29 November 2015
To draw allusion from a cliché : teaching and learning are just two sides of a coin. However, a good learner might not be taught always by a good teacher. Does it sound contradictory? Let me further explain it. Perhaps you will all agree with me to the fact that in a particular class, all the students do not excel. There are by all means good students and mediocre students. To be politically correct we always do not admit this difference publicly in a forum but in our mind we CAN distinguish them very easily. Now, this is also very evident though we can observe this distinction, all the students are taught by same teacher at the same time. Practically, it is
not possible to be partial when a teacher addresses a group. (There are teachers who are partial in answering the queries of a student when asked individually but that is not directly related to this context) Now, if a student goes further over it and demands the teacher's help even outside the classroom he/she does it at his/her volition. In a word, all the students pertaining to the same group are taught by a single teacher at the same time but do not respond equally. By the time, I was about to sit for secondary examination, I decided that I want to study language and literature because I find the Bengali and English classes very much interesting than the Maths or Physics classes. On the contrary, most of my friends found the language classes very boring and dull and the science periods to be creatively interesting. All of us were taught by the same teachers.
There are so many other factors as well which whet up the interest of a student but I will discuss that later on in some other post where I will perhaps quote this part. We will have a close look on how this interest functions. But this introduction is particularly telling in this context since I would like to establish a very crucial point here : one very important prerequisite to learning is not necessarily an effective teaching but to understand the value of learning something. It is all about prioritising. Perhaps that is why we witness that different people outdo in different arenas ; this is always not because they have got the right mentor but because they set their priority on it and believed that it is perhaps the most valuable subject to pursue.
If this be true then one might ask why at all I am writing since I believe that it is learners' addiction to a subject that ensures an effective learning. Before I risk to be misunderstood, let me explain that this is just one valuable factor regarding learning I just pointed out. And sometimes this addiction is extremely influenced by the teacher. This contradiction will be lessened when I discuss about how interest functions in my next post.
Therefore, the first point is this realisation that whatever I am doing is important is key to effective learning. Now coming to pedagogy, can a teacher really highlight the value of a subject taught? No and yes, at the same time. It is a NO when the learners are not analytical enough. I witnessed a lot of people who are not
independent or rather rational in their approach of learning. For children, it is still acceptable since the parental influence is high. Till certain age, a child or a learner learns something because he/she is instructed to do so. As a French language mentor I taught the children, the teenagers as well as the grown-ups who are either students of college or universities or professionals. Strangely, the answers I got are quite astounding. When I asked my students of class II why they have chosen French and not Bengali or Hindi as their second language most of them answered me candidly that it is NOT they but the parents had chosen this subject for them. It goes without saying that here the question of understanding its value or prioritisation does not arise. Let me narrate an incident here which one of my colleagues told me few months ago. When she asked one of her students of class IV why he was speaking in Bengali whereas a student is supposed to do away with any vernacular language in an English medium school, the student answered bluntly : "Ma'am, it is not me who have decided to get admitted in an English medium school. My parents did not ask for my
opinion. I am not at ease with English. What am I supposed to do then?" Setting aside the question of respect and other very important factors in this context, I would like to focus on the fact that there are children who CAN actually set a priority but it is not looked after. I will come back once again to this point in the next chapter. When I asked the same questions to some of my students who are teenagers, they have replied the same. Few of them expressed outspokenly that they are leaning French because it is fashionable, in vogue or leaning French is 'cool'. I received a similar answer from the other lot of the students who are expected to be quite 'mature' considering their age. The majority of them replied that they are learning it because their friends/relatives told them that it would be a beneficial addition to their CV, because their friends are learning it and because learning French is 'sexy'. (Perhaps my teenager students had a inhibition to use this word and moderated it by saying 'cool')
The reason for all these examples is to point out that in all the cases there is a strong evidence of third party influence in learning : I am learning because I am told so. It is not "ankhon dekhi" (perceived by eyes) or analysed by intellect. May I recall two lines of a Bengali poem I read few days back "কেউ বড় হয় না/ বড়র মতো দেখায়" (Nobody ever grows up/It appears to be so). There are few students who claim that they learn because they love to or want to do something related to this language.
