educhat

38. Another X’mas, Another Message

2011-12-23T03:25:00.000-08:00

My college celebrated the x’mas season today (22December 2011) as Communal Harmony Day.Religious leaders representing the three main religions- Christianity, Islam andHinduism, were the invited guests. The General Lecture Hall where the programmewas conducted and the college corridor adorned a festive look.

Fr. Noble V. Jacob:

“ Remember ...rationality has got its own limit...Try to be a human at least for a minute...Its this, which will save our great nation...”

Imam Jamaluddin Mankada:

“ Today more and more students get educated...but,more and more criminals are on therise... Ones goal in life seems to have shifted from the ideals of ‘Bapuji’to ‘3G’...Education will achieve itstrue objective only when it guides aperson from knowledge to self-knowledge...”

Swami Guru Njana Thapswi:

“ Towards the end of his life, Sree Narayana Guru who preached ‘One Caste,One Religion, One God for mankind’consecrated a temple with a mirror as ‘idol’ to symbolically suggest that one should know oneself to perceiveGod...It is a law of Nature to bestow one with what one deserves...and so it is meaningless to force children to take upEngineering and Medicine as the only two professions worth pursuing...”

Well...,another message for the Curriculum Committee!! [Please read Post # 27 in this Blog]

Anycomments dear reader?

37. Who is likely to be the best ?

2011-12-05T07:56:00.001-08:00

· * A poet becoming ateacher

· *A novelist becoming ateacher

· *A dramatist becoming ateacher

Asa student of the English Literature Course offered in H. H. The Maharajah’sUniversity College, Thiruvananthapuram in the late 1980’s, I had the goodfortune to be taught by a popular poet, a renowned novelist and anacclaimed actor-cum-dramatist.

Eachone of them, I must admit had their ownunique approach to teaching.

Idid however perceive an edge in thedramatist! Naturally too, for what doesa dramatist, who is also the director ofa stage performance do? He would try several tricks up his sleeve to get thebest out of a potential actor. And while teaching... how can a dramatist be any different?... Won’t he tryto get the best out of a student?

Well...do you agree with me?

36. Does verse allure the mischievous ?

2011-12-05T07:52:00.001-08:00

A Practicum submitted by one of mytrainees (Ms.Anila) of the academic year (2010-11) is entitled “A study on the extent/level of poeticcreativity among high school students”. The following is an extract :

Whileteaching poetry in the classroom...havewitnessed one constant and surprising occurrence. It is amazing to see thatpoetry has touched the most unexpected of the students in the classroom- thosewith the weakest language skills and worst behaviour problems. The reason isthat the world of imagery gives them freedom to communicate in a new mode andreleases these students from the confines of Standard English and allows themto say the undesirable as imagery in Poetry.

Anycomments?

35.Impressions on Quality Concerns

2011-11-15T06:53:00.001-08:00

Dr.Ningamma Betsur, Associate Professor,Mysore University was the Resource Person for the thematic session on qualityconcerns in Education, at the National Seminar organized on NationalEducation Day (11 November 2011) by the Department of Education, University ofCalicut. During the lecture, the speaker attempted to explore severaldimensions of quality. The concept of quality she opined is :

· inherently multidimensional.

· linked to results and partly to objectives and components that interveneto reach these results.

· values with time, need, interests and convictions of various groups andpeople.

· not homogenous at any given time and the heterogeneity of quality isassociated with objective and subjective considerations.

Other observations made include:

· In India for instance, we may place moral values at the top while assessing quality...not perhaps inother countries.

· Earlier quality education for women in India meant making them come outof their homes and undergo a regular anduseful course of study in an educational institution. Today, it focuses onwomen empowerment.

· It is a pity that after gettingeighty percent marks for the Pre-University examination, on failing to get anadmission for the MBBS course, studentscommit suicide. It is high time oureducation empowered our children toaccept failure.

· If quality is our prime concern, we ought to develop the ability in our students to ask critical questions. But what normallyhappens is that in our classes in colleges, teachers lecture where information from the teacher’s notes istransferred to the student’s notes with real information entering either head!

During her lecture, Dr. Ningamma introduced afew anecdotes to illustrate herarguments. Given below are a few:

· Once while food was being served during a marriage function a relative of a civil engineer noticed that the sambar just poured was running down the banana leaf.At once he asked the engineer: “Whatkind of Civil Engineer are you who cannot even manage the flow of sambar!” . Can this failure beattributed to the kind of education we are imparting in our engineeringcolleges? It is here that issues related to quality should come up fordiscussion.

· A student once inquired why he is denied the privilege of not using achit with the main points, during theuniversity examination, when many Professors who engage classes for them, use a chit with themain points jotted down!

· One great advantage of the setting up of NAAC in India is that manycollege buildings which had not received a coating of paint for decades havenow adorned a charming look.

Dr. Ningamma during her lecture referred tothe communiqué of the World Conferenceon Higher Education 2009 “Qualitycriteria must reflect the overall objectives of higher education, notably theaim of cultivating in students critical and independent thought and thecapacity of learning throughout life. They should encourage innovation anddiversity”. [UNESCO (2009) 2009 World Conference on Higher Education : The NewDynamics of Higher education and research for Societal Change and development:Communiqué. Author, Paris. p.4]

After the presentation, when the audience were invited to join the deliberations, I made the followingobservation: “Well..., the UNESCO communiqué highlights the cognitive domain... what aboutthe other domains/ dimensions?...We in India normally go into raptures when wemake a reference to education of the Vedic age, particularly the GurukulaSystem of Education...but did we have aNAAC then?”

A frontpage news item in the Malayalam Daily, KeralaKaumudi dated 13 November 2011reads: Ninety percent of the students inthe self financing engineering colleges in Kerala failed to clear their finalexamination!

Any comments dear reader?

34.Quality Concerns in Education

2011-11-15T06:44:00.001-08:00

OnNational Education Day (11 Nov 2011), the Department of Education, Universityof Calicut, organized a National Seminar on Quality Concerns in Education.

Prof.(Dr.)Raveendran P.C, Pro Vice Chancellor of University of Calicut in his inaugural address said:

· Changes have to happen if our students are to become capable of competing in the global jobmarket.

