Written by Coach Tomiwa – Juventus Academy Nigeria
During a standard post session feedback, The coach asked his players:
“Guys, what should we do when the opponent has the ball?”
Silence.
“Guys?”
“AJ?”
Silence.
“Would you like to attempt the question, OJ?”
Silence. Lots of feet shifting.
“Anyone?”
Prolonged silence.
When your kids become afraid to give answers to questions for fear of saying the wrong answers; it’s time to realize you and/or your methodology has failed them in some way.
We need for kids to develop a sense of wonder; of curiosity and a skill for critical thinking.
Kids should know that there are right answers as well as wrong answers and that it is okay to say the wrong answers.
It’s also very crucial to then guide kids to the realisation that sometimes there are many right answers and not just one right answer.
We should create learning environments where kids do not abhor corrections and instead strive for perfection in scores.
The mindset ‘If I don’t speak up, I can’t get it wrong. If I don’t get it wrong, I am still perfect” should be discouraged.
Perfect scores isn’t important than learning and the road to learning is through repetitive correction.
Answers to questions should rarely be given to kids anytime their curiosity pushes them to ask questions; rather more questions should be offered in return thereby pushing kids to reflect on problems until they offer up solutions.
This has so many benefits;
• Kids feel a great sense of achievement after solving the problem.
• Increased self-esteem
• Development of critical thinking skills
• Learning becomes fun and kids start to welcome correction.
• Kids start seeing the patterns and learn concepts as opposed to cramming solutions to memory.
Having the ideal learning environment is an utopian task but it is not impossible if we continue to work towards it day by day and session after session.
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