Solitary Learners

Individual adults or children who learn only when they are alone are solitary learners. Learners who struggle to learn in groups prefer less sensory inputs from the external environment. Concentration is more easily achieved for them when external stimuli is restricted to the ones that are relevant to the subject being taught. Many learners can manage to learn despite extraneous stimuli. Many learn better only when there is a lot of stimuli. Both learn in groups. There is a misconception that students need to go to schools because social learning is equally important; learning to share, team work and learning to play sports that involve team games are seen as essential to building a wholesome personality. It is said that it helps students learn to live in a community which is necessary when they become adults. This notion is problematic. Although, there are students who say that they enjoy their school life, there are also those who abhor school life. Although, there are adults who say that they would want their childhood back, which was to them a treasure house of fond memories, there are those who say that their childhood was hard enough the first time. Having to relive them in memory is intensely painful. Why is this the case? 

Social learning is not relevant to learning academic subjects. Children have to treat one another with respect. If there is bullying in school then teachers have to correct them strongly. The students who are bullied are affected and their learning gets affected. This can affect their outlook towards society later on as the scars left behind do not go away easily. Social learning is anyway messed up. Teachers can make or break the world. The early seeds grow with life's experiences. This is why teachers have to also be mentors.

Working with adults involves a completely different outlook when compared to working with children. This comes with exposure anyway.

It can be said that the clamor for social learning in schools is overstated.

If a child learns under a tutor individually, then social learning is still possible. There are avenues where children can interact with other children through forums for the young ones to get together, playgrounds and interactions focused on general knowledge about the world and value based living.  

This is where tutors serve the purpose better as they can give individual attention more easily than teachers. What is needed is a tutor who ought to attend to only one student at a time. This can also compliment school education. Tutors and teachers need to stay abreast of their methodologies so that the child does not get confused as a possible consequence of different teaching styles.  They need to work together for that.

This facility and acceptance of solitary learners would help open the flood gates for them to bask in the activity of learning without a dull moment in their experience.

The stigma associated with solitary learners is ill founded. 

At any rate, learning takes place only at the individual level. Even students who study in groups, learn alone.

From Pebbles to Breakthroughs

We come across different students in a classroom. Some students demonstrate brilliant abilities to grasp but have difficulty thinking out of the box. Some have wonderful artistic skills and are very imaginative but do not do well in standardized tests. There are students who have very interesting ways of thinking but do not fit in the traditional classroom scenario. There is this difficulty among teachers as to how to handle and stimulate creativity and unorthodox thinking. Did you know that it is possible for imaginative people to do well in standardized tests as well? Teachers need to teach students how to use their strengths to crack exams. For long it was thought that as students have their unique strengths, they cannot do well in subjects that require other faculties which are perceived to be weaker. This is mistaken as there are umpteen examples of individuals learning to use their strengths successfully, even in areas where they have difficulties.

There are some strategies which can help teachers harness in students cross coordination of thinking. Cross coordination of thinking is about coordinating between the left and right hemispheres of the brain. This is difficult. For example; in Maths if a student uses imagination, the method of problem solving can be drastically different. The solution may be seen as a hunch and the student may have to work backwards from the solution to the problem. This approach is still perceived as counter intuitive as we rely on linear approaches, for the most part, in all walks of life. Similarly, in drawing if a student uses his logical faculty, he/she will bring about a completely different flavor to the art in consideration. Schools in the past discouraged this approach as it runs contrary to the systematic way of problem solving as prescribed in text books.
 This notion affected many students as they could not use their strengths to their advantage. The sharp boundary that separates the left brain and the right brain is often misunderstood. This has not been assessed accurately and research continues unabated. Irrespective of the dominance of thought-process, teachers can help students, master skills by guiding them along their lines of thinking. Instead of curbing unique approaches and perspectives, they need to develop them. Cross- coordination of thinking brings in the magic of originality-the one gift that money can’t buy.