The Light Bulb Effect

"Is your child an F1 racer or a normal car driver?"

2009-01-27T21:56:00.001+08:00

Actually, it does not matter.

If you are a F1 racer, do you step on the gas from the beginning to the end? Or logically, you will brake at certain times for certain bends and go full throttle on straight roads?

For normal car driving, all the more you will not travel at 100km/hr all the way to your destination. You will need to stop due to traffic lights, slow down when taking turns, stop for pedestrians, etc.

What I am trying to illustrate here is, if you can drive your car according to the various conditions given to you, don't you think that learning also has to adapt to the various conditions of education?

For non-exam periods, you will want a faster pace of learning. This is the same as straight roads. Drive through all the way. The logic behind this is that your child's brain is not stressed by timelines of exams. Hence, the higher effectiveness in learning and transferring knowledge to longer memory.

For exam periods, you will want a slower pace of learning for your child. This is akin to sharp bends. High stress levels, time pressures and peer pressure give your child less edge to learn more. Hence, if he has gone 'full throttle' at the non-exam periods, the exam periods should be reviewing and reflective learning.

This might be going against the norm of 'cramming during exams', but if this works, I don't see any reason of not adopting this approach to learning. At least, this is what I tell all my private tuition students. To be able to cruise through exam periods is the biggest incentive for any child to learn more now.

No matter if your child is a F1 racer or a normal car driver, you will need to help him formulate the right strategies for the right road conditions.

(^_^)

"Does Your Child Have A Fishing Rod?"

2005-11-07T23:21:00.000+08:00

I have heard so many times that education is about teaching someone to fish instead of giving that someone fish to eat.

But, somehow the statement is not complete. For my students, I coach them not only to fish, but also coach them to make better fishing rods to catch bigger fish. And, I encourage them to go beyond rods for catching fish. If they are more proficient with nets, then use nets. If they are more proficient with fishing boats, then use fishing boats. There are so many ways of catching fish....

And, even beyond all these. I encourage them to think beyond fishing. Maybe selling some extra fish? Maybe keeping the extra fishes and built a fishfarm? Maybe going into other products that is related to fish? There are so many other things to do with fishes other than to eat them....

What I am illustrating here is that students do not have only one way of learning. Some learn better by reading articles. Some learn better by listening. Some will be by pictures. And many more.

In addition, learning should not be contained in one form only. When they learn about geography, they can learn about physics too. When they learn about literature, they can learn about history too. Learning should be inter-connected and not segregated.

Is your child using his most effective methods of catching fish?

If not, let me know if I can help. My email is thelightbulbeffect@gmail.com

New Time Slots Open!!!

2005-09-07T14:17:00.000+08:00

To all parents and students out there, I have new time-slots available for private tuitioning! As final exams are nearing, I have freed up more time slots to help students run this final lap. But, still there are limited time-slots. Hence, please email me at thelightbulbeffect@gmail.com to avoid missing out on this.

Let create The Light Bulb Effect for your child......

^_^

"Can You Fill Your Child With A Lot Of Information?"

2005-09-05T18:05:00.000+08:00

"The mind is not a vessel to be filled in, but a fire to be ignited. - Plutarch"

The above quote has always been one of my principles in creating the light bulb effect in any of my students. Spoon-feeding is always bad. It saves time. But, it is not good for both the teacher and the student.

Imagine a butterfly breaking out of its cocoon. If we help to break the cocoon, the butterfly can come out in a matter of seconds. But, the butterfly will be unable to fly forever. This is because the process of breaking out of the cocoon forces blood to its wings and caused its wings to have strength. When we 'help' to break the cocoon, what we are going to have is a crawling butterfly.

The same is for the student. If we spoon-feed the student, he can absorb very fast. But, he will be robbed of the skill to gather meaningful information for himself. He will have to rely on all his future teachers to spoon-feed him. If not, his mind cannot absorb. And it will cause him to be very reliant on ready information in his future endeavors. Not very good for the child, ya?

I think our job is not to fill up the child's mind, but creating the interest in him to acquire knowledge and application of that knowledge.

Think about it.

Don't 'help' the butterfly to break out of its cocoon.

(^_^)

"But my Teacher is no good. She don't know how to teach me."

2005-08-16T13:26:00.000+08:00

Funnily, I heard my student telling me this before. He shifted the whole responsibility of learning to the teacher. Kids nowadays are not stupid, you know? They learned how to shift responsibility at a very young age.

