How to Become a More Effective Learner

Are you interested in finding ways to learn new things faster? Do you want to become a more effective and efficient learner? If you are like many students, your time is limited so it is important to get the most educational value out of the time you have available.

Speed of learning is not the only important factor, however. Retention, recall, and transfer are also critical. Students need to be able to accurately remember the information they learn, recall it at a later time, and utilize it effectively in a wide variety of situations.

 Becoming an effective and efficient student is not something that happens overnight, but putting a few of these tips into daily practice can help you get more out of your study time.So what can you do to become a better learner?
1. Memory Improvement Basics
2. Keep Learning (and Practicing) New Things
3. Learn in Multiple Ways
4. Teach What You've Learned to Another Person
5. Utilize Previous Learning to Promote New Learning
6. Gain Practical Experience
7. Look Up Answers Rather Than Struggle to Remember
8. Understand How You Learn Best
9. Use Testing to Boost Learning
10. Stop Multitasking

let know more about in more details...

1. More Improvement Basics: We've talked before about some of the best ways to improve memory. Basic tips such as improving your focus, avoiding cram sessions, and structuring your study time are a good place to start, but there are even more lessons from psychology that can dramatically improve your learning efficiency.

2. Keep Learning (and Practising) New Things: One sure-fire way to become a more effective learner is to simply keep learning. A 2004 Nature article reported that people who learned how to juggle increased the amount of gray matter in their occipital lobes, the area of the brain is associated with visual memory.This "use-it-or-lose-it" phenomenon involves a brain process known as "pruning." Certain pathways in the brain are maintained, while other are eliminated. If you want the new information you just learned to stay put, keep practicing and rehearsing it.  When these individuals stopped practicing their new skill, this gray matter vanished.So if you're learning a new language, it is important to keep practicing the language in order to maintain the gains you have achieved. 

3. Learn In Multiple Ways: Focus on learning in more than one way. Instead of just listening to a podcast, which involves auditory learning, find a way to rehearse the information both verbally and visually. This might involve describing what you learned to a friend, taking notes, or drawing a mind map. By learning in more than one way, you’re further cementing the knowledge in your mind.
According to Judy Willis, “The more regions of the brain that store data about a subject, the more interconnection there is. This cross-referencing of data means we have learned, rather than just memorized.” This redundancy means students will have more opportunities to pull up all of those related bits of data from their multiple storage areas in response to a single cue.
 

4. Teach What You've Learned to Another Person: Educators have long noted that one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it to someone else. Remember your seventh-grade presentation on Costa Rica? By teaching to the rest of the class, your teacher hoped you would gain even more from the assignment. Some ideas include writing a blog post, creating a podcast, or participating in a group discussion. You can apply the same principle today by sharing your newly learned skills and knowledge with others.Start by translating the information into your own words. This process alone helps solidify new knowledge in your brain. Next, find some way to share what you’ve learned.

5. Utilize Previous Learning to Promote New Learning: Another great way to become a more effective learner is to use relational learning, which involves relating new information to things that you already know. For example, if you are learning about Romeo and Juliet, you might associate what you learn about the play with prior knowledge you have about Shakespeare, the historical period in which the author lived, and other relevant information.

6. Gain Practical Experience: For many students, learning typically involves reading textbooks, attending lectures, or doing research in the library or on the Web. If you are learning a new language, practice speaking with another person and surround yourself with language-immersion experiences. Watch foreign-language films and strike up conversations with native speakers to practice your budding skills. While seeing information and then writing it down is important, actually putting new knowledge and skills into practice can be one of the best ways to improve learning.If you are trying to acquire a new skill or ability, focus on gaining practical experience. If it is a sport or athletic skill, perform the activity on a regular basis.
 

7. Look Up Answers Rather Than Struggle to Remember: Of course, learning isn’t a perfect process. Sometimes, we forget the details of things that we have already learned. If you find yourself struggling to recall some tidbit of information, research suggests that you are better offer simply looking up the correct answer. One study found that the longer you spend trying to remember the answer, the more likely you will be to forget the answer again in the future. Why? Because these attempts to recall previously learned information actually results in learning the "error state" instead of the correct response.
 

