Do children understand it is okay to ask for help and that they are not expected to know what a teacher means immediately?
Over the last few months I have been setting up my own business and that has involved learning a lot of concepts, technology and information fast.
Having been an employee my whole life very little came easily or comfortably. However, I reached out and asked friends, family and experts for advice. This took some courage as I was unsure if this was correct etiquette or the proper way to do business but having spent thirty years telling people it is okay to ask for help if you don't understand something I girded my loins and asked questions. I have been met with nothing but generosity of spirit and kindness by all who have helped me, of their time and knowledge willingly spared to help me understand where I need to be and what I need to do to help myself.
Maybe this is because I am based in the education market and we live what we teach but it did make me remember why I started with the idea of Athena's Toolbox and what I want to achieve from it.
While working as a librarian and housemistress I spent my time helping children to understand how to answer their homework questions or find the information they needed for a project. Often the starting point was the scariest point for a child (and adult) and not understanding what they were being asked to do was a common stumbling block. Learning some key general skills meant they could repeat the process with all their homework, just scaffolding up as they got older.
I felt there were lots of reasons why a child was too shy to ask for help
they had been busy and not spent enough time on their homework
had got distracted in class
had been away on a sporting fixture or been ill and missed a key lesson
they might be coping with learning in a second language or physical impairment
they might be tired having been up all night reading or playing a game
they might be hungry and so unfocused!
Whether the reason is for good or bad what can we do to get children to take the leap to ask for help? After all it does not come naturally to them!
I also know how hard teachers work in class to make sure every child understands the work, and to be open for questions but I don't think asking for help and admitting you don't understand something comes easily to anyone. Some things I have seen work e.g. when giving an essay question make sure your students know how to structure an essay, when setting a project give parameters on what research you want them to do (not just look up the Victorians on google for instance), telling them it is good to have an opinion even if they don't agree but make sure they provide supporting text for their arguments, getting a question wrong is not the end as sometimes you can learn more from the explanation of why it is wrong than getting it right in the first place.