· e-governance of educational institutions have to be undertaken for better management of institutions.

· Campuses should be made wi-fi, where information is easily available.The focus should be on converting information into knowledge and that knowledge should be used for research.

· There is a need for a research monitoring forum too.

Fromthe Key note address by Prof.(Dr.) KKN Kurup, Former Vice Chancellor,University of Calicut:

· All said and done, we need to admit that one cause of terrorism is that resources are not equallydistributed.

· Education should not be seen as a product, but a process for benefit of society.

· Quality of education is related to many aspects of life- social milieu,social environment, Economics etc.

Fromthe felicitation offered by Prof.(Dr.) Laser , Member Syndicate

· The potential of our students have often been appreciated...Our primary education system is excellent,but there are shortcomings in our secondary education.

· We have to find out why ourstudents are not good when they have to compete globally... We need not re-inventthings ...Why not accept the curriculum of foreign countries... adopt whatothers are doing. In Science perhapsinfrastructure is essential..but in case of Social science it should befeasible.

· We need to make competition an essential aspect of education.

Fromthe felicitation offered by Prof. (Dr.) M.S.Talawar, of Bangalore University,during the Valedictory session:

· It is a pity that not a single university in India comes under the top100 universities...Forty universities ofour neighbouring country, China finds a place in the top 100 universities!

· Quality we need to admit is a relative term. “ It is my personalconviction that educability, employability and adaptability are the three mostessential indicators for quality”.

· It is worth recalling what was once quoted in the NPE 2006: “ A teacher should teach and a student should learn".

I shallquote two Nobel Prize winning authors for the reader to ponder on:

"Itis because modern Education isso seldom inspired by a great hope that it so seldom achieves great results.The wish to preserve the past rather than the hope of creating the futuredominates the minds of those who control the teaching of the young." - Bertrand Russell

"You are in the process of beingindoctrinated. We have not yet evolved a system of Education that is not a system of indoctrination. We are sorry,but it is the best we can do. What you are being taught here is an amalgam ofcurrent prejudice and the choices of this particular culture. The slightestlook at history will show how impermanent these must be. You are being taughtby people who have been able to accommodate themselves to a regime of thoughtlaid down by their predecessors. It is a self-perpetuating system. Those of youwho are more robust and individual than others, will be encouraged to leave andfind ways of educating yourself-educating your own judgement. Those that staymust remember, always and all the time, that they are being moulded andpatterned to fit into the narrow and particular needs of this society."- Doris Lessing

Do post your valuable comments...

33. Save our UG stream

2011-10-09T04:56:00.000-07:00

Thetwo day National Conference on emergingtrends in Arts and Science, concluded at Nesamony Memorial Christian College,Marthandam on 08 October 2011. During the Valedictory session, Dr. A. Meenakshi Sundararajan, the Acting Vice Chancellor of MS University,Tirunelveli, addressed the audience.

Thefollowing are excerpts from his speech:

65%of Indian population is in the age groupof 25 and 35. But the research articles produced with quality at the international level is only 0.1%. Our youngsters seem to havedeveloped a downloading, cut and paste culture. Gone are the days when researchers used to spend years collectingdata from varied sources.

Wemay march ahead in Information Technology but we are hopelessly dependent onforeign countries in drawing ideas fordisciplines such as Economics, Science and Social Science.

Developing a research culture is possible only if theprime focus is on the Basic Sciences offered at the Under Graduate level.Unfortunately, the brighter ones join courses such as Engineering and Medicine.Only the dregs join the UG programme and ideas rarely get percolated to thesestudents. Until and unless the quality of the students undergoing the UGprogramme changes quality researchprogrammes will never be born.

Blamingstudents is not a panacea. Teachers should vow to become researchers. For, to write a quality research paper, the teacherwill have to read at least fifteen books. The information which the teachergains will automatically flow to students who become inspired to do seriouswork.

Anycomments?

32.What is life without research?

2011-10-09T04:45:00.000-07:00

The Nesamony Research Forum was inaugurated in Nesamony Memorial Christian College,Marthandom on Friday, 07 October 2011. Dr. James R. Daniel, [former Principal of ScottChristian College, Nagercoil], who is blessed with a gift of the gab, enlightened the audience through anecdotes and hard hitting facts which evoked in everyone present that the need of the hour in campuses across India is nothing but research with a social relevance.

Inthe course of his speech, Dr. Daniel presented a few facts about research in general and teaching in particularwhich should interest teachers in institutionsof Higher Learning. The following are excerpts from his speech:

It is the duty of theteacher to constantly ask critical questions to his students. Teachers shouldcompliment research with teaching and develop a research mindset and attitude. Theresearch you undertake should be local,indigenous and be related to issueswhich the people face. You should learn to integrate yourself with humanity, think globally and act locally. That is, you should learn to implement your programmes in your place, your city or your district. You should strive to fuse, integrate ideas andfocus on drawing material from theprimary sources and not just bydownloading as many researchers do.

Rememberthe popular APPLE motto “Think Different”.

What is important is ‘Quality’... inpresentation, citation and in the impact factor. Unfortunately the trend seen is that :

You copy from one book and it becomes plagiarism

You copy from ten books and write a thesis

You copy from hundred books and publishtwo books!

True, the ‘publish or perish’ trend in the West is catching on. During thePan IIT Summit held recently, the goal for IIT students have become ‘Deliver orDie’.

Mr.N. R. Narayana Murthy of InfosysTechnologies Limited who addressed the IIT alumni is supposed to have made twostartling statements:

1. The quality of students coming out of IIT’s is a grave concern forall of us... there is a tremendous deterioration in quality. Only 20% of thosewho pass out are good and 80% are devoidof any quality despite the hugeinvestments the government makes for IIT’s.

2. The most obvious reason for the fall in standard is the tenure system of the faculty. The timehas come to introduce the five yearcontract appointment system. The tenure system stagnates and corrupts .

Dr. Daniel concludedhis enthralling address by substitutingthe word ‘research’ for the word ‘money, in a popular doggerel :

Research is honey

My dear sonny

Without research

Life is funny

.... So, what is life forteachers without research ? Any comments ??

