It can be hard and frustrating for parents to get their children to do assessments outside the classroom. But it comes as no surprise when children are resistant -- that's because they do not like doing assessment books. Here are five reasons why:
1. No sense of progress.
Doing one question feels the same as doing ten questions in a row. A sense of progress is needed to motivate children to practice more and give them a feeling of achievement.
2. Assessments are not engaging enough
The attention span of a child is very short; therefore content needs to be interactive in order to be engaging. Normal assessment books tend to use repetitive question formats.
3. Lack of confidence-building
Children need to build up their confidence or else they will not be motivated. Nobody wants to do something that keeps reminding them how incapable they are. To overcome this, kids need to first practice with questions that they are good at before progressing to more challenging ones later.
4. Learning in isolation.
When kids learn by themselves it is easy for them to give up. When they come across challenging assessments, the lack of interaction and discussion lessens the richness of the learning experience.
5. No sense of encouragement
Kids need lots of encouragement when they study, but it is not possible for parents to say ‘well done’ every time a child completes a question.
How are Koobits EDU assessments different?
KooBits EDU assessments offer more than just MCQ questions. They include various types of interactive questions and tasks that will help children in the five following ways:
1. KooBits assigns progressive levels to every child and awards points and badges when books are completed. This creates a strong sense of achievement for children and motivates them to practice more.
2. With features such as small animations and timers for each question, kids are constantly engaged throughout the learning process.
3. KooBits gives kids unlimited access to every topic from P1 to P6. Kids can start with the topics they prefer as they build up their confidence and continue on to more difficult questions.
4. With the KooBits virtual community, kids are not alone when they study. They can join different leagues that create healthy competition and incentives for kids to keep on practising if they want to rise in their league positions. The leagues also serve as a community to let children know that they are not alone.
5. KooBits uses different forms of encouragement. These range from giving verbal prompts to actual physical prizes so that kids never feel demotivated.
A teaser question for you
So you think you can do your child’s assessments? Try out this sample question just for fun:
1. Mr Wong bought some books for his students. If he gives each of them 3 books, he would have 16 books left. If he were to give them 5 books each, he would need another 6 books. How many books did he buy?
Stumped? Find out the answer to the above question via the KooBits Trial App (https://bit.ly/KooBitsTrial) on theAsianparent Facebook fan page! From there you can also gain access to a free trial of the KooBits platform throughout October 2012, and discover why KooBits members keep practising and scoring top grades month after month!
About Koobits
KooBits EDU is one of the top learning portals in Singapore. It aims to develop your child’s problem-solving skills by combining MOE curriculum-based assessment questions with social gaming elements, making it cool to know the answers and score good grades. To date, over 160,000 assessment books have been completed on the KooBits EDU portal and our members eagerly await each week’s collection of new assessment books.