Coming to the answer of this upright fellow of class IV, let me ask you if they teacher in this case could really have done something to make him understand why the subject is important.By this, I am coming to my second facet of this argument, i.e. why I also think that YES ; a teacher can underline its value. This can be done better individually than publicly. Had the teacher been addressing that student inside the class in front of his classmates there are two risks : the student might feel that he is being interrogated and pressurised. As a consequence, he might not be able to open up himself after a point of time. The second risk is that the classroom power-structure might be perturbed in which other students might get an impression that it is alright to engage in a debate with a teacher. They feel prone to debates and not to factual and evidential arguments. The teacher should engage with an informal interaction with this fellow. Perhaps it might start with sports they like. If the student replies that he loves cricket or football, he can be addressed by saying that to follow better football or cricket commentary one must learn English. Even if he is not interested in sports the same can be applied by 'exploiting' his area of interest. Gradually, the immersion process might follow.
10 January 2016
Now, is it really possible for a teacher to make a learner aware of its value? Yes. But to what extent? Moreover, can a language teacher really "teach" a language or a physics teacher "teach" physics? Trying to answer to such queries might lead to the second prerequisite of this process.
A teacher necessitates immersion but one must remember that a student is spending a very short span of time with the teacher. From a general perspective, it might be concluded that each day a student is not spending more than an hour with his/her subject teacher. The time span can be enlarged a little bit in certain cases in which the parents take an extra effort to arrange some coaching classes or "private tuition" for the learner.
Here comes the second prerequisite of this process : parental involvement. A good parenting ensures understanding the capability of the learner after a certain age. Initially, till the age of 11-12 the learners should be offered an array of subjects with their core ideas and ideals so that the leaner also understands his/her point of strength and weakness. May I here deviate a bit in order to underline that the word "ideas" is of extreme importance in the previous sentence. I really do not know if at all this is offered by the learning system of today but it is not enough for the learner to follow meticulously a curriculum and score a good mark in the examination to understand at all if he/she is good at the subject. Also, I am not favouring private tuition system here and suggesting that the point of strength should be developed outside the school by the help of private tuition. However, my view of ideal teaching has some similarity with the system of "coaching classes" but that is not what we exactly understand by this jargon.
31 January 2016
A good parenting ensures the value-based learning in our children. Moreover, pertaining to this discussion, it develops in a child the realization that whatever I am learning is important. This part in italics is a nutshell view of what I previously pointed out : understanding the value of learning and realizing the core ideas of subject. If a parent can imbue the child with these two basic aspects of learning, a child is bound to excel. (By excelling, I obviously mean that a child becomes a good learner, if not "an achiever" in life) In my experience, I witnessed that very few students (including grown-up learners) are interested in learning French after a few days. While trying to analyze this I deduced many conclusions ; one of which is that the students fail to understand why at all it is important. Young learners are motivated in the school by the teachers ; they all agree with the teacher to some extent that learning a foreign language is a key to exploration. But as soon as they are into studies in home, their parents hardly inculcate this sense of importance. Sadly, they are also not made aware of the core values of the other subjects. But as soon as the idea of prosper financially through other subjects are enforced in their budding mind, they are convinced that learning "science subjects" are important : not because it is also a key to exploration but because it is almost a guarantee card to generate bank balance!
The third point is about the "infrastructure" of the learning environment. Now, by the word infrastructure I do not mean at all the physically palpable learning tools.The focus is on the word 'environment' as well. A comfortable place to sit and relax, a water bottle, a not-so-claustrophobic room, a pleasant weather and may be intermittent supply of coffee or tea might be inducing factors of learning. Sounds elite? Well, that was a light-hearted remark! A pretentious attempt to relieve my leader for a second from this didactic discourse. But yes : a learner should have access to a place where he/she can sit comfortably and not frequently perturbed by external irritation or noises/sounds like that of a television, dogs barking indoors or outdoors , people's quarrel or any such similar sorts of disturbances. If this cannot be controlled, definitely it can be minimized. It is sheer misfortune that some of these issues can be actually controlled but here again comes the issue of parenting. Mostly at the hours of studies the caring mother of the child turns on mega-serials on television and at the commercial breaks she ensures verbally or in person, if at all the child is studying. A vigilant father gets occupied with watching news or a cricket/football match on television as a form of relaxation after a tiring day. Cannot it be 'compromised'? Relaxation has many other constructive forms or as it is said in Bhagvad Gita : intense work is relaxation when you love what you are doing.
