22. Can students learn on their own?

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 ?

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

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?

“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?

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?

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?

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.