TECHNOLOGY
#6 Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) The hyperconnected and free equivalent of what we used to call correspondence courses. The concept is that taught content is remixed and shared by the community of students taking part. The first MOOC (a course on Artificial Intelligence) boasted a student to staff ratio of 150,000:1 and an age participation bracket of 11 - 74 years. MOOCs mean you can ‘send your child to MIT’. For free.
The missing explanation So we understand the what and the how of educational technology, but the biggest unanswered question for many parents is the ‘why?’. Our company works with organisations to help them apply technology in a smarter way. The number one cause of organisations failing in their use of technology is that they never understood the ‘why?’ questions. “Why this? Why now? Why not that?” The application of technology dictates its overall value. To borrow a medical principle: treatment without diagnosis is malpractice. So why are so many schools opening up to
KEY SKILLS FOR THE DIGITAL ECONOMY 8 key skills needed for success in an increasingly connected society
technology in such a big way, and why now? There is a misconception among unbelievers that the goal is to replace teachers with technology. Writer and futurist Arthur C. Clarke said “a teacher that can be replaced by a machine should be” (Arthur C Clarke, 1980). I instinctively remember the school teachers that I could have replaced with access to Google.com with no detriment to my education. However, proponents of technology emphasise that they do not wish to replace teachers, they want to do something much bolder. They want to transform education and with it, the role of the teacher. If every reader of ISIS can agree on one thing, it is that young people love technology. A worry for many is that the driving force for the adoption of technology in schools is the students. Has the iPad’s unprecedented popularity in younger age brackets forced our schools to concede to their use in the classroom? Maybe, but given the penetration of these same tools and trends in the workplace, does it matter how they got into schools? It is called disruptive technology for a reason. We
need a deeper integration of technology in the classroom if the education system is to prepare students for success in a rapidly changing digital society. Where else will our young people learn how to steward technology effectively? Educationalist Sir Ken Robinson argues that little has changed in the way the West educates its students since the Victorians developed the formal education system to feed the bureaucratic machine that served the empire and the industrial revolution. The world has certainly changed considerably since those days, even if education has not. One of Robinson’s main gripes is on the ‘standardisation’ of formal education, where the goal of the system has become about teaching students how to pass an exam, rather than how to think for themselves. A much espoused philosophy of the educational technology movement is to customise the learning experience for each individual, so they can learn to teach themselves for life, and thrive in a changing environment. Educational researcher Sugata Mitra argues that, in fact, if the right environment exists, students will willingly
#1 Connect
#2 Communicate
The ability to connect with others in an authentic way when it is possible to ‘add’ friends online. Emotional intelligence is an area of huge ongoing research, with some, such as Daniel Goleman, arguing that a person’s Emotional Quotient (EQ) is more important than their IQ.
Central to the ability to connect with others is the ability to understand and be understood across multiple media. We have so many communication tools that the quality of the conversation in many platforms is diminished by the noise of crowds.
TECHNOLOGY
themselves to attract the best students. There is a danger that some schools may introduce technology without a thorough assessment of its real value. iPads in the classroom are sometimes seen as a distraction. How will we keep students away from playing Candy Crush Saga in the classroom? One iPad rollout in the US received bad press when it materialised that up to 200 students in one high-school had circumnavigated the school’s distraction blocking software, allowing unfettered access to YouTube, Facebook et al. According to Renee Hobbs of the University of Rhode Island, we need a paradigm shift on how technology is perceived, saying “children are growing up today with the iPad used as a device for entertainment. So when the iPad comes into the classroom, then there’s a shift in everybody’s thinking”. I agree. If school can’t be the place where our young people learn how to handle technology - where can be? Whilst we did not have iPads in my school, I certainly found other ways to distract myself (and others) from their work, much to the frustration of school staff. Let’s be honest,
people found that 84 percent of participants could not go 24 hours without their mobile device. A quarter of participants admitted to checking their phones every 30 minutes. Numerous studies are warning us of the potential damage excessive use of technology can cause physically, mentally and
how often did you find yourself doodling or writing notes to your classmates? The iPad is just as much a tool as the pen. The chief value of a tool is in its application - if the worker is distracted, blame him, not his tool. A more subtle, but deeper area of doubt is summarised well by writer Valerie Yue, expressing her concern that “too much reliance on technology such as the iPad could lead to children devaluing the presence of paper and pencil.” This is the most unifying concern among cynics. Thankfully, Swiss schools have not attempted a total shift to paperless learning. VFlorimont have thought carefully about the time and place for devices in-lieu of paper; sometimes paper is mandatory and other times it is down to student choice. This is a smart move that teaches students that sometimes they are better off without a screen.
Conclusion An effective educational technology strategy isn’t merely about squeezing technology into the current curriculum so students know how to use iPads. In five years’ time, tablet computers may not exist as we know them now, so it is about
socially. The ability to set healthy boundaries around technology is important as more of the world shifts online. #8 Security
With greater connectivity comes greater concern for security. Schools and parents should make it a priority to teach young people to be
teaching skills for a hyperconnected world that we can’t even imagine yet, teaching students to learn for themselves and adapt to changing workplace requirements. Without objective data, we cannot fully understand the impact of technology in the classroom. Thankfully, studies being conducted around the globe by the likes of Mitra will yield results. Meanwhile, the potential risks of technology in the classroom are closely tied to the quality of the underlying strategy. If all Swiss schools are thinking like GEMS-Academy and Florimont, they are doing a good job. The last word should be given to those at the heart of the sector - not government, not eLearning companies, but the end-users of educational technology. In their latest survey, staff and students alike at Florimont expressed a high degree of satisfaction regarding the school’s application of technology in the classroom.
aware of their ‘digital footprint’, especially on social networks. Just like a thief going through your paper recycling to build a picture of your life and movements, criminals can harvest information from online activity. We must help students to build mental filters to help them spot dangerous websites and scams.
