“Short-change your education now and you may be short of change the rest of your life.” This expression, its author unknown, is a frightening reality. Hence the need for a good system at home and at school that allows for productive teaching, and results in pupils excelling.
Which brings me to my next question: “What is Caps?”
If you haven’t heard this new buzzword you are probably wondering how a teacher’s grammar could be so poor and would want to correct me by saying, “What ARE Caps?”
The Caps I am referring to is the new national curriculum statement:
C – curriculum
A – assessment
P – policy
S – statement
Background
They say “knowledge is power”, but during my research and interviews I have encountered so many parents and teachers who have little knowledge and training regarding the new curriculum. This has devastating effects on teachers, resulting in anxiety, endless prepping and tiresome marking.
This is not what the education department intended when revising the old curriculum. They looked at the results of it and decided they needed to improve our matric pass rate by reducing teachers’ administration so more time could be spent on teaching.
In addition, they created pupil- and teacher-friendly textbooks and a time allocation for each topic covered.
So why has this been an educator’s nightmare?
The time allocations versus the colossal content are not always achievable, resulting in work being rushed and the inadequate consolidation of concepts taught. This is why parent-child consolidation is vital at home.
If you are at work the entire day the last thing on your list is reinforcing schoolwork. This is, however, imperative and because your child will feel comfortable voicing what he or she is battling with, this support will prevent the need for bridging massive gaps in the long run.
Remember, education doesn’t begin and end with school – it is lifelong. In fact, philosopher and inventor Albert Einstein once said: “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”
The education department has done what they need to make it pliable.
We as parents, teachers and pupils need to work as a unit to allow it to be successful.
There are a number of study techniques to help your child get through their formative years (see below).
However, there are two things parents need to perfect before using and applying these strategies successfully: reading and comprehension.
If a child is poor at comprehension, studying is an uphill battle. Reading fluency and speed, in this case, are not as important as word recognition and understanding.
A learner-friendly way of formulating an understanding of a text is to “predict” an idea of the story before reading it by examining the title, looking at the pictures, reading the introduction and reading the conclusion.
Once these four things have been done, you may begin to ask your own questions relating to what, where, how, who and why.
When studying, reading aloud is also useful as you are benefiting from an auditory and visual source.
A small amount of adrenalin is useful for our success, but an anxiety overload does the opposite by making us forget. That is why understanding the work by daily consolidation is imperative. Remember, knowledge is power, power promotes confidence and, in turn, confidence allows for success.
To conclude, I would like to quote Nelson Mandela, who said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
He certainly has, so what greater teacher’s advice to take than his?
Parents, teachers and children, let us seize the day by tackling Caps “head on”, and let the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement become a Creative Approach to Perfect Schooling.
Processing information in a fun way
As I mentioned, studying begins in the classroom and marginal notes are the beginning of this process.
By taking notes, you are benefiting from a VAK approach which incorporates:
* Visual – by writing the content down so it can be read.
* Auditory – by listening to the teacher’s explanation.
* Kinaesthetic – by writing and movement.
Whatever the subject, it is important for your child to follow these steps:
* Familiarise him or herself with the background of the topic.
* Highlight the important points.
* Sum them up into one or two sentences.
* Create an image by putting in additional information and putting it into your own words.
* Revision by questioning.
Now that your child has processed some information, you can consolidate it by making it enjoyable, meaningful and memorable:
* Transform the study material into a song or a poem, if your child is poetic or musical.
* Make a spider diagram or a repetitive sentence by building on it, if your child is artistic.
* Abbreviate and create your own shorthand so there is less content to remember.
* Make mnemonics and acronyms, for example remembering the colours of the rainbow, ROY G BIV, if your child is numerical.
Study techniques to help children through their formative years
Studying doesn’t begin at home – in fact, it begins at school during class.
The day before a test should merely be revision. Memory is important for studying but rote learning – which we parents and adults did in the old days – assists only with short-term memory.
We need to make learning understandable, memorable and enjoyable. But how?
* What are your child’s strengths and weaknesses? (For example, is he or she a visual or auditory learner?) By ascertaining this, you can develop their negatives while building on their positives. There is no use in reading information to your child or explaining it if he or she thrives on visual cues. A visual learner will benefit from things that illuminate the visual part of the brain, for example colours and diagrams.
* Set the correct environment: do not expect your child to learn in an environment that does not promote learning. For example, do they prefer to work in a well-lit room, at a desk or chair, in silence or with background noise, while eating, while moving, in the morning or evening? This is half of the battle won, since one of the hardest things to do is entice your child to begin studying.
* Plan time: tests usually occur cyclically, so if your child is being tested on day 10 of the cycle, divide the content into eight sections and on day nine just revise.
These subsections should be no longer than 30 to 45 minutes as their concentration cannot last longer than that and it is the quality of work that matters rather than quantity.
Source: www.breakingbarriers.co.za
conacher 
Written
on 12/05/2013