BPT1501 Assignment 3

Assignment 3
Student nr: 61717940

Surname: Van Zyl
Name: Francois Burger
E-Mail address: 61717940@mylife.unisa.ac.za
Cell phone number: 0769812347
Group: BP1501-17-S1-199T
Unique number: 659744
TA: Mr N Spence
1. Barriers to learning in schools OR any other learning environment and
suggest ways of addressing them
1
“Communication failures are often the result of the effect of certain barriers to
effective communication which distort the reception of a message.”
2
“These barriers are categorised as follows:
 Physical barriers(physical noise such as the sound of heavy traffic passing the
school building or the scratching of chalk on the blackboard)
 Physiological barriers (poor health or specific handicaps such as a hearing
disability or a stammer)
 Psychological barriers(a negative attitude such as the dislike of a particular
school subject, or emotions such as fear of punishment)
 Perceptual barriers(differences in the age, background, education, gender,
interests or the culture of the teacher and the learners)"
There are many factors that determine a student’s ability to learn in schools. The four
biggest factors are social and cultural barriers, motivation, personal issues and
emotional factors.
The first factor is social and cultural barriers. A child’s ability to interact socially with
their peers can have a significant impact on how their progress in the classrooms.
The very act of learning in a classroom environment involves interacting with other
students, talking through problems and finding solutions together, this increases a
learners learning potential in a number of areas. School students who have poor
social skills often fall behind in their learning as they aren’t able to communicate as
effectively as others. Of course, not all types of learning require students to be
social.
The second factor I like to discuss is motivation. Motivation is a combination of

personal desires to achieve results and improve our knowledge. The best way to
understand motivation, one must first look at Maslow’s Hierarchy of school needs.
These are, from the bottom up, Physiological which includes learner’s basic needs
such as sleep, clean clothes, etc. The second being safety, this includes the
learner’s physical safety. Then there’s belonging where learners must have
relationships with teacher’s, friends etc. Esteem is where there must be a positive
classroom culture present. Lastly there’s self-actualization which means that the
learner is available to learn.
Thus if students have a lack in motivation learners will have a decline in results.
The third factor is a learner’s personal issues that can affect learning. On an
individual level, students often have personal issues that affect their learning. For
example, students with diagnosed learning difficulties like autism. Learner with these
1
Multicultural Education Second Edition page 45
2
Multicultural Education Second Edition page 46
certain elements will see learning more challenging than others. Similarly, students
with learning impairments like dyslexia may find that their personal barriers hinder
their progress at times.
The last factor is emotional factors that can affect learning. The encouragement that
give our learners plays an important role in their emotional learning. If a student
adopts a mind-set of ‘always trying to do their best’ and learns from past failures,
they will generally have a positive outlook on their ability to learn. Teachers must
look out for students whose internal voice is always telling them that they’re not good
enough or that there’s no point in even trying, they’re more likely to underachieve in
school and encourage that and tell that that they can do this.
Ways to overcome social barriers:
 Make first contact before the course begins
 Create an introductory activity
 Provide opportunities for learner interaction
 Encourage sharing
Ways to overcome administrative barriers
 Establish contact methods and hours
 Provide directions often and in various ways
 Provide effective and timely feedback
Ways to overcome motivation barriers
 Chunk your content
 Send reminders to keep students on track
 Use a variety of multimedia and modalities
Mind map
Sound of heavy Social and cultural

traffic passing barriers
the school
building
Physical barriers
The scratching of
chalk on the
blackboard
Motivation
factor
These barriers are
A hearing There are many
Physiological
disability or a
barriers factors that
stammer These barriers are determine a
categorised as follows student’s ability to
learn in schools
The dislike of
a particular
school Psychological
subject barriers
Personal issues
Emotions such
as fear of
punishment
Perceptual
Age barriers
Emotional factors
Background
Interests or the
culture of the teacher
Education Gender and the learners
Bibliography
1. Book: Multicultural Education page 45-46

BPT1501 Assignment 3

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

BPT1501 Assignment 3

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

BPT1501 Assignment 3

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Assignment 3

Student nr: 61717940

The second factor I like to discuss is motivation. Motivation is a combination of

Sound of heavy Social and cultural

1. Book: Multicultural Education page 45-46

You might also like