Knowing Their Strengths Is Key To Student Success, Says Teacher

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Knowing their strengths is key to student success, says teacher

Wannapa Khaopa

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- In many schools, it's normal for teachers to devote the greater part of their attention to students who demonstrate academic excellence.

In reality, students have wideranging degrees of capability or intelligence. So to help them develop to their appropriate study levels, teachers at a Bangkok school are tailoring activities to match their students' different needs.

"It's true that people have various intelligence levels, and not only in languages and mathematics," said Amornrat Potitapana, deputy director and head of the One Student One Talent research project at Satriwithaya School.

"Club activities among the students have changed since the academic year 2010 when we started this project. Not only does this variety help our students to improve their capabilities, but also it encourages them discover themselves so they know what they are really skilled at."

She added that previously students joined in club activities merely to spend their time in a useful way and to create a good relationship with other students.

More than 2,500 students from Matthayom 15 (Grade 711) take a test that helps divide them into eight groups with different intelligence levels. Ninetyfive teachers who take different subjects help create activities that are specifically suitable for each group. A total of 95 activities have been created for the students to try.

The school has divided its students into eight categories based on Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory - linguistic, logicalmathematical, visualspatial, musical, bodilykinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalist.

Amornrat said the activities for each category emphasised their unique abilities. For example, those with linguistic intelligence learned public speaking, story telling, playing crosswords and essay writing, while others with visualspatial intelligence tried creating souvenirs, painting objects and vegetable and fruit carving.

"Some Matthayom 3 (Grade 9) students in the mathscience field discovered they were more skilled at languages after taking part in the activities. As a result, they changed to study in the language field when they started Matthayom 4 (Grade 10) at the upper secondary education level."

"Some even made money from handicrafts they learned during club activities. Others who studied the traditional Thai long drums are now proud when they perform to welcome guests to the school," Amornrat said, adding that many told her they liked the new club activities as they were free to create their own work.

The school discovered that many students had more than one skill that could be developed, she said.

Amornrat's research presentation to inspire other school teachers was part of the 14th National Symposium on Educational Research held in Bangkok late last week by the Office of the Education Council (OEC).

Cherapan Poonnakaseam, deputy secretarygeneral of the OEC, said more than 2,000 participants were expected to join the symposium to learn from 60 presentations on research projects on education.

According to the Office of the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT), based on research budget allocation, 31 per cent of research in the country is in engineering, 28 per cent in agriculture, 17 per cent in natural science, 12 per cent in social sciences, 12 per cent in medical science and medicine, and less than 1 per cent in humanities fields.

There are more than 37,000 researchers, 25,000 research assistants and 45,000 people working in research support fields, according to NRCT.

-- The Nation 2012-06-04

[Sunderland]

Good article which addresses an area which many Thai schools are not keen to address. Many Thai parents seem unwilling to deal with a streaming system in schools where children would be setted according to their ability in English, maths, etc.

Unfortunately, throwing 30, 40 or 50 students of mixed ability into one language class does not help the majority learn effectively, and the problem worsens as the students get older and are somehow expected to deal with more challenging textbooks which are beyond the comprehension of many. It is often like asking someone who has barely learned to walk, to sprint or perhaps do the triple jump.

[LucidLucifer]

'In many schools, it's normal for teachers to devote the greater part of their attention to students who demonstrate academic excellence.'

'One Student One Talent research project.......The school discovered that many students had more than one skill that could be developed'

Statements such as these just serve to highlight just how far behind the developed world Thai schools and teachers really are.

I also liked this:

'Some Matthayom 3 (Grade 9) students in the mathscience field discovered they were more skilled at languages after taking part in the activities. As a result, they changed to study in the language field when they started Matthayom 4 (Grade 10) at the upper secondary education level.'

Had the Thai teachers not previously identified this? and if they had, why weren't the students themselves let in to the little secret?

State schools here really do have a serious amount of catching up to do.

Edited June 4, 2012 by LucidLucifer

[markg]

Exactly Lucifer - the ONLY reason teachers should test students is to find out what they are good or bad at, and change their teaching accordingly. (Tests are NOT for just filling in a spreadsheet at the end of the year)

Streaming is good in theory, but in practice.................why stop at just maths, language and science. WHy not the whole subject spectrum.

Here are some questions.

Imagine you have two streams for language. A student, Nok, is at the bottom of the top set. She is trying her hardest, paying attention, doing extra homework and study and she is just about making it in the top stream. Then, one day, a student arrives from another school and he is much better than Nok. There now isn't enough room for Nok and the new student to study in the top set, so Nok gets pushed down into the bottom set. What does that do for her confidence?

