HANDLING SLOW LEARNERS – A CHALLENGE FOR SCHOOL TEACHERS
Every
student has his own pace of learning. His learning
capacity or cognition depends on
heredity as well as environmental factors. The heredity factors are those which he receives from his parents while
the environmental factors include
the socioeconomic conditions, the peer group, society, diet, fitness, exposure
to changes in the society etc. His individual
traits such as intelligence, age, motivational levels, achievements, socio-personal
conditions, attitude, aptitude, interest, attention, practice also play a vital
role in his learning process.
When
every child in a class is in the learning process and the pace of his learning
depends on so many factors, how can we label someone as a slow learner?
In
a class of students, some are very active, energetic and scholastically well
ahead of the others. Some of them are neither very enthusiastic nor very
lethargic in participating in the classroom activity and somehow manage to
complete their work by one or the other means.
But
there are a few students who are indifferent and uninterested in the teaching -
learning process. These students usually do not like school, do not perform
well in the examinations, do not respond to any activity in the classroom, are in a confused state of mind and
have fewer friends. These students are usually shy, don’t like to interact with
others and have learning disabilities. Such students whose learning pace is
very slow and have a dull aptitude for learning can be termed as slow learners.
There
are many factors which are
responsible for this slow pace of learning. The student may not be interested
in the subjects, may be malnourished or ill, maybe afraid of the teacher or
some of his classmates, there might be a disturbance in the family or he might
have gone through some bad experience. Some of these issues can be addressed
and solved by the teacher whereas some of them like disturbance in the family
are certainly out of her control.
Now
the question arises that once a teacher has identified a slow - learner in her
class, how should she handle the child?
Handling a slow-learner
carefully and improving the child’s learning speed is though not very easy for
the teacher but certainly not impossible either. Once she identifies a
slow-learner, the teacher should go through the case study (Read my blog on Case
Study – A Tool for School Teachers) of the student. She should try to find
out the problem areas and work out on all possible solutions.
Then
she should talk to the parents and co-teachers to get a better
understanding of the child. Taking the parents and co-teachers into confidence
is most important as improving the performance of the child cannot be done by
the teacher alone. It should always be a cooperative effort. When parents and
teachers work in co-ordination, the child’s morale and performance can be
boosted very easily.
The
parents should constantly speak to
the child and try to make him speak out his problems. They should try to build
up the confidence levels in the child. The child’s likes and dislikes should be
considered. The parents should always try to keep the child away from any
incident which may have a negative impact on the child. Showering love, making
the child feel secure and constant counseling by the parents proves to be vital
in the transformation of the child.
The
teacher’s role is also equally
important. The teacher has to put in more efforts than the parents as she has
to attend to many students in her class. However the teacher should first of
all trust the child, have faith in his abilities and then make special efforts
to provide the necessary guidance to the slow learner. The teacher should also
help the child forget / overcome his weaknesses and showcase his strengths.
The
teacher also should speak to the
child, counsel him keeping in view his problem areas and motivate the child,
changing the technique as per the response and attitude of the child. One of the best and time – tested method to
motivate the child would be rewarding him on every achievement. The rewards,
selected as per the child’s liking, should be given in accordance with the
level of achievement.
She
should take the help of co-teachers and
also counsel the child’s peer group
in their approach towards the child. The areas in which the child is interested
must be given top priority and the teacher should help him to excel in those
areas. For instance, if a child is more interested in drawing and painting, he
should be provided proper guidance in that area to perform better.
History
has a long list of people who were once slow learners but have turned out to be
great achievers and highly successful just because of someone who had placed
trust in them and given the confidence to follow their passions. Abraham
Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Nelson Rockefeller, John Lennon of The
Beatles’, Winston Churchill, Walt Disney, Pablo Picasso, Leonardo Da Vinci are
some of the slow learners who went to become great achievers in the field of
their choice.
It
has to be understood that in spite of constant coordinated efforts by the
teachers and parents, a considerable change in the performance of the slow
learner cannot be brought in a day or two. This takes time as such children are
usually reticent and need lot of confidence to come out of the shell and open
up. So patience and perseverance on the part of the
parents and teachers is most needed.
