Education, Motivation & Classroom Management

Motivation through Team Bonding Games

2009-06-09T16:40:00.002+08:00

Students who bond with the staff are likely to complete their studies. There are many truths and success stories to back this claim.

There are some staff who can engage their students, connect with them and usually they are the ones who can influence them and cause an impact in their life, which they will remember for life. So do not miss up any chance for bonding, be it over a small talk, or a pat on the back, a wink, a smile.. and of course we can have team bonding activities together, like KTV, BBQ or even activities that do not need $$. If you do wish to spend much you may want to go fly a "layang" or kite with your students.. Go for a hike at Bukit Timah or Tree Top walk.. a game of badminton, football and etc.

http://www.wildsingapore.com/places/ttw.htm
http://layanginthesky.blogspot.com/

Multiple Intelligences

2008-11-14T13:10:00.001+08:00

The theory of Multiple Intelligences surfaced in 1983 when Dr. Howard Gardner’s renowned book titled, “Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences” was published. Within the next 10 years, educators world wide embraced the theory as a basis to identify talents in the children they work with.

Before that, most people perceived people to be intelligent if they score high in an I.Q. test or other psychometric tests, or are good with logical thinking, mathematical, musical and perhaps, linguistic skills. In his book, which has been described to have caused paradigm shifts, Dr. Gardner identified 7 distinct types of intelligence:

1. Linguistic Intelligence: the talent to learn and use languages, it includes the ability to effectively use language to express oneself rhetorically or poetically, using language as a primary means to remember things. Poets, writers and translators are people with high linguistic intelligence.

2. Logical-Mathematical Intelligence : the capacity to analyse problems logically, performs mathematical operations, and scientifically investigate issues. Scientists and mathematicians are some examples of people with high logical-mathematical intelligence.

3. Musical Intelligence : skills in the performing arts, composition, and appreciation of music. It also includes the capacity to recognize and compose musical pitches, tones, and rhythms. Examples of people with high musical intelligence are: musicians, composers and singers.

4. Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence : the use of one's whole body or parts of the body to solve problems. It is the ability to use mental abilities to coordinate bodily movements. Some examples of people with high bodily-kinesthetic intelligence are carpenters, seamstresses and chefs.

5. Spatial Intelligence : the potential to recognize and use the patterns of wide space and more confined areas. Designers and architects are people with high spatial intelligence.

6. Interpersonal Intelligence : the capacity to understand the intentions, motivations and desires of other people. People with well developed interpersonal intelligence tend to work effectively with others. Some examples are educators, religious and political leaders and salespeople.

7. Intrapersonal : the capacity to understand oneself, to appreciate one's feelings, fears and motivations. People with high intrapersonal intelligence have a good idea of what they want to do in life, what they can and cannot do and when to get help. Some examples are high achievers and entrepreneurs.

Extracted from: singaporeteambuilding.com

Mrs Thompson and Teddy Stollard

2008-09-05T18:06:00.000+08:00

Saw this short clip before and I was touched and when I saw it again this Teacher's Day... it moved me again.. :)

http://www.makeadifferencemovie.com/

Virtual Classroom. Worth the investment?

2008-09-02T13:32:00.000+08:00

Institution nowadays are spending lots of money and resources into creating virtual classroom. Technology has advanced to a stage where it can easily supports these bandwidth hungry web applications, with 3D graphics, videos and audio. Our younger generation now spends much longer hours with their PC and the internet more than anything esle. There are many interesting websites and application out there. What make us so sure that we can attract them to attend a lesson on-line through a virtual game? With such a huge investment into building such platform can it really attract our young? I do not know...

I remembered there were on-line courseware and lessons offered. I smiply do not like it, makes me sleepy reading and looking at the screen... :p

Student can now virtually attend classes, while playing a game through achieving certain objectives, at their very own PCs. Is it really effective?? Can we motivate learrning through this? I do not know.

Maybe we should take a step backward before throwing good money into such investment, perhaps a quick survey with our students may help. Moreover, technology moves at an amazing pace, what we have today is history tomorrow. Who knows what would come next after a year or so. What we have invested today may become boring for our young, so we are going to fork out more money and throw them into developing something new? I do not know...

