Some students perform better, while others not. What are the main reasons?
1) Study material provided and learning strategies used by teachers. It simply doesn’t meet the learning criteria.
https://github.com/amiyatulu/teacher_resources
Students are feed with so much of abstract stuff as a result only those students excel who have a better memory retention capacity of abstract information and those who work too hard for it. But such a hard work is meaningless, as you will forget such information after exams are over.
2) Not teaching kids from where they are.
I will explain it with a concrete example.
While teaching chemistry, one of my students was so fast in holding information and doing the problems, while other was slow. The reason for her/his slowness is not that he/she is less intelligent, it’s because (s)he is taking more time for processing due to lack of previous foundational information.
When (s)he does the processing, (s)he has to take the account of many kinds of stuff that (s)he has not learned before. For example, while teaching chemical kinetics I found out that (s)he doesn’t know even the BDMAS operation of maths. Chemical kinetics chapter is math heavy, but I tried to explain everything with concrete representation, but still, students were unable to do the problems or reach the solution accurately because it requires so much practice of math fundamentals before doing those problems. But the good thing is that they have understood everything that I taught.
From this, I learned that you can explain stuff catching anyone from the street if you are explaining it in the simplest way possible, so that (s)he can understand it.
Similarly, while teaching redox reactions, one of my students was too slow, because (s)he doesn’t know about periodic table much. What are the electronegative elements? Also (s)he was making the error in calculation while solving for x. Changing values from LHS to RHS or vice versa problem that most students face while solving an equation.
So the fast student needn’t have to spend so much time in doing because her/his brain is already trained for the fundamental stuff that is required. So (s)he requires less processing to reach the solution.
So the message is “New information is built over reusing of previous information” For example, one has to know the alphabets to write words, words and grammar rules to write sentences.
Why personalized education?
There are no one-size-fits for all. All learn at a different pace as they have different levels of background and prior information and different experiences, different choices, different personalities and different strengths and weaknesses.
Why learning pace differ?
There are many reasons for it, especially the prior knowledge of the subjects, and learning habits. Some are bookworms spend more time on studies, while others are more sportive and entertainment seeker. There is a lot of impact of having a prior knowledge such as good vocabularies, overlearning of basic mathematical skills which free down the working memory so that there working memory is used in building strategies to solve mathematical problems with full capacity, the preceding familiarity with the subject taught. Learning habits include using or not using effective evidence-based learning strategies.
The problem with different learning pace.
In the present system, most schools teach the same curriculum without giving any freedom to the learning pace of students. As a result of which students are unable to cope with the curriculum, and the result is all-or-none i.e. those who are unable to cope with the speed of curriculum, fall behind because less learning/understanding leads to further less learning of later topics, and this process is compounded every time.
Designing a personalized syllabus based upon quality study material they follow:
1) A central institute will design a core template of the syllabus and list down the study material available throughout the world.
2) Students and schools/colleges should first decide the material (books, MOOCs, video lectures, scientific journals, magazines, blogs) they will follow that meets the learning criteria, then design the syllabus using the core template given. They have to add rigorous specific details to the syllabus based on the study material they will follow, and they can add or remove some part of the core syllabus.
3) Then students and schools/colleges have to submit the study material list which they will follow and syllabus to a central institute for approval which will check the quality of study material and the syllabus, whether the syllabus design and material meet the 21st-century learning skills.
Ideas for designing the core template is given in the following the link: http://technoperiod.blogspot.in/2016/06/framework-for-collaborative-design-of.html
The core template will provide only the main keywords for the syllabus, which can be used to design the syllabus of a student by the school.
The teacher can adapt the syllabus according to the quality material.
e.g. Schools can follow the book “Doing Math with Python: Use Programming to Explore Algebra, Statistics, Calculus, and More!” by Amit Saha, along with teaching Calculus, Statistic, Algebra and also decreasing the load of a student in some areas of mathematics
The National Curriculum Framework work is to provide assistant and feedbacks in designing the student syllabus.
A personalized syllabus template:
Need to be designed for a student with the help of a teacher/ school
Pre-test to identify pre-learning topics:
Identifying what preceding knowledge is required for doing the course and teach them accordingly.
Students should give a pre-test for example mathematics, in order to identify their preceding knowledge. In case of mathematics, do student know solving equations, can they solve problems of fractions, are they comfortable with shifting decimal places of the result while multiplying.
Identification process should also continue during the course, and corrective measures need to be taken.
The syllabus of the student must also include these pre-learning topics
How will board exams be done?
All the unique topics (along with its specifics) of the syllabus need to be sorted out and compiled. Then prepare lots of questions based on each topic according to the study material provided. Only topics that are chosen by the student will be given for testing in the examination.
The purpose of such a method?
- It will give the liberty to an author to prepare study material and innovate on the study material based on the 21st-century skills as books need not have to be coupled with state or central board syllabus.
- It will give liberty to the schools to innovate and bring the 21st-century skills without being hitched by the syllabus.
- Students will have freedom of choice, they can learn at their own pace, based on their previous skills and improve upon it.
- Students will learn according to the availability of quality material, not according to the random syllabus prescribed to them. Syllabus without quality material is meaningless.
Why personalization and shared learning both are important?
Shared learning helps children to work like humans in a cooperative and collaborative manner. It also saves the time of the teacher. Complete personalization will lead to isolation. Personalization and shared learning should co-exist together but should be done in a correct way with working practices based upon evidence in context.
Source Code (in github):
https://github.com/amiyatulu/pobiquery
Demo:
https://rebrand.ly/demo_probiquery
Traditional Vs Progressive Education:
Progressive educational approaches differ from traditional education in following ways:
1) Progressive education deals with learning, comprehension, instills curiosity and self-awareness, using the concept in a new situation, investigate, problem-solving by looking for patterns, listing all/many possibilities, scrutinizing, thinking about thinking, make judgments, justify and check a solution.
Traditional approach main purpose is high test scores, grades, and graduation
2) In the case of the traditional approach, all students are taught the same material and students are grouped by age and ability whereas in progressive approach students having common goal are dynamically grouped with the different ability or subject knowledge, students collaborate for explaining the content, problem-solving, giving constructive criticism for work to diminish the knowledge gap between them and to enhance the newly learned and old skills and the progress is tracked by peer assessment and feedback and students have best choices to the course outline they learn.
3) Teaching methods of traditional education emphasize on direct instructions and lectures, students learn through listening and observation without active participation, whereas progressive education also includes and emphasizes on inquiry-based learning, hands-on activities, student-led discovery and group activities.
4) In traditional approach focuses on memorization of facts. Correct knowledge is most important, without alternative thinking and learning from mistakes are not encouraged. In the case of progressive education students can think of alternative solutions, mistakes are allowed and learning from mistakes are encouraged and students are asked to take risks, and not avoid mistakes, show resilience and perseverance. Critical thinking is paramount.
5) Traditional approach promotes fixed mindset which is the belief that intelligence and abilities cannot be developed, whereas progressive approach stimulates growth mindset, a belief that qualities can change and that we can develop our intelligence and abilities.
An article about how to successfully cultivate growth mindset among students:
Growth Mindset: Clearing up Some Common Confusions
Further reading:
Assessment Without Levels – Challenges and Solutions
http://www.4matrix.org/AWL_Challenges_and_Solutions.htm
The mastery approach of learning.
Learning Objectives Breakdown: