Primary school maths: A vicious circle (from TODAY May 8)

[Intermezzo]

oxyleo:

:boogie: 有话好好讲。君子动口不动手。 :imanangel:

噢凯。多谢教诲 ~

[Chenonceau]

tutormum:

I agree if the whole class failed, it's probably not her fault. There's many possibilities and your friend should find out the truth. The girl sounds very sensible and mature to write letter to apologise. My DS will not do such a thing but :oops: :oops: try to :hugs: :hugs: when they do something wrong. Since she has a tutor, let her tutor go through the papers with her. I always go through exam papers with my students even though their teacher has gone through with them. I always insist on doing so to make sure that they understand the concepts and realise what their mistakes were. Their subject teachers will not be able to do that cos they would only give the standard answers and the student will not know why his/her weakness. At this time, the girl needs encouragement more than anything else. Sometimes, it's better that we don't focus on a failure but give encouragement instead. From my experience, students will be very :sad: and :oops: with their results already. They would even refused to show me their exam papers if they felt that they didn't do as well as they have expected. Once they realised that going through their papers is not to :stompfeet: :mad: :rant: but to help them, my students are always very eager to show me their papers.

This method of failing kids hurts the conscientious ones most. My DS was also very sad and apologetic. He was so relieved when I declared very categorically that it was not his fault.

Kids who are tidak apa won't take it so badly. If I had insisted on blaming DS for the failure, he would sooner or later develop a tidak apa attitude just to protect himself from emotional pain. So I completely discredited those marks... said the exam was badly set... and told him not to care.

The odd thing now... is that I am teaching my son a tidak apa attitude. This is a value I never thought I would teach him. I've always taught him to care.

[oxyleo]

Intermezzo:

oxyleo:

:boogie: 有话好好讲。君子动口不动手。 :imanangel:

噢凯。多谢教诲 ~

不必那么客气。能够自我反省就好了。 :hugs:

[oxyleo]

Chenonceau:

tutormum:

I agree if the whole class failed, it's probably not her fault. There's many possibilities and your friend should find out the truth. The girl sounds very sensible and mature to write letter to apologise. My DS will not do such a thing but :oops: :oops: try to :hugs: :hugs: when they do something wrong. Since she has a tutor, let her tutor go through the papers with her. I always go through exam papers with my students even though their teacher has gone through with them. I always insist on doing so to make sure that they understand the concepts and realise what their mistakes were. Their subject teachers will not be able to do that cos they would only give the standard answers and the student will not know why his/her weakness. At this time, the girl needs encouragement more than anything else. Sometimes, it's better that we don't focus on a failure but give encouragement instead. From my experience, students will be very :sad: and :oops: with their results already. They would even refused to show me their exam papers if they felt that they didn't do as well as they have expected. Once they realised that going through their papers is not to :stompfeet: :mad: :rant: but to help them, my students are always very eager to show me their papers.

This method of failing kids hurts the conscientious ones most. My DS was also very sad and apologetic. He was so relieved when I declared very categorically that it was not his fault.

Kids who are tidak apa won't take it so badly. If I had insisted on blaming DS for the failure, he would sooner or later develop a tidak apa attitude just to protect himself from emotional pain. So I completely discredited those marks... said the exam was badly set... and told him not to care.

The odd thing now... is that I am teaching my son a tidak apa attitude. This is a value I never thought I would teach him. I've always taught him to care.

I agree Chen. Although it's still early days for my son, I've changed from my stance from \"Let's strive to do well!\" to \"Just do your best!\". We are now adopting a \"Prepared for the worst, Hoping for the best\" mentality. Like as if it's attempting warfare without ammunition, just a broken shield with bare hands.

[Chenonceau]

oxyleo:

Chenonceau:

[quote=\"tutormum\"]
I agree if the whole class failed, it's probably not her fault. There's many possibilities and your friend should find out the truth. The girl sounds very sensible and mature to write letter to apologise. My DS will not do such a thing but :oops: :oops: try to :hugs: :hugs: when they do something wrong. Since she has a tutor, let her tutor go through the papers with her. I always go through exam papers with my students even though their teacher has gone through with them. I always insist on doing so to make sure that they understand the concepts and realise what their mistakes were. Their subject teachers will not be able to do that cos they would only give the standard answers and the student will not know why his/her weakness. At this time, the girl needs encouragement more than anything else. Sometimes, it's better that we don't focus on a failure but give encouragement instead. From my experience, students will be very :sad: and :oops: with their results already. They would even refused to show me their exam papers if they felt that they didn't do as well as they have expected. Once they realised that going through their papers is not to :stompfeet: :mad: :rant: but to help them, my students are always very eager to show me their papers.

This method of failing kids hurts the conscientious ones most. My DS was also very sad and apologetic. He was so relieved when I declared very categorically that it was not his fault.

Kids who are tidak apa won't take it so badly. If I had insisted on blaming DS for the failure, he would sooner or later develop a tidak apa attitude just to protect himself from emotional pain. So I completely discredited those marks... said the exam was badly set... and told him not to care.

The odd thing now... is that I am teaching my son a tidak apa attitude. This is a value I never thought I would teach him. I've always taught him to care.

I agree Chen. Although it's still early days for my son, I've changed from my stance from \"Let's strive to do well!\" to \"Just do your best!\". We are now adopting a \"Prepared for the worst, Hoping for the best\" mentality. Like as if it's attempting warfare without ammunition, just a broken shield with bare hands.[/quote]Worse thing is... I am teaching him to blame the exam, not himself. It really was not his fault. Before this... I had always taught my kids that they have to take responsibility for poor results. Now though... So to survive emotionally, one has to be

(1) bochap
(2) point fingers at something else

MOE's core values of (1) bochapness (read: We won't micromanage, so you all go talk directly to schools ok?)... and (2) finger pointing (read: Parents are to blame)... are now part of my son's education.

[oxyleo]

Yet more training for teachers:


http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1204670/1/.html

Sigh....

[Chenonceau]

oxyleo:

Yet more training for teachers:


http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1204670/1/.html

Sigh....

Yeah... blame everything on Teachers. Management has no part to play. They've been training Teachers for so many years... and look where we are... When will MOE realize that doing more of the same thing (more training and more beautiful buildings) won't give them different results?

Did you notice that they consulted various experts but didn't consult parents? MOE decision-makers evolve in a closed system where everyone praises everyone else for thinking a certain way... and doing things a certain way. No wonder they're so greatly deluded about themselves.

[oxyleo]

Chenonceau:

oxyleo:

Yet more training for teachers:


http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1204670/1/.html

Sigh....

Yeah... blame everything on Teachers. Management has no part to play. They've been training Teachers for so many years... and look where we are... When will MOE realize that doing more of the same thing (training and beautiful buildings) won't give them different results?

Only when their KPIs include a 360deg review by teachers (subordinates)/parents (service users)/co-workers. Believe me, this review works really well and keeps those on top in check. If they want to model civil service sector pay after private sector pay, they should likewise withstand the harsher assessment matrices of the private sector too.

[Chenonceau]

http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/OnlineStory/STIStory_805944.html

[Intermezzo]

oxyleo:

Yet more training for teachers:


http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1204670/1/.html

Sigh....

hi oxyleo,

kekeke i gather this piece of news was not worth getting \"cautiously excited\" over...

thanks for the link ~ i'm starting to feel that i must be very dense... but surely this kind of training for teachers is a step in the right direction?