When the student told me this, I agreed with him. And, I kept quiet for a while to let my stand sinked into his brain. He looked exasperated. I gave him the 'i totally know what you mean' look.

Then he said, "So, I am not to blame for my poor results."

I kept quiet again and looked at him.

A few minutes after the silence:

Me: "Is the whole class getting poor results?"
Him: "Yes. Mostly."
Me: "Then it is good."

I kept quiet again.

Him: "Good?"
Me: "Yes, i think it is good."
Him: "How come?"
Me: "This is the time where a mature student will stand out in the crowd and get very good grades. Do you think you are a mature student?" (This student always think that he is very mature.)
Him: "Of course. I am mature for my age."
Me: "Then you are going to score for your exam this year."
Him: "Er. How? I am having a bad teacher here."
Me: "Everyone in your class shares the same teacher, isn't it? So, they will all be taught poorly and get poor results. Imagine now, you just work a little harder to understand the subject better and bingo, you are way ahead of your class. You have something that they don't have."
Him: "What?"
Me: "Maturity."

It is not easy to cover the curriculum outside school hours, but a motivated student can learn at astonishing rates.

Is your child motivated to learn EVEN if he/she has a bad teacher?

(Although I am not taking in anymore students currently, feel free to email me at thelightbulbeffect@gmail.com to discuss about anything. ^_^)

"Does Your Child Practise Selective Learning?"

2005-07-26T16:56:00.000+08:00

A few years back, I was tutoring this kid. My first impressions of him was good. He was fairly bright and quick to learn.

However, his grades were no good.

I took a while to notice his problem. His problem was that he did not know what are the important facts to remember in an exam or test. His teacher emphasized on everything in the textbook. Emphasis on EVERYTHING means NOTHING was emphasized at all. To help him, I re-taught him the lessons with the correct emphasis. This was especially important for him in Science and English. Soon, his grades began to improve.

(My other methods of teaching him were very different from conventional teaching. You can find an article on it here.)

To teach a child effectively, there must be focus. When I tutor any kid, I ALWAYS asked him/her to summarize one lesson into a sentence. That sentence is the minimal that the child should learn. All other information will be building blocks on that basic unit of information. In this way, your child can recall information easier by just knowing a centre piece of info.

And out of all the information in the textbook, there must be some that are more important and more applicable than the rest. And, my job as a tutor is to identify those important ones and imprint them in my students.

Is your child practising selective learn?

It surely beats memorizing the whole textbook.

For more information on private tutoring lessons, please email me at thelightbulbeffect@gmail.com.

"Is Your Child Being Speed Taught?"

2005-07-25T12:18:00.000+08:00

Everyone hears of speed reading, speed learning, speed memorizing, etc. Has anyone heard of speed teaching before? It is a very important aspect of teaching. It enables your child to learn in a faster and more efficient manner.

The keyword again: PREPARATION.

Only by preparing your teaching materials beforehand can enable full power of Speed Teaching. And to different children, different materials are needed. But overall, the following are some of the materials that I use:

1. Picture and graphics
2. Speech and sounds
3. Mini Interactive Computer Programs
4. Mindmapping (whenever applicable)
5. Reflective Learning (useful for converting short-term memory into long-term learning)

There are more, but I think the above have painted quite a clear picture already. In essence, the above tools are providing a ‘bridge’ to learning. The tools provide another perspective on learning to the child: "Studying IS interesting".

Education nowadays is expensive. But, are you paying for the right quality?

For prices on private tutoring, kindly email me at thelightbulbeffect@gmail.com. Currently, I have really limited time-slots and will take up assignments in Lor Ah Soo and Hougang area only.

"Why Is Your Child Not Paying Attention To You?"

2005-07-22T15:42:00.000+08:00

Before I find my passion in private tutoring, I was doing sales. All sorts of sales.

There is one common thing I find that in all sales situations. To clinch the deal, the salesman must always build the need. Keep building the need until the customer has no choice but to buy the product. The process is not easy.

Similarly, to get your child/student to 'buy' the subject content, one must build the need for the content. You must put yourself in his shoes and build up HIS need for the content. To effectively 'glue' the content to his brain, you must build an immense need for the content first. Give the content to him only when the need is unbearable. In this way, he will remember the content for life.

Many private tutors or even teachers these days force the content down the students' throat. This has not only made the content repulsive to the student, but also caused a great disinterest in the child's attitude towards studying or learning.

To create that need, there is only one way to do it: PREPARE the content beforehand. Nowadays, we all seek one general solution to solve all problems. We think that a general assessment book is sufficient to teach the child some lessons. Assessment books are only assistants to teaching. Real teaching requires hard work and creativity to link the students to the content.

