Recommendation of changes to reduce Stress for PSLE
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Chenonceau:
Are the work you questions and Science paper given to the teacher part of the school assignment?I can't tell you how much I envy you.
My DS' Math & Science teacher (HOD some more) doesn't answer questions. We asked a few Math questions and she kept saying she'll revert and never did. 1 month before prelims, I gave her a Science paper 2 that I had marked and I asked her to critique the way I had marked a few of the questions (because not confident mah.... since I am a humanities student).
I explained that I knew she was busy and that I understood how tough it is to be a teacher... and I was prepared to help my son myself instead of drawing upon her time. She smiled and chatted and chirped with me. I sent one email reminder after 3 weeks. Till now, after PSLE, NOTHING.
Without the LiSC book, DS and I would be quite quite lost. I am not trying to complain anymore. I know MOE is moving to fix these issues. But when I hear how your teachers respond by giving extra time to the child, I can't help but feel jealous. Very jealous. DS teacher wouldn't even give ME the little bit of time I needed so that I could help her teach my child Science.
I think the difference is that if it is your own material, I would believe that teachers will not be interested in attending to them. It could be because:
1) it is of unrealistic difficulty level set by some branded schools.
2) if every child comes with even 1 question, there will be 40 qns/day
3) if other parents find out she is giving 'special attention' privately to any student, it may lead to a complaint.
For my case, I was sure my kid was not the only weaker one which was why I asked if there was any plans for remedial class. Only, I left the option up to her as she deems fit and not to my expectation.
I guess that explains why the diff in response.
Juz my 2cents -
Nebbermind:
The questions were from a stack of GEP practice exams I obtained from a friend.
Are the work you questions and Science paper given to the teacher part of the school assignment?
I think the difference is that if it is your own material, I would believe that teachers will not be interested in attending to them. It could be because:
1) it is of unrealistic difficulty level set by some branded schools.
2) if every child comes with even 1 question, there will be 40 qns/day
3) if other parents find out she is giving 'special attention' privately to any student, it may lead to a complaint.
For my case, I was sure my kid was not the only weaker one which was why I asked if there was any plans for remedial class. Only, I left the option up to her as she deems fit and not to my expectation.
I guess that explains why the diff in response.
Juz my 2cents
They were way more difficult than work handled in class but on par with (if not more easy) than my son's school exams.
Empathise With Teacher And Understand
I was sensitive to the fact that Teachers can't give a lot of individual attention so in 2 years this was our ONLY request for Science help. More often than not, my son does not do the assigned Science homework (saved her a lot of marking really). We are stubborn about play time and so I deleted homework that was inappropriate and wrote excuse letters.
Answering Technique is Relevant Regardless of Question Content
In fact, my approach to her was to ask for some guidance for ME to be able to help my son with further questions on answering technique. Indeed the teacher's exam debrief for CA1 Science, where almost half the class failed, was \"You all know your stuff... but you didn't master the answering technique.\" So... it really doesn't matter where the questions come from, the focus of my request for help wasn't so much in tricky questions but in answering technique.
Best Teacher for his Worst Subject
In P5 and P6, the teacher with the best attitude was his Chinese teacher. Knowing that my son is poor in compo, she agreed to mark 2 extra-curricular compos a month for him so that our own private comp marker could take a cue from teacher's marking and mark my son's DAILY compos. However Chinese is my son's worst subject and we had too little time to catch up on too much (since I didn't wake up till P5).
Basic Teaching Only in Math, English and Science
The only responsible teacher he had in P5 & 6 taught him his worst subject - Chinese. If I lay back and nicely just follow his teachers' basic teaching in English, Math and Science... he would fail all the three subjects in which he has the highest potential because his exams can be MORE difficult than top school papers. Then for sure, my poor boy would end up with t-score below 200 - which is below his capability.
Ask Teacher about work done in class? There is NOTHING to ask the teacher about what is done in class. You would really have to be t-score below 200 potential to NOT be able to understand what went on in class because it is so basic. Maybe that is why the teacher sticks closely to textbook and assigns homework from workbook? So that no one will ask uncomfortable questions.
