Learning Difficulties
Who doesn’t have them?
Everyone … yes, everyone struggles to learn new concepts and skills, whilst a minority do have mental impediments that will block the understanding of particular concepts that bar an individual from ever achieving the competence in a particular small area of knowledge.
The Three most commonly diagnosed learning difficulties
Dyslexia is a common learning difficulty that can cause problems with reading, writing and spelling. It’s a specific learning difficulty, which means it causes problems with certain abilities used for learning, such as reading and writing. Unlike a learning disability, intelligence isn’t affected. [Read More]
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common mental disorders affecting around 8.4% children tapering to 2.5% in adults. Symptoms of ADHD include inattention (not being able to keep focus), hyperactivity (excess movement that is not fitting to the setting) & impulsivity (hasty acts that occur in the moment without thought). [Read More]
Dyscalculia is a specific and persistent difficulty in understanding numbers which can lead to a diverse range of difficulties with mathematics. It will be unexpected in relation to age, level of education and experience and occurs across all ages and abilities. [Read More]
Everyone has the ability to learn
Every person has the inherent curiosity to learn. What differentiates one person from another, is the will and motivation to learn particular knowledge. There are individuals whose only interest in automobiles is to get a driver’s license and start and drive a car without even the slightest inclination of how the machine operates, whilst others meticulously research and learn everything there is to know about the auto of their choice, sometimes well before they purchase it, and will have detailed knowledge of the maintenance regime and the how the and why each and every part functions to make the car such a magnificent mechanical wonder.
Why do we learn?
We must learn for our survival. Each person must be able to fend for himself or herself in order to survive in an ever-developing world. Because the eight billion people on Earth today are not stagnant, but moving forward, learning new skills, attaining knowledge and garnering competences that help in surviving and moving forward in social status.
And because society understood that learning is fraught with difficulties for everyone, society established colleges and universities that take up the role of forming young (and not so young) minds to absorb knowledge and achieve a survival kit for life.
Student Centred Learning
Every student struggles to learn. It is therefore preposterous to ever believe that as a student embarks onto the first rung of an undergraduate degree, the focused individual attention that was a mainstay at secondary may simply be dismantled.
Venturing into an undergraduate degree programme of studies requires particular attention to each individual student, not only because of the necessity to ensure that each is coping with the new methodology by which lectures are taught at higher education, but also to identify and amend the many deficiencies that block individual learning.
Student centred learning also identifies the potential for gifted students, allowing those that are able to extend the knowledge in the curriculum even further than that envisaged in the syllabus structure.
Rather than a system whereby learning must fit all, a student-centred methodology determines the uncapped minimum achieved competences that all students must attain to qualify for a degree, allowing academics to guide students throughout the programme on what needs to be done to achieve and surpass these goals.
Benchmarking with internationally recognised standards
Globalisation has meant that nations must be fit for purpose in order to be able to compete internationally and generate wealth for its community. Malta is no stranger to this fact, boldly competing to win foreign direct investment and attract productive jobs to our shores. Yet, international firms will relocate to Malta only if they find amiable and motivated employees ready to take the challenge to the world. The dismal performances of Maltese students in the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) that measures 15-year-olds’ ability to use their reading, mathematics and science knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges, does not augur well for the future well-being of these pupils and the Maltese nation in general. In all aspects, the Maltese students of 2018 PISA assessment had their abilities below the average. These same students are now vying to embark for the higher education, aspiring to read for their first degree.
What can be done to resolve this problem?
Less talk more action.
The first step is to benchmark teaching to an internationally recognised University, that offers a single global examination paper that is corrected by a single examination board, based in London. Thus, students at Saint Martin’s Institute are not competing with their local peers like the state institutions, but are sitting for annual examinations that are sat by tens of thousands of international students.
The second step is to compare the achievement of Saint Martin’s Institute students to the achievement of other students in the teaching centres all over the world. Over forty percent of Saint Martin’s Institute graduates have, year-on-year, achieved a First Class Honours classification, with Singapore the second ranked in this classification managing around twelve percent every year as an average.
The Institute is in no position to tweak the standards just to meet the exigencies of a particular cohort of students. The Institute does not have the luxury of selecting the very best students to ensure such spectacular achievements. The only aspect that will count is the ability of the student in acing the University of London examinations.
Is it magic?
Saint Martin’s Institute is not Hogwarts. It takes a lot of effort and toil by the student under the mentorship of dedicated academics who help build the student’s character and abilities that will surpass the international standards that the University of London upholds.
The end result: students fit for purpose for their selected careers.
Undergraduate students are meant to learn a lot of theory, but simultaneously this theory must be applied to practical, real-life cases. It is not enough to know the theory by rote. Neither can anyone manage purely by trial and error. Students must be able to understand the theory and apply it to real and current case studies, including their own family businesses or organisations they join as interns.
ACT NOW!
If you are interested to read for one of our undergraduate degrees check our website and select the area you would like to study to download a detailed brochure of the programme.
And remember that you will not need to make any tuition fee payments during your studies, since these are taken care of by the StudiesPlus+ scheme, and subsequently 70% of all the expenses are paid through an income tax rebate under the GetQualified Scheme!
Do not hesitate to contact us via email on infodesk@stmartins.edu or by phone on +356 2123 5451 for an in-person appointment to answer any questions which you may have.
