Attitude and Motivation as Ingredients to Education

Laarni Gonzales Ingal

It has been viewed and profoundly emphasized that attitudinal and motivational constructs are closely associated with learning. Beyond the prospect of cognitive domain that merely focuses on the acquisition of absolute and standardized concepts, the affective domain or the emotional area should be also given equal attention. More so, effective instruction has the potential to improve attitudes toward learning and foster motivation, either in a short duration of time or for a long-term impact.

Meanwhile, even it was highlighted that the affective domains of learning are regarded as substantial factors, they have received much less attention by the researchers as the emphasis of various studies is centered on the cognitive dimensions, much likely because it has been the measurement or the primary basis of intelligence.

This situation is creating a notable imbalance wherein reason is extensively separated from feeling that must be converged for a better learning process to happen since attitude and motivation are essential concepts to be considered in education.

W hile scientific knowledge and skills are regarded much by the academe, attitude and motivation are just as important. In an analogy using a vehicle, knowledge and skills serve as the complex machinery of the vehicle itself, while attitude and motivation serve as the fuel and engine. No learner may be able to learn and acknowledge it as useful without that internal driving force.

Furthermore, instruction should foster mental attitudes such as intellectual integrity, interest in testing opinions and beliefs, and open-mindedness rather than communicate a fixed body of information as accentuated in the research study. This statement presumably indicates that instead of relying or depending on concrete, direct, and absolute information, an instruction should promote comparatively essential concepts and principles beyond the conventional scheme. Through this matter, students are might able to dig deeper about learning, providing a wider and a more comprehensive understanding of itself. In layman's term, instruction must also nurture the affective domain of a learner and not just its cognitive aspect.

With regards to motivation, it is important to recognize that attitude, motivation, and behavior are intercorrelated. Simply speaking, motivation is an internal state that arouses, directs, and sustains student's behavior. The study of motivation by education researchers tries to elaborate the fundamental reasons behind a student's endeavor for goals when learning, how they strive, how long they strive, and what feelings and emotions characterize them in this process. By means of thorough study of motivation of education researchers, instructors can identify the foremost reasons of student's objectives on learning the subject matter and the other surrounding variables around them. It will provide an inclusive and a wide-encompassing overview of the student's sentiments on learning and not just typically emphasizes the acquisition of hard or factual knowledgebased concepts and ideas.

The author is Teacher

--oOo-

III at San Miguel Elementary School, Magalang North

District