8. Understand How You Learn Best: Another great strategy for improving your learning efficiency is to recognize your learning habits and styles. The concept of learning styles has been the subject of considerable debate and criticism, but many students may find that understanding their study and learning preferences can still be helpful.Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences describes eight different types of intelligence that can help reveal your individual strengths. Looking at Carl Jung’s learning style dimensions can also help you better see which learning strategies might work best for you. Other models such as the VARK learning styles and Kolb's learning styles can offer more information about how you prefer to learn new things.There are a number of different theories about learning styles, which can all help you gain a better understanding of how you learn best.
 9. Use Testing to Boost Learning: While it may seem that spending more time studying is one of the best ways to maximize learning, research has demonstrated that taking tests actually helps you better remember what you've learned, even if it wasn't covered on the test.Students who had extra time to study but were not tested had significantly lower recall of the materials The study revealed that students who studied and were then tested had better long-term recall of the materials, even on information that was not covered by the tests.
 

10. Stop Multitasking: For many years, it was thought that people who multitask, or perform more than one activity at once, had an edge over those who did not. However, research now suggests that multitasking can actually make learning less effective.By switching from one activity to another, you will learn more slowly, become less efficient and make more errors. In the study, participants lost significant amounts of time as they switched between multiple tasks and lost even more time as the tasks became increasingly complex.
How can you avoid the dangers of multitasking? Start by focusing your attention on the task at hand and continue working for a predetermined amount of time.

WUSTL law school brings innovative privacy education to middle school​

Washington University law students have begun offering privacy and internet safety education to local middle school students.The law students have launched the program with St. Michael’s School of Clayton, a small independent school near the law school that uses technology extensively as part of its curriculum.

“Raising digitally aware and responsible children is one the greatest challenges facing parents and teachers today,” said Richards.

Law students Matthew Cin and Ujjayini Bose, under the supervision of WUSTL law professor Neil Richards, are adapting an original middle school curriculum for privacy education developed by Fordham Law School’s Center for Law and Information Policy (CLIP).

WUSTL is one of about a dozen law schools set to teach the program in schools across the country starting this semester. “As parents of young children, my wife and I struggle with how to teach our children how to take advantage of the benefits of digital technologies while avoiding their perils. Our Privacy Education Program is an attempt to help local schools address these problems in the middle school years, when children start to fully embrace these technologies as essential parts of their lives.”

“Working with the students has been fascinating. It is astonishing to see how integral technology has become to their development, and how insightful their views are on topics such as privacy, technology, and social media,” said Bose, a second-year student at the law school. Bose added, “Not only is Professor Richards one of the leading voices in privacy law, but he is also a wonderful mentor to both Matt and me. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with him.”

The program features a set of hour-long sessions covering topics such as:

The need for this type of education is revealed by recent reports from the Pew Research Center that 93% of teens ages 12 to 17 go online, 53% of teens post their email address online, 20% post their cell phone number and 33% are connected online to people they have never met.

privacy basics;

how to deal with passwords and behavioral ads;

navigating social media and tricky situations;

understanding mobile, WiFi and facial recognition; and

managing a digital reputation.

Cin, a third-year student at the law school explained, “As technologies become more and more embedded into all aspects of our lives, it’s increasingly important to equip teens in particular with the knowledge to protect themselves from the potential risks associated with these new tools.”

The law school’s program at St. Michael’s has been highly successful. “Using cutting edge technology is part of our school culture. “As online technologies become a key feature in young teens’ lives, parents and educators must teach teens about the privacy and safety implications of these technologies,” said Joel Reidenberg, Fordham Law professor and founding director of CLIP.Richards and his students will bring the program to the John Burroughs School next spring and continue to look for additional partners.

It is our job to teach responsibility, respect and safety in this global community, and we’re delighted to be working with Washington University to tackle this critically-important educational issue,” said Elizabeth T. Mosher, Head of the St. Michael School.

Discovering why study groups are more effective

An expert in creativity and everyday conversation has identified two key patterns that help make studying in groups an effective way to learn.
An expert in creativity and everyday conversation has identified two key patterns that help make studying in groups an effective way to learn.The research is published in the June 2005 issue of Linguistics and Education, an international research journal.
Through painstaking research, an expert in creativity and everyday conversation at Washington University in St. Louis has identified two patterns of group dynamics that show why group study is optimal.


