Factors that affect your learning

Section One: What are factors that affect?

Factors, or things, can affect our learning. Things as simple as having an uncomfortable chair, being too hot or cold, or hungry can all affect whether we can do our learning. Ever heard of hangry? This is what we mean. When you're hangry all you can think about is food and getting it in your belly. Nothing else matters.

Section Two: Why is it important to understand factors that affect our learning?

It gives you more control over your learning. By knowing and understanding what all the different factors are then you can work to address these factors so that they support your learning rather than make it harder.

Basically, the reason that factors like being hungry get in the way of your learning is that your learning happens in your working memory. And this working memory has really, really limited space. In fact, it can really only hold about five things at once. So, if you're thinking about what to have for lunch, that fight with your friend, how uncomfortable that chair you're sitting on is and how you have to get to the bus straight after school otherwise you'll miss it, there's not much room left over for thinking about what your PE teacher is saying. So, it's about clearing space in your working memory so that you can concentrate on your learning. Learn more about what your working memory is in the Youtube clip below.

Section Three: Factors that affect Learning

Part One: Personal factors

There are many personal factors that can affect your learning. These come under broad headings such as social, emotional, physical, spiritual, cognitive, and cultural. Let's take a closer look.

Social factors - Perhaps you're new to a school? Perhaps you've had a falling out with your best friend? Perhaps you feel safe and connected to your teacher? All of these things are to do with the social factors. Think of social as stuff to do with other people.

For example, if you're starting a new school, research has shown that it can put your learning back 6 months. Why? Well, you don't know anyone or where anything is or how things are done when you're new. So while you're figuring all that stuff out, there's not much room in your brain for learning. Having good people who you feel a connection with and put you in a safe place, means that your brain has the room it needs to think about your learning.

Emotional factors - this is do with how your emotions are feeling. Take a moment to think about a time when you've had a fight with your people at home in the morning before school. Did that make it easier or harder to concentrate on your school work? If your brain is filled up with worry or anger then there isn't much space left over for your learning. Some strategies to help with this may include simple breathing exercises or you may need to seek the help of a professional (luckily, we've got some awesome ones on staff!)

Physical factors - Think about the last time you were sick. Did that make it easier to study or did you actually just want to go to sleep? Physical factors are all about how you are feeling, physically. It's more than just being sick though. It's also about feeling fit and healthy. So taking care of yourself by exercising, doing breathing exercises and getting good sleep is important.

Spiritual factors - Spiritual factors involve your wairua. That's your soul, your spirit, that all encompassing thing that makes you you. Spiritual factors can involve things such as religion but it's also about feeling at peace, at ease and when you feel this, it frees up your mind to challenge yourself with your learning. So what things do you do to look after your wairua, your spirit? It could be walking in a forest to feel connected to nature, it could be spending time with loved ones to feel connected to people. All of these things help to take care of your wairua.

Cognitive factors - cognitive is a fancy word for your brain. So these are factors that have to do with the makeup of your brain. So, for example, maybe you have dyslexia and that makes it harder to read. If you don't have dyslexia, it makes it easier. Perhaps, you've had concussion and that makes it harder for you to remember things. Strategies, or ways around these challenges could involved writing a to-do list, using computer software to read stuff out to you or using the dyslexia font. It could also involve saying yes to help with your learning in class. It could also be checking your understanding by explaining to your teacher what you think the class work is about.

Cultural factors - culture is best defined as the values and beliefs that groups of people have and this tells them how to interact (be together, hang out etc). Culture has a big effect on how we learn and interact as students and teachers. Consider this example from America:

"Many Asian students, for example, tend to be quiet in class, and making eye contact with teachers is considered inappropriate. In contrast, most European American children are taught to value active classroom discussion and to look teachers directly in the eye to show respect, while their teachers view students’ participation as a sign of engagement and competence. Parents from some Hispanic cultures tend to regard teachers as experts and will often defer educational decision making to them, whereas European American parents are often more actively involved in their children’s classrooms, are visible in the classrooms, or volunteer and assist teachers ." (Source: Miami Herald)

This means that teachers and students can be working from different angles and get the wrong end of the stick. Teachers want to know the things that make their students tick, so by sharing our cultures, both as students and teachers, we are sharing our expectations and taking away potential barriers that could stop us from working together well for your learning.

Culture is more than your ethnic group though. It's also about the culture of the groups that you hang out with. For example, league is a real culture of team work and looking out for your mates. Western culture values beauty which, if you're not sure that you're good looking (Trust us! You're perfect the way you are!), that it may put you off coming to school - think of those kids who didn't like their hair cut. It can also affect how much different families see school as an important thing to do well at. So culture works in lots of different ways - it can help you do better, or it could make it harder. The important thing is to think about what your culture is and what it values.

Summary

There are lots of personal factors that can affect your learning in both good ways and ways that make it harder. Take a look at these videos below to help you think more about personal factors that can influence how well you learn stuff, discuss it as a class and then take the quiz afterwards.

Part Two: Environmental factors

There are many environmental factors that can affect your learning. These come under broad headings such as ergonomics, sound, visual factors, light, temperature. Let's take a closer look.

Ergonomics - is about feeling comfortable and in a way where your neck and back doesn't get sore. Ergonomics is big business. Chairs and tables are the first part of

Sound

Visual Factors

Light

Temperature

Consider the images below. Based on the factors that you've just read about