I
SIP & the Curriculum
Redesigned
to Reach Out
We want learning to be exciting .....
What should the curriculum comprise?
How should it be taught?
In what ways should classroom
environments change? ..... are some questions
Do we have answers ?
We are clear we want .....
Child-centred education
not rote and regurgitation .....
Field trips, worksheets,
direct experiences with materials
rather than information
from texts .....
But ..... how do we know
that children are learning?
How should that learning be assessed?
Can evaluation focus on application of knowledge ..... rather than its acquisition?
Can the curriculum be different from the state-prescribed one?
How should reflection and review be built into the academic day?
Somehow we have to find a way .....
use the curriculum to reach out to children .....
make learning exciting.
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The child, from being a receptacle of whatever knowledge the teacher decided to put in has become the constructor of his own learning. How did this shift occur at D.J.? More important, how did an awareness that such a shift was necessary come about? If such a change was to occur, what was it that needed to be changed? The classroom, the methodology or the teacher’s attitude? The answer perhaps is that some of all these elements needed to change. Change, when it commenced at pre-school, looked at curriculum redesign as an area to work upon. Out went the struggle to teach the 2½-year-old the alphabet or for that matter numbers. It was difficult getting teachers to accept that they need not be taught—that there was a time, a place for everything and that once the child attained the maturity level for the task |
at hand, mastery was certain. At the outset, the one shift that was evident was one of moving from the old ‘rote and regurgitate’ pattern to one where learning became more centred around the child. The curriculum redesign then looked at a comprehensive list of activities that could be introduced into the pre-school classrooms. The first and obvious change was to eliminate the heavy furniture. Brightly painted tables, which when grouped together formed hexagons, took the place of heavier furniture. The walls, over a period of time, acquired cork boards to hang up work done in class. The effective use of these boards however was another issue. Initially it was more of teachers’ work that got displayed on these boards. Teachers handling children in two shifts during the day hardly had the time to change these boards often enough. In fact, organising these new and demanding activities on a daily basis over two shifts proved to be very exhausting. It seemed unfair, both to the teachers, and to the children, to expect the teacher to exhibit the same energy level at the end of the day. The teachers did not have the skills to handle restless, excited children demanding materials, asking for help, squabbling over who should get what, simultaneously. The exhausted, frustrated teacher was left at the end of the day with a question: “Is this necessary; are they really learning ?” The Headmistresses had difficulty |
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? Do teachers understand the
need for the curriculum to include consideration of skills, attitudes as well
as the transmission of knowledge? Do teachers have the
resources to provide active learning? Do teachers have the
opportunity to discuss curriculum matters with their colleagues? Do teachers have time in
school to prepare lessons, plan activities etc.? Do teachers treat the
students as individuals, each with different needs, or as a block? Can students question the
teacher freely? Are lessons presented in
the form of active problem solving or of unchangeable fact? Do lessons provide an opportunity
for the development of oral skills, or are students expected to be silent? Can students discuss work
with each other during lessons? Is learning by rote, or by
experience? Does the syllabus encourage
the development of free enquiry, or is it geared to memorisation? Do lessons provide the
opportunity for students to try out their ideas and apply their knowledge? Is assessment only of
textbook knowledge, or are students given the opportunity to apply their
skills and knowledge? Are students encouraged to
use sources other than textbooks, and are the resources available for this? Is it considered normal and
acceptable to make mistakes? Are the classrooms and their furniture suitable for group work and active learning? |
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the first year certain issues became clear. The change from the formal organisation of the classroom space to an informal clustering of children was actually less difficult to accomplish than originally feared. There was an involuntary acceptance of the new curriculum by most of |
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What steps should we take?
......... 1994 file record Þ Visit schools
that have introduced a system of continuous evaluation. Þ Question Bank
to be prepared. Þ Clear
instructions about the schedule of tests should be conveyed to the parents
and students. Þ Plan questions
from simple to complex. Þ Teachers can
evolve their own methods. It is an expression of their individuality. Þ Freedom to
evaluate students brings in accountability and responsibility. Teachers’
integrity is important. Þ In order to
avoid copying/subjectivity ask children not to write their roll numbers. Þ To reduce
clerical work, printed list of names of the students needed. Þ Introduce examination in Std IV. |
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the teachers; it was seen as something that had been “handed” to them to implement. It was recognised that the new curriculum was responsive to the indigenous situation of the D. J. Schools. However, one thing was clear : the curriculum strategy in year one appeared to have been based on short term planning and evaluation of concrete situations encountered in the classrooms. The First Feedback Meanwhile support came from the Aga Khan Foundation. Visits by key personnel to the school in the initial year of the programme proved fruitful. They brought to bear their wide experience of schools and the process of improvement, and provided incisive insights. While the implementers rejoiced over the overt signs of change - classroom displays had improved, |
group work was good, visitors from the Foundation saw beyond these visible signs. Their comments in the form of focused questions led the implementers to review the programme. Dr. Greenland (Prog. Officer, AKF) after his visit in April 1990 raised the following issues: & “Since teachers’ time and team leaders’ inputs are both limited, is there a mechanism for establishing and for constantly adjusting priorities as between the various components of SIP? What happens if teachers don’t understand the session on “how to teach fractions”? Is it repeated until they understand or do resource persons move on to the next topic ? The danger of skimpy treatment of crucial topics is all the greater if “important” resource people are brought in from outside for “one off” sessions and cannot be asked to repeat them. The project leadership is asked to consider what major curriculum topics would benefit from concentrated attention in the next year”. |
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& “Too often teachers participate in a series of workshops. Through these they learn a ‘bag of tricks’. They use them when they feel like it. What they should be doing is making choices about which trick to use based on the children’s needs and capabilities at the time .... teachers are able to be involved in this kind of decision making ONLY if they had a clear understanding of children’s developmental needs. The SIP curriculum does not provide any of this kind of grounding for teachers.” |
Curriculum Redesign The
curriculum redesign in the pre-school took its inspiration from similar
efforts made in the Aga Khan Network in |
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J “Of course, intellectual learning includes the amassing and retention of information. But information is an undigested burden unless it is understood...... And under-standing, comprehension, means that the various parts of the information acquired are grasped in their relations to one another a result that is attained only when acquisition is accompanied by constant reflection upon the meaning of what is studied.” John Dewey How we Think, 1933 |
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J “The art of remembering is the art of thinking ...... when we wish to fix a new thing in either our mind or a pupil’s, our conscious effort should not be so much to express and retain it as to connect it with something else already there. The connecting is the thinking; and if we attend clearly to the connection, the connected thing will certainly be likely to remain within recall” William James, 1888 from Talks to Teachers on Psychology. |
Parents
on the Curriculum : 1990
“Today at the Open Day for
Nursery, we came to know what our children studied in the school and why they were
so eager to come to school. We feel sorry for ourselves for not getting an
opportunity like this during our school days. This Open Day was really an
interesting one for us.”