“A large number of college students get together and form study groups, even when they aren’t required by their professor,” says R. Keith Sawyer, Ph.D., associate professor of education in Arts & Sciences at Washington University. “We wanted to determine exactly why that was the case and why they seem to work so well.”

Decades of research by educational psychologists has shown that when students work together in collaborative teams in classrooms, they learn material better than when they sit alone at their desks. But no one had extended those studies to study groups outside the classroom.

The group consisted of four students who got together in advance of each exam to study their lecture notes. In the first scholarly study of such study groups, Sawyer, along with a former undergraduate student, videotaped and analyzed a study group for an undergraduate psychology course at the university.

The time-consuming process unveiled many details and features of conversation that normally would go unnoticed.

                                It’s in the gaze

Sawyer identified two patterns of conversation among the group that made it an effective learning tool.“A lot of our findings were based on the fact that the four students each had a notebook with them during the group study session,” says Sawyer.  They don’t look down all the time — they were constantly looking down and back up.”“A lot of times they were looking at their notebooks while one of them was talking.By transcribing the students’ eye gaze, Sawyer actually noted when they looked down and up, which they seemed to do at the same time — when one looked up they all looked up.

 That eye gaze is a signal that they were starting to make the material their own.“We noticed when they did that it was a sign that they were learning the material at a deeper level.“In the middle of an utterance while they were looking at their notebooks they would look up at the other three students while finishing their sentence,” says Sawyer. They would read it verbatim out of the notes and then look up and paraphrase it to the rest of the group.

“That pattern of looking down, thinking about what the professor said and then looking up and putting it into their own words, we felt that was a big explanation for why group studying was helping them learn the material at a deeper level.” Could you sit in your room by yourself and look down and look up while you studied and get the same results? Maybe, says Sawyer, but he also noticed that there was a group-level pattern that connected all four students together.

Absorbing the material

Then they would move on to the next experiment. “The particular lecture that we studied was in chunks and each chunk pertained to a psychology experiment,” Sawyer says. The students would start talking about the psychology experiments that were in the lecture and they would talk through it for a while and get to a point where everyone agreed about what the experiment was about. “The study group was organized around these experiments.

 Gradually, as all four students began to collectively grasp the material, they started looking up more.The group pattern we discovered was that when they first began discussing an experiment, all four students were looking down at their notebooks.Sawyer argues that this looking up contributes to the individual pattern so that by the end of the study group session when each of the students is looking up, their conversation is much more free-flowing and conversational and they are beginning to more easily grasp the material.

What happens in the study group setting is that through these interaction dynamics that we identified, students could absorb the lecture notes and make them their own. When students hear the voice of the professor and are taking notes, they are so busy writing that it’s hard for them to really absorb the material. Study groups are so effective because they provide a way for students to make the lecture notes their own,” Sawyer says.

Educational Development I

 

great tips for teaching writing to language learners

If you’re a teacher of language, it’s your job to bridge this gap, not only helping your students to write great sentences, but also organizing their thoughts into complete letters, essays, papers, or even books. In fact, they use different parts of the brain so it’s not uncommon to meet dazzling conversationalists who can barely compose an intelligible email. .It’s amazing how often speaking ability doesn’t translate to writing ability with foreign language learners. Never fear, because Open Equal Free’s Literacy Resources and Ed Tips are here to help! In this article, we’ll give you a bird’s eye view of teaching writing: how to help your students get past their fears, organize their ideas, and communicate effectively.

don't lose focos, write for a reason!

Why do we write? To communicate ideas, of course! This is perhaps one of the most important rules for teaching writing.  The more you have your students write to communicate an idea effectively to another person, the better.Sure, that person can be you, but why not to another student, or better yet, a whole group of them?

Instead of having a student write a biography she quietly turns in, why not have her write a biography of a famous person without stating the name? Then, have her read the biography out loud to the class. If the class can guess who the bio is about, the student did a good job. If the class can’t guess who they’ve written about, she needs to get back to work!
Not only do students immediately know whether they’ve succeeded or not, but they also understand why they’ve failed, and the reason they’ve failed goes straight to the heart of writing: They didn’t get their ideas across to their readers.This can work with almost any writing assignment.
 Instead of making the goal to “get an A,” the goal becomes to “use your writing to communicate an idea effectively.”

