EDUC 5210 Unit 6 Discussion
Myriads of educational goals have been truncated due to barriers to learning. These barriers
manifest themselves in many forms as (sociocultural, personal, emotional, school place
conditions among others). Although all of them have the potential of blocking once educational
aspirations. ‘’Learning disabilities affect how people understand information, communicate, or
learn new skills, and include difficulty in reading, difficulty writing, and difficulty with
mathematics’’. The severity of a learning disability varies from person to person.
(unionlearn.org.uk)
In their bid to overcome these educational hindrances among students, teachers have neglected
certain vital causes of these problems hence the problems have persisted over the years.
Sociocultural demands of some societies do not permit students to be in school at certain times of
the social calendar. Examples during some occasions as festivals, the social calendar imposes a
break on academic activities that prohibits school activities for days thereby depriving students
of learning. More often than not, the girl child is affected more than their male counterparts.
Though societal activities are given pride of place in school curriculums, not all such activities
benefit students in their academic pursuits.
Personal and emotional attitudes also play a big role in the educational lives of students.
Emotional problems that serve as a barrier to learning may include disability, caring
responsibilities, childcare, finance, age, language, and lack of access to information. If a teacher
neglects these veritable issues of a child’s education, they will certainly be a barrier to surmount.
In the event that some of these issues are beyond the teacher’s capabilities of handling them, the
school administrators or parents can offer assistance to clear such educational barriers and
stereotypes.
Teachers have inadvertently neglected the issues of lack of self-esteem or confidence among
students due to low skills levels, bad personal or unaddressed experience with learning. Various
forms of disabilities or social problems such as unemployment of parents and abuse by same or
bullying at school may be potential banana peels for a student’s learning ability. These are
potential checklist that could ramify into a child’s educational barrier or stereotypes.
Also, serving as a barrier or stereotypes to a child’s education is the school conditions and how
they impact learning. This may include but not limited to a school environment, access,
discrimination, unsupportive managers among others. Example, if the school environment is not
students friendly without access to certain facilities, it becomes a barrier to learning because the
students will not find the school attractive. If the teacher also skews communication only to some
students based on cultural background, it will also prevent students from schooling hence a
barrier to learning.
In the face of all these challenges hindering learning among students, negligence on the part of
some teachers have compounded matters. Teachers have sometimes neglected parents and school
administrators who are key stakeholders in the students’ educational process and state of mind.
Parents and guidance of students can update teachers on student’s emotional and psychological
problems that influence their attitudes towards learning.
There is also the prevalent issue of communication gap between teachers and some students. This
is solely attributable to cultural background and other stereotyping which also creates a barrier
for learning. While teacher only opens up to students who approach them issues, other students
who are either introverts by nature or based on inferiority complex and stereotype will shy away
from communicating to teachers. It behoves therefore on teachers to initiate a problem-solving