Are "Learning Skills" effective"? What about TEACHING?

Robin Hicks from FOCUS Learning Centre Napier

We see much being made of "Learning Skills" lately in our education system. Sadly we are also seeing huge drops in the standard of achievement. This is borne out in international testing, and I'm sure, from your own experiences with your children. I hear it all the time, especially since Lockdown... "my kids can't DO anything!" There is nothing wrong with these trendy new "skills", except they are totally ineffective if the children don't KNOW anything! And sadly that is what we see regularly. You simply can't "problem solve" or "think critically" or "make connections" if you don't have a sound basic knowledge base to build this higher thinking on. Even "Communication" is of questionable value if you don't have something of substance to say! (unless, of course, you want to be a politician! ;))It appears our school systems are developing a high proportion of children who cannot read or write correctly and effectively; physically and/or creatively, who struggle with basic maths, and who have little to no general knowledge. The research on the critical nature of all these in a child's cognitive development is overwhelming! but far too often the response these days seems to be "there is an app for that"! Hardly surprising kids lose confidence and show minimal resilience!
The answer, however, is very simple: TEACH them! Build a strong base of knowledge and skills! Letting young children "work it out for themselves", being "taught" by other students who really should be being enriched and challenged in their own learning, or simply plonking them in front of a screen continues to prove to be a dismal failure for all but a few.
Here at FOCUS we teach kids. Computers are OK for practice, but NOT for learning... we believe that is the job of TEACHERS.