I arranged with Teacher to excuse DS from EVERY workbook homework. DS simply didn't do assigned homework because the discrepancy with school exams was so stark. Without being queried by me, this teacher offered the explanation that some kids in the class could not handle the basics so she had to cover them. That's fine and good. I understand and empathize. All I needed was that she give me some guidance on how Science OE is marked so that I could handle the marking at home and save her the trouble of teaching beyond the basics.
If Cannot Ask Teacher Beyond Classwork Then Tuition is Necessary
In essence,
(1) if Teacher covers the basics only and
(2) the PSLE tests at the level of the GEP and
(3) parents cannot ask questions at the level of GEP testing because these were not set by Teacher...
... then it is not surprising that so many people pay for tuition. It's not a question of being kiasu. Unless you wanna fail, it is necessary. At least in this particular situation. This said, DS had no tuition... but then I myself know how much I had to do for him in place of ...
(1) tuition we did not believe in
(2) sufficient teaching -
Chenonceau:
Same here...the only responsible and really teaching person was his Chinese teacher...she gave the class extra practice for oral and listening. Even the worksheets were good stuff.The only responsible teacher he had in P5 & 6 taught him his worst subject - Chinese. If I lay back and nicely just follow his teachers' basic teaching in English, Math and Science... he would fail all the three subjects in which he has the highest potential because his exams can be MORE difficult than top school papers. Then for sure, my poor boy would end up with t-score below 200 - which is below his capability.
Chenonceau, you are lucky not to not have anyone biting your bum when you said your son's teachers are teaching just the basic. Don't mean to insult you or anyone here, but I should have used a nick when I first signed in. -
janet_lee88:
Same here...the only responsible and really teaching person was his Chinese teacher...she gave the class extra practice for oral and listening. Even the worksheets were good stuff.Chenonceau:
The only responsible teacher he had in P5 & 6 taught him his worst subject - Chinese. If I lay back and nicely just follow his teachers' basic teaching in English, Math and Science... he would fail all the three subjects in which he has the highest potential because his exams can be MORE difficult than top school papers. Then for sure, my poor boy would end up with t-score below 200 - which is below his capability.
Chenonceau, you are lucky not to not have anyone biting your bum when you said your son's teachers are teaching just the basic. Don't mean to insult you or anyone here, but I should have used a nick when I first signed in.
It doesn't matter to me anymore. All is water under the bridge. MOE is moving to improve by...
(1) providing a portal from which students anywhere in Singapore can access material of all difficulty levels (I hope this is so... I have never seen the portal) so that people like me and DS who don't believe in tuition can have easier access to learning resources
(2) removing barriers to interschool sharing by tempering inter-school competition (i.e., removal of banding) so that schools who produce good materials will share them with teachers in other schools (via the portal?)
(3) distributing resources according to need and not according to school performance (so that good schools get gooder... and poor schools get poorer)
(4) changing teacher appraisal so as to bring ethos, pride and passion back to teachers rather than always dangling $$$$ in front of them.
These are big big systemic changes and it takes people with guts to make it happen. Systemic changes like this will certainly shape individual teacher behavior. Hopefully, in time to come, the situation in mainstream (non high ability) education will improve. There is hope for a better tomorrow in mainstream. For us, it's over... and we can just smile and say \"Whatever didn't kill us.... made us stronger.\"
Time to revel in the rainbows of life. -
janet_lee88:
I really felt vindicated this year when DD's P6 teachers kept asking the class \"what did (p5 teacher's name) teach you last year?\"
Same here...the only responsible and really teaching person was his Chinese teacher...she gave the class extra practice for oral and listening. Even the worksheets were good stuff.Chenonceau:
The only responsible teacher he had in P5 & 6 taught him his worst subject - Chinese. If I lay back and nicely just follow his teachers' basic teaching in English, Math and Science... he would fail all the three subjects in which he has the highest potential because his exams can be MORE difficult than top school papers. Then for sure, my poor boy would end up with t-score below 200 - which is below his capability.
Chenonceau, you are lucky not to not have anyone biting your bum when you said your son's teachers are teaching just the basic. Don't mean to insult you or anyone here, but I should have used a nick when I first signed in.
Even they realised the lack of teaching... Of even some BASIC stuff. They had to work extra hard to make up for the \"loss\". I was more relaxed this year when DD had truly committed teacher that TAUGHT. -
Lilac66:
To me, the ability to analyse and understand areas of weakness, identifying sources of help or remedies, and then following through with what needs to be done faithfully.
