Category: Analytical Thinking Skill

Universities in Algeria teach science in French, but schools teach in Arabic.

Students face a language barrier when they enter university so many of them fail the first year.

The idea of introducing French in secondary schools, namely for Math, Physics and science, is to make a smooth transition to university courses.

It will help students who use at home Arabic or Berber to switch to French when they reach higher education.

The opponents of this idea said that the universities should switch to Arabic rather than to French.

There were also suggestions, that English would be better as an international language of science.

Even more than 50 years after independence, universities in Algeria still teach courses in French, although Arabic is the official language.

Source http://www.bbc.com/news/education-36906818

Seems like Europe is willing to learn something from Asia. Namely, England is getting ready to adopt the Asian way of teaching Math!

Primary schools in England will teach Math according to Asian method based on high performing places like Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Math teaching in Asia involves children being taught as a whole class so that it progresses as a group.

Moreover, pupils are encouraged to physically represent concepts. Abstract ideas are demonstrated by using objects and pictures, as visual.

It seems that England does many steps to make this idea work at its best. Many teachers undergo trainings in teaching Math to help schools adopt the Asian approach.

Instead of learning time tables and key number facts by heart, pupils will be focused on conceptual learning.

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/education-36772954

Don’t hurry to start going to school – in short that is what most recent studies have shown!

For the sake of children’s emotional well-being and academic achievement, UK scientists have undergone series of studies to investigate when is the best age for children to start formal schooling.

Research has shown that later start to formal education has many benefits.

It relates to contribution to playful experiences to children’s development as learners, because to play means to explore, to do something by yourself, to learn.

Anthropological, psychological, neuro and educational studies have proven that play is essential in child’s development. The mental functions increase with the playful activity.

Furthermore, development psychology studies demonstrate the motivation arising from playful as opposed to instructional approach in learning.

Physical and social play supports children in developing their intellectual and emotional skills which have been shown to be crucial in early learning and development.

A number of studies have documented the loss of play opportunities for children over the second half of the 20th century and demonstrated a clear link with increased indicators of stress and mental health problems.

One particular study of 3,000 children across England, showed that an extended period of play-based pre-school education was of particular advantage to children from disadvantaged households.

Studies have compared groups of children in New Zealand who started formal literacy lessons at ages 5 and 7.

By the age of 11 there was no difference in reading ability level between the two groups, but the children who started at the age of 5 developed less positive attitudes to reading.

According to the results, better textual understanding have children who started studying to read at the age of 7.

In a separate study of reading achievement in 15 year olds across 55 countries, researchers showed that there was no significant association between reading achievement and school entry age.

 

Source: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/discussion/school-starting-age-the-evidence

Nowadays it is not uncommon to live and work on one continent while you study on another at the same time.

Thanks to online schooling, it is possible. But we focus this time on primary school and its approach to virtual education.

Thanks to Internet, self-directed learning already takes place. We can find many free online courses, videos from lectures, download many books and find articles without having to go to library.

There are attempts in “live” stream schooling, after successful trials with online tutoring.

Teachers still stand in front of the whiteboard and this time a video camera substitutes students.

The students attend classes from their homes, with program similar to Skype.

They do all they would usually do in class: answer the questions, write down but they don’t have to stand up in front of the class and be embarrassed in front of the whiteboard.

The schools that encourage this type of learning are available in private schools in Germany, Canada, US and UK.

On the other hand, online education allows developing countries with sufficient technological equipment to transform the educational system.

In future it might be possible to have international online schooling free of charge. It is something that our foundation does, for example.

This kind of education is also suitable for children with disabilities or long term illness as well as for older people or any adults who didn’t have enough financial support to continue schooling.

There are still many questions left open such as group work, doing something else during the class (like Facebook or chat) or “cheating” on exams.

It’s your turn. Tell us what you think about it!

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jakehayman/2016/07/11/the-virtual-school/?ss=education#424e1b02ca3f

 

Education is not about molding children the way you think they should be modeled.

Education is about organizing the natural longing in a human being to know. Longing to know is the job of schools and teachers.

