LEARNING REVOLUTION IN SCHOOLS

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LEARNING REVOLUTION IN SCHOOLS

• Dr.Amarjyoti Choudhury
• Tezpur University

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THOUGHTS FOR GANDHI JAYANTI
TODAY IS GANDHI JAYANTI. THROUGHOUT THE
COUNTRY,HIS STATUES ARE BEING CLEANED. BUT WHAT
NEEDS URGENT CLEANING IS OUR
PERSPECTIVE OF GANDHIJI OUR
PERSPECTIVE OF HIS TEACHINGS.
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WHICH TEACHINGS ARE WE TALKING ABOUT? WE BEGIN
BY DRAWING INSPIRATION FROM GANDHIJI THE
REVOLUTIONARY TEACHER WHO TOTALLY REJECTED THE
COLONIAL EDUCATION AND CAME UP WITH A
RADICAL ALTERNATIVE We assess the value of
education in the same manner as we assess the
value of land or of shares in the stock-exchange
market.We want to provide only such education as
would enable the student to earn more. We hardly
give any thought to the improvement of the
character of the educated.
Mahatma
Gandhi

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TO HIM, EDUCATION WAS A WAY OF SOCIAL
TRANSFORMATION- A WAY OF GROWING WITH TIME.
Drawn in the the perspective of pre-independence
India, Gandhis basic education was thus an
embodiment of his perception of an ideal society
. This society consisted of small, self-reliant
communities . His ideal citizen was an
industrious, self-respecting and generous
individual living in a small cooperative
community.  Gandhiji ,who lived for the moment,
would certainly have new radical prescription
for now. let us imbibe his message Of grow with
time!
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BUT GROWING WITH TIME ALSO MEANS ACKNOWLEDGING
THE MASTERMINDS
HOW ABOUT RELIEVING A STORY INVOLVING GREAT
INDIAN TEACHERDr. SARVEPALLI RADHA KRISHNAN.IIN
1937 ,HE DELIVERED THE MATERMIND LECTURE ON
BUDDHA ORANIZED BY BRITISH ACADEMY. LATER THE
PRESIDENT OF THE ACADEMY OPINED WE WERE
LOOKING FOR A MASTERMIND. LITTLE DID WE REALIZE
THATWE HAD ONE IN OUR MIDST TILL WE HEARD Dr.
RADHAKRISHNAN. TRUE WE HAVE MANY MASTERMINDS
AMONGST US.THE LIKES OF BUDDHA,JESUS,MOHAMMED,SANK
ARDEVA,VIVEKANANDA, RABINDRANATH AND
JYOTIPRASAD.OR THE LIKES OF ASHUTOSH MUKHERJEE,
MUDALIAR OR PROF.KOTHARI.
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BOWING TO INSPIRING TEACHERS Let us look back
at those masterminds. Living, loving and
learning,they were all great teachers. THEY
WERE like fire that lighted up thousands
of lamps. And the fire in them was
pure,unadulterated and strong. like
sculptors.Sculptors of the young waiting to be
shaped out of a stone. The stone would have
to be chiseled .And the teacher would chisel
it slowly but steadily.And would give a new
life to it. Dronacharyas have been doing this
over the years.They have been thus great
revolutionaries always ushering the new.
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THE MASTERMINDS WERE REVOLUTIONARIES They
carried new ideas.Theirs was a revolution of
ideas , no,not of arms. All of them had
visions of the brave new world.They All dreamt
of converting the classrooms to be the
fireplace that makes the finest human beings.For
them teaching and testing were parts of their
revolution. But somehow ,down the line,
teaching has become a fragmented vision. In
this perspective, are we in need of a fresh
revolution?
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CONFRONTING THE IDEA OF REVOLUTION But
if it is routine,if it is mere continuation ,
how can it be a classroom revolution? Revolution
is not mere change.It is a break with the
past. It is the heralding of the new. But why
new?What is wrong with the ideas of the
masterminds? There is nothing wrong. NOW,
TEACHING-LEARNING IS GIVING LIFE.BUT ALL LIFE
FORMS ARE UNIQUE. THEIR RESPONSES TOO ARE
UNIQUE.SO A TRUE TEACHER CONSTANTLY TREADS ON
THE NEW PATH. AND THESE NEW PATHS TANTAMOUNT TO
REVOLUTIONS.
