Schools in Manila—international or otherwise—can provide many opportunities to students. And with opportunities also comes challenges. It is inevitable for your child to experience some difficulties when it comes to school work.
Whether the problem revolves around experiencing difficulty in grasping new concepts or doing better in tests, you no longer have to fret because there is a way around it. After all, most hurdles can definitely be overcome. The key lies in instilling a growth mindset or an inherent optimism towards learning and school work.
Both traditional and progressive schools in the Philippines are aware of the danger in this struggle that can potentially lead to a slippery slope of discouragement.
Below you will see some approaches and techniques that could help them prevail over such hardships.
Encourage an Optimistic Approach to Learning
In order to help activate your child’s neurotransmitters that enable learning, you must reinforce a positive mindset towards schoolwork and use strategies that can elicit academic progress. Check out some of them below.
- Create a model for optimism by pointing out instances that display active positivity, such as “I know this was a difficult project, but you stuck to it, worked hard at it, and achieved your output!”
- Cite examples that illustrate how obstacles can be overcome.
- Share stories that show the benefits of practical optimism. Also, let your child know how everyone is occasionally faced with learning challenges.
- Cultivate a positive atmosphere by asking questions, such as “What was the best thing that happened today?”
Effective Learning by Utilizing ‘Success Files’
This strategy helps struggling students internalize success by laying out tangible evidence of her accomplishments.
Here are the steps you could follow:
- Give your child a folder to use as her ‘Success File.’
- Ask your child to write the word success or to draw her own representation of the word on the folder cover.
- Every day, ask your child to jot down notes about their triumphant learning experiences. A few examples of these are the tasks and educational gains that support his notion of success.
- Remind your child to look through her Success File regularly to help her reconnect with past achievements. Eventually, this can calibrate a more positive frame of mind.
Using Growth Assessment and Giving Students the Gift of Choice
Regularly checking your child and giving feedback through monitoring and guidance will help her concretely identify her strengths and weaknesses. This, in turn, can unravel the specific areas that call for practice and reinforcement. One technique to do this is through the use of journals and checklists.
Finally, give your child the option to choose topics of interest that will motivate her to learn and explore more subjects.
Key Takeaway
Whether your child is studying in an international school in Manila or elsewhere, learning struggles may lead to discouragement, which may hamper her overall motivation.
With the help of the aforementioned strategies, fostering motivation with a growth mindset will help her internalize the belief that with effort and intentionality, she will do better.