Here's another one. How often do you change the sets? Once a year? Pah ! For whatever reason, a kid finds himself in a lower stream. He then has to wait a whole year before being put into the higher stream? Uh oh!

I've worked in schools that have both mixed ability classes and streamed classes. Nothing ground breaking here but guess what, behaviour in the lower streamed classes is much worse than the upper tier. And guess what also...........no one wants to teach the bottom tier classes. You end up having a high teacher turnover, OR you end up putting a teacher in there that just doesn't want to be there - so they just go through the motions. Not good for the students.

From a classroom behaviour point of view, it's much easier to use positive reinforcement in mixed ability classes because the well behaved students demonstrate the desired behaviour. They also demonstrate the academic standard that can be achieved. The lower ability kids really do up their game and try harder. In lower tier classes, they just don't try as hard because they don't have to.

I've read Gardner. Don't forget, it's just a theory !

[Kilgore Trout]

Clearly these people have a very, very limited understanding of education. Western teachers and consultants have been trying to instill student centered learning into the Thai education system for decades with the result of; "lets use lots of fancy words and labels but still continue to focus on rote learning with unqualified teachers and give preference to those who come from families with status."

Breaking students into groups according to Gardners intelligence categories; they are clearly on the wrong path and show no understanding of Gardners' theories.

Putting theory into action with regard to constructivism, multiple intelligence theories etc. is difficult enough when there are experienced qualified teachers doing it; leaving this to Thai teachers and admin is like asking the security staff at my building to build a rocket ship.

[markg]

I've said this before and I'll say it again.

1. The Thai ruling elite have NO reason or desire to improve the education of this country.

2. Education is part of the social fabric of any country, and Thai society, broadly speaking, does not encourage critical thinking or analysis. It survives on parental piety and subjugation.

3. The Thai education system is designed to turn out good Thai citizens. One generation from now, they will wonder why they didn't address the implications of being a global citizen.

If student-centred learning was brought about, and students were given critical thinking skills instead of rote-learning skills, then the whole smoke-and-mirrors / house of cards / emperor's new clothes, would fall apart. And the ruling elite can't have that. So they will continue to have their kids educated abroad whilst paying lip service to educational improvements back home.

That's the whole shocking truth of the matter.

As a simple example, we had a student come to our school to take the entrance exams. She spoke English reasonably well. I asked her which test would she like to sit first, English, Maths or Science. She couldn't answer the question. She appeared to be unable to comprehend this level of choice being given to her. That's because in her 12 short years on this planet, she's never had to make a decision.

[markg]

This guy here has been paid by the Thai Government for years and has told them how to change things.

Nothing gets done.

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cehd/insideout/2011/05/thai_education_expert_fry_deli.html

http://www.slidefinder.net/r/reform_education_reform_your_country/32491423/p5

It's not easy to make changes. I know this.

[Johnnie99]

Very amusing article. It all depends, of course, on there actually being a strength to recognise, rather than all strengths being sublimated to the strictures of traditional Thai teaching.

The traditional system remains remarkably strong even in so-called 'international' schools. Has anyone conversed with an international school student? Quite embarrassingly poor English, for example, and conceptualisation remains a hidden talent.

The potential that undoubtedly exists needs to be developed, naturally, but the system needs to look to it's own before that can happen.

[Johnnie99]

I've said this before and I'll say it again.

1. The Thai ruling elite have NO reason or desire to improve the education of this country.

2. Education is part of the social fabric of any country, and Thai society, broadly speaking, does not encourage critical thinking or analysis. It survives on parental piety and subjugation.

3. The Thai education system is designed to turn out good Thai citizens. One generation from now, they will wonder why they didn't address the implications of being a global citizen.

If student-centred learning was brought about, and students were given critical thinking skills instead of rote-learning skills, then the whole smoke-and-mirrors / house of cards / emperor's new clothes, would fall apart. And the ruling elite can't have that. So they will continue to have their kids educated abroad whilst paying lip service to educational improvements back home.

That's the whole shocking truth of the matter.

As a simple example, we had a student come to our school to take the entrance exams. She spoke English reasonably well. I asked her which test would she like to sit first, English, Maths or Science. She couldn't answer the question. She appeared to be unable to comprehend this level of choice being given to her. That's because in her 12 short years on this planet, she's never had to make a decision.

Quite right MarkG. The interest of any ruling elite is to maintain the status quo and not to allow the development of the masses - after all, those masses might possess members which are able to do better than those who consider themselves better in some way, as a result of buying a cheap German car.