BUILD STRONG WRITERS don't expect to birth them

 What many teachers are unable to accept is that sometimes you can’t take your students from zero to two without that crucial step in the middle..Most teachers know that you can’t take your students from zero to sixty without some steps in between. It’s one of the oldest plays in the teacher book: Scaffolding.

The write thing Project 365(2) Day 12Whenever your students are having difficulty with anything, the best thing you can do is stop, rewind, and break the lesson into smaller pieces.

First of all, think long and hard about what you’re teaching. Are you teaching writing? Writing and vocab? Writing, vocab, and grammar? Even if you are teaching multiple things, or expect your students to negotiate multiple new language concepts, the trick is to walk them through them so that they’re only tackling one at a time.

For example, let’s say you want them to write a restaurant review. If you try to get a bunch of beginning language learners to not only organize their thoughts, but also generate vocabulary and decide what tenses and phrasing are appropriate for a review article all at once, you’re likely setting them up for failure. Break it down!

Like all scaffolding, how many of these steps you’ll have to do depends on the level of your students and what your objectives for the lesson are, but, here are some bites you can help them take during your lesson:

E-learning: The easy way of gaining knowledge...

 

Overview

E-learning refers to the use of technology in learning and education. There are several aspects to describing the intellectual and technical development of e-learning, which can be categorized into discrete areas. These are addressed in turn in the sections of this article:

 1.   e-learning itself as an educational subject; such courses may be called "Computer Studies" or "Information and Communication Technology (ICT)";

   2. e-learning as a technological medium that assists in the communication of knowledge, and its development and exchange;

    3.e-learning administrative tools such as education management information systems (EMIS).

   4. e-learning is beneficial Economically because of no use of Paper & Pencil.

    5.e-learning is a Study Medium without Teacher and Physical Classroom.

   6. e-learning as an educational approach or tool that supports traditional subjects;

 Background

E-learning is a broadly inclusive term that describes educational technology that electronically or technologically supports learning and teaching. Bernard Luskin, a pioneer of e-learning, advocates that the "e" should be interpreted to mean "exciting, energetic, enthusiastic, emotional, extended, excellent, and educational" in addition to "electronic." This broad interpretation focuses on new applications and developments, and also brings learning and media psychology into consideration.Parks suggested that the "e" should refer to "everything, everyone, engaging, easy".

Accordingly, virtual education refers to a form of distance learning in which course content is delivered by various methods such as course management applications, multimedia resources, and videoconferencing. Students and instructors communicate via these technologiesAs such, e-learning encompasses multimedia learning, technology-enhanced learning (TEL), computer-based training (CBT), computer-assisted instruction (CAI), internet-based training (IBT), web-based training (WBT), online education, virtual education, virtual learning environments (VLE) which are also called learning platforms, m-learning, digital educational collaboration, distributed learning, computer-mediated communication, cyber-learning, and multi-modal instruction. Every one of these numerous terms has had its advocates, who point up particular potential distinctions... In practice, a "virtual education course" refers to any instructional course in which all, or at least a significant portion, is delivered by the Internet. "Virtual" is used in that broader way to describe a course that not taught in a classroom face-to-face but through a substitute mode that can conceptually be associated "virtually" with classroom teaching, which means that people do not have to go to the physical classroom to learn. Depending on whether a particular aspect, component or delivery method is given emphasis, a wide array of similar or overlapping terms has been used.  In practice, as technology has advanced, the particular "narrowly defined" aspect that was initially emphasized has blended into "e-learning." As an example, "virtual learning" in a narrowly-defined semantic sense implies entering the environmental simulation within a virtual world, for example in treating PTSD

Developments in internet and multimedia technologies are the basic enabler of e-learning, with consulting, content, technologies, services and support being identified as the five key sectors of the e-learning industry. Information and communication technologies (ICT) are used extensively by young people.The worldwide e-learning industry is economically significant, and was estimated in 2000 to be over $48 billion according to conservative estimates.

E-learning expenditures differ within and between countries. Finland, Norway, Belgium and Korea appear to have comparatively effective programs.

