Student learning is directly influenced by factors such as experience, talents, previous training, language, culture, gender, health, family, or society. For example, a gifted talented child will require a different approach to learning, such children are usually better at certain tasks, and the teacher must find out what the student excels in the most. Previous education can give the child a good basis for further education, which in general will positively affect his development. The cultural characteristics of students can be the cause of bullying if the teacher incorrectly builds cultural diversity in the classroom and does not work on it. The family also influences the student through the prism of certain values and traditions, for example, a student can do things that are not typical for most people, which can cause bullying from peers. Language can become a small obstacle for the student in understanding the material of the lessons. Therefore, in all examples, it is important to promote the teacher so that all students feel like a full-fledged part of society.
The success, pace, and direction of the learning process largely depend on the organization of the student’s learning activities, his direct work aimed at understanding the material, its comprehension, memorization, and use to solve various problems. Both internal and external factors influence this process. Internal include psychological characteristics of a person that affect the originality of the performance of activities and motivation. It largely determines the efforts directed by students to learn new material. Popovska Nalevska & Kuzmanovska (2020, p. 40) states, “Learning motivation is one of the basic conditions that must be met in activating students’ better learning outcomes.” Sources of motivation for human activity can be biological and social needs. The restriction of both leads to intellectual, purposeful, and emotional development defects. It gives rise to such negative conditions as fatigue and boredom, which in no way stimulate educational activity.
It has been established that the difficulties in teaching a student can be due to many factors that are inherent in the student himself. Listed below are some important factors that can affect the learning process. The intellectual factor is a term that refers to the individual mental level. A low score in one subject and its scores in other subjects indicate the possible presence of a special deficiency. Psychological factors also play a big role, as attitudes are influenced by mental factors and comprise organic and kinesthetic elements. Among these attitudes, students have a huge interest, cheerfulness, affection, prejudice, openness, and devotion. Relationships have a stimulating effect on the speed of learning and teaching, and academic achievement. A favorable psychological attitude influences the effectiveness of daily work and the speed with which it is achieved.
Emotional and social factors, personal factors such as instincts and emotions, as well as social factors such as cooperation and competition, are directly related to the complex psychology of motivation. Some of these innate tendencies are constructive, while others are harmful. For some reason, a student may dislike a certain subject because he may not realize its value or have no basis in it. Some students are in a constant state of unhappiness for fear of being disapproved by their teachers and classmates. This unhealthy attitude greatly affects the learning process. Social discontent arises from the knowledge or delusion that a person is inferior to others in terms of well-being.
The teacher as an individual is an important element of the learning environment, student failure, and success. How his personality interacts with the students’ personalities helps to determine the nature of the behavior that arises from the learning situation. The appreciation of a teacher lies not in the regular performance of daily duties but in his ability to lead and inspire students through the influence of his moral personality and example. Strictly speaking, personality consists of all the factors that make a person what he is, a complex pattern of characteristics that distinguishes him from others of his kind. Personality is the result of many unifying forces.
Different Approaches to Learning
In the modern school, three types of education are relatively isolated and differ in several features. The first is explanatory-illustrative education, also called traditional, informing, or conventional. The main methods of such teaching are explanation combined with visualization. The main requirement and criterion of effectiveness is the unmistakable reproduction of what has been studied. This ancient type of education has not lost its significance in modern schools because new ways of presenting knowledge and new types of visualization organically fit into it. Explanatory-illustrative teaching has several important advantages: it saves time, makes it easier for students to understand complex knowledge, and provides effective process management.
Among the main shortcomings, the following can be distinguished: the presentation of ready-made knowledge, insignificant opportunities for individualization, and differentiation of the educational process. Problem-based learning is one of the types of learning based on the use of heuristic methods. It aims to develop heuristic skills in resolving problem situations, which can be both practical and theoretical-cognitive. The educational problem, introduced at the moment of a problem, should be quite difficult but feasible for students.
The resolution of the problem is divided into several stages. The first is the introduction and awareness of the educational problem, and the second is the analysis of existing knowledge on this issue, clarifying their insufficiency, including the missing information in the search. The third is acquiring various ways of the knowledge necessary for solving the problem, and the fourth is verifying the results obtained.