There is a big pressure in today’s world. Children need to learn how to cope with competition which leads to frustration and stress that they will encounter in future.

Is it really the way we want our society to be – to compete with the one sitting next to us?

In this mode of competition only one can win. Is someone inspired by this kind of things?

One of the biggest triggers for all the pressure is that people tend to put all the others in the same pattern.

If they don’t know what others know, it is all of a sudden a problem.

Each child is unique and schools use standards where every child must fit. Not just school, later on it is job, corporations, big businesses etc.

True human capabilities cannot find their expressions in competition and molding.

In other words, being a good student or a good worker makes you be one step ahead of others, maybe.

But is that what the ultimate potential as human being is all about?

If you are not joyful and at peace, then the human potentials and abilities will not blossom. If you are not joyful and at peace, why is it important to be the best at school, job or business anyway?

You can be the best student of all generations or the best employer, but lack a basic human values or simple joy.

Essentially, education is about enlarging the horizons of human perception.

Once you make one thing bigger than the other, one thing smaller, one thing low, one high, you miss the whole point.

The importance of education is to enhance your perception so that you know that you are able to perceive that “a blade of grass is as important as the coconut tree”.

Our mode of education takes differences as something bad, and then we end up having prejudices about the nations, cultures, religions.

Another big thing that should be pointed out is fun. Many people think learning should be strict. Why can’t it be fun?

Do you agree with this? Which parts make sense for you and which don’t?

Follow up with Part 2.

Source: http://isha.sadhguru.org/blog/lifestyle/learning-is-fun/

What is necessary for us to study at school and what is not, is an important question.

Some believe that we don’t need to know so much, others think we are being educated to become employers, and many agree school should just teach how to develop our intelligence.

However it is, there are many things we are not taught and it is so obvious if you see our society today.

  1. Conversation

Nobody really taught us in the classroom how to communicate . We might know when we should say “thank you”, “sorry” and “here you are” but it is sad that the schools are so much intellect-oriented.

We gather knowledge, we overload our memory, but we don’t know what to do if our parents are getting divorced, when a friend betrays us or when we need to communicate things we know might hurt others to those others.

The younger generation uses emoticons to express their “feelings” on a mobile screen. But can they express their emotions in real life situations?

Have you heard that in some school they actually talk and learn about dealing with emotions, especially the painful ones?

In the long run, the outcomes of technology-based generations can be even greater social isolation, than the one we experience today.

Another common thing our schooling system brings is to think individually not collectively.

Knowing how to connect with others, when to speak and when not to, is something that school should teach us before life teach us.

  1. Thinking

Certain ways of thinking are implied in our education. We are not taught to think through solutions but we are encouraged to memorize.

Our schools tend to be more goal oriented not process oriented so we end up caught in life with so many things that don’t go according to plan and we don’t know what to do.

Filling this gap from where we are to where we should be is a great opportunity for our school to teach us the possible positive ways.

Also if we don’t get there where we should is another good lesson that could be included in lesson plans.

We are unable to see the broader picture because we lack the skills to do so.

  1. How to Handle Money

We are not taught how to manage money, especially in a way we can be self employed.

We are not focused on personal saving, investment of personal finances.

It is not about how to get the money but how to make the best out of it.

4. Dating and Romantic Relationships

Some might disagree that the school should be the place to be taught about relationships but all that matter in life are relationships and we cannot live without them.

In this sense, it would be good to be encouraged to talk freely and openly about it in a school setting.

Any more ideas we missed here? Please leave your comment and we’ll get to you as soon as possible.

In our last post about comics we’ve already made a short introduction to those useful reading tools. Now we will take a closer look into how we can use cartoons in teaching English.

When a child or an adult start learning English, it might be challenging at the beginning.

The key to getting the reader through is to engage his imagination and interest.

Comic books can tell a complex story in a few images, combining words and illustrations, which is very suitable for teaching.

Especially in Korea, China and Japan, to whom comics are an important part of the culture, it is a great idea to introduce comic books as a part of teaching English.

