By: Megan Prats

04/08/2013

When someone is asked what they like to do for fun, they normally respond by saying such things as: hanging out with friends, being with family, playing games, etc. However, not many people will list learning as one activity that they like to do for fun because learning has become something of a chore since you need to learn in order to get the grade, to graduate, to get the promotion, to receive the paycheck, etc. In short, the motivation behind learning has become the achievement of a material reward and thus the fact that learning is just a fun activity to partake in has been lost. Unfortunately, society has developed this notion of learning to the detriment of the student because the student learns so much more when it is just fun to learn. Thus, it is of greatest importance that you Make Learning Fun.

One way to make learning fun is to provide the student a choice during the lessons. When students learn things because there is a genuine desire to and because they like to, it makes the learning experience so much more fun to them because there is emotional dedication behind learning. This emotional dedication is fantastic because it helps the student persevere through the essential struggle of learning. Ways in which you can provide the student a choice in her lessons is: to incorporate what she likes to learn in the lessons, to allow her to select some of the practice problems that you incorporate in the lessons, and to utilize the method of learning that the student likes (i.e. auditory, visual, etc.), just to name a few.

Another way to make learning more fun is to make your lessons interactive because students find it fun to use all of their five senses when learning. Thus, for instance, if the student is learning Spanish vocabulary for household items, have her touch a spoon when she learns the word “cuchara” and a knife when she learns the word “cuchillo”. Try to be as interactive as possible in your lessons – engaging all of the student’s five senses if you can. Also, try to incorporate different combinations of the five senses in your lessons.

Finally, learning is more fun when you create a positive learning environment for the student. Students nowadays, especially academic students, live in a learning environment where coercion and negative reinforcement pervade. They learn because if they don’t receive an “A”, they are a failure. However, a positive learning environment creates a safe and thus fun place for the student to learn. The positive learning environment should include positive reinforcement when the student does well and positive support when the student is struggling. Thus, for instance, you can allow the student to jam to their favorite song once they learned how to play the C scale on the guitar and then tell the student that her fingering is off but she’s greatly improved when attempting the G scale on the guitar. In short, a positive learning environment takes learning to a fun place.

Learning is a fun activity however because of the culture and motivation behind learning in today’s society, the fun of learning has been lost. It is a shame because the student who has fun learning learns so much more than the student who is not having fun learning. You can Make Learning Fun in your lessons by providing the student a choice, making your lessons interactive, and creating a positive learning environment. Hopefully, one day in the future, when people are asked what they like to do for fun, learning will be at the top of the list!

© Megan Prats 2013