Colleges use Second Life to engage students

2008-06-16T15:54:00.000+08:00

Using Second Life, colleges create parallel universities. A number of colleges and universities are increasingly embracing Second Life, an online virtual world, as a tool to reach students raised on computers and video games.

Read On...

By Kathy A. Goolsby

Teaching effectively with computers

2007-10-26T09:13:00.000+08:00

More and more educators are integrating computers, laptops, and other technology into the classroom with great success. Computer-based technologies offer rich new ways to reach students and fulfill curriculum goals, while bringing information to life for diverse kinds of learners. But teaching with computers also poses many challenges.

Read On

Bully Proof Your Child Seminar

2007-10-24T15:03:00.000+08:00

A widespread phenomenon in schools, bullying has a tremendously adverse and life-long impact on the emotional and psychological health of its victims. If you work with students or have a child in school and are concerned about the serious effects of bullying on them, attend this educational seminar & workshop to empower yourself with useful research-based knowledge and skills to help them deal with bullying-behaviours more effectively.

Shan You Counselling Centre is a non-for-profit voluntary-welfare organisation committed to help and serve the needy community through counselling and social services regardless of race, language, religious beliefs or the ability to pay. We are organising a public-education seminar and workshop to help parents and educators understand the significant issues relating to bullying and to learn how to help young victims of bullying respond effectively using mind-body tactics.

1. The seminar will cover the "causes" and "effects" of bullying from a psychiatric and psychological perspective, as well as offering realistic, practical and effective strategies to deal with bullying. Family-related factors that are challenging to families of bullies and victims, resulting in school refusal, attention-seeking and oppositional-defiant behaviours, will also be discussed.

2. The practical skills-building workshop will provide parents, educators, and students with innovative and practical action steps based on mind-body tactics to deal with bullies. The workshop is based on a new book, "Bully Proof Your Child: Mind-Body Tactics for Outsmarting the Bully", by Dr Lim Kok Kwang and Ms Wong Mei Yin. Participants will learn simple, proven, and step-by-step tactics that children can use to protect themselves from the bully, including:
· effective responses to the bully.
· stress relief skills.
· skills for releasing deeper hurt and emotions.
· confidence boosting strategies.
· social skills to get more support from friends.

Psychologists, Counsellors, Educators, Social Workers, Teachers, Principals, Parents, professionals working closely with children / teenagers and other mental healthcare professionals will find this public-education programme very enlightening and useful.

Date of Seminar:
17 November 2007 Saturday
"Bully Proof Your Child" Seminar
2pm – 5pm

Date of Workshop:
01 December 2007 Saturday
"Bully Proof Your Child" Workshop
2pm – 6pm

Location:
Toa Payoh Central Community Club (opposite Toa Payoh regional library)

Sudoku For Kids - 120 Printable Sudoku

2007-05-19T10:58:00.000+08:00

"Finally! 120 Sudoku puzzles made Specially for Kids from 6 years and up... reliably Graded, available by Instant Download for you to Print NOW!"

The puzzles are designed with kids in mind and use bright colors and fun graphics which children love.

Click here to get it!

Study Techniques to Score "A"s

2007-05-12T12:01:00.000+08:00

"5 Secret How To Study Techniques That Will Push Your Exams Results Through The Roof!"

Where Does Time Go?

2007-04-28T11:35:00.000+08:00

Where does time goes??

"No time", "Very busy", "No time to study".. sounds familair? Every student seems to be saying the same thing!!

You may want to do this little test with them. They will be more aware of the things that spending most of their time with. :)

Take the test..

NLB Blogs - Discover NLB Online!

2007-01-27T14:14:00.000+08:00

Our very own National Library Board had undergone a tremendous transformation, especially on its web site. New course, new ebooks and on-line services. Now we have NLB Blogs!!

Very interesting things are discussed and posted. Take a peek, you may throw in your 2cents worth in there. =)

Click here

What Factors Influence The Development Of Students' Motivation?

