Gulf_News_Why_I_Chose_Girls_Only_Education
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The document discusses setting intellectual standards for children's thinking. It introduces four key intellectual standards: clarity, precision, accuracy, and logic. Clarity means thinking and communicating in a way that is easily understandable without ambiguity. Precision means being exact to the necessary level of detail and specificity. Accuracy means being free from errors and distortions. Logic means that the thinking makes sense, with parts that fit together soundly and resemble reality. The document provides examples of questions parents can ask children to encourage development of these four standards and higher quality thinking. It emphasizes the importance of these "Big Four" standards in learning and that children should be guided by them.
Gulf_News_Why_I_Chose_Girls_Only_Education
- 1. E5E4 cover storycover story Gulf News | Sunday, February 3, 2013 | gulfnews.comgulfnews.com | Sunday, February 3, 2013 | Gulf News of an exclusive series for Education 10part of 11 this week Test of learning is quality of thinking Set intellectual StandardS for your child againSt which you and your child can meaSure hiS or her progreSS in thinking O nce attitudes and motivation have been understood and are being in- culcated, and your child is learning through cog- nitive strategies and metacog- nition, then it is time to look at the intellectual standards you will expect when she solves a problem, prepares an es- say, answers questions about what is being learned, etc. We can think of them as values or principles about what is quality thinking. The general concept of standards should be clear, but can often be confusing. In its basic form, standards are val- ues or principles set up and es- tablished by authority as a rule for the measure of quantity, weight, extent, value, or qual- ity. They are criteria, a word which comes from the Greek and means judging or deciding. Intellectual standards Intellectual standards are benchmarks or goalposts against which you and your child can measure his or her progress in thinking. In your efforts to help your children learn to think critically, you will want to adopt standards that are directly related to the quality of thinking and the ex- pression of the results. Good quality thinking is the examination and test of sug- gestions which are offered for acceptance, to find out if they adequately match reality. Criti- cal thinking is a mental habit and a developed power. It is a safeguard against delusion, deception and superstition. By our nature as humans, we are subject to uncertainty, in the form of: ■ 1) our mind does not always naturally grasp the truth, ■ 2) We do not always naturally see things completely as they are, ■ 3) Do not always automati- cally know what is reasonable or unreasonable, ■ 4) We frequently see things as we want them to be, not as they are (confirmation bias), ■ 5) We unconsciously twist real- ity to fit our preconceived ideas. In order to reduce errors and particularly in order to teach our children how they can re- duce errors in thinking, we should take rational control of our thinking processes to help to determine what to accept and what to reject and what to be dubious about or more will- ing to trust. That means we (and our children) need stand- ards, principles, guidelines that direct us to consistently excel- lent thinking. 1) Clarity: How to ensure your child is thinking clearly Clarity is the condition of being clear, lucid, sharp and apparent. It is the opposite of cloudiness, opacity, or ob- scure. This is a major stand- ard: the biggest goal post for your children to achieve. It means that what is said or written is easily understand- able, can be grasped free from ambiguity, is not obscure or vague. When a child makes a statement at home or in class, when he or she answers a question, the response should be clear, the concepts used should be appropriate. Development of clarity should begin very early. Parents must place emphasis on clarity, in a guiding fashion and through use of clear examples, modelling what are clear statements. Developing clarity is done by two basic actions: pointing out when something is not clear and demonstrating how to make it clearer. The first step is easy but requires vigilance. ■ Questions that encourage clarity: ■ excuse me that was not very clear. ■ can you repeat that more clearly, please. ■ What did you mean by ….? ■ Would you say more about_____? ■ can you give an example of what you are talking about? ■ that was vague. can you restate it more clearly? ■ can you be more explicit? ■ If I understand, you mean _____. Is that right? ■ Do you know what that word means? can you tell me using a different word? ■ Would this be an example? can you give another example? your child is learning to think critically. He or she has developed a general grasp of what it means to learn and with your help has learned cognitive learning strate- gies which notably increase the effectiveness and durability of learning. He or she has learned to use mindfulness, metacognition, to facilitate learning and problem solving and to help provide per- sonal feedback on progress and adequacy of learning. you have paid attention to, and have understood, the impor- tance of developing dispositions and managing their interactions with emotions. you know that self-efficacy is the key to motiva- tion and successful learning and application. Why I chose ‘girls only’ education for my daughters A s a girl in Grade 1, I gleefully clapped my hands and sang a nursery rhyme while dancing in a circle with a group of girls during recess. Inevitably, a few boys would leave their pebble-throwing antics aside for a while to push us and taunt us. For one reason or another, the boys teased, pushed and taunted us girls throughout our school years. Teachers seemed to spend most of the class period trying to get my male counterparts to “settle down.” They spent the rest of the time responding to Todd’s or Ed’s ridiculous questions or comments, which were always completely unrelated to the lesson at hand. I yearned to at- tend a school where civilised young ladies could peacefully play and study without interruption from jeering, boisterous boys. “How in the world do boys grow up to rule the world?” I often wondered. To escape the classroom tyranny, I delved into a world of girl heroines between the pages of Little Women, Hei- di, Helen Keller and Nancy Drew. During that stage, The Trouble with Angels was my favourite movie, because it featured students at an all- girls school. While the protagonist was mischievous, somewhat like the heroine in Pippi Long- stocking, she was able to look into her soul and correct her own character flaws. Even in university, I yearned for women heroines, and studied under women’s literature scholar Dr Mildred Hill-Lubin at the University of Florida. There, I learned about the vibrant women charac- ters developed by Zora Neale Hurston, Maya Angelou and Alice Walker. There were no girls’ schools to be found in Miami when I searched for a serene educa- tional setting for my first two daughters, Nuola, now age 23; and Moremi, now 19. They ended up attending a Span- ish-English, bilingual educa- tion school. Rough and tough I was in Dubai when my now 5-year-old twins, Bre- anna and Brooke, were ready for KG1. I consider myself quite fortunate to work at the same place where my girls study, at the Ameri- can Academy in Al Mizhar (AAM). It is the only accred- ited American-curriculum school that provides a girls- only education for students in Grades 1-12. Kindergarten classes are, separately, co-ed or girls-only. Breanna was in a co-ed class last year in KG1, while Brooke was in a girls-only class. Now, they are both in girls-only classes. Unlike me, Breanna — who enjoys rough- housing — actually enjoyed playing with boys. “You talk to girls, and they cry,” Breanna said. “But boys, you can tell them anything. You can push them. You can punch them. You can kick them, and they don’t cry.” Brooke, on the other hand, prefers a softer approach, which comes from being in class with girls. “Girls are nice and smart,” she said. “The girls are nic- er than the boys, but I like just one nice boy in another class.” She likes to head to the playground and play with them. At their young age, it’s not very significant for them to be in class with mixed genders. But my older girls, Nuola and Moremi, say that as they moved to the higher grades, they began competing with other girls for the attention of boys. They also said they felt like they had to “dumb down” their academic prowess in front of boys so they would not feel threatened by the girls’ intelligence. I believe that we are doing things the right way at the American Academy in Al Mizhar: letting boys and girls mix in the younger grades, but separating them when they get older. In this way, girls can develop and mature on their own, without having to worry about “snips and snails.” ■ The author is Director of Development and Admissions at the American Academy in Al Mizhar. GUEST OF THE MONTH Looking ahead A B Special to Gulf News ● But my older girls, Nuola and Moremi, say that as they moved to the higher grades, they began com- peting with other girls for the atten- tion of boys. They also said they felt like they had to “dumb down” their academic prowess in front of boys so their male egos would not feel threatened by the girls’ intel- ligence. I believe that we are doing things the right way at the Ameri- can Academy in Al Mizhar: letting boys and girls mix in the younger grades, but sepa- rating them when they get older. Dubai hosts Harvard congress Dubai The American University in Dubai recently hosted the Harvard Model Congress Dubai (HMCD) with more than 300 delegates from 10 countries and 26 schools for the first time in the region. The HMCD is one of the larg- est high school conferences of its kind in the region and is a government simulation conference run entirely by Harvard students who are passionate about interna- tional relations, government and teaching. (Staff Report) conference Giving students a voice Dubai GEMS Education recently partnered with Canon Mid- dle East to launch the ‘Stu- dent Voice’ initiative aimed at giving parents insight into the life of today’s stu- dent. The ‘Student Voice’ was recently inaugurated at Al Khaleej National School in Dubai as a part of GEMS Education’s ongoing Paren- tal Engagement campaign, highlighting the impor- tance of parental involve- ment in the youth educa- tion process. (Staff Report) gems education Making smart learning a priority Dubai The Gulf Educational Sup- plies and Solutions (GESS) and the Ministry of Educa- tion’s Global Education Fo- rum recently announced the theme of this year’s exhibi- tion to be ‘Smart learning and technical advanced in education.’ The latest data from the World Bank shows public education expendi- ture in the region stands at 18.6 per cent of total govern- ment spending compared to the world average of 14.2 per cent.(Staff Report) exhibition Repton appoints headmaster abu Dhabi The founding Headmaster of Repton School, Abu Dhabi, was recently announced by EvolvenceKnowledgeInvest- ments. Robert Relton is set to take up his post once the school opens on Reem Island in September (construction is underway). Relton is set to relocate to the UAE with more than 20 years experi- ence in British education. He will join Repton Abu Dhabi from his previous post as headmaster at Ravenscourt Park Preparatory School in London. (Staff Report) relocation ● Good qual- ity thinking is the examination and test of suggestions which are offered for acceptance, to find out if they adequately match reality. Criti- cal thinking is a mental habit and a developed power. 4) Logic The fourth pillar is logic, i.e., do the parts and how they are arranged make sense, do they make for sound judgement and rea- soning. Obviously, thinking can vary in its degree of log- ic. The main point is to lead them to think in an orderly way that closely resembles reality and is “logical.” When we teach our chil- dren to be logical we ask them if what they are saying or thinking is consistent and integrated. Does the whole thought or the compo- nents of the thought fit together sensibly and plausibly? Does the answer demonstrate the correct structure? Does it fit into a recognisable pattern? One of the main tests of logic to answer is if what your child says follows from the evidence. Can your child identify and provide examples which help to es- tablish the veracity of what has been said? And there is always the test of: “Does this really make sense?” ■ Questions that encourage logical thinking ■ Does the solution make sense? ■ Do the pieces of the solution fit together tightly? ■ What is the line of reasoning that brought you to this point? ■ can you explain the process you have used to come to this conclusion? ■ can you show how this answer fits into the overall struc- ture of the domain? 3) Precision: You can be clear and accurate but are you precise as well? To be precise means to be exact to the necessary level of detail, to be specific. It requires exactitude, fine- ness, preciseness, rigor, and veracity. A statement can be clear and accurate but not precise (Jack is overweight). What do we mean by overweight? How does it dif- fer from obesity? Thinking and speaking should be as precise as possible. At the primary school level, and at home, precision is taught first through spelling and math. The words your child learns must be spelled correctly and pro- nounced correctly. The math answers must be pre- cise: two plus two cannot be five. If you wish to teach quality standards to your child you will help them to learn about the importance of precision, when it is necessary and how to avoid ex- aggeration. ■ Questions that encourage precision: ■ can you give me more details about that? ■ could you be more specific ■ could you express your claims more fully? ■ Have you exaggerated any aspect of your position? ■ Have you used questions most relevant to your current situation ■ teach your child to answer with the core ideas and concepts first, then provide more details. 2) Accuracy: How to ensure your child does not commit errors Accuracy means free from error especially as the result of care, such as an accurate diagnosis. It means conform- ing exactly to truth or to a standard or being able to give an accurate result. For exam- ple, when you weigh yourself you want the devices to give you answers that are free from error. This standard means that what is presented does not contain errors, mistakes or distortions. How can your child check to see if her ideas and thoughts and statements are true? How can parents teach children to verify the alleged facts? ■ Questions that encourage accuracy: ■ can you be more specific? ■ How many kids were in the park? ■ Are you sure that number is correct? ■ When did that happen? What date? ■ Who said what to whom? ■ Are you sure that is correct? clarity, Precision, Accuracy and Logic form a group of very important standards, call them “the Big Four.” they are the fundamental standards which children must learn. As a par- ent, you should pay close attention to them and encourage your children to develop respect for them. they should have a strong grasp of the significance of these standards and most of their learning behaviour should be guided by the big four. So, these are the Big Four So, what are such standards? Intellectual standards ● Your child has developed a general grasp of what it means to learn and with your help has learned cognitive learning strategies which notably increase the effectiveness of learning 4Next week �Concluding with Critical Thinking and Problem Solving. up ahead Mind games D C C Special to Gulf News ■ Dr Clifton Chadwick, centre for research on teaching critical thinking at British University in Dubai ■ If you want to comment or ask questions, please write to clifton- chadwick@buid.ac.ae