Why are some students more successful in school than others?
Every student has a possibility to be successful in studying and create a good future for himself. However, in practice it appears that some students are more successful than others. There are many reasons for it.
In order to understand whether the student is successful or not, first of all it is necessary to identify, what is meant under the term “successful”. The student is considered to be successful in case he or she has developed certain skills (that do not relate to special subject). The other criterion is grades. Usually, the student is considered to be successful in case he or she gets high grades at school. Some students are good in all subjects, some in several subjects. Also, there are students who get low grades in all subjects.
Another criterion of measuring students’ success is their future employment. Thus, “many schools and colleges are focused on their students’ future possibility to be employed and to earn good salaries. Surely, a lot of researchers confirm that successful college graduates receive much higher salaries than those who have only high school diploma” (Karram, 2014).
There remains a question what is more important for the students: future employment and salary or having an interesting occupation that suits to the person most of all. Of course, it is hardly possible to be happy if the person does not like the job he is doing. However, modern economy and general situation insists that money rules the world. Therefore, possibility to earn good money is extremely important. The students’ goal is to find the sphere where they can apply their knowledge and that is interesting for them. Achieving this goal is a powerful motivation for young people to study and be successful at school.
Factors Preventing Students from Being Successful Learners
There are various reasons for getting poor grades at school. They can be external, such as choosing of courses that are too difficult for the certain student or bad teachers.
Usually, students feel better and are able to receive higher grades in the classes, where the psychological atmosphere is good and friendly. It is important for the student to be understood by teachers and peers, to have good relationships with them, feel comfortable and not to be isolated or ignored. The teachers’ role is to work on creation of such an atmosphere through their own attitude, working with students and their parents.
The teachers play an important role in the process of learning especially at school. Good and talented teacher, who likes his subject, can significantly help students to study successfully and to love the course. Bad teacher can transform any course into boring and difficult one and thus make students dislike it.
Another type of reasons for poor grades is poor attitude. These reasons include poor motivation, not doing the homework and skipping classes.
Personal reasons include problems at home, not enough time to do homework, etc. In case the student does not do homework systematically, the possibility of getting low grades is very high.
There are also many reasons of socioeconomic character. Thus, students from the families with low income, students of color, students with unstable home lives, students whose native language differs from the one that is the language of instruction at school, all of them have disadvantages and are at risk of getting poor grades.
The teachers’ task is to help all students to be successful learners regardless of their family background and other peculiarities.
How Teachers and Parents Can Help?
Nowadays schools have taken a very significant function in children’s development. In the past, this role belonged mostly to families and church. So, now the quality of school education is very important for students’ education and development. The school’s atmosphere, teachers, peers, values have a great influence on the students’ success and desire to learn. “School connectedness is defined as students’ belief that teachers at school treat them as people and individual learners” (Blum & Libbey, 2004).
“Children that feel connected want to go to school every morning. Despite problems in the families, connected children look forward to seeing their teachers and friends because they feel respected, valued and supported” (Goodenow, 1993).
On the other hand teachers and parents can explain children the importance of successful learning for their future life, career and socioeconomic status. Students should understand that their future life is closely connected with the level of their education that means that in order to earn good money and to afford everything they want and realize their goals, they should study now.
Results confirmed that both unsuccessful and successful students used different learning strategies for their academic achievement. The strategy of Elaboration and Comprehension Monitoring were most closely related to the academic achievement” (Fathi-Ashtiani, Hasani, Nabipoor-Ashrafi, Ejei & Azadfallah, 2007).
Parents can also be of help for their children.
“Researchers suggest dividing parents’ involvement into two main categories:
- Home-based attitudes and activities, for example, having high expectations, discussing school together, creation of work habits and a right approach to learning, or reading books together.
Conclusions
Although any student has a possibility to learn effectively, still there are many factors that prevent children from being successful at school. The reasons of it can be of different origin: personal, external, socioeconomic, etc. Teachers and parents have possibility to improve child’s performance at school by different ways. First of all teachers can encourage students to learn. Also they can develop a desire to study new interesting things in their students. Parents and teachers should explain the importance of successful learning to children focusing on its meaning to students’ future careers, wee-being and realization of their dreams.
References
Blum, R.W., & Libbey, H.P. (2004). School connectedness: Strengthening health and educational outcomes for teenagers. Executive summary. Journal of school health, 74, 231-232.
Doing What Matters Most. How parents can help their children succeed at school. (2011). People For Education, 1-9. Retrieved from http://www.peopleforeducation.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/People-for-Education-Doing-What-Matters-Most-how-parents-can-help-their-children-succeed-at-school-20111.pdf
Fathi-Ashtiani, A., Hasani, M., Nabipoor-Ashrafi, S., Ejei, J., & Azadfallah, P. (2007). Comparison of learning strategies in successful and unsuccessful students. Arch Med Sci, 3(2), 164-169.
Goodenow, C. (1993). The psychological sense of school membership among adolescents: Scale development and educational correlates. Psychology in the schools, 30, 79-90.
Karram, G. (2014). How should we measure student success?.http://www.universityworldnews.com/. Retrieved 7 October 2014, from http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=2014020515090752