2007-01-13T13:59:00.000+08:00

What Factors Influence The Development Of Students' Motivation?
According to Jere Brophy (1987), motivation to learn is a competence acquired "through general experience but stimulated most directly through modeling, communication of expectations, and direct instruction or socialization by significant others (especially parents and teachers)."

Children's home environment shapes the initial constellation of attitudes they develop toward learning. When parents nurture their children's natural curiosity about the world by welcoming their questions, encouraging exploration, and familiarizing them with resources that can enlarge their world, they are giving their children the message that learning is worthwhile and frequently fun and satisfying.

When children are raised in a home that nurtures a sense of self-worth, competence, autonomy, and self-efficacy, they will be more apt to accept the risks inherent in learning. Conversely, when children do not view themselves as basically competent and able, their freedom to engage in academically challenging pursuits and capacity to tolerate and cope with failure are greatly diminished.

Once children start school, they begin forming beliefs about their school-related successes and failures. The sources to which children attribute their successes (commonly effort, ability, luck, or level of task difficulty) and failures (often lack of ability or lack of effort) have important implications for how they approach and cope with learning situations.

The beliefs teachers themselves have about teaching and learning and the nature of the expectations they hold for students also exert a powerful influence (Raffini). As Deborah Stipek (1988) notes, "To a very large degree, students expect to learn if their teachers expect them to learn."

Schoolwide goals, policies, and procedures also interact with classroom climate and practices to affirm or alter students' increasingly complex learning-related attitudes and beliefs.

And developmental changes comprise one more strand of the motivational web. For example, although young children tend to maintain high expectations for success even in the face of repeated failure, older students do not. And although younger children tend to see effort as uniformly positive, older children view it as a "double-edged sword" (Ames). To them, failure following high effort appears to carry more negative implications--especially for their self-concept of ability--than failure that results from minimal or no effort.

Articale extracted from kidsource.com

11 Techniques for Better Classroom Discipline

2006-12-14T18:01:00.000+08:00

Here are eleven techniques that you can use in your classroom that will help you achieve effective group management and control. They have been adapted from an article called: “A Primer on Classroom Discipline: Principles Old and New” by Thomas R. McDaniel, Phi Delta Kappan, September 1986.

1. Focusing

Be sure you have the attention of everyone in your classroom before you start your lesson. Don’t attempt to teach over the chatter of students who are not paying attention.

Inexperienced teachers sometimes think that by beginning their lesson, the class will settle down. The children will see that things are underway now and it is time to go to work. Sometimes this works, but the children are also going to think that you are willing to compete with them, that you don’t mind talking while they talk, or that you are willing to speak louder so that they can finish their conversation even after you have started the lesson. They get the idea that you accept their inattention and that it is permissible to talk while you are presenting a lesson.

The focusing technique means that you will demand their attention before you begin. It means that you will wait and not start until everyone has settled down. Experienced teachers know that silence on their part is very effective. They will punctuate their waiting by extending it 3 to 5 seconds after the classroom is completely quiet. Then they begin their lesson using a quieter voice than normal.

A soft spoken teacher often has a calmer, quieter classroom than one with a stronger voice. Her students sit still in order to hear what she says.

2. Direct Instruction

Uncertainty increases the level of excitement in the classroom. The technique of direct instruction is to begin each class by telling the students exactly what will be happening. The teacher outlines what he and the students will be doing this period. He may set time limits for some tasks.

An effective way to marry this technique with the first one is to include time at the end of the period for students to do activities of their choosing. The teacher may finish the description of the hour’s activities with: “And I think we will have some time at the end of the period for you to chat with your friends, go to the library, or catch up on work for other classes.”

The teacher is more willing to wait for class attention when he knows there is extra time to meet his goals and objectives. The students soon realize that the more time the teacher waits for their attention, the less free time they have at the end of the hour.

3. Monitoring

The key to this principle is to circulate. Get up and get around the room. While your students are working, make the rounds. Check on their progress.