I am no religious preacher and hardly expecting our parents to reach to that level of understanding ; most of us cannot for obvious reason. But what I am saying is that as a parent this minimum level of understanding and compromise is a must for well-being of the kids, otherwise the entire scenario of expecting my child to study when I relax, reflects a contradictory image to the mind of a learner. This is also true when a teacher goes to class, assigns some classworks to students and gets engaged with his/her mobile phone. My colleagues and me often faces a candid answers from the children of our primary section of the school. When asked that why the child is yawning in the class or did not do his/her homework, the child replied that the parents keep on watching television till midnight or one o'clock of the morning that he/she hardly gets time to concentrate on his/her homework or get to sleep on time. The teacher hardly has an answer or a solution to this problem. Also, may I underline here as well that sleeping by 11pm and waking up before 7am in the morning is important for medical reasons. The learners of today study overnight sometimes, which is actually detrimental for health and does not always help in 'learning' if not in creating a garbage of information in the head. Whatever has been preached by our ancient practitioners is reflected as well in the modern medical case studies. Respecting biological clocks is one very crucial part of living healthy and also for one very crucial infrastructural demand of learning.
9 June 2016
Next, the question of respect plays a pivotal role for a learner. It is often said that one feels inclined towards learning if one love the subject. It is true. But what intrigues love? An attempt to delve into the core might reveal two basic prerequisites of love towards a subject ; the first one, i.e. understanding its importance has already been highlighted earlier, and the second one is respecting the subject. Respect also includes respecting the teacher about which I will come back shortly. But at the first premise, it must be clarified that understanding the importance, the social, political,economic and above all the individual pleasure factor of a subject whets our interest towards deciphering or working thorough a particular area of a subject. Going forward,as a consequence it helps us to develop a sense of respect in what we are doing and in the excellence with which we are handling the content. A good pedagogy or a good learning experience not only helps us in outdoing others or to become an expert in what we are doing but also it ensures that as a human being we are moving from Man to Superman in intellect, emotion and its subsequent action.
Respecting the subject has another purpose. Apart from excelling in the subject, it helps the learners to justify his/her object of pursuit. Now why this justification is required if one is sure about what one is doing? Once, one of my teachers made me realize something marvelous. According to him, who decides if one is successful or not? A 'wretched' man, lying in ragged cloths with his uncombed hairs aside in the footpath is a failure? If one asks him, "do you think that you failed in life?" and he replies, "I have nothing more to gain, I am content", then? This is perhaps and exaggeration but it is not deniable that all the "apparently wretched" fellows are discontent in life.
Coming towards our central point of discourse, respecting the subject enhances our assurance in life. But it requires justification to make other comprehend that one can perhaps surpass others in any subject; in one word, no subject is worthless! It attracts others to the domain we are pursuing and by involving more and more people it enriches the research work of the subject and the subject itself. Our social beings often, even today, cast a pitiable look towards the people studying fine arts, literature or social sciences, not often realising that the pity is not in the mind of the persuader.
This requires a panacea!
To draw allusion from a cliché : teaching and learning are just two sides of a coin. However, a good learner might not be taught always by a good teacher. Does it sound contradictory? Let me further explain it. Perhaps you will all agree with me to the fact that in a particular class, all the students do not excel. There are by all means good students and mediocre students. To be politically correct we always do not admit this difference publicly in a forum but in our mind we CAN distinguish them very easily. Now, this is also very evident though we can observe this distinction, all the students are taught by same teacher at the same time. Practically, it is
There are so many other factors as well which whet up the interest of a student but I will discuss that later on in some other post where I will perhaps quote this part. We will have a close look on how this interest functions. But this introduction is particularly telling in this context since I would like to establish a very crucial point here : one very important prerequisite to learning is not necessarily an effective teaching but to understand the value of learning something. It is all about prioritising. Perhaps that is why we witness that different people outdo in different arenas ; this is always not because they have got the right mentor but because they set their priority on it and believed that it is perhaps the most valuable subject to pursue.
