Teach Less, Learn More

[bebebub]

Anyone has any idea if the recent top scorers for PSLE receives tuition? I can only remember it was reported that most of them have parents who are high fliers and/or professionals.


dd is just an average student in a normal school, and hub and I are not high fliers. My humble hope is for dd to enjoy her childhood and still do decently for PSLE - without tuition (at the moment). We try to tell her that it's her job to own the learning process, and she has to faced up to her failure if she does not do well. Because of this, I have been \"ham-tam\" by my well-meaning friends for my lack of provision of tuition for dd.

Am I kidding myself to think that dd will not be left behind, given this \"teach less, learn more\" concept? Seems like most parents here lament, but feel that \"learn more from tuition\" is the way to go :? . On the other hand, I really feel sorry for my friend's kid who, at P4, was asked to drop swimming and piano lessons to make time for 4 subjects tuition plus additional classes in CL and EL creative writing classes!! :shock:

[Brenda10]

Augmum:

Chenonceau:

Mine only did 4. Worse, the compo comes back without marks for English... And without comments for Chinese. He doesn't know what he did wrong or can improve.

w/o marks ?? oh...i think this is the first time i heard,
no marks are given after marking compo writing.

This is very bad! Paper 1 (compo.) is usually quite difficult to score well.

[metz]

bebebub:

Anyone has any idea if the recent top scorers for PSLE receives tuition? I can only remember it was reported that most of them have parents who are high fliers and/or professionals.

Qualifier : This is only hearsay. The PSLE top scorer last year was having enrichment lessons at Mindstretcher.

[corneyAmber]

sleepy:

janet_lee88:

Science, esp is one subject which students have problems with. The information in the textbook is so pathetic, but yet students are expected to answer tough questions set by the school. How can students possibly prepare for these open-ended questions when they have not been taught in class ?

I've similar observation & had feedback to dd's Science hod.

The reply is there is only 2 to 2.5 hours of Science period each week....

Exactly...why allocate so little time to Science? I was quite shocked when I saw the time-table while typing it out to make a size to fit the pencil case then I realised it.

[corneyAmber]

Chenonceau:

Actually, to teach such mental SKILLS. Small group coaching is essential. Given the syllabus, you need a lecture tutorial system where big groups are exposed to a short theory talk through and then tutors take over for skills practice.


That is what is happening now when parents coach kids after school or engage tutors to do so. School does the lecture. Parents and tutors do the skills practice after school. If that is so, they should shorten school hours so we have more time for practice. To go to school to listen to 6 hours of lecture makes no sense.

Not all subjects have the luxury of a lecture....I am pleased if there is even a lecture. Some are just collection of half-baked instructions for assignments and then have to get it done at home. It varies from teacher to teacher, there is no fixed pedagogy. And for most of these teachers, their real money is working in enrichment centres or private tuition after work in school so there is no compelling reason to strive so hard in school and school is just their springboard to better income, this is just being realistic. I don't blame them, the blame falls squarely on the shoulder of whoever designs this. Could it just be a myopic individual's contribution, who knows? Could it be deliberate to make the teaching profession attractive too, who knows? These days I only communicate with God...because God knows. :lol: :lol: :lol:

[corneyAmber]

chamonix:

bebebub:

Anyone has any idea if the recent top scorers for PSLE receives tuition? I can only remember it was reported that most of them have parents who are high fliers and/or professionals.

Qualifier : This is only heresay. The PSLE top scorer last year was having enrichment lessons at Mindstretcher.

It's not hearsay, his name is published in Mindstretcher website. No secret.

[metz]

ksi:

It's not hearsay, his name is published in Mindstretcher website. No secret.

Any idea if he was also attending Learning Lab? Nowadays, some kids attend more than one enrichment centre, take up extra activities. I wonder where they find the time and energy...

[corneyAmber]

chamonix:

ksi:

It's not hearsay, his name is published in Mindstretcher website. No secret.

Any idea if he was also attending Learning Lab? Nowadays, some kids attend more than an enrichment centre, take up extra activities. I wonder where they find the energy and time...

Concurrently, probably not....can easily check TLL's board of achievements so he would have been \"exposed\". However, it does not rule out that he might have been to TLL prior to joining MS. He was an Olympiad Math kid too so it was likely that he had to undergo extra Math training in an Olympiad Math centre. However, having said this, he is consistently a performing student in his school so he does have brains to begin with.

Lastly I just want to say being the top PSLE kid has to do with luck factor. The top 15-20 kids in the chart all have a chance of being the top PSLE kid......the last part to determine who gets it is really the \"luck\" factor in some of the marking outcome in the subjective areas. So if you find the common points of these top 15-20 kids as your data points, you will probably discover more patterns that you are looking for.

[Chenonceau]

Augmum:

Chenonceau:

Mine only did 4. Worse, the compo comes back without marks for English... And without comments for Chinese. He doesn't know what he did wrong or can improve.

w/o marks ?? oh...i think this is the first time i heard,
no marks are given after marking compo writing.

Yeah lor... Shocking right? First time I experience this too but my son came back with marked English compo with a few ticks and some minor corrections but no marks. He said \"This teacher never give marks.\"

[Chenonceau]

cantbearit2:

Chenonceau:

Mine only did 4. Worse, the compo comes back without marks for English... And without comments for Chinese. He doesn't know what he did wrong or can improve.

:shock: :shock: Guess tis is wat i can expect in future for my DD is tis is the trend of most sch

Hope lor... Perhaps MOE will revise the system again?