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Everyone complains: parents, teachers and students. Classes are overcrowded, the level of teaching has fallen, students are frankly bored, teachers are faced with disrespect. Italian Psychologies experts reflect on what modern schools lack. Of course, this article is written by Italians for Italians. But everyone has the same ideas about what a dream school should be.
A variety of schools are criticized: primary and secondary, private and public. What is wrong with them? Maybe we parents are to blame? It would seem not: we all dream of a “good school” for our children. But how to choose a school and not miscalculate?
“This is a school where students understand the language of their teachers,” explains educator Donatella Celli. – A school that gives every child the opportunity to realize themselves, not only intellectually, but also emotionally and physically».
“Such a school is able to take responsibility for children’s education, protecting students from excessive media influence,” adds Paola Bortolon, head of a specialized school for teacher training. The “ideal” school obviously does not exist, – notes teacher Adriana Di Rienzo, – but the closest to the ideal is an educational institution where they believe in a child with all his emotions, unpredictability and personal experience.
In the “ideal” school, the child will not be forced to fight with others for school and social superiority, there is no place for nightmares about poor progress. Here are five key criteria that distinguish such a school.
1. Saying “no” to fears
The school often makes children feel insecure – primarily due to the fact that the methods and practices used in it for decades have never been revised, but should be. So, teachers during oral surveys already keep in mind the “correct”, “necessary” answer and therefore do not accept the student’s non-standard, creative answer.
“As a result, the child loses faith in himself,” Chelly comments, “begins to get nervous, anxious, which can spill over into aggression towards himself or others. Or the student can step back, withdraw into himself, seeking salvation in dreams and fantasies.».
In order for a child to grow up self-confident, it is important for him to participate in group activities. “In such a group, everyone shares common values and norms, and instead of rivalry, solidarity and mutual assistance reign. Children get the opportunity to express themselves, which means there is no place for fear,” explains Bortolon.
«It is important that the teacher is attentive to different types of personality., helped each child to become more self-confident, assessed emotional intelligence, which is so necessary for the development of interpersonal relationships,” adds Cesare Scurati, Professor of Pedagogy at the Catholic University of Milan.
2. Learning to respect the child
Self-confidence and respect depend on each other, and it is important that both the student’s respect for the teacher and the teacher’s respect for the student are important. Children feel humiliated when teachers invade their privacyby asking questions about the situation in the family and parading to the whole class what the student would prefer not to talk about. A child forced to talk in front of everyone about his father being an alcoholic, or about the divorce of his parents, is ashamed that he is not like everyone else, and this often leads to a loss of self-esteem.
You can’t just rate it. The child may lose heart if the teacher does not provide clear comments on the assessment of the assignment.
“The school should strive to ensure that the student acquires it, because this is the foundation for harmonious development, and it is important that this foundation is based on the ability to confidently meet various trials and overcome difficulties,” emphasizes Bortolon.
The child may lose heart even when the teacher does not voice clear criteria for evaluating the task. “It is very important that the student understands the goals and objectives of the exercises that are given to him, and can refer to something when answering. The teacher’s assessment should be objective and not look like a whim”, says Di Rienzo.
3. Evaluate less, value more
«School grades are highly overrated these days., – Scurati comments, – despite the fact that the teacher often does not explain why he gave this or that mark. The self-esteem of a child who does not understand why he was given a bad mark can be hurt, and as a result, fear of school and symptoms of dyslexia or hyperactivity may develop.
If the teacher, when grading, focuses on what exactly the child understood, on what he should learn, then the mark is perceived by the child normally: he feels that he is appreciated, which means that he will find incentives to correct the bad assessment and move on. No need to add that the mark should not set students against each other: Such rivalry can traumatize the child and ultimately provoke cruelty towards others.
4. We bet on motivation
Even a straight loser with strong motivation can achieve unexpected success, while the most gifted student without proper motivation can sit in a puddle and be content with only average or even poor performance. American psychologists Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow spoke about this, and although their theory is recognized as undeniable, many teachers forget about it.
Lack of motivation remains one of the main causes of school failure. The strategy of “contract” pedagogy will help to avoid it.
“Lack of motivation remains one of the main causes of school failure,” says Luciano Mariani, a former teacher and author of numerous study guides. “The strategy of “contract” pedagogy will help to avoid it, in which the teacher sets the rules not alone, but together with the student.”
For example, if a child does not do homework or does it poorly, a verbal or written “contract” establishes on which day the student commits to do the homework and the teacher to check it.
In addition, at the beginning of the school year, the teacher can announce the goals and objectives for the year: “It is important for me that by the end of the year you have learned to read and write. How can we achieve this? I like poetry, do you? As a result, children feel they have an active role to play and share responsibility for the learning process.
5. Feeding the thirst for knowledge
To succeed in school, the child must understand the language of the teachers. It would seem obvious, but Many students simply do not understand what teachers want from them. “It is important that teachers listen to their students’ conversations, how the dialogue starts and builds,” says psychologist Franca Rossi from the University of Perugia.
Often, as homework, the child memorizes different formulas and is quite capable of reproducing them, but does he understand what he has memorized?
Working on the understanding of terms is a fundamental component of any training. It is important to ask students if everyone understands the meaning of certain words, and help them logically come to an answer.
Ultimately, all this will help the child. not only study well, but also develop harmoniously, becoming a self-confident and open-minded person. And most importantly, these five rules do not require any financial costs, which means that any educational institution without exception can adopt them.