Work In progress ! Work In progress ! Work In progress ! Work In progress !
Arousal is a major aspect of many learning theories and is closely related to other concepts such as anxiety, attention, agitation, stress, and motivation. The arousal level can be thought of as how much capacity you have available to work with.
A certain amount of arousal can be a motivator toward change (with change in this discussion being learning). But too much or too little will work against the learner.
You want some mid-level point of arousal that provides the motivation to change (learn). Too little arousal has an inert affect on the learner, while too much has a hyper affect
You might think of arousal and cognitive levels as fluid in a glass. If you put too much in of any ingredient, the glass overflows. If you do put too little in, you are not using the glass to its fullest capabilities.
And if you put the wrong ingredients in, but the glass is full, then it does not taste good.
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More and more sports performers are looking towards mental preparation as a way of giving themselves ‘the edge’ in their sport. How many times have you felt that you haven’t played as well as you could because you weren’t focussed, you got frustrated or because you were ‘psyched out’ by an opponent? All of these factors could be prevented through psychological skills training. Psychological skills training involves training the mind in the same way that you would train the body in preparation for sport.,
The "Learning Zone"
How do you know when you have reached the optimum arousal point for your learners? In sports, a player who is playing great is at the optimum arousal point and is said to be "in the zone." Achieving the optimum arousal level in a training environment puts students in the Learning Zone
oThey become totally involved in the learning process by centering in on the task to be learned as non-learning stressors have been eliminated.
oThey loose self-consciousness of the fear they might fail and gain a desire to succeed as their emotions are now tied to the learning environment. Failing becomes challenges because they become more adaptive to the learning environment and they believe the learning environment will "fine tune" itself to meet their needs
o They have clear visions of what the task to be learned can provide as they know how it will help them in their future endeavors.
oThey have a sense of being in control of their learning environment as they are ripe for learning (they are NOT just going through the motions).
oThey become more intrinsically motivated (self-directed) because they want to learn the task (their focus is on the task rather than reward and punishment).
