|
|
|
|
| EDUCATION TRIBUNE |
|
Beyond traditional learning
Make teaching child-friendly
Campus Notes
|
|
|
Beyond traditional learning TODAY’s global job market demands that a student should be comfortable with the complexities of ill-defined real-world problems, which border on ambiguity, and should have a high order analytical capability supplemented with requisite communication skills required of him as a professional. The role of the teachers, therefore, is to equip students with knowledge, capabilities and skills so required. The ongoing technological advancements pose great challenges to the teacher today. In the past, the blackboard and books were the main aids for teaching. The mode of knowledge dissemination was generally verbal, where the teacher delivered lectures and the students imbibed knowledge. The advent of television ushered in an era of visual mode of learning. Thus, overhead projectors, later replaced by LCD projectors, coupled with ‘PowerPoint’, became the mainstay of teaching. Today’s generation, with easy access to electronic gadgets like cell phones, Internet, social networking sites, video capturing and editing devices, VOIP, and peer-to-peer file sharing, needs different stimuli to learn. The teacher has to resort to virtual mode to identify with students. There is a need for compatibility between the now generation habits and the way learning takes place. Though the pre-requisites for teaching have undergone a change from verbal to visual to virtual, in the majority of cases the teachers in higher educational institutions still rely on the age-old verbal mode. They need to realise that teaching and learning are enhanced when teaching styles are commensurate with learning styles. Though some fundamental pedagogical principles might hold across generations, the mode of delivery of these principles must change over time. Rapid obsolescence of technology is resulting in technological generations becoming much shorter than human generations, thus, demanding ever-changing pedagogical techniques from teachers. By not keeping up with the advancements in technology, they are not only perpetuating the generation gap but, in majority of the cases, are enhancing it. Today, we need those forward-looking teachers who could anticipate and meet the intellectual aspirations of students. Instead of the linear acquisition of knowledge, today’s generation prefer nonlinear — hyperlinked — logic of learning. The technique of learning “how to learn” carries greater value with them than mere acquisition of facts. They prefer autonomous learning to guided learning and instead of confining the learning process to specific periods, they like to learn 24/7. Interactive virtual learning, rather than face-to-face learning, excites them. They take learning as fun rather than duty, but for that to happen, it has to be analogical learning rather than rote learning. For them it is more important to know where to find knowledge rather than storing information in their brains. The present generation displays preference for instant learning. Their penchant for multi-tasking facilitates their learning process, while they are simultaneously engaged in other activities. Therefore, the teachers need to understand these traits of modern-day learners. They would be able to win the confidence of students only if they understand their intellectual needs and thereby facilitate the learning process. Served by the Internet, today’s students have access to a vast reservoir of information. However, not all the information available on the Internet is useful or reliable. A teacher who acts as a facilitator must equip his students with requisite skills to enable them to distinguish reliable from unreliable information. The modern gadgetry may have exciting features, but it also has its disadvantages. These induce shorter attention spans where the students move over quickly from one feature of the gadget to another. However, a good teacher always finds ways and means to inculcate patience to engage students in constructive work and to follow longer arguments. Creativity must be fostered as a habit, and to achieve that, the students must be equipped with synthetic ability to recognise relevant patterns in unfamiliar environments. Features of technological advancements in one domain could find usage in other domains and the students should have capability to make those associations. Today, not only the globe is shrinking but also the inter-discipline boundaries across various domains are getting blurred. Thus, to be competitive, the students must have the flexibility to work across disciplinary and cultural boundaries to come up with innovative solutions. Thus, there is a need for the teacher to provide properly supported, engaging activities to develop expertise across various domains of learning. The teacher must create cognitive capacity to think and solve problems. He must equip his students with psychomotor capacity to move, perceive and apply physical skills. Finally, the above capabilities have to be supplemented with cognitive capacity to act, decide and commit. If the teachers understand and appreciate the intellectual levels and needs of the modern-day students, they would realise the importance of the need to bring in a paradigm shift from remembering, understanding and applying to more important skills of analysing, evaluating and creating. To be successful, a teacher must constantly ask himself a question, “I am teaching, but is he learning?” And if not, then what is required to be done? The writer is Vice-Chancellor, Chitkara University, Chandigarh |
||
|
Make teaching child-friendly
