Experiences for Attitudes and Interests

The last two kinds of objective, attitudes and interests, are the hardest to teach, because neither can be installed directly. Both grow from experience in ways a teacher can encourage but not command.

Attitudes

An attitude is a tendency to react, even though the reaction does not actually take place. It sits in a person ready to express itself. Attitudes matter because they are strong influences on behaviour, on the explicit actions a person takes, and on the values and the kinds of satisfaction a person desires and selects. Shape a learner’s attitudes and you shape much of what they will do.

Attitudes develop in four ways:

1. By assimilation from the environment, including teachers and classmates.
2. Through the emotional effects of certain experiences, as when a frightening experience leaves a learner silent.
3. Through traumatic or painful experiences, such as a fight or an accident.
4. Through a direct intellectual process, by thinking something through.

The crucial limit for a teacher: an attitude cannot be forced. It is not possible to force a change of attitude in an educational situation. A shift in attitude happens when a person’s view changes, and that comes from two sources: insight and knowledge about the situation, and the satisfaction or dissatisfaction a person gets from previously held views. So experiences to develop attitudes should be set up to provide opportunities for insight and for satisfaction, alongside consistent school and community environments and chances to review one’s own conduct against what one believes.

Flashcard

What is an attitude, and how does it change?

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Answer

A tendency to react, even when the reaction does not occur; it changes through insight and satisfaction

Attitudes form by assimilation, emotional and painful experiences, and intellectual process. They cannot be forced; a shift comes from new insight or from satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a held view.

Interests

An interest can be looked at from two sides. As an end, an interest is itself an objective worth developing. As a means, an interest is a motivational force that drives the experiences needed to reach other objectives. Both sides matter, but interests are worth developing in their own right.

The reason is their power. What a person is interested in largely determines what they attend to and what they do. Interests focus behaviour in one direction rather than others, which makes them powerful determiners of the kind of person someone is and will become. Develop a learner’s interests and you influence the shape of their whole life.

Because of principle 2, experiences to develop interest must be satisfying for learners, and satisfaction generally comes from social approval, the meeting of physical needs, and the meeting of aspirations. In setting experiences to develop interest, a developer should ensure they:

1. Provide a genuine opportunity to develop the interest the objective implies.
2. Are satisfying for the target group, given their age and stage of development.
3. Require action the learners are ready to perform.
4. Are economical, so several objectives can be attained at once.

Flashcard

What two sides does an interest have, as end and as means?

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Answer

As an end it is an objective to develop; as a means it is a motivational force

Interests focus behaviour and powerfully shape the person a learner becomes. Experiences to build them must be satisfying, within the learner’s reach, and economical of time.

Flashcard

What should experiences that develop interests ensure?

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Answer

Real opportunity, satisfaction for the age group, achievable action, and economy

They must let learners develop the interest the objective implies, satisfy the target group given their stage, require action learners are ready for, and ideally attain several objectives at once.