TECHNOLOGY
TROLLS ON TRIAL James Badcock, Partner, Collyer Bristow What is a 'troll'? 'Troll' is a contentious term. There are nearly as many types of troll as there are people interacting on the internet. Wikipedia has a usefully wide definition; 'a troll is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community'. They can be experienced by movie stars, teenagers or even the dead. These individuals who 'troll' have different motivations, online experiences and, most of the time, they don't know when to stop typing and walk away.
The march of the troll The troll is now one of the most widely feared creatures on the web. The troll was born long before the advent of twitter and survived on a hotbed of older online forums. Confined largely to gaming websites, these early trolls were restricted in whom they could attack. With the advent of social media, however, the list of potential victims has grown exponentially. People write things online that they wouldn't dream of saying to strangers, face to face. They show off
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online; they use the internet to air views they know are socially unacceptable and revel in any attention they attract, positive or negative. There is a suggestion that some people are just bored and winding up people online is an easy outlet. However this does not lessen the distress that trolls can cause their victims.
Tackling trolls Mary Beard, a professor at Cambridge University and TV academic, named and shamed a troll, Oliver Rawlings, by retweeting his offensive message to her 50,000 followers. An even more astounding turn of events followed when one of Mary Beard's followers tweeted back to say "Mary, if you would like to send a copy @Rawling153's tweet to his mother, Joanne, I'd be happy to give you the address". Very swiftly Rawlings tweeted a number of times to say "I sincerely apologise for my trolling. I was wrong and very rude. Hope this can be forgotten and forgiven" as well as "I feel this had [sic] been a good lesson for me. Thanks 4 showing me the error of my ways. I wish you all the best". Verbier resident, James Blunt, is another example of the way in which humour and a direct response can be a tactic
against trolls. Most of his twitter activity is to retweet abusive comments with a witty rejoinder or self-deprecating comeback. When Mr Blunt saw a tweet stating "@BBCRadio2 please please please please stop playing James blunt please ...thank you", he replied "Dad? Is that you!?" This is, however, a risky strategy, easier for powerful celebrities and one that may well backfire. Users who decide to tweet back should do so in the full knowledge that it may not stop the abuse, simply encourage it.
Twitter's response Last year twitter introduced a report tweet button which was the result of an e-petition campaign over the summer. People can now report individual offensive or harassing tweets to twitter, potentially getting the offending user suspended. In December 2013, twitter temporarily introduced new blocking rules which allowed blocked users to continue to follow and interact with the accounts of the persons who had blocked them. The blocked user's activity was made invisible to the victim as if the offending account did not exist. Importantly, the blocked user was not notified that he/she had been blocked. Such was the twitter outcry at this policy that the company's bosses were forced to revert to old rules under which a user is no longer able to follow an account once blocked. However as twitter argued at the time, the notification of a block can aggravate the perpetrator and trigger an escalation in the
EDUCATION
HIGH PERFORMANCE LEARNING Professor Deborah Eyre, Education Director, Nord Anglia Education
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hen it comes to schooling, what every parent wants is for their child to succeed educationally. Indeed, what every school wants is for its students to achieve highly and what every education system wants is to produce a highly educated workforce. Yet, although this is what everyone would like, it has always been assumed that the numbers for whom these ambitions can be fully realised is restricted because each student has a finite level of ability and at best will reach their individually determined potential. In short, some students are just inherently more able than others and there is little a school – or parents - can do to change this. Good schools and caring parents have always sought to maximise that individual potential but have accepted that high levels of educational performance will always be for the minority of students rather not the majority. That’s just the way it is. This view prevails because throughout the twentieth century we have accepted that the genes that a child inherits from their parents will mostly determine how well a child will do in school. So this approach has formed the basis of the way schools work.
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In some schools the curriculum is offered in the same way to all students and some do better than others. The best schools are more proactive and intervene to help individual students to maximise their inherited potential. So they try to measure the potential of each child, set targets for each student in relation to that level of potential and monitor progress towards those targets. This leads to minor but important gains. It can, for example, make the difference between a student gaining the exam grades that will allow them to study at the university of their choice or not.
Rethinking what it means to be intelligent However, in the last forty years or so, work in the fields of neuroscience and psychology has created a challenge to this orthodoxy and to the way we educate children. It has suggested that this ‘fixed ability’ mindset is probably wrong. The brain is more plastic and malleable than we thought. In short, we can make ourselves more intelligent. So instead of seeing inherited intelligence and talent as fixed traits, we should all be seeing them as a starting point which can be developed or trained. So the lesson from the research is that in theory at least, many more students are capable of reaching the high levels of educational performance once seen as the domain of only the very few. We even know how to achieve it - it takes good schooling, good parenting plus dedication and hard work from the student. So we no longer have to accept the convention that some will do well
and others not. Instead we should be seeking high performance for the many not just the few. For a parent this is a much more optimistic outlook. Instead of being in a position of powerlessly seeing your child’s intelligence, or lack of it, unfold; it is possible from the earliest days to nurture and encourage it. So whilst it is rewarding if your young child shows an instant aptitude for numbers it is also that case that if they don’t, then a ‘slow start’ is likely to be just that, a slow start, not an indication that your child has no Mathematical ability. You can help your child develop an interest in numbers and with that will come increasing fluency.
Implications for schools Of course all this has significant implications for schools. If you are a school that assumes what Carol Dweck calls a ‘growth mindset’ then it changes the way you work. Instead of looking to determine levels of potential you see all students as being capable of reaching high levels of performance and set expectations accordingly. You assume that students come into school with the capability to learn. It is the job of the school to help them develop the skills and knowledge that will enable them to turn that capability into high levels of educational performance. In our Swiss-based schools, La Côte International School and College Champittet, as well as in our twenty seven other Nord Anglia Education schools across the world, we think about students in this way. We see it
as our role to work with each individual and their family to find ways to unleash that capability and make real that ambition of high educational performance. Of course it is inevitable that some students will have greater barriers to overcome than others, but that is not a reason to lower expectations, it is simply a requirement to redouble efforts.
