Posted by finelinebob on May 11, 2004, at 22:18:02
In reply to Re: I need Help!!!!!!!!!! » finelinebob, posted by Angela2 on May 11, 2004, at 19:44:01
Angela,
I have to admit I'm a bit of a ringer on this ... much of the work I did towards my doctorate in educational psychology (which I didn't finish) was on motivation to learn ;^)
Sounds like there are a number of factors going on for you. Looking at your "motivations" is probably the easiest to address. Yes, "intrinsic" motivation can work better than external sources of rewards. Sounds like grades don't make as big an impact as not being interested in your work. But when you ARE interested, you learn well and therefore get better grades. If you aren't interested in a topic, though, there isn't much point trying to manufacture an interest in it ... unless you can find links to stuff you love, unless you can make it relevant.
Interest isn't the only sort of intrinsic motivation. Challenge is another. When something is tough to do, we either "rise to the challenge", get totally intimidated, or bail. If you find something interesting, then you probably like the challenge, too. If it's too hard, that's where the intimidation comes in. Time to break up the task into smaller, more manageable parts. If you bail because you don't care, then here is where the external rewards MIGHT help. If grades don't do it, you've gotta figure out what sort of reward YOU value and tie it to success in doing that task. So, if you're not feeling challenged, you can create your own challenges.
Now, just because you may have been successful in the past doesn't mean you aren't ADD or don't have some other cognitive issue with learning. Look at Einstein. Couldn't remember his address -- it wasn't just eccentricity. Your reading issues sound a lot like mine. I'm taking a real estate course right now. The text is mostly terminology and legal stuff. aCk! I read until I get tired ... about five paragraphs. I check Babble. I play solitaire. I read another four paragraphs. I have to back up six because I forgot what they said. I read two and doze off. Of course, it took me taking my klonopin and about an hour of avoidance behaviors before I could even sit down to read in the first place.
Sound familiar?
Someone watching me might see all the stalling and lack of focus and call me lazy. Meantime, my brain is working overtime ... but most of the time, I'm "grinding the clutch". Geez, if you could hear all those "gears" grinding, youch! For me, it really is a lot more work to do this sort of reading than, say, the comics. Or a scifi novel.
I've never gotten tested for any learning disabilities ... I was always able to skirt around them well enough. But you may still have the opportunity. Does your school have a learning skills center? Is your T affiliated with your university? She might know. Any school that gets federal funding has to provide support services for people with learning disabilities, and that should also include some sort of testing facility for them.
BTW ... about that term -- learning disability. It doesn't mean "across-the-board can't-learn-a-thing". It means "in almost every category, a normal or better learner ... but in one or two categories, there may be a problem". The better learners do in the other categories, the better they can be at compensating for the one or two things that give them fits. That's why you can succeed at school easily until you reach a level that starts to push you beyond your ability to compensate ... and by that time, you've done so well for so long the idea that you may have something like ADD or dyslexia seems ridiculous. Must be that you just got lazy or something.... ;^)
poster:finelinebob
thread:345547
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040503/msgs/345963.html