 Educational approach

The extent to which e-learning assists or replaces other learning and teaching approaches is variable, ranging on a continuum from none to fully online distance learning.'Distributed learning' may describe either the e-learning component of a hybrid approach, or fully online distance learning environments. Another scheme described the level of technological support as 'web enhanced', 'web supplemented' and 'web dependent'.(Sloan Commission). A variety of descriptive terms have been employed (somewhat inconsistently) to categorize the extent to which technology is used. For example, 'hybrid learning' or 'blended learning' may refer to classroom aids and laptops, or may refer to approaches in which traditional.classroom time is reduced but not eliminated, and is replaced with some online learning.

The Educational System In India.

In the Beginning

In ancient times, India had the Gurukula system of education in which anyone who wished to study went to a teacher's (Guru) house and requested to be taught.  This not only created a strong tie between the teacher and the student, but also taught the student everything about running a house. All learning was closely linked to nature and to life, and not confined to memorizing some information.The guru taught everything the child wanted to learn, from Sanskrit to the holy scriptures and from Mathematics to Metaphysics. The student stayed as long as she wished or until the guru felt that he had taught everything he could teach. If accepted as a student by the guru, he would then stay at the guru's place and help in all activities at home.Teaching was confined to classrooms and the link with nature was broken, as also the close relationship between the teacher and the student.
The curriculum was confined to “modern” subjects such as science and mathematics, and subjects like metaphysics and philosophy were considered unnecessary. The modern school system was brought to India, including the English language, originally by Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay in the 1830s. The Uttar Pradesh (a state in India) Board of High School and Intermediate Education was the first Board set up in India in the year 1921 with jurisdiction over Rajputana, Central India and Gwalior.
 In 1929, the Board of High School and Intermediate Education, Rajputana, was established. Later, boards were established in some of the states. But eventually, in 1952, the constitution of the board was amended and it was renamed Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). Today there are thousands of schools affiliated to the Board, both within India and in many other countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.All schools in Delhi and some other regions came under the Board. It was the function of the Board to decide on things like curriculum, textbooks and examination system for all schools affiliated to it.

 But this objective remains far away even more than half a century later. However, in the recent past, the government appears to have taken a serious note of this lapse and has made primary education a Fundamental Right of every Indian citizen. Universal and compulsory education for all children in the age group of 6-14 was a cherished dream of the new government of the Republic of India. .The pressures of economic growth and the acute scarcity of skilled and trained manpower must certainly have played a role to make the government take such a step. The expenditure by the Government of India on school education in recent years comes to around 3% of the GDP, which is recognized to be very low.This is evident from the fact that it is incorporated as a directive policy in article 45 of the constitution

 “In recent times, several major announcements were made for developing the poor state of affairs in education sector in India, the most notable ones being the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government   The announcements are; (a) To progressively increase expenditure on education to around 6 percent of GDP. (b) To support this increase in expenditure on education, and to increase the quality of education, there would be an imposition of an education cess over all central government taxes. (c) To ensure that no one is denied of education due to economic backwardness and poverty. (d) To make right to education a fundamental right for all children in the age group 6–14 years. (e) To universalize education through its flagship programmes such as Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and Mid Day Meal.” Wikipedia: Education in India..

The School System

India is divided into 28 states and 7 so-called “Union Territories”. The states have their own elected governments while the Union Territories are ruled directly by the Government of India, with the President of India appointing an administrator for each Union Territory. As per the constitution of India, school education was originally a state subject —that is, the states had complete authority on deciding policies and implementing them. The role of the Government of India (GoI) was limited to coordination and deciding on the standards of higher education.  The role of the Government of India (GoI) was limited to coordination and deciding on the standards of higher education.  The Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), set up in 1935, continues to play a lead role in the evolution and monitoring of educational policies and programmes.That is, school education policies and programmes are suggested at the national level by the GoI though the state governments have a lot of freedom in implementing programmes. This was changed with a constitutional amendment in 1976 so that education now comes in the so-called concurrent list. Policies are announced at the national level periodically.

The SCERTs generally follow guidelines established by the NCERT. But the states have considerable freedom in implementing the education system.Each state has its counterpart called the State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT).There is a national organization that plays a key role in developing policies and programmes, called the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) that prepares a National Curriculum Framework.  These are the bodies that essentially propose educational strategies, curricula, pedagogical schemes and evaluation methodologies to the states' departments of education.