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CORE SETS OF IDEAS IN REVOLUTIONARY PATH A set
of ideas are,however, core to all revolutionary
paths. We shall now harp at these set of ideas
that trigger eternal revolutions in learning.But
we shall not explore all the details of
revolution.Because that will be like studying
details of thousands of paths. In stead we shall
find how to keep this fire of revolution burning
through the core set of ideas.
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DISSECTING THE NEEDS OF A REVOLUTION IN
CLASSROOMS KIDS,IN GENERAL, STILL HATE
SCHOOLS. RABINDRANATH TAGORE SKIPPED
SCHOOL. ALBERT EINSTEIN WAS A FAILURE IN SCHOOL.
MARK TWAIN SAID I HAVE NEVER LET SCHOOL
INTERFERE WITH MY EDUCATION. THESE STARK
REALITIES DEFINITELY DEMAND DRASTIC CHANGES.
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ABCDEF OF DISSECTIONS ALARMING
ILLITERACYILLITERACY AND DROPOUT ARE STILL
RAMPANT. BORING INFORMATION BAGS HAVE
INCREASED IN SIZE, BUT THOSE BAGFULS HAVE
REMAINED UNUTILIZED. EDUCATION HAS TURNED MERE
INFORMATION CENTRIC, NOT APPLICATION CENTRIC .
CHILLING RAT-RACEIT HAS BECOME A RAT RACE FOR
MORE AND MORE MARKS, AND NOT EXPLORATION OF
KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM OR ADAPTABILITY TO THE
OUTSIDE WORLD. DODGING OF NATURECLASSROOMS HAVE
WEANED AWAY STUDENTS FROM NATURE AND REAL LIFE.
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EVADING OF PERSPECTIVETOTAL PERSPECTIVES ARE
MISSING.THIS LEDTO THE DICHOTOMY BETWEEN
TEACHING AND EVALUATION. FANNING OF
SELFISHNESSEDUCATION HAS IGNORED AND SUPPRESSED
SYMPATHY FOR THE THE SOCIETY, SPECIALLY THE
DISADVANTAGED. INSTEAD IT IS NOW MERE SHOWCASING
OF ONE- UPMANSHIP. Education is now equated
with rote learning,consequences are bound to be
disastrous.After all, this is like slow
poisoning of the childs creativity. More
importantly, it has ,in general, no connection
with the world outside the classroom.Know-whys
need to be connected with know-hows of
activity. Only such a fusion would make our
school education relevant.
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SO WHAT DO WE SURMISE? WE URGENTLY NEED A
LEARNING REVOLUTION. SO ON THIS DAY OF GANDHI
JAYANTI, I CALL UPON ALL TEACHERS INCLUDING OUR
PRINCIPALS TO LIGHT A LEARNING REVOLUTIONgt
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SHOULD A PRINCIPAL BE A PART OF THIS
REVOLUTION? A PRINCIPAL IS A TEACHER FIRST AND
EVERYTHING SECOND. SO HE/SHE SHOULD BE A MASTER
AND A MODEL FOR INTEGRITY. SO PRINCIPLAL IS ALSO
AN IMPORTANT COMPONENT OF CLASSROOM
REVOLUTION. HE CAN DOUBLY LIGHT UP THE
REVOLUTION. FIRST AS A TEACHER AND NEXT AS AN
ORGANIZER OR CEO. I CALL UPON YOU TO LIGHT THIS
CLASSROOM REVOLUTION IN ALL EARNESTNESS.
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THE MANTRAS OF REVOLUTION Who would bring the
revolution? The teachers ,of course.We all
know-teachers themselves are facing many
problems.( Hopefully Principals would settle
them.)Still, they must be the initiators of this
revolution. The question is how? Let teacher
training programme be the breeding ground of this
revolution(With active help from the
principals) First he/she must have the clear
roadmap of change in his mind.As he sets out, he
may have to change even the roadmap depending on
the response. So he needs to monitor and monitor
continuously .Like Dronacharya monitoring and
testing the young Kauravas and Pandavas.