31. What course of action will you take?

2011-10-06T07:37:00.000-07:00

GandhiJayanthi celebration is on this week [02to 08 October]. Unfortunately the college cleaning programme which the teacher trainees of my college undertake every year is likely to be postponed as many of them have gone on a Study Tour.Usually a speaker from the local Gandhi Bhavan addresses the students of the college this week. And on such occasions we are reminded of therelevance of the teachings of Gandhiji.

Asa teacher educator, I have tried my bestto nurture in my trainees certain Gandhian values, particularly the onesrelated to the seven social sins which Gandhiji insisted we should abstainfrom: Politics without principles;Wealth without work; Commerce without morality; Education without character;Pleasure without conscience; Science without humanity and Worship withoutsacrifice.

Now... teachers, do we really ensure that ournew generation learners imbibe Gandhian values?

InJuly 2011, Dr.Shashi Tharoor MP, delivered a special lecture organized by the Kerala Gandhi Smarak Nidhi,College of Gandhian Thought, Research and Action. The Lecture was entitled Emerging Kerala : Some Candid Thoughts.

The programme was organized by the Gandhi Bhavan, Thiruvananthapuram. In thecourse of his lecture, several facts and figures were presented by the honourable MP to support his line ofargument. It made the audience feel that what we need is a sustainable model ofdevelopment.

Given below are some facts and figures which would interest a teacher-cum-curriculum developer in God’s OwnCountry, Kerala:

· * Our social developmentindicator is remarkable...Life expectancy in the United
States is 72 and inKerala 70 ; Literacy in the US is 98% and in Kerala 96%

* * It is a ‘Malayaleemiracle’: Rights have been given toworkers and to women.

Yet Keralafailed to move...The best in the country flee, migrate...

* Kerala records thehighest suicide rate and alcohol consumption rate.

* * We import workforce from Orissa and Bihar and we speakof the educated unemployed.

* * The two crore eggs and the tonnes of vegetables weconsume everyday comes from Tamilnadu.

* * We dump waste in placesof pristine natural beauty.

Beforeconcluding his lecture, Dr. Shashi Tharoor insisted on the need for developinga competency in the English language. To illustrate the necessity of becoming fluent in English, the honourable MP narrated a story about catsand rats which his parents told him as achild:

Once therewere some cats who used to be troubled by rats. [or cats that troubled rats?...my memory failsme] One day, a new cat joined the fold.On seeing the fold, scamper afterhearing a squeaking sound, the new cat cleared its throat and barked ‘Bow Wow’...and the rats fled. When a member of the fold asked the cat what was that, itsaid: “You’ll never know when a newlanguage would become handy!”.

Well,...I must confess that I am incapableof capturing the impressive style of delivery of the highly acclaimed writer, Dr. Shashi Tharoor. What I have done is to recall from memorycertain facts and figures that got imprinted in my mind which I am sharing now.

Wellreaders.., if you are ateacher-cum-curriculum developer whatcourse of action or development of ourState would you take? How can Gandhian values be incorporated in the course ofaction you intend to take?

30. Whither Gardens

2011-09-18T09:23:00.000-07:00

In a gloomy world filled with strife and conflict, gardens become a spacewhere peace and beauty reign. The colours and textures splashed on the groundlures birds and butterflies. Students will find a quite place to hang out… to engage their senses.

For the poetic-minded, gardens can offervisions of the invisible, grasp theintangible and hear the inaudible…It’s a place to work with silence. Accordingto a British garden designer and artist, Gertrude Jekyll(1843-1932), A garden is a grand teacher. It teachespatience and careful watchfulness; itteaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust.

Schools in Europe have found multiple benefits for school gardening. It has been found that gardens give scope for children to learn about waterand energy cycles, the food chain, and the peculiar needs of individual species.When children feel a sense of connectionto a certain species or individual plant, they will even have a reason to care about all theforces that impact that plant’s future. Even teachers can benefit fromgardening in schools. If they so desirethey can transfer the gardening skills to their own homes which would benefit their own health and the health oftheir families.

Recently, Dr. Prabodhachandran Nair,a former Professor of Linguistics, was invited to a Workshop organized at the Regional Institute of Education (NCERT),Mysore. He was deeply impressed by thelayout of the campus and particularly its garden. In a casual chat he narrated to me, his failure to fulfil a simple desire of his viz; to have a garden in the campus of theinstitution where he served for decades:

The Professor asked a newly appointed gardener to clear the weedsand shrubs and plant flower sprouting seedlings around the campus. Withouttrepidation, the gardener told theProfessor: “Sir I come from an elite Nair family of North Malabar and we neverdo such menial task”. The Professor adept at repartees quickly retorted “…wellthen why don’t you take up the Asst.Collector’s post now vacant in the District Collectorate?

It is a pity that despite the multiplebenefits of gardening, gardens are fastdisappearing from campuses in God’s OwnCountry, Kerala. The ‘one child one plant’ scheme, introduced by the Stategovernment recently is indeed commendable, but... what next?

Any comments or suggestions dear reader?

29-Does environment affect a child’s temperament?

2011-08-29T09:55:00.000-07:00

Today, 29 August2011 was a Government declared holiday for educational institutions in KeralaState. I was planning to clear up some piled up work when I received a call toattend a function at Chempazanthy, the birth place of the saint Sree NarayanaGuru who preached about one Caste, one Religion and one God for mankind.

I got the programme timing completely wrong and had arrived at the place asearly as 9.30 AM for a function originally scheduled for 12.00 noon. Onreaching the spot, now considered holy, I visited the thatched hut in which theGuru was born. This took hardly fifteen minutes and I had over two hours withnothing to do. I could have easily rushed home and returned after two hours.But something about the place made me linger. As I sat under an old tree takinga deep breath and relaxing in the gentle breeze, I noticed something unusual.

Though afflicted with asthma, I felt a lightness of being…The tall trees thatsurrounded the thatched hut were swaying in rhythm and the plants in the templenearby was in full blossom spreading a faint fragrance. I gazed around… someants were scrambling over me not once venturing to prick me. They wereapparently whispering to each other and appeared forging an union with Nature.For a moment I recalled Emerson :“The greatest delight which the fields andwoods minister is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and thevegetable…”

I saw some children oblivious of adults in the vicinity engaged in games oftheir invention. The pleasure they gained from it appeared contagious. Onechild particularly drew my attention. It was playing in the sand and wasengrossed in building a tiny ‘shrine’ with twigs and leaves. The child didn’tnotice my attempt to capture the ‘structure’ using my Cell Phone Camera.

