Page 32 - Issue 112 May-June 2021

Education Education through the lens of educators Feliciea Jibson and Josianne Pisani write about the move from teacher centred lessons to being more student centred. 32 An inclusive system The education system as we know it today was created in and for the industrial era. Things have changed in leaps and bounds since then. The classrooms are naturally much better equipped. We have moved from having teacher centred lessons to those that are more student centred, from a streaming to a setting approach, and from an exclusive to a more inclusive system. Today, education is accessible to many more learners. The changes that we have seen over the last few years also mean that children are more involved in the learning process and are no longer placed in a class according to their academic performance but rather according to their ability in the different subjects. This is definitely a step in the right direction. Yet, there is often a disjunction between the learners and their learning environment, which at times results in some learners falling behind or being unable to cope, creating frustration, anxiety and a sense of failure. In a way, there are many Non-SEN learners who are SEN in that they have unique educational needs and the reasons for it are many. “Disjunction between the learners and their learning environment” Children are grouped by age and are expected to follow a standardised system dictated by what learners can or can’t do at a particular age. The system is based on the assumption that all kids of the same age have the same skills and abilities. But this is far from the reality that is witnessed in the classroom. Children have different strengths and weaknesses, different aptitudes, learning styles, interests, characters, backgrounds, levels of maturity and different needs which affect how and what they learn. Whilst teachers try to take into consideration as many of the eight components mentioned above as possible SEN112 senmagazine.co.uk