Cultural Diversity in Learning and Its Incorporating in the Classroom
The protection of cultural diversity is everyone’s duty and is inseparable from respect for the dignity of the human person. For example, students who are racially or ethnically different from the majority in the class may be targets for ridicule and bullying. It is important to conduct education on the topic of cultural diversity in time to avoid this. Students with a different religion are also often subject to misunderstanding and disapproval from their peers. In this case, it will be useful to conduct the cognitive part of the lesson about different religions. From a linguistic point of view, one can give an example of a student not understanding half of what the teacher said. To work with such students, there is a set of rules and techniques that will be discussed later in this article. Students from other social backgrounds, such as those from poorer or very wealthy families, may differ. In both cases, the child may be bullied and it is important to ensure that the team is friendly and explain to the children that all people are equal. In addition, conflicts in the classroom can arise on gender grounds. To avoid such situations, it is worth conducting introductory diversity lessons so that students know that if a person is different from them, it is not bad. Students may feel isolated if there is a lack of diversity in the classroom, leading to increased stress levels and reduced productivity.
There are several steps to incorporating cultural diversity into teaching. It is important to get to know students and their families well to understand cultural differences. To do this, teacher can create a questionnaire at the beginning of the year so that students can share the features of their traditions, rules, and habits. This approach will help the teacher create a comfortable environment for students in the classroom. Another good way is to showcase representative media. Videos, photos, music, movies, and more will greatly improve students’ perceptions of different cultures and minorities, thus avoiding conflicts and misunderstandings. It is also worth including variety in the topics of the lessons. The teacher can talk about inclusion, diversity, and acceptance regardless of the subject. All these methods help to achieve harmony and avoid harassment during the learning process.
Exceptionality in Learning
The education of gifted, talented children is one of the areas of differentiation of education, the main goal of which is to study and encourage the education of people with special abilities. In order to develop the potential of a gifted student, the teacher must be enthusiastic, predict the student’s success and give him appropriate tasks, arouse interest in new information, and encourage the student’s success in every possible way.
An important aspect of the pedagogical activity is the correct approach to teaching students with special needs. These children need special conditions for education and upbringing for their maximum possible development, education, and introduction to the community and family culture. Examples include spatial and social orientation for blind, deaf-blind, and mentally retarded children; correctional work with children with mental retardation on the formation of mechanisms for conscious regulation of their behavior and interaction with other people. Students with special needs need to use specific methods and means of education in more differentiated learning than is usually required for children with normative development. An example is the use of dactylology and sign language in teaching the deaf and braille in teaching the blind.
Many different learning strategies have been developed recently. The teacher can get acquainted with all of them through the library of his educational institution or from articles and books on the Internet. A special method of teaching, for example, maybe online learning in cases where the student cannot attend the institution. Sihombing et al. (2020) state that “Personalized E-Learning platform called WELSA (Web-based Educational system with Learning Style Adaptation), is proven to succeed helping on the learning process in terms of efficiency, learner enjoyment, and overall satisfaction.” Such systems are easy to implement in education to improve teaching methods.
Adapting Learning to Meet the Needs of Students Whose First Language is not English
Many effective strategies have been developed for teaching students whose first language is not English. Kaplan (2019) states that there are over 4.8 million children in the US, about 10 percent, who are learning English (ELLs). First, the teacher should use a natural tone and intonation when communicating with students. You should also not ask students if they understand what was said because, in most cases, even if students do not understand what is being said, they will still answer positively. With the help of gestures and signs, you can give meaning to what students say, providing them with support and relieving stress. A satisfactory method is to repeat certain phrases and sentences so that students can learn and understand more material before moving on to the next topic.
It is worth giving illustrative examples of what the teacher asks students to do to better understand the task. In addition, during assignments, you must interact verbally with students to accelerate their understanding of the language. The teacher must consider the peculiarities of the student’s culture and not react to unusual behavior as something abnormal. For example, a student may not always maintain eye contact because it is not required in their native environment. The teacher can implement visual diagrams and pictures in the learning process to better understand the material by a student who does not speak English. In addition, you need to give students time so that they can translate the text that they do not understand. To develop strategies for teaching students whose native language is not English, there are also many systems and scientific works that a teacher can use.