“When we came here we
remembered our young days. During those days, teaching was not made interesting
at all as it is done today.”
“Today, I am satisfied with
my child’s studies because I have seen personally and done practically like a
child myself. I feel this method of teaching is quite good. With this type of
teaching children can acquire more general knowledge. With this type of
teaching the illiterate parents can also come to know what is being taught in
the school, so that they can teach their children at home too.”
At home my son explains to
me whatever is being taught to him, with his explanation I come to know how
fast he is in picking up words for any objects. Hope this method of teaching
will continue in future. Less worries for parents - no homework
worries.
But there was a counterpoint
to this too. One parent interviewed, in 1995 voicing perhaps the doubts and
anxieties of others, had this to say:
How
do you find
To be quite honest not at
all to my expectations. I feel a good school should have teachers speaking good
English as it is an
How does your son find it ?
My son finds it
demotivating. He is surprised at the type of teaching and the indiscipline.
Since his friends from the colony come to D.J. he’s willing to come.
Do
you see any positive difference ?
Frankly I don’t. He used to get
85 to 90% in his exams, here at D.J. he gets much less. He was a child who did
not need any extra coaching. Now he finds it difficult to cope. There in the
other school a lot of revision used to be done here the portion is not
completed in time.
Why
did you choose to put your son in D.J. ?
Well, my son was going to a
good
What
do you feel is the perception about the school and the programme ?
Actually people pitied me
when I admitted my son in this school. Their perception of the quality of
education being provided in this school is poor. I feel SIP should go into the
classrooms. Child centred education is hardly there in the secondary. It is
still rote learning as in other schools.
Do
you intend retaining your son in this school ?
Yes. I’ll keep him there
with the hope that things will improve.
This
interview provides food for thought for the SIP personnel. The Secondary
section is where a methodological change is being effected with the state
prescribed text. How far can changes be brought about, and how long would it
take for these to become visible? In what ways should communication with parents
be improved so as to allay their anxieties as well as maintain the faith they
have reposed in this institution?
1997
: This parent took her son out of the
school and has admitted him in a convent school.
A
study tour by the Project Consultant to the The thrust of High Scope’s programme is in providing a positive adult child interaction in a well planned physical setting, with appropriately stocked materials that combine to provide children with opportunities to choose from various |
experiences. The curriculum is structured to support children in key areas identified in Piaget’s theories. In each of these key areas, the curriculum identifies “key experiences” through which children can develop important skills and learn basic concepts. The whole programme has a definite daily routine where these key experiences are provided to children. The Project Consultant returned with materials, teacher manuals and cassettes. At a workshop, High Scope’s developmentally appropriate curriculum and its methodology were explained. The pre-school heads took up the idea enthusiastically. The classroom arrangement underwent further refinement, with the recognition that some of the materials provided were not age-appropriate. The real difficulty lay in understanding the teacher’s own role in the classroom. The teachers found it difficult to check their immediate spontaneous responses to children struggling with materials. “It was hard to watch a child trying to balance a big block over a small one and not help him,” recalls a teacher. Translating High Scope’s much smaller teacher pupil ratio in the D. J. scenario of larger numbers was not easy. Each teacher had twenty children to observe and talk to. The teachers were in a quandary were their children really learning? Each one had different experiences; how did one observe them? What did adult support really mean? |
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Primary : Curriculum Redesign The evaluation undertaken prior to the School Improvement Programme had made some specific observations on the Primary Section : & “The heart of the problem in the Primary Schools seems to be that the actual instruction given to children is poor quality.... teachers seem to lack enterprise or initiative to search and find ways of making learning more effective. Very little discussion of this problem takes place among the teachers. In the secondary the teachers are motivated by the prospect of the |
S.S.C examination. Hence they have more of an urgency about getting through the syllabus and are perhaps, more serious in the preparation of classes, at least with regard to ‘putting the matter across’. However, there is very little sense of drawing the children out, fostering independent thinking and adapting the subject matter, so that it may more easily be grasped by children weak in English and unexposed to intellectual stimulation.” Thus issues of transition became more complex when students came up from the pre-school into the Primary. Used as they were to the High Scope pattern of Daily Routine which allowed them to choose their own learning, the more formal classroom proved to be forbidding. Unused as they were to structured, arranged furniture, and distancing from their own teachers, their transition and settling down became more difficult. The children themselves, though bright and interested in learning, were, in the opinion of some of the primary teachers, “indisciplined”. Some children seemed unable to read or write. They had a good background in oral work but were “slow” to write. The question of when writing begins in earnest was a matter of debate in those early years of the programme. |