By offering a similar style of reading with which these students are familiar, they will be more motivated to read.

Another important thing is that not every student is the same. Students learn in different ways.

Traditionally, schools mostly teach verbal and logical styles. But there are other ways, the so called multiple intelligence, that includes many learning styles.

This learning approach will insure that the students who learn in different ways will increase their success in the classroom.

Finally reading cartoons is more than just reading text and matching it with illustrations. A reader can only understand a comic book when he puts those two together and make a meaning out of it.

As a quick summarize, here are  once again the advantages of comic books for English learners:

engagement for those who learn in combined learning style

development of reading, writing and analytical skills

increasing vocabulary

encouragement of readers to explore different genres

opening a reader’s mind to new ways of storytelling

increasing readers imagination, through text and pictures.

 

Many teachers in US, and all over the world, more and more like the idea of introducing comic books in their teaching. Here are several reasons for that.
Comics as literature
Comic books are visually attractive. The trick why the comics are so effective is that you cannot skim them.

You have to read them because the words and illustrations are meant to be read together. And children like the combination of visual and text.

Comics as stimulation
Comics motivate children because it is a fun activity. Usually, children read for school.

This is one of the ways to get introduced to some other topics that they can relate to. They are also a supplement for what is being studied in class.
“…those who read more comic books did more pleasure reading, liked to read more, and tended to read more books. These
results show that comic book reading certainly does not inhibit other kinds of reading, and is consistent with the hypothesis that
comic book reading facilitates heavier reading.”

Comics’ efficiency and effectiveness
The comic book format includes large amounts of information, text and illustrations.

Neurological experiments show that the text and images are processed in different areas of the brain.

The experiments indicated that text and image when coupled, lead to better recall and transfer of learning.
“Across the eleven studies, people who learned from words and graphics produced between 55 percent to 121 percent more correct solutions to transfer problems than people who learned from words alone.

Across all studies, a median percentage gain of 89 percent was achieved with a median effect size of 1.50.”

Comics as idea to make your own comic

Writing a comic book is a complex process. First you write a story that hopefully makes sense and inspires others.

Then you use your editing skills. You edit words and make a visually appealing composition.

Visual and textual part that are in harmony bring a comprehensive, meaningful and insightful world view that might interest someone else.
Eventually, teachers can encourage students to make their own comic book.

According to some studies, students prefer to self-reflect and create characters that are more related to them than a super hero stories.

Surprisingly, students who have difficulties in reading and writing, become more engaged during comic book readings.
“The point is not to drop a comic book on a child’s desk and say: “read this.” Rather, the workshops give groups of students the opportunity to collaborate on often complex stories and characters that they then revise, publish and share with others in their communities.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/03/opinion/03thu4.html

 

To summarize using both analytical and critical skills:

The difference between the two skills is that the critical thinking involves considering an issue, evaluating it and making a conclusion about it.

Therefore, critical thinking includes weighting up the arguments that are for and against certain point of view or information.

Analytical thinking means examining the information, collecting the facts and checking whether the statement follows logically in identifying causes and effects.

Reasoning is one of the key elements of analytical thinking. On an interview for a job, people are often asked to evaluate their analytical abilities.

Question like: Describe some of your last big problems and tell us the way you solved it. Or: How do you make decisions?

By critical thinking, we mean the ability of an individual to seek information, analyze alternatives and making conclusions or forming opinions. It includes the analytical thinking and uses it to generate a standpoint for someone’s world view.

Practice your English and at the same time analytical and critical thinking:

https://www.smore.com/0udr-fun-critical-thinking-activities

Fun activities to boost your analytical and critical thinking. You can do them with your friends, in a classroom or at home:

http://www.teach-nology.com/worksheets/critical_thinking/brain/1/brainteasers1.pdf

 

 

In this video teacher Shelby and her eight students do revision of days of the week, opposites, magic words. Lets remind ourselves of all the vocabulary, spellings, pronunciation and lets get ready for the next classes. Did you also check our Math, Science, Health and Social Studies lessons? You can learn so much, for free and it’s fun! We make the world a bit better place.