User:Etaboagye

 'Meeting the needs of individual learner as a Ghanaian Teacher' 

Teaching is a very important and lovely profession. Nobody will doubt this unless the person views the profession from a different perspective or has never tasted it before. Throughout my career I have tried to run away from teaching mainly because the profession doesn’t give enough remuneration especially in Ghana. Anytime I decide to run away this profession, I either find myself in an education organization or in another classroom. I have therefore finally decided to work mainly in the field of education because I think I am a born educationist. A teacher is a person who educates others and for one to teach effectively you must be able to reach every individual in your class. This is not an easy task especially in a place like the United Kingdom (UK) where a school can have a more diverse population of children speaking more than thirty languages. I think Ghanaian teachers can match the United Kingdom if we can have a love for the profession and behave as professionals. Being a professional teacher is just about teaching to be able to meet the needs of individuals more especially those who present special challenges. Dealing adequately with students who require special preparation and strategies is normally thought by many teachers as a waste of time and most teachers are only happy to teach students who are already good and have high cognitive abilities. Any teacher who thinks like that has already failed as a professional and cannot survive in any challenging environment. We must know that our society is growing and one day we may be near the classroom of some schools in the UK where teacher sometimes can be credited for only managing behaviour effectively. This is the reason why we must learn to effectively meet individual needs in our classroom from today. Some of the more common situations a teacher is likely to encounter and call for much attention to individual needs are discussed below:

I will boast as a teacher if I am able to help a student who has a high probability of dropping out of school than to help a good student who already need minimal help. Learners having difficulty are those who, for any number of reasons, are liable to perform poorly and who have a high probability of dropping out of school. A teacher tries to make a lesson more interesting, engaging and appealing to all learners throughout a period. Do not allow the good student to always capitalize on the class because some of them have already learnt the topics at home. If those students think they already know the topic you are teaching, give different work to them to do and concentrate on your lesson. As a teacher you need to motivate the unmotivated and help him/her to achieve the set goal. If behavioral problems are the cause of students’ difficulty, you need to find more strategies for improving student behavior. My advice is that know your students and devise appropriate teaching strategies that may suit them. I have few questions for every teacher. Do you adequately challenge your gifted students or just prepare them to pass examinations? The difficulty of teaching gifted children lies in keeping them interested, engaging, motivated, and challenged. Gifted students who are inadequately challenged may become bored, withdrawn, or even openly disruptive. The answer is to give such students open-ended activities, whiles adopting strategies that emphasizes on creative problem solving. In many cases there is no single right answer to a problem or question, so students’ answers can reflect their individual abilities. This is not about producing marking scheme answers but answers that can help a teacher to recognize creative and inventive students. This approach is ideal for gifted students as they may extend the activities to fit their interests and talents.

The questions that come to mind regarding physically challenged students is; are all parts of our classroom accessible to all students? Do we adapt classroom to enable the physically challenged to engage in the same activities as other students? Do you encourage your students to assist physically challenged students? Do you make your classroom as easy to move about in as possible? Do you remove or bypass any obvious barriers. If the student uses a wheelchair, do we make the aisles wide enough to accommodate the chair? Do we make sure that the student can reach any equipment he or she needs? Most of our educational institutions are guilty to answers to some of these questions. How can we create an inclusive society if the physically challenged students are not properly cared for? The solution to this does not lie only on the teachers but also the government and all stakeholders. To teachers we must, as much as possible, adapt classrooms that will suit all students in all classroom activities. Government should think of providing incentives not only to special schools but to all that cater for a disabled child, for example, provision of mobile demonstration tables to schools that have physically challenged children so that it can be moved to different areas of the room for maximum visibility.

Before I sent my child to the UK she was not a very bright child in Ghana. When she got to Barclays school in Leytonstone in London within a month, the school had referred the child to ophthalmologist for eye check. This problem was identified by a teacher. Later we realised all her spelling mistakes, her inability to copy words rightly from the board was because she has poor eye sight. In Ghana, she was punished so many times for copying and making mistakes. This girl began to pick up and she became one of the good students in her class. We need to care for our students and identify their needs, this will make us good professionals. Teachers should try to identify students with marginal vision and put their seats at the front of the room to maximize their view of both you the teacher and the chalkboard. You could also assign a neighboring student to quietly explain all visual materials in detail as they are presented. As much as possible we should not label students stupid because their problem may not be about cognitive abilities but related factors can affect the child’s academic performance.

