When children do not get good grades in any subject or are not able to perform up to our expectation, we often chide and goad them to work harder in the subject. Is it the right way to assess and motivate the child?
Experiences at School of Creative Learning have shown that the issue of failure in the examination may be a product of various factors like physical ailment, emotional distraction or disturbance, lack of proper motivation, etc. However, even if there is no such problem a child may not do well in the examination due to different learning style or lack of proper mental competencies. For example, if the child is not doing well in mathematical competencies, one must also look whether the child is of different learning style than logical and/or is deficient in
- Concentration
- Memory(logical)
- Rational thinking
If the child is really deficient in these competencies, the child should be asked to perform exercises to develop those competencies. For example, if the learner’s learning style is different, the teaching learning strategy has to be different. See A short note on Multiple intelligence and How to identify the Learning Style of Your Child for details. Further, if the child does not have good concentration, he should do exercises to develop it. Once concentration is developed, a bit of hard work may do wonders. Following chart may help in diagnosing the basic problems in a child. For appropriate solution consult Creative Learning Volunteers or write to us. The table here shows the reasons for poor performance in the following categories (You can click on them to take you to related matter directly):
- General performance poor
- Poor in Languages
- Poor in Mathematics
- Poor in Science
- Poor in Social Studies
Diagnosing why a child does not perform well at examination
|
Performance |
Deficiency |
What to Do? |
| General performance poor
|
Physical handicaps/ailments |
|
| Emotional disturbance |
|
|
| Learning Style other verbal/logical |
|
|
| Poor Concentration |
|
|
| Poor Memory |
|
|
| Poor Thinking |
|
|
| Poor Power of observation |
|
|
| Poor in Languages
|
Learning Style other than verbal |
|
| Poor Concentration |
|
|
| Poor Memory(Verbal) |
|
|
| Poor Thinking |
|
|
| Poor Imagination |
|
|
| Poor Listening |
|
|
| Poor Reading |
|
|
| Poor Vocabulary Control |
|
|
| Poor Writing ability |
|
|
| Poor Functional Grammar |
|
|
| Poor in Mathematics
|
Learning Style other than logical. |
|
| Poor Concentration |
|
|
| Poor Memory(Logical) |
|
|
| Poor Thinking |
|
|
| Poor Vocabulary Control |
|
|
| Poor Writing ability |
|
|
| Poor in Science
|
Learning Style other than logical |
|
| Poor Concentration |
|
|
| Poor Memory |
|
|
| Poor Thinking |
|
|
| Poor Vocabulary |
|
|
| Poor Writing ability |
|
|
| Poor Technological skills |
|
|
| Poor in Social Studies
|
Learning Style other than verbal & interpersonal |
|
| Poor Concentration |
|
|
| Poor Memory |
|
|
| Poor Thinking |
|
|
| Poor Vocabulary Control |
|
|
| Poor Writing ability |
|
|
| Poor Listening |
|
|
| Poor Reading |
|