If this be true then one might ask why at all I am writing since I believe that it is learners' addiction to a subject that ensures an effective learning. Before I risk to be misunderstood, let me explain that this is just one valuable factor regarding learning I just pointed out. And sometimes this addiction is extremely influenced by the teacher. This contradiction will be lessened when I discuss about how interest functions in my next post.
Therefore, the first point is this realisation that whatever I am doing is important is key to effective learning. Now coming to pedagogy, can a teacher really highlight the value of a subject taught? No and yes, at the same time. It is a NO when the learners are not analytical enough. I witnessed a lot of people who are not
The reason for all these examples is to point out that in all the cases there is a strong evidence of third party influence in learning : I am learning because I am told so. It is not "ankhon dekhi" (perceived by eyes) or analysed by intellect. May I recall two lines of a Bengali poem I read few days back "কেউ বড় হয় না/ বড়র মতো দেখায়" (Nobody ever grows up/It appears to be so). There are few students who claim that they learn because they love to or want to do something related to this language.
Coming to the answer of this upright fellow of class IV, let me ask you if they teacher in this case could really have done something to make him understand why the subject is important.By this, I am coming to my second facet of this argument, i.e. why I also think that YES ; a teacher can underline its value. This can be done better individually than publicly. Had the teacher been addressing that student inside the class in front of his classmates there are two risks : the student might feel that he is being interrogated and pressurised. As a consequence, he might not be able to open up himself after a point of time. The second risk is that the classroom power-structure might be perturbed in which other students might get an impression that it is alright to engage in a debate with a teacher. They feel prone to debates and not to factual and evidential arguments. The teacher should engage with an informal interaction with this fellow. Perhaps it might start with sports they like. If the student replies that he loves cricket or football, he can be addressed by saying that to follow better football or cricket commentary one must learn English. Even if he is not interested in sports the same can be applied by 'exploiting' his area of interest. Gradually, the immersion process might follow.
10 January 2016
Now, is it really possible for a teacher to make a learner aware of its value? Yes. But to what extent? Moreover, can a language teacher really "teach" a language or a physics teacher "teach" physics? Trying to answer to such queries might lead to the second prerequisite of this process.
A teacher necessitates immersion but one must remember that a student is spending a very short span of time with the teacher. From a general perspective, it might be concluded that each day a student is not spending more than an hour with his/her subject teacher. The time span can be enlarged a little bit in certain cases in which the parents take an extra effort to arrange some coaching classes or "private tuition" for the learner.
Here comes the second prerequisite of this process : parental involvement. A good parenting ensures understanding the capability of the learner after a certain age. Initially, till the age of 11-12 the learners should be offered an array of subjects with their core ideas and ideals so that the leaner also understands his/her point of strength and weakness. May I here deviate a bit in order to underline that the word "ideas" is of extreme importance in the previous sentence. I really do not know if at all this is offered by the learning system of today but it is not enough for the learner to follow meticulously a curriculum and score a good mark in the examination to understand at all if he/she is good at the subject. Also, I am not favouring private tuition system here and suggesting that the point of strength should be developed outside the school by the help of private tuition. However, my view of ideal teaching has some similarity with the system of "coaching classes" but that is not what we exactly understand by this jargon.
31 January 2016
A good parenting ensures the value-based learning in our children. Moreover, pertaining to this discussion, it develops in a child the realization that whatever I am learning is important. This part in italics is a nutshell view of what I previously pointed out : understanding the value of learning and realizing the core ideas of subject. If a parent can imbue the child with these two basic aspects of learning, a child is bound to excel. (By excelling, I obviously mean that a child becomes a good learner, if not "an achiever" in life) In my experience, I witnessed that very few students (including grown-up learners) are interested in learning French after a few days. While trying to analyze this I deduced many conclusions ; one of which is that the students fail to understand why at all it is important. Young learners are motivated in the school by the teachers ; they all agree with the teacher to some extent that learning a foreign language is a key to exploration. But as soon as they are into studies in home, their parents hardly inculcate this sense of importance. Sadly, they are also not made aware of the core values of the other subjects. But as soon as the idea of prosper financially through other subjects are enforced in their budding mind, they are convinced that learning "science subjects" are important : not because it is also a key to exploration but because it is almost a guarantee card to generate bank balance!