THE RTE 2009 has come into force and the administrators and academicians harp on providing quality education to all. However, to provide quality education, the curriculum needs to undergo a massive transformation. It has to be activity based, so that the students learn through doing such that they explore and learn and go beyond the prescribed textbooks. The new education system demands a total overhauling because the roles of the teacher and students have been redefined. The teacher is no longer seen as a cane-wielding bugbear but more as an education manager, while the young learner is an active recipient and participant. The new education policy highlights stress-free learning where there is no place for rote learning and asks for the classroom to be child-centric. Our classes till today have been teacher-centric, where the teacher gives the instructions and the pupils are expected to listen and absorb mostly as passive recipients. The timetable is fixed, as is the seating arrangement. The teacher dominates the classroom following the normal teaching methodology, where he gives the instructions, reads or writes on the board and the children jot down in their notebooks. The participation of young learners is minimum. Strict discipline is maintained and students appear highly bored. The teacher-oriented classroom is one to which all of us have been exposed, but that is bound to change now. The child-centric approach is needed, where the teacher is the facilitator who does not hog the limelight in the classroom situation. He just creates a learning situation in the class. The children explore and learn at their own pace as they develop their own understanding of the concepts. Tasks are assigned to them and they participate in relevant activities. Coming from varied backgrounds, the students bring with themselves rich experiences into the classroom, which an experienced teacher can put to the best of use. In a child-centric classroom, learning is not strictly individual. There is sharing-pairing and as the child works in a group, he learns from his peers. The timetable will have to be flexible and the seating arrangement will be reorganised depending on the activity being organised. The movement of students is not restricted and they are free to move about. A child-centric approach means an active classroom where the noise factor cannot be ruled out. The assessment is not taken as a separate activity. The report card does not convey the marks for subjects. It is the qualitative progress made by the child in all areas of his personality and does not measure only the cognitive aspect. Commenting on the child-centric approach, Divya Thakur, Principal, Government Senior Secondary School, Sultanpur, Solan, says, “A teacher should not be a demigod. A teacher has to be a giver and a child should not be made to feel that he is at the receiving end. There is always a status and knowledge chasm which the teacher has to bridge. The child-centric approach will ensure that the needful is done.” She adds: “While implementing the child-centric approach, it may not be easily acceptable by the students when they have to take the reins in their hands. A dedicated teacher may feel frustrated and may want to hang his boots, but he will have to bring about a change in the attitude of the students and the parents as the ways of teaching and assessment undergo a major change.” Appreciating the new education approach, Harbeen Jakhar Chahal, a technocrat, says: “We have to be open minded and accept the rapid changes in the child-friendly literacy programme. A major transformation is required in our thinking process as new classroom teaching methods are introduced.” |
||
|
Campus Notes TO ensure peace and stability in the South Asia region, concerted efforts must be made to bridge the trust and trade deficit, strengthen institutional capacities for developing mutual understanding, and create awareness in civil society about the commonality in culture and common destiny of the people of the region. This was stated by former ambassador R.K. Bhatia at a special lecture programme on "Conflict and the Cooperation in South Asia" held at the university recently. In his lucid presentation, Bhatia said regional imbalances must be done away with and this was possible only if these countries worked in close cooperation. He said the spectre of terrorism had been harming the peace and stability in the region and the tendency of a neighboring nation to allow its soil for fostering terrorist activities was causing security concern in the region. He opined that the role of extra-regional powers meddling in the region was also a cause for concern. Advocating for greater dialogue between India and the neighbouring nations, Bhatia called for more mutual visits and dialogue between the heads of states. He exhorted the students to work as harbingers of peace, progress and prosperity of the region through their writings and cultural exchange programmes, since they were the future leaders . In this presidential address, MDU Dean, Academic Affairs, Surender Kumar, said a greater people-to-people interaction and socio-cultural exchange could pave the way for cooperation in South Asia. Workshop on material science The Department of Physics will organise a one-day workshop on "Material Science" on March 25. According to Prof. A.K. Sharma, head, Department of Physics, Prof. Naval Kishore, Dean, GJU, Hisar, and Dr Chandra Prakash, Additional Director, DRDO, will be the key speakers at the seminar. Orientation programme An orientation programme on "National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education" was organised by the Department of Education recently. Professor S.V.S. Chaudhary, Vice-Chairperson, National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), while describing teaching profession as a mission urged the teachers to introspect and try to improve their content delivery mechanism. MDU Vice-Chancellor R.P. Hooda delivered the presidential address. He said the constant updating of knowledge by teachers was a necessity to keep pace with changing times. He urged the teachers to develop passion towards their profession. Professor Surender Kumar, Dean, Academic Affairs of the university, said teachers must come forward to bring forth positive social change in society. Experts including Prof. K.K. Vashista, Prof. B.S. Dagar, Prof. S.P. Malhotra and Prof. L.C. Singh threw light on the new national curriculum for teacher education, especially contemporary issues and future challenges.
— Contributed by Bijendra Ahlawat |
TODAY’s global job market demands that a student should be comfortable with the complexities of ill-defined real-world problems, which border on ambiguity, and should have a high order analytical capability supplemented with requisite communication skills required of him as a professional. The role of the teachers, therefore, is to equip students with knowledge, capabilities and skills so required.
