What reflects me...?

A tree may not represent me as I am now, but it is something that I want to represent me.  A tree represent life to me, never giving up, staying firmly rooted to the ground at all time and serve its environment.  And, finally, if your ever cut a branch of a tree, it sprout back another branch, and if you scar it, it would heal and continue to grow!

Connecting SMS, Blogging and Education

Most of us, if not addicted already, are pretty adept in text messaging (SMS).  There used to be days when I used-up the 200 sms per day limit set by the TRAI.  When writing sms, we often used abbreviation or shortened form of words which some people might think have murdered the language.

But as far as blogging is concerned, I have been doing it for sometime now, and have used it as a separate platform, totally different from SMS and treated it very formally.

Now as someone working in the field of education - I should be concerned about writing and spelling and not murdering the language. Am I really a practitioner of what I preach in my everyday life when it comes to spelling? We might say that writing (in any form) got nothing to do with language, but the truth is, without writing, we would not be able to read that language.

Eversince the day we did our session on education, we often argue about how insignificant spelling mistake are as long as we can understand them, but try telling that to some middle school students -if they do believe you, they might start telling you how different their teacher is, and that he will not allow such thing...

By the way, how do you feel when you notice some spelling mistake while reading an article from a respectable publisher? It bugs me, and I think everyone would feel the same way.  What I want to say is, we might said that spelling is not important part of our learning, but being able to construct, and being able to use the proper and appropriate spelling is also learning.

I know that english spelling is terrible, still I think it should be integral part of our education because spelling mistake can make a big differences in the world we live.

JOKE:

To illustrate the weirdness of English spelling, George Bernard Shaw once said we might as well spell the word "FISH" as "GHOTI" His reason being -

'GH' pronounced as 'F' in 'LAUGH'

'O' pronounced as 'I' in 'WOMEN'

'TI' pronounced as 'SH' in 'NATION'

so, FISH = GHOTI!!!

Article Review/Reading

READING: Maertens, Annemie (2011); “Does Education Pay Off? Subjective Expectations on Education in Rural India”; Economic & Political Weekly, VOL XLVI NO 9, February 26, 2011, pp. 58 - 63

Based on my reading of the above article, I want to extract a few of the findings which I think are relevant to my field of practice, and area of interest, and also raise a few questions and add my thought and views on various findings put forth by the paper.

I’m not going to analyze the research, nor question her methodologies.  I’m aware that primary data are always based on perceptions of one member of the family, her primary research was about the economic aspect of BT Cotton (which used to be rather controversial in India), and that her funding came from, besides other, some American Agriculture Research Institute.  But no matter what, her findings were as important and as relevant as they truly existed in our society that we can see from our everyday life.

Given below are some points and finding mentioned in the article which I took liberty on presenting in my own words and in my own way.

Reasons cited for sending children to school are:

• Parental education
• Social and eco background of parent
• Work opportunities
• Village and regional development,
• School quality
• Cost
•  Educational subsidies

1. The parents of a child is more likely to let their children complete their education if

• Awareness level among parents is high (via media, school)If the parents know more educated people

2. The ideal age of marriage is 18 years of age, and among boys, it is about 23

• The implication is, parents will not want to invest in a girl child education because at age 18, they will not have the time to graduate and get a good job and the return from their education will not be benefitted by the investor.

3. Lack of awareness of the prospect of education 

• Among the decision maker at home, majority doesn’t know the future prospect (how much they can earn in term of money) of their child that education can lead to, the situation is especially bad among primary student, and among 8th grade student, the only exception is, in one village out of three, about 40% had some idea...

4. There is major gender discrimination.

•  Girls are expected to earn lesser than boys even after graduation
• Financial support and physical care are expected from the male child

Few thoughts and reflection:

Do we really see education as an investment, or do we send children to school for the sake of sending, or because of some pressure from authorities, or because it is made a compulsory right for every child?

To say or view education as a future investment might not go down very well with many parents or easy to digest, but if we analyze the final motives, it truly is an investment.

• We sent our children to school in expectation that they would learn something; achieve something and make a life out of that education.
• We sent our children to school in expectation that they would earn money and start supporting the family.
• We sent our children to school in expectation that they would not have to face the kind of hardship that the parents’ faced.We sent our children to school in expectation that they would overcome the various social problems that we faced.
• We sent our children to school because we have certain perception about educated people, and their enhanced capabilities.
• We sent our children to school because something or someone inspired us and changed our perception
• We sent our children to school because we can afford to send them to school.

Viewing from the perspective of a practitioner, there are nothing new about the findings, except that she put percentage after every claim.    But as a practitioner of education, what did we do about parents’ awareness level about education and the prospects opened-up by education and most popular, about gender discrimination?

If parents are not aware of the future prospect that education can opened up for the children that they sent to school from their hard earned money, then can we really expect them to question what is being taught at school, or how it is being taught?  We said that assessments are also a feedback towards the parents about their wards’ performance and the teachers’ teaching, now can we really expect the parents to make any sense out of that feedback?

My friend Lam has reflected that some of the reason behind the high rate of drop out in the country cannot always be solved within the school boundary alone. As such, it is important that we look into problem from a larger perspective to tackle these issues that primarily include a change in society's attitude, economic development, etc.

Teaching, Learning and Assessment

This evening, we were asked to do a little activity in group and define the relation and role of teaching, learning and assessment.  Most groups came out with a similar concept with ours' which is quite a relief.  Given below is the relationship among the three elements that my group decided.

 Learning, teaching and assessment are mutual and go three ways.

From a learning perspective

• Learning and Teaching are mutual because teaching is done for the purpose of learning, and when teaching is done in the classroom, whatever the teacher teaches and whatever the student learned, and the lesson plans, and the syllabus are based on the on the teacher’s assessment of the learning.
• Learning and Assessment are mutual because Learning is something that can be measured because teaching has certain objectives, and in order to find out if the objectives of teaching are achieved or not, it can be known only through assessment.

From a Teaching perspective:

• Teaching and Learning are mutual because whatever the teacher teaches, they are not something random or based on the whims of the teacher. What is being taught in the class is based on the teacher’s assessment of the learning which come in the form of feedback as well as curriculum and syllabus.
• Teaching and Assessment are mutual because teaching cannot be done randomly, it has to have objectives, and only through the assessment of the learning, the objectives of learning can be identified.  In other word, assessment is needed to design and plan a lesson for learning, and to prepare and design syllabus and curriculum.

From an Assessment Perspective:

• Assessment and Learning are mutual because without assessment, learning cannot happen.  The assessment can tell what the child learnt, what they cannot learn and as such, it is the learning what decide what is being including in the curriculum.
• Assessment and Teaching are mutual because without assessment, the teacher will not know what to taught, how much the students comprehend, and if the methodology of teaching is helpful for the student or not.

We cannot part learning, teaching and assessment at all, they have to form a cycle for the learning process to be complete and that without each other, it will not be complete.  Without teacher there cannot be learning, and without learning, we cannot assess.  Since teaching has certain objectives, if the teaching is successful (learning happened) or not can be known only through assessment. And, if the objectives of the teaching are successful, we can only call it learning. 

Nothing is simple (when deciding what our children should learn)!

It is often taken for granted that we sent our children to school to learn.  But the question we never asked is what are they going to learn, and who decide what our children are going to learn, and most importantly, based on what criteria they selected the subject matter that our children are going to learn?

I never bothered to ask these types of questions, and considering myself being educated, I often assumed that I can easily design a curriculum for primary students.  Now I realize that I have been making too much assumption –none of them with a single strand of foundation!

For example, when we had session on “Learning Environmental Science”, it made me think why we treat various subject matter as a single subject in school, on what basis, and what make them so related that we can put them together.   Besides it also made me wonder what are the policy and what are the thought behind all that. 

If you are wondering why EVS is being taught at Class 3, 4, 5 only and no other classes, I’ll tell you my view and what I learned, which will also talk about the other reasoning behinds the subject and subject matters.

EVS is a subject that deal with our immediate environment and their relationship among themselves and most importantly, with us.  It is important to be taught because children are in constant interaction with their environment, and we want the children to be aware of their environment and being able to relate them and to develop a sense of enquiring mind.  

Besides, we practice a progressive education system or a child-centred education system and we want the child to be prioritized and as such we are using the child’s environment not only as a subject matter (content) but also as the means to understand and learn and related them with their everyday life.  In simple words, we want the child to have a firm foundation, develop an enquiring mind and most importantly, we are teaching them how to learn.

Also, children in class 3 - 5 are in the age-group of 7 – 10 years and as such, it is the time wherein they start developing a sense of identity and their cognitive ability to analyze and think critically are being in the process of developing.  We want them to analyze and think critically the interconnectedness of everything that surround them, and want them to relate their classroom learning with their immediate environment and have a firm foundation before we start teaching them a more complex concept and specialized kind of knowledge once they reached class 6.

Through EVS we are contextualizing the social relationship, the cause and effect of nature, norms and values (that exist around the child) for the child so that it gives them a sense of self-efficacy.

The Complexities and Universality of Language

Monday's session on language was a very interesting one for me.  I used to associate language with grammatical correctness and the beauty and flow of words.  It was extremely fascinating to understand the universality as well as the complexity of language, and to realize that our ability to read and write, and the scripts we used has no relation at all with language.

Besides, I used to undermine my own native language as insignificant and never even bothered to learn its intricacies, but to be reminded that it is no less than the other languages I used to consider as major languages, it was humbling. 

Just in case you missed some points from the session, here I'm sharing you some of the points I noted from the session.

Universality of language

• Reading and writing got nothing to do with understanding.  E.g. If you were given any words, strange and foreign words, you still would be able to write it and someone else will be able to read it! 
• Besides, script has no relation at all with language.  Any language can be written in any script.
• Language is a system of knowledge. We cannot conceptualize anything without language! Language is at the base of everything!!!
• Sign language is a full-blown language with which even the most complex concept can be explained. However body Languages are only paralinguistic feature.
• There is no difference between a language and a dialect, language is often considered superior because it has an army and a navy, i.e. it depends on the perception of the people and the number of followers and proponent.
• Across languages in the world, the negative (NOT) is always close, if not right next to, the verb.
• Across languages in the world, the questioning words (What? Where? When? Why?) is either at the beginning or at the end of the sentence because we want to emphasize on that questioning word. (In English, to get information response from a question i.e. WH, all we have to do is begin the sentence using them.
• Most language in the world has three basic content (Subject, Object, Verb) formation; English has SVO formation, Hindi has SOV formation.

How children learn?

• Every child is ‘programmed’ to learn. We have innate ability to learn language. Language is acquired with all its complexities at the age of 4. Children have the capacity to figure out the relationship between sound and script.
• Environment plays a great role, but as compared to innate ability, genetic faculty is most important.

Complexity of Language.

• There are certain complex things which are not taught, but the student learnt anyway.  One good example is making a singular word into plural by adding S. In English grammar there are no specific rules to be followed when converting a word into plural, but if we analyzed, it is based on the sound.
• The simple rule of adding an S, ES or IES to a word to make it into a plural depends on the sound of the word.  i.e. (a) If the words end with a P, T, K – we add S, (b) if the words end with Ch, Jh, Sha, S, - We add IZ, (c) If the words end with other forms of sound –we simply add Z.
• Every word in any language is made up of vowels and consonant, the difference between consonants and vowels is that, vowels can be pronounced for long period whereas consonant cannot be.
• Every word in any language is structured on the basis of CVCV (C=Consonant, V=Vowels).  That means, human language is structured on the basis of alteration of consonants and vowels and not on sequencing.  For instance, if alteration like CVCV is true, then sequencing like CCCV or VVVC cannot be true.
• If sequencing as given above is true, it can only happen only on rare cases like (C1C2C3V)
• C1 = S,  C2 = P, T, K,  C3 = R, Others   Eg. Straight, Strange, Screw

The Environment v/s Heredity Debate

I understand that most of us are pretty fed-up of the environment v/s heredity (or genetic or biological) or nature v/s nurture debate that has been going on in our sessions.  But I want to add a few notes to it after today’s session on the process of language acquisition among children.

It must be noted that the debate cannot be pushed away as irrelevant because it is very much relevant if we are going to work in the field of education especially in the area of pedagogy and curriculum design. And we need to make a stand on the issues if we want to make curriculum for children.  Our stand on this issue will decide what we expect of a child to learn, and what don’t expect of a child to learn.

Lam has written about this debate in his blog (click here to read) and nicely presented both sides of the argument and I’m not going to add anything to it.  He had rightly pointed out the Practitioner’s point of view when he said that:

“as a practitioner who strives to bring changes in the educational environment of children, the rationality is more on the environmental aspect. After all, we cannot influence the heredity of a child, but we can influence the environment”.

To add one last point here after today’s session that there is no denying that both genetics and environment play important role especially if you happened to subscribe to today’s session that there is an innate ability in children to learn the complexities of languages without the involvement of the environment.  The only question is –to what extend genetics or environment play a role in our learning?

To find the role of genes in learning

1. Research by King's College, London (published by BBC)
2. "Nurture" Is More Influential Than "Nature"

To find more information on Children’s innate ability to learn language, I recommend the following: 

1. University of Chicago Chronicles and
2. The Speech Therapy and Information Resources

To find the difference and relation between heredity and genetics:

1. Watch this youtube movie
2. Read this Studyworld's Article

The Three Types of Knowledge

According to Burnard* (1996), there are three different types of knowledge, they are not independent, but supportive of each other:

1. Acquaintance knowledge (Eg. I know Oxford well).  This knowledge can be further divided into two types based on its ‘directness’.  The first is (a) Knowledge about, e.g. I know about Mozart’s music, (b) Knowledge of, e.g. I know of music by Mozart.  Acquaintiance knowledge also called experiential knowledge are personal, subjective and affective; gained through direct encounter, which are the seeds of experiential knowledge; tacit, loaded with personal (often experiential) meanings; idosyncratic i.e. peculiar to an individual.
   
2. Ability knowledge or Practical knowledge:  These types of knowledge are based on our abilities and skills. (Eg. I know how to ride a bike).  Practical knowledge are demonstrable in psychomotor or interpersonal skills; the acquisition of skills; ‘knowing how’, the substance of smooth performance.
   
3. Propositional knowledge (Eg. I know that eagles are birds).  It is contained in theories/models; propositional –made up of statements & propositions; ‘text book’ or written down; knowing that something is the case; a bank of facts, theories and ideas.  Knowing this knowledge makes it a little easier (a) to be clear in knowledge statements and (b) to understand the different levels of knowledge statements.

The first two types of knowledge are very interesting, but it is the third one which the philosophers are interested in, because they are the knowledge upon, to put it in a generalized manner, our education system, our curriculum, i.e. the knowledge that is being imparted to our students in our various educational systems are based.

While googling through the topics, I came across someone who talk about Edmund Gettier (‘Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?’) who famously presented cases in which we want to say that someone has justified, true belief but not knowledge. I put a link to these ‘Gettier cases’ if you want to read it further.  The article also has more discussion on Propositional knowledge and Justified True Belief which you may be interested in reading further. (to read the article, click here)

* Burnard, P. 1996. Acquiring interpersonal skills - a handbook of experiential learning for health professionals. 2nd edition. London: Chapman & Hall.

Current Indian Education System

I don't know who made the film, or from where it came, but it's just 3.36 minutes, so do take your time to watch it!!!

Recycled Learning, Indian Style!!!

From the BBC Network, Sanjeev visits some impressive young students taking time out of their school day to help teach street children the same syllabus. That's recycled learning, Indian style, and it makes a big impression on the presenter in this BBC Worldwide video clip.

Equity, Equality and Quality Education

I'm not an expert in the subject matter and intricacies of equity, equality and quality of education.  But one thing I do know is that, when talking about equality, the platform from where we speak, and the platform from where we take our stand are major significant determinant of how we view it. For instance, the American have equal but separate system before the civil right movement.  An example will be reserving equal number of seat inside a bus or theatre for the whites and the blacks.  Now such reservation, even though equal in number, can ever be called equal if you happened to be a black American at that time?

Besides, when talking about equity and equality, we cannot talk about them without the term 'inclusive' and 'exclusive'.  I said the platform from where we speak is important because what is inclusive for someone will never be inclusive for the other.  And without inclusion, there will never be equality or equity.  

On the other hand, quality will also be based on, besides many things, on the aspiration of the child and their parents.  For example, if a child wanted to be a language teacher when she grow up, a curriculum having a beautifully contextualized concept of geometry in maths will not hold much quality for her.

But based on my simple understanding, equity, equality and quality of education are talked together in one breath when talking about the work of the foundation, or when talking about the government education system is because of the following:

• The government wanted to ensure equity for all the children of the country and as such, find a solution in quantity of school.

•  Equality is ensured by providing school to every community and ensuring that every children has an access to these school. 

• So to put together equity and equality, the government opened excessive number of schools to ensure equity i.e. equal distribution across the country, so everyone has equal access to school by opening many schools.

• Now when it comes to quality concern, there is only one option to ensure quality to such huge number of schools across the country, that is, to work with the school opened by the government, because we can’t possibly compete with the government in opening schools all across the country.

• So what APF did was work with the government schools, and since the government schools have kind of already ensured equity (through numbers of schools) and equality (through opening access to everyone), we help them improve the quality of those school, which mean, if we are successful, we will be ensuring equitable, equal and quality education to every child in the country.

Now do I over simplify this?

Defining Education.....

On the first day of having our induction programme at the AP University, my learning group was asked to define education.  Of course, we all have our own opinion, and there were differences in opinions and views, and some of our proposed definition were very limited or to put it plainly, out of context.

For instance, my definition was that “Education is the imparting/gaining of knowledge and skill; knowledge is the understanding of the process of how to reach from here to there, and skill is the ability to apply that understanding of the process into practice”.

My friends found my definition too formal, so we embarked on making a generic definition of Education.  The interesting thing was that, none of the members in my group were from Education background and and most of us have a vague idea about education.  So we decided to be inclusive and inculcate everyone’s opinion and came out with a generic definition that goes something like this:

Education is the lifelong process to gain knowledge and impart skills which enhances our ability to understand ourselves and the world better.

Of course I don’t agree with this definition, but like any other good team player, I went along with the group definition.  To me, education is not only about gaining knowledge but also about imparting knowledge, and not just imparting skills but also gaining skills.    

Later on, someone from another group debated with me about our definition of education, and we argued about it.  He gave a very bookish definition, confining education to the formal sector only, i.e. to school based on structured curriculum, etc.

But I stick-on to my group’s definition and defended it, successfully I might said since my debate opponent finally gave up, but deep down, I know my definition has its limitation and is problematic.

When reflecting back on to the various definition, I started mentally defining the concept of education, and it becomes very broad.  Let me explain that reflection with a simple example;

Consider a fisherman teaching his three sons how to fish using a fishing-net in a fishing boat.  Now can the fisherman be called a teacher, the fishing-boat be called a school and can the fishing-net be called the tools, since even fishing has a process to go from here to there, i.e. to an immature fisher to an expert fisher who make a living out of fishing.

Now in a bookish sense, any learning that happened outside a formal set-up is called social learning, and any learning that happened within our social realm is called socialization.  But aren’t these sorts of learning also have process, and involve knowledge and skill that are relevant to our contextual life, and be applied for our daily existence?

I’m yet to fully organize my thoughts on this subject, so please don’t judge it as yet!