Students in the School of Life-Active Learning Program have different academic goals; however, as children or adolescents, they often share similar interests. In this episode of “I Can” Series, we will share stories of two Active Learners – one high school student (Student A) and one middle school student (Student B). In order to achieve their academic goals in writing and math respectively, they incorporated an individualized psycho-educational skill under the same name, and as a result, they were able to eliminate their problematic learning behaviors prevalent in the beginning.
In the early stages of Active Learning Program, Student A often deviated from the topic or included multiple topics in one essay when writing in English as he had too many thoughts. In order to focus on one topic, he needed to find a way to be reminded of the purpose of the essay and maintain one stream of thought throughout the writing process. The clinicians developed an intuitive and easily accessible psycho-educational skill to help Student A with his writing. Using his interest in soccer in constructing individualized learning strategy, the clinicians encouraged him to think of the main subject of the writing as a soccer ball. Student A repeatedly practiced “passing the soccer ball” through beginning-middle-end, and eventually eliminated the problematic learning behaviors after a few months. In the end, he achieved a high score on TOEFL Writing.
Student B, who was also interested in soccer like Student A, often forgot to put an equal sign when solving math problems. He fell into a habit of doing complicated calculations in his head, so he often got confused because he omitted or misplaced the equal sign. Consequently, he began to stay away from math even more. The clinicians encouraged Student B to use an individualized psycho-educational strategy called “Pass Skill,” which helped the student associate the equal sign connecting the two sides of an equation with soccer players passing the ball to their teammates. As he applied the familiar soccer rules to math, Student B was able to easily use the skill, and after understanding the importance of not omitting an equal sign, he was able to recover his confidence in math gradually.
As shown, the clinicians of School of Life – Active Learning Program develop individualized psycho-educational skills and strategies that can be applied easily to help the Active Learners eliminate problematic learning behaviors and gain confidence in their studies. If you have any questions regarding the program, please contact us at 02-557-8823 or alc@treegroup.onmicrosoft.com.
