The times have drastically changed, and so should the education model. Shouldn’t school and educational institutions look ahead of the traditional factory model? The new normal says the schools should foster whole child development.
Given the circumstances, the new normal also says that online schooling can’t be avoided either. Can online schooling really help in whole child development? Let’s find out.
What is whole child development?
The whole child development is a modern need in education systems. Contrary to traditional belief, where schooling just meant attending classes, completing homework and giving exams, whole child development focuses on other developmental needs of a child.
A whole child’s development caters to the overall development primarily focused on cognitive, emotional, social, and academic skills. It also emphasises their mental health and physical health.
How to foster whole-child development?
Proper schooling can indeed affect the overall development of a child. From an early age, schooling should be approached in the right direction, be it homeschooling or online or offline schooling.
Kids’ schooling should not just be about bookish knowledge, but more about personalised learning and more activity-based. Here is how to focus on whole child development:
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Personalised learning
Personalised learning plays an essential role in fostering whole child development. When a child can clear their doubts at the root level, it helps them create a stronger foundation. Personalised learning helps them achieve them more easily.
In online schools, sometimes teachers cannot provide focus on every child personally. This is natural as, in offline schooling, they have a specific period to complete the syllabus, and it isn’t possible to stress a topic for two to three classes.
Offline schooling has the upper hand in this case. Kids and students can learn at their own pace by replaying the recorded sessions repeatedly. If the doubt is clear, they can skip the lessons and learn at a faster pace.
Homeschooling plays an essential role in facilitating personalised learning. If in case your kid doesn’t understand a topic, you can clear their doubts through personalised learning. However, this is more feasible with kids.
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Engage in meaningful instructional practices
Disinterest, boring lecturers, and lack of engagement are a few reasons kids feel drowsy throughout the lecture. Lessons at a low pitch with no voice alterations can make it monotonous for students to give attention throughout the lecture.
Thus, is it essential for educators to indulge in meaningful and engaging conversations with the students? This keeps the students’ interest alive and urges them to pay attention. Instructional activity-based lessons tend to be more interesting and exciting.
As a parent or a teacher, you can gain your kid’s attention by focusing on two-way communication. Allow your students/kids to open their minds. This can be done through instructional learning. For instance, you can connect the maths lessons by giving examples of their daily lives. Parents can indulge kids in cooking, objects in the house, and other settings to gain their kids’ attention and interest.
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Development of skills and mindsets
It is vital to have strong mental health at a young age. Anger issues, resentment, stress, and lack of empathy are a few of the common reasons that can interfere with the whole child development of kids.
As per a survey, 50% to 80% of the students in schools are stressed in India. The percentage varies from state to state. Some common reasons cited were long study hours, peer pressure, increased school tuition and lack of confidence.
With such alarming stats, giving students better development skills and mindsets is crucial that make them mentally strong and more at peace. Parents, as well as teachers, should focus on developing socioemotional skills amongst them. For instance, students should not lose their calm in difficult situations. They should be indulged in peaceful activities like exercises, meditation and yoga to get better control over their mind. This will keep their emotions in check.
Reducing the burden is by introducing them to flexible studying hours that prevent them from running for tuition. You can have a fixed screen time and still accommodate online schooling activities into your schedule.
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Indulge students in community partnerships
One of the best ways to foster whole child development in students is community partnerships and indulging in new learning opportunities.
Bookish knowledge isn’t enough to know the world around you. Like sports activities, literature fests, and art and craft competitions, it can be a great idea to allow kids to explore the outside world by voluntarily visiting organisations, old age homes, college campuses and other field trips.
This provides an overall development for a child and allows them to better understand the world around them. As a parent, you can also take the initiative to indulge in the community to help your kid. As a school, they can work upon community partnerships and have mental health, physical health or other workshops organised within the school premises.
Schools can partner with health service providers like physiologists, counsellors, and therapists to work toward their sociomental being for better mental health.
Conclusion
It looks like adopting the new whole child development is the need of the hour. As the number of suicides, fights and unrest amongst kids increases, it is essential that schooling provides a whole child development instead.
A mixed structure of balanced homeschooling and online and offline schooling can bring about a better equilibrium. As a parent, we suggest they focus on activity-based learning and personalised learning. This allows kids to share the burden of their studies with their teachers/ parents, making them feel light, at peace and the ability to manage the course of schooling very well. Stand by them and allow them to feel relaxed rather than pressured. Add fun to their learning process through various creative means. As India’s fastest growing global online school, 21Kschool offers a personalized approach to learning filled with rich, challenging, and engaging content, delivered in state-of-the-art lessons that complement interactive learning for the all-around advancement of your child.
