• Self-confidence
• Self-knowledge
• Self-reflection
• Self-analysis

 

Why NIS puts every child at the center and uses the principle of ‘compete with yourself’

In the future, all children will
COMPETE WITH THEMSELVES.
At NIS, they already do.

NIS treats every child as special. We believe this is possible to accomplish only when we do away with the old emphasis of our education on competition (and comparison) with others to competition (and comparison) with oneself (or one’s personal baseline).

Have I done my personal best? Can I do any better? What do I need to do next? These are the most pertinent of all questions we should be asking our children.

Comparison with others is so ingrained in our mind-sets, it is hard to think and do differently. At NIS, we have made this our main focus.

• Every child receives study materials at his / her level in addition to the class level.
• Every child also receives six personalized reports a year which highlight areas of need and improvement of an individual child.
• Instead of suggesting that you are good if you do well in relation to other students, we use a different language. We are more concerned with the individual child and in knowing if they have done their PERSONAL BEST. Two main questions we ask are: i) “Can you improve this any further?” and “What do you need to do next (in your learning process)?” We are interested to know if every child knows what s/he needs to do next. Evidence also supports that emphasis should be on self-analysis, self-knowledge, personal goal setting and commitment to the next set of goals. This is accompanied with the feeling, “Yes, I know I can!”
• Daily positive reinforcement nurtures every child’s self-confidence. Research shows of all factors that affect learning outcomes, the most important is positive reinforcement with an effect size of 1.13 (Meta-analysis of 800 studies by John Hattie).
• Early intervention is possible by both teachers and parents with the personalized attention and reports. So if a child is showing any areas of lack, behavior, motivation, study-wise, etc., the teachers can take corrective action immediately with the support of the parents. Frequent and timely feedback empowers children with self-knowledge, self-analysis and self-reflection skills. Children in Nurture often are able to tell themselves, which thing they did well and where they feel they can improve. Timely and corrective feedback has a very large effect size of 0.72. It is one of the most important contributing factors to individual student success (John Hattie and others).

Why Compete With Yourself ?

In 1954, Roger Bannister became the first person in human history to run a sub-four minute mile. After Roger made the world record for the first time, 16 others did it following him that same year and 200 others in the next 3 years! Roger competed with himself. Competition with oneself comes before competition with others and is more powerful. As Roger has shown and history has witnessed, people who compete with themselves the most, . The principle of ‘Compete with Yourself’ brings out greater excellence in all children. It creates an intrinsic motivation in every child to succeed.