The world is a competitive place. Especially in the 21st century with colleges lowering their acceptance rates, schools accepting students only with high performance indicators and jobs following the run of the mill evaluative process that has nothing to do with skill.

The wave of liberal education hasn't brought significant changes - schools still require students to demonstrate their abilities through marks. Research indicates that this evaluative technique is largely redundant, but it persists because it offers an easy way to standardize performance.

In this competitive environment, students internalize stress and focus solely on exam performance. So, how do we make sure students are learning academics in school for the long run and not just to stamp their merit on paper very temporarily? Let us read on to find out!

Remember that every child possesses a unique affinity or skill

If you're a concerned parent, don't worry if your child's grades are below the class average. Every child displays interest uniquely and it is unfair to stress your child if they don’t comply with class standards. Make learning and assimilating the goal and take the emphasis away from marks.

Encourage their talents and feed their natural curiosity for their areas of interest. For example, if your child has an interest in art, enrolling them in a subject-specific drawing class, such as wildlife drawing, would be beneficial. This way your child will learn in ways that the classrooms don’t support naturally.

Identify your child’s learning style

To build on the last point, we must understand that each child learns uniquely. Some are okay with rote learning, others do better if they see concepts visually and some others respond to auditory stimuli for memory and retention.

Paying close attention to a child’s learning style can help teachers and parents intervene with content that facilitates their learning. Teachers can also leverage it by enlisting the help of parents to model a specific learning environment at home if practising this in the classroom is difficult on a daily basis.

Build a relationship with your student / child

By this, we don’t mean an intimate, personal relationship. In simple terms, whether you're a teacher or a parent, showing an interest in students' passions helps them learn more effectively.

This forms a trust-based relationship in academics - one where students feel comfortable enough to be vulnerable with their learning lags without inciting performance anxiety.

If a student knows that their facilitator understands their interest and their difficulties, it creates an open space for them to reflect on their doubts and clear it within their support systems.

Make learning a relatable experience

A lot of us have had moments where we’ve sighed at trigonometry and wondered under what critical circumstance will we need to remember the value of sin θ. This happens because we are taught concepts before we understand the usefulness of them.

Teachers can bring a sense of reality into the classroom by screening documentaries, broadcasting podcasts and encouraging students to conduct research on these topics at home.

Encourage independent learning practises

Students often find it tough to think for themselves since school curriculums and regressive academic practises are doing the thinking for them. It is time to move away from that practise. Instil natural curiosity in students by helping them stage research on their own.

Encourage the use of technology and teach them that social media is a good source of information when used rightly. Research global teaching techniques and show students how learning environments are curated in different ways, in different parts of the world. All these are good ways to stir the natural curiosity students have and it also pushes them to see the world of academics differently, independently.

We hope that these tips help you make learning a worldly experience for your students/children. At TagHive, we believe that learning needs to be durable, buildable and sustaining. There is no point in raising students only to perform in examinations since it is the student who loses out on a lot of gainful experiences. Be the change you want to see in your students/children and learn before you teach!