Learning differently provides opportunities to succeed

Ever since the dawn of human civilization man has always sought to understand nature and his own place in the scheme of creation. Man has gone far beyond his intelligence capacity to understand his surrounding behaviour and natural instinct, since then life has become a constant learning curve. Since the modernization era, man has been able to adapt to the changing environment and developed new learning abilities that enabled us to read, write, comprehend, retain facts and formulas and regurgitate them back upon demand. Our learning style was one where we showed strength logically and linguistically, and fortunately for us our society-valued schools set up to support children with these strengths.

Unfortunately, this type of thinking has a glitch, and as time and technology have moved forward, we have begun to question why some of the world’s most successful business people, such as Bill Gates or Richard Branson, never completed higher level mathematics, or even graduated from high school. Surely their success must be an anomaly or perhaps a freak of nature?

Their inability to s쳮d in a traditional way was in fact their greatest asset as their learning in a different way provided opportunities to s쳮d.

The creative intelligence

In 1983, Dr. Howard Gardner of Harvard University came forward with eight different intelligences to account for a broader range of human potential in children and adults. These intelligences were Linguistic (“word smart”), Logical-mathematical (“number/reasoning smart”), Spatial (“picture smart”), Bodily-Kinesthetic (“body smart”), Musical (“music smart”), Interpersonal (“people smart”), Intrapersonal (“self-smart”) and Naturalist (“nature smart”). Dr. Gardner’s multiple intelligences provided eight different potential pathways to learning. Suddenly, educators were having ‘Aha’ moments as this really made sense. Forward-thinking schools that were having difficulty in reaching students in the more traditional or logical ways of instruction began to apply the theory of multiple intelligences using several means in which the material presented made learning possible and more effective. Quality schools that believe in what is best for student learning seized this opportunity to better meet the needs of all children, examining all potentials and developing all opportunities for success.

With the knowledge explosion growing at an exponential rate, our need for a multi-talented workforce increases. No longer do we require an employee who can do just one thing, but rather a person who can operate in a variety of ways in a multitude of situations. Quality schools focus on producing 21^st Century learners that are internationally minded, multi-lingual, collaborative, knowledgeable, risk takers, creative and problem solvers.

Challenging the old beliefs

Wealth creation today is all about being creative, collaborating, and the communicating of new ideas or products, not just reproducing or copying the same old things from days gone by. The challenges of today’s global society demand that quality schools provide opportunities to learn in a way that best utilizes how students learn. These opportunities must be relevant and meaningful and in an environment that not only challenges but also stimulates. Quality education must be relevant to today and not follow the model of the past based on testing, retention of knowledge, or ranking. By continuing to do this, our children and our societies will be left behind while others who have embraced change forge ahead. We must let go of our old beliefs of what quality is and begin challenging our education systems to develop quality schools that best meet the needs of all learners for the 21^st Century.

My expectation is that International Preparatory School (IPS) will continue to grow and become the leading inquiry-based primary school in Mauritius. We will lead pedagogy and instruction of students by continuously stimulating their creativity, their curious minds, their thirst to learn and we will best prepare them for a world that we can only imagine.