Innovative solutions key to modern learning, says Tikolo

For education to stand the test, which 21st Century knowledge acquisition process presents, continuous review and implementation of innovative solutions to make the teaching process more engaging remains a sine qua non.

This is the view of Head of School, Newland Elementary School, Mafoluku, Lagos State, Dr. (Mrs.) Adrienne Tikolo, who contends that with the rapid pace at which technology is evolving and being intertwined in our daily lives, searching for, and implementing these solutions, have become key function of educators.

She maintained that as a matter of necessity, educators are challenged to find ways of improving the system in order to ensure that schools deliver value not just to the students and their parents, but also for the overall growth and development of the society, adding that the school system has undergone rapid transformation in the past decades, so much so that the modern classrooms are almost unrecognisable from what classrooms used to be.

Blackboards and chalks have given way to whiteboards, smartboards and projectors, which make the classrooms much more engaging and by so doing, improve students’ cognition,” Tikolo noted.

However, in spite of the impact of technology in the classroom, some age-long solutions have also proven to be quite effective in engendering greater student participation and interest in subjects loathed by a groundswell of students such as mathematics.

For instance, many students have historically struggled with mathematics as a result of a phobia for the subject. Students in this category easily brand the subject as an uninteresting one, a development that ultimately increases the difficulty they associate with it. This factor, in addition to the processing of large and complex numbers, among others still contribute immensely to heightening the phobia.

The search for an antidote for this phobia and related challenges Tikolo said is what led her school to include the Abacus Solution in the school curriculum.

“With the phobia gone, students come to see maths as just another interesting subject. The speed of thought and processing power that The Abacus Solution avails are skills that the students would potentially transfer to other subjects,” Tikolo stated.

The challenge with implementing many of the solutions that have the potential to transform the classroom is finding the right technical support to ensure that the projects are implemented in a sustainable manner.

“Edusoft Associates has been a worthy partner in the implementation of The Abacus Solution in our school. Their support has been critical to getting the students to be a lot more interested in mathematics. Students’ phobia for the subject is long gone,” she concluded.