What is Modernism?

What is Modernism?

 By: Sally Atef.

“The earlier, the more fun. Why put it off? It’s the atomic age!” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

What is modernism? When did it start? How has the human character changed? What were the factors which caused the change? Who are the pioneers of Modernism?  Figure1 Modernism

Modernism as a term:

    Modernism has a problematic nature as a term. There is a wide range of definitions given to it. To mention some of them, Silvio Gaggi (1989) defined it as: a rejection of mimesis as the major principle of art and an elevation of formalist or expressionist ideas to primary aesthetic principles. Martin Gray (1997) takes to mean: A label that distinguishes some characteristics of twentieth-century writing, in so far as it differs from the literary conventions inherited from the nineteenth century.     

 In short, modernism is an umbrella term under which other movements are included in such as Surrealism and Absurdism. Modernism is not a school which is interested in human nature but also new and radical techniques like Virginia Woolf’s hermaphrodite in which there is no sequence in events and radical narrative technique.

       One of the modern techniques which appeared is the shift from external to internal reality. In the nineteenth century writers portrayed the external reality as Charles Dickens (1812-1870) who wrote about social reality in London. In his novels he describes different types of unpleasant people and places.

        Another style is what is known as “interior monologue”, a style created by James Joyce (1882-1941). It is also known as inner voice. This style of writing allows the reader to move inside the minds of the characters, rebelling against traditional rules of description, speech and even punctuation.     

Its start:

      Modernism has no clear cut agreement of its beginning. Some believe that it began with the French revolution (1789). Henry Meschonnic suggests that modernism started with what Sartre called the generation of 1850.   Some confirms that it started at the beginning of the twentieth century. Some see that it was a rebellion against the conditions and traditions of the nineteenth century in concepts of man and universe in Psychology, Social life, Painting, Literature and all terms of life. Critics believe it started in the nineteenth century as Virginia Woolf  stated in her essay "Mr. Bennet and Mrs.Brown"confirmed that on or about December,1910, human character changed. Figure2 Virginia Woolf

What kind of change?

      It can be seen in what T.S Eliot (1888-1965) portrayed man as a heap of broken image in the waste land (1922). It is a 434-line poem. Sibyl’s predicament mirrors what Eliot sees as his own: He lives in a culture that has decayed and withered but will not expire, and he is forced to live with reminders of its former glory.

     

The factors that caused these changes:  

 figure3 Sigmund Freud

1-            The discoveries of Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) in psychology when he declared that there is an important part in the human character are unknown, or what is called unconsciousness. That increased the mystery of the human character. He also confirmed that many of man’s behavior come from a dark area. He stated “Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.” so the image of man is not a complete one .As a result man has a feeling of loss and confusion as in a surrealistic picture. A great example for it is Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway (1925), a novel that details a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, and it is commonly thought to be a response to ,’s Ulysses (1922). Woolf (1882-1941) committed suicide after a German incursion against her home in London in 1941.

2-            The new discoveries and Charles Darwin (1809-1982) and his theories about human rising. He assured that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors.

3-The first and second world wars and the destructions the caused as they were shocks for thinkers to see blood shed allover Europe. Thinkers thought that Europe was not a place where they could live. They also found that the whole world is an anarchic place and it seemed to have no limits. When the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens visited the battlefields of north-eastern France in July 1917 he described the strange interaction of man and nature he had witnessed. ‘What humanity can endure and suffer is beyond belief’, he told his wife, ‘the battlefields — the obliteration of all human endeavor and achievement and the human achievement of destruction is bettered by the poppies and wild flowers that are as friendly to an unexploded shell as they are to the leg of a garden seat in Surrey.’ 

 figure4 the second world war destruction

3-            Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) and the absurd theatre and the lack of understanding and communication between man and himself, the others, and his society. Man became no longer the great creature. 

 figure5Samuel Beckett

Its pioneers:

        Jeremy Hawthorn said that writers as Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Franz Kafka and Albert Camus should be considered the pioneers of modernism. To sum up, we can classify modernists to three groups:

First, modern novelists: e.g. Fyodor Dostovsky, Theodore Dreiser, Dos Passos, Virginia Woolf and Ernest Hemingway. 

Second, modern poets: e.g. T.S Eliot, Thomas Hardy, W.B Yeats and Ezra Pound.

Third, modern dramatists: e.g. Oscar Wild, George Bernard Shaw, W.B Yeats and Sean O'casey.

How to get your students motivated?

How to get your students motivated?

By: Sally Atef.

"In motivating people, you have got to engage their minds and their hearts. I motivate people, I hope. By example and perhaps by excitement by having productive ideas to make others feel involved" Rupert Murdoch.

     How can students be self-motivated? Is the teacher responsible for motivating students? Is the educational procedure effective? Do individual differences affect motivation? Is age responsible? Is the way children are brought up influence their motivation?  

   No one can force a student to learn something but a well-qualified teacher should devise various techniques to involve students in learning and create the desire to learn in them.