I like what you brought up.DKWhy:
.
But kids who have mastered enough self learning skills in their early years will not suffer so much in sec schools coz chances are they will have the ‘inbuilt mechanism’ akin to ‘survival instinct’ to auto learn to adjust, adapt and survive within manageable stress. This ability comes from those chances that were given to them by not-so-KC and not-so-KS parents when they were allowed to learn to swim on own. This natural innate ability either can be built slowly or can also be taken away slowly by their very own parents during their early years.
But sorry just asking coz when we discuss about self-learning skills for kids of such age, what type of skills are specifically looking at or inculcating?
For discussion sake, we'll use MAths since this is one area where parents have most grouses about- say a child is not able to grasp the model concept for in class, what does he do? Ask the teacher in class or get help from parents. What if the child is not able to clear his doubts either because the teacher is has got too much on her plate to attend to him personally or the parents are not sufficiently equipped to help him? What should he or we parents do if we want to inculcate self-learning attitude? Let's presume the child does not have tuition.
For models, which was a problem for us, I helped my son determine that he could solve the problems but did not know how to draw the models. So it is not that he was bad at Maths per se, but unfamiliar with the model method.
I instructed him to ask his teacher, and I emailed her privately. She would then go through the models with him for another five minutes at her desk when giving out holiday homework.
On my side, I sourced for a book on models and went through that with him in small doses. Eventually I could hand him the book, instruct him to look at the examples in a section and attempt any question of his own choosing. He could refer to the examples anytime. We would do only three sums each time. Over a few months, he became very comfortable with models though i still encourage him to consider other more efficient methods of solving the sums. -
Chenonceau:
:lovesite:
These are big big systemic changes and it takes people with guts to make it happen. Systemic changes like this will certainly shape individual teacher behavior. Hopefully, in time to come, the situation in mainstream (non high ability) education will improve. There is hope for a better tomorrow in mainstream. For us, it's over... and we can just smile and say \"Whatever didn't kill us.... made us stronger.\"
Time to revel in the rainbows of life. -
ammonite:
To me, the ability to analyse and understand areas of weakness, identifying sources of help or remedies, and then following through with what needs to be done faithfully.
I like what you brought up.Lilac66:
[quote=\"DKWhy\"].
But kids who have mastered enough self learning skills in their early years will not suffer so much in sec schools coz chances are they will have the ‘inbuilt mechanism’ akin to ‘survival instinct’ to auto learn to adjust, adapt and survive within manageable stress. This ability comes from those chances that were given to them by not-so-KC and not-so-KS parents when they were allowed to learn to swim on own. This natural innate ability either can be built slowly or can also be taken away slowly by their very own parents during their early years.
But sorry just asking coz when we discuss about self-learning skills for kids of such age, what type of skills are specifically looking at or inculcating?
For discussion sake, we'll use MAths since this is one area where parents have most grouses about- say a child is not able to grasp the model concept for in class, what does he do? Ask the teacher in class or get help from parents. What if the child is not able to clear his doubts either because the teacher is has got too much on her plate to attend to him personally or the parents are not sufficiently equipped to help him? What should he or we parents do if we want to inculcate self-learning attitude? Let's presume the child does not have tuition.
For models, which was a problem for us, I helped my son determine that he could solve the problems but did not know how to draw the models. So it is not that he was bad at Maths per se, but unfamiliar with the model method.
I instructed him to ask his teacher, and I emailed her privately. She would then go through the models with him for another five minutes at her desk when giving out holiday homework.
On my side, I sourced for a book on models and went through that with him in small doses. Eventually I could hand him the book, instruct him to look at the examples in a section and attempt any question of his own choosing. He could refer to the examples anytime. We would do only three sums each time. Over a few months, he became very comfortable with models though i still encourage him to consider other more efficient methods of solving the sums.[/quote]Problem solving heuristics for primary Mathematics is something most students and parents struggle with. In class, when the teachers teach, students should listen very attentively to the mathematical concepts and solving techniques discussed. That is expected of every student. How many times can the teacher explain the same concept in class？Maybe 2 or 3 times. Of course she will allocate worksheets to students to review what they have learnt. As parents, what we can do is to reinforce the stuff our DCs learnt in school at home, simply because we have more time with our DCs than the teacher have with them. Parents with good knowledge of the primary syllables can easily and efficiently coach their DCs but parents who are at seas can first help themselves by doing some self reading up. There are many teaching aids and guide books specially written for parents/teachers found at Popular bookshop. Make use of these books. I pay for these books without qualms although some of them are pretty expensive. I see it as a form of investment and it certainly beats using the money on tutors instead.
