Nursery World - Child Behaviour: Understand young children's individual learning styles

‘Conation’ is the will or urge to do something. Helen Garnett explores the importance of understanding children's different styles of motivation for learning and development

Each child has their own ‘mode of operation’ or way of doing things

What drives a baby to take their first steps? Why does a child persist in riding a bike?

What compels an adult to read every page of War and Peace? These ‘acts’ are driven by conation, defined as ‘the personal, intentional, planful, deliberate, goal-oriented, or striving component of motivation, the proactive (as opposed to reactive or habitual) aspect of behaviour’.1 In short, conation is the will or ‘urge’ experienced in doing or learning.

Conation is one of three key components of children's learning and development. Whereas cognition refers to the knowing/understanding/processing parts of brain activity and affect to feelings, the lesser known conation is the ‘action’, how we actively engage ourselves in our learning.

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