Returning home and gazing at the images I captured in the morning, thoughtsabout the nature of the environment of some leading schools inThiruvananthapuram crossed my mind. An International school in the suburbs ofThiurvananthapuram city boasts of air conditioned high-tech classrooms andcampuses with swimming pools. There are many schools in the city withthree/four storey buildings and Smart Classrooms. And what do these kids play…? Video games and Cricket!! After all which modern-day parent would encouragehis/her child to play in the sand?

Does environment really affect a child’s temperament??

28. To Compete or Cooperate: Whose Competition is it Anyway?

2011-02-14T06:35:00.000-08:00

The other day I was invited by a friend of mine to attend an International Conference on ‘Towards A Global Competitive Learning Community - Role of Active Pedagogy’. The final session of the Conference included a Panel Discussion. The pariticipants of the Panel Discussion included two eminent Professors from Kerala and three Professors from the United Kingdom.

After all the five speakers had presented their different perspectives, the facilitator of the Panel Discussion invited the audience to join. I had volunteered first and was permittted to speak.

I drew the attention of the Panelists to the fact that at the Secondary Level in India, a kind of streamlining takes place and depending on ability and aptitude children are directed to pursue Arts, Commerce and Science streams. But in a country like India, the children of the rich middle class often excel. Socio-economic factors do play a major role where, right from childhood they are pruned to compete and become part of a global competitive learning community. Unfortunately a sizable chunk of the population are less privileged and fail to excel at the secondary stage. So I asked the panelists whether the same active learning pedagogy would be suitable for both the successful ones and the unsuccessful ones.

Within in minutes a smart scholar rose up from the audience, grabbed the mic and began an illustration of the possibility of active learning. He even affirmed that emotional problems such as anger can be easily addressed by active learning and went on to narrate an anecdote to the amusement of the professors from the foreign university:... Once a lady continued to be irritated at a co-passenger eating the packet of cookies which she had purchased and even showed the impunity to share it with her. Later the lady found that it was all a mistake and that the packet of cookies she purchased was actually in her bag and the cookies which the man ate and shared with the lady was his own.

I didn’t want a debate... and so I walked up to the diaz and explained how the gentleman had completely missed the point and given me an unsought answer. I once again explained to the Panelists that what I meant was that, nurturing a spirit of competition to excel in life is one thing (perpetuated by the successful middle class in India) and learning to live in a spirit of cooperation (which schools such as the Sathya Sai Trust) perpetuates is another thing. Perhaps more than cognitive skills, spiritual values which the ancient sages in India have stressed are more relevant today! At least, this time I hoped the Panelists would answer my query.

But this is a land of brilliant minds! A lady from the front row shot up like an arrow towards the diaz and began a spirited affirmation of the need and possibility of instilling in learners the spirit of competition! Following the ‘spirtited affirmation’ another lady walked with a measured pace to the diaz and spoke with a softness that would lull all anxiety...She said. “ It is possible for active pedagogy to nurture even the affective domain and the kinesthetic domain of learners! By now, I was completely lost...I believe someone else responded too...but I could hardly follow. Soon, the organizers of the Conference, signalled to the facilitator in the Panel that it is time for tea break which is to be followed by the Valedictory Session. So the Panelists couldn’t speak or even answer my question after four euridite scholars from the audience had given me a ‘satisfactory answer’.

During tea break, as I sat floundering over the quaint responses ... wondering whose competition is it any way... all the three Professors from the foreign University addressed me: First, they said that they were completely ill prepared and were not fully aware of the strong spritual base that need to be considered for any educational programme in India. One of them to my relief told me that in Britain they are currently deeply engaged in finding a form of pedagogy to address the needs of the less privileged.

I felt a bit relieved and began to turn the leaves of a newly released book. Then from behind came a familiar voice... It was the same gentleman who responded to my question... He commenced yet another vigorous illustration of the possibilities of active learning. He said he is a trainer who employs active learning strategy to transform all and asked me “Didn’t Krishna transform Arjuna?”. The sparkle in his eyes and his passionate tone led me to believe that anything is posssible with ‘active pedagogy’. I was completely swept off my feet but there was nowhere to run to. So, I looked into his eyes with the deepest affection possible and told him... well, just now the Panelists from the foreign University told me that they too felt that a different pedagogy is under consideration for the underprivileged in Britain.... There was a completely confused look in the eyes of the gentleman. He rose up from the seat he had sat during his vivacious lecture, shed all grace and disappeared into the crowd.

But my question - should we advocate competion or cooperation still remains unanswered... well ...,can you dear reader, give me a proper answer ??

27.Christmas Messages for Curriculum Committee Members

2011-01-12T09:35:00.000-08:00

Last year 2010, three speakers from three different religions- Christian, Hindu and Islam gave messages during the Christmas celebrations in the Government College of Teacher Education, Trivandrum. All the three, spoke profusely about peace and love. I shall cite a few messages given by the three speakers which appealed to me most.

Rev. Fr. George M. John, of the Mar Thoma Church made a reference to a seminar on the medium of instruction organized a few years ago by the Institute of English, University of Kerala. During the deliberations a speaker from the audience, Prof. Vishnu Narayanan Namboothiri (the 2010 year winner of the prestigious Vallathol award and Vayalar award) affirmed “: …all said and done, the most important medium for instruction is ‘LOVE’ that flows from the teacher to the student!”

Swami Atmalokananda of the Sri Ramakrishna Mutt in Trivandrum made a reference to a statement once made by Swami Vivekananda: “If one really wants to succeed in life, one ought to possess the intelligence of Sree Sankaracharya, the love of Jesus Christ and the kindness of Sree Buddha”. The speaker also said that we ought to focus not just on bread winning education but man making education!

