Teacher develops strategy to foster children’s skills

JEDDAH — In a move to encourage and develop elementary school children’s skills, Ahmed Saleh Omar Al-Dayni, a mathematics teacher in Al-Faisaliah School for Gifted Students in Jeddah, has adopted an educational program in partnership with Mahmood Saleh Abbar Company, the approved agent for Casio products in the Kingdom. The company supports the initiative in order to document its social partnership with an effective role in boosting the educational and pedagogic development as a distinguished partner of educational programs. Realizing the educational role of building a child’s sensual, social, motional, emotional and mental character requires teachers to be equipped with knowledge in all educational methods that enrich such character in line with the 21st century skills. A child’s initial opportunity for self-realization lies in playing activities; his or her various attitudes and preparation for future life, which is determined by the teacher’s awareness toward such playing. In such activities children learn by playing through suitable functional ways for learning. Organizing learning shall be with accordance to what is called “Leaning by Playing” where a child plays in way that does not make him or her lose spontaneity. Children here are encouraged to actively interact with sensual motivations that attract and grab their attention, realize their needs and promote thinking skills. The child in this context of playing and learning lives his or her childhood and at the same time the teacher takes him or her to the required goal of the learning process through the child’s physical experience with things, images and different incitements that allows them to use the five senses to touch, examine, see, taste and classify them. Different toys and favorite activities that attract the attention of children can be presented to them, such as toys in the form of a variety of animal models that can be given to them to classify into pets and wild animals. Children can also be given pieces of cubes and ask them to form various models of cars, animals, houses and bridges and other desired forms. Doing so would foster children’s imaginary thoughts. Therefore, it requires teachers to adopt such a strategy and activate it when implementing children’s skills programs in classrooms because of their positive impact on learners. — SG