Choosing a student care - what's with those worksheets?
Next year, my son needs to go to a student care. I know many people disapprove of it, but I think it is the best option for us. There are many reasons for this choice - both of us are working and we do work late (I finish earliest at 8.30pm and my wife needs to take conference calls at night when projects are due). The only person that can take care of my son is my parents. But they will be unable to help my son much - the syllabus has changed so much from 60 years ago after all.
I visited three student care centres around the Marine Parade and East Coast area, checking them out.
One of them turned out to be a total disappointment. Despite advertising that they give help based on multiple intelligence, they just do baby-sitting services. They do not even pretend to follow their own marketing!
It left two choices. Both seemed to have good administrators and teachers, but one of them really bugged me. They needed us to buy past years examination papers, and the story was that after the children finished their homework, they will sit down and practise examination papers. Everyday. Just complete examination papers. I did not do not understand what was the point of doing examination papers everyday. Is that teaching or testing? If it is testing, then what are we testing for? Have you been tested everyday? I mean the principal was really a sincere lady, seemed to be doing what she taught was the best for the children. But I do not agree with her method.
This led me to think of Eye Level (formerly known as Enopi), Kumon and MPM Math. All three have worksheets after worksheets to complete. They all claim to be able to do a great job. But I always had doubts about their effectiveness. Based on my own educational background, I know that doing worksheets meant more of understanding and then applying knowledge. It did not move the student's thinking domain beyond that. Where is the analysis, evaluate and create thinking domains needed for higher learning? No wonder all of them stop at the Primary school level. My son is in MPM Math, but will move on to another Math centre. I am glad that happened. I have been telling my wife that I was unsure a worksheet based tuition really helps that much, especially after Primary Three and above. My colleague tells me he thinks that these models existed because the countries they came from (Korea, Japan and Taiwan respectively) comes from educational models that emphasis drilling and cramming. I think he is right.
Anyway, he is going to a centre near Siglap Centre. It has a bright cheery decor (which my wife likes a lot - it feels cosy). I like the fact that do not just do worksheets. They do have lessons after homework time. The teacher can go through some concepts with the students, or assign them some work. At least there is this element of teaching. I cannot imagine myself (let alone my son) doing some more work after finishing my homework. It is really overkill. I guess I have to monitor if my son likes this student care next year.
I visited three student care centres around the Marine Parade and East Coast area, checking them out.
One of them turned out to be a total disappointment. Despite advertising that they give help based on multiple intelligence, they just do baby-sitting services. They do not even pretend to follow their own marketing!
It left two choices. Both seemed to have good administrators and teachers, but one of them really bugged me. They needed us to buy past years examination papers, and the story was that after the children finished their homework, they will sit down and practise examination papers. Everyday. Just complete examination papers. I did not do not understand what was the point of doing examination papers everyday. Is that teaching or testing? If it is testing, then what are we testing for? Have you been tested everyday? I mean the principal was really a sincere lady, seemed to be doing what she taught was the best for the children. But I do not agree with her method.
This led me to think of Eye Level (formerly known as Enopi), Kumon and MPM Math. All three have worksheets after worksheets to complete. They all claim to be able to do a great job. But I always had doubts about their effectiveness. Based on my own educational background, I know that doing worksheets meant more of understanding and then applying knowledge. It did not move the student's thinking domain beyond that. Where is the analysis, evaluate and create thinking domains needed for higher learning? No wonder all of them stop at the Primary school level. My son is in MPM Math, but will move on to another Math centre. I am glad that happened. I have been telling my wife that I was unsure a worksheet based tuition really helps that much, especially after Primary Three and above. My colleague tells me he thinks that these models existed because the countries they came from (Korea, Japan and Taiwan respectively) comes from educational models that emphasis drilling and cramming. I think he is right.
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| Buried under worksheets? |
Anyway, he is going to a centre near Siglap Centre. It has a bright cheery decor (which my wife likes a lot - it feels cosy). I like the fact that do not just do worksheets. They do have lessons after homework time. The teacher can go through some concepts with the students, or assign them some work. At least there is this element of teaching. I cannot imagine myself (let alone my son) doing some more work after finishing my homework. It is really overkill. I guess I have to monitor if my son likes this student care next year.
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