Jalaluddin, the Imam of Palayam mosque, enlightened the audience on the close relationship between religions. In the Holy Koran in twelve chapters there is a reference to Mother Mary-the only lady mentioned in the Koran! Referring to the history of Kerala, he drew the attention of the audience to the fact that Muslims and Hindus had always lived in harmony in God’s Own Country, Kerala. The wholehearted support the Muslim community in Ponnani gave to the Hindu king- Samudiri of Calicut to fight the foreign invaders is a case in point. The speaker also expressed the hope that during curriculum revisions in Kerala if we consciously include the values upheld by different religions our children will learn to get to know, love and respect members of all religions…

Will the members of the Curriculum Committee in Kerala take heed of these messages?

26. Issues to Ponder on After Trainee Reflection

2010-08-03T05:42:00.000-07:00

According to Ghaye (1996): “Reflection is looking back and making sense of your practice. Learning from this and using this learning to affect your future action. It is making sense of your professional life”.
Ghaye, T. etal (1996). An Introduction To Learning Through Critical Reflective Practices. New Castle-upon-Tyne: Pentaxion Press

Now, let us see how far this is true:

Last month (July 2010) I had attended and offered my comments for three consecutive Reflection sessions. (17th, 24th & 31st July). Yesterday (02 August 2010), I had to observe a class by one of my trainees in a local school, and had a glance at the daily reflection entered by the trainee in the Diary. It reads “ The Common Reflection sessions are boring!”. Here one should admit that perceptions of individuals do tend to vary. Now what exactly must have prompted the trainee to write that the sessions are boring? Given below are observations made by a few trainees after their Practice Teaching in the last week of July:

* I am sorry to say that most of my friends perceive the arrival of Supervising teachers/ Teacher Educators to observe classes as ones similar to raids by Income Tax sleuths!

* Engaging classes during Practice Teaching while the Supervising teacher is present in the class is like learning to drive a car with the instructor beside you with half the control in his/her hand!...for their presence acts as a bridle that checks the mischief mongers in the class. But on comparison of pupils in schools we have realized that children are alike everywhere…studious ones, interested ones, mischievous ones and the problem makers.

* When I asked some pupils to read from the Malayalam Course Book there was hesitation, pauses, and umpteen mistakes in pronunciation! Later while introducing a particular lesson related to the Ramayana, I had asked the same pupils to read a couple of lines from the Malayalam version of the epic. To my utter disbelief, the pupils read with a fair degree of accuracy with perfect pronunciation and articulation! … I really do not know whether the pupils are deliberately pretending to be dullards or does it have anything to do with their habit of reading the Ramayana regularly as a religious exercise in their homes.[Incidentally, the second half of the month of July, in Kerala State, South India is treated as the month of the Ramayana, when in devout Hindu families the sacred epic is read/recited everyday as a ritual]

* The trainees have to conduct Diagnostic Tests during Practice Teaching. In one school, there happened to be two trainees from the same optional subject. After the test was rendered in one division by a trainee, the pupils scored high, but when another trainee gave the same Diagnostic Test in another division, the pupils scored low. A couple of days after the test was given, on several occasions, the pupils who scored low used to tell the trainee who conducted the test : “You should learn from your friend who teaches in the other division… see, how liberally he awards marks! What are you going to gain by being stingy?”

Did these appear boring to you? Do you think advice of any kind is necessary here? BUT …don’t they raise a number of questions on the way Practice Teaching is conducted and the nature of the educational environment in schools in Kerala ? Any comments dear reader?

25. Are our priorities right?

2010-07-28T09:02:00.000-07:00

The other day I had been to attend a talk-cum-discussion on ways of bringing about changes in English Language Teaching(ELT) in God’s Own Country, Kerala by several experts in ELT. The college in which the event was organized had nearly four thousand girls on the rolls. While most of the talk centred around peripheral aspects of language instruction, none of the participants made any significant reference to the very venue and the need for giving instruction to girls in particular.

Later that day during lunch-break, I had a very casual chat with a participant. The question he asked me was a real eye opener. He asked : “Don’t you think that if we gave all these four thousand girls in the college a through grounding in the English Language, we would be giving them the language of empowerment? Won’t we be helping four thousand families… for after all these girls will be getting married soon and will be raising children!” Those words kept ringing in my ears for days.

During the following days I was particularly reminded of the high brow sessions on Higher Education organized by the Kerala State Higher Education Council which I had the opportunity to attend. Most of the speeches for that seminar, centered around the Professional Courses in the country and not on courses on Arts and Science where the dregs, the hopelessly incompetent segment of the student community come to study.

Don’t you think that it is high time we did something significant to raise the standard of instruction in the Arts and Science colleges? How conveniently we forget the fact that these unfortunate students who form a significant size of the student population, will be the future citizens of the country who is likely to take the country into the 2020 dream, which the former President of India once spoke about!

Any comments dear reader?

24. First rates treat third rates

2010-06-23T15:31:00.000-07:00

“ In terms of quality, the Universities of our country, doesn’t come within the first 125…The curse of the education sector is that first rate students are being taught by third rate teachers”.
- Dr. Rajan Gurukkal, Hon. Vice Chancellor of MG University Kottayam, Kerala State ( addressing the meeting of a teacher’s organization- Reported in the Malayalam daily Kerala Kaumudi dated 20 June 2010)

Most of us must have had to endure such intellectually enervating experiences in life! I will list down two… During my training for the Bachelors degree in Education, in the mid 1990’s in a college which draws the cream of talent from the State, I was taught Educational Technology, by a teacher who never used a single teaching aid. Shamefully enough, a couple of years later, that teacher retired as a Professor on UGC scale! No wonder that college received an abysmally low rating from the college accreditation agency of India, NAAC. But do things change …? The system as the Vice Chancellor said… is indeed ‘cursed’… Quite recently in my campaign to ensure quality in institutions of higher learning, I had to clash swords with an ‘enlightened’ Post Doctoral Fellow, from the same college, who claimed that at the Post Graduate level any one (even a teacher with a background in Educational Psychology) can teach Language Education!

How will ‘first rate’ students treat such ‘third rate’ teachers?. The college in question, is now celebrating its centenary, but despite a whopping two thousand letters being mailed to the alumni of the last ten years, and the hundred odd telephonic messages, just ‘eight’ alumni responded to the call, and attended its Centenary Celebrations. What else could one expect from students who were taken for a ride in the name of teacher training?... Well any comments dear reader?