The High Performance Learning approach However, understanding that achieving high levels of performance for most students is theoretically possible is only the first step in making it happen. What is needed is a school-wide mechanism for helping students to develop the higher level skills and behaviours that lead to advanced cognitive performance. Professor
Eyre’s ‘High Performance Learning’ takes the theory and turns it into practical action in school. It leads to motivated and empowered students who not only do very well on conventional exams but also have the intellectual and social confidence that makes them college-ready and set fair to succeed in later life. High Performance Learning is a school-wide approach to teaching and learning that systematically helps students to develop advanced thinking skills and also advanced learner behaviours. These skills and behaviours have been identified through extensive research into how the gifted people think and learn. By introducing them to all students from an early age it is possible to
nurture and develop these ways of thinking and being. By the time the student is in secondary school they are becoming increasing efficient, successful and confident learners. Typical of the kinds of thinking being nurtured would be the ability to make connections or generalise or to think flexibly and seek alternative solutions in order to master a problem or skill rather than ‘giving up’. Typical ways of behaving would include openminded, resilient, persevering, enterprising. In High Performance Learning these characteristics are not taught through a separate curriculum but instead are the way the school curriculum is taught – both in ordinary lessons and in extra-curricula activities. What is different about High
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Performance Learning is that whilst some of the individual ideas are not new to schools, the idea that a comprehensive set of skills and learner behaviours can be identified and can be developed to show increasing levels of sophistication is novel and leading edge.
High Performance Learning in practice In our Nord Anglia Education schools we introduce these ideas to children and parents and teachers use it routinely to develop higher level skills. We call them the Advanced Cognitive Performance Characteristics and the Values, Attitudes and Attributes. We also make use of the seven principles that form the basis of this developmental approach. Together these help to guide the way we work and ensure that high performance becomes an attainable aspiration for all our students. If inherited intelligence of an individual is just the starting
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point then our challenge is to work alongside parents to provide the environment that ensures that maximum cognitive development occurs. High Performance Learning is unique in that it focuses on systematically the maximising the environmental factors that lead to advanced cognitive performance. It uses a simple formula to illustrate this. The task of the school is to maximise the learning opportunities, understand the learning needs of the individual student and support them when they are struggling and encourage the student to strive to achieve. This approach is one that engages and involves the student, their teachers and their family and focuses them all on helping the child to achieve high levels of performance.
Seeing results The High Performance Learning approach leads to significant
numbers of students reaching the levels of educational performance previously thought only to be possible for a small percentage of students. In our Nord Anglia Education schools since starting to use this approach we have seen more and more of our students doing exceptionally well. One in five of the students who left our schools last year went on to study at one of the world’s top 30 universities. Four of students in the last two years have attained maximum scores on the IB Diploma exams. The results for ages in all of our schools are well ahead of international averages and improving year on year. High Performance Learning is certainly helping us to move towards making great educational outcomes a possibility for all students and at the same time it does so in a way that is interesting for students and motivates them to want to strive to do well.
THE IB BUZZ (AND BEYOND) Natalie Adams Perrin & Lisa Raffy – Institut International de Lancy
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n a country where educational choice is increasingly varied and far-reaching, many students and parents are considering the International Baccalaureate option over the French Baccalaureat, Swiss Maturité or English A-Levels. A myriad of factors affect the decision making process, and certainly as a parent to three girls, I am looking to provide them with a learning environment
where they are most likely to succeed whilst promoting their mother-tongue language and developing additional languages. After all, here in Geneva, you will be hard pushed to find a teenager who ‘only’ speaks two languages. We talk about ‘third culture’ children and can empathise with those students who are growing up in an environment which is not that of their parents. This is where the IB Diploma becomes particularly pertinent to today’s teenagers. An increasing number of schools have begun to offer the International Baccalaureate Programme in the Lake Geneva
region, evidently responding to the increasing demand for students to have a well- rounded international education. To gain insight into the IB and discover more about the IB learner profile, I met with Lisa Raffy, IB Diploma Coordinator and IB English Literature teacher at the Institut International de Lancy.
Can you provide us with an outline of what the IB entails? The International Baccalaureate Diploma is a six subject course. Students must choose three subjects at Higher level and three at Standard, that is to say one subject from each of the five SPRING 2014 ISIS Magazine
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groups as shown in the diagram and one sixth subject of choice. The total is marked out of 42 points; seven points for each subject. In addition to this, students must also follow the Theory of Knowledge programme (TOK) which is designed to promote reflective learning and develop the students’ critical thinking skills. This accounts for three bonus points, culminating in the IB maximum total of 45. A personal research project on a subject of their choice (Extended Essay), consolidates the learning process. Lastly, in line with the IB ethos, students must fulfil 150 Creativity Action Service hours (CAS). In the past, students at IIL have been to Sri Lanka to help in an orphanage, they have actively participated in local conservation and aid events and have organised several charity balls for children in India. An average IB timetable amounts to 42 contact hours per week with staff at IIL.
A special kind of education With a motivated, positive attitude and healthy work ethic, success is readily attainable. Teachers motivate students to perform to the best of their ability. The teaching team and the pupils together form a learning community where the teacher is guide. A student who is willing to put the requisite effort into their studies will succeed. Nevertheless, students are encouraged to work to their strengths which
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are identified in a number of ways; counselling, psychometric profiling and IGCSE results all contribute to provide an individual learner profile. At IIL, highly experienced and trained staff plot a pathway for each student. We offer over 100 possible subject combinations and are able to cater for a wide range of academic and linguistic aptitudes.
What workload can students expect over the two years? A lot! Students able to keep up with the workload and obtain commendable results may find they have to temporarily adapt their social life though. Work comes in peaks and troughs during the two IB Diploma years. The most important thing is not to become overwhelmed with work. I always say to students:
EDUCATION
examinations. The school also runs popular holiday camps.
