Training

The importance of understanding pupils.

A teacher needs to understand what motivates pupils, what social-economic background the pupils are bringing to the classroom, as well as the pupils’ personality traits, values, abilities and interests. During their school years pupils are changing cognitively, socially, and physically which all affect their learning and motivation to learn. Pupils are also impacted by their culture, neighbourhood, parents, friends.

Knowledge of this background and taking into consideration psychological aspects of personality development at different age phases helps the teacher understand pupils and answer such questions as: ‘How can I help this pupil to learn better?’ or ‘How can I personalize his/her educational and career path?’ Teachers can impact positively upon educational path of all their pupils, but can only do so when relationship based upon trust and appreciation has been achieved. A caring teacher can develop trust not just between teacher and pupil but also among pupils at school. Trust and acceptance is extremely important as it creates psychologically safe atmosphere in the classroom which provides the security pupils need, enhances motivation to learn and decreases the risk of abandoning school. A sense of belonging and being valued motivates pupils to continue their educational path. Teachers who continually try to understand their pupils and to address pupils’ interests, deficiencies and misconceptions will be the most successful in helping pupils to meet their own responsibilities to learn. Knowledge about pupils, meeting their needs will enable the teacher to refine lectures, class discussions, comments, illustrations, and activities so that they are more effective learning experiences. References to pupils’ interests, backgrounds, knowledge, and even anxieties can make the class seem more personal and the material more accessible.

The process of coming to know students as learners is often difficult and challenging, particularly if the students are struggling with schoolwork. A pupil’s readiness is influenced by his/her prior learning success or failure, self-esteem, sense of efficacy, cultural norms, social status within the class or group, life experience.

William Powell and Ochan Kusuma-Powell (How to Teach Now: Five Keys to Personalized Learning in the Global Classroom”) point out the following five important dimensions in the process of understanding pupils and developing their learning profiles: biological traits, cultural and societal factors, emotional and social influences, academic performance, and learning preferences.

Biological traits include child's gender, age, physical development, physical disabilities, health, motor skills, coordination, and diagnosed learning disabilities.

Cultural and societal factors include child's sense of stability, both now and in past; economic status; ethnic and racial background; cultural identity; language; religion; norms and values; and gender expectations.

Emotional and social influences include family structure, family history, recent change or loss in the family, attitude, disposition, peer status, and self-esteem.

Academic performance includes evidence of child's concrete or abstract thinking skills, reading skills, attentional focus, past success, oral language development, written language, proficiency with sequencing, proficiency with categorization, and proficiency in identifying logical arguments.

Learning preferences include interests, intelligence preferences, learning styles, production styles, and environmental influences.

Teacher’s ability to identify and meet pupils’ needs, to help them unveil their hidden potentials, inclinations, aptitudes and values leads to successful learning/teaching process and counselling. Pupils are more likely to behave and learn when their personal and psychological needs are met, particularly when they feel safe, accepted, valued, meaningful, involved, belonging, competent, loved, independent, cooperative, entertained and self-actualized.

Online Resources

• Getting to Know Your Students The webpage proposes information and recommendations for teachers how to get better know their pupils and help them to succeed in cooperation with pupils.
• Addressing Students’ Needs: Importance of Knowing Your Students Centre for the integration of research Efficient methods of teaching adapted to the pupils’ needs are described
• School&Work Project PortalThese tests have been designed to unveil students’ abilities and inclinations.
• School Inclusion PortalThe School Inclusion project support teachers in the prevention of early school leaving.
• Powell W., Kusuma-Powell O. How to Teach Now. Chapter 1. Knowing Our Students as Learners The webpage provides description of factors that are important in getting to know pupils, vivid examples that illustrate the importance of different strategies used for better understanding of pupils.
• Animated videos “ 4 Steps in career planning”Four animated movies help the pupils understand the basics of career planning at school: Step 1 - Self cognition. Step 2 – Choice of the profession. Step 3 - Education pathway. Step 4 – Job search.