23. When Learner becomes Consumer

2010-06-23T15:30:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, I had to spend quite some time queuing to buy broiler chicken for my family at the Kerala State Government’s KEPCO outlet. Though I am a staunch vegetarian, I am obliged to respect my family’s dish preferences. I had been strictly instructed by my spouse to shop for chicken only at the KEPCO stall, for it is always clean and they supply only quality products.

While in the queue, I heard a few middle class gentlemen ahead in the queue grumble over the burgeoning queue which was inching forward at a snail’s pace. One gentleman muttered: “Who will stand in a queue these days?... If it was a Private Shopping Mall and if I turn back on seeing a queue, an employee of the Mall, is sure to stop me and fulfil my need immediately, with a smile… This KEPCO outlet won’t last long for its failure to be consumer friendly!”

As a teacher, it was only natural for me to transpose the incident to an educational setting. In such a setting, I would be the ‘guru’ expected to serve the ‘consumer’, the student. Traditionally, many teachers in India consider themselves a ‘guru’ and sometimes quite mistakenly crown themselves ‘God’ quoting Sankaracharya Gurustotram which begins with the sloka:
“Guru Brahma,
Guru Vishnu,
Guru Devo Maheswara.
Guru Sakshath Parambrahma,
Tasmai Shri Guruve Namaha
( tr: Guru is the creator Brahma, Guru is the preserver Vishnu, Guru is the destroyer Siva.
Guru is directly the supreme spirit- I offer my salutations to this Guru.)

Now… can one expect a teacher who equates oneself to the sacrosanct status of a God step down from the sublime pedestal to address the needs of the ‘student consumer’? So, it is not surprising to find many middle class families in India preferring private institutions to government institutions though many teachers in the latter have the ability to deliver quality instruction!

The father of our nation, Mahatma Gandhi once taught us that the “Consumer is God”! …But when will the day dawn when teachers in government educational institutions in India begin to treat the student consumer as God? ... Any guesses dear reader?

22. Can students learn on their own?

2010-05-13T23:07:00.000-07:00

Well…, if what Malcolm Knowles propounded in Self-Directed Learning : A Guide for Learners and Teachers (1975) is true, it should be possible!

The process of self-directed learning I am told, should include diagnosing one’s own learning needs, setting of personal goals and making decisions on resources and learning strategies and finally assessing the value of the outcome.

This would mean that the learner should select, manage and assess ones own learning activity! Now…, how many learners in our government run schools in God’s Own Country, Kerala are capable of it?

Won’t you dear reader give me an answer?

21. Teacher Moderation in the time of competition ?

2010-05-11T01:41:00.001-07:00

Recently I came across a reference to an useful idea called ‘Teacher Moderation’. J. W . Little’s study found that teachers who engaged consistently in the moderation process were able to:

* Identify strengths and areas for growth based on evidence of student learning.
* Build common knowledge about curriculum expectations and levels of achievement.
* Share effective practices to meet the needs of all students, monitor progress, and
celebrate growth.
[Little, J. W. et al. (2003). Looking at student work for teacher learning, teacher community and school reform. Phi Delta Kappan, 85(3), 185–192.]

Ever since the introduction of UGC scales, the monitoring of teacher performance at the end of each academic year has led to the birth of competition among teachers. Today, teachers strive to outshine his or her colleague in terms of the number of articles published and the number of seminars and workshops attended. As student performance is also a criteria for teacher assessment, getting own students score higher marks than that of his or her colleague is deemed by some, a matter of honour!

To add to all this, there is the common clash between the bright and the mediocre, the intellectually rich and the materially rich, along with crass politics which boils down to affiliations in terms of caste, region and religion.

It is common knowledge that, where there is competition, there can only be pretensions of cooperation! Will the concept of ‘Teacher Moderation’ ever make its presence felt in colleges in Hindustan? What do you think dear reader?

20. More Power cuts and Power Hikes Please

2010-05-01T19:14:00.000-07:00

Ariel and Will Durant two brilliant minds, once observed “ The family is the nucleus of civilization”. But in a fast moving world, where ears are hooked on to ipods and mobile phones, a hip swaying generation is on the rise and gregariousness which the family and the kin nurtures is becoming alien.

Thanks to Power cuts and the hike in electricity charges... It has rendered a favour by flushing this virtual highway trotting generation out of their high-tech cloistered existence. Power cuts necessitate cutting off power to air conditioners and the modern culture guru, the cable TV . Power cut also impedes charging of mobile phones, ipods and laptops. So the cuts finally bring the jaded kids into the living room- the fire hearth of yesteryears and the cradle of conversations ! Though in snatches, in here, family ties begin to nurture..

So let the parents of today holler in joy …HIP HIP HOORAY TO POWER CUTS

Its said that, real education should begin at home, then the school or college… Well, the following words of a Family Life Specialist with the University of Wyoming’s Cooperative Extension Service, is worth pondering on :

“…families have always shown remarkable resiliency, or flexible adjustment to natural, economic, and social challenges. Their strengths resemble the elasticity of a spider web, a gull's skillful flow with the wind, the regenerating power of perennial grasses, the cooperation of an ant colony, and the persistence of a stream carving canyon rocks. These are not the strengths of fixed monuments but living organisms. This resilience is not measured by wealth, muscle or efficiency but by creativity, unity, and hope. Cultivating these family strengths is critical to a thriving human community.”
-BEN SILLIMAN

Where else can/ should these begin... but the family? Don’t you agree dear reader?

19. Are Senses the only Gateways of Knowledge?

2010-05-01T19:13:00.000-07:00

“There is no way in which to understand the world without first detecting it through the radar-net of our senses…”

- Daine Ackerman (1948-?) American Poet,writer and naturalist

Teacher trainees in the college where I teach, are usually sensitized to the different sources of knowledge at the commencement of their course. During my own training, I was given to understand that knowledge is gained primarily through the senses. Hence activity-based learning was given top priority.

During introductory talks a series of examples are provided and the trainees have to identify the correct sense through which a given knowledge is acquired. The examples usually refer to the five senses-touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing.