How is your language education programme structured and what is the age range of your students? Jérôme: Our language programme is designed for children between the ages of 4 and 12 years. Students complete a full day in one language and the following day in the other. In French, we teach language and maths, and in English we teach the language, as well as sciences, history, geography and art. Bev: We run an English programme within a French Primary school on Wednesdays, where children come for either the morning or the afternoon for cross-curricular work and activities in English, alongside basic language teaching. We teach EFL and Anglophone children in different sections. Sabine: Our tutors have very specific objectives, as the lessons are tailored to the needs of each child, ranging from catching up with the level of language at school, to teaching formal writing for essays in literature. Sarah: Our most popular courses are for young children (from age 4) and are dedicated to oral participation. From the age of 7 we introduce the reading and writing programmes. In their third year of reading and writing, we
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prepare the children for the 1st Young Learners English exam, Starters. The children then go on to take the Movers and the Flyers exams. We then offer the KET for Schools, PET for schools, First for schools exams.
In your opinion, at what age should a child start learning a foreign language? Jérôme: Around 3 or 4 years old is best, or as soon as the child has a solid foundation in his mother tongue and isn't displaying any signs of troubles in language acquisition. Bev: As soon as they can speak, I say! Children have fewer social inhibitions and learn quickly when exposed to the language they need to be able to do something, just as they learn their mother tongue. Sabine: The earlier the better! It helps later on if children feel comfortable speaking a foreign language, whether they are proficient or not. Bilingual people usually find it easier to learn yet another language because their brain is used to jumping from one language to another. Sarah: From the age of 3, children can distinguish their own language from a new one - they are like sponges at this age. Our routines with songs, movements and rhymes enable them to remember language very early on.
What are the advantages of learning another language at an early age? Jérôme: A young child begins by playing with the language, learning words and sentence structures. Later on this foundation can be built on with the language’s subtleties. Sarah: We see a huge difference between students who start at 4 and those who start at the reading and writing stage at age 7. If children have a vocabulary from learning it early, spelling the words is easier. Do the same strategies work for children as for adults in learning a foreign language? Sarah: Any language lesson needs to be fun and interactive. Dividing the lesson into different parts also facilitates learning – doing activities with different people, playing a game, watching a video clip and putting the language into practice all helps. Bev: Adults can take more responsibility for their own learning and concentrate for longer periods, while children’s lessons have to be carefully structured to maintain pace and variety.
Is it true that as children it is quicker and easier to learn a new language? Jérôme: Children do learn fast, but the speed at which they acquire a new language depends on their proficiency in their mother
Stephanie Walmsley - Head of Academic Support Services, Institut Polycours
learning and positive learning experiences play a powerful role in a child’s learning success. If you have a negative learning experience you are much less likely to want to try again. As parents you have the power to create positive learning experiences at home.
C
There are five key areas to early literacy development.
LEARNING TO LOVE LITERACY
an you remember the exact point in your life when you learnt to read? The point where you said to yourself- I am now a reader? I expect your answer was no, because reading is not simply just a mechanical process, it develops over time and with experience. Even as adults we learn new vocabulary and continue to expand our knowledge of the world around us through reading. Learning experiences allow us to make sense of the world, to make connections, expanding our knowledge and feeding our imaginations. Our senses and emotions are strongly linked to
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Experience of the world around us. Different and varied experiences. Meeting different people, visiting new places and experimenting with new materials. Create opportunities for your child to experience new things, even the simplest of things like making a cake, visiting a zoo or taking a bus ride. Oral Communication. Talking to your child, including reading aloud to your child and sharing a story.
Phonological awareness- noticing sounds. Play games with sounds, rhyming words and reading rhyming stories, songs or poems. Print Awareness. Develop an awareness of the use and value of print from an early age. Allow your child to experiment with scribbling; make a shopping list together; writing birthday cards or simply writing their name. Knowledge of the alphabet. Develop your child’s knowledge of the letter names, the sound each makes and what their shape feels like. Use plastic magnetic letters on the fridge; foam ones in the bath; wooden ones to draw and cut around. Make letters with play dough or cookie dough.
Nurturing literacystart early! The correlation between learning to read in the first year at school and subsequent year groups is
extremely high (Juel 1988). Early year teachers play the greatest role and contribution to reading success, by teaching students the foundation stages of alphabetic knowledge and by building memory strategies for sight word reading. However, parents play an even greater role, research has repeatedly shown that parents who regularly read with and to their children and act as reading role models themselves make a direct contribution to the success of their child’s literacy development. Children who regularly enjoy books at home will develop better language skills, language comprehension, have an increased vocabulary and develop strong cognitive skills. It’s never too early to begin with books. Even babies are fascinated by the colours, textures and sounds of a book. Choose books with mirrors, different textures, colours, maybe a sound book or a book for the bath. Have a reading routine! Bedtime reading fits most families’ routines, after a bath when you and your child are relaxed. Read in your mother tongue. For many international families English may be the language of instruction at school, but reading in your mother tongue has been proven to scaffold learning comprehension for bilingual and multi- lingual children. Build a library for your child. Keep the books in a place that they can go back to easily. In their bedroom or in a space that is easily accessible.
Be a role model. Reading around your child at home allows them to see that reading is an everyday part of life and an enjoyable experience. Visit a library or book store together. Help your child to choose books that are age appropriate, if your child struggles with reading then allow them to choose a book at their age level but read it with them. Children with reading difficulties feel embarrassed by choosing low level ability stories. The librarian may also have a section that would be age interest appropriate but at a level lower of reading ability. Publisher Barrington Stoke (www.barringtonstoke.co.uk) prints stories for struggling readers, but with age appropriate interest level. Variety! Read different books and reading material. Share what you are reading in a book or a magazine. Share short stories, poems, rhymes, fairy tales and non- fiction material. When making a cake, ask your child to tell you what you need from the recipe or read it out aloud to them. Sharing stories from other countries or your own country of origin. Make a book. Help your child to make a small book of their own or keep a diary. Follow the words with your finger, allowing the child to follow the text. Allow your child to read some of the words if they want to. With older children share the reading, allow them to read a line or a page.
Focus on enjoying a book together rather than reading accuracy. If your child struggles with reading, choose audio book versions that you can enjoy at bedtime, in the car or perhaps whilst eating breakfast. Ask questions about the text or pictures, but be careful not to turn into a quiz or a test of comprehension especially at the end of the day when your child might be tired and so might you!