Basic Concepts of Development of Children and Young Adolescents
People develop and learn throughout their lives, depending on their age group. According to E. Erickson (Cherry, 2022), every person during his life goes through several stages that are universal for all mankind. A fully functioning personality is formed by successively passing through all the stages. Each of the identified eight stages is characterized by a specific evolutionary task – a social development problem presented to the individual. However, when considering the development of children and young adults, it is worth considering only the first six stages.
The main task of the first stage, 0-1 year, is to establish the child’s trust in the outside world, which is the basis for forming a positive sense of self. The mother plays the main role in life, who cares, feeds, and caresses. If the child experiences positive sensations, then the world is consistent for him, and if not, a “basic distrust of the world” is formed, which is accompanied by persistent pessimism and difficulties in mastering new activities.
The task of the second stage of 1-3 years is to make the child feel independent, which will allow his autonomy and independence to form. If a child is faced with disapproval of his behavior or prohibitions, then there are doubts about the possibility of doing something on his own. At the end of the stage, a balance of autonomy and doubt must be formed, which largely depends on the parent’s behavior.
A conflict between initiative and guilt marks the third stage of 3–6 years. This stage is characterized by active cognitive activity, so an adequate reaction of adults to this exploratory activity is important. In addition, if the parents strongly suppress the child, the formation of initiative slows down, and passivity, self-doubt, and guilt are fixed.
The fourth stage is 6-12 years old – psychologically, the child is ready to master the actions that parents perform, but for this, he must perform a variety of productive activities (masters knowledge and new skills at school) and as a result – diligence and the ability to express himself. At this stage, the possibilities of development in the family have already been exhausted, and the school and the courtyard become the reference environment.
The fifth stage of 12–20 years is a conflict between the emerging sense of identity and role uncertainty. If the previous stages went well, a person easily finds his “I” and recognition from others. Otherwise, role confusion occurs as difficulties in finding one’s “I” a persistent feeling of anxiety and loneliness appears. The reference environment at this stage is the leaders as samples, “their own,” and outside groups.
The sixth stage of 20-25 years is accompanied by a conflict between intimacy and isolation. According to E. Erickson, intimacy is the ability to give a part of oneself to another person without fear of losing one’s “I,” “dissolving” in others, and friends, colleagues, rivals, and sexual partners become the reference environment. If the mixing of roles persists at this stage, the person becomes isolated, and isolation and loneliness are fixed.
Individual Teaching Methods
The main advantage of individual learning is that it allows you to fully adapt the content, methods, and pace of the child’s educational activities to his characteristics, monitor his every action and operation in solving specific problems, and monitor his progress from ignorance to knowledge. According to Zendler (2019, p. 470), “learning theories provide recommendations that are the basis for the development of teaching methods.” All this allows the student to work economically, constantly control the expenditure of his forces, and work at the optimal time for himself, which, of course, allows him to achieve high learning results. An individual approach is the principle of pedagogy. In educational work with a group, the teacher interacts with individual students according to an individual model, taking into account their characteristics. Individualization of learning is the organization of the educational process, in which the choice of methods, techniques, and pace of learning is determined by the individual characteristics of students, various educational and methodological, psychological, pedagogical, and organizational and managerial activities that provide an individual approach. An individual approach as a principle is implemented to some extent in all existing technologies, so the individualization of learning can also be considered a penetrating technology.
References
Cherry, K. (2022). Erikson’s stages of development a closer look at the eight psychosocial stages. Very well mind. Web.
Kaplan, E. (2019). 6 essential strategies for teaching English language learners. Edutopia. Web.
Popovska Nalevska, G., & Kuzmanovska, M. (2020). Teaching methods as a factor of students’learning motivation. Education, 2(3-4), 40-50.
Sihombing, J. H., Laksitowening, K. A., & Darwiyanto, E. (2020, June). Personalized e-learning content based on felder-silverman learning style model. In 2020 8th International conference on information and communication technology (ICoICT) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
Zendler, A. (2019). Teaching methods for computer science education in the context of significant learning theories. International Journal of Information and Education Technology, 9(7), 470-476.