Now let us think of the following incident . A middle-aged man after collecting his salary from the district Treasury, kept the cash safely in his trouser pocket and boarded a crowded bus to go home. When he alighted from the bus, he thought of buying some candies for his little daughter. But, when he ran his hands through the trouser pocket he was shocked to find his cash missing”. This incident taught the man the following lesson:

* Pickpocket are in the loose in the city.

* Never board a crowded bus when your trouser pocket is stuffed with cash.

* Carry little cash when you travel.

Now dear reader, can you guess through which ‘sense’ did the man acquire this knowledge?

Well… don’t tell me it is ‘common sense’ !

Don’t you think, experience coupled with reflection can also become a source of knowledge?

18. Does The Internet Kill Reading?

2010-03-14T18:29:00.000-07:00

Some years ago, during my teaching stint in a Higher Secondary school in Muscat, I had given my techno-savvy students an assignment. Within a week, all the students submitted their assignment of about 15 to 25 pages along with images in colour.

Out of the thirty students, only one student referred to the books in the local library. Almost fifty percent of the assignments were more or less similar and they all had the same visuals. It is not that they copied from their friends, but they visited the same web sites to collect the material. The pathetic part was that, entire texts were simply copied from the sites and pasted as a series of paragraphs. Apparently there was no effort at assimilating or simplifying the material which they had downloaded.

Back in India, some of my friends who are teacher educators tell me that their BEd trainees do the same thing which my Higher Secondary level learners were doing a couple of years ago!

Well dear reader, have you experienced the same?

17. Teaching jobs sans creativity… sans donation?

2009-06-23T06:43:00.000-07:00

Last week end, the renowned Malayalam poet Mr. Madhusoodanan Nair inaugurated the College Union and Arts Club. During his inaugural address, the poet dropped an ‘opinion bomb’! He stated that the most essential quality for a teacher, is ‘creativity’!

Well... some of us in the auditorium, felt that only a poet would make such a far fetched statement. But then, the fact remains that Mr. Madhusoodanan Nair was once a teacher of a local college and he made this statement based on his own experience of having been taught by the living legend of Malayalam poetry,
Mr. O.N.V. Kurup.

While the audience was pondering over the statement, Mr. Madhusoodanan Nair made one simple request to the trainees before concluding his speech : Never pay donation for securing a teaching job. Doing so, is both self-defeating and degrading.

Back home, I recalled a question I had posed to some of my BEd classmates in the same auditorium in 1993. Most of my class mates had distinctions for their BA / MA and a couple of them were University rank holders! I had asked them what they planned to do after the BEd course. Without any second thoughts they blurted out that they would pay donation and get a teaching job in a college! And that was exactly what the rank holders too did, the year after taking the BEd examination!

Why does the present generation fail to live up to the high ideals of the older generation? Is it a failure of our educational system ?

16. Whither simple etiquette?

2009-06-06T08:31:00.000-07:00

The other day, a former Vice Chancellor of a South Indian University was narrating to me an incident that led her to question the very purpose of education.

The lady Vice Chancellor in question was awaiting her domestic flight in the lounge of an airport. Sitting behind her sofa was an ‘Indian blonde’ donning a thigh grabbing jeans and a navel exposing T-shirt.

Though the room was air-conditioned, people were beginning to fidget. To distract oneself from the imposed boredom, they were pouring over the magazines and newspapers sprawled over the teapoy.

The former Vice Chancellor accustomed to such wait, secretly engaged in her hobby of observing travelling folks. Then from the back she heard the voice of the jeans attired blonde: “Hey, get me that magazine” (referring to the one on the teapoy in front of the former Vice Chancellor). For a second she was dumbfounded at the arrogant way in which the blonde asked for the magazine. She kept asking herself why the blonde forgot to add a simple ‘please’ to her demand for the magazine.

Later, when I met her she asked me …are we educating our youngsters properly?

Note : The reference to the attire and the journey by plane is to remind non-Indian readers that the ‘blonde’ in every possibility is a progeny of the ‘odious rich’ of India.

15. One Step Forward…Three Steps Backwards

2009-06-06T06:32:00.000-07:00

The strides, the people of ‘God’s Own Country’ made in terms of literacy is something non-Malayalees deeply envy in India. Setting up of Techno Parks, the Smart City and the IT@school Project speak volumes about the pulsating vision of the enterprising Malayalee!

As a teacher of English, I have been exploring the possibility of making use of knowledge acquisition through the Internet an opportunity for learning English -a language that has a vibrancy in a Postmodern world. It was then that I came across a news item in a local daily in May 2009 which published the decision of the Education Department to prepare all the software for the IT@school Project in Malayalam to reduce the excessive and unwarranted use of English by school children at the expense of their own mother tongue!

Looking at the decision from a global perspective for the children in God’s Own Country, I am afraid, it appears to be an attempt to take three steps backwards after the one step taken forward for setting up Technoparks and the Smart city!

I hope dear readers, you too agree with me.

14. Thus we ’nurture’ them!

2009-06-06T01:30:00.000-07:00

When ‘Models of Teaching’ was introduced in the BEd Curriculum of Calicut University Teacher Educators were on the look out for illustrative examples, particularly for explaining ‘Nurturant’ effect.

One of the best examples I came across was given by a Clinical Psychologist- cum- Teacher Educator. He narrated the following ‘very short’ story that appeared in a Malayalam daily:

The car screeched to a halt near the gate. The glass lowered and the mistress of the house spoke to the servant:
‘Has sonny woken up?...Give him the medicine kept on the table .. Put him to sleep…’
Years later… from the US, a telegram arrives:
“Let Mum’s funeral ceremony be as grand as grand can be . Don’t forget to send me the video”!

The son’s success in getting a job in the US and his conduct on the occasion of the funeral is an example of ‘Nurturant effect’!

Don’t you think this is a typical example….?

13. Improving reading habits of school children

2008-10-29T05:42:00.000-07:00

The apparent casuality of a large-scale media explosion, particularly in India seems to be the reading habits of students . How can we over come them ?

* In addition to instructional sessions on motivating students to read we should :
•Help learners improve their concentration.
•Conduct awareness generation sessions on methods of reading.
•Develop a culture of reading as a good past time in campuses.
•Provide incentives for those who read at least a book a week.
•Identify the impact of environment on reading habits and take appropriate steps.
•Acquaint with the family background of the students to render extra help to
students hailing from illiterate families.