Struggling reader or reluctant reader? It could be both! The ‘Free Reading Approach’ (Stephen Krashen, 2003) is really important to children who dislike reading; whether it is due to a difficulty with reading or that they would rather be doing something else. Allow your child to choose their reading material- a book, a comic, a magazine or newspaper, information on the internet. Voluntary reading is found to increase interest, vocabulary and literacy skills. Children need to feel engaged in their reading and learning, having pictures to support printed material whether it is a picture book or a non- fiction book can help struggling readers. Research has also indicated that boys generally take longer than girls to develop comparable literacy skills. What is considered a grade level appropriate reading skill for a girl cannot always be regarded the same for a boy. For some children reading and literacy skills are an extreme
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summer camps Extravaganza Our pick of this year’s best upcoming summer camps...
EDUCATION
TIPS FOR REVISION SUCCESS! Philly Malicka
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astering the much-maligned art of revision is a little like getting to know the intimate and complex workings of your own brain. To revise well is to understand exactly how you absorb information and how you commit it to the dense and dusty confines of your memory, positioned somewhere in your hypothalamus. If you’ve ever found yourself in that Kafkaesque position of trying to cram the different areas of the brain for an impending biology test, you’re halfway there. The best study skills are not centered around scented gel pens, screaming parents or stupid mnemonics, it’s about locating where and how you store memories; about positioning the names of the seven life processes next to your sixth birthday party. You must try to bridge the gap between your short term (which can hold around six things for 30 seconds) to that ambrosial territory of long. This is getting increasingly difficult in today’s world of multitabbed browsing, Wikipedia and phone reminders. In times of old it was not that unusual to recite a poem of Beowulf proportions, or even ancient texts such as the Qur’an, by heart. Despite many novel teaching methods, we are all examined against the traditional
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binaries: what you know and what you don’t. Pathways between neurons are strengthened through repetition. It’s a little like building the bridge between your short and long term memories with iron enforcements instead of dental floss. Finding a way in which you can effectively repeat recently digested information is the greatest challenge to a successful revision
strategy. Yet because this method cannot be, in itself, repetitive you must come up with a variety of means of repeating your material. For some, simply reading and re-reading pages of study notes suffices as a central strategy; if you’re one of these lucky few then enlist highlighters and other such glorious stationary to ensure the most relevant facts emerge as you scan the page.
EDUCATION
Others may prefer to recycle the information aurally; reading notes, then reciting aloud can be particularly effective, provided no one is around to jeer at your bizarre incantations. A scholarly friend once advised me to record your key facts on your phone, and listen to them on repeat. ‘That way you can revise while you’re cycling to the library, while you’re falling asleep, when you’re drying your hair…’ Audio-revision techniques can be very effective but only when used in moderation; who cares if you’re listening to Shakespeare quotes rather than Rihanna? Just ensure you take a break, and don’t overload your brain with too much information. Once you’ve reinforced your important material, now’s the time for testing. This process can be self-administered, or via a friend or family member, at your behest. Self-modulation has to be an honest business; if you’re covering your page, only to peak at the answers two minutes later too regularly, then get back to the books. A small white board can be a great weapon here; it allows you to jot down remembered information quickly—you don’t even have to write full sentences. You can then rub out your diagrams and sentences and jot them down again—an enriching process for your straining synapses. Enlisting a study-buddy is a smart way to revise. As a general rule, a good friend, rather than a family member, will be much more effective than asking your Mum to quiz you. Family relationships can be ‘testy’ at the best of times, and
the chances are they’re desperate for you to perform well, which can often result in frustrated outbursts from either end. Much better, then, to find someone who’s going through the same pain to test you: a good friend who won’t distract, or proffer their own perfectly formed answer before you’ve even opened your mouth. If they know you well, they can help you to associate other, shared memories with the facts you’re trying to learn (I tend to find that the more comedic the trigger, the stronger the memory) Don’t be alarmed at what you can’t remember. In Moonwalking with Einstein Joshua Foer, a humble and averagely forgetful journalist, teaches himself to become a finalist in the USA memory championships. ‘It is forgetting, not remembering, that is the essence of what makes us human. To make sense of the world, we must filter it.’ If you accidentally filter the wrong knowledge during your revision, don’t panic. Here’s where you must harness your psychological strength. Scientists believe that anxiety occupies a large part of memory, so try to eradicate this emotion from your revision as much as possible. Planning your revision time, factoring in plenty of breaks, day dreams and unimportant errands you’ll suddenly feel are necessary, will help you to reduce the stress in your study. Be realistic with yourself and what you can achieve. Create lists, display them around the house and gleefully tick each completed task off with a smug smile. Reward yourself with treats (think box sets rather
than brownies) and do not underestimate the transformative power of a night’s sleep. A solid eight hours not only provides a rational perspective on what can sometimes feel like your certain ruin, but it allows your long term memory to digest and decipher the reams of knowledge you last fed into it. It’s very easy to fall into a routine during your revision, many students think that establishing this is the key to success. But this can be an almighty mistake, and Foer also reinforces this: ‘monotony collapses time; novelty unfolds it.’ Extend your long term memory while you study by introducing novel ways to revise. Recite Chaucer to the cows during your dog walk, create play-dough models of oxbow lakes, attach mathematical formulae to your mascaras…anything which breaks the monotony of your head in those books. Don’t fall into the well-worn trap of revising in a familiar den of despair, change library locations or try coffee shops. List historical battles on the lawn, gulping down your new knowledge with lots of fresh air. ‘You’re taking the exam, don’t let the exam take you’ are the wise words of … my mother. And this is crucial. When the whistle blows don’t scram for your pencil and scribble down your first thoughts, which may as well be your breakfast that morning. Instead, take a breath, in your own time turn over, open the floodgates and think.