The National Policy on Education, 1986 and the Programme of Action (POA) 1992 envisaged free and compulsory education of satisfactory quality for all children below 14 years before the 21st Century. The government committed to earmark 6% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for education, half of which would be spent on primary education. The expenditure on Education as a percentage of GDP also rose from 0.7 per cent in 1951-52 to about 3.6 per cent in 1997-98.

The lower primary school is divided into five “standards”, upper primary school into two, high school into three and higher secondary into two. There is some amount of specialization possible at the higher secondary level. Students throughout the country have to learn three languages (namely, English, Hindi and their mother tongue) except in regions where Hindi is the mother tongue and in some streams as discussed below.Students have to learn a common curriculum largely (except for regional changes in mother tongue) till the end of high school. The school system in India has four levels: lower primary (age 6 to 10), upper primary (11 and 12), high (13 to 15) and higher secondary (17 and 18).

 The CBSE also has 141 affiliated schools in 21 other countries mainly catering to the needs of the Indian population there.There are mainly three streams in school education in India. All of them follow textbooks written and published by the NCERT. A number of “central schools” (named Kendriya Vidyalayas) have been established for the purpose in all main urban areas in the country, and they follow a common schedule so that a student going from one school to another on a particular day will hardly see any difference in what is being taught. One subject (Social Studies, consisting of History, Geography and Civics) is always taught in Hindi, and other subjects in English, in these schools. Kendriya Vidyalayas admit other children also if seats are available.In addition to these government-run schools, a number of private schools in the country follow the CBSE syllabus though they may use different text books and follow different teaching schedules.. Two of these are coordinated at the national level, of which one is under the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and was originally meant for children of central government employees who are periodically transferred and may have to move to any place in the country. They have a certain amount of freedom in what they teach in lower classes.

The Council was listed in the Delhi School Education Act 1973, as a body conducting public examinations. .The second central scheme is the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE). It seems that this was started as a replacement for the Cambridge School Certificate. The idea was mooted in a conference held in 1952 under the Chairmanship of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the then Minister for Education.  The inaugural meeting of the Council was held on 3rd November, 1958. In December 1967, the Council was registered as a Society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. The main purpose of the conference was to consider the replacement of the overseas Cambridge School Certificate Examination by an All India Examination. In October 1956 at the meeting of the Inter-State Board for Anglo-Indian Education, a proposal was adopted for the setting up of an Indian Council to administer the University of Cambridge, Local Examinations Syndicate's Examination in India and to advise the Syndicate on the best way to adapt its examination to the needs of the country.Now a large number of schools across the country are affiliated to this Council. All these are private schools and generally cater to children from wealthy families.

 Since this puts a lot of pressure on the child to perform well, there have been suggestions to remove the examination at the end of 10 years.Both the CBSE and the ICSE council conduct their own examinations in schools across the country that are affiliated to them at the end of 10 years of schooling (after high school) and again at the end of 12 years (after higher secondary). Admission to the 11th class is normally based on the performance in this all-India examination.

Exclusive Schools

 Some of these schools also offer the students the opportunity to sit for the ICSE examinations. .They normally have fabulous infrastructure, low student-teacher ratio and very few students. Many of them have teachers from abroad. There are also other exclusive schools such as the Doon School in Dehradun that take in a small number of students and charge exorbitant fees.These are usually very expensive residential schools where some of the Indians working abroad send their children..In addition to the above, there are a relatively small number of schools that follow foreign curricula such as the so-called Senior Cambridge, though this was largely superseded by the ICSE stream elsewhere.

Most such schools are expensive, have high teacher-student ratios and provide a learning environment in which each child can learn at his/her own pace. It would be interesting and instructive to do a study on what impact the kind of school has had on the life of their alumni.Apart from all of these, there are a handful of schools around the country, such as the Rishi Valley school in Andhra Pradesh, that try to break away from the normal education system that promotes rote learning and implement innovative systems such as the Montessori method.

State Schools

 As mentioned earlier, the curriculum, pedagogy and evaluation method are largely decided by the SCERT in the state, following the national guidelines prescribed by the NCERT.Each state in the country has its own Department of Education that runs its own school system with its own textbooks and evaluation system.