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An attractive
chart on the wall depicting the Hansel and Gretel story is of little value if
the children cannot name the characters and retell the story. A box with
different shaped holes in the lid is of more use if teachers can explain at
what stage in the child’s development sorting is an essential exercise. |
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What we had realised at the end of the first year of the programme was chiefly that there is more ownership of a programme when the teachers are involved in the struggle to evolve that programme. Unless the programmes in the change process are thoroughly integrated into the schools schedule and the staff themselves assume responsibility, they would remain extraneous and not take root. This realisation led to involving the primary staff members in the process of redesigning their own curriculum. Prior to this, the first grade teachers were invited to spend a day in the pre-school viewing the new methodology. A couple of interested teachers volunteered to try out strategies. Subsequently all members of the Primary Section were invited to come to the ongoing process of curriculum redesign and preparation of materials. About fifty percent of the teachers participated in this exercise. The objective behind adopting this slower, seemingly more cumbersome process, was to build a greater ownership of the Programme. In the initial two months of the programme coming to the Primary |
Section, weekly meetings were held jointly for teachers of both schools to plan. Over time the idea of teachers demonstrating the teaching of an idea or concept to the others was introduced. Teachers took turns at giving lessons at which the rest of the staff members would be present. This would be followed by a feedback session at which all teachers contributed. However, in the initial years, with so much that was now happening, this idea of having demonstration lessons could not be sustained. It is interesting to see that this idea was taken up again in the Second Phase with more success, probably because it was built into the school structure and the teachers themselves were gradually acquiring skills of observation and facilitation. A Close Look Meanwhile,
at the pre-school, with the first year drawing to a close, the need arose to
review the process of assessment. How were children to be assessed on their
skills? The programme borrowed the evaluation system developed at the |
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If teachers were to make qualitative statements about children in the report card, what could they say? The Project thought of supplying a list of possible statements to help the teacher select one that came closest to describing the child’s performance. Each year the process of evaluation was reviewed and refined. It became clear that ranking students in the class labelled them for life. Grades replaced ranks, but the teachers as well as students were aware that to |
be a D Grade student was ‘degrading’! Gradually initials replaced the grades at the Primary. A student was stated to have either performed Above expectation (AE), as Expected (E), or as Needing Support (NS). The teachers arrived at these qualifying statements through discussion. The process of review and reflection which had gradually become the hallmark of most project decisions was exhibited yet again in this instance. It was a rare moment when teachers were, of their own accord, attempting to positively assess a child’s performance without `branding’ him or her. Teachers were beginning to recognise individual differences and attempting to build on individual strengths. That each year a different format was devised for evaluation also exhibits the maturity that the teachers had attained in being willing to jettison what they themselves had devised the previous year. Each year the format grew more refined and attempted to become more personalised. English Language Policy English language learning had been identified as a major deficit area in the evaluation of the schools. The curriculum redesign process took pains to examine this issue at length. It was observed that English was taught indifferently in the schools. Interviews conducted with parents during the evaluation revealed that knowledge of English was viewed as a ticket to a livelihood. And yet, |
“Mummy jumped over the moon”
Two children of each class from Higher K.G. to Std IV were called and asked:
What is the difference between a cow and your mummy?
All the children from Std IV down to Std II came up with the same obvious answers, like: “The cow has a tail, mummy does not”; or “The cow has big ears, mummy does not” etc. None of the children spoke of “udders” (maybe they were shy).
But the Std I children, who had come from the informal learning atmosphere, came up with the most amazing, amusing and intelligent responses:
“The cow cannot come to school. Mummy can”. “The cow cannot put on lipstick Mummy can”. “The cow gives us milk from udders so does Mummy” (and even indicated from where).
The very fact that teachers had begun asking questions that allowed children to think was an achievement.