Would you, dear reader, like to add anything to the list?

12. And now....S Q

2008-02-20T18:00:00.000-08:00

And now …Spiritual Intelligence (SQ)!!!

It is defined as the growth of human being by moving in life through a direction and purpose, being able to heal the resentment and by considering oneself as an expression of higher reality.

The signs of high SQ are :

* Flexibility
* Self-awareness
* Ability to face and use suffering
* An ability to work against convention
* A tendency to prove and ask fundamental questions
* Desire and capacity to cause as little harm as possible
* Ability to see connections between diverse things (Think holistically)

11. Life and Learning

2007-12-12T18:59:00.000-08:00

Christmas or Diwali, an earthquake or tsunami, a birth or death in the family / community , an accident or a social problem are all fine learning points which children can observe and learn from…. Teachers can tap the inner responses of pupils to these in the classroom and deal in turn with their joy, sorrow , fear and anxieties … THEN & ONLY THEN does learning become part of LIFE !!!

10. The Spirit of Life Skills

2007-12-12T18:58:00.000-08:00

The other day I had delivered a lecture on Life Skills to a group of newly recruited college teachers. I dealt with several life skills they require to succeed as a Lecturer!
But I wonder, how far I have succeeded in driving home something which I felt deeply about Life:

“ It is extremely difficult to wean our mind away from the attractions of wealth, material enjoyment, self esteem and fame. But by constant endeavour, determination and developing dispassion it becomes possible to discipline our mind to avoid the pitfalls of such lures. A contented man is internally poised and will be able to achieve great results….”

-Something I read in Bhavan’s Journal years ago

9. Views on Teacher Training

2007-12-12T18:56:00.000-08:00

Justifying the need for restructuring the BEd. Curriculum in 2005, the Dean of the Faculty of Education of the University of Calicut observed: “Teacher entering the world of education needs to appreciate the complexities of teaching. Developing successfully as a teacher requires acknowledgement and appreciation of all the policies and issues in education in addition to the practical skills and personal direction…”

Around the same time Ahalya Chari in Wake Up India Oct-Dec 2005, wrote

“Teacher education is first and foremost a human activity, a religious commitment, meaning by ‘religion’ not a dogma but a sensitivity to life, to its interconnectedness and to the sacred. We need hearts and not heads in our schools today.”

Any comments???

8. Freedom for Children!

2007-11-14T06:26:00.000-08:00

Many teachers dread the very idea … for, children might misuse it…

But suppose they are made to see it as a space for expressing him/herself

without fear,… asking questions,… sharing problems and,… trying to be

treated as an accepted member of the community…

wouldn’t that be worth giving?

Well… what do you think?

7. Teaching Visual Learners : A Few Facts

2007-10-03T19:57:00.000-07:00

* Learning theorists have demonstrated that people vary in the manner in which they absorb, process, and recall what they are taught.

* Visual learners need to see what they are learning, and while they have difficulty following oral lectures they perform well at written assignments and readily recall material they have read.

* Visual learners, prefer to be taught through pictures, diagrams, flow charts, timelines, films, and demonstrations.

* Women tend to be more visually oriented than men, who are generally more kinesthetic

* Because some students learn better from visual stimuli, an improved balance between verbal and visual techniques could offer significant learning benefits.

6. Learning Cradle

2007-09-04T08:54:00.000-07:00

Just overheard : Six year old to three year old…

“You THINK you are smart eh?
CAN you make your own bed?
CAN you lace your own shoe?
CAN you climb our only tree?
CAN you wash your own clothes?
CAN you swallow pancakes in one go?
NO,NO,NO, And You’re a
Dummy, Dummy, Dummy!!!”

Well…. Is it ???

5. On Punishments

2007-08-22T08:08:00.000-07:00

Which of the following punishments I received while I was at school do you think served a purpose?

In Kindergarten : * For being talkative… I was made to sit between girls.
In Lower Primary : * For making mistakes…. I was made to write impositions.
In Upper Primary : * For not doing homework … I was sent out of the class.
In Middle School : * For my inability to memorize Malayalam poems…my earlobes
were screwed with a key.
In High School : * For indiscipline , a Jesuit priest orders me to come to the front of
the class , draws out a long cane and brings down the cane ten
times counting one to ten ….But the cane is brought down
as gently as a feather and at the end he would say
“Don’t repeat it again !!!”

4. Three favourite quotes on teaching

2007-08-15T04:23:00.000-07:00

These are my three favourite quotes on teaching. Which is yours?

1.A great teacher is a great artist, but his medium is not canvas, but the human soul
-Anonymous
2.The mediocre teacher tells.
The good teacher explains.
The superior teacher demonstrates.
The great teacher inspires.
- William Arthur Ward
3.A lamp can never light another lamp unless it burns on its own flame;
a teacher can never truly teach unless he continues to learn himself.
- Rabindranath Tagore

3. What is next in India?

2007-06-20T10:36:00.000-07:00

What is next in India?
Central School > State School > English Medium School >Public School > Residential School > International School >?

2. Is there a school teacher mentality?

2007-06-07T09:34:00.000-07:00

Is there a School Teacher Mentality ?

Early this year I had an opportunity to listen to a lecture on ‘Stress Management’, by an eminent Resource Person. In the course of his lecture, he referred to an occasion when he had to train Bus Conductors. He had asked them who is it that they found most difficult to manage?... Was it college students or school children?... Pop came the answer... ‘School Teachers’ !

1.The Seven Planes of Knowledge

2006-06-11T04:47:00.000-07:00

According to Hindu Philosophy , Inspiration , revelation, insight, intuition, ecstasy, divine sight and the supreme blissful state are the seven planes of knowledge.

I am no yogi and don’t dream of ever rising to the seven sublime planes of knowledge.

As a teacher educator, I have often found that an analysis of ones own life and experiences can turn out to be a source of knowledge. Perhaps the comments that readers offer to the thoughts on education which I intend to offer through this Blog might prove beneficial to both of us. So welcome to this Blog titled ‘educhat’…