Administrative Approaches to Slow Learning

The administrative approaches are determined primarily by the daily administrative decisions made for all children in a particular school system or school. While the teacher cannot usually effect direct administrative changes, he can often encourage flexibility in the application of those procedures that exist. He can plan a curriculum that may obviously indicate administrative changes. He may also encourage other teachers to consider administrative changes that benenfit all students while helping slow learners. The teacher does not administer, but he can be a vital force in determining over-all administrative policy.

Grouping

The most pressing and, as yet, unresolved question facing the teacher of slow learners is: "What is the best way to group the slow learner for instructions?" This question occurs because, even when he is very young, the slow child's learning characteristics tax the school's standard administrative and curriculum structure and suggest the formation of some special alternatives to the regular program.

Grouping methods frequently adopted by individual school systems are: academic achievement grouping, social development grouping, special class grouping and homogeneous grouping. These grouping types are not self-inclusive and are frequently seen in combination; also, each type suggests only a general approach.

Academic Achievement Grouping. It places all the students in the same class and presents them with the same learning material. When a student shows he has mastered the academic information required of his present grade, he is moved to the next grade. If the student learns quickly, he may skip a grade. If the student learns slowly, he will "stack back."

Academic achievement grouping appears to be quite incompatible with slow learning. It denies the child's learning problems and relegates him to a slow status position. The only challenge that the teacher may offer the slow learner is one that leads to failure.