All boys and girls can join Kanoon from the age of eight until they enter university. Parallel with their school curriculum, every two weeks they attend a Developmental Assessment. Students:
• Enjoy the support of a Personal Tutor called "Poshtiban"
• Conduct a Developmental Assessment system that evaluates their progress relative to the other participants in the country
• Enhance understanding through regular assessments
• Receive an Educational Strategic Road Map for the whole academic year
• Are given several educational books designed for each academic season
Twenty Implicit Principles of Kanoon Developmental Assessments
1. Strategic nature of Kanoon Developmental Assessments
The fundamental characteristic of Kanoon educational method is the strategic nature of its Developmental Assessments. Our exams, held every two weeks, provide students with the great opportunity of having a clear study plan, called Educational Strategic Road Map. This road map is closely aligned with the state curriculum and the schools’ teaching programs. In addition to Educational Strategic Road Map, each Kanoon pupil designs his/her own way of studying by our unique Personal Developmental Book. Astonishingly, this unique self-planning book has been published more than 400 times so far, with the circulation of more than one and half million copies. While Kanoon Educational Strategic Road Map provides students with a general direction, students can use Personal Developmental Book and customise the road map with their own personal learning characteristics. Therefore, our pupils can gradually flourish their own agency, through developing their self-management capabilities and the competence of making the right decision.
2. Providing students with a single coherent plan
Here, in Kanoon we follow two important principles while designing Developmental Assessments’ Educational Strategic Road Map: a) follow a single and coherent educational plan; b) the plan must be perfectly in line with the state curriculum. Thus, with any change in the textbooks or any other elements of the state syllabus, our Developmental Examinations will change accordingly. This factor is crucial in the success of Kanoon pupils, attending our examinations.
3. Developmental Assessments: Self-learning Motivator
Nowadays, educational affiliates must empower students to become better self-learners, to “learn how to learn”. Undoubtedly, self-learning is the mankind main future necessity. Although, we have heard a lot about the importance of “learning how to think”, instead of “learning thoughts”, there has been little effort to shift our minds toward the latter objective. Kanoon educational method and our Developmental Assessments is one the serious, significant and collective attempts to enhance students’ self-learning capabilities, in Iran. Moreover, our educational method does not require students to have any special computer facility, or luxurious educational equipment. It is widely available all over the country. Students with different family backgrounds and financial capabilities can easily become a member of Kanoon in almost all areas of Iran.
4. Promoting Equal Educational Opportunity:
A significant influence of Kanoon Developmental Assessments is promoting equal educational opportunity. Today, students in remote cities and villages of Iran, like students who are living in Tehran and capital cities of the country, can equally use our educational methods by attending our Developmental Assessments. As a piece of evidence, top students in Concour are not any longer from capital cities such as Tehran, Mashhad, Esfahan, Tabriz, and Shiraz. This social movement is due to the effort, resilience and self-developmental strategy of the students from under-developed areas of Iran, enabling them to surpass economically privileged students in the competitive national university entrance exam of Concour.
5. Increasing students’ calmness
Kanoon Developmental Simulations increase students’ calmness due to the following reasons:
a) Creating self-cognition, through balancing unrealistic expectations and replacing them with reasonable ones.
b) Students can see their learning path through understanding the impeccable logic behind the Educational Strategic Road Map. Accordingly, students will find out that they can compensate their backwardness, because we have placed certain “compensating stations” in the Educational Strategic Road Map. Through this strategic plan, they can see the end of their learning path, making sure one day they can enjoy the fruits of their labor.
c) Due to the constant repetition of the Developmental Assessments, the fear of being examined and studying for evaluation will be gradually disappeared and taking exams will turn into a pleasant activity for students.
d) Since Developmental Assessments are in total coordination with the state curriculum, and our emphasis is on their textbooks, students’ calmness and clear thinking will be enhanced.
e) Developmental Simulations break the major goals of either “successfully passing an academic year”, or “achieving a good result in Concour”, into SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely) objectives, which are certain benchmarks, designed in our strategic plan.
