February 2008 Blog Posts
If your child has strong analytic preferences, how do you help her prepare for essay-type questions? Analytic children like facts and find it difficult to answer open-ended questions, particularly those that seek opinions and generalisations. Here are a few tips to help them cope:
· Read each question and identify which part or parts of the syllabus it can possibly refer to. For example, if they encounter a question like: “Do you think that a virus has good survival skills?”, teach them to ignore the potentially nonsensical notion of a virus having skills. Instead, ask them to concentrate on what the...
If you are familiar with the concept of learning styles, you will realise that your child’s learning style will have an impact on the type of classroom test that your child prefers.
· Analytic children generally prefer questions that require factual detailed answers, typically in the form of “True/False” or Fill-the-missing-word or List 5 differences between a snail and a frog.
· Holistic children may do better in essay-type tests and more open-ended questions.
· Impulsive children will like multiple-choice type tests.
· Visual children will enjoy tests with lots of pictures: label this diagram, draw a cross-section of a plant cell, etc.
Personality tests are fun. Who can resist discovering your perfect career match, or what your colour preference says about your temperament, or why your current Mr Right is really right for you?
Open (almost) any magazine or run an Internet search, and there you have them:
· Are you a workaholic?
· How do you handle stress?
· Are you a good boss?
· The bear and your attitude to everyday problems.
· What the contents of your fridge says about you...
The tests range from learning styles and handwriting to analysing the shape of your lipstick. They are fun. But are they accurate and should you...
"Impatience in search and navigation, and zero tolerance for any delay in satisfying their information needs" - does that sound like anybody you know?
University College London recently conducted a study into how people process information. The study focussed on those born after the arrival of the Internet, and it concluded that “the Google generation”, although skilled at finding information on the Internet, doesn’t know how to process the results.
On the plus side, they seem to be able to handle more inputs of information at once than the older generation. They can type an email while watching a movie and...