A group of students started helping staff to clean-up school area. No one told them to, they just got together and started voluntary service. It is not very often that you get to see such helpful attitude in schools but then the eight and nine year olds are innovative and nothing would stop them.
This was a great opportunity I couldn't let go. I wanted to use this chance to infect more kids with the same bug, I took photos and posted them around the school. Kids just love to see themselves in the photos. There was great excitement for two days.
Then something strange happened which I was not prepared for. After two days the spontaneous help stopped. Finished. No one came to help; kids said they prefer to play or chat. It puzzled me.
Many days later, I brought up the subject with them. The kids said there were too many others now wanting to share the work and no one got happy enough. Further, kids who started it didn't like the spot-light turned on them through the photos. My pro-activeness had effectively killed the social phenomena. The promotion had exactly opposite effect to what I naively expected.
Its been a months since then and some kids have returned to help again. This time around, I am keeping away from them. They know better.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Friday, December 25, 2009
Lot of things, but nothing to do.
Today there is much more focus on things. Children want things that they see on TV or are talked about by their friends. Parents are also eager to buy things for their kids - books, toys, cloths, shoes, video games (you get the point).
However, things such as these can't teach as much as various activities could teach us. So we, parents and teachers, need a plan to convert demand for things into suggestions for activities.
For example, if a child demands a plane or a car then, can he or she rather buy aero-modeling kit ? Instead of buying a foot-ball, can we put that money in football coaching ? Instead of buying computer games can that money be saved for a programing course ? Instead of buying cloths can that money be used to pay for summer camp ?
While things give you instant pleasure they don't usually build useful skills. On the other hand activities require a longer term involvement and commitment. While most things you can't carry around with you or won't last long, the skills you learn stay with you life-long.
Do we give such alternatives to children and teach them to choose activities over things ? We should be ready with a list of "to do" activities when the demand comes.
Which would you prefer - a kids saying "I know how to do this" or a kid saying "I have so many things" ?
However, things such as these can't teach as much as various activities could teach us. So we, parents and teachers, need a plan to convert demand for things into suggestions for activities.
For example, if a child demands a plane or a car then, can he or she rather buy aero-modeling kit ? Instead of buying a foot-ball, can we put that money in football coaching ? Instead of buying computer games can that money be saved for a programing course ? Instead of buying cloths can that money be used to pay for summer camp ?
While things give you instant pleasure they don't usually build useful skills. On the other hand activities require a longer term involvement and commitment. While most things you can't carry around with you or won't last long, the skills you learn stay with you life-long.
Do we give such alternatives to children and teach them to choose activities over things ? We should be ready with a list of "to do" activities when the demand comes.
Which would you prefer - a kids saying "I know how to do this" or a kid saying "I have so many things" ?
Monday, December 7, 2009
The Cascade effect
A School is like any other legacy system. Over the time lethargy sets in and people tend to become fatalistic and disillusioned. I am not an expert on how to turn around such organizations but a couple of things I notice.
In such organizations, questioning fundamental premises or giving radical alternatives doesn't work. The system has lost any flexibility to respond to any such solutions. In fact, that is why it has became a legacy in first place.
What we need to do is to engineer small, successive and positive accidents. These may be trivial but they should work. This gives a feel that system is responding, which in-turn changes the mindset of stake-holders. The good news is that even though the grown-ups would have largely given-up, schools have large population of young crowd which is willing to try.
After many small positive accidents, one should try out bigger proposals that are also guarantied to succeed. And slowly people would get into good mood and are willing to try new things. At least that is the hope.
Schools, of all, need to be very responsive to changes happening in the society. Its only through such cascade effects that we may have of hope changing the schools.
In such organizations, questioning fundamental premises or giving radical alternatives doesn't work. The system has lost any flexibility to respond to any such solutions. In fact, that is why it has became a legacy in first place.
What we need to do is to engineer small, successive and positive accidents. These may be trivial but they should work. This gives a feel that system is responding, which in-turn changes the mindset of stake-holders. The good news is that even though the grown-ups would have largely given-up, schools have large population of young crowd which is willing to try.
After many small positive accidents, one should try out bigger proposals that are also guarantied to succeed. And slowly people would get into good mood and are willing to try new things. At least that is the hope.
Schools, of all, need to be very responsive to changes happening in the society. Its only through such cascade effects that we may have of hope changing the schools.
Friday, November 27, 2009
The tower of...
I had thought that if one could convey the very basic principles then so much of science can be explained so easily. For example, if fundamentals of electromagnetic spectrum can be laid-out then so many things can be readily understood (I don't mean to start from Maxwell's euqations, but that light in any form can be understood with a single concept of EM spectrum).
This, I found doesn't work in the class. Children simply fail to sense the magnitude of how fundamental the electromagnetics is. They are unable to see the path which appears to us as a grand short-cut from our learned point-of-view. To that extent a subject-expert may have a disadvantage in the class-room.
