Do you ever wonder what helps motivate you to DO things? I spend a lot of time thinking about and trying out ways to help develop staff trainings that work (you can read into that…lots of things I’ve tried never amounted to people using the training that I’ve provided LOL). Recently, I’ve turned my attention to considering what helps youth and families try new things together. I came across the idea of “affordances” and keep thinking more about the value of registering (or investing in) for a future experience. What does registering “afford” us the opportunity to do?
Affordances
While the concept of affordances began with influential experimental psychologists like Donald Norman (did you ever hear of “Norman Doors” as a theory that visual perception is linked to action?). Similarly, urban environmental education has been noted to help youth realize the affordances offered by nature and social interactions (Delia & Krasny, 2018) and STEM projects have been cited to afford youth, families, and new audiences an opportunity to connect to others, voice their ideas, and try on new experiences including leadership (Schmidt et al., 2020). In these cases, signing up to do something meant the participants had a chance to have new experiences.
These ideas suggest that registering for an opportunity affords families the intention to do a project together, as you pledge to set aside time to work on a project with children and grandchildren, engage with each other, do something different, and share with others and the community.
I like the idea of warming up to something. I believe registering helps us set intentions to invest time with each other. And (as mom of three) I know sometimes it is easier to sell the “we are committed to” idea over surprising the family with a last-minute project. I’m interested in knowing your experiences…has registering for an educational opportunity “afforded” you time with your family?