Alternatives in Education

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Suvidya is an educational resource group in Bangalore and has worked on many projects that provide for curriculum enrichment in schools. They have developed models and teaching aids for math and science teaching in schools.

Education is too important to be left to educationists. Many of us believe that it is education that would transform, that would bring about permanent and meaningful change in the society. Many groups are working in the field of education in various ways. We need to look at qualitative change in education. Many NGOs go from home to home, requesting parents to send their children to schools. I don’t feel confident telling parents that they should send the children to school, since schools have very low levels. Many of us consider drop-out as a problem. But this is a symptom of some other problem in education. If we fix it, the drop-out levels may reduce. If we make better schools with better infrastructure, the very meaning of what education should be remains. I decided to work in the area of mathematics. In every class, there is lot of mathematical noises. Teacher thinks there is learning happening, but there is not much learning happening. Maths is considered tough. Math phobia is present. Even teacher is afraid of mathematics. In government schools when planning for next year happens - very few teachers volunteer to teach math. When discussion about languages or EVS happens, there is lot of interaction, but when it comes to math, there is silence and hardly much inputs. So we felt that what is needed is a methodology to help children appreciate maths. Not through rote learning. Help teachers with various approaches to math teaching, learning. Problems encountered were teachers' understanding of math teaching and learning, children’s attitude towards maths, methodology and teachers' knowledge of maths. Unless we know the concept, we cannot decide what to teach, how to teach, what is noise, what is significant, etc. Even if kits are prepared for teachers, they will use it only if they think it is useful. Lot of community members may not want this kind of methodology. (Eg. HSTP) These are the issues we have had to encounter. We started math clubs in Bangalore; for geometry, arithmetic we used various methods. Most of the children only go upto 5th std. So we need to work at the primary level. Math phobia starts much earlier, in class 1 itself. It comes from peers, elder children, parents, math teachers. This is also true with elite schools. What are the learning experiences from these programs: - our program needs to be based on tangible aids. Math comes alive by using these aids. Some can be made using local materials also. These should be living aids and take less time to make. (They) should have multiple uses. Many times teachers don’t use the aids if it takes much time to make it. They would rather use readymade aids if needed than make their own aids. 2% of the teachers are innovative. 10% will be motivated. Many are fence sitters. But they change if you work with them for a long time. Teachers also learn from each other. So training, materials, follow up is needed to change their approach to teaching mathematics. There is also a problem between joyful learning or joy of learning. Songs and dances are not enough. They may still promote rote learning. So we need to promote joy of learning.

1. Measuring wheel - between one bell and next = 1 meter. Can be used with various markings. Duplicating this may be difficult. Can be used for map making, scales etc.

2. Disc with numbers - 3 radii, 3 numbers. Sum of 3 numbers on all the 3 radii should be the same. This gives a sense of accomplishment and the child is doing addition and subtraction etc. Not much motivation to do 10 sums in textbooks etc. Can be changed to 3 digit nos., decimals, fractions.

3. Place value system kits - 3712 à 2 is 2, 1 is 10, 7 is 700, 3 is 3000. 3 in some other place will take a different value. The numbers can be changed. Many children in school when asked to write twenty three will write 203, forty eight = 408. This is very logical for them. Aadu in kannada they write properly, so thirty two then 30 2 . Understanding place value is very important. So it is important to spend lot of time on this.

4. Baby postcards - Instead of address write various expressions ( 10-2, 3+1, 3*2 etc). 10 children in circle. Give each child one number. One child is the postman and is to deliver the postcards to the right number. Learning is happening. The child may feel that the game is taking long time, since they have to check each and every card for every number, since they have not put it in some order. i.e sequencing. Now they have associated ascending, descending order with something. This method can also be used in multigrade classrooms. This can also be done with languages. The cards can be made by teachers or by older children for the younger children:

Using computer meaningful in education. - earlier in textbooks (a+b) square is written in dull text. Now with computers - a comes, then 2 jumps on it and then + comes and so on. Its still rote learning. Just made more bright. We want to make tools of IT for better learning. Teachers now-a-days are given technology training. We need technology for teacher training for lesser transmission losses, so that essence of the method is not lost. We are also going to concentrate on reducing math phobia, since the government is not very interested in investing to remove this. So we want to get survey and analysis data.

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