An Open Letter to
Educators
Dear Teachers/Educators
Let us begin to talk about teaching
learning by assuming a sequence just opposite to the traditional classroom
teaching.
New Sequence
|
Traditional Sequence
|
|
1
|
Examination
Assignments
|
Teaching by teacher
|
2
|
Learning on own
|
Disengaged/ Forced
learning
|
3
|
No teaching (consolidating
and evaluating)
|
Examination
|
Shocked!?
How is it possible to
evaluate/examine something that is not even taught by the teachers? This
mindset just needs a small tweak and everything will fall in place.
Remember,
Curiosity is the Mother of all learning as Need is the Mother of Invention.
Ever wondered why do we have to force learners to learn something?
The simple answer is that they are not curious.
Why, what happened to their
curiosity?
We, the Education System, the Educators and the Parents killed it.
Since the current education system
was designed to produce workers for the industries and clerks for bureaucracy, it
demanded to teach everyone the same irrespective of the differentials in their
interests, talents, aptitudes, attitudes needs, skills and backgrounds.
In the process, the curiosity was killed since everyone must know the same.
We, the teachers killed it, because our being effective teachers was dependent on the
scores that our students achieved. So we made the things easier rather than nurturing
curiosity. We nipped it in the bud by answering, “This is not part of your
syllabus.” or “This question is not asked in the examination.” whenever
a learner asked something out of curiosity, out of his/her brain working to
know a little extra than what was in the book.
We, the parents killed it by forcing
our children to study only Science because Commerce is for the average ones and
Humanities for “Good for Nothing students.” We killed it because we judged them on marks and not on values, talents and skills.
Now is the Time for Redemption. Let the pandemic be an opportunity to revive
curiosity. Let the pandemic be an opportunity to restructure the education
system.
Going back to the imaginary (but,
please note, very feasible) scenario
Examination first, Learning on own and No teaching let us decode it, how is it possible?
Our traditional class room teaching
is based on the assumption that;
·
the
learner knows nothing and
·
no
learning happens if there is no teaching and
·
we
teachers and parents have to force learning.
Let us do the reality check..
Mankind is designed to be a learner. A curious
child makes the meaning of the world around him through observation. As the
child grows, what interests her/him gets more intensely observed, looked for, asked
for, researched for and a deep knowledge of the interest area is constructed.
Nobody forced, nobody taught, yet the learning happened.
If somehow, we parents, educators and
education system could arouse the interest, curiosity to know about something,
I believe rest, the learning part shall happen on its own. (Of course, in the name of teaching basic literacy and numeracy has
to be taught).
The real challenge is; how to arouse curiosity?
Few Steps that
can be considered to arouse curiosity are;
·
Linking
syllabus in the books with the real life.
· Presenting
the content before the learner in a manner where relevant questions are asked
to lead them to the main content’s learning.
· Allowing
children in group to find out the relevant information, using internet, asking
each other, collecting all possible information from any and all sources,
online or offline and presenting it before teacher.
Finally the
teacher evaluating the information through discussion and dialogue to check
whether the students have understood the concept.
Let us now see
what was done in this process?
1. Questions were
asked about the concept which were not taught by the teacher. (Examination was
given before teaching.)
2. Learners in a
group have learnt themselves.
3. Teacher in the
end has just consolidated the learning through dialogue and discussion. (
Evaluation)
The most important facts to be
remembered by the educators in this whole process are to ask the right questions about the content and the liberty to use any source to gather information
and knowledge. To ensure that the children have done no copy pasting and
not adopted easy ways out, the
Evaluation (the last step in the teaching learning process), is done through discussion and dialogue.
The entire time devoted by teachers
to teaching in the classrooms shall be substituted by the time spent in
dialogue and discussion.
How much fun it would be for the educators and
learners
·
to
be engaged in constructive dialogue,
·
first
assuming and then challenging one’s own assumptions,
·
to
critically analyze the knowledge and meaning being constructed and
· finally
comprehending what they knew, equipped with the ability to apply what is
understood, and
·
unfolding
the true meaning of education?
Education is not memorization of
facts and knowledge, it is the capability to make the most of the knowledge in
one’s own life.
Online teaching during pandemic 2020
is a huge possibility to explore the alternatives. Just imagine, learners
taking charge of their learning and teachers/ educators playing the role of
facilitators. Just reverse the process and devote the time in teaching to
discussion and dialogue with a group of learners.
What does this need? Just a shift in
mindset. The entire concept of ‘Education
as Filling the Pail’ can be transformed into the true concept of ‘Education as Igniting the Curiosity’
by the time the schools open to resume traditional teaching.Till then explore and experiment with
the new ideas and see what works best for you and your learners.
Happy Teaching Learning!
More power to my very own
fraternity!!
Looking forward to collective efforts
to make a paradigm shift in Education.
Your very own
Anju Arora
P.S. The ideas are inspired by the Famous Hole in the Wall Experiment by Professor Sugata Mitra, and his concept of
SOLE i.e. Self Organized Learning Environment which is being experimented
with, in many countries across the world and proving the validity of the idea
that curiosity aroused coupled with conducive environment provided &
teachers just asking big questions and being facilitators, the learning happens
on its own.
Prof. Sugata Mitra is an Educational
Researcher and the winner of 2013 TED Prize.
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