Do Students Have to Value Everything They Learn?

Values also can influence learning indirectly by promoting expectancies for success or self-efficacy. Students who value learning and persist at tasks increase their skills, and the belief that one is improving raises self-efficacy. Self-efficacy and expectancies for success motivate one to continue to improve.

Despite these benefits, it really is not necessary that students value all learning. We learn many things that we see little value in at the time. Most students do not see much value in such tasks as learning the names of state capitals, learning how to rationalize denominators in radical expressions, or learning about the symbolic elements in works of literature. Sometimes the value of learning comes to light later on, but sometimes not. It is fair to say that learners engage in a lot of learning not because they value it but rather because it represents work that has been assigned and completing it has more favorable outcomes than not completing it.

Nonetheless, it behooves teachers and parents to help their children see value in learning. Value has strong motivational benefits, both long and short term.