Saturday, December 5, 2015

Holistic View of Children

I think that when looking and assessing a child in a holistic view, various topics should be looked at thoroughly.  Their reading skills should be looked at along with, vocabulary, mathematics, spelling, writing, and even their social traits. I think that looking at children as a whole tell the entire story of them and their learning scheme instead of just looking at one particular trait or feature. Children are complex and show off their talents in various forms and should be treated as though they are more than just one sided and objective. I think that children have capabilities that are often overlooked and assessments may often be confusing for children. Some have test taking anxiety and others may just be confused by the questioning. It is important that assessments are children friendly so that they are able to complete the task to the best of their abilities. I think that assessments should also incorporate questions pertaining to the child's personality. Personality plays a major role in the learning style of children and should be used to assist the teacher while in the classroom.

In Singapore, they are using a more holistic view with education and are focusing less on "content knowledge" and more on information processing. The teachers are given the opportunity to encourage creativity in their classrooms. They are also able to use the syllabus to in their own way to cover all of the material for the school term. They have structured their classes to incorporate learning in a nature environment and also to let the children prompt the learning focuses throughout the semester. They are still highly ranked in their testing as a result and the children are embracing the learning style.

Lim, R. (2012). Singapore wants creativity not cramming. BBC News. Retrieved from
                    http://www.bbc.com/news/business-17891211