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STIMULATING THE EMOTIONS THAT ARE FAVORABLE |
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This is where any teacher’s greatest challenge lies. He must be able to stimulate the student in a way that will help him feel the emotions that are favorable to the learning process and, therefore, help him better feel what he is learning. We know that approximately 30 percent of high school students do not complete their high school program, and that 40 percent of students do not complete their college program, and finally, that 45 percent of students do not complete their university program* . We also know that the problem is more prevalent in men than in women. This puts us at the very heart of the notion of ‘motivation’.
In MRI study, James Bjork and his team ** scanned the brains of twelve adolescents aged 12 to 17 years and twelve young adults aged 22 to 28 years. While being scanned, the subjects participated in a game-like scenario risking monetary gain or loss. The participants responded to targets on a screen by pressing a button to win or avoid losing 20 cents, 1 dollar, or 5 dollars. What they found is that the parts of the brain that are in the frontal lobe, that tend to assign picture value to rewards in the environment (the enjoyment of having won five dollars), were the same in adolescents and adults, but what was deficient in the adolescents is the circuitry at the base of the brain in a region called the ventral striatum, the motivational center in the brain (see Figure). They found that this motivational center was markedly deficient in the adolescents. This is despite the fact that questionnaires after the test indicated that the adults and the adolescents were equally happy and excited about the prospect of winning five dollars. This suggests that adolescents "like" obtaining the money as much as adults do but that adolescent brains are less energized to prepare and respond to obtain it. Bjork says that could explain why it may be harder for some teens to get motivated, and this can lead to trouble. Lack of motivation can lead to problem behavior. * Vallerand, R.J., 1993, p. 533-581. |
New research shows that the adolescent brain may be programmed for a kind of laziness that makes it harder for them to get success at school. According to results from the first magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study to examine real-time adolescent response to incentives, adolescents show less activity than adults in brain regions that motivate behavior to obtain rewards. The study also shows that adolescents and adults exhibit similar brain responses to having obtained rewards.