In some states like Kerala, these schools are very similar to government schools since the teachers are paid by the government and the fees are the same as in government schools. These are generally known as government schools. The fees are quite low in such schools. Then there are privately owned schools with their own land and buildings. Here the fees are high and the teachers are paid by the management. The third kind consists of schools that are provided grant-in-aid by the government, though the school was started by a private agency in their own land and buildings.Each state has three kinds of schools that follow the state curriculum. The government runs its own schools in land and buildings owned by the government and paying the staff from its own resources. The grant-in-aid is meant to help reduce the fees and make it possible for poor families to send their children. Such schools mostly cater to the urban middle class families.
The Case of Kerala

 Life expectancy, both male and female, is very high, close to that of the developed world.Government policies also have been very different from the rest of the country, leading to the development model followed in Kerala, with high expenditure in education and welfare, coming to be known as the “Kerala Model“ among economists. It has, for instance, the highest literacy rate among all states, and was declared the first fully literate state about a decade back. Other parameters such as fertility rate, infant and child mortality are among the best in the country, if not the best. The total fertility rate has been below the replacement rate of 2.1 for the last two decades. Probably as a side-effect of economic and social development, suicide rates and alcoholism are also very high. The state of Kerala, a small state in the South Western coast of India, has been different from the rest of the country in many ways for the last few decades

 The state was the first in the country to move from the traditional behaviorist way of teaching to a social constructivist paradigm. It was mentioned in the National Curriculum Framework of NCERT in the year 2000, and Kerala started trying it out the next year. The transaction in the classroom and the evaluation methodology were changed. This meant that the students had to digest what they studied and had to be able to use their knowledge in a specific situation to answer the questions. At the same time, the new method took away a lot of pressure and the children began to find examinations interesting and enjoyable instead of being stressful. A Comprehensive and Continuous Evaluation (CCE) system was introduced along with this, which took into consideration the overall personality of the student and reduced the dependence on a single final examination for deciding promotion to the next class. At present, the CBSE also has implemented CCE, but in a more flexible manner. Every time the NCERT came up with new ideas, it was Kerala that tried it out first. The state experimented with the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) with gusto, though there was opposition to it from various quarters, and even took it beyond primary classes. Instead of direct questions that could be answered only through memorizing the lessons, indirect questions and open ended questions were included so that the student needed to think before answering, and the answers could be subjective to some extent.Kerala has also always shown interest in trying out ways of improving its school education system.

But within one year the government was forced to include Free Software also in the curriculum by protests from Free Software enthusiasts and a favorable stance taken by a school teachers association that had the majority of government teachers as its members The state is now moving towards IT Enabled Education. Eventually, IT will not be taught as a separate subject. Instead, all subjects will be taught with the help of IT so that the children will, on the one hand, learn IT skills and, on the other, make use of educational applications (such as those mentioned below) and resources in the Internet (such as textual material from sites like Wikipedia, images, animations and videos) to study their subjects and to do exercises. Teachers and students have already started using applications such as Dr. Geo, GeoGebra, and KtechLab for studying geometry and electronics. Applications like Sunclock, Kalzium and Ghemical are also popular among teachers and students.Kerala was also the first state in the country to introduce Information Technology as a subject of study at the High School level. It was started in class 8 with the textbook introducing Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office. . Eventually, from the year 2007, only GNU/Linux was taught in the schools, and all computers in schools had only GNU/Linux installed. At that time, perhaps even today, this was the largest installation of GNU/Linux in schools, and made headlines even in other countries. Every year, from 2007 onwards, about 500,000 children pass out of the schools learning the concepts behind Free Software and the GNU/Linux operating system and applications.

The new education policy of the Government of India speaks about constructivism, IT enabled education, Free Software and sharing educational resources. States like Karnataka and Gujarat are now planning to introduce Free Software in their schools, and some other states like Maharashtra are examining the option. Once a few of the larger states successfully migrate to Free Software, it is hoped that the entire country would follow suit in a relatively short time. When that happens, India could have the largest user base of GNU/Linux and Free Software in general.The initiative taken by Kerala is now influencing other states and even the policies of the Government of India.

Education In Ancient India

Education in ancient had a deep impact in the upliftment and advancement of the early society and over all development. India is pregnant with a rich tradition of knowledge and learning from the earliest days of Indian civilization. There are several literary sources, such as the Vedas and other Hindu texts and scriptures, which offer references about education system of the ancient societies. The Mahabharata , some Dharma surtas, particularly those of Gautama Buddha and Apastamba and the Manu Smriti, are the principal works dealing with the system of education in ancient India.

