Panel discussions on the seminar circuit normatively discuss how education needs to evolve and keep abreast with the times. While in the educational discourse widespread criticism of the system is warranted, quite a few education institutions are evolving. Despite facing backlash from uninformed parents unhappy with change, some schools are doggedly marching ahead in their journey to discover, renew and deliver education fit for the future. Let’s examine how progressive schools are evolving: Transition to reflective learning. Hitherto, the teacher was the revered guardian of knowledge, and students/parents flocked to her. But with Google, YouTube, Khan Academy etc, this no longer holds true. Knowledge is now available at your finger-tips, and so the role of the teacher has to evolve from an imparter of knowledge to a facilitator in the learning process. Erudite teachers are now focussing on the ‘how’, instead of just the ‘what’. And in progressive schools there is a silent transition from teaching to learning. Typically, in most schools, in a six-hour working day, five hours are spent in teaching, and one hour on co-curricular and sports education. When do we give children the time to think, reflect, and do? Worse, parents often push them for additional tuition. Where’s the time for the child to absorb, and learn through reflection? Children need free time to reflect on what they’ve been taught. With their hectic schedules, they seldom get the time to do that. This needs to change, and in progressive schools we are putting innovative ideas into practice. We have designed a two-hour teaching, two-hour learning, and two-hour doing school day. Addressing syllabus challenges. To be fair to teachers, with the pressure on them to complete the syllabus, they don’t want to digress from the prescribed curriculum. Nor do they encourage too many questions to add depth to learning. Heavy reliance on textbooks and the prescribed syllabus automatically limits the scope of incorporating newer content into classroom teaching. Therefore, it’s important to question whether the textbook should be the primary learning resource. The obvious answer is in the negative. But due to prior conditioning, most schools rely on it as the main resource. Therefore, in putting together learning material for a class, it is crucial to focus on what skills need to be developed in children, and accordingly use multiple resources to make teaching-learning more engaging. Unfortunately, in language learning most schools follow a cookie-cutter template by leading students through ten passages, and five essays. That’s not how language skills are developed! An evolved approach encourages students to reflect on what they have read, and express their interpretations rather than requiring the teacher to explain each paragraph. Revisiting assessment objectives. Sadly, in traditional mainstream schools little thought and planning goes into what is to be assessed, and why it is to be assessed. Terminologies such as CCE, formative and summative assessments are randomly bandied around without proper understanding of their nature. Rarely do assessment exercises reflect upon the evolution of children. Neither do new parameters find their…