An effective teacher will make a pass through the whole room about two minutes after the students have started a written assignment. She checks that each student has started, that the children are on the correct page, and that everyone has put their names on their papers. The delay is important. She wants her students to have a problem or two finished so she can check that answers are correctly labeled or in complete sentences. She provides individualized instruction as needed.

Students who are not yet quite on task will be quick to get going as they see her approach. Those that were distracted or slow to get started can be nudged along.

The teacher does not interrupt the class or try to make general announcements unless she notices that several students have difficulty with the same thing. The teacher uses a quiet voice and her students appreciate her personal and positive attention.

4. Modeling

McDaniel tells us of a saying that goes “Values are caught, not taught.” Teachers who are courteous, prompt, enthusiastic, in control, patient and organized provide examples for their students through their own behavior. The “do as I say, not as I do” teachers send mixed messages that confuse students and invite misbehavior.

If you want students to use quiet voices in your classroom while they work, you too will use a quiet voice as you move through the room helping youngsters.

5. Non-Verbal Cuing

A standard item in the classroom of the 1950’s was the clerk’s bell. A shiny nickel bell sat on the teacher’s desk. With one tap of the button on top he had everyone’s attention. Teachers have shown a lot of ingenuity over the years in making use of non-verbal cues in the classroom. Some flip light switches. Others keep clickers in their pockets.

Non-verbal cues can also be facial expressions, body posture and hand signals. Care should be given in choosing the types of cues you use in your classroom. Take time to explain what you want the students to do when you use your cues.

6. Environmental Control

A classroom can be a warm cheery place. Students enjoy an environment that changes periodically. Study centers with pictures and color invite enthusiasm for your subject.

Young people like to know about you and your interests. Include personal items in your classroom. A family picture or a few items from a hobby or collection on your desk will trigger personal conversations with your students. As they get to know you better, you will see fewer problems with discipline.

Just as you may want to enrich your classroom, there are times when you may want to impoverish it as well. You may need a quiet corner with few distractions. Some students will get caught up in visual exploration. For them, the splash and the color is a siren that pulls them off task. They may need more “vanilla” and less “rocky-road.” Have a quiet place where you can steer these youngsters. Let them get their work done first and then come back to explore and enjoy the rest of the room.

7. Low-Profile Intervention

Most students are sent to the principal’s office as a result of confrontational escalation. The teacher has called them on a lesser offense, but in the moments that follow, the student and the teacher are swept up in a verbal maelstrom. Much of this can be avoided when the teacher’s intervention is quiet and calm.

An effective teacher will take care that the student is not rewarded for misbehavior by becoming the focus of attention. She monitors the activity in her classroom, moving around the room. She anticipates problems before they occur. Her approach to a misbehaving student is inconspicuous. Others in the class are not distracted.

While lecturing to her class this teacher makes effective use of name-dropping. If she sees a student talking or off task, she simply drops the youngster’s name into her dialogue in a natural way. “And you see, David, we carry the one to the tens column.” David hears his name and is drawn back on task. The rest of the class doesn’t seem to notice.

8. Assertive Discipline

This is traditional limit setting authoritarianism. When executed as presented by Lee Canter (who has made this form a discipline one of the most widely known and practiced) it will include a good mix of praise. This is high profile discipline. The teacher is the boss and no child has the right to interfere with the learning of any student. Clear rules are laid out and consistently enforced.

9. Assertive I-Messages

A component of Assertive Discipline, these I-Messages are statements that the teacher uses when confronting a student who is misbehaving. They are intended to be clear descriptions of what the student is suppose to do. The teacher who makes good use of this technique will focus the child’s attention first and foremost on the behavior he wants, not on the misbehavior. “I want you to...” or “I need you to...” or “I expect you to...”

The inexperienced teacher may incorrectly try “I want you to stop...” only to discover that this usually triggers confrontation and denial. The focus is on the misbehavior and the student is quick to retort: “I wasn’t doing anything!” or “It wasn’t my fault...” or “Since when is there a rule against...” and escalation has begun.

