Every class has a heterogeneous group of students. You always have 68% Average students and 16% Above Average and 16% Below Average. This is best represented by a Normal Probability Curve. One of the biggest challenges of a teacher is to reach out to all students in the class. This is possible only by organising Teaching Activities at various levels of the continuum. We have to have some activities compulsory for all and then either offer a choice of activities to the children or else make a particular activity mandatory for a child.
A gifted child is very precious and needs to be handled properly. We need to ascertain that the child is really gifted and then find out his special abilities and interests. Gifted students have particular behaviour characteristics and we have to keep their interest levels high by challenging them with Enrichment and Accelerated programmes. They need challenges and they are quicker at the uptake. Hence while the teacher is teaching the average, the gifted child is bound to feel uncomfortable. Since, in the situation you are teaching; we do not find many such gifted in a single class; there is no possibility of grouping them. But we can group students who are gifted from each class and assign them tasks, projects and assignments as per their abilities. The school needs to be innovative and provide these students opportunities of working with their classmates for major time of the School Day and then for a specific period with the Group of Gifted students. This will need teachers who understand the gifted students and have knowledge of teaching techniques for the gifted. Some schools have separate sections of the same class for the Gifted. Some call these Sections as the Ability Sections. Some have Co-teachers assigned the responsibility of catering to the academic needs of the Below Average and devising strategies for the gifted. Fortunately, I have had an opportunity of observing these practices in several schools over a period of time. I would not like to undermine their contribution but, in all honesty, I must admit that these have been mere gimmicks and have done more harm than good. We have acute shortage of efficient teachers who can teach the gifted students.
Under the circumstances, I suggest:
• Identification of the Gifted is done objectively after Psychological Testing.
• A programme for catering to the Gifted is made at the very beginning of the Session.
• Teacher assigned with the responsibility of handling such a child is made aware of the Characteristics of a Gifted Child and Trained/Mentored in Teaching Strategies that need to be adopted for teaching the gifted.
• No change is required to be made in either the School Timings or Period Wise Timings.
• In fact, some Programmes of Teaching the Gifted would surely benefit other students also and enable them to enhance their Academic Achievements.
I would conclude by saying that ultimately the whole exercise will be determined by the Giftedness of the Child, the Extent and the Potentialities of his being Gifted, the environment in which he is being educated and brought up, the facilities existing in the School and the availability of competent and committed teachers to handle such a child.
A personal request to you if you are facing the problem: “Please consider each child in your Class gifted. Treat and teach them as if they all were Geniuses. I assure you, they will not disappoint you”. I have Research based Evidence of Psychological Experiments to make this request to you.
Cheer up!
Sunday, November 30, 2008
How can we nourish creative potential in children?
Education has to develop creative potentialities of children and this requires proper understanding of Creativity, choosing the right kind of Curriculum and transacting the same in ways as foster creative thinking and creative ability.
We have various approaches and a lot of information: both Pedagogical and Research based available. Montessori Approach of Sensory Training is best suited at the lower levels. Frobel’s Gifts and Didactic Apparatus can also be used at this stage. It is necessary that teachers adopt a Multi-Sensory Approach. We need to know the Preferred Learning Style and the Brain Hemispheric preference of a child. We have to find the Super Link that will help us to present information and have it processed in the Child's Brain through the fastest pathways. Use of Colour, Music, Movement, Brain Gym and Donkey Bridging are all important.
As the child grows, we have to provide a variety of experiences; in order to allow his latent talents to be explored and then nourished. At this stage I would recommend the Gardener’s Multiple Intelligence Approach and even the SMARTS. The child will need to explore the world. The wider the experiences provided, the easier it will be for the teacher to identify the child's interest and talent. By the age of 16 the child reaches his Highest IQ and research studies reveal that Creativity keeps on growing. Hence there is an imperative need to include Thinking Skills; especially of the Higher Order. I mean activities that help the child to Analyse, Evaluate and Create. This requires Activities that challenge him to do so. He has to be a Discoverer, an Inquirer, a Judge, a Producer and capable of De-structuring Knowledge to understand relationships of the parts with one another and with the whole.
We all know that Creativity involves: Originality, Spontaneity, Fluency and Elaboration. It requires Divergent Thinking, Inductive and deductive Reasoning. Our Educational programme, therefore, needs to be flexible, Activity Based, Child- centred. We have to make provision for Hands on Learning, Demonstrations, Experimentation, Practical Work, Surveys, Projects, Assignments and these have to be such as provide a challenge to his particular creative ability. We have to follow an Integrated Approach; wherein the Bloom Taxonomy, Gardener’s Multiple Intelligence, SMARTS, Tony Ryan’s Thinkers Keys, SCAMPER Strategy and De Bono’s Lateral Thinking are all integrated into Educational Planning and Practices. We have to prepare a Grid- Matrix of Activities and engage the child in Activities that require Thinking, Thinking Out of the Box, being Original and going beyond the limits of what is known.