Sometimes, i spent hours to prepare for a lesson. For me, I spent hours. For the student, he got the content FOR LIFE.

Interested to find out more? Feel free to email me at thelightbulbeffect@gmail.com.

I just added a counter!!!

2005-07-22T15:41:00.000+08:00

Please find counter in the side bar.

"Is Your Child Getting Only Average Results?"

2005-07-21T15:19:00.000+08:00

Today, nearly every child studies for the sake of being 'forced' to study. To study was not a choice. It was a compulsory action. The child grows up studying without knowing the real meaning of studying.

This is very sad, because it is human nature to seek meaning in order to motivate oneself for excellence. For the child, the only motivation to study was the fear of punishment. Hence, it is very important to design the right learning habits for the child.

If it is designed properly, the child will find the motivation to study from within himself/herself. This is in contrary to the many external pressures (or in common language, stress) that any child faces today. If the design is correct, learning becomes a fun process. Most importantly, learning becomes meaningful to the child and he/she will find the urge to learn even till old ages.

This design that i am speaking of, it is not a universal design. Each child will need a different design. It can be illustrated by shoes. To a tennis player, he/she wears tennis shoes. To a cross-trainer, he/she needs cross-training shoes. To a basketball player, he/she needs basketball shoes.

After determining on the right design, we must also take note of the capacity of the design. A P2 student will learn at a different rate as a P6 student. Back to the analogy of shoes, a 25-year-old tennis player might not fit into a 14-year-old tennis player.

The purpose of The Light Bulb Effect is to discover the right design of learning for every individual student. It is not too late to change your child's learning design. Let's embark on this journey together.

Kindly email me at thelightbulbeffect@gmail.com for further details.

"Does Your Child Hate Studying?"

2005-07-19T17:25:00.000+08:00

When your child think that he/she dislike studying, there might be 3 areas that is causing this. I have to emphasize that this is a thinking, a perception. Humans are designed in such a way that they will like learning. To dislike learning, it only means that this child's perception of studying has been altered in certain ways.

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Parents
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Some parents did not create a good learning environment for their kids. A good environment meaning a place where the child can develop interest for learning. If the child is constantly bombarded by nagging/pressure at home when it comes to studying. This will create a negative feeling towards studying. Children can't blame their parents. Hence, they attributed this fault to 'study', which in turn generated a dislike for learning.

But this is not entirely the fault of the parents. Society has exerted pressure on families in such a way that pushing the child to study is important. I beg to differ. Studying should be nurtured as a skill that the child can find motivation in learning.

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Teachers
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Some subjects are presented in an interesting manner to students. This results in a very dynamic phenomena. These students will find learning or studying this subject is very motivating. There seems to be a magnet drawing them to the subject everyday and they look forward to the lessons.

Some teachers may be an expert in the subject but, they could not make the subject interesting. Children will describe these subjects as dry, boring, 'sian', stressful, etc. Children are driven by the pressures of school to just pass the subjects. They find it very difficult to motivate themselves to study for this subject. If majority of the subjects are taught in this manner, the child may conclude that he/she do not like studying. Again, this is a perception and can be corrected to bring back the interest in learning again for the child.

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Social Circles
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In my opinion, friends play the biggest role in determining your child's interest in studying. Put your child in a group of students who are interested in Science, and your child will soon be interested in Science also. Two forces are at work here. The continuing urge to fulfull the need to belong. And, the power of group dynamics. More people will bring more ideas to the group and hence make the subject interesting to your child.

In contrary, if your child mixes with friends that are all bored with studying, then your child will sink into that thinking also.

The difficult part here is that you cannot control the friends that your child make. Usually, if you choose friends for your child, he/she will find it difficult in accepting these people as friends. (Put yourself in their shoes!)

However, all is not lost here. Though we cannot choose the friends that they make, we can surely influence their choice. When i say influence, i do not mean nagging/scolding/forcing your child. It is more on appealing to the emotional side of your child and influence him/her. As this is a subject by its own, it is quite lengthy to be in a newsletter. This topic can be accessed in the premium subscription as an article by its own.

To summarise, your child's interest in learning is actually based on how parents, teachers and friends influenced them in their course of life. In Singapore, it is not easy to develop this interest in learning in midst of the many pressures that the parents and teachers faced. The development of interest is a long process and time and effort is required from both the parent and the child.

Feel free to email me at thelightbulbeffect@gmail.com for my free time-slots for private tuition.