By: Megan Prats

1/15/2015

When it comes to the need component of the customized curriculum, a make-or-break factor in the student’s success at 2learn® is how you diagnose what the student needs. Now, sometimes the student is insightful enough to know what she needs but nine times out of ten, the student is either wrong or misguided. Because the student is not a professional teacher and hasn’t been trained in the 2learn® Method like yourself, the student doesn’t have the knowledge nor skill to diagnose herself. So, it is up to you!

When diagnosing the student, in general, you should see how substance, critical thinking, and/or emotion hinder the student from realizing faster results. Now, this is easier said than done as sometimes what the student needs is clear to you from the 1st lesson and sometimes, it takes more time to make an accurate diagnosis. Because diagnosing a student requires critical thinking as it is always a problem that you’ve never seen before, rely on your critical thinking skills to show you the way.

Once the student’s issue has been diagnosed (i.e. need to be more creative when thinking in English etc.), this should be a key factor in how you design the student’s customized curriculum as focusing on the student’s weaknesses will allow her to see those faster results sooner than if you focus on her strengths.

Another key factor of the diagnosis is to tell the student what the issue is. When you provide the student this valuable feedback, the student is more clear as to where she should focus her energies. Because the student is aware, she can focus herself on these tasks inside and outside of the lesson. And, when the student devotes herself to strengthening her weaknesses, her weaknesses don’t remain weak for long. Second, conveying the diagnosis to the student is important because the student will then give you feedback on what she thinks that the issue is. Even though you’re a trained professional and an authority on learning diagnosis, you are not always going to get it right as the student knows herself much more than you know her thus in the absence of information, you might be blind to the root of the problem. Thus, hear what the student has to say about your diagnosis and modify it if need be.

A diagnosis is just a first step. Because the customized curriculum is always evolving, your diagnosis must adapt to the ever-changing learning environment that you and the student operate in. Sometimes, a diagnosis needs not only to be molded, but expanded upon, or broken down into smaller parts. Because there really is no answer as to how best to diagnose the student and how to evolve the diagnosis to the student over time, critical thinking and intuition are the authorities here. Nevertheless, your diagnoses should consider at least the three basic elements of learning issues: substantive, critical thinking, and emotional; to be as accurate as possible.

© Megan Prats 2015