The third point is about the "infrastructure" of the learning environment. Now, by the word infrastructure I do not mean at all the physically palpable learning tools.The focus is on the word 'environment' as well. A comfortable place to sit and relax, a water bottle, a not-so-claustrophobic room, a pleasant weather and may be intermittent supply of coffee or tea might be inducing factors of learning. Sounds elite? Well, that was a light-hearted remark! A pretentious attempt to relieve my leader for a second from this didactic discourse. But yes : a learner should have access to a place where he/she can sit comfortably and not frequently perturbed by external irritation or noises/sounds like that of a television, dogs barking indoors or outdoors , people's quarrel or any such similar sorts of disturbances. If this cannot be controlled, definitely it can be minimized. It is sheer misfortune that some of these issues can be actually controlled but here again comes the issue of parenting. Mostly at the hours of studies the caring mother of the child turns on mega-serials on television and at the commercial breaks she ensures verbally or in person, if at all the child is studying. A vigilant father gets occupied with watching news or a cricket/football match on television as a form of relaxation after a tiring day. Cannot it be 'compromised'? Relaxation has many other constructive forms or as it is said in Bhagvad Gita : intense work is relaxation when you love what you are doing.
I am no religious preacher and hardly expecting our parents to reach to that level of understanding ; most of us cannot for obvious reason. But what I am saying is that as a parent this minimum level of understanding and compromise is a must for well-being of the kids, otherwise the entire scenario of expecting my child to study when I relax, reflects a contradictory image to the mind of a learner. This is also true when a teacher goes to class, assigns some classworks to students and gets engaged with his/her mobile phone. My colleagues and me often faces a candid answers from the children of our primary section of the school. When asked that why the child is yawning in the class or did not do his/her homework, the child replied that the parents keep on watching television till midnight or one o'clock of the morning that he/she hardly gets time to concentrate on his/her homework or get to sleep on time. The teacher hardly has an answer or a solution to this problem. Also, may I underline here as well that sleeping by 11pm and waking up before 7am in the morning is important for medical reasons. The learners of today study overnight sometimes, which is actually detrimental for health and does not always help in 'learning' if not in creating a garbage of information in the head. Whatever has been preached by our ancient practitioners is reflected as well in the modern medical case studies. Respecting biological clocks is one very crucial part of living healthy and also for one very crucial infrastructural demand of learning.
9 June 2016
Next, the question of respect plays a pivotal role for a learner. It is often said that one feels inclined towards learning if one love the subject. It is true. But what intrigues love? An attempt to delve into the core might reveal two basic prerequisites of love towards a subject ; the first one, i.e. understanding its importance has already been highlighted earlier, and the second one is respecting the subject. Respect also includes respecting the teacher about which I will come back shortly. But at the first premise, it must be clarified that understanding the importance, the social, political,economic and above all the individual pleasure factor of a subject whets our interest towards deciphering or working thorough a particular area of a subject. Going forward,as a consequence it helps us to develop a sense of respect in what we are doing and in the excellence with which we are handling the content. A good pedagogy or a good learning experience not only helps us in outdoing others or to become an expert in what we are doing but also it ensures that as a human being we are moving from Man to Superman in intellect, emotion and its subsequent action.
Respecting the subject has another purpose. Apart from excelling in the subject, it helps the learners to justify his/her object of pursuit. Now why this justification is required if one is sure about what one is doing? Once, one of my teachers made me realize something marvelous. According to him, who decides if one is successful or not? A 'wretched' man, lying in ragged cloths with his uncombed hairs aside in the footpath is a failure? If one asks him, "do you think that you failed in life?" and he replies, "I have nothing more to gain, I am content", then? This is perhaps and exaggeration but it is not deniable that all the "apparently wretched" fellows are discontent in life.
Coming towards our central point of discourse, respecting the subject enhances our assurance in life. But it requires justification to make other comprehend that one can perhaps surpass others in any subject; in one word, no subject is worthless! It attracts others to the domain we are pursuing and by involving more and more people it enriches the research work of the subject and the subject itself. Our social beings often, even today, cast a pitiable look towards the people studying fine arts, literature or social sciences, not often realising that the pity is not in the mind of the persuader.
This requires a panacea!
