Addressing Learning Gaps Summary

Course: Diploma in Teaching Secondary
Student: Fiel, Mary Rose M.

Professor: Antonino Nalzaro
Topic: Addressing Learning Gaps
I. Content
LEARNING GAP
A learning gap is the difference between what a student has learned.
A learning gap can be relatively minor—the failure to acquire a specific skill or meet a particular learning
standard.
Generally speaking, learning gap refers to the relative performance of individual students
Why there is a learning gap?

1. Economic and Social Opportunity 6. Language and Communication
2. Ecosystem 7. Supply/Demand
3. Purpose 8. Teacher development
4. Technology Gap 9. Struggling Learners
5. Learning Disabilities
How to address these Learning Gaps?

Economic and Social Opportunity
If one thinks about a classroom in the US and a classroom in India in the 1950’s there was not a huge
amount of difference. With technology the gap between the privileged and the under-privileged is
increasing at an unprecedented rate. A classroom in the US today will usually be digitally enabled and
looks radically different from the classroom in India. One of the biggest risks is that innovation in
education and learning will not be inclusive and the education divide will continue to grow.
Language and Communication
Language still remains the largest barrier to online learning for the majority of the world’s population. We
discussed the opportunity to leverage technology to creating a universal language that could break down
the language and communication gap.
Ecosystem
There is far too much fragmentation of effort with parents, education systems, employers, governments
and the learners. Stakeholders need to bring together stakeholders remodel the education ecosystem in
the interest and benefit of the end learner.
Supply/Demand
The gap between supply of skills and demand of skills it growing every year. The formal education system
is failing to adequately prepare people for the world of work. Human capital is the most wasted resource
on the planet. There is an enormous opportunity for technology to help people achieve their full potential
and more adequately meet local market demands. We need employers to be in more sync with what
education providers are training.
Purpose - What are the two most important days of your life? The best answer I’ve ever heard comes
from Mark Twain ‘The day I was born and the day I found out why I was born’. Finding ones purpose is
phenomenally liberating and powerful. However, for most people they never discover what their
‘purpose’ in life is.
Teacher Development
It was strongly felt that teaching as a profession was not sufficiently respected or invested in. Compared
investments in defense and health investments in education lag behind. Larger budgets are required to
get the long term results that society needs.
Technology
In 2013 still 61% of the world’s population did not have access to the internet (Source: International
Telecommunications Union http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_divide). Perhaps the largest gap
needing to be bridged is the digital divide as technology holds the promise to democratize access to
education and in doing so increase access to opportunity.
Struggling of learners
Aggressive approaches that identify student barriers lead to early detection, thus reducing the risk of
learning struggles. For example, if an educator discovers that a student is not well-fed, does not get ample
sleep or does not have adequate shelter, student learning can be impacted, causing a learning gap over
time. Offering assistance to families and students who need environmental resources helps bridge the
learning gap and prevents students from falling behind.
Learning Disabilities
Educators can address this by offering one-on-one tutoring, test-taking assistance, and mentoring and
exam practice sessions before and after school hours to keep kids from lagging behind.
One of the more consequential features of learning gaps is their tendency, if left unaddressed, to
compound over time and become more severe and pronounced, which can increase the chances that a
student will struggle academically and socially or drop out of school.
In addition, if foundational academic skills—such as reading, writing, and math, as well as social and
interpersonal skills—are not acquired by students early on in their education, it may be more difficult for
them to learn these foundational skills later on.
As students’ progress through their education, remediating learning gaps tends can become more difficult
because students may have fallen well behind their peers, or because middle school or high school
teachers may not have specialized training or expertise in teaching foundational academic skills.
How Do You Address Learning Gaps?

 Educators and school administrators can address learning gaps by incorporating an evaluation
system that identifies student learning styles, struggles and potential gaps from one peer to the
next at the onset of preschool or kindergarten.
 In addition, by providing student resources, such as tutoring, mentoring, advising, behavioral

response teams and transportation, students have more equal opportunities to learn to reduce
learning gaps.
 Aggressive approaches that identify student barriers lead to early detection, thus reducing the
risk of learning struggles. For example, if an educator discovers that a student is not well-fed, does
not get ample sleep or does not have adequate shelter, student learning can be impacted, causing
a learning gap over time. Offering assistance to families and students who need environmental
resources helps bridge the learning gap and prevents students from falling behind.
 Additional barriers such as learning disabilities also cause a learning gap. Educators can address
this by offering one-on-one tutoring, test-taking assistance, and mentoring and exam practice
sessions before and after school hours to keep kids from lagging behind. Recognizing a student's
learning style also provides educators the opportunity to appeal to and better educate students
who are visual learners, or those who learn best through hands-on activities, projects and
presentations versus lecture-style teaching.
II. References
https://www.actparents.org.au/index.php/news1/item/222-addressing-learning-difficulties
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_divide

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Course: Diploma in Teaching Secondary

Student: Fiel, Mary Rose M.

A learning gap is the difference between what a student has learned.

Why there is a learning gap?

3. Purpose 8. Teacher development

4. Technology Gap 9. Struggling Learners

How to address these Learning Gaps?

Language and Communication

How Do You Address Learning Gaps?

 In addition, by providing student resources, such as tutoring, mentoring, advising, behavioral

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