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Yes,The test is all set . A toy bird would be
placed on a branch of a tree. The child has to
hit the toy bird. But is the student adequately
focused?So the teacher would ask What do you see
Duryodhana? Duryodhana repliesI see the sky,I
see the clouds .I also see this giant of a
tree. Dronacharya now knows the child lacks
the focus. His teaching has not been able to
arouse in the child the necessary focus.So he
asks the child to go back to the classroom.There
he would now be on the lookout for a
revolutionary way to teach. Teaching-learning
and evaluation would thus go hand in hand.
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IN DOING SO,A REVOLUTIONARY TEACHER WORKS IN
CYCLES. HE WOULD IDEATE,IMPLEMENT
,INSPECT,INFER /IDEATE,IMPLEMENT- HE IS THUS
FIVE IN ONE.HE THUS PERFORMS ALL THE
PANCHASHEELAS OF AN ORGANISM OR
ORGANIZATION.THAT IS WHY HE IS SO SPECIAL.
LET US ILLUSTRATE HOW HE IDEATES
REVOLUTION. INDEED IDEAS ARE THE TRUE
REVOLUTIONS.HERE WE UNFOLD THE THE EIGHT FOLD
NETWORKS(ASTA-MARG) THAT NEEDS TO BE CROSSED FOR
USHERING IN A LEARNING REVOLUTION .
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ASTA MARG (i)AID THE MIND Jesus once said
The kingdom of peace could be here, there ,
everywhere.In fact, in the kingdom of heaven,one
finds the right soil that turns the
tiniest of seeds into the largest of
vegetables.But why did Jesus use the idea of the
right soil to illustrate the idea of the
kingdom of peace? He used it so that these
can sink into our hearts.And he said Prepare
the soil.For classrooms, we translate this
message as PREPARE THE MIND .
Mohammed also powerfully harped on this
idea.Importantly, he also claimed that to be a
basic right.
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But what preparation of mind are we talking
about?We mean preparation of mind like
Ekalavya.So focused, so concentrated that the
mind is totally receptive.So receptive that
the mind can shut off all the noises.So that it
can listen to what it wants to listen.So that
it can send an arrow that can stop sounds of the
barking dogs. Preparation of mind also
involves close monitoring- intimate
evaluation.The way Dronacharya observed how
Kauravas and the Pandavas focused on the target-
bird.These require long period of observation
and action. Hence an immediate graft from
aggressive rat-race market cannot be the way for
ideal evaluation. Instead we are in urgent need
of a way of evaluation that is a part of the
learning process itself. THUS THE STARTING
MANTRA IS PREPARE THE MIND
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(ii) BRING IN ACTIVITIES Once a lady
came to Buddha with her dead son. She pleaded
with Buddha to give back life to her
son.Buddha told the lady Bring a morsel of
rice from a household where nobody has died.I
will be ready to give him life.The lady moved
from house to house.But she failed to find a
household where there is no death.Finally it
dawned on her that death is inevitable.So she
gave up pleading for her sons life.This was
how Buddha engaged her in teaching learning
process. TEACHING-LEARNING THROUGH
ACTIVITY-THUS FORMS ANOTHER PATH OF THE
ENTIRE NETWORK THAT NEEDS TO BE TRAVERSED FOR
A LEARNING REVOLUTION.
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(iii)CRACK THE WALLS Rabindranath observed that
our classrooms weaned away our lives from
nature.Thus he found that the way we confine our
students in our classroom lectures, in say,
geography, we actually rob him of his earth.The
way we teach him grammar, we rob him of his
language.So he said Break the walls. He
meant Break the confining walls of the
classroom. Instead let us take our children
close to the nature.Make him study under the
tree.Make him watch real people.Let him
learn from life. SO BREAK THE WALL.
TURNED INTO A METAPHOR. -A REVOLUTIONARY
METAPHOR.
