CLOSING LEARNING GAPS Reflective Learning is building bridges of knowledge, one student at a time. For far too long, students across SA have been grappling with learning gaps, hindering their progress and potential. Traditional teaching methods have somewhat fallen short in addressing this pressing issue. The prevalence of these gaps threatens to undermine the potential of SA’s future leaders and innovators, says Keelan Whiting, the CEO of Reflective Learning. The Cape Town-based firm aims to assist teachers in identifying and plugging gaps in each learner through its pedagogically backed personalised learning platform. SA’s education system grapples with a historical legacy of discrimination and socio-economic disparities. Amid this landscape, the prevalence of learning gaps among students remains a daunting concern. Despite prolonged efforts by the education sector to tackle this problem, a significant number of learners consistently lag and remain stagnant in their progress. If left unattended, this challenge will cast a long shadow over the nation’s development prospects. Whiting points out that the challenge of learning regression or academic delays is not exclusive to SA; however, within the nation, it is undeniably amplified by the legacy of discrimination and the glaring socio-economic divides. As highlighted by
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renowned education economist, Nic Spaull, his research revealed a disheartening truth: by the time grade 9 is completed, students from the poorest 60% of schools in SA exhibit an average lag of four years in their grasp of maths. This distressing reality translates to an inability to comprehend the classroom instruction they receive. Putting a sharp emphasis on core subjects like maths and English, Reflective Learning, founded in 2017 and based in Newlands, Cape Town, is on a mission to rewrite this narrative. By catching learners up to speed, it empowers them to engage more effectively in the classroom, dismantling the barriers that have hindered their progress. Strong foundations Powered by a pedagogically advanced personalised learning platform, Reflective Learning adeptly pinpoints and fills the knowledge gaps specific to each student. These gaps, shaped over the years, are the weak foundations that jeopardise a student’s future academic success. Whiting draws a powerful analogy to illustrate this concept: “Think of it like building a tower or a house with blocks - if you have a strong foundation, you can easily keep adding more blocks (or concepts) on top, but if you build on sand it can easily wash away.” Just like a tower or a house, a student’s academic journey requires a solid base. Reflective Learning identifies the “missing blocks” in a student’s understanding and crafts a personalised learning journey to shore up those gaps. This journey becomes the bridge between lagging comprehension and mastery of critical subjects, particularly maths and English.
