Online Reporter
Ronald Takudzwa Sambona
Youth advocate and educator
IF academic doubt was a religion, how many believers would it have? And if faith set up shop next to doubt, how many believers would buy into doubt? The contention of my message isn’t religion or spirituality, but it’s about confidence in your own ability to maintain and deliver quality educational grades and standards no matter what.
A good friend of mine is fond of saying that no mission is impossible until one drops dead! Yes, that’s quite true, but in pursuing your own education you have bumped or will bump into challenges. These challenges with time create an environment for learners that allows their academic doubt to overpower their faith and confidence. How do you progress with such odds stacked up against you? Would you rather surrender to doubt or will you keep believing that no mission is impossible until you drop dead?
If academic doubt was a religion, some learners would be life members. Members not by choice, but by circumstance. Our learners constantly have to deal with all sorts of challenges that at best leave them tired or incapable of focusing clearly. This is a challenge that learners from all walks of life experience, but most affected by academic doubt are the already marginalized groups of learners.
Most girls and learners from the rural areas and poor backgrounds at some point encounter pressures triggered by their own colleagues or just learning demands. Sadly, discrimination of learners premised upon gender lines and financial status still thrives in our education system, and this negatively affects learners’ academic confidence.
If you’re made to feel like you’re not worthy and don’t fit in, you start doubting yourself and your ability to learn as a student. The belief that certain groups of learners are better off than others for whatever reasons must be crushed!
Learners undermining other learners creates a sense of academic doubt that negatively impacts learners for the rest of their educational journey. This bug of academic doubt must be squashed!
If the school environment itself which is specifically designed to foster learning on an equal basis in a non-discriminatory manner creates academic doubt amongst our learners, what more of the various homes from which these learners come from? One can only imagine! But for some the struggle is real.
Bruner’s Spiral Curriculum Theory states that knowledge should build gradually, introducing complexity as learners gain confidence. If our learners do not build up their confidence, they will be ill-equipped to receive any new information as the learning process unravels.
If the environments that our learners are socialised in fail to boost their confidence, then academic doubt will slowly creep in.
Only when our learners are confident enough in themselves and their abilities can they learn effectively.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Skinner’s Behaviorism theories emphasize that motivation in individuals arise when basic needs are met and reinforced through rewards. If we want to nurture academically confident learners we must ensure that their needs are prioritized both at school and at home.
I mention the home because the type of home environment one comes from does have a major impact on their ability to learn effectively. If there is all sorts of stress, problems and chaos within the home, it will manifest in the learner’s academic performance. The home environment can either nurture confidence or build academic doubt in learners. This is supported by Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory that advances the position that all social groups or individuals are the representations of the family. To build confident learners we need to create families that nurture confidence in their children.
Perhaps equally monumental as parents in squashing the bug of academic doubt are the educators themselves.
Academic doubt is a challenge that educators are important in addressing as they have more time with and influence over learners. The Self-Efficacy Theory by Bandura believes that confident educators inspire confident learners.
Educators as leaders have a duty to inspire and influence positive change in school culture. Both the Self-Efficacy Theory and the Transformational Leadership Theory appreciate the pivotal role of educators in creating a learning environment that builds confidence in learners.
The challenges that our education system faces are not something that government or the various ministries assigned to educational matters have to handle in isolation. All of us working together with our youths and young children must create environments that are free of the bug of academic doubt, and in effect nurture confidence in our learners.
After all, it takes the whole community to raise and educate a child! We all have our part to play in building our learners. Therefore, let us begin!
Thank you! I rest my case.
