How People Learn covers some of the core elements of how and why people learn. Creating an environment where people are able to learn is more important than the technical aspects of skiing (or any activity). Understand and discover more about how people process information and develop skills.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Abraham Maslow created a hierarchy of needs during the middle of last century. His theory helps us to make sense of a child’s or adult’s emotional needs and motivations. It is still commonly used in education and a variety of industries to help understand what may be inhibiting learning or performance. These needs can result as motivations that affect our ability to concentrate and focus on anything else except the immediate need we are dealing with. We can use this theory to help guide our understanding of why our students may be struggling with a particular task.
Physiological (or Basic) Needs
This is the need for food, water and shelter, or the need to survive physically. If we are hungry, cold, fatigued, or just uncomfortable, we will find it increasingly hard to concentrate on the task at hand. Our motivation will shift to trying to address this need.
If we are hungry, we need to eat. If we are cold, we move to get the blood flowing or head inside to keep warm. A student may not tell you that they are hungry, thirsty or cold.
Safety & Security
If we feel we are in danger or threatened we may not want to carry on with what we are doing. When this need is not met we may find ourselves wanting to get away from what is endangering us. If it is not possible to change what we are doing or where we are, we will tend to become tense and lack the ability to focus. In extreme cases we may totally freeze up. Our motivation to stay safe in these situations can become the priority.
When we’re scared, we try to change what we are doing or the environment we are doing it in. A student is trusting us to make these decisions for them.
Belonging
We all want to feel that we belong and are accepted. It is a fundamental emotional need to be liked or loved, which is especially strong in childhood. When we do not feel that we belong, many and varied responses may occur. These responses are usually there to help us to feel accepted or protect ourselves emotionally.
When we feel that we are not liked or accepted, our motivation can change to focus on this instead of the task at hand. Often students have never met each other, it can be up to us to help create a sense of belonging. With young children, it is especially important to build trust and a strong group rapport to feed a sense of belonging.
Self-Esteem
Everyone wants to feel good about themselves. When we feel good about ourselves, and respected, we will be more confident and ready to attempt new and challenging tasks. If we feel the opposite, our desire to gain respect and self esteem can affect our performance.
Giving positive feedback to our students is especially important in helping them to feel good about what they are doing and build their self-esteem.
Self-Actualisation
This is the need or desire to be the best you can be at something. It is commonly thought that self-actualisation can only be achieved when you have successfully fulfilled all the other needs. Some people will never reach this stage. Those who do, have an in-depth understanding of what they need in order to perform any task to the best of their ability.
Creating this for your students can be extremely challenging. Consider this to be the absolute pinnacle of performance and achievement.
Example
You have a group of adults and the weather is cold. After the initial start of the lesson when everyone in the group was open and chatting, you notice that some students have stopped talking and communicating, they are no longer engaging. You ask if everyone is alright, and if everyone is warm enough, the whole group say they are fine.
It may be the case that the students that are no longer engaging are in fact getting very cold and they can no longer engage or learn as their physiological needs are not being met. But at the same time when you asked if everyone was warm enough, everyone said "yes", maybe because the cold students wanted to belong so they didn't want to seem like they were separate from the whole group. In such a case, as instructor and leader, you might need to suggest a quick warm-up break or toilet stop to keep the group together and to allow the colder students to warm up.
It may be the case that the students that are no longer engaging are in fact getting very cold and they can no longer engage or learn as their physiological needs are not being met. But at the same time when you asked if everyone was warm enough, everyone said "yes", maybe because the cold students wanted to belong so they didn't want to seem like they were separate from the whole group. In such a case, as instructor and leader, you might need to suggest a quick warm-up break or toilet stop to keep the group together and to allow the colder students to warm up.
If we know which of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is affecting our student’s performance or blocking their learning, we may then have the ability to change or adapt what we are doing to help cater to that need. We should try to be attentive to a student’s energy levels and body language as a basic indicator. If a student is struggling or looking uncomfortable, ask yourself, why is this? Is there anything I could change, say or do to help?