What is attitude? I believe that attitude is a combination of your state of consciousness or self awareness at the time of the experience, knowledge from previous learned information about an experience and how one feels about things (emotions) relating to the experience. The experience could be just getting up in the morning (hopefully on the right side of the bed) to going to that dentist appointment that you have been putting off or to going for that “dream” job interview that you have been waiting your whole life for. You can have a positive attitude or a negative attitude or one that is somewhere in between. Your attitude is your own and you determine what your attitude will be at any given time. So I feel that attitude can and should be one of your most precious attributes.
Speaking from my own experiences, if I had a positive attitude generally the outcome was of a positive nature. This could be after hearing something favourable about the experience that I was going to have, or it could be the result of previous experiences I did have. Personally, I am more motivated to do anything if I know that I will have fun, learn more, exercise more, enjoy more, etc. I don’t know of anyone who is motivated to do something that they have no interest in, fear, aren’t good at doing, have no desire to learn or can’t find any use for the what they are supposed to be motivated about. That being said, if I had acquired negative information ahead of time, of a learning event, honestly, that could possibly have planted a seed of doubt that maybe this is not what I am expecting, maybe I made the wrong choice, maybe I won’t do well, etc. These negative thoughts are counter-productive to motivation. A positive response to this would be, I will go to this course, I will make up my own opinion of the situation and I will determine my own attitude towards the desired outcome of my learning.
How many of you have heard the term of someone needing to have “an attitude adjustment”? This rarely, if never relates to someone having a positive outlook on things. It almost always refers to those people who demonstrate a negative behaviour, or have negative thoughts or negative energy/ affect on the learning experience that they are involved in. Those people are in need of this type of “adjustment”. “Fleming and Levie (1993) summarize three approaches to attitude change; “providing a persuasive massage, modeling and reinforcing appropriate behaviour and inducing dissonance between the, affective and behavioral components of the attitude.”
I believe that it is within each of us to make our own positive attitude. This attitude will lend itself to more motivation which usually is associated with more energy, more curiosity, more self-confidence and more knowledge just to name a few of the positive outcome or results. Life is too short for being in a bad mood, or having a negative attitude, or making someone’s day or life miserable. So BE HAPPY and GET MOTIVATED to learn something new.
References
Fleming, M., Levie, W. H. (1993). Instructional Message Design: Principles from the
Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences. Educational TechnologyPublications, Englewood cliffs, New Jersey, 1993.
Wlodkowski, Raymond J.(2003). Fostering Motivation in Professional Development Programs, Source: New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, no. 98, Summer 2003, Wiley
Wlodkowski, R. J. (1986). Enhancing Adult Motivation To Learn, Jossey-Bass
Publishers
Wlodkowski, Raymond (1999). Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn: A Comprehensive Guide for Teaching All Adults – 2nd ed. San Francisco, CA. Jossey-Bass Inc., Pub.
What is attitude? I believe that attitude is a combination of your state of consciousness or self awareness at the time of the experience, knowledge from previous learned information about an experience and how one feels about things (emotions) relating to the experience. The experience could be just getting up in the morning (hopefully on the right side of the bed) to going to that dentist appointment that you have been putting off or to going for that “dream” job interview that you have been waiting your whole life for. You can have a positive attitude or a negative attitude or one that is somewhere in between. Your attitude is your own and you determine what your attitude will be at any given time. So I feel that attitude can and should be one of your most precious attributes.
Speaking from my own experiences, if I had a positive attitude generally the outcome was of a positive nature. This could be after hearing something favourable about the experience that I was going to have, or it could be the result of previous experiences I did have. Personally, I am more motivated to do anything if I know that I will have fun, learn more, exercise more, enjoy more, etc. I don’t know of anyone who is motivated to do something that they have no interest in, fear, aren’t good at doing, have no desire to learn or can’t find any use for the what they are supposed to be motivated about. That being said, if I had acquired negative information ahead of time, of a learning event, honestly, that could possibly have planted a seed of doubt that maybe this is not what I am expecting, maybe I made the wrong choice, maybe I won’t do well, etc. These negative thoughts are counter-productive to motivation. A positive response to this would be, I will go to this course, I will make up my own opinion of the situation and I will determine my own attitude towards the desired outcome of my learning.
How many of you have heard the term of someone needing to have “an attitude adjustment”? This rarely, if never relates to someone having a positive outlook on things. It almost always refers to those people who demonstrate a negative behaviour, or have negative thoughts or negative energy/ affect on the learning experience that they are involved in. Those people are in need of this type of “adjustment”. “Fleming and Levie (1993) summarize three approaches to attitude change; “providing a persuasive massage, modeling and reinforcing appropriate behaviour and inducing dissonance between the, affective and behavioral components of the attitude.”
I believe that it is within each of us to make our own positive attitude. This attitude will lend itself to more motivation which usually is associated with more energy, more curiosity, more self-confidence and more knowledge just to name a few of the positive outcome or results. Life is too short for being in a bad mood, or having a negative attitude, or making someone’s day or life miserable. So BE HAPPY and GET MOTIVATED to learn something new.
References
Fleming, M., Levie, W. H. (1993). Instructional Message Design: Principles from the
Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences. Educational TechnologyPublications, Englewood cliffs, New Jersey, 1993.
Frith, Connie (PDF] Motivation to Learn – University of Saskatchewan
//www.usask.ca/education/coursework/802papers/.../**Motivation**//.
Wlodkowski, Raymond J.(2003). Fostering Motivation in Professional Development Programs, Source: New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, no. 98, Summer 2003, Wiley
Wlodkowski, R. J. (1986). Enhancing Adult Motivation To Learn, Jossey-Bass
Publishers
Wlodkowski, Raymond (1999). Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn: A Comprehensive Guide for Teaching All Adults – 2nd ed. San Francisco, CA. Jossey-Bass Inc., Pub.