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Language teaching at pre-school, it was recognised, dealt more with exposing children to the language. It also dealt with issues of bilingualism. It was in the primary that anxieties grew about how best to rectify the deficiencies in language learning. The key areas seemed to be the quality of instruction being given, with little reflection on whether it served the purpose it was meant to achieve. The textbook was the perennial crutch on which the teacher leaned heavily, making little attempt to let go and explore language in fresh and meaningful ways. It was unthinkable |
perhaps to search and put together a lesson content, especially in the daily struggle against time and other commitments. Should this crutch be taken away, would it force the teachers to do more thinking, and planning about what they teach and how. The idea seemed revolutionary. Could the programme throw away the state recommended text? What could it replace it with? The project toyed with the idea of replacing it with a graded reading card system. After due reflection and discussion it was decided to use a Reading Card Scheme. The belief was that over a period of time, through this scheme, children would develop an intuitive understanding the rules of grammar. |
THE LANGUAGE POLICY..... COMING
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The process of development of these cards was a novel one. It was felt that if teachers were to be asked to give up the text, they should be involved in the creation of its successor, for them to be willing to try to use it. Teachers were invited to voluntarily take part in the writing of their own stories. The key grammatical structures to be used were given to them. The material was edited for vocabulary expectations. The names of the characters in the stories were replaced from a short list of names of children in the D. J. Schools. It was decided to minimise illustrations and focus on print. |
The initial cards carried a picture at the back that became a topic for discussion and was then followed by the lesson itself. But there were problems. Sometimes the pictures did not relate directly to the story; the teachers themselves were unclear about what they were supposed to do. New teachers (at a time when the turnover was high) had to be oriented to use these cards. There were other questions. Were the reading cards sustainable? After the Project who would be the key people who would induct the newcomers to the use of these cards? More important, were children learning the language adequately? |
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Simultaneously, a manual called ‘Teaching Tips’ was created to act as a guide not only for the content to be covered but for methodology and the attitude required in the classroom. An English language course on simple language structure and pronunciation was organised for the pre-school and primary teachers. But a lot more needed to be done to build the language skills of the teachers. A review at the end of the academic year revealed that the children found the state texts far more colourful and attractive than the large black and white cards. Also, parents could help them at home with the text. As the reading cards remained with the school, parents did not have a clue as to what their children were learning. Some teachers found it useful to supplement the scheme with the text while others struggled with the new system. Meanwhile, what was happening to the children? Parents complained that their children were not writing enough, that the more gifted children were not being sufficiently challenged by the lesson content. The cards themselves were found in some cases to be too short and in others to be too long. Adequate numbers of cards were not available when required. But we persevered with the system. In the next year of the Project, cards were created for grades III and IV. This time round, older students were invited along with all the English teachers of both schools to |
participate in the story writing. It was a unique experience, and the children took to it with great seriousness of purpose. Possible themes appropriate for the cards and the grammar points to be included were handed out. Those selected had the author’s name on the cards. The project recognised the other reality that suitable books with large pictures, short sentences and large print were difficult to procure and very expensive. By the end of the first phase of the programme there was a growing ownership of the reading card system on the part of the teachers. While it was acknowledged that many of the teachers missed the support of a text book and found it difficult to put together the content required, it forced teachers to think in new ways. The evaluation of the First Phase however questioned the validity of the decision to do away with the text. Some Posers There was another issue. The Bombay Municipal Corporation, whose rules, regulations and syllabus are to be followed by all Primary Schools, had yearly inspections. The inspectors demanded that the state text be followed. Did D.J. Schools think that the state texts written as they were by “experts” were not good enough? How qualified were these teachers in English language to be able to produce a graded curriculum that was “better” than the state text ? |
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Keeping all these realities in mind the Second Phase of the programme (beginning from 1993-94), after a review of existing texts in the market, came upon a Reading Card System developed by publishers Orient Longman. In conjunction with this a graded text was also introduced. In the first year of the Second Phase, the reading cards developed indigen-ously as well as the new text and reading cards were used together. The system was overloaded. Those teachers who had helped develop the indigenous cards stuck loyally to them while others who did not know how to use them gratefully accepted the new text. The sufferers were the children who received a very varied language experience. Were they really attaining at least a minimum level of learning? Nobody really knew. Gradually the cards from the first phase were relegated to cupboards. The Municipal Corporation contin-ued to take issue over the non-utilisation of their prescribed texts. With every yearly inspection this issue was becoming more pressing and it was clear that unless some |
stand was taken, there were chances of curtailment of flexibility in other areas. Could the schools afford that? Each time the inspectors arrived it was the Principals who faced the music. Was it fair to expect them to continue to face the consequences of a decision taken at another level? In the last year of the Second Phase, seven years down the road, the project once again reviewed the new text vis-à-vis the state text and concluded that the state text with modifications could be reintroduced while maintaining the new methodology. The entire language programme from pre-school through primary was viewed holistically and compared with the minimum levels of learning as laid down by the state. The attempt now would be to ensure that these levels were attained at each standard. The language programme has thus come full circle. When we began the programme the state texts were in use in the classroom. After six years of experimentation with alternative texts we returned to the state text, albeit with modifications. However, the most significant development was that the teachers, during this process, had learnt to deliver its content in more meaningful ways. Their under-standing of language teaching as a whole appears to have improved. The language programme varied its course, constantly reviewing, willing to risk and experiment with alternative methods. |
EVERYBODY
LEARNT SOMETHING NEW!
I was watching a Maths class
in progress in Std I. The teacher was teaching ‘more than & less than’. She
had a series of numbers in one example 3,4,1,6,8,7,10. Here she pointed out
that 10 was the biggest number. It was more than all the other numbers. The
next set of numbers was 6,5,2,10,11,3. “Which is the biggest number ?” she
asked. Here all children pointed out that 10 as the biggest number, as she had
said it was so in the previous set. She seemed unable to explain why 11 was the
correct answer.
I gently asked her if she
didn’t think it would help if she used concrete objects to help fix the
concept. The teacher accepted the suggestion and picked up from the chalk box
pieces of chalk. She picked up 5 large pieces of chalk placed them together. In
another set, she placed ten tiny chalk pieces and asked the children to look
carefully and say which was greater. The children promptly pointed to the 5
large pieces and said that was greater as it looked bigger.
I realised I needed to give
clearer instructions to the teacher. If concrete objects were to be used they
all had to be identical.
