Curricular Resources

                                      CURRICULAR RESOURCES

13th March 2015, 8 pm

Education plays an important role in the life of a person. And the whole process of teaching-learning is dependent on several other factors like: Pedagogy, curriculum, classroom management strategies, evaluation and assessment techniques, teaching learning aids used and many more. Since 2005, when National Curriculum Framework came into existence people have been extensively discussing about the teaching learning process. Though, pedagogy and TLMs go hand in hand, but now TLMs have also found an important and separate part in the discussion of teaching-learning process. One can see its implication at classroom levels as well. Teachers can be seen using different materials as a teaching resource in the classroom.

The school I visited, is a government-aided Muslim minority school. It follows the Nali-Kali system for classes I and II, which in itself is based on activity based approach and uses flash cards, picture stories, poem charts and many more such aids. All these TLMs can be found in the classrooms. Apart from classes I and II, other classrooms had poem charts, calendars, watch, charts of moral values, body parts, weighing balance (Tarajoo), children’s drawing and story books as resources which were used by the teachers. These were displayed in the classrooms at a certain, where the students could not reach. The school also had a provision of smart class (edu-comp), which was used by teachers at least once a week, especially by the Mathematics’ teacher. However, presence of TLMs alone is not sufficient. Its proper use is also crucial for an effective teaching-learning process to take place. Thus, it is difficult to comment on the process without looking at both (pedagogy and TLMs) simultaneously. Therefore, based on my observations of different classrooms, here I will try and look at the role played by TLMs in the pedagogy.

In one of the classrooms (class IV) teacher was helping students in reading the calendar. For this, she used the calendar that was available in the classroom. And using the calendar, she told children how to look for day and dates by looking at the corresponding columns and rows. Also, she brought the concept of representing holidays: Sunday or festivals. While doing this, she discussed about Holi, Id, Republic Day and Independence Day. She talked about its significance and how they are celebrated. Also, while she was telling the name of the days, she connected it with the name they use it at home in day-to-day language. Like: Thursday is also referred as Jume-Raat; Friday as Jumma and so on. In this, way the teacher was trying to connect the learnings of the child in school to his/her learnings at home rather than making the two operate in isolation. Also, she was trying to integrate EVS and Mathematics, by discussing about festivals during the topic of Measurement, which is an effective way to deal as mentioned in NCF, 2005 also. Later, she called students one by one to come near the calendar and locate the date she was asking and tell the day it falls on. Students’ responses were influenced by the fear of getting slapped if they gave ‘wrong’ answers and hence were hesitant to respond at the first place. It would have been more effective if students in small groups (of 5-6 students) had a calendar, which they could see and explore by themselves.

In another Mathematics classroom the teacher was dealing with the theme-Shapes, for class VIII. She was introducing different kinds of triangles (isosceles and equilateral) and different congruency criterion (SSS, SAS and ASA). {S=side and A=Angle}. She was using computer, screen and projector for the same. The teacher was sitting near the computer and operating it, while the students were sitting on the floor (bit far from the screen and computer). The teacher drew triangles and helped students understand the representation of figures by marking two sides as equal or all sides equal. However, by looking at the figure one can see that none of the sides were equal. Such use of TLMs might lead to formation of misconceptions among learners. Thus, it is necessary that before using the TLM in classroom the teacher is familiar with it and knows how to use it properly. After this she moved to explain the congruency conditions for two triangle by representation and correct of naming two congruent triangles. The teacher was encouraging students to explore and construct their own understanding for the same by asking questions and making them reflect on their responses. However, it became more of a guessing game for learners, since they could not associate a logical reasoning to it. It would have made more sense to them if they were able to see (concretely) and verify it by themselves that if their answer is wrong then why is it so. It seemed that using computer for teaching was done for the sake of formality (maybe it was influenced by my presence as an observer). Thus, I would recommend the teacher to use cut-outs of triangles made up of paper or of card-board. It will go with the constructive pedagogic style which she was trying to implement. As the students can touch it, see it and check it by making them overlap over one-another. Such TLMs engage the senses of learners in a more active ways. These aids are in accordance with Montessori’s didactic aids. Also, it takes into account the need of children to develop the concepts by engaging with it (concretely) which further lays the foundation to think abstractly and reason logically.

I also observed a class of EVS, where the teacher was teaching about the solar system to the students of class V. She was using blackboard, chalk and textbook. She drew Sun at the middle of the left end of the blackboard and then discussed about its uses- Vitamin-D; heat energy and light energy; helps in drying the clothes etc. After this, she made orbits and drew planets on each orbit. She discussed about each planet in terms of- its name and location from the sun. She encouraged children to look in textbooks while responding. This way she was able to engage children in reading and in discussion as well. Thus, in this case even a black-board, chalk and textbook acted as an effective tool for teaching learning process. In the discussion students were talking about the existence of life only on Earth because it has water, air and soil, which are necessary conditions for humans to survive.

Based on my observations I can say that teaching learning aids play an important role in the whole teaching-learning process. And there are a lot of things that have to be kept in mind while selecting and using a TLM in the classroom. It has to be cost-effective, safe for children to use, age appropriate, relevant to the topic being dealt, attractive, enough in number, should not encourage misconceptions and the teacher should be familiar with it before using it in the classroom. Also, one of the important aspect of a teaching aid is that it should be accessible to learners at the first place!