Yes, as parents, we should make the sacrifice of our time and energy to go into what our DCs are learning and struggling with in school. If we as parents find self learning of their syllables a daunting task, then what can we expeçt of our DCs, not forgetting that they are much younger in age and not so well equipped and also their state of maturity is in question.
In truth, stress only prevails for parents who are not in the know of what their DCs are learning and struggling with in their syllables. I know exactly what my DCs are good or weak at the individual areas of their various subjects. Those weak areas, I keep reinforcing and those strong areas, I continue to take them to greater heights. The key to good learning is reinforcement and application. I take a very keen interest in what they learn. In fact, I am just like another 'school teacher' who never knocks off from work because I 'work' from home as I am SAHM.. ..and I am not paid, poor me! I do not simply rely on the school teachers to do the job. My parents don't give me an education for nothing. Now is the time to exploit what I have learnt to help my school going children although teaching is not my forte.
When my DCs are better equipped, they do self learning. I do not spoon feed. I always tell them that I teach them to fish, not give them the fish. -
DKWhy:
:goodpost: :goodpost: :goodpost:Sec schools, esp Sec 1, are definitely tougher than primary school coz of additional and some more ‘alien’ subjects (history, geography, etc). It is common to see average marks hover around 60s and 70s and for those who just manage to ‘squeeze’ themselves into super schools via extensive and if-never-give-will-die coaching, around 50s if these kids’ coaching is removed.
It is also therefore NOT THE TRUTH to say that sec school will be less ‘stressful’ than PSLE. They are just different.
But kids who have mastered enough self learning skills in their early years will not suffer so much in sec schools coz chances are they will have the ‘inbuilt mechanism’ akin to ‘survival instinct’ to auto learn to adjust, adapt and survive within manageable stress. This ability comes from those chances that were given to them by not-so-KC and not-so-KS parents when they were allowed to learn to swim on own. This natural innate ability either can be built slowly or can also be taken away slowly by their very own parents during their early years.
For those kids who have been hand-held for so long, there is a high chance that they need to be handheld further into sec schools and maybe into JC and perhaps into their uni years as this may seem to be the only way that they KNOW they can float. It is a ‘pattern’, a learnt sense of helplessness that they are so used to that if removing the tuition, they may TANK!
So parents you do have a choice to be KC and KS ttm / face green green or choose to be concerned-enough parents who give only adequate support (never over support) for your children to discover their own path / way. Emphasising here is adequate support when the family and kids still can have a good balanced life that can be fun and fulfilling and not over-support till straining almost everyone.
Real butterflies emerge themselves with their own efforts from their cocoons. Those who are forced to be butterflies will end up in no where.
Sow the seeds and reap your own returns.
I hope more not-so-KC and not-so-KS parents can lend your voices to balance this forum, else it fits the saying of “Three People then Tiger Becomes Real” (I can’t type Chinese). I can read some KC parents fanning some of the KS parents and then all sing together in ‘harmony’. Do new parents a favour to support the motion of primary school education indeed doesn’t need to be so stressful for the family and the children and that it is really manageable.
Sometimes ignorance is a bliss. Cannot imagine highly educated people ‘scared’ of primary school education to the extent of not willing to have kid / more kids when it is just so a tiny part of a child long journey in this wonderful life. New inexperienced parents must be ‘frightened’ by such reading! -
A child should be taught how to learn before he can do self-learning, as this does not happen in one day.
I feel that our system is way too ambitious, maybe just as other parents had mentioned earlier, the only way to reduce PSLE stress is to set realistic expectation. Don’t teach too much, also don’t expect students to learn too much; but rather, focus on learning skills:- 21st century skill as some call.
Three Rs is basic educational requirement in the USA. Children learn through project work; field trips and drama and arts etc… Best of all, there is no need to take exam in primary level.
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