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However, when selecting which exams you will be sitting in your final two years of school (years 12 and 13, between ages 16 to 18), it is worth considering that the most prestigious universities in America may also look for proof of aptitude in specific subjects, not only the all round green light that a good score in SATs provides. This can
be shown through exams such as the SATII, APs (in the American system), the IB Diploma, A-Levels (following the UK curriculum) or the Swiss MaturitĂŠ. A good SAT score will get your application looked at. These more challenging final year courses will prove your worth in specific areas. In this competitive market, you need all
the validation you can get.
Alternatives to the SATs More and more, the American College Testing (ACT) is being accepted and recognised in place of SATs across the US. There are important differences between the exam systems that should be
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create happier and more resilient children, we produce better learners. The concept of wellbeing has been supported through the research being performed in the area of Positive Psychology, the theory of focusing on positive elements (e.g. strengths) as a driving factor to achieve higher standards. Increases to wellbeing, as taught through Positive Psychology, have in fact been shown to improve learning by broadening and sharpening attention (Fredrickson, 1998, Rowe et al., 2007) and increasing creative thinking (Isen et al 1987, Estrada et al., 1994). Mastering skills of well-being can potentially more than double the probability of giving our children their chance at a happy, successful and plentiful life. Studies by Judge and Hurst (2007) indicate individuals who evaluate themselves, their own abilities and own control (core
self-evaluation), in a positive way are more adept at translating early academic advantages into later economic success. In fact, those with high academic achievement and high core self-evaluation had more than double the economic success 50 years after leaving school than those with high academic achievement and low core self-evaluation. [For more details, please see: Judge, T. A. & Hurst, C. (2007). vizing on one’s advantages: Role of core self‐evaluations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(5), 1212‐1227).] Not only does wellbeing in schools greatly increase the chances at future success, well-being taught through the teachings of Positive Psychology has been a scientifically proven antidote against anxiety, depression, and social difficulties.
There is further reasoning for introducing wellbeing into schools, particularly in schools catering to the ex-pat population. Well-being is a buffer against what is so common in the expat transient communities, acculturative stress. Acculturative stress is the conflict, or disharmony, which is produced between personal morals and values and the external cultural. This disharmony brings with it specific developmental and cognitive characteristics which are particularly prominent in those children coined “thirdculture-kids” (TCK’s). TCK’s are children who are born into one culture, accompany their parents into another society, but raised amongst others. At first glance, they may appear perfectly comfortable; these kids are chameleons, adept at taking on the colors of each new environment
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they are thrown into. However, their basic needs (belonging, recognition and connection) are frayed with each move. Powerless in the decision to relocate, their many losses are often not acknowledged even by their own parents, and the main problem is unspoken, unrecognized, or even worse shunted aside. Studies show that where teenage TCK’s might be more mature than non-TCKs, they take longer than their peers to focus their aim; depression and anxiety are high (Corttell & Useem, 1993), their sense of identity and wellbeing is directly and negatively impacted and they may experience stress and grief from relocation (Sheppard & Steele, 2003). Many children from highly mobile families know about the feeling of not “fitting in” at school. This occurs either because they are themselves new or feel left behind when their best friends move away, making them particularly vulnerable to bullying, teasing and out casting. These children can greatly stand to benefit from what Positive Psychology offers. Over and above preventing anxiety and depression, building social skills and increasing selfesteem, well-being taught through Positive Psychology provides a psychological shield to children and can be particularly pertinent to those children going through transient times.
What is Positive Psychology? So what makes Positive Psychology stand out from other well-being theories, teachings and programmes? Positive
psychology is a science grounded in academic research. The actual theory behind positive psychology was defined in 1998 by Professor Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Positive Psychologists have spent over twenty years gathering knowledge about what makes life worth living. It sets itself apart by acknowledging the theories and findings of Humanistic Psychology, thereby standing (partly) on the shoulder of giants like Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers. Additionally, Positive Psychology draws heavily on the ancient wisdom of some of the great philosophers such as William James and Aristotle, especially his conception of Eudemonia (the highest human good). Positive Psychology looks at all aspects of a person’s being and makes the basic point that removing weakness is not the same as building strengths; however, it does not intend to discount traditional psychology, nor supersede it. While traditional Psychology focuses on treating psychological deficits and moving people from ‘abnormal’ to ‘normal’ or average, Positive Psychology aims at identifying approaches and processes to unleash people’s potential to go beyond normal in order to reach extraordinary performance, wellbeing and life satisfaction. Think of a sliding scale from -5 to +5. Where traditional psychology would take you from -5 back to zero, Positive Psychologists aim to take you all the way up to +5. However, importantly, it needs to be understood that the basis of Positive Psychology does not lie in positive phrases or images of victory but in learning basic life
skills. By nurturing these skills it is possible to become more resilient, arming ourselves with that ineffable quality that allows you to come back stronger after being knocked down and giving us the opportunity to live a good life.
