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7 Drawing Insights from the “Catering for Individual Differences: Building on Variation” Project LO Mun Ling Introduction Have we been successful at developing a strategy to cater for individual differences? We believe that we have succeeded in pointing out a direction, even if we have not had sufficient success in solving the problem once and for all. Our work over the three years of the project confirms that critical differences exist between different students’ ways of seeing most of the things that they are expected to learn about in school. Above all, there are critical differences between the students’ intuitive understanding and the understanding that is embodied in the notations and concepts of schools, which have caused many students to fail in school. If we are serious about catering for individual differences, and really determined to enable each student to learn, then we must identify and address these differences. In the previous chapters, we showed how we tried to accomplish this. However, it is not an easy task; neither is there an instant solution. We need to work on the curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, and teacher empowerment simultaneously. Learning Study, which is based on the conceptual framework of variation, has proved to be a powerful tool. Below we discuss the effect of our study. Advancing the professional knowledge base of teaching Improving the curriculum In Hong Kong, the majority of primary school teachers are non-graduates who obtained their certificate in education through sub-degree programmes. The length of such programmes does not allow them to develop a substantive knowledge base of their teaching subjects and a sound knowledge of the curriculum. In many schools, teachers also have to teach subjects that they are not trained in. Thus, these teachers tend to be reliant on textbooks. 134 Lo Mun Ling Unfortunately, we often find a lack of coherence or internal logic in the sequencing of some of the topics in textbooks. For example, in the learning of fractions, the concepts of units and unitizing are very important. Yet these are inadequately dealt with in most textbooks. In the Learning Study on water, students were confused by the use of the same term “ ” (water vapour) for steam (issuing from boiling water), water vapour (issuing from hot water) that is visible, and water in the gaseous state that is not visible. In the Learning Study on the colour of light, both teachers and students were misled by the reference to the “seven” colours of the rainbow, as a rainbow shows a spectrum of colours and not only seven of them. Our Learning Studies throw light on how student difficulties in learning these concepts can be identified and dealt with in each teaching unit, and how the curriculum can be better organized, structured, and modified to help students learn more deeply and effectively. Also, the limited resource provided by a textbook is not adequate for achieving certain chosen objects of learning. For example, in the Learning Study in Primary 4 Chinese language, which was about modern poetry (in the year 2000/01), many additional modern poems written by Chinese children were used as supplementary material. These poems were chosen to create the variation necessary for students to discern the common critical aspects of modern poetry. Teachers in the Learning Study groups developed more confidence in deviating from their textbooks. The object of learning in each Learning Study was very carefully chosen. These objects of learning were chosen because they were worthwhile capabilities to be developed; for example, the capability to understand certain concepts that were so difficult that they often presented themselves as obstacles to further learning for many students. The teachers were not satisfied with simply teaching facts or superficial understanding. They ventured into the arena of higher order thinking skills and deeper appreciation of the disciplines. Many students get by in school and may even obtain a university degree without really understanding what they are supposed to learn. Does it matter? Initially, we pointed out that we believe that one of the most important forms of learning is learning that affects our way of seeing, and that one of the most important purposes of schooling is to help children see the world in more powerful ways. Gardner (1991) says it very well: “The understandings of the disciplines represent the most important cognitive achievements of human beings. It is necessary to come to know these understandings if we are to be fully human, to live in our time, to be able to understand...

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