The concept of learning a passion is, without a doubt, amusing. Passion renders an input emotionally charged. For instance, if someone claims that he has the ‘passion to paint,’ people tend to think that he will paint – no matter the raining critiques or less economic value of his paintings.
Often times, passion is also tainted with tragedy. Using the mentioned case, if he continues to pain even without patrons to buy his paintings (but because he’s a passionate painter), he might become a beggar, as he refuses to devote his time for other income-generating task. The tragedy is this passionate painter’s sunken state.
Unsurprisingly, students’ general perception of passion could just be as polar (choosing one of the two) or balanced. In the context of that passion to learn, those perceptions are inclined to create an impact. But how is the passion to learn experienced and scrutinised? Below are a number of probable indications:
The Case of Reward. When students spend the night to undertake elaborate research processes in the name of producing an acceptable paper, how will they recognise the reward? Undertaking ‘elaborate research’ may have something to do with compliance; but the willingness to undertake it is unmistakably passion-driven.
Will the reward on marks create a substantive recognition of the passion’s (to learn) influence? How about the reward of peace of mind, when students submit a paper of which they have their confidence staked?
A good question would be: If the marks weren’t outstanding at all, will students remain to appreciate the kind of effort they expelled or withdraw their allegiance to this so-called passion to learn?
The case of reward is irrevocably an interesting angle to use in examining students’ passion to learn. It directs the observer to the obvious manifestations of passion and the congruent ways by which such passion can be traced back for a positive, negative, or *neutral recognition.
*Take keen note that the neutral position is prevalent among students: they fail to see the connection between the passion to learn and its perceived rewards thereby making it difficult to ‘assess’ the passion.
The Case of Requirement. When students perform an exercise, present reports and write assignments, they will almost automatically have an ‘estimate’ of the kind of effort expected or necessary for each academic activity. This estimate is taken into account in a lot of things – the timeline, how soon will they start doing it, etcetera.
In the context of the passion to learn, students have a pretty much vivid picture as to which is effort-consuming or not. And as illustrated by the above case, the passion is strongly associated with faithfully going through the graceless arena of process; therefore, passion requires a lot of effort.
If students see it this way, they might either answer to the challenge or shrink to doing average. On the other hand, if they pay no attention to such hefty requirement and choose following their passion to learn, the case of requirement would be negligible.
In sum, the passion to learn shouldn’t only be an educator’s affair; students themselves have an important role to play. They must endeavour to scrutinise their perceptions of the passion to learn and openly accept that they do have it in them to become better at their chosen crafts.
