Practical strategies for parents to help their children learn when the school year begins again, from a public school teacher
By Khristian Ross Pimentel
Parents, guardians, siblings, and other family members have an important calling this pandemic. We must all help teach our children. But teaching isn’t an easy job.
As we try to help our children learn, we must recall what it was like when we were younger. We need to remember how our parents and teachers taught us and, most important, how we started to learn independently. Only then can we figure out how learning, as well as teaching, works.
For me, it was a book. I was in the fourth grade and received a toy truck for Christmas from my godfather. I was overjoyed until I found out that my cousin received a Kingfisher Encyclopedia of Lands and Peoples. Every day, I went to my cousin’s house to borrow the book. I would read it after school or after I had played. As I went through the pages, I began to make sense of the world, to understand people and their culture. I would memorize capital cities, languages, and even the GNP.
I fell in love with learning. And then I turned my attention to fostering a love for learning in others.
I have taught many children and teenagers throughout my years as a teacher. But before I started teaching, I was a learner. I observed and saw what worked and what didn’t. And when I started studying educational psychology, everything began to make sense. If you want to teach effectively, whether in school, at home, or online, you have to understand how learning works.
Motivation counts
In his book on leadership, Start With Why, Simon Sinek encourages his readers to ask “why” before asking “what” or “how.” As the leaders of tomorrow, children will learn best when they understand “why” they are learning what they are learning. They will exert effort if they appreciate the lesson’s importance, relevance, and value.
Once they understand “why,” help children set the goals that they will strive to accomplish. Imagine they were playing basketball without a ring. Your children might keep on dribbling the ball going nowhere, much like if they were aimlessly answering worksheets day by day. By setting clear goals, you can monitor their progress. Your children will also feel better visibly seeing what they have achieved.
Thoughts on abilities
Help your children to learn how to think. Educators term this as “metacognition.” Guide your children to monitor how they learn. Model learning behaviors by thinking out loud when you read, solve math problems, or explain scientific phenomena. Walk your children through the process. Make them curious about everything.
In his book Wait, What?, James E. Ryan, the dean of Harvard’s graduate school of education, claims, “Curious people are likely to learn more and to retain more of what they learn. Curious people are likely to be healthier, and to experience less anxiety in particular, because they are more engaged with the world around them.”
Take the time to know more about your children. Learn about their interests, abilities, and talents. Learn about where they are in reading or solving mathematical problems. And then begin where your children are, not where you think they were or where other people claim they should be. Remember, you need to teach something just a little more challenging than what they already know. If it is too difficult, your children will get frustrated and will not learn. If it is too easy, they might get bored and will stop learning.
Growth mindset
According to motivation psychologist Carol Dweck, you have to teach your children to have a growth mindset, not a fixed mindset. Let them understand that what they know and can do is not fixed.
Some children, and even some adults, do not try anymore because they attribute success to something that is innate. Educators call this frustration as learned helplessness. Children who experience this often label themselves as stupid, moron, or untalented. They believe that, no matter how hard they try, they will not learn.
With a growth mindset, a person strives and exerts effort to improve oneself. It is effort and hard work that leads to success. Dale Carnegie says, “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”
Allow your children to commit mistakes and experience failure. In her book Grit, educator Angela Duckworth encourages readers “to learn to get over bumps in the road and mistakes and setbacks.” To be successful, children should learn from their experiences, especially from their failures. In short, teach them how to handle failure and right their mistakes.
We are all learners
In your children’s learning process, you too may also need to learn. Attend webinars, join short online courses, or read books. Contact your friends and get advice about their best practices. Watch educational videos such as TED Talks. Your children will learn more from a parent who learns, too.
Dr. Dina Ocampo, the former undersecretary of the Department of Education (DepEd), mentioned in a University of the Philippines (UP) College of Educational seminar, “There are no right answers this time. There are only best efforts and ingenious design.”
Teaching your children as they learn remotely during this health crisis takes time. You cannot learn the secret of good teaching overnight. But teaching how to learn is possible.
“You remember your first-grade teacher’s name. Who will remember yours?” was once an ad on the New York City subways. Do you remember your first-grade teacher’s name? As you teach your children, let them remember yours.