10. Humanistic I-Messages

These I-messages are expressions of our feelings. Thomas Gordon, creator of Teacher Effectiveness Training (TET), tells us to structure these messages in three parts. First, include a description of the child’s behavior. “When you talk while I talk...” Second, relate the effect this behavior has on the teacher. “...I have to stop my teaching...” And third, let the student know the feeling that it generates in the teacher. “...which frustrates me.”

A teacher, distracted by a student who was constantly talking while he tried to teach, once made this powerful expression of feelings: “I cannot imagine what I have done to you that I do not deserve the respect from you that I get from the others in this class. If I have been rude to you or inconsiderate in any way, please let me know. I feel as though I have somehow offended you and now you are unwilling to show me respect.” The student did not talk during his lectures again for many weeks.

11. Positive Discipline

Use classroom rules that describe the behaviors you want instead of listing things the students cannot do. Instead of “no-running in the room,” use “move through the building in an orderly manner.” Instead of “no fighting,“ use “settle conflicts appropriately.” Instead of “no gum chewing,” use “leave gum at home.” Refer to your rules as expectations. Let your students know this is how you expect them to behave in your classroom.

Make ample use of praise. When you see good behavior, acknowledge it. This can be done verbally, of course, but it doesn’t have to be. A nod, a smile or a “thumbs up” will reinforce the behavior.

What Is Stress?

2006-11-28T16:58:00.000+08:00

Stress is your body's way of responding to any kind of demand. It can be caused by both good and bad experiences. When people feel stressed by something going on around them, their bodies react by releasing chemicals into the blood. These chemicals give people more energy and strength, which can be a good thing if their stress is caused by physical danger. But this can also be a bad thing, if their stress is in response to something emotional and there is no outlet for this extra energy and strength. This class will discuss different causes of stress, how stress affects you, the difference between 'good' or 'positive' stress and 'bad' or 'negative' stress, and some common facts about how stress affects people today

Extracted from www.mtstcil.org/

Make it Fun! Power of Fun in Education

2006-11-18T13:11:00.000+08:00

Student who find the lessons in school boring will tend to skip classes, also teachers who are boring can turn them off.

What we can do is to probably add in the element of fun into our lesson planning. Help them correlate between fun & study. In this way it will helps to

1. Alleviate stress, both on the teacher and student,
2. Improve communication between teachers and student,
3. Ease conflict
4. Eliminates boredom

Enjoyable and fun-filled environment helps to motivate our student to perform better. Games, quizes, debates, music, songs, singing, jokes, puzzles and etc.. anything you can think of. Recognize the power of fun! It unites, creates pleasure and can makes a big difference in your class.

Information Manipulation Theory

2006-11-16T11:45:00.000+08:00

Came across this interesting info from changingminds.org.. which we teachers will face in our dealing with our students.

Description
In order to persuade or deceive, a person deliberately breaks one of the four conversational maxims:

Quantity: Information given will be full (as per expected by the listener) and without omission.
Quality: information given will be truthful and correct.
Relation: information will be relevant to the subject matter of the conversation in hand.
Manner: things will be presented in a way that enables others to understand and with aligned non-verbal language.

Example
A student is late handing in an essay. They approach the lecture trembling and weeping, saying how they have just been dumped by their long-term partner and forgot to hand in the essay (they had done it in time, honestly!).

Using it
Persuade by omitting information, telling untruths, going off the subject and confusing the other person. Use excuses. Be economical with the truth. Woffle.

Defending
Question what you are told, especially you find yourself changing your mind as a result. Probe for detail. Seek corroborating evidence. Watch the body language.

Scholarship Information

2006-11-15T09:08:00.000+08:00

Need a place to find what are the scholarship available around? I have just started a new blog!! Hopefully, you will be able to find anything under the sun about local and international scholarship here.

I will try to search and update the blog on all the scholarships available in town. So this blog can be your one stop search for all the scholarships information and the links to the organisation that offers them!

View my new blog: Click here

Nonverbal Learning Disorders

2006-11-11T19:47:00.000+08:00

According to experts we use of non-verbal language 65% of the time.

Nonverbal learning disorders (NLD) are also called right-hemisphere learning disorders. NLD is a neurological based learning disorder. This is a complicated learning disorder because it's hard to identify, it often remains undiagnosed, and the children who have it, tend to be misdiagnosed.

