7.4 What Influences Your Ability to Learn?

Traits of Successful Learners

Knowing what is going on in our brain when we learn is valuable to know, but our ability to learn is directly influenced by a variety of other factors. By examining your current situation, you can determine what might be getting in the way of your learning, and who can help you at Fanshawe College as you start to take responsibility for your own learning.

Take some time to consider what you believe about your ability to achieve academic success. What you believe influences what you can achieve.

Your Attitude Toward Learning

When Things are Difficult  

Do you think of yourself as a resilient person?  Do you see failure as the end of something or just the next step in learning how to do something better?  When things go wrong are you able to refocus your efforts and apply a new strategy to tackle the problem?  When you can’t think of anything else to do, do you give up or ask for help?

In simple terms, resilience means your ability to keep going when things get tough.  In learning, it can be thought of as a trait that drives a person to keep trying until they succeed. It is not tied to talent or ability, but is simply a tendency to not give up until something is finished or accomplished. The problem is we all understand the concept, but actually applying it takes work. If the task we are trying to accomplish is a difficult one, it can take a lot of work.

How to Develop Resilience

The first step is to adopt an attitude that looks directly to the end goal as the only acceptable outcome. With this attitude comes an acceptance that you may not succeed on the first attempt—or the nineteenth attempt. Failed attempts are viewed as merely part of the process and seen as a very useful way to gain knowledge that moves you toward success.

Your Motivation 

We saw earlier in this book that employers are looking for graduates who can demonstrate competence in complex problem solving, resiliency and self-directed learning. Every time we face a problem, seek a new way to approach it and keep moving forward, we are developing these skills.

To Learn vs To Perform 

In a recent survey of post secondary students in Canada, 86% reported they were motivated by grades.  Earlier in this book we asked, why are you here, in college?  This section provides you with the opportunity to think further about that question.

Performance Goal Focused

If you are a student with strict performance goals, your primary psychological concern might be to appear intelligent to others. At first, this might not seem to be a bad thing for college, but it can truly limit your ability to move forward in your own learning, which may have a greater impact beyond school

For example, a student who is strictly performance-goal-oriented will often only says things in a classroom discussion when they think it will make them look knowledgeable to the instructor or their classmates.  They don’t often ask a question in class when they do not understand a concept because they do not want to risk looking foolish and may put down those who do.  They are often very good at certain tasks because they have worked hard at them but don’t want to take on anything they don’t know.

We saw earlier in this book that employers are looking for graduates with demonstrated skills in solving complex problems, applying novel and adaptive thinking, and implementing solutions to real world problems.  Doing those things involves taking risks, making mistakes, and possibly being wrong a lot before you get things right. Students focused on performing do not want to take those risks.

Learning Goal Focused

If you are a student who is driven by learning goals, your interactions in classroom discussions are usually quite different. You see the opportunity to share ideas and ask questions as a way to gain knowledge quickly. In a classroom discussion you can ask for clarification immediately if you don’t quite understand what is being discussed. If you are a person guided by learning goals, you are less worried about what others think since you are there to learn and you see that as the most important goal.

Another example where the difference between the two mindsets is clear can be found in assignments and other coursework. If you are a student who is more concerned about performance, you may avoid work that is challenging. You will take the “easy A” route by relying on what you already know. You will not step out of your comfort zone because your psychological goals are based on approval of your performance instead of being motivated by learning.

This is very different from a student with a learning-based psychology. If you are a student who is motivated by learning goals, you may actively seek challenging assignments, and you will put a great deal of effort into using the assignment to expand on what you already know. While getting a good grade is important to you, what is even more important is the learning itself.

Performing AND Learning?

If you find that you sometimes lean toward performance-based goals, do not feel discouraged. Many of the best students tend to initially focus on performance until they begin to see the ways it can restrict their learning. The key to switching to learning-based goals is often simply a matter of first recognizing the difference and seeing how making a change can positively impact your own learning.