As the summer holidays stretch on and families settle down after the hectic Eid break in Oman, parents and caregivers are possibly wondering how to keep children occupied in the long summer days. The ever present smart phones are hardly doing any service to children who will benefit from sustained activities which will help them to seamlessly transfer to school when it opens.
A rising area of interest in education is outcome based learning and teaching. This is relevant to teachers and educationists, but it is equally relevant to parents who can stay involved with the education of their children.
Outcome based learning focuses on clearly identifying the requirements of a child. That includes knowledge but also skills and capacities. The term was first coined by William Spady in 1988 who argued that education strategies must shift away from traditional forms of teaching by mapping, measuring and identifying educational goals.
All this may sound like it belongs to the school and higher educational settings. To a large extent, that may be true, but outcome based learning, or OBL, also belongs to the home.
Substantial research shows that parents typically feel that education is the responsibility of schools. Educational and socio-economic factors contribute to parents’ unwillingness, or inability to participate in their children’s education.
However, an American educational report suggests that parents “can help children achieve their full potential by spending some time talking and reading with them”. Other studies also show that children whose caregivers aspired for them to complete secondary education or above are “three times more likely to continue schooling at age 19 than their counterparts”.
In short, parents or caregivers are central to the education of their children. How they can help can vary.
Firstly, identifying the immediate need of a child is helpful. Whether it is reading with them or to them, this is inarguably a useful time spent. Other requirements of a child could just be spending time with them to understand their interests, ambitions and plans.
A longer time goal could be to identify characteristics a parent would want to see in their child. This could include empathy, generosity, ambition or creativity. Not all these features may be finally found in a person, but that doesn’t mean we stop trying.
Thirdly, the actual techniques of going about teaching these skills may vary from one child to another. In the same family, children learn differently, grasp information at their own pace and even write or do math at different speeds. Recognising this difference is important and will keep a lot of stress away from parents and children.
Lastly, educationists suggest that working on these skills takes time, and patience is key. Children may take to some of the skills given at home, and give up on others. Recognising their strengths will not come overnight.
Often, personality traits only develop in the late teens. But meanwhile, parents or caregivers must think of time spent with children as an investment in a child’s future — and that is clearly an outcome worth spending time over.
The writer is Assoc Prof, Dept of English Language and Literature, SQU
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