Perhaps we should start by saying that thanks to the Covid-19 “tsunami” pandemic, there has been a profound change in so many aspects, including attention to educational diversity and student needs, although it seems that many want to think that it has only been an interval in their existence to continue their vital reading in the chapter and in the paragraph where they left it.
Among other fields, in education, not only the tip but the entire iceberg has emerged, of the immense need for technological application, digitalization, and the much-discussed virtual classes. As if that were not enough, it is essential to motivate students. It has been known for a long time, supported by multiple investigations, the importance and performance of motivation in the quality of learning.
To stimulate our children to action, the first and fundamental thing will be to know and understand them, since each one, according to their singularity, will be incentivized by diverse interests.
What am I in school for? For whom? Why?
You, readers of this article, who among other things may be teachers, counselors, members of the management team… do not place the paralyzing objection before the solution is provided to you, “let’s not break the donkey’s back by putting it behind the cart.”
Not only is quality education necessary for our children, and in turn they are the object and essence of it, but one of the intervening parties, the teachers, are also in their very important work. The question is, what moves to action, or motivates, the teaching professionals? They themselves may forget or take away relevance from this question when developing their mission, even though they theoretically ask their students to be motivated.
Let’s start from a classic approach, perhaps a bit idealistic, and show teachers as “paidagogos”, those who practice the art of teaching children, those who “influence” the mood of students so that they proceed in a certain way, those who stimulate them to awaken their interest. Yes, we are going to choose this signifier over that of “docens”, the one who teaches, that of “magister” (teacher) with its aberration in the translation from Latin “the most best”, or that of professor, speaking in front of people, that is, students.
Returning to some of the links in this chain, you may be in a situation as a teacher such as stagnation, where you perceive that, due to extrinsic causes, such as workload, salary, lack of resources, lack of recognition and the limitations of the curriculum, your motivation, the factors that led you to choose your work as a teacher have lost their light.
However, despite all the burdens, including the lack of support from the administration or perhaps the involvement of the management team, you know that the best reward is born within yourself and is the enjoyment or satisfaction in teaching. For that joy, there has to be feedback from your students and that teaching-learning interaction is established in which you also evolve and acquire new knowledge.
Training is constant, being motivated is never stopping learning, having concern, interest, curiosity to discover and understand, challenges to overcome.
In your daily work with children, with young people, it is certain that on more than one occasion, and even constantly, you have considered the scope of your teaching activity or why you undertook this path, and this is intimately linked to the why and the for whom.
Without false modesty, the why of a teacher can be in line with the transcendent or how to participate in the construction of a new world through the “art of teaching” and encourage each of the children to achieve academic, personal and social success, making clear the for whom, why carry out teaching precisely so that each of those children achieve the maximum of their well-being and contribute with their existence and knowledge to the future of society.
Do not lose sight of your objective, your mission is to know each of your students.
The metaphor is widespread that paidagogos through their teaching sow the seed of wisdom in the pais (children), but if we asked a farmer how a robust, healthy and fertile plant could grow, among many other clarifications he would tell us to start with what type of seed, in what soil and what characteristics it presented, in what season and when…said in a synthetic way an immense need to have information and to know, because if it is not known, the result of his harvest would be haphazard and random. In the same way, one must be exhaustive and extensive in terms of the knowledge of our minors, of their needs, of their strengths, of how to really address their diversity, seeking an inclusive education.
Maybe, or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say at worst, I am answered that knowing all the students is an impossible mission due to time and cost, that there are other demands of the center, of the program that demand your attention and do not leave you space, that already for when more flattering conditions are given, that with the Covid-19 everything has become much more complicated, I have it controlled (can you honestly say this?).
Do not lose sight of your objective, your mission is to know each of your students, the good germ is in each of them, with their idiosyncrasy, with their diversity. Giving blindly, without the necessary information:
- the probabilities of success decrease highly
- among other alternatives, you, as a paidagogo, can also fall into discouragement, into monotony.
Does my educational center know the students? How do I know that we are doing things well for attention to diversity?
There are many educational centers, each of them with characteristics that distinguish them, in the same way as the people who give them life. With an almost absolute probability you will have part of your students with special educational needs, let’s not confuse ourselves it is not the equivalent of saying minors with attention to diversity, others with learning difficulties of more or less magnitude, others who, without knowing well why or without having clear the reason suspend or have to make great efforts to pass the tests, although it does not seem that there is anything clear that explains it either.
We can also find minors with abrupt changes in their itinerary and that we do not define what is happening and so many more peculiarities.
To really attend to diversity, understanding by this the recognition of the other person, of their individuality, originality and unrepeatability (the RAE describes it with three words: variety, dissimilarity, difference), that is, each of us, each of the children, it will be necessary to start by knowing each of the minors and to know with precision what each of the children and young people really needs, which is the essential mission in education, but also, as a teaching team, as a center, also these valuable data can serve to know what resources to use to meet the real needs of your students, that is, what more specific training for teachers would be convenient to culminate the success of attention to minors, in the same way you could make more adjusted forecasts of means to reality per course, per cycles, per stages.
Currently, in educational centers global and static data are given, but not live and concrete. Now it is possible to quickly obtain relevant and valuable information to act accordingly and achieve the maximum well-being of the diversity of each of your students.
Although it may be extraordinary to see a living rose bush in the middle of the desert, the effort will not only be excessive as well as the use of valuable resources, much better to know the characteristics of the land, adapt something more suitable and be able to use more wisely the distribution of resources in other types of land.
The dide online platform in a fast, simple, economical way in time and money, without the direct intervention of the minor, through observational methodology will offer you extensive and valuable information of a complete profile (consult the indicators or markers that dide studies) of each of your students.
Even though dide was born before the pandemic, it is a tool, with the EU seal of excellence, ideal to work and evolve with respect to knowledge and the real attention to the diversity of minors in singular circumstances such as those imposed by Covid-19, a situation that from the digital aspect and its scope came to stay.
With dide technology you have it at your fingertips to facilitate your task, to reach your goal.
Parents can also get to know their children better to offer them the best help. They only have to enter dide family, observe their behaviors, answer a digital questionnaire and invite, if they wish, others to participate (father/mother, support teacher…) so that they also contribute their vision about the child.
Attention to diversity begins by knowing your students, request an interview now to receive more information:
You may be interested in: Online Course “Skills in attention to diversity and inclusion in the classroom”