I stutter though it is not serious but I do remember it was only one teacher by name Mr Koomson, who was not a speech specialist but made effort in my class one day to help me. Some students see their friends who stutter sometimes as liars. Some students think those who stutter begin to stutter if they cannot answer questions. Teachers must know that patience is essential when dealing with speech-impaired students, for example, teachers must resist the temptation to finish sentences for a student who stutters. Also pay attention to nonverbal cues, such as facial expression and body language. Teachers must be supportive and encouraging. They need to create an inclusive environment so that other students will also be empathetic towards students who stutter. Teachers need not leave the speech-impaired student out of normal classroom discussions. For example, you may call on a speech impaired student to answer a question and then allow the student to write out his or her response on the chalkboard or overhead projector for the schools that have such facilities in Ghana. Use multisensory materials whenever possible to create a more comfortable learning environment for the speech-impaired student.

How many teachers in Ghanaian classroom are able to recognize students who some degree of hearing impairment? Years ago some children got beaten because of their unseen disabilities. It is likely it might still be going on; if not lashes other form of abuse might be going on because of unseen disabilities, but it is not too late to change things. The advice is if you have students with hearing-impairment in your class; remember to always face the class while speaking. Minimize classroom noise, and arrange seating in a circle or semicircle so that students can see one another. This arrangement facilitates speech reading. Speak in simple, direct language and avoid digressions or sudden changes in topic. During class discussions, periodically summarize what students are saying and repeat students’ questions before answering them. You might arrange a buddy system in which another student provides copies of notes about activities and assignments. A student a high degree of hearing impairment and is schooling in an inclusive school or in the mainstream may require a sign-language interpreter. If so, let the student and the interpreter determine the most convenient seating arrangement. When asking the student a question, be sure to look at the student, not at the interpreter. If the student also has a speech impairment, group assignments for oral reports may be advisable.

Learning disabilities are problems that affect the brain's ability to receive, process, analyze, or store information. They are disorders that obstruct a person’s listening, reasoning, communication, or mathematical abilities, and they range from mild to severe. In other words learning disabilities typically first show up when a person has difficulty in speaking, reading, writing, figuring out a mathematics problem, communicating with a parent, or paying attention in class. An estimated two percent of all adolescents have some type of learning disability. Learning disabilities are the most common type of disability. These problems can make it difficult for a student to learn as quickly as someone who isn't affected by learning disabilities. The question is, what are the Signs of Learning Disabilities? You can't tell by looking at a person and say that he/she has a learning disability, which can make learning disabilities hard to diagnose. Some kids' learning disabilities are diagnosed in primary schools when a parent or a teacher notices a kid can't follow directions for a game or is struggling to do work he or she should be able to do easily. But other kids develop sophisticated ways of covering up their learning issues, so learning disabilities don't show up until the teen years when schoolwork and life gets more complicated.

To help learning-disabled students succeed, provide a supportive and structured environment in which rules and assignments are clearly stated. Use familiar words and short, simple sentences. Repeat or rephrase your instructions as needed. Students may require extra time to complete exams or assignments, with the amount of extra time being dependent on the severity of their disability. Some students may need to tape-record lectures and answers to exam questions. For those who have difficulty organizing materials, you might provide chapter or lecture outlines for them to fill in. Having peer tutors work with learning disabled students on specific assignments and review materials can be effective. In the developed world computer-assisted instruction is an extremely useful tool for some learning disabled students? This mode of instruction can even help these students develop good learning skills. For learning-disabled students, computers serve as a tireless instructor with unlimited patience. In addition, students receive simplified directions; proceed in small, manageable steps; and receive immediate reinforcement and feedback with computerized instruction. I think we can start doing the same in our schools in Ghana.

Behavioral disorders are emotional or behavioral disturbances that hinder a student’s overall functioning. The behaviorally impaired may exhibit any of or a variety of behaviors, ranging from extreme aggression to complete passivity. Obviously, no single teaching strategy can accommodate all behavioral disorders. In addition, behavioral psychologists disagree on the best way to deal with students who have behavioral disorders. As a general rule, try to be fair and consistent yet flexible in your dealings with behaviorally disabled students. Make sure to state rules and expectations clearly. Reinforce desirable behavior or even approximations of such behavior, and ignore or mildly admonish undesirable behavior, because learning disabilities often accompany behavioral disorders. The Ghana Education Service can develop guidelines for behavior disorders so that teachers can constantly refer to it if they do not have one already.

Meeting the need of individual learner is a skill that every teacher should and be prepared to let his or her pupils/students benefit. If these skills could be exhibited in the Ghanaian classroom, a lot of students will benefit from normal classroom teaching. I would be enthused if teachers would take these suggestions seriously and help move our education forward.

Submitted by: Emmanuel T Aboagye (Author)