Please remember that Traditional School practices are routine, monotonous and hinder creativity. We have to find alternative strategies that are flexible and cater to an individual child. I have faith that this is possible.
We have various approaches and a lot of information: both Pedagogical and Research based available. Montessori Approach of Sensory Training is best suited at the lower levels. Frobel’s Gifts and Didactic Apparatus can also be used at this stage. It is necessary that teachers adopt a Multi-Sensory Approach. We need to know the Preferred Learning Style and the Brain Hemispheric preference of a child. We have to find the Super Link that will help us to present information and have it processed in the Child's Brain through the fastest pathways. Use of Colour, Music, Movement, Brain Gym and Donkey Bridging are all important.
As the child grows, we have to provide a variety of experiences; in order to allow his latent talents to be explored and then nourished. At this stage I would recommend the Gardener’s Multiple Intelligence Approach and even the SMARTS. The child will need to explore the world. The wider the experiences provided, the easier it will be for the teacher to identify the child's interest and talent. By the age of 16 the child reaches his Highest IQ and research studies reveal that Creativity keeps on growing. Hence there is an imperative need to include Thinking Skills; especially of the Higher Order. I mean activities that help the child to Analyse, Evaluate and Create. This requires Activities that challenge him to do so. He has to be a Discoverer, an Inquirer, a Judge, a Producer and capable of De-structuring Knowledge to understand relationships of the parts with one another and with the whole.
We all know that Creativity involves: Originality, Spontaneity, Fluency and Elaboration. It requires Divergent Thinking, Inductive and deductive Reasoning. Our Educational programme, therefore, needs to be flexible, Activity Based, Child- centred. We have to make provision for Hands on Learning, Demonstrations, Experimentation, Practical Work, Surveys, Projects, Assignments and these have to be such as provide a challenge to his particular creative ability. We have to follow an Integrated Approach; wherein the Bloom Taxonomy, Gardener’s Multiple Intelligence, SMARTS, Tony Ryan’s Thinkers Keys, SCAMPER Strategy and De Bono’s Lateral Thinking are all integrated into Educational Planning and Practices. We have to prepare a Grid- Matrix of Activities and engage the child in Activities that require Thinking, Thinking Out of the Box, being Original and going beyond the limits of what is known.
Please remember that Traditional School practices are routine, monotonous and hinder creativity. We have to find alternative strategies that are flexible and cater to an individual child. I have faith that this is possible.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
TEACHERS NEED RECOGNITION.
Recognition is what I care for most. Who doesn't?
I look for recognition in the enthusiasm of my trainees. Their non-verbal language speaks a lot; their feedback is my recognition, if that has a few words of appreciation.
Recognition comes to me when my colleagues appreciate the work done, when the press reports about it, when friends call up to congratulate and finally when I am financially benefitted for all my endeavors.
The smiling faces of my students and teachers, the admiration of colleagues and the appreciation of the management; these all are important to me but more important to me than all this is when my wife asks me 'How did it all go?' and if with confidence and with my head raised, I reply that it all went as planned and I am happy. This self-recognition is the highest form of recognition to me.
After so many years of research and work with teachers I have realized that teachers are really unique and we should treat them in a unique way.
Encouragement, motivation, awards, recognition... these are all part of what teachers need to see throughout their career.
As we all know most teachers are in the profession NOT because of the salary but because they love teaching. So if we can't give them a $100,000 annual salary, why not encourage them and bring them into the social spotlight where society at large can also learn about them. That way we can "turn the table" and the image of the teaching profession will change for the better. Then being a teacher will mean more than just going to work and dealing with crying kids. It will be what it used to be - the great art of teaching and shaping kids' future.
I don't think we are giving teachers the necessary credit they deserve.
Let us start recognizing our teachers for their being teachers, for the work they do and for a thousand other good things they do.
I look for recognition in the enthusiasm of my trainees. Their non-verbal language speaks a lot; their feedback is my recognition, if that has a few words of appreciation.
Recognition comes to me when my colleagues appreciate the work done, when the press reports about it, when friends call up to congratulate and finally when I am financially benefitted for all my endeavors.
The smiling faces of my students and teachers, the admiration of colleagues and the appreciation of the management; these all are important to me but more important to me than all this is when my wife asks me 'How did it all go?' and if with confidence and with my head raised, I reply that it all went as planned and I am happy. This self-recognition is the highest form of recognition to me.