The Basis of Achieving well-being through Positive Psychology In order to achieve well-being, Positive Psychologists have identified core implicit teachings, which include: Character Strengths. Positive Psychology teaches us what our strengths are, how to recognize and find personal character strengths and how to apply them. Strengths are not talents but are character qualities that drive you. These are innate in who you are, and you can’t do without them. Harnessing our strengths engages us and puts us into a state termed by positive psychologists as “flow”. Flow is that glorious moment of total absorption, it is characterized by intense concentration, loss of self-awareness, a feeling of being perfectly challenged (neither bored nor overwhelmed), a moment where all time stops. Flow is intrinsically rewarding; it can also assist in the achievement of goals and improving skills. Flow only occurs when you deploy your highest strengths and talents to meet the challenges that come your way, and it is clear that flow facilitates learning. Correctly identifying and understanding our strengths is a driving force in well-being. We feel good about ourselves when we use or character strengths, we perform better, are
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more productive and have greater satisfaction and meaning in our lives. Using strengths generates that intrinsic motivation in children which leads to academic achievement. In contrast, a continual focus on trying to fix weaknesses leads to frustration and suppresses natural tendencies. This can be physically and mentally draining and over time can lead to anxiety, depression and a host of other clinical problems. The Growth Mindset. Positive Psychology equally arms us with the ability to build and feed a specific mindset, the “growth mindset”. This is the mindset which removes the insecurities of failing and teaches children and adults to keep pushing even when they fail. It teaches us that intelligence is not fixed, that learning is about trying, continuous effort and striving outside of our comfort zone. Developing this mindset is crucial to learning and achievement. The growth mindset is fostered through changing the way children are praised. Something as simple as changing a praising style from focusing on the success a child achieves to the actual effort the child implemented can makes the world of difference in how that child later tackles more challenging events and the lengths that child will go to learn. Thinking Styles. Another core learning of Positive Psychology is tapping into your internal radio, listening to what is playing on “me FM”. As human beings we have a stream of “self-talk” running through our minds, our internal radio. Most often we manage to
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tune this out, however, if we tune in often times we find that the self-talk can be quite negative, not accurate and unhelpful. Positive Psychology teaches us how to tune in, analyze, dispute and deconstruct unhelpful thoughts. Through models based on cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) it teaches us emotional intelligence and the relationship of our feelings and thoughts to an adverse trigger (activating event). Changing our self-talk to a less rigid, less pessimistic and more positive thinking style helps us cope more effectively and make us more able to deal with the challenges we encounter, building resilience. Optimism. Positive Psychology holds that optimism can be learnt and that simple strategies, at any age, can change your thinking styles and actually rewire the brain. Enhanced optimism is scientifically shown to increase natural curiosity, creativity, problem solving and increases learning. Increasing curiosity naturally increases the internal motivation towards learning by default increasing academic achievement. Scanning the world for the positive also naturally decreases depressive and anxiolytic symptoms. Using simple daily techniques the brain has been shown to rewire, where with time the brain automatically scans the world more for the positive than the negative. Think about an example, a friend asks you to go to the parking lot to fetch something from their “white car”. On coming back and being asked how many white cars you saw you could pretty much estimate how many you saw, being asked
how many black cars you saw, you probably would be pretty clueless or quite far off. When you are asked to observe the world for some specific details then this is what you focus on, letting go of and neglecting other information. Over time, with proper training, this will become innate and automatic.
Positive Psychology in Education Now that we understand what Positive Psychology is and how it applies to wellbeing the question is, how does it fit into education? Positive Psychology has application in all aspects of teaching and learning, from preschool level to post graduate, for faculty and students alike. The concept of positive education seeks to teach and increase: knowledge about and implementation of personal character strengths self-awareness and emotional control self-efficacy (which is not the same as selfesteem) flexible and accurate thinking skills strategies for positive relationships learned optimism In students this in turn leads to increased: • motivation • academic achievement • resilience • social skills • assertiveness • negotiation skills
University education now costs far more in real terms than it ever has. These costs can often arrive at that time of a parent’s life when they are enjoying a higher salary and may possibly find themselves in a senior position. One may picture
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a wonderful time of life when the benefits of a respectable income can be enjoyed. Unfortunately the reality can often be very different and invariably many parents can find themselves living hand to mouth or having to sell assets
in order to fund their children’s further education. Borrowing to facilitate these fees is not a favourable option at such a late stage in one’s working career.
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SYRIA: A COMPLEX CRISIS WITH SIMPLE NEEDS By Leena Kulkarni, Communication & Outreach Volunteer, Medair
I
magine you are living a stable life, your children are in school, you have a job, your business is running smoothly. You are happy. Then, there are explosions everywhere. You have to run for your life and leave everything behind. If you are lucky, you manage to grab a few possessions. People around you get away in cars, but you are on foot, slowly making your way to the border of Lebanon. Others flee to Jordan, Iraq or Turkey. Once they reach the border, maybe they are allowed to cross. Maybe not. This is a journey where fear, sickness, pain and death cloud every inch of your peripheral vision – the only thing you see for sure is uncertainty. This is the Syrian crisis.
Lives turned upside down “I was a car mechanic in Syria,” explains Mohamed, “I had my own house, my own shop and I could work. We moved seven times from place to place to avoid the fighting.” When the violence became too much, Mohamed had no choice but to move. “I waited until the last second to leave. I carried my daughters under my arms. There were so many checkpoints. We had to pay nearly all our savings to get through 64
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them all until we reached Jordan.” It took the family 13 hours to travel from Homs to the border, and when they arrived, only his wife and children were allowed to pass through. “I slept at the border for seven days until they let me cross.”
Staggering numbers According the United Nations, there are 9.3 million people needing humanitarian assistance inside Syria. Some 6.5 million are still in Syria but are displaced from their homes. There is very little humanitarian aid for these internally displaced people because humanitarian access is so limited by the violence. More than 2.3 million Syrians have fled to neighboring countries. More than half of these are children and adolescents.
An NGO you may not know about UN agencies and humanitarian NGOs are working to help the ever-increasing number of refugees now living under very difficult conditions. One of these is a Swiss NGO you may not have heard of before, Medair. Based in Ecublens, Medair provides emergency relief and recovery services to people in some of the world’s most remote and devastated places such as Afghanistan, D.R. Congo, Somalia, South Sudan and – since September 2012 – to refugees in Jordan and Lebanon who have fled the Syrian conflict. Medair focuses on providing the basics of what people need to survive in crisis situations: health care, nutrition, clean water, latrines and shelter.
When we think of humanitarian crises, often the images that come to mind are of large refugee camps like the Za’atri camp in Jordan. But that is only a small part of the Syrian crisis. Refugees are living wherever they can, in rural and urban settings. This creates particular challenges for the humanitarian response. In Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, which is about the size of Lac Leman, tens of thousands of Syrian refugees have set up informal “camps” – groups of families who have fled and are grateful to find a piece of land they can rent from local farmers or other Lebanese landowners. Medair is providing these families with essential materials they need to build warm and dry shelters – wood, vinyl sheeting, stoves, blankets, water filtration systems and hygiene kits. Medair also helps these groups plan and lay out their “camps” to best deal with rain, run-off, sanitation and garbage. Awesh is from Aleppo. “Living here is so different,” she said, “We had houses and beds in Syria. It’s been so difficult here. We didn’t take anything, there wasn’t any time. You just flee.” For now, Awesh and her family are safe. “This project has helped us a lot because when we came, there wasn’t anything to put up to protect us from the sun or from the cold. We made our tent strong with the wood planks and the vinyl gave us shelter. For people in Switzerland, I would say thanks a lot and please continue to help us. Things are getting worse and we
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cannot return. We love the people of Lebanon.”
