Building Bridges of Confidence

Introduction

There was a time where teaching was described as the process of chalk, walk and talk. With the passage of time however, educators started realizing the fact that it should be a child cantered process in order to ensure a greater productivity.

Desk work is very less especially in the primary classes today and more and more team activities and collective learning have been introduced.

Most of the students like this type of participating learning but some of them lag behind. While most of the classmates achieve more through this lessons, such children fail to achieve the lesson objectives.

Yaqeen Education Systems in Srilanka is a school network that emphasizes a lot on participatory teaching and learning through as many group activities as possible. All the classes for this purpose have been maintained as activity based classrooms for the last 16 years.

In this article let us see some measures that can be taken by parents at home to motivate their children towards a higher level of participation in school group activities.

Building Trust and Open Communication: The Foundation of Participation

Trust is the most important element in building up relationships. The relationship between parents and children is no exception to this.

Do you have an atmosphere of trust and open communication at home? If you do have it is fantastic, and if you do not have you must try to develop it first.

You have to encourage your child to express the ideas, suggestions, thoughts and concerns without the fear of judgement.

Whenever they say something you have to be a good listener and a better guide.

Understanding and Addressing Apprehensions: Embrace the Fear

Children generally have apprehensions towards group activities. It may be due to the fear of being rejected or ignored or ending of in failure.

As parents you have to approach such a situation with a lot of empathy and understanding. Talk to your child about the concerns they have and provide reassurance. You may also share your own experiences of the past.

Let them understand that being afraid is normal but we have to overcome such fear And become strong in the future.

Lead by Example: Show, Don't Just Tell

Children learn a lot through observation as well as imitation in their lives.

You may have family gatherings or different functions at home. During these events you can organize group activities for children.

Furthermore, you can involve your children in the process of planning, discussing and making decisions regarding the family events.

When they see the parents placing a lot of importance in collaboration and teamwork they are more likely to follow the same in their school group activities as well.

Encouragement and Appreciation: Fuel for Confidence

Always maintain a practice of appreciating your child for any useful effort he or she makes. Celebrate the achievements. Praise them for all the good ideas they used to communicate with you.

This will give them a good boost and they become very confident.

Even if you want to correct them for some mistake they have made you have to be very positive. Do not make it in such a way that will discourage and suppress them.

Empathy and Perspective-Taking: Teaching the Value of Understanding Others

Our kids must be made to understand that not everyone is same! People are different even their attitude, behaviours as well as approaches.

You can discuss with them about various situations and scenarios where they learn that understanding other people's thoughts and feelings are important.

This will develop empathy which is very important in group participation.

Practicing Group tasks at Home: A Comfortable Space for Learning Team Work

Why don't you select a holiday and organize a family event such as cooking a meal together?

Sit for a planning session and decide about what to prepare, how to do it and who will do what.

Divide the responsibilities among the family members including your children. Guide them effectively towards the performance of their allocated responsibilities. Praise their contribution towards the accomplishment of the decided task.

When the ma meal is ready the whole family can enjoy and in the meantime you can make sure that your child has learnt a lot of team working skills.

Developing Successful Communication Abilities: The Key to Collaboration

You must train your child at home to communicate whatever they want to say openly and in a proper way.

Encourage them to express the ideas clearly and listen to the others very carefully. Whenever they show any weakness in this point it out very politely.

When this takes place in a house continuously, there will be a significant improvement in your child's communication skills which is very vital for successful group activities.

Participating in Extracurricular and Co curricular Activities: The Gateway to Teamwork and Collaboration

Encourage your child the participate in different types of extra curricular activities both in the school and outside in the society.

There are many openings and opportunities for children to develop their soft skills and today a lot of importance is given in developing the students' communication skills, leadership, personality and team working skills.

In Yaqeen Education Systems school network for example, a student is offered 106 public speaking opportunities before leaving the school at the end of the grade 11 class. They also organize plenty of co curricular activities to develop different types of soft skills among their students.

Setting Realistic Goals: The Road to Success

Goal setting is another important training to be given by parents to the children.This has to be taking place at home.

Whenever they want to do something, train the children on how you can think about the goal to be reached and realized at the end.

The word goal must be used in your communication with the child frequently so that goal becomes familiar in their lives.

Sharing Inspirational Stories with your kids: Encouraging Perseverance and Growth

During my good old days I remember my grandparents telling a lot of stories that will taught us good moral values.

You may share many inspirational stories with your children that will boost their moral and motivation.

You may speak about people who made great achievements in their lives after facing many difficult barriers which they overcame. You may also share them stories of people working together and achieving miraculous goals.

Such inspiring stories can ignite a spark in your child's mind and this will be the gateway towards his development.

Finally…

Group activities have become very important in the process of imparting knowledge to the students in a very effective manner.

Being parents you have to prepare your children to face the challenges of group activities at home itself. By doing so, they will overcome all the different types of barriers and become active participants and learners through group sessions and activities.

I am sure that the above measures that could be practiced by parents at home will be very helpful in this regard.

The writer is the founder and the chairman of Yaqeen Education Systems in Srilanka and can be reached at [email protected]