#learningmethods

School subjects often become boring and monotonous for the students. The majority who are not interested in academics as a whole or in certain subjects find it very difficult to stand up to the challenges. In addition to this, schools and teachers have one standard way of teaching most of the time. The theory explanation in groups of students and the standard lab work does not do the trick with all students. So many students are left to the rote learning methods to complete their school years.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. A subject that is leant with interest stays with the student for long and its practical applicability is better. More over the reproduction and representation in the examinations is also much better. Unfortunately the schools do not have enough time to go out of way to teach the same subjects using different methods. To cope up with the missing link, the students join various coaching classes in masses. However the coaching classes are again copies of classroom with 30-40 and in some cases 60-70 students in a classroom. This again does not serve the purpose of individual students who cannot learn or understand at the speed of the class or need some other methods to reach to similar level of understanding. These students who generally have a low self esteem owing to repeated low scores cannot bring themselves to raise a question in the class to clarify their doubts either.

The common scenario is that the choice of schools and that of coaching centers is purely based on its popularity. There is a race to join only certain classes taught by certain teachers. No doubt these teachers are good and hence the classes are over booked. However, here the question is not about the teacher. It is about the learning type of the student and his/her speed and way of grasping.

All students are individuals and have a certain personality and learning type.

Not all students in a class are equally interested in the subject, not do they all have the same level of grasping and retaining. Then why do we insist on joining the class by the popularity of the teacher or the status associated in being the student of a particular institute?

How Individual students can be helped?

Whenever a student is not able to score decently repeatedly the following steps are to be taken:

Vedic Mathematics- It is the name given to the ancient system of Indian Mathematics, which was rediscovered from the Vedas between 1911 and 1918 by Sri Bharati Krsna Tirthaji (1884-1960). In the Vedic system 'difficult' problems or huge sums can often be solved immediately by the Vedic method. The simplicity of Vedic Mathematics means that calculations can be carried out mentally. There are many advantages in using a flexible, mental system. Pupils can invent their own methods, they are not limited to the one 'correct' method. This leads to more creative, interested and intelligent pupils. Here is an example to experience the simplicity of this method

EXAMPLE:  Adding Time

           Here is a nice simple way to add hours and minutes together:

          Let's add 1 hr and 35 minutes and 3 hr 55 minutes together.

          What you do is this:

          make the 1 hr 35 minutes into one number, which will give us 135 and do

          the same for the other number, 3 hours 55 minutes, giving us 355

          Now you want to add these two numbers together:

          135

          355

          ___ 

         490

         So we now have a sub total of 490.

         What you need to do to do this and all sub totals is

         add the time constant of 40.

        No matter what the hours and minutes are,

        just add the 40 time constant to the sub total.

       490 + 40 = 530

      So we can now see our answer is 5 hrs and 30 minutes!

      Go ahead and try with any other numbers!!!

Comic books for improving language and communication skills- For children who do not have the love for reading, language skills can be improved by getting interesting comic books for them. These are available in many Indian languages. The Amar chitra Katha is my personal recommendation as it comes with standard language and also connects the child to our glorious past.

How things work- The interest of children in science subjects can be improved by spending time with them in and around the house. Many principle and fundamental of science that is taught can be seen at work somewhere around us. Simply planting of seeds and observing them stage by stage, involving a child in replacing the electric bulb, replacing a flat tire, taking about the rising water level as the child enters the bath tub, discussing how the soap works can be few of the many ways.

Television shows- Shows like “Deconstructed” on Discovery science is one of the shows that can bring science closer to the everyday life of the student and pique his/her interest. Discovery and National geographic telecasts many such interesting shows.

Websites:

1. Honey and Mumford - What process of learning works best for you.  Pragmatist, Activitist, Reflector or Theorist.

- Test.

http://www.mycit.ie/contentfiles/Careers/4.%20HoneyandMumfordLearningStylesQuestionnaire.pdf

- Interpretation of your results.

https://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/doctoralcollege/training/eresources/teaching/theories/honey-mumford

2. VARK - what are your best materials to choose for learning.  Questionnaire and interpretation - visual, aural, reading writing or kinesthetic.

http://vark-learn.com/the-vark-questionnaire/

Podcasts:

1. Shola MD - a doctor who writes very interesting podcasts on how to learn.  Designed for medical students.  Basics of memory palaces and memory consolidation tools like Anki and Skitch.

http://www.sholamd.com/

Videos:

1. Awesome ted talk on how memory palaces work

At first, I was not very successful. I tried implementing the Pomodoro technique, and found myself getting quite distracted. Even though I was not distracted by my phone or social media, I often found myself  zoning out. I could, however, tell that I had more motive to do my homework as soon as I got home, And an organized workspace, being my desk, allowed me to have a more clear thinking mind. As I realized that the technique was slowly working, but not as effectively as I liked to, I began to test things out to improve the effectiveness of my strategy. The first thing I did, I found to have a lot of success. At the end of each question during my study sessions, or when I finished writing a paragraph, I gave myself 5 gummy bears. This small reward allowed me to get more into the “zone”, and have a prize at the end of each but of my hard work. After this, I found the Pomodoro technique to work excellently.

 This learning strategy improved my focus and learning, and reduced my procrastination. When I came home, my first thought was to put my textbooks and homework on my desk... which was now perfectly organized and spacious. This way, even if I wanted to procrastinate, I had the guilt of textbooks staring at me, rather than losing them in the mess of my desk. Evidence that I have to support this claim is that even my mom was pleasantly surprised by my improvement of being able to finish all my homework and assignments by mid evening, and then go to bed and get a good night rest early, rather than staying up until 3am due to my procrastination. In addition to this, my first law quiz, I received a mark of mid 70s. This was before I implemented the technique. During the week I was trying out my new learning strategy, I had a law test. Studying, using my gummy bears and the Pomodoro technique, was a lot more effective. I was able to absorb and understand information, without getting sidetracked, and received a mark of low 90s on my test. This was a much better mark compared to my last mark, before I implemented the Pomodoro technique into my studying.

There are few common parenting problems, each parent face.I have been speaking with a number of parents for the last one month.They were parents from different walks of life. As I spoke with them, the results were revealing. Some of the most common problems, parents faced with their kids from 2 to 14 years old are

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