After so many years of research and work with teachers I have realized that teachers are really unique and we should treat them in a unique way.
Encouragement, motivation, awards, recognition... these are all part of what teachers need to see throughout their career.
As we all know most teachers are in the profession NOT because of the salary but because they love teaching. So if we can't give them a $100,000 annual salary, why not encourage them and bring them into the social spotlight where society at large can also learn about them. That way we can "turn the table" and the image of the teaching profession will change for the better. Then being a teacher will mean more than just going to work and dealing with crying kids. It will be what it used to be - the great art of teaching and shaping kids' future.
I don't think we are giving teachers the necessary credit they deserve.
Let us start recognizing our teachers for their being teachers, for the work they do and for a thousand other good things they do.
TEACHING CLASSES OF STUDENTS WITH DIFFERENT ABILITIES.
Teachers and I mean all teachers have to face this problem. My teachers faced it, I faced and now I mentor teachers as to how to deal with it.
We never have a homogenous class, it is always heterogeneous. Believe me, teaching a class where there are children with the same knowledge, same skills and same learning abilities (though an impossible situation unless we have a group matched on various variables after detailed psychological testing and Factorial Analysis) would not be a challenge to a good teacher. It would be routine and monotony.
Find as to what are the Learning Styles of your students, check their Entering Behaviour and where you find that it does not suit the minimum expectations at Entry level, organise a Bridge Course and improve upon their Entering Behaviour. If majority of students show poor learning abilities then change your objectives, your expectations and choose Curricular Areas that will help in improving upon their Entering Behaviour.
Most important is your Instructional Procedures or Strategies.
Adopt a Multisensory Approach; choose from a range of Activities on a topic, those that are obligatory and those that are optional. Give students the freedom to choose projects and activities from a Grid that allows them the freedom of choice at two levels; Taxonomical and Multiple Intelligence. You will in the process find that while all children perform activities at Lower Levels of Remembering, Understanding and Application; only a few will choose activities on Analysis, Evaluation and Creating. Similarly different children will choose activities as per their Intelligence.
You have to teach keeping the average 68% in view most of the time and the remaining 32% who are evenly distributed at the two ends of the continuum: 16% Above average need to be challenged with activities, projects and assignments as a programme of Enrichment and Acceleration and the other16%-Below average need immediate Remediation but after Diagnostic Evaluation and they need your time, attention, patience, reinforcement and care. This is the challenge to a teacher.
Please follow practices that have been tested and found useful; like peer work, group work, Use of colour and Music, Movement Breaks, enough opportunities for Review and Practice.
You have to individualise your teaching in a classroom setting. This is not difficult at all provided you have all the background information about each child and you can transact curriculum at various levels.
Cheer up. We all did it. I am sure you can do it better than us.
.
We never have a homogenous class, it is always heterogeneous. Believe me, teaching a class where there are children with the same knowledge, same skills and same learning abilities (though an impossible situation unless we have a group matched on various variables after detailed psychological testing and Factorial Analysis) would not be a challenge to a good teacher. It would be routine and monotony.
Find as to what are the Learning Styles of your students, check their Entering Behaviour and where you find that it does not suit the minimum expectations at Entry level, organise a Bridge Course and improve upon their Entering Behaviour. If majority of students show poor learning abilities then change your objectives, your expectations and choose Curricular Areas that will help in improving upon their Entering Behaviour.
Most important is your Instructional Procedures or Strategies.
Adopt a Multisensory Approach; choose from a range of Activities on a topic, those that are obligatory and those that are optional. Give students the freedom to choose projects and activities from a Grid that allows them the freedom of choice at two levels; Taxonomical and Multiple Intelligence. You will in the process find that while all children perform activities at Lower Levels of Remembering, Understanding and Application; only a few will choose activities on Analysis, Evaluation and Creating. Similarly different children will choose activities as per their Intelligence.
You have to teach keeping the average 68% in view most of the time and the remaining 32% who are evenly distributed at the two ends of the continuum: 16% Above average need to be challenged with activities, projects and assignments as a programme of Enrichment and Acceleration and the other16%-Below average need immediate Remediation but after Diagnostic Evaluation and they need your time, attention, patience, reinforcement and care. This is the challenge to a teacher.
Please follow practices that have been tested and found useful; like peer work, group work, Use of colour and Music, Movement Breaks, enough opportunities for Review and Practice.
You have to individualise your teaching in a classroom setting. This is not difficult at all provided you have all the background information about each child and you can transact curriculum at various levels.
Cheer up. We all did it. I am sure you can do it better than us.
.
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