education and learning difficulties

“I could still remember my first year as a teacher. I was just a fresh graduate from the university and had no experience at all in teaching so everything was new to me. I only had the theories in education to back me up in my work. After some months of teaching General Science to lower secondary, I became very disappointed about the academic performance of some of my students. I labeled them slow learners because they couldn’t catch up with the lessons in the class. While the others were doing good and even better, they kept flunking the subject. They were really a pain in the neck. Aside from academics, they were also the ones with behavioral problems.”

That was a testimony from a teacher I have met a few years ago. The scenario was very familiar especially to the many teachers who can resonate with the case. I do sympathize with the situation, but I strongly disagree with the label that slow learners are causing many problems to teachers because they don’t learn easily the way others do. “Who are these students?” is definitely not an important question, but rather “Why are these students causing trouble to teachers?” is a relevant point of discussion. There are many factors to consider in understanding why these students with learning difficulties are becoming nuisance in the classroom.

First consideration is that individuals have different ways of learning. This view is supported by Neuro Linguistic programming (NLP), which sees that there are various modes of acquiring learning. According to NLP, there are people who learn fast when they see something (VISUAL), others when they hear (AUDITORY) and others when they experience the action (KINESTHETIC). It is suggested that teachers should assess the styles of learning of their students so as to achieve optimum learning in the classroom. Given this premise, it can be said that if a teacher knows different strategies and methodologies to cater to the different styles of learning, then there will be no slow learners.

Another consideration is when the educational system is not responsive to students with special needs. There are students that must be in special groups. Those gifted students may get bored in a class with mostly average students because they have already mastered the lesson. On the other hand, those students with learning difficulties may find it really hard to catch up when combined with the gifted ones. Therefore, there is a need for streaming the students so as to lessen the burden of the teacher adjusting to different types of learners in a heterogeneous class. Thus, we can no longer say it is the fault of the slow learners.

Aside from the two considerations given, the school curriculum is also a factor. If the school focuses mainly on academics and not cultivating other intelligences, then we can consider the slow ones really slow in everything they do. That is a sweeping generalization. A student may not be good in numbers and language but he or she has to be good in something else like in sports or in music. This idea is supported by the foundation of multiple intelligence. Teachers need to find the spot where students excel most. With this, students are all achievers in their own rights.

With the considerations enumerated above, it is clear that slow learners are not a liability. They are merely misunderstood beings and such stigma can be erased only through dynamic methodologies and strategies in teaching and sensitive school curriculum that will cater to the individuality of students. Let us all be reminded that learning is a process and each and everyone has his or her own way of learning things. There are no lesser ones. We are all just unique in our own ways of thinking, perceiving and living.