A teacher’s perspective on improving student outcomes.
Improving learning outcomes is a challenge that, at times, can seem insurmountable. While reading through posts on LinkedIn this morning, I stumbled across a message that talked about focusing on the bright spots in people’s performance, rather than solving problems. I fundamentally disagree with this. Not because the author was wrong, but because the author suggests ignoring half of the equation. It’s a feel-good sentiment, but not a practical one.
As a teacher of fifteen years, with experience teaching in several different countries, language, and subjects, I have found that fostering a sense of personal accountability for outcomes in students (both adult students and child students, but let’s focus on children right now) is something that we as a culture must start doing again. Throughout my experiences as a teacher, I have seen many families that will blame everyone and everything for the poor performance of their children.
While I understand that families will naturally want to protect their children, and that factors such as the quality of teaching have an undeniable impact on student outcomes, ultimately it is the child that must decide to learn the content being taught.
In 2019, there is very little excuse for children not to be able to learn the content on their own, even if they have an inadequate teacher. The internet is a treasure trove of knowledge and information that kids can be taught to access responsibly to supplement their learning.
The only thing that needs to be done is for the focus of education to be less on memorizing facts, and more on developing cognitive skills conducive to self-teaching. Less on what help is offered by others, and more on how students can be encouraged to help themselves.
Keep reading to find a few tips to help make that happen.
Encourage curiosity in your child.
When you get right down to it, curiosity is the foundation of all learning. How can you learn something if you have no curiosity about it?
Encourage your kids to think about and ask questions using the 5 Ws who, what, when, where, and why. Encourage them to explore their spaces, and find unique and interesting things to wonder about.
And, as strange as it sounds, give them the opportunity to be bored. What? Let my kids be bored? Yes. When kids are bored, they start imagining ways to entertain themselves. What a fantastic way to foster curiosity and creativity!
Focus on growth, not on past mistakes.
Making mistakes is not only a natural part of life, but it is also a critical part of learning – as long as kids are taught to reflect on the mistakes made.
Mistakes can be a demon to frighten children with, or it can be a teacher that follows them and watches over them for the rest of their lives. It all depends on how it is approached. If you teach children to fear making mistakes, they will quickly stop trying new things due to that fear. If you help them understand that every mistake is a step towards a correct answer, they will be much more likely to take those risks in class, such as answering questions and sharing thoughts.
Utilize the tools available to you.
We live in a marvelous age. The internet is humanity’s greatest invention and humanity’s greatest tool for improving learning outcomes. How wonderful is it that the sum total of human knowledge, history, and achievement is freely available? How amazing is it that your child has access to an entire universe of teachers, teaching as many different topics as there are people teaching.
Be patient.
Improving learning outcomes takes time. It doesn’t matter how good your child’s teachers are, and it doesn’t matter how hard your child works. It takes time. There will be many hardships associated with learning, but that goes hand-in-hand with making mistakes. These hardships are some of life’s greatest teachers. Don’t shun them. Embrace them. Your child will come out of it stronger and more capable for having done it.
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