7. Correcting over-expectations
“We start improving, once we come to true self comprehension”. This self-understanding is what Kanoon pupils achieve by evaluating themselves in comparison with other students every two weeks. Students’ results in Developmental Assessments help them understand that they are not the only people, who have ever passed this path. The parents will also come to a true understanding about their child’s abilities. It is how the process of changing for better starts.
8. Enhancing Persistency
The two-week intervals between Kanoon Developmental Assessments help students review their lessons gradually. This prevents students from leaving all the work for the end of the year.
9. Increasing motivation for studying
One of the most formidable tasks of teachers and parents is improving students’ motivation for studying. The best method to achieve this goal is developing good studying habits. Habits are much stronger and even more lasting than paternalistic temporary pieces of advice. Hence, students, attending Kanoon Developmental Assessments every two weeks, gradually form the habit of studying and as a result they internalize motivation for studying.
10. It is never too late
Kanoon Developmental Assessments’ Educational Strategic Road Map provides students with the opportunity to compensate their shirking and drawbacks. The reason is that we have developed it by integrating twenty years of experience. We know what students require, including those who suffer from procrastination and are behind with their deadlines or those who started late.
11. Balancing studying hours
In each Developmental Assessment, students are tested in all of their modules, meaning that each exam includes all of the subjects that they have to study during each semester. Hence, they are encouraged not to overspend their limited time on several specific subjects and ignore the others. In other words, Developmental Assessments lead students to pay attention to every lesson, and study in a balanced way.
12. Potential for agile(!) adjustments
The gradual approach of Kanoon Developmental Assessments helps students diagnose possible problems and prepare for agile(!) adjustments(What do you mean by agile adjustments?).
13. Creating a challenging environment
Students usually learn better from their peers. Hence, when students voluntarily enroll in Kanoon, a rich and challenging environment in which effort and resilience are appreciated will be created. Here, students who believe in strategy and praise “effort” willingly choose to get together.
14. Learning the importance of effort by self-reflection
Taking Developmental Assessments every two weeks, students see the impact of effort on their results. They learn, through self-reflection, that whenever they put effort and study more, they can achieve a better result. No doubt, this personal experience is much more effective than the paternalistic advice.
15. Breaking down a difficult goal into SMART objectives
Kanoon Developmental Assessments’ Educational Strategic Road Map is divided into small projects, each containing several examinations. In each project, students reach a certain objective. Hence, a long difficult road is broken up into several specific, measurable, achievable, real, and timely checkpoints that keep students calm during the way. Therefore, each examination is like one of the steps of a ladder which advances into success.
16. Adapting to the exam’s physical conditions
Teenagers are lively, full of energy and sometimes impatient. However, learning requires one to stay calm and be patient. During Developmental Assessments, students practice sitting on a chair for a couple of hours and taking a test silently.
17. Assessment for learning
The exam time is the best opportunity to learn, especially for those students who are not stressed and stay focused during the test. Kanoon Developmental Assessments are repeated twenty times during each academic year, turning exam days into a convenient learning time. Additionally, Kanoon pupils evaluate their tests after the exam and make a collection of the exam’s most important points in their Personal Developmental Portfolio_ one of the elements of our educational method. This is how students consolidate what they have learnt during the exam.
18. Refining learning methods
Students can reflect on their study methods and refine them based on their personal experience in Developmental Assessments. Inventing Self-learning methods is one of our pupils’ unique and long lasting achievements in Kanoon.
19. Emphasizing on Textbooks
One of the main problems of most students is over relying on their booklets and ignoring textbooks. Kanoon Developmental Assessments are designed based on the exact chapters of the textbooks, encouraging students to focus on these original sources.
20. Involving parents
Parents are usually worried about their children and try to concern themselves with every aspect of their child life, but they usually do not know how to help them in their educational process. Kanoon Developmental Assessments and their results provide parents with a realistic evaluation of their child educational condition, thus they can react agile and effective.