Transforming School Education Practices Through Innovation
The education segment of the country is in a transition stage with a large number of schools adopting fi nest teaching-learning practices from across the world. Akash Tomer of Elets News Network (ENN) tries to explore the practices that are improving and enriching educational experience in Indian schools.
Whether it’s about bringing continuous improvements or complete transformation, the goal of education has largely been the same – creating a bright future with newer practices.
Today, students and their parents wish to have an educational experience that not only caters to individual needs but it also paves the way for being future-ready. It should also ensure that the students get connected to what is happening around the globe. To meet these expectations, developing innovative teaching and learning methodologies seems a necessity.
For every educational institute, there is a need to develop an exciting, challenging yet rewarding learning environment.
Looking at the existing scenario in big cities, students’ world of imagination is full of numerous ideas and mobility. A guided access to knowledge as per their requirements can help them acquire knowledge beyond boundaries while enabling them to compete globally.
It looks as if the education must be delivered with integration of Information Communication Technology (ICT) and in ways that are compatible with and supporting their worldview.
So, it is not only about improving the education delivery methodologies. Rather, each and every education stakeholder needs to have a bigger ambition of revamping the education sector. Also, we have the opportunity to involve families and communities in the way young people learn because learning forums are so much more open, transparent and collaborative.
Today, technology can be used more creatively. It should not be only limited tothe classroom walls, but something which should lead to innovative ways of learning the required skills.
Innovative methods need to be unique. Be it for continuously improving existing practices or changing the way we achieve goals.
In education sector, from learning about Indian history through an audiovisual illustration to participating in enhanced science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programmes, requires creative innovation. Some of its examples are:
Open lessons: These are 45 to 60-minute lessons which have come into the practice in different parts of the world in recent times. It has compelled teachers to execute their lesson plans with precision before the school is over for the day.
Increasingly, however, schools are moving away from this concept and instead embracing the idea that a lesson can be learnt in many ways: organic or structured, long or short, based within or beyond school premises.
Modern-Day classrooms: In an age, where we are surrounded by information, the concept of walled classroom is no more the ideal option to propagate education everywhere.
The classroom concept was only applicable when teachers were the students’ most accessible and the only source of information. In an age of wireless internet, perhaps traditional methodology of having classrooms with rows of benches and chairs is fast turning obsolete. But it cannot limit the role of teachers. Now the teachers are meant to guide, discuss and measure the progress of students. Nowadays schools are designing classrooms which can easily and effectively impart education.
Personalised learning: Today, every student has special educational needs and their problems need to be addressed in a unique but personalised way. After understanding students’ problems, teachers must be able to tackle it on their own. But the teachers should respond as per students’ needs. Though good teachers have always taken note of it, the structure of conventional schools limits the extent to which they can personalise learning.
In most of the schools, students study similar things. What is personalised generally is how much they are expected to understand. This has happened because when a teacher is presenting material to a big class, and then personally gauging how much of it an individual student has learnt, there is not enough time to provide each student a tailor-made learning course. However, this has started to change, partly (though not entirely) because of digital technology.