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Meaningful Maths Mathematics was the other key subject that was focused upon in the Primary. The curriculum redesign in this subject came from the Curriculum Development Officer of AKES,I. Here too the shift was from the text and its limited set of questions to worksheets for children. Initially the worksheets were primarily created to introduce a concept to the children. However, since teachers had not been involved in their creation, many a time while planning for a lesson a teacher remained unaware of the existence of a relevant worksheet. These sheets ended up being used for evaluation. At the end of the first year it was clear to the implementers that Maths required more exposure to concrete experiences. Gradually the number |
of worksheets
reduced until mid way through the first phase a Maths teacher hit upon the
exciting idea of creating a Maths room where child-ren could actively explore
material. The obvious question that arose was “Where’s the space?” After much
discussion it was decided that the |
MATHS TAKES CONCRETE SHAPE
MATHS ROOM I teach mathematics in the
Primary Section of Diamond Jubilee Boys. I was longing to help the children
to learn maths i.e. arithmetic and geometry with concrete materials i.e.
first hand experience and to make it more interesting, fun and play. A new
curriculum was prepared with the help of co-ordinators. Different interesting
methods, group activities were used. I thought of setting up a maths room and
was excited when my idea was accepted. I was fortunate enough to get this
opportunity to plan, purchase and organise the apparatus in a room which is
called “MATHS ROOM”. All the materials are displayed in the room.
Children can pick up any one of their choice and use it, to solve different
problems of maths. All the topics are taught with concrete material made of wood,
plastic, clay, steel, cardboard etc. Colourful furniture
suitable to the children, small tables and chairs are arranged. A teacher can
plan the activity for 20 to 25 children at a time and attend to them
effectively. An enabling environment is created by displaying posters and
charts. It is really exciting. Children look forward to go to the Maths Room. Children weigh different
articles, selling and buying, measuring each other’s height and comparing,
filling water into cans of litre and millilitre, making patterns out of
different shapes, making different shapes (two and three dimensions) out of
clay, playing with beans, plastic strips and flash cards to solve the four
basic operations. Teaching maths with group
activities and concrete material is
something the teachers also find interesting and easy. FARIDA Z. CHARANIA Primary
Maths Teacher |
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LIST OF MATERIALS IN
MATHS ROOM 1. Beads (units,
tens, hundreds & thousand) 2. Bottle tops 3. Ice cream
sticks 4. Straws 5. Flannel board 6. Flash card with
one number on each 7. Flash cards on
all four basic operations 8. Beans 9. Clay 10. Different shapes made of
wooden 11. Different (colourful) pieces
triangular, rectangular and circular. 12. Clocks (wooden) 13. Cans,
bottles (lit, ml : 500, 250, 100, 50 etc.) 14. Weighing machines --- 3
types. 15. Measuring tapes 16. Cloth pieces 17. Games 18. Geo-board, rubber bands 19. Plastic strips, counters 20. Thread 21. Square papers 22. Fraction frame 23. Audio cassette on tables 24. Video cassette on numbers,
fractions, basic operations 25. Abacus |
THE
CLASSROOM....HOW DO WE ARRANGE IT?
Is it inviting enough for a
pre-schooler to release his mother’s hand and enter it on his own? Space is
limited but.....
Can we divide the room into areas?
Can we equip individual areas adequately so that several children can work simultaneously?
Can we see if there’s material for pretend play?
Can we rotate/add new materials ?
Can we familiarise children with the materials in the classroom?
Can we use wall space attractively?
Can we recognise that children need to see their work displayed?
Can we label the materials so that children learn to make the connection between writing and objects?
Can we ensure that the teacher can oversee the whole class at any point of time?
Is the room airy, bright and colourful?
Is it a place a child would want to return to the next day?
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SIP Phase II Phase I had been experimental in nature, targeted to break rigid structures and bring about change. Sometimes issues had to be solved by hindsight. Phase II began with greater institutional learning. It recognised that the success of any programme can be judged only by its ability to sustain itself when the external funding (which for us had come from the AKF) is withdrawn. Towards this end it focused on building facilitative structures, financial, physical and human. Phase II commenced in a general atmosphere of “fire fighting” as the new Project Director described it in her first report, with a number of key personnel on extended leave. The Project now spanned the middle |
school as well. The methodological focus in this section was on resource based learning, with a view to making learning more relevant to the child. It meant providing an environment in which children could develop the skills to seek information that is meaningful to them. The shift from learning that had hitherto been based upon prescribed text books, and a relatively inflexible syllabus with a predetermined content, to a more selective content, was not easy in this section. The government’s education department syllabus and its rules were more forceful realities in the middle school. Also, teachers needed to feel convinced that students could work independently or in small groups on a specific topic preferably of their own choice. |
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The thrust of the Phase II proposal was two pronged. On one hand what had hitherto been achieved in pre-school and primary had to be sustained. On the other hand the |
Project had to move up into the middle school. To facilitate change, two key structures were recognised as a necessity. If resource based learning was to be introduced in the middle school and children were to be divided into groups, the heavy classroom furniture hampered mobility. A major decision was taken to dispose of the existing furniture and acquire a light, flexible alternative that facilitated movement within the classroom. This involved finding buyers for the old heavy benches and desks, which had little resale value. There was another anxiety. While the new furniture was attractive, would it last? The risk was taken and the hitherto cluttered classrooms acquired a light airy look as moulded plastic furniture took the place of heavier wood. |
CHECKLIST
TO MAKE A CO-ORDINATION TIMETABLE
(or How to Put Socks on an Octopus)
¨ Determine how much time is needed per week per subject for meetings/discussions.
¨ Decide who the key people required to attend these meetings are.
¨ List out their weekly teaching workload.
¨ Free these key teachers simultaneously.