Children with NLD possess strong skills particularly in the area of language development and rote memory. However, because of the child's inability to interpret non-verbal cues in his environment, it is very difficult for him to understand and respond appropriately.

Children who have NLD exhibit delays in the following areas:

1. Motor--difficulties in coordination and balance.

2. Visual--spatial-organizational-difficulties in visual-spatial recall and perceptions.

3. Social--difficulties in recognizing non-verbal cues and nuances, the inability to interact at an age-appropriate social level, and immature reactions and judgments in comparison to peers.

4. Coping--difficulties in assimilating to new concepts and environments.

Hands-On

2006-11-11T08:20:00.000+08:00

Hands-on - Make students active participants in learning.

Students learn by doing, making, writing, designing, creating, solving. Passivity dampens students' motivation and curiosity. Pose questions. Don't tell students something when you can ask them. Encourage students to suggest approaches to a problem or to guess the results of an experiment. Use small group work. See "Leading a Discussion," "Supplements and Alternatives to Lecturing," and "Collaborative Learning" for methods that stress active participation. (Source: Lucas, 1990)

It is also noted that student who less academic incline tends to learn better with their "hands". Therefore, in our lesson delivery we can incorporate more hands-on portion for this group of students. Careful planning, designing and structuring of of lesson will have them motivated to learn.

Behavior Modification in the Classroom

2006-11-09T11:16:00.000+08:00

Came across an article on behaviour modification, very interesting and applicable in our daily classroom management.

By: N. Mather and Sam Goldstein (2001)
Behavior modification assumes that observable and measurable behaviors are good targets for change. All behavior follows a set of consistent rules. Methods can be developed for defining, observing, and measuring behaviors, as well as designing effective interventions. Behavior modification techniques never fail. Rather, they are either applied inefficiently or inconsistently, which leads to less than desired change. All behavior is maintained, changed, or shaped by the consequences of that behavior. Although there are certain limits, such as temperamental or emotional influences related to ADHD or depression, all children function more effectively under the right set of consequences. Reinforcers are consequences that strengthen behavior. Punishments are consequences that weaken behavior. Students' behaviors are managed and changed by the consequences of classroom behavior. To manage behavior through consequences, use this multi-step process:

The problem must be defined, usually by count or description.
1. Design a way to change the behavior.
2. Identify an effective reinforcer.
3. Apply the reinforcer consistently to shape or change behavior.
4. Consequences of behavior are directly related to the events that either come immediately before or after them.

...
Read on.. click here

Motivating Underachiever

2006-11-07T14:00:00.000+08:00

What are some reasons a child might be underachieving?
1. Sibling rivalry
2. Cultural expectations
3. Family programming
4. Fear of Success
5. Fear of social isolation
7. Undiagnosed anxiety or depression.
8. Boredom from unchallenging school work, or acting out because the work is too hard and frustrating
9. Family environment

Here are some tips to try:
1. Set small, attainable goals instead of big and overwhelming ones.
2. Don’t use bullying, nagging or shame tactics as motivators. Instead, consistently use praise and positive reinforcement as work improves and goals are met.
3. Make any “criticism” constructive and solution oriented. Don’t withdraw attention, affection, or become sour in your communication because your child isn’t meeting your expectations. For example:

If your child does poorly on a spelling test, say, “This is a little better than your last score, and I am proud you improved, but we need to do a some more work on this lesson. Let’s try some more practice after I wash the dishes.”

4. Don’t set up a competitive atmosphere between siblings. Encourage cooperation when studying and doing homework.

5. Try to incorporate your child’s interests into their learning experience.

Is your son, an avid baseball fan, having trouble with percentages, averages, and decimals? Give him practice problems involving the stats of his favorite players. Is your cookie loving daughter struggling with fractions? Get her to halve, double, and triple a recipe for your grandmother’s prize winning, taste bud tickling, double chocolate chunk cookie dough!