Out of the bomb shelter, into the cold Ali, 7, suffered severe burns to his face and body when a rocket exploded in his family home in Syria. He and his family made a makeshift bomb shelter in the rubble of their house and lived there for two months before running for their lives. They arrived in Lebanon with little more than the clothes on their backs. Medair provided the family with new shelter materials, mattresses, blankets, and other survival items. “The assistance came at the perfect time,” said Ali’s father. “It rained the very next day.”
A crisis that threatens a whole generation With so many of the refugees being children and teenagers, another kind of crisis is beginning to emerge. For most young refugees, school is a thing of the past. Many teenagers fear that their futures are lost and their dreams gone. The hope of attending school or university grows fainter with each passing day. “When the bombs starting falling, our children had to stop
going to school,” said Foda, mother of seven, “it was like being in prison... we have nothing.” There are real fears that this will be the “Lost Generation” – an entire generation of children and teenagers whose futures have been ruined because of no education. UN High Commissioner António Guterres said, “If we do not act quickly, a generation of innocents will become lasting casualties of an appalling war.”
What can we do? No one knows how long it will take for the fighting in Syria to stop so people can return home to rebuild their shattered lives. The political reality behind this tragedy is complex, but the needs are simple. We can help stabilize these communities by providing decent shelter, food, water, and health services. While the needs may seem overwhelming, we can make a difference – one family, one community at a time. Education is a powerful tool. Help us spread the word. Visit www.medair.org for real stories and facts about the Syrian crisis. Share these with your friends on your personal social media outlets; Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn.
Connect your school with Medair through the Medair Mentor program. Your school will receive a school visit with a multimedia presentation about the Syrian crisis. The situation will be explained with maps, videos and real field stories to bring this situation alive. Your school will have a connection with a mentor who will work directly with the students to create a school-wide fundraising challenge or other project. Medair was founded in 1988 in Lausanne, Switzerland, and became a recognised sanctioned Swiss NGO in 1989. Medair helps people who are suffering in remote and devastated communities around the world survive crises, recover with dignity, and develop the skills they need to build a better future. To learn more about Medair’s work visit medair.org. For more information about the Medair Mentor program, contact Jim Jackson, Medair’s Executive Office Director. james.jackson@medair.org Leena Kulkarni is a graduate of the International School of Lausanne. She is currently a junior at Cornell University where she is studying health care policy and maternal and child nutrition.
DONATE. ■■ 35 CHF provides a child with a warm blanket and a mattress ■■ 105 CHF provides a family with a stove to cook and heat their home ■■ 230 CHF provides a family with heavy vinyl sheeting to insulate their shelter against the cold and rain
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initial interest, Gilly says the best balance is to help participants build something that they can re-apply at home, such as an insect hotel, that even the smallest gardener can build, as well as helping with some of the heavier tasks, like turning compost. 4-5 Workshop sessions a year is ideal for a garden this size.
Setbacks Be prepared! The weather, in particular, can be a gardener’s friend or foe. The massive hailstorm in June of this year devastated many of the plants in the garden “When I saw it, I cried my eyes out” but plants and gardens are resilient, and many have recovered and produced their fruit a little later.
Start small and grow “organically”
holidays, and get to eat anything that is cropping that week.
It is better to have two successful beds of only 1m square apiece, than 10 beds that are too big to manage.
School gardening calendar
Share the load A committed parent, teacher or even student can make a great start, but what happens when they leave or move on? A passionate core team of one student, a parent, a member of staff, admin support and the all-important head teacher.
Plan for the holidays Who can help? In other projects, families sign up to manage the garden for a week over the
Now is the perfect time to get ahead and plan a garden, find the funding, earmark the site. Gilly’s permaculture training meant that she was keen to salvage and recycle materials whenever possible “lunch scraps, apple cores, chicken poop, leaves are all brilliant” and the raised beds can even be built on concrete if it drains properly – if you have the right soil. Compost collection points in classrooms are a great start.
If you can’t build – plan! Decide what you want to grow and why, who is going to eat it?
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Who is going to take of it? Which plants grow well together?
Great beginners ideas
Start the seedlings indoors, which can be done by any age group with suitable supervision. The growing season is short, if it ends in June at the end of the school year or think about planting for an autumn harvest. Get ahead as much as possible with early seedlings or pre-bought plantlets.
Pizza bed – grow tomatoes, basil, oregano and anything else you might find on a pizza (peppers, courgettes) and add some yellow marigolds for the “cheese” Herb bed – the sensual element of gardening is really appreciated by all ages of children, try the fabulous pineapple sage (still in flower in late November), curry plant, mints, stevia, lemon verbena and lemon thyme.
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Resources
Start filling the beds with compost, and make your own soil by layering organic materials “ the lasagne method” and plant up the first seedlings and watch the plants and the kids grow!
Gilly Webster is an environmental education consultant, passionate about helping schools make the most of their outdoor spaces, and helping kids live more sustainable lives. For all details, including the Spring 2014 Permaculture course dates (starts February 8th) Contact
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Gilly Webster on Webster.gilly@gmail.com. The Royal Horticultural Society is the only British horticultural charity providing education for teachers to bring gardening and plants into the classroom. It is mostly oriented towards British school and the National Curriculum but there is plenty to take away for overseas teachers and schools, an up-to-date website as well as practical courses in various locations in the UK. Check www.rhs.org.uk and follow the rubric for School Gardening. The Swiss Gardening School run courses for amateurs on topics as diverse as Family-Friendly Gardens and Pruning. Go to www.swissgardeningschool.com for more details.