¨ Allocate the co-ordination periods to Special subject teachers—Art, Music, P.E. (so that the children are occupied)
¨ Design the rest of the teaching workload around the allocated time for co-ordination.
¨ Dialogue with teachers who find they have to teach 3-4 periods consecutively any day in the week to make up their teaching load.
¨ Be prepared to be flexible. Do not get attached to the first time-table that you come up with. You might just need to redo the whole exercise!
Explore it first
The Sr. K. G. Teacher had
placed colourful counters in the Maths area with a view to teaching, counting.
Three children sat engrossed, examining them. The teachers hoped to gradually
lead up to the idea of counting, but the children had other ideas.
One child placed a red
counter upon his fore head, another, in imitation placed a green one on his ear
lobe, the third one attempted balancing upon his nose. This continued for a
long time.
The teacher appeared more and
more restless. How was she to introduce them to counting if they played in this
fashion. She raised this subsequently at a co-ordination meeting ...... a lot
of discussion ensued on how she could achieve her objectives. Perhaps they need
to play with the material before they begin to use it...... said one teacher
after a moment of quiet reflection.
Is there scope in the curriculum to let children
familiarise themselves with the material before attempting to learn from it ?
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Initially the staff of both schools were present at these meetings. Uncertain about the purpose of these sessions, the programme met with resistance from the teachers. As the resource room was originally only in the boys |
school the teachers from the girls school complained about the amount of commuting they had to do. In an attempt to encourage reading, the Project Director introduced a period of silent reading for the group prior to discussion. While some teachers disliked the practice, others recog-nised its utility and gradually there was a greater demand for resources. The initial sessions dealt with planning the content and devising suitable activities for it. It was realised that there was no way of ensuring that the activities planned were, indeed, being followed up in the classroom. The system in-corporated demonstration lessons to assess the efficacy of the method-ology. It was a difficult task getting teachers to demonstrate in front of their peers and getting the observers, in turn, to give objective feedback. |
Bouquets and Brickbats --
1995
Anisa Shaikh is the PTA
secretary. She is an ex DJG student and is now local guardian to a child in Std
5.
What is SIP ? It’s an experiment. It will take time to see its results. Every coin has two sides. We will have to wait for the first batch to reach SSC to know if SIP is successful.
Changes through SIP : These children are bold and have general knowledge. However the mentality of the parents is this: a child goes to school he/she does questions and answers and returns. Here its very different from a regular school. From the teacher’s point of view also its difficult. They are trained but they are being retrained.
Changes in the children : I feel only the intelligent children speak better. The average child is trying to improve but still needs help. In our programme the child should have become independent by now. A child should do homework by herself. She still needs help. Confidence should be more. The impact is not so great in the secondary.
In our time children used to doze off, everyone had to be quiet, put our heads into the book and not even look at our partners. Now the teacher expects the students to respond. The discussions they have helps. When the teacher is free with the children, she’s talking to the whole class not only with the front benches. We used to sit in the back benches to do our own work.
What about the Parents? Most parents are not so literate. Uneducated parents face more problems. Primary children don’t bring any books. Parents can’t accept it. One thing that’s frightening about SIP is that it is a risk. At the end of 13 years only we’ll know whether the risk was the right one to take.
Evaluation worries parents. Children are asked to study and then a surprise test is given not on the next day but some days later. How are children to do well? They are not going according to the syllabus. The parents attitude is “mujhe kuchch samajh nahi ata, they do nothing in the school”.
At the time of the results parents want marks, they don’t like grades. Notebooks are kept at school how do we know what’s happening? Books should be with the child. The school has meetings, but the suggestions given by parents are not being used. However, curriculum sharing at these meetings is helping parents understand it better. They are impressed by the children’s work.
In our times there was no dialogue between the School and parents. Now at least they can voice their concerns.
On Participation in the School Management Committee : We are only called to the meeting for being informed of the decisions taken we have to accept these. We are not participating in the decisions made.
On the School Image : Our
children hate the name “Diamond Dubba” that is given to our school. When they meet children from other schools
they say we are from
Is SIP headed in the right direction? You have taken on such a big problem it is possible to miss out something. We should move forward in this path now that we’ve chosen it.
Other parents voiced their fears :
¨ Why is so much money being collected for activities -- are our children really learning ?
¨ Will they be able to perform at the S.S.C. exams ?
¨ If so much freedom is given to our children we’ll lose control. They will not listen to us.
¨ We don’t understand what they are doing to our children.
¨ What is the syllabus that is being taught? Why are there no textbooks or exams ?
¨ How do I know how my child ranks in class ?
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The issue before the Project then was, how is the co-ordination system to be made a system of shared leadership? The objective was to create a critical mass of people who would carry forward the programme after the Project period. The learning for the Project from the exercise was the fact that it was not so much the outcome of our actions but the process that was important. The process itself got trigged off by the demands of the situation. Proactivity, upto a point was possible, but unforeseen circumstances would have to be dealt with then and there. Curriculum demands For the Curriculum in this Phase, the attempt was to organise the existing content more meaningfully and provide as much interactive work as possible. Unlike in the pre-school and primary where the teachers have a |
very close association with their children, the secondary teachers had a limited measure of their students and that too in terms of only their own subject area. Fresh from the more open structures that they had come from, the secondary teachers found the children difficult to handle. They wouldn’t “sit quietly in one place”, they appeared to constantly demand attention. Very little seemed to get done in class with most of the time being spent disciplining the children. There were anxieties regar-ding the skills they came up with from the primary: “They can’t write fast, they hardly know how to read.” There were other anxieties that transition brought in its wake. How were they to evaluate their children? While children were being exposed to the content through varied experiences, they were being evaluated entirely differently, in the same old routine format. Where teachers tried to link the evaluation to the experience, the results were different. However, not all teachers were willing to experiment with variations in the evaluation format. The notion of continuous evaluation over smaller content matter was seen to be risky. Would they be able to take a 3-hour exam later in life, if they had no practice at all? |
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Extracts from children’s class work in 1991 the first example indicates teachers’
pre-occupation with the child’s writing skills
The second example indicates the tendency of the teachers to give traditional topics for essays --- extracts from a classwork book in 1991
Our National Flag
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Our national
flag has three colour. Green then white then orang. It flies on Republic Day.
