It's not about models...

This needs to be said again, and again. Science is not about working models. Science is not about making posters and charts. Teachers and parents have conspired to take this convenient short-cut and spread the idea that making look-alike models is doing science. This is absolutely not true.

Recently, we had a science expo where students were suppose to demonstrate experiments. As expected most students got zealously down to making models and charts. Some went high-tech with electronics, robotics and building circuits with flashing lights.

My class (age 10-11) decided that there will no models or printed charts from the internet. On the contrary, we decided to do interesting cognitive experiments on people to show how brain works. By doing some simple, tricky experiments on the students, I convinced the class that this was exciting and interesting.

We actually planned to do measurements on the people - how fast is their response, how does our taste-buds work, what is the highest frequency sound your ear can here, how long it takes to replenish the photosensitive pigments in the eye.

We could put-up almost two dozen such experiments. Kids were super excited about experimenting with adults - parents - who visited their stalls.

Later on I heard from multiple people that of all the projects, my class students were most animated and excited to do the experiments and explain the results.

So contrary to current fashion of creating models, real science can be done through simple and thought-provoking experiments. What's more, I find that students enjoy these even better.  

Two plus two equals..

What distinguishes us from other animals is our ability to infer things. We can figure out things we have never seen before using what we already know. Or can we ?

In a recent exam we had asked students to give two examples of "liquid waste" and "deficiency diseases". We hadn't actually used these terms in the class ever. We were surprised to see that most students failed the question. When one knows 'liquid', 'waste', 'deficiency' and 'diseases'; can't one get 'liquid waste' or 'deficiency diseases' ?

This was depressing. Science is all about inferring, extrapolating, discovering things. Making a wise guess. So where did we get de-railed ?

The answer may be in the way we teach languages rather than sciences. We are teaching words and grammar rules. Marks in languages are given for correct answer to questions on chapters. Is this what language is ?

Words are not just entries in dictionary or text-book, they have wordy-ness. One needs to learn how to extrapolate or transform words to new meanings. Being good in language should mean you are expressive, imaginative, innovative, eloquent and engaging.

In languages, as also in science, two plus two can become more than four. It would need a different kind of teaching.

Stay crazy

One day as I entered the class a group of children pounced on me, How would I teach if my class was reviewed by the principal or an inspector ? It seems the previous class was reviewed by the school big-wigs. This got them started.

Children then told me how some teachers react to class inspection. With their mannerisms, language and how they even dress differently. They scold less, become more considerate. Of course this was in strict confidence they told me. Children can easily see through all this. So how would I behave, they were curious to know ?

Usually, I am little on wild side when I teach. This is deliberate. I make a noticeable entry. I clear-off the space for me to roam around in the class, I often sit at the back of the class and play with words as often as I can. There are times, when my class isn't sure if I am serious or not. They have to guess double meanings. All this happens as I teach serious stuff like circuits or joints in our body, and children take down notes. The study goes on in such light banter.

Think of the image we have build of The Teacher - little sense of humour, thick glasses sliding down the nose, scribbling on blackboard with the back to class, indifferent. I deliberately contradict this. I want to show children that its all right to be crazy. Just a little crazy. The schools are becoming too conformist. So much so that you can replace one teacher with another even at a short notice and life goes on as usual.

Their question got me thinking. What should I do if my class was under inspection. Of course I would continue to teach just as I always do, I said. May be I would pretend to be even more batty on that day. This thrilled them.

Let us break some rules - at least those which bring smiles in class.

Wild Bore

My students are quite free with me (a little too free at times, according to me). Many have come and told me that my lectures have got boring - said that on my face. Apparently, even  History or Hindi lesson are looking better than my class. Well, I agree.

In an attempt to try out a set methodology of teaching I have been following a pattern. I  follow a strict flow in my class (see the earlier post). It seems, students have figured it out. There isn't a surprise element in how I will teach a period. This predictability has lead to children getting bored in my class.

This suggest two important points. Firstly, the surprise element is important as it drives intent of students. They need to figure out what comes next - while I have to pretend that I don't know and throw the ball in their court.

The second significant thing is the way one teaches. I think How you teach has a greater impact on students than what you teach. Unless your teaching techniques are interesting, what you teach isn't going to go across.

Yet, large amount of time, efforts and monitoring is focused on content and not on the delivery. Teachers get set in their ways (haven't we all predicted a teacher) as years go by. We need to re-orient teachers into delivering content and developing different styles.

I have no idea, how I am going to handle the class as students return from vacation. Something will work out

Three ways to learn...

This is something I do in class, but as yet don't know if it has had any impact. There are three ways to learn, I tell students. The poorest way to learn is when teacher talks and you listen. This is inefficient because it has least participation or intent on student's part. Talking is mostly done by the teacher and its not in your control or of liking.  Worst, you can't avoid it, teacher can go on like a drone.

The second, more efficient, way to learn is when two people are talking to each other and you are just listening. This is better because someone else is doing the thinking and you can see the arguments for free. Also, the listener needs to focus on what is being said and one naturally starts judging - is it correct or makes sense. This has greater intent on listeners part and hence one learns better by listening to conversations.

But the most efficient way to learn is to talk to yourself, the self-talk. Here the intent and the participation is maximum. If you can debate with yourself, the sense of learning and depth of understanding is greater. You get most fun when you figure out the argument yourself.

Very often I follow these three ways in my class. I start my class by talking about a topic or a question. Then I do a controlled discussion amongst children. At this point, I often remind children of the second method of learning. By the end of the class, I leave some time for them to think and write on their own. I hope that this starts self-talk.

Knowledge+Skills

'Being good at something' has many components. One of the obvious parts is that you know a lot. An expert knows a lot about a specific subject. Since this is obvious, it has got all the attention in our schooling. We learn more and become specialized. We value people who know a lot. Also, given a long list of complicated things to learn, its easy to set a exam and give marks for the knowledge in any subject. Naturally, much of the teaching and testing is focused on how much one knows.

Yet there is a second important component to 'Being good at something' and that is - skills. Competency requires not just knowledge but also skills. Only when one has a fair amount of knowledge and high degree of a skill, can he/she be competent. However, our education system has largely ignored development of (say, academic) skills. Skills are difficult to teach, they required longer persuasion and hard-work. Taking the easy-route, schools have ignored teaching and testing skills. While knowledge is specific to a domain, skills are often cross-disciplinary and broad-based.

As a result, we find youngsters, when they finish schools, know a lot but they have mastered very little. Competency = Knowledge + Skills. Unless we are teaching both knowledge and skills, we are unlikely to produce versatile competent students.

Challenging them to challenge me

Teaching well is only half the problem in education, the other half is 'learning well'. This is a bigger problem because it requires motivation from students. While one is finding ways to teach well, one should also find ways by which students learn well. This part is often overlooked or not given enough time and efforts. Here are couple of things I do in class which have started to pay-off lately.

I often ask, What naughty thing did you do today ? or, Tell me one mind-boggling thing, or else I tell some mind-boggling things. Of late, some students have started coming back to me, on their own and tell me something new. A few ask me to give them a challenge, say a science question, or a maths puzzle or a origami challenge. This is pushing me into a corner, as I have to rush around to find newer challenges. The next day, they come back with the solutions. So I have managed to start the 'good learning' cycling in some of the students. This means that their half of the work is happening on their own.

This also takes-off some my teaching stress. I often use their answers and questions to start-off my class and integrate with what I am teaching. It brings greater willingness to learn. Remind yourself that - 'Learning well' is students' responsibility. It's the other half of 'good education'.