DEVELOPING INDEPENDENT, SELF-RELIANT LEARNERS

DEVELOPING INDEPENDENT, SELF-RELIANT LEARNERS

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist

A specific BA or BS credential increases the teacher’s attractiveness and hire-ability in public school settings. According to the public school mindset, a teacher with more time in college classrooms taking education courses is generally a better-prepared teacher than an experienced teacher in the classroom.

This perspective makes sense if you view education as simply a way of transferring specialized information from teacher to student. The degrees are also impressive to parents when they learn that the child’s faculty has highly trained and credentialed people. These teachers are experts in education jargon that is music to the ears of most parents during any parent/teacher meeting.

The complication is that most modern children have few life skills or motivation to be receptive and able to concentrate on pedantic material no matter how interestingly presented. Moreover, too many students have unstable families that result in emotional and psychological deficits. These personal issues are brought into school impeding the youngster’s receptiveness to learning factual material. Students have to be sufficiently focused in school for the child to become successful.

This present day reality of unprepared, undisciplined and over indulged children calls for an army of specialists or highly motivated teachers to observe, learn about and create a second home for each individual student. Their diverse students teach these “In Charge” teachers how to be a good teacher. These practitioners of individualized education are change agents more than lecturers of subject matter. The creators of a stable, fair, interesting and warm educational environment encourage students to learn healthier personal mental strategies to help them develop into the best students they can be.

These teachers are effective because they learn directly from actual students in their classroom environment by how they react in real situations.  Parents inform the teachers of what the child enjoys in his free time, which can be helpful as a motivator in school. The psychological games the students play with their parents are usually similar to those they will use in the classroom. It gives the teacher a heads-up as to what to expect from different students. The knowledge of an individual student’s tendencies is crucial to predict what will work in certain situations. The better the teacher is at getting students to focus, master skills and concepts; the greater and stronger the foundation of the student for future learning. Understanding the whole child gives the teacher insights and ideas of various interventions that will work in particular situations. This knowledge of each student makes it possible to develop strong rapport and predictability of the student’s reactions.

Once the student begins to comprehend that he is the potential master of his own future, his effort to improve grows significantly. His maturing, as a student becomes reality as he sees himself joining the adult world rather than remaining in his self-centered world as a perennial adolescent.

As the process of wanting to become an independent learner begins, the student is more open to asking relevant questions in order to do his own work. No longer are the questions asked to fake interest but to get the job done well. He takes on more responsibility rather than avoiding it.

The student asks pertinent questions to do his assignments well. There is no intention to impress the teacher about what he will do; instead it is about doing an excellent job. The student develops pride in the work he completes. He wants to do the best he can.

The student does not need external motivation and direction from others. The student does not work to please his teachers, parents or peers, but to please himself. The student learns skills and knowledge for his own benefit as a person. The student realizes if he asks himself the right questions he will find the way to answer it. He relies on himself for gaining the knowledge he needs, not anyone else. When this happens he becomes an independent learner who believes in his own learning because he wants it not that it is a chore.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN  and a new just published book, entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can visit Dr. Maglio at www.drmaglio.blogspot.com.