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(iv)DARE THE SYLLABUS! But what is to be
taught?These must have been the thoughts that
came to the mind of Jesus or Buddha. Finally
they must have settled for the a curriculum that
fundamentally captured the vision of their
society . A curriculum thus Decides the
components of the good life for individuals
and society . But in a changing
world, the curriculum cannot be static and
confining. Thus a teacher needs to be allowed
teach even beyond the syllabus, wherever
necessary. SO,FRAME SYLLABUS, BUT
TRANSCEND IT IS A SURE SLOGAN OF
TEACHING-LEARNING REVOLUTION.
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(v) EASE OFF WITH TOOLS AND HUMOUR
Dronacharya used toy birds for
teaching.Using tools for teaching-learning
has thus been a practice since ages. Modern
technology has further increased the capability
of these tools for graphic presentation and
simulation.These tools may be used imaginatively
to further the cause of education. Humour is
another instrument that can be aggressively used
by teachers. EASE OFF WITH TOOLS
AND HUMOUR FORMS ANOTHER INDISPENSABLE WAY EN
ROUTE TO LEARNING REVOLUTION.
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(vi) FEEL THE STUDENTS
Dronacharya,Jesus and Buddha were great
teachers. But they listened to their
students.That helped them to Revisit their
methods of teaching. FEEL THE STUDENTS IS
THUS ANOTHER CORE IDEA OF NETWORK LEADING
TOWARDS LEARNING REVOLUTION.
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(vii)GO FOR TOTALITY For a moment, let
us go back to Dronacharya..A toy bird is placed
on a tree.He asks Kauravas and Pandavas to aim
for the bird.Normally,we come immediately to
focusing the bird.But there is also a need to
look at the totality at the beginning--the total
perspective with all its interdisciplinarity. I
n other words it is important to focus, but
prior to that it is equally important to build
the total perspective.Dronachaya taught both.
Hence Arjuna could pierce the eye of the fish
hung above by looking at its reflection in
water. Toal perspective involves carving out new
ways of teaching and evaluation. SO GO
FOR TOTALITY IS A POWERFUL INGREDIENT OF
LEARNING REVOLUTION.
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(viii) HARNESS EMPATHY Gandhiji was an
extra ordinary teacher.An extraordinary teacher
who taught us to connect.Connect to
society.Connect to nature and environment.Connect
in empathy-to one and all. THIS WAS AND
STILL IS A CORE AND ULTIMATE WAY OF ARRIVING AT
LEARNING-REVOLUTION .
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THUS THE EIGHT-FOLD WAYS CONSIST OF (i)AID THE
MIND (ii)BRING IN ACTIVITIES (iii)CRACK THE
WALL (iV) DARE THE SYLLABUS (v) EASE OFF WITH
TOOLS AND HUMOUR ,(VI) FEEL THE STUDENTS
(VII) GO FOR TOTALITY AND (VIII) HARNESS
EMPATHY . THESE ARE ALL MILE STONES OF
CREATIVE CYCLE THAT AN IDEAL TEACHER HAS TO GO
THROUGH AGAIN AND AGAIN.
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Through these Asta-Margas, the teacher touches
the minds and make a difference. This is
because , he does not only teach Mathematics,
English or history.He goes beyond these
artificial divisions in knowledge and teaches
life.He not only teaches skills or ideas,but
nurtures thinking original thinking!
This is the learning revolution that we
ardently cherish!
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THANKS
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• ADDITIONAL MANTRAS FOR THE PRINCIPALS
• BUT THE PRINCIPALS ARE THE CHOSEN FEW.
• THE CHOSEN LEADERS.FOR THEM, THERE ARE
• ADDITIONAL MANTRAS
• THE QUARTET OF MANTRAS
• ENSURE MOBILITY OF THOUGHTS AND TEACHERS
• SPREAD YOUR EMPATHY
• SPREAD YOUR INSPIRATION
• CREATE THE AMBIENCE FOR LEARNING REVOLUTION
• I AM SURE REVOLUTION WOULD COME RUNNING.
• THE END