History Of Education In Ancient India

From the Vedic to the Brahman period, literature and additional literature sustained to be created. Even in the Brahman period, education period, education continued to be looked upon as the means to knowledge. It has the same objectives that Vedic education had. However, with the passage of time and a change in the needs of society, the importance attached to them underwent a change. in this period. In this period, the following objectives were ascribed to education.

 1. Self-control
2. Development Of Character

3. Generation Of Sociability or social awareness
4.Integral development or personality
5. Propagation of purity
6. Preservation of knowledge and culture Education in this age was unrelenting to carry on the foundations offered to it during the Vedic period, but a certain firmness and narrowness now marked its implementation. Education now aimed at equipping the student for the struggle for existence. After the "Upanayana" or introduction ceremony, teachers imparted education to their students according to the latter's interestes, tendencies and nature. Celibacy was rigidly observed by the students. Teachers paid full attention to the psycological make-up of their students while teaching. Corporal or physical punishment was regarded as the last resort of administration and discipline. It has been stated in the Manu Smriti and Yajyavalka.

Gurukul System

Education in Ancient India originated with the Gurukul system. This type of ancient Hindu school in India was residential in nature with the Shishyas or students and the Guru or teacher living in proximity within the same house. The students resided together irrespective of their social standing. However, several temples and community centers regularly took the role of schools. In addition to that ancient Indian education achieved a noticeable position in the early Vedic period, beginning in the 1200 B.C . In the Vedic days, the teaching of the four Vedas, the hymns and ritual practices were seen. The Vedas included the Sanskrit language which in turn became the language of classical learning. Besides the pronunciation of the Vedas and their implication, phonology, metrics, elementary grammar, and etymology were also taught.

The History Of Education.

 
With the gradual risk more complex civilian in the river valley of Egypt and Babylonia, knowledge became too complicated to transmit directly from person to person and from generation to generation. To be able to function in complex societies, man needed some way of accumulating, recording, and preserving his cultural heritage. So with the rise of trade, government, and formal religion came the invention of writing, by about 3100 BC.
because firsthand experience in everyday living could not teach such skills as writing and reading, a place devoted exclusively to learning the school appered . and with the school appeared a group of adults specially designated as teachers the scribes of the court and the priests of the temple. The children were either in the vast majority who continued to learn exclusively by an informal apprenticeship or the tiny minority who received formal schooling .
the method of learning was memorization, and the motivation was the fear of harsh physical discipline. On an ancient Egyptian clay tablet discovered by archaeologists, a child had written: "thou didst beat me and knowledge entered my head."

Of the ancient people of the Middle East, the jews were the most insistent that all children regardless of class be educated. In the 1st century AD, the historian Flavius Josephus wrote: "We take most pains of all with the important affair of our whole life." The Jews established elementary schools where boys from about 6 to 13 years of age probably learned rudimentary mathemathics and certainly learned reading and writing . The main concern was the study of the firest five books of the Old Testament the Pentateuch and the precepts of the oral tradition that had grown up around them. At age 13, brighter boys could continue their studies as disiples of a rabbi, the "master" or "teacher". So vital was the concept of instruction for the Jews that the synagogues existed at least as much for education as for workship .

C.B.S.E School In Dehradun

Dehradun city boasts of quite a good number of day and boarding schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (C.B.S.E). Following is the alphabetical listing of C.B.S.E Schools in Dehradun.

Asian Public School

City:Dehradun, Uttarakhand
Established:2000
Affiliation:C.B.S.E, New Delhi
Type:Boarding School (Residential)
Phone:+91-135 - 2761859, 2761860
Email:theasianschool@rediffmail.com

DAV Public School Dehradun

 

City:Dehradun, Uttarakhand

Established:1989

Affiliation:C.B.S.E, New Delhi

Type:Day Scholar

Phone:+91-0135-2665059 , 2762405 , 2666446

Email:dav_ddn@rediffmail.com

Doon Global School Dehradun

City:Dehradun, Uttarakhand

Established:1998

Affiliation:C.B.S.E, New Delhi

Type:Boarding School (Residential)

Phone:+91-0135 - 2102277, 09997504734

Email:doonglobalschool@hotmail.com

Doon International School Dehradun

 

City:Dehradun, Uttarakhