Principal's ITE advice had to be delivered.

[Wonie]

Human behavior is indeed a complex issue. It is indeed a plus, for educators to be trained or well versed with " Positive Reinforcements " or topics dealing with human behaviour. This is an interesting topic and I feel more parents should be involved in the discussion.  Thanks Wonie and others for your valuable contribution.

Yes, well said! It does take more than an education degree to teach these days....Moulding a child often goes beyond imparting knowledge and grades, it is about understanding the motivation for behaviour and how to influence it positively. I think educators should consider going for training in this area because they are no longer just dealing with ruler and blackboard issues these days.

I was so proud to read about 'Normal Stream girl sets record with 7 O-level distinctions' in today's ST. It talks about this girl who bagged all 7 distinctions and made education history by having best O-level scores achieved by a Normal stream since its introduction in 1980.

In an interview, she talked about her mathematics teacher for being instrumental in helping her do well by boosting her confidence despite failing grades in the  subject earlier. "She told me that I had to believe in myself. There was no doubt in her mind at all that I could do well as long as I tried hard. That gave me a lot of confidence."

Congratulations, Diana Beetsma!!

[tom]

In her case, the family background, educated parents, conducive learning enviroment at home probably also contributed to her success. The type of friends you mixed with, their attitude, interests, behaviour and a host of other factors can also partly influenced her.

 

[gibson]

Teachers' role involves more than traditional teaching. It involves coaching and mentoring, monitoring progress, correcting mistakes and incalcating correct values to the students.

I would call them "educators" rather than "teach-ers".

[Alaska]

There is nothing wrong with ITE's principal's speech. Most probably is that student's attitude as well as her parents' family background.

The same likewise PSLE 2007 story. One mother immediately wrote to Straits Times Forum said that her son cried after the PSLE Math paper. Her son all along is A-Star scorer in Maths. After such a difficult question appeared in PSLE, her son's confidence became low.

What's so great about her son. At the end, top scorer can even scored 294.The problem lies to her own family background. Start pointing fingers at MOE.