Motivation as a term:

        Motivation is derived from the word "motivate" which means: being the motive of; giving a motive or incentive to. It is a psychological feature that refers to the inner power that controls goal-oriented situations and leads the living thing's behaviors. It is present in every life functions; simple or complicated acts e.g. eating is motivated by hunger and education is motivated by the desire for knowledge.

              In education , it means to initiate ,guide and maintain the desire for knowledge in the students and to get them involved in the lesson and attract their attention to participate actively and never shroud .   

      

How does your brain work during motivation?

 

     Emotion can affect the brain during the learning situations. If any disturbance happens in the relationship between the teacher and the student it will force the brain to spend glucose to face tension instead of using it in cognitive tasks. When we feel tension our adrenal glands release a peptide called Cortisol. When we face an environmental or an academic danger. This leads to a chain of physical reactions such as: immune deficiency and hypertension (Kotulak, 1996).

 

        Researches in this field revealed that the failure to find motivating learning environment and taking into consideration the students' interests and knowledge leads to a week learning practices and a limited learning as creating a rich learning environment full of new learning experiences and challenges is a vital issue for brain growth(Slavkin2002).

 

         (Smilktiem1993) confirmed that dendrites, synapses and neural networks grow from motivating and challenging experiences. In addition, she emphasized on the importance of creating a motivating environment and making the classroom a safe place to learn in.       

  a synapses cell

          Researchers give due care to the motivation process as the existence of cognitive potentialities which have a biological basis and the suitable environment context are not enough for the growth of a high standard of mental efficiency, but there should be a motivation or a goal which motivates the learners to make the best use of these potentialities.

Suggestive ideas for motivating students:

  

1-                    It is bitter for the teacher to realize how the learners are different in their attitudes towards learning and innovate learning situations which suit individual differences.

2-                    It is advisable for the teacher to use a variety of teaching strategies to encourage critical thinking and the ability to evaluate and form opinions about and comment on a range of subjects among the students.

3-                  Practicing verbal and nonverbal communication is important to encourage the learners during the teaching process.

4-                  Learning the students' names is of great help for the teacher. It helps break the ice between them. (S)He should great them in a friendly way. Their relationship should be based on a mutual respect.

5-                        A teacher may ask the students if there is anything worrying them. (S) He should be flexible listening to their complaints and try to help them if possible.  

6-                        Taking to account the multiple intelligences theory and rewarding the students according to it. For example: students who have a linguistic intelligence should be rewarded by giving them a book or crosswords. Students with a logical-mathematical intelligence should be rewarded by giving them a puzzle or a calculator. Musical intelligence's students can be rewarded by a musical instrument.

7-                        Using the teaching methods according to the students' intelligences is very significant in motivating them i.e. for the linguistic intelligence's students the teacher can use discussion. (S)He may use critical thinking or problem solving for logical-mathematical intelligence's students. (S)He may also use intonation for musical intelligence's students and cooperative learning for those who have interpersonal intelligence.

8-                        It is favorable to use the learning activities according to the students' intelligences.e.g. for the linguistic intelligence's students,(s)he use "read", "write" or "speak", for those who have logical-mathematical intelligence,(s)he may use "measure" and "draw" or "imagine" for spatial intelligence's students.

9-                        Learning more about student's learning style e.g. visual, auditory, spatial, verbal or social is very important in motivating students since the teacher can make (her) his activities suitable for these styles.

10-             Teachers should never disencourage students for things they do not know or can not do. They should take into account students' standards and apply standards-based curricula and make sure that the learning experiences are suitable for them.

11-             Helping the students to find out a connection between what they had studied and real-life situations i.e. situational learning and dialogues.

12-             It is vital to make the teaching atmosphere filled with discussions in stead of being an atmosphere of negative listening. Classrooms should be student oriented not teacher oriented ones.

13-             It is significant in motivating students to make the teaching atmosphere free and to encourage them to think over ideas despite their strangeness. Teachers should be prepared to tolerate errors more.

14-             Creating a self-confidence feeling in the students and never let them feel unable to fulfill the task is a notable point when motivating students because it helps to develop emotional identity.

15-             Teachers can use sense of hummer in a suitable way whenever possible by using puns and exaggerations.

16-             It is bitter for the teacher to use learning styles that help the student to feel that they are a team in which every individual, however (her) his ability has a role in managing the task. Students need to speak and work together cooperatively when asked and they need to help each others when directed as learning is a social process in addition to being a mental process.

17-             Teachers may create a teaching environment that is marked by learning resources according to their abilities and potentialities.

18-             Teachers should make sure that what they ask students to do has real benefits in real life and encourage them to ask questions like: what is the benefit of…? Have you got an idea about…? What do you know about…?

19-             Visiting the sites where study takes place e.g. a farm, a factory or a museum and using a more life-like activities and situations and using the activities in purposeful, realistic and meaningful contexts.  

20-             Avoiding over-lengthy or repeated activities as possible and put a suitable time frame for them.

21-             Teachers ought to be enthusiastic and show their love for what they do.

22-             Changing teacher's roles regularly is of great help for the teacher. A teacher has so many roles to perform e.g. planner, instructor, manager, controller, decision maker, advisor and assessor.