Understanding or Doing

As I go about my daily tutoring, I found that for the most part western education concentrates on the understanding when teaching mathematics. Well initially I do subscribe to that premise but as I teach different type of syllabus and different type of nationality, my views has definitely change.

First, to understand, maturity of mind and actions are required and it is for the tutor or teacher to identify and to adopt teaching techniques on that basis. Different students mature differently in their thoughts at different ages. Having said that, to learn mathematics, first the proper methods and techniques have to be taught. A student has to diligently do the math either in thought or on worksheet to progress and mature.

I read a book called the outlier, and it mentioned that to be good at whatever we do, we have to do it for 10,000 hours. So why does some students progress further even without the necessary work output. Well Mathematics unlike sports can be done in thought. Well genius in Math, are always busy calculating in thought. Or if you want your children to progress, you must always tease their mind with mathematics so that they can progress, thats how the doing part comes in. The faster a student reaches maturity, the earlier they will progress to the understanding part.

As for the understanding, in understanding that is where the exponiential progress kicks in and this may lead to inculcating a habit of undertanding whatever things that we do.

So, I believe that the progress in Science and Mathematics have to do with a tutor first guiding on the basic methods and recognising patterns. Of course, memory training and boosting is essential for retaining what has been taught.

Remember, there is no short cut.

AM I STUDYING NOW RELEVANT

I have been asked this question many many times not by average students but by students in the top 2 percentile. I do not blame them for asking this question as they would want to know what they are studying now would be relevant to what they need in the future. As students are bombarded with information, they would want to filiter out the not so important information so that they are efficient in learning.

Well, guess what, now it is not about learning, it is about acquiring knowledge. If you focus on acquiring knowledge, then it may be useful in the future. As Steve Jobs said about connecting the dots......"You cannot connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect the dots looking backwards"

On Line learaning

Is on line learning the way forward for kids up to nineteen? With online applications, games, music and videos competing for your clicks and views, will online learning win your page views. Do not expect a student up to age 19 to learn on his/her own on the computer, it will not work. Games music and videos will always win hands down.
In my opinion, online learning must always be accompanied by supervision. It will complement and make a class livelier and more interesting.
So do not hope that buying or paying for online learning products is going to help, it helps but must always be accompanied by some kind of guidance

Counseling

Where can I get unbiased counseling? The most biased counseling really comes from parents. In a children's formative years, parents or even grandparents want their children to be what they could not be and so they counsel or send their children to classes that they themselves fail to excel. Or worse, they counsel their children to be what they are now.
Alternatively, when a student seeks so called counselors in colleges, they again get biased opinion as they have to fill their classes. So, most of the time, we do not get correct information and as a result waste time and resources.
The only places to get unbiased information is through friends and of course online through blogs. Finally if you do not take the initiative, then it will definitely cost you.

Passion

"Anthony, you really are smarter than most people think you are!"

That came from the top student in Malaysia to another student who does not excel in his school studies after he solved a most complex problem in a stage production that the school was organising. Well, anthony went on to become an audio engineer, I guess a passion he likes best.

Think about it Passion and the pursue of knowledge, very familiar?

Left Behind....

If you are on a journey with a group of friends in a jungle trail and suddenly found yourself left behind. What would you do?
Most people would just sit and wait out first and slowly but surely panic will seep in.
Some will backtrack and try to find the way back.
Some will just try to move forward and find themselves lost even deeper in the jungle.
There will be just a few of us that will sit back and think what are the options that we have, did we prepare ourselves for such circumstances and try to draw on our knowledge and experience to pull ourselves back on track.

Most children on their journey of education get left behind. Even the brightest gets left behind some times. Myself, I was left behind many times when I was studying. Anyway as parents, what do we do when our children gets left behind. Do we equip them with the necessary independence to find their way back. Do we listen for their cry for help and give a real guiding hand. Or do we push them on their journey telling them that they must come out first. Think about it....

School education is just one journey that children has to go through. All will get left behind one time or another. The most important thing is don't let them get lost. Know that there will only be one gold medal and it does not matter if they get that medal or not. What is important is the knowledge that they gather. Most important is equip them with the independence and confidence to find their way back when they are left behind cos in lifes journey, school is just at most 15 years of their life.

English?

I read with interest John Lee's opinion http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/opinion/john-lee/20247-a-question-of-effective-communication on effective communication and not just the language. The policy of teaching math and science in english with the intention of improving the communication of english among students is good. We should thank Dr Mahatir for having the political will to implement this policy. However, here is where the problem arises; having an aim but without the necessary review and plan to achieve the policy. We have to see the overall weakness of the system in the implementation, the resources that is available.

Personally, in my opinion, english should be thought as an additional language as no language is as important as english in global communication. When, I was in secondary school in the early eighties, english was thought as a second language and purely for communication purposes only. No need to know poems, nouns, pronouns, adjectives etc. Just pure communication. Most classes are just reading classes as it helps to improve communication english. At that time, the policy have changed and that all textbook are in Bahasa Malaysia. This lay a good foundation if you nee to be goodin written english. When I was in the university in Malaya University, english was a compulsory subject and it pains me to see many bright students unable to even read from a book. Something must be wrong?

If we read Lee Kuan Yew's memoir, back in the eighties, he has also seen that graduates from Nanyang Technological Institute in which the medium of instruction is mandarin is not employable. He therefore instructed that all medium of instruction and textbook be in English. However after one year, here is where the problem is, form the administration right to the teaching staff, all were conversing in Mandarin and also the medium of instuction that defeats the purpose of the policy and textbook being in English. Mandarin was too ingrain in the staff for a change to occur. He therefore, instructed that Nanyang Technical Institute be absorbed into National University of Singapore that solved the problem. The staff has no choice but to converse in English as NUS staff all speaks in English.

What I am proposing is that there are problems in implementation but with the right will, these problems can be overcome. For example, a lot of urban chinese school still teaches science and math in mandarin as an additional subject. A generation of lost policy cannot be corrected in a few years.

What we must acknowledge is that the policy is right and not go back. We will be worse off. We need to shout out loud that the policy is right and that mistakes have been made along the way but however we should be progressing in that direction. We need to constructively give our opinions on how to get the policy right on track and I believe if the education ministry is smart enough, they will get the right people to implement them.

So much for talk, I make sure that I converse to m children in English while they can their communication skills n mandarin and Bahasa in school.