6. Capitalize on your child’s strengths and interests, instead of dwelling on their weaker subjects and trying to force them to like subjects they don’t.

If your child loves history, but hates English composition, praise her history grades and admire her projects in that subject. Once her motivation is high, you can use that momentum to encourage improvement in the weaker areas. Or you could try combining the two areas. Writing a composition about medieval fashions and beauty tips might inspire a greater effort to do well in content, organization and grammar in a writing assignment.

7. If you can, redirect your child’s academic focus towards areas which match her skills and interests.

Does your daughter hate geometry and algebra, but have a talent for facts and figures? Encourage her to study accounting, tax preparation, or small business management where she will have a good chance of success.

8. Don’t set arbitrary rules, a rigid structure, or tedious practices for your child to follow. They only serve to dampen enthusiasm, create stress, and cause resentment.

The above is a small extract from the article:
Make Your Kid A Genius!
How to Awaken Your Child's Innate Intelligence
May 2003 Issue #17
Irene Helen Zundel, Editor, artwhiz@greenepa.net

Motivational Theories - My new Blog

2006-11-04T11:38:00.000+08:00

I have just started a new blog covering some of the motivaional theories. If you wish to find certain theories you may find it here. I am trying to compile all the theories "under one roof" so that you need not search high and low for them.

Click here: Motivation 101

Student Loan and Student Finanical Aids

2006-11-03T18:30:00.000+08:00

Many of our student comes from very poor background, alot of them could not even afford the school feess despite the heavy subsidies from the government. Also, many of them are not even aware they can apply for financial aid in their respective schools.

They have to work part-time to support themselves, sometimes their families, which inevitability may affects their studies. Perphaps we can lookout for this group of student who are in need of help and we can do our part by educating them of the aids they can turn to.

To apply for these grant or aids, there is a requirement that the household income must not exceed certain amount. Therefore, there is another group of student who will be caught in between, they are financially stressed but not eligible to for any assistance. They can still seek special assistance through their schools, but their request will be reviewed case by case basis.

And for those to seek to loan money from banks, not many banks offer study loans for students, here is a few which I know of that offer loan at a reasonable rate.
RHB Bank Berhad
Tel: 1800 323 0100
Website: www.rhbbank.com.sg

Maybank
Tel: 1800 629 2265
Website: www.maybank2u.com.sg

NTUC Thrift & Loan Co-operative Limited
Tel: 6534 7360
Website: www.ntucthrift.com.sg

Social Proof - Principle of Influence

2006-11-01T18:46:00.000+08:00

When the social norms in a society is unclear, people tends to be at a "lost". They need a clear directions or signs to follow, therefore they will be looking at each other for cues. Sometimes we called it the "Herd Instinct"; we move along with the majority, or doing what is "normal" in that group.Also, most people tends to agree to proposals, products or services that will be preceived as acceptable by the majority.

In a concert, when a person starts applauding the natural urge is applaud with him is nearly unstoppable. Therefore, sometimes we are influenced unconsiously.

Applying this in a classroom environment... whenever a new term starts or a new class is formed, this is the stage when the "norm" in the class is unclear and the students are watching each other for the "normal things" to do. This is where we must step in to set the norms, rules and regulations. Failing to do so, we may find ourselves struggling to set it at the later stage of the classes.

A final recap of the Principle of Influences
R - Reciporation
E - Emotion
C - Contrast
C - Commitment & Consistency
L - Liking
A - Authority
S - Scarcity
S - Social Proof

Scarcity - Principle of Influence

2006-10-31T21:52:00.000+08:00

"... While stocks last!!", "Sale 50%! Today Only!", "Offer limit to 1st 50 call-in customer!"

Saw the catch here? Yes, scarcity; Limited stocks, today only and 1st 50 callers. All these sale tatics works on this principle. People tends to react when there are limited numbers, e.g. Limited edition watch, stamps etc.. Sales person love to use this to create the "sense of demand".

So next time when you come across such offers.. clam your nerves and consciously ask yourself a question, why you want it? Do you really need it?

Using this your class? Perhaps, you can reward top ten student in your class to have completed your assignment with flying colours?