1. Raising Children to Love Learning
Deborah Stipek
Stanford University

3. Interest in Learning

4. When you enjoy learning… When you don’t…
Seek challenges
Persist
Learn at a deep, conceptual level
Remember
Seek learning outside of what is required
Succeed in school/work
Take the easy way
Give up easily
Learn superficially, just the rules
Forget quickly
Learn only what is required
Perform adequately in school/work

5. By age 16 Disengaged Goes through the motions Feels stressed &
pressured
Enthusiastic about
learning

6. Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) Axis+
Hypothalamus
Stress
CRF +
Pituitary Gland -
ACTH - +
Adrenal Gland
Cortisol
Kidney +
Immune Effects (Inflammation)

7. Competence
&
Confidence
Control
Connectedness

8. Competence & Confidence
Being competent doesn’t always lead to confidence (girls and math)
Feeling competent very motivating – makes you want to do more (Meredith – t-ball, ice-skating)
Feeling incompetent, very de-motivating – who wants to work on something they think they can’t do? Feel hopeless, sometimes even humiliated (Trivial Pursuits)
Kids who don’t believe they are competent—who think they can’t do well--give up easily and spend a lot of time trying to avoid revealing their incompetence (excuses; complaining that work is boring; “forgetting” homework…)
Sometime children aren’t interested in academic work because they really don’t have the skills to complete it – (need to assess carefully whether this is the case)

9. Robust Self-Confidence
“Just right challenge”
Informative feedback
Focus on learning,
developing mastery,
not performing
(growth mindset)
Mistakes are OK 1.

10. Control

11. Promoting Control & Responsibility
Let person take responsibility
Choice within structure

12. Connectedness

13. Promoting Connectedness
Show Interest
Accept
Support who the person is

14. Promoting Interest in Learning
Encourage creative play
Model enthusiasm
for learning

15. Time for Play