Attitude is Everything
The
attitude you bring influences your thoughts and actions and the
approach you then take to your learning. Your attitude will affect how
much time you put into your schoolwork, how you manage challenges, and
ultimately your path to achieving your personal academic best.
Take the time to determine reasons to put in effort into your schoolwork.
Think about which of the following reasons might be motivating for you:
To achieve the best marks you are capable of at school.
To give you lots of options for what subjects you can choose in the senior years.
To give you lots of options of what you can choose to do when you leave school.
To have a personal sense of satisfaction about doing your best.
To show your gratitude to your parents for giving you an education.
To avoid getting in trouble from your teachers.
To avoid getting in trouble from your parents.
To avoid getting a detention or other negative consequences from not working.
To avoid disappointing your parents.
So you don’t feel bad about wasting your parents’ time and money giving you an education.
You
may have heard about ‘carrot’ and ‘stick’ people. If you want a donkey
to move forward, you can either lead it forward with a carrot (a reward)
or tap it with a stick (punishment).
Some
students are motivated by working towards rewards, positive
consequences of doing the right thing, while others are motivated to
avoid negative consequences. Which do you think you are?
Understanding what motivates you and what affects your attitude can make it easier for you to make positive changes.
Learn more this year about study skills techniques by working through the units on www.studyskillshandbook.com.au. Students can log in via the homepage on SharePoint.