It is |
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My grandfather ---- extracts from children’s classwork in 1996
Now my grandfather is not there but when he was there my grandfather was old. He was nearly 40 years old. His hair was snow white. His face was wrinkled but his eye sight was nice.
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Last year I used to ..... |
This year I will .... |
||
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1.
2. I used to eat Kitkat. 3. I buyed a large Teddy bear. 4. I ate 24 ice creams. |
1. I will take Rs. 100/- for my pocket money. 2. I will eat Tobler. 3. I will buy a set of two Barbie doll. 4. I will eat 30 ice creams. |
If I had Rs. 1,000/-
If I had Rs. 1000 I would spent it on most useful things such as I would buy clothes of Rs. 200, some story books of Rs. 200 to improve my language, stationery of Rs. 100 & I would safe Rs. 500 because it would be useful to me.
The
above samples of children’s work are an indication of the changing nature of
assignments given by the teachers over the years of the programme.
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Over the last seven years, thus, a conscious attempt has been made to redesign the Curriculum where |
possible, make content more comprehensible and meaningful where necessary, draw the children to learning what interests them. Curriculum has not been viewed merely as a set of concepts to be learnt within a given time frame. Rather it has been a means of reaching out to children as and where they are and not where they are expected to be. |
Nothing
dry about it!
Economics was innovatively
introduced in the Curriculum ....... A
File Report
£ ¥
$
# Rs @ %
On November 15 and 16, 1995 a
group of teachers conducted two full days (7.30 am - 12.45 pm) of project work
with the fifth, sixth and seventh grade students at the Diamond Jubilee School
for Girls. Each classroom was assigned two teachers and the overarching goal
was to focus on the broad topic of economics. The teachers had their own
strategies. The fifth grade focused on topics such as profit/loss,
supply/demand, advertising and accounting. The sixth grade were introduced to
basic banking concepts, created a play, visited a bank and discussed economic
concepts on a more national level. The seventh grade focused their attention on
understanding how to budget money in
different situations and had lengthy discussions on the concept of savings.
Each class was given a
budget of Rs. 600 to use for conducting this project. The money was mostly
spent on buying chart paper, coloured markers and other small stationery
materials. The money was also used to buy basic materials that they could later
sell and try to make a profit. The days were filled with activities and left
both the students and teachers exhausted but exhibited too.
The specific
goals:
1. To relate classroom learning to everyday life
We had made it clear to the
students that this project work for the two days was not included in the
prescribed syllabus. We then asked them why it was so important that we spend
two full school days on discussing economic concepts. What the students told us
was that money was an integral part of everyday life and the teachers added
that understanding basic principles like profit/loss and supply/demand were
crucial in becoming responsible with the money they would one day earn on their
own. The discussions were geared towards the students’ own experience: pocket money, advertising (TV commercials), household
budgeting. We also used other real life examples like markets and banks to make
the topic of economics more tangible for the students. The value of money was reinforced until the
students in the end were aware of how difficult it can be to earn money and
budget money in the house.
Another aim was for the
students to formally do in class what they are so used to doing outside the
traditional classroom: make decisions. In some of the classes the students were
given a limited amount of money. Within this budget they were to decide what to
sell, how to sell it, how much to charge, and how to effectively account for
all the gathered money. The teachers reminded them that this was a big
responsibility and we were trusting them to be honest and work diligently in
the process. This led to a visible increase in the self-esteem of many of the
students as they were in the end very proud of what they had achieved. The
natural curiosity of the children was also carefully cultivated during the
discussions. The children continually asked, “What if ... ?, Why? How?” The questioning was open-ended,
spontaneous and imaginative. This, the teachers noted, was very different from
the usual type of questioning in a traditional class.
2. To draw upon students’ creative potential
The students were given many
opportunities to use their creative energies in class. In addition to writing
down their thoughts, they chose to act, draw beautiful posters and find
pictures in magazines to express themselves. They wrote the skits on their own,
decided on the costumes and developed roles for everyone to get involved in the
process. One class realised that there were many strategies to advertise a
product and discussed the most effective means of reaching their consumers.
They developed jingles, slogans and gimmicks to promote the sales of their
products. They took it upon themselves to try to individualise the selling
process by going from class to class and effectively talking about their
products with their friends in their free time. Another group of students in
fact did not make a profit and afterwards reflected on how they could have
better marketed their product. The students were also creative in preparing
graphs and charts to compute more effectively.
3. To heighten awareness of the outer environment
The classes had
many discussions that facilitated an awareness of the monetary system. We asked
them the following basic questions: Why is there money? Where does this money come
from? Why doesn’t the government just print more money and give it to everyone?
