By Suchi Shah
What good will memorizing mathematical and scientific formulae do if an aspiring scientist or engineer fails to apply them to the world around her?
In the previous blog we talked about how our Indian education system needs better resources and result-oriented education policies to allow our students to exploit their inherent potential. Unfortunately none of these would address the problem that lies at the core of our education system- “rote learning”.
The education system we have built over the years only rewards the memory of the knowledge acquired over the years spent in school or college. From the time a child enters the school he/she is taught to believe that the result of an examination is more important than how it is achieved. A 17-year old budding historian is tested on his ability to recall and remember events rather than evaluate and analyse the social, political or economic implications of these events.
Being aware of how rote learning curbs the critical thinking and analytical skills, Neev Shikshan Sanstha set out on a mission to help children learn to think rather than memories facts. We firmly believe that now is the time to redefine the ambitions of the Right to Education Act, which must imply the right to “quality education”. It is the quality and type of questions that brings textbook material to life, productively engages students and checks for their understanding i.e. if they are actually absorbing what they are learning. This requires making a move from the “what” sort of questions that take little effort to answer and are often deceptive giving a false sense of security like “I know everything!”. We need to move towards the real life questions that would stimulate a knack of reflective or critical thinking among the students. Promoting activity based learning, we have designed modules to train teachers so that they are competent enough to raise higher order questions like “how” and “why” rather than limiting the students and themselves with the “what”. We go beyond the factual questions like: what is the colour and size of the tree and focus more on the better and deeper questions asking, “How is it different from other trees?” or “Why are trees important for human beings?”
It becomes the collective responsibility of teachers as well as parents to provide an encouraging environment where students are not hesitant to ask a question or give a wrong answer out of fear of being judged. More opportunities for group interactions and classroom debates should be created so that students learn to synthesise all their previous knowledge and figure out how to apply that understanding in their everyday lives. Additionally, such exercises would compel them to provide evidences to defend their answers and in turn develop rational thinking along with problem-solving skills. Our education system should aim at extending students’ learning past the exams by preparing them well for the challenges they are likely to face and thus, inspiring them to be future leaders rather than mere followers
