Private Tuition In A Nutshell

Private tuition simply refers to the academic training that your child undergoes outside of school. In Asia, it is a common practice for parents to sign up their children for tuition. The primary purpose of doing it is to help the children keep up with or excel in their academic studies. (more…)

Home Tutoring: Know How It Works For You And Your Child

Home tutoring is the type of tutoring that is done at home. In Singapore, tutoring refers to receiving instruction relating to academic subjects from a qualified teacher. The manner of teaching may be similar to what is done in tutoring centres. (more…)

Chinese Tuition: The Best Way To Help Your Child Excel In Chinese

In Asia, Chinese is one of the most widely used languages. That is particularly true in Singapore where Chinese is generally used for commerce. That’s why most schools in the city-state include Chinese language in their curriculum. (more…)

To the teens who think that studying is not so productive an activity, you are able to reap benefits right into your old age by staying attentive in school and by going through a longer period of education. Studies have found that the battle against Alzheimer’s starts at school age. Schooling keeps our brains productively engaged and promotes the continued growth of neural connections. The more neural connections established in youth, the greater buffer we develop against the onset of old-age brain diseases.

What about Alzheimer’s you may ask? Tangles and plagues form in our brains naturally as we age. To the more susceptible brains, the ability of memory recollection is impaired, leading to learning difficulties. Furthermore, the behaviour of individuals may be severely affected, and late-stage symptoms include the inability to carry on conversations. There is currently no cure for Alzheimer’s.

The next time that somebody goes “what’s the point, I won’t remember a thing after I graduate”, you can let that person know that he has acquired a sharper and a more durable brain.

Dailymail UK: The battle against Alzheimer’s starts at school age: Research pinpoints three key stages that help keep disease at bay

Tutors and parents take note. If a child is tired for lessons and is putting on weight, it could be due to the television in his room.

I have never been much attracted to television programmes; especially the trashy ones of local channels. Researchers have confirmed that just 1 television in the living room is enough. I cannot understand how some families can have up to 5 sets of those in a small HDB flat. It’s time to remove the TV sets from the children’s room, especially if their sleep and their health is affected. Everything needs to be taken in moderation. Sure, the Chinese and English programmes may be great for language learning, but a limit has to be set and equal attention has to be paid to reading.

Globalpost: Study – TVs in kids’ bedrooms double obesity risk

According to Reuters’ poll, 1 in 4 Americans believe that the world will be coming to an end on 21 Dec 2012. 1 of every 7 people globally hold the same belief. NASA and many other scientists however, have done their thorough study and concluded that nothing out of the ordinary will likely happen to end the world this year.

Historically, many apocalyptic dates were predicted by mankind. A fictional planet was said to be colliding into Earth in 2003. The ‘millennial bug’ was postulated to end the world on 31 Dec 1999. At least 6 other dates were predicted in the 1990s. With so many not-so-near misses of Armageddon in our lifetime, I think it’s much safer to get on with our lives; to continue learning, and to continue teaching and educating our young to be prepared to handle the Armageddons of their future.

BBC Future: Our never ending obsession with the Apocalypse

Thanks again to Science and Technology for making our lives interesting. A new company by the name of InteraXon has developed a chic headband which is able to read your brainwaves. It is able to sense Alpha and Beta waves emitted from your brain. Alpha waves are associated with the relaxed mental and physical state whereas Beta waves are associated with the state of concentration. Your brainwave report can be sent via bluetooth immediately to your smartphone. A potential application include the monitoring and enhancement of one’s state of focus. Young children who are easily distracted may uncover conditions that put them in optimal learning states.

Game developers are looking to incorporate such a technology in their consoles as well. The company has at the moment developed a demonstration set that allows you to control the opening of a beer tab just by mentally willing it to do so. They also have a t-shirt that displays your brainwave patterns prominently on it.

Full Report from Wall Street Journal: Headband Unlocks Brain’s Secrets

Could this headband help improve the quality of learning of children with difficulties?

Ariel Garten, CEO of InteraXon

A new study in Clinical Psychological Science suggests that a wandering mind ages you. It is easy for us to be distracted by the email and sporadic SMSes nowadays. This spells trouble for older folks, who ought to be more careful about their health, but children should be taught not to submit to the constant distractions around them too. Habits are formed from an early age, so it is critical for tutors and parents to educate the young ones about not succumbing to the whimsical chirps of their communicative devices.

Researchers from the University of California used telomeres of subjects as indicators of aging. Telomeres are protective caps found at the end of chromosomes. They get shorter as we grow older, and they can indicate the onset of diseases related to old age. Researchers tested over two hundred thirty educated women over the age of fifty. Respondents who showed signs of wandering minds in their questionnaires had shorter telomeres of about 200 base pairs; the equivalent of about additional 4 years of aging…

Full Story at NBC: Your wandering mind is aging you

An Autistic Child Went On To Earn Her PhD. Dr Grandin shows us that every mind should be given the chance to shine. Parents and tutors ought to be patient and nurture the different kind of minds they encounter, not just the academically strong ones.

Dr Grandin says that she thinks in vivid images, and was unable to speak until the age of 4. She was diagnosed as autistic but instead of losing hope, her mother challenged her to achieve more. Grandin proposes that people are generally pattern thinkers or word-thinkers, rather than visual thinkers. Pattern thinkers are usually good at Maths, Science and programming, whereas the word-thinkers are better with languages. We may use a combination of the 3 different kinds of thinking as well.

Rather than classify non-pattern or non-word thinkers as ‘stupid’, educators and society ought to work with visual thinkers in a different manner.

Full Story: Grandin says there are many different kinds of minds

How has Singapore done in the overall after all the effort we have put into tuition and into building our public education system? In a 2009 international study conducted by the OECD, Singapore is placed top 5 among 65 countries on the three scales of assessment: Reading, Maths, and Science…

Read the full article and view the full ranking table: Singapore’s Education System – How It Ranks Globally