How does a bank operate? What are some different schemes of saving money? Some
teachers discussed the functioning of a bank in detail, explaining how to open
an account, the process of getting a loan and the concept of gaining interest
on money saved in a bank. One class discussed household budgeting and in the
end were really surprised how much even basic necessities cost and how their
parents manage from month to month. They also discussed different budgeting
situations ranging from pocket money, to setting up a shop, to arranging for a
marriage. Stemming from this was an awareness that planned saving was essential
in preparing for major events like marriages and birthdays. Another group
actually went to a bank with a list of questions and reported their findings to
their peers. Finally, a group of sixth grade students had a lively discussion
concerning the following question : What is the role of every individual, every
professional in the advancement of the national economy?
4. To approach knowledge in a holistic manner.
It was a great experience
for our teachers and students to approach the topic of economics from so many
different points of view. The history of money, trading in ancient
5. To create a basic understanding of how to conduct project
work
Many of the teachers
assigned for the planning and the actual teaching of the material did not
fulfil their responsibilities. This was disappointing as it was an additional
burden for those teachers who involved themselves in the process. The teachers
who participated learned many lessons from these project days that will help
them in the planning and execution of future projects:
We must have clear
measurable objectives to evaluate the success of the students work.
We must also give our
students the freedom to make decisions : the projects should be the product of
their work with our guidance.
Creative thinking, planning
and reflection all take time and this needs to be acknowledged in scheduling
for project work.
Finally, some of the
teachers stated that the holistic style of teaching was a new experience for
them and that they would enjoy teaching in this manner in the future.
6. To provide an opportunity to promote group learning
The type of group learning
that occurred was in stark contrast to what happens on a daily basis in the
classrooms. The students had to depend on each other in the planning, the
selling and the accounting process. They openly stated that they often had a
difficult time sharing and trusting each other. Also, group leaders had a lot
of responsibility and had to learn how to delegate and oversee the various
tasks. The groups were all working towards a common end (learning more about
economics) but all took various paths to reach the goals. This was a new
concept that the teachers had to adjust to as group work in the past meant that
each group would be working on separate and often unrelated topics.
The following are some of the comments the students
in the fifth, sixth and seventh standards had written in reflecting on what
they had learned during the project days.
“We had this project so that
when we leave school we could not only know of text books, we should also know
how the world is working.”
“These projects help us how
to tackle things on our own and how to work in groups.”
“We had never bothered about
saving but learnt how important it was.”
“We must have one period a
week of this kind of teaching.”
“Budgeting that I learnt
will help me to budget when I grow older.”
“In these two days I learnt
that money is important and saving it even more important as it will help me in
the future.”
“We learnt some economics
that will help us in the future.”
“We learnt how to withdraw
money.”
“I learnt that before buying
and selling we must plan (advertise).”
“We learnt how to make
profit and avoid loss.”
“I like to work in a group
because they can give some ideas and they can help.”
“I learnt not to shout and not to let teacher
shout. We should work in group and we also should give others a chance.”
“I enjoyed being in the
group because my group girls gave me ideas.”
“We learnt to share with
others.”
“We learnt in the last two
days that we must always work in group because we get knowledge from them and
we discuss and do the work. We get the help of everyone. They get help from me.
Sometimes it happens that we are not sitting with our friend and sitting with
someone we don’t like, but we have to work with that person.”
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The type of group learning that occurred was in stark contrast to
what happens on a daily basis in the classrooms. The students had to depend on
each other in the planning, the selling and the accounting process.
PLAN
FOR PROJECT DAYS
|
TIME |
DAY 1 |
DAY 2 |
|
7.30 -- 8.00 |
INTRODUCING BUDGETS |
CONTINUE GRAPHS |
|
8.00 -- 9.00 |
PREPARATION OF BUDGETS |
CONTINUE GRAPHS |
|
9.00 -- 9.30 |
SELLING |
INTRODUCING SAVING |
|
9.30 -- 10.00 |
SELLING |
SAVING SCHEMES, BANKING |
|
10.00 -- 10.45 |
BREAK |
BREAK |
|
10.50 -- 11.20 |
COMPUTE THE PROFIT LOSS |
STD VI ROLE PLAY |
|
11.20 -- 11.50 |
GRAPH |
DISCUSSION |
|
11.50 -- 12.30 |
GRAPH |
BANK VISIT |
DAY
1 |
DAY
2 |
|
BUDGETING |
TEACHING |
|
What is it ? |
Renewing the budget charts |
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Who uses it ? |
Introducing concept of
sharing |
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Why is it used ? |
What are the opportunities
available |
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How should it be prepared
? |
Where do people normally
save - Why ? |
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benefits of saving |
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terminology used in banks |
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Different schemes to save
in the bank |
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Other agencies of saving |
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ACTIVITY |
ACTIVITY |
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Preparation of budgets ---
groupwise TOPICS FOR GROUPS: |
Discussion on tuck shop of
2 days amount collected—spent—profit or loss |
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Running a house ---
monthly income Rs. 3000/- |
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Establishing a shop Rs.
5000/- |
Discussion |
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Pocket money Rs. 1000/- |
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Celebration of Birthday
Rs. 4000/- |
Plotting of Pie Chart |
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Marriage in the family Rs.
15,000/- |
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Discussion on Profit
- Loss - |
Few comments by students
on the programme --- Follow up later on in a composition class. |
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Concepts taught |
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Wholesalers / Retailers |
Visit to the bank |
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Demand / Supply |
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Interest Rates |
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Plotting of Graphs based
on calculations made by each group. |
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