日學生成績大跌 歸咎無壓力教育

lochan

yk,

'Luck' is 'opportunity meets prepararion. '

Pressure comes from competition, pressure comes from peer, pressure comes from school, pressure comes from comparison. There are lots of pressure exists in this world. The least we would like to do is to COMPARE your child with individuals than to standards. No child is born equal and some may perform one thing better than the other one, so be it and explain to your child that you may need more time to catch up with it or you can try something else which he is good at.

Pressure can be positive when it is self-driven or self-motivated. I do not oppose driving my boy to achieve certain standards but not direct to individual.

Moderation is the word and there is a fine line between reasonably to overly asserting pressure to a child. Afterall, if the child really enjoys pressuring himself to be better, that's fine but of course at the beginning we have to find out what he is really likes the most and encourages him to that direction.

toffeeli

The discussion here is really interesting, hence I just read back from the very first post. While I was reading, some questions came across my mind..."What is the assessment criteria/standard of PISA? If the ranking is dropping, does it mean the performance of the studuents in that country  is dropping or just other countries are improving? Will this assessment insert unnecessary pressure to teacher/students/parents and generate unnecessary competition amongst countries......" Perhaps my questions are a bit silly.

beseem2003

Philipwhau 寫道:

自己也做過學生和考過A Level。眼見有很多同學很勤力地每天花上十多小時、不眠不休地在圖書館自收室溫習、結果他們考試出來成績也不太理想。同樣有些同學花上讀書的時間比前者少一些，但考試結果卻是出乎地好。我相信除了資質外，我觀察所得後者的讀書方法是關鍵因素。學生學習和他們將來出來社會做事也是一樣。關鍵因素在於策略(strategies)和方法(Tactics)。

我認為除了資質和方法外，基礎不好佔很重要因素。

ykwong

咁，係咪講到尾，都係要避免壓力呢？

lochan

beseem2003,

I totally agree with you that foundation is utmost important. Strategies and textics will only be effective if you possess a good foundation.

Especially when the other day, I tried to teach my son some simple math addition, I suddenly realize that he doesn't grasp the concept and the real need for additional. Therefore, I have to give him some interesting real life examples in order for him to understand the foundation of numbers and need of every day life addition (I remembered how I feel so awkward when facing the work questions when I was a kid). So often school teaches formulas and simply ask the child to memorise and apply them w/o even knowing the reason and concept of it.

Foundation takes a much longer time to build but forms an important basis for the child's future learning. The child may be slow to catch up with the curriculum but in the long run, be able to learn faster when compare witht the typical fast-track learning style in HK since he can always go back to the fundamentals and work himself up and solve the problem. Math can be fun or hell and the difference is only depending on how you teach the kid!

so.san

Matt's mum,

I think 成績 is important, though NOT the most important issue in life. As a student, 成績 is directly related to a student's sense of achievement / satisfaction, which can be transformed to his motivation in learning. Sense of achievement is one psychological need of human beings. Somehow I think 成績 and learning motivation can be like chicken and egg.

I am not saying only 成績 contributes to learning motivation, but it works for those who are achievers. Of course there are other motivators, such as genuine interest in learning.

If 成績 is used to measure how well a student performs in school, imagine, if a student does not care about how he performs, how can he know how well he is doing?

If a student is always commented as poor 成績, I don't believe he will not be discouraged and still feel happy about going to school. With such low motivation will he be able to create a fruitful life?

I am no expert. Just for sharing.

lochan

Dear so.san,

when you talk about 成績, do you mean report card ranking? If so, I disagree.

成績 is very important when you are comparing to YOURSELF. Any improvement is considered 成績. Local school judge a child's 成績 by measuring his abilities at a dedicated time frame against dedicated group of children in a class. I mentioned earlier that different child has his own learning path, some quicker when young, slow down when grow up; some slow starting but caught up at later stage.

Int'l School do NOT rank a child against others and they sure know that it does harm more than good. Instead they will assess the child against certain recognised standards. For example, they will rank a child's reading ability to be good, vg, surpass his age group etc but they don't tell you his ranking nor do they ever rank them. They also give out a wider range for a child to achieve a certain standard, e.g. between age 5-7, a child will be able to write in simple sentence etc. If that is not achieved, it will be time for you to alert.

Of course, when a child grew older, he will face a lot of competition not only in academics, but in sports and music competition  etc. However, the initial years of schooling must be aim at triggering a child's urge and eagerness to learn instead of blindly chasing after 成績 that is ranked by comparing with others. 成績 is just a by-product after you have successfully triggeria child to learn with eagerness. Ranking a child amongst his peers is in itself not fair since the "young" ones in the class are in a adverse situation when compare with the "older" ones in the same class.

Yes, 成績 is important but depends on how you apply it.

My two cents

:wink:

ykwong

wunma,

只有一點反對:", 我唔信....每晚同呀仔呀女說說故事便可增強語文能力. "

我相信多聽、多講和多看都能提高語文能力。除非多聽的是很沒水平的說話。

ykwong

any other point of view?

"is good result a garentee to good and happy life?

Usually it guarantees a better life, as Judy's mentioned before. But not definitely.

"If a student is always commented as poor 成績, ..."
-who blame the student? can any change in our thinking about result bring a new point of view in result and avoid blaming student but give them courage?

You (and any parent) can do this while it is difficult to persuade the school to do so.

Select a school which is close to your approach. If there exists, unfortunately not much :cry:

ykwong

ykwong 寫道:

"is good result a garentee to good and happy life?

Usually it guarantees a better life, as Judy's mentioned before. But not definitely.

諗諗下都唔o岩。Judy 應說好成績會有較好生活(水平?)。但 good and happy life？很難定義。

生活水平較佳是否等同"好及快樂"?

是了！這便是根源：希望成績好會帶來更佳生活。知識改變命運：6、70年代很管用。由草根到中產，現在仍適合。但再上(??資產階級、高層次靈性生活、定好及快樂??)應沒關係吧！

ykwong

wunma 寫道:
yk,

"多聽、多講和多看都能提高語文能力" 當然沒錯, 我是不相信"單憑"每晚同呀仔說說故事, 而完全唔注重校內成績, 可以滿足得到升上好中學的要求.

這便是痛苦的根源(乜得咁多根源)，要上好中學便要好成績。壓力便油然而生。所以一條龍好啊！

lochan

Matt's mum,

Well said, what if a child come back and ask you to have lots of money or deamnd to have a better car etc., what would you say, tell him no need to compare with others? But on the other hand, you are using your child's results to compare with other parents' child. YOUR CHILD IS NOT A TROPHY OF YOURSELF!

ykwong,

Agreed wholeheartedly. Not many schools in HK have the vision or dare to even mention this approach!

Wunma,

The danger in blindly chasing good results is that the purpose of learning is distorted. Achieving good results on a subject does not necessarily mean the child will fully understand the subject. A child will chase for good results and study only the minimum required in the syllabus and will not concern whether they fully understand it or not. He will also tend to memorise without understanding thoroughly the material if time is not allowed and that is more terrible than getting poor results in long run during his life long quest for knowledge!

I agreed a child shall thrive to improve himself, but not by comparison with peers, but instead by recognised standards.