'India'
'School'
'Government'
'Religion'
'Men'
'Women'
'Teachers'
'USA'
'Mathematics'
This fluency exercise is a great tool to capture the 'perception' of people. We see only what we want to see and perception plays a vital role in the mind to make us see what we want to see. List down your perception on the topics that are listed above and Analise how these perceptions were formed!
A powerful statement that I learnt in CHYK* was 'Man is limited by his beliefs.' What a statement! WE form certain perceptions, beliefs and assumptions and we are limited by them! Lot of us even fail to recognize this truth and continue to be limited by them.
Once a person forms a strong perception or belief it is really difficult look at things the other way. How difficult would be to convince about democracy to a communist or the vise verso! Its that difficult.
Imagine how difficult then is to influence the education scenario! How many stockholder's perceptions we need to influence...! Parent... Teacher....Principal...Decision maker....
Few of the many strong perceptions that are really challenging to break is -
'Text book is my curriculum' (In fact many a teachers and principals may not even be aware of what is a curriculum... Many wouldn't even be aware of a NCF
'I need to mould my children. I have to impart knowledge.' (This very assumption stems from the perception that children don't know anything. I will have to 'teach' them. )
'I have taught for 20 years. I 'know' how to teach.' (A very strong perception that blocks a teacher from learning and implementing new techniques and appreciate new concepts. )
'My child has to score good marks to be successful.' (A very powerful assumption, the side effect of which all of us are aware of. The other hidden assumption in this is that we think we will be happy if we are successful and 'success' itself varies according to each ones perception!')
These are just a few. There are many more such perceptions that act as strong force in education reformation.
Leave your comments on this. Share some of the perceptions that you think are influencing the change in education.
*CHYK is the Global youth wing of Chinmaya Mission
Very aptly said! if we cover this simple perception problem, we are on our way to have a fully educated society..........educated, not just literate!
ReplyDeleteBut, it is perhaps very difficult to mould such beliefs. i've had my share of efforts in my college, but our teachers are very adamant! [What an irony!]
Few other perceptions i've come across are:
1). understanding is optional!...its always easier to mugg it up & pass! [:'(]
2). all those teaching techniques are meant for richie richs.......we can't afford to innovate w/ a student:teacher ratio of 80:1! [infact, thts where we need innovation! ]
3). its too late now! [teachers usually believing tht students' mindset{lets say of 14 yrs} cannot be changed as its hardened since its birth. ] .....~ this is perhaps arguable!...can we change the mindset?? if yes, how??? & how long will it sustain?? do we have improved systems in place?? can we experiment w/ a child's mind??.....
may be answering sch questions can lead us to a brighter india!
PS: there are many initiatives that have started......Arvind Gupta here in pune is an IITian whom i've personally met & bein inspired by his spark........he left his job & makes toys from trash, teaching science to childrena cross india in an innovatively cheap way!.......there are many more!
Hey Nikhil!
ReplyDeleteInspiring to hear about Arvind Gupta. Plz pass on few more details reg. the initiative. We will see how to promote his initiative.
And rightly observed about other mindsets... Few other assumptions that I am reminded of after reading ur comments -
- If students are silent then they are disciplined
- If students shake their head they have understood.. :p
- I need to be strict if students have to listen to me!
Point 2: Very valid. Most teachers have this mindset when we talk about activity based / student centred education. The immediate reaction is that it will not work out. This is our biggest challenge. But what is soothing is that we have a couple of projects with government and corporation schools in Andra Pradesh, and what we have observed is that it is definitely possible to have a 'student centred' education even with the strength of 1:80. Thanks to all the teachers who implemented the techniques that we had suggested.
And to answer ur Qs - "Keep smiling and keep trying' :)
An xtremely humble and purist approach towards identifying the roots, I guess you could also take a look at a possibility of devising a pedagogy system,that would help more in a practical sense!
ReplyDeleteMore details here--> http://www.google.co.in/search?q=arvind+gupta&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
ReplyDeleteping me in case u need the contact details! :)
am curious about what techniques you suggested them!.....would love to get some more gyan on the topic!
Cheers,
I have a concern over here!
ReplyDeleteInstead of keep blaming teachers and Parents, let us THINK in this way, by putting our legs on their shoes! Let us analyze the present situation 1st, so that easy to find the solution!
What makes them to teach in the way they are teaching now? Which stops the creative thinking of a CHILD?
- When I was a teacher, being teachers I always use think that, I need to teach something in the class, so use to prepare a lot, go to school and share with the children. So don’t you think, this is the mentality of almost all teachers? That they think, as a teacher the job is to teach. So their mind blocks thinking, that the time is given for the teacher to teach, not for the children to bring up their own creativity!
- Somewhere Santhosh said, he use to teach in his own way, and if at all he was able to communicate all what he had in his mind, he was satisfied at the end of the day thinking he is a good teacher, the same way may be all the teachers thinking! So they never thought that, need to ask children what they want to do instead continue with what we want to do.
- Most sad thing, very negative competitive world. Now a day, all of us fight and struggle for the degree certificates, hardly for the knowledge!! So one comes out of the school with the certificate but not with the knowledge! Hope all agree with it! So as a teacher he/she has to mould the child for the certificate with highest marks possible, but not for the highest knowledge. So of course, teacher can’t give time for the child to come up in its own way, but need to force the child to grow up in this competitive world.
- When I went to school, 1st few days, I just use to ask children, take a paper and pencil; do what you want to do! Small children 1- 3 use to come up with their own nice pics, and they use to love it so much. Above those classes, for the same question of mine, they use to ask me, what to draw? Here we need to think, their mind already blocked, not knowing what to draw! It is already conditioned that, need to draw what teacher says!
- After few days, my mind set started changing, I thought, I can’t always ask them to play what they say, or make them draw what they want, being a teacher, I should teach something. So started preparing for myself to teach and use to give the best, forgetting that, they also need freedom to think and act!
A great man, whom I really appreciate as a teacher is Our Swamiji – Swami Mitranandaji, he always use to say – “I will make them to do, what I want them to do, but in the way they like to do!”
I think this should be the motto of all the schools, and that is what needed as well. We need to blossom a child with the right knowledge, but the knowledge has to go into the child in the way the child likes to LEARN, then only the knowledge will remain PERMANENT in the child FOREVER!
So awareness needs to be created in the teacher that, the present way of teaching blocks the mind of a child, should be the 1st step ahead. Because teachers are doing their job thinking they are right! Root cause is there itself! So...
These are the sudden thoughts came in mind, lots more still there!
Smile,
Ramya
Loads to learn from the blog and the comments. Thank you all.
ReplyDelete