For most part, your goal in the class is not to unify information (that comes later) but to demonstrate the diversity of phenomena. In the present example, one will have to show students various things that happen to the light first-hand from radio waves to x-rays.
While its the business of science to unify diverse phenomena into smaller set of fundamental rules, the full sense and understanding of this comes only as a hind-sight. For most of the school life the focus is only on one brick at-a-time and view of the tower to be built. The tower of knowledge has to be constructed brick-by-brick, lots of bricks.
This, I found doesn't work in the class. Children simply fail to sense the magnitude of how fundamental the electromagnetics is. They are unable to see the path which appears to us as a grand short-cut from our learned point-of-view. To that extent a subject-expert may have a disadvantage in the class-room.
For most part, your goal in the class is not to unify information (that comes later) but to demonstrate the diversity of phenomena. In the present example, one will have to show students various things that happen to the light first-hand from radio waves to x-rays.
While its the business of science to unify diverse phenomena into smaller set of fundamental rules, the full sense and understanding of this comes only as a hind-sight. For most of the school life the focus is only on one brick at-a-time and view of the tower to be built. The tower of knowledge has to be constructed brick-by-brick, lots of bricks.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Small numbers...
In any class there is spread in abilities of children. They fall in three broad categories 1. Above average, 2. Average and 3. Bellow average.
In a smaller-sized class, the difference in their abilities stands out markedly. And there are small number of students in each of the three categories. This makes it harder for a teacher to adopt a single strategy which works for all. Any strategy will discount at least two of these three group of students.
In a large class, the number of students in the average category is large (middle of the Bell-curve) compared to those in the other two categories. A teacher can adopt a strategy which benefits maximum number of students; those in the middle of the distribution.
Thus I think the size of the class affects quality of learning (and teaching) and interestingly bigger class sizes may stand to benefit more. At least this effect is counter our perception of smaller the class is better. Obvious question is, What is the optimal size of a class for a teacher with given resource, time and ability, so that maximum students can benefit without compromising quality ?
PS : I don't imply that one should leave out above and below average students. We do need to challenge the above average students and give additional help to the bellow average students. But a single teacher can't have three strategies going on at the same time in a class.
In a smaller-sized class, the difference in their abilities stands out markedly. And there are small number of students in each of the three categories. This makes it harder for a teacher to adopt a single strategy which works for all. Any strategy will discount at least two of these three group of students.
In a large class, the number of students in the average category is large (middle of the Bell-curve) compared to those in the other two categories. A teacher can adopt a strategy which benefits maximum number of students; those in the middle of the distribution.
Thus I think the size of the class affects quality of learning (and teaching) and interestingly bigger class sizes may stand to benefit more. At least this effect is counter our perception of smaller the class is better. Obvious question is, What is the optimal size of a class for a teacher with given resource, time and ability, so that maximum students can benefit without compromising quality ?
PS : I don't imply that one should leave out above and below average students. We do need to challenge the above average students and give additional help to the bellow average students. But a single teacher can't have three strategies going on at the same time in a class.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Together we....
Its a very different experience to observe a class in choir practice. They are all singing together in-tune and in-rhythm, engrossed and taking cue from the conductor/teacher's hand. Their own collective voice makes them quiet and focused. If only one could get such behavior in the maths classes then so much more can be done.
However in many ways aims of choir and maths are in opposition. While in choir, we would like all to sing one note in sync, in maths we would like children to have varied response and approach. Further, there is no telling what thoughts would occur to different children. One would encourage a variety of explanations and methods of doing same problem. It would be full of kids questioning teacher and each other. So in many ways a maths class can never be like choir practice.
The great feeling that one gets from being together in choir has to come in maths class from collectively discovering inner workings of maths.
However in many ways aims of choir and maths are in opposition. While in choir, we would like all to sing one note in sync, in maths we would like children to have varied response and approach. Further, there is no telling what thoughts would occur to different children. One would encourage a variety of explanations and methods of doing same problem. It would be full of kids questioning teacher and each other. So in many ways a maths class can never be like choir practice.
The great feeling that one gets from being together in choir has to come in maths class from collectively discovering inner workings of maths.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
How to solve a problem...
Usually, maths is taught with series of rules where - certain rules are taught to solve certain problems. As long as you learn these rules, you can solve those problems. However that doesn't mean you have understood how it works. So how to build understanding of how it works ?
I find this template from Rafe Esquith's book useful starting point for maths teaching. His steps are very practical. It's another matter as to how to get children to think like this.
I find this template from Rafe Esquith's book useful starting point for maths teaching. His steps are very practical. It's another matter as to how to get children to think like this.
- Step 1 - Put your pencil down, Collect data (what is given)
- Step 2 - Chose appropriate strategy -Act it Out, Chose an Operation, Draw a picture, Guess and check, Look for a pattern, Make a chart or table, Make a list, Reason with a partner, Work backwards
- Step 3 - Pick up your pencil, Give it a go
- Step 4 - Does the answer make sense ? No - don't worry, re-think. Yes - great you got it. Can you do it by any other method
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)