other and hence, it is desirable for the teacher to keep in mind the individual qualities of each child. It is by keeping in mind their individual traits that the teacher can train their attention and interest.
5. Scientific Curriculum:
A teacher should organise the curriculum in such a manner that the interest of students should be awakened in it in a natural and spontaneous manner.
6. Scientific Methods of Teaching:
The development of interest and attention depends upon the use of scientific methods of teaching, because when a subject is taught in a scientific and systematic manner, students take greater interest in it. They do not take any interest in subjects taught unscientifically or haphazardly.
7. Change of Subject:
Children experience monotony and boredom on studying the same subject continuously for any length of time, and their attention then tends to wander from the subject. The span of attention decreases in proportion to the length of time for which a subject is taught. Hence, the teacher should change from one subject to another at regular intervals. This prevents fluctuation and loss of interest.
8. Period of Rest:
Teachers must give their students some period of rest or interval. If students are not given any time for rest in between periods of teaching, there will be deterioration in their ability to study. Hence, the teacher should always give a period of rest during the period of teaching so that the students may become fresh and be prepared for the next subject to be taught.
9. Relating Subjects to Life:
A teacher should teach his students so as to enable them to relate the subject learnt for life itself. The curriculum itself should be framed on the basis of values and ideals related to practical life. A curriculum possessing this quality will itself be able to awaken the students’ interest and ensure their attention.
10. Presentation of Ideals:
It is desirable that the teacher should place ideals of life before his students so as to awaken their interest in and focus their attention on the achievement of specific goals.
Every individual is concerned with attention in one way or the other; the individual does every piece of work by focusing his attention on it. When we read a book, we concentrate all our mental faculties on it, and when we play football, all our faculties are focused on the ball and the game. In educational psychology, attention is an important aspect because it is an important process in learning.
We focus our attention especially on that subject or activity in which we have deep interest. Why are novels read more easily and attentively than text-books? Because we are interested in the former. Attention and interest are both closely related to learning and hence to education.