By Wani Idris
Now that, we gear up for schools, I would like to chip in with some ideas to make the teaching learning process more effective. A teacher is blessed with the job of imparting education, in other words, he facilitates learning, knowledge, skills, values, beliefs and habits. Education tells people how to reason, and if a child is taught how to reason well, then they help subdue their own thoughts of ignorance. Education helps child learn “how to learn”, it’s not about knowledge they accumulate, it’s the way a child is taught “how to learn things”. A child may come away from school not knowing a lot of course, but if a child is taught how to learn, then when child becomes an adult, learning everything he or she needs in life. Unfortunately our education has boiled down to school scores and hitting the factors of curriculum. Question is how can we achieve this?
Look! The most important tool in a teacher and even in a student’s kitty is talk, yet we don’t find much focus on that. Schools don’t do enough in improving the children’s ability to talk. Our classroom environment looks like a monologue, with teachers asking closed questions and prompting students for specific answer, rather than exploring the creativity, thinking process etc. Having positive classroom culture is one of the most important elements of successful learning environment and the teacher should actively work towards this. The alternative to this would be keep the questions and discussions open, allow more children participation and make the dialogue more interesting. The teachers should also give up the habit of imposing their thinking and stop behaving like a “know all “person. Another way to improve is to encourage children to understand children “how “and “why” of things rather than learn with rote. Students should be allowed and encouraged to express their ideas .Brainstorming in the class among the teacher and students before coming to final conclusion. Teachers should also encourage use of simple language to discuss topics/ ideas rather than throw in the complex jargon. The student ideas can be tentative at first, but with the right guidance and in an atmosphere which encourages curiosity and participation, these ideas will help students to make their understanding more sharp and focused. Teaching children in various subjects like Maths and science is fine but they need also be taught “to communicate well”.
(The author is a Teaches at BHSS Tekipora, Lolab and can be reached @ sheikashikhussain)
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