Passage 20
看点评
We find that bright
children are not often held back by mixed-ability teaching. On the
contrary, both their knowledge and experience are improved. We
feel that there are many disadvantages in streaming pupils, a way to
teach pupils in groups according to their ability. It does not pay
attention to the fact that children develop at different speed. It
can have a bad effect on both the bright and not-so-bright
children. After all it can be quite discouraging to be at the
bottom of the top grade!
Besides, it is rather
unreal to grade people just according to their intellectual
(智力的)
ability. This is only one aspect
(方面)
of their total personality. We are concerned to develop the
abilities of all our pupils to the full, not just their academic
(学术理论的)
ability. We also value personal qualities
(品质)
and social skills, and we find that mixed-ability teaching helps improve
all these aspects of learning.
In our classroom, we
work in various ways. The pupils often work in groups; this gives
them the chances to learn to co-operate, to share, and to develop
leadership skills. They also learn how to deal with personal
problems as well as learning how to think, to make decisions, at analyze
and evaluate (分析和评价),
and to communicate effectively. The pupils learn from each other
as well as from the teacher.
Sometimes the pupils
work in pairs; sometimes they work on individual
(个人的)
tasks and assignments and they can do this at their own speed.
They also have some formal class teaching when this is right and
suitable. We encourage our pupils to use the library, and we
teach them the skills they need in order to do this effectively.
An advanced pupil can do advanced work; it does not matter what age the
child is. We expect our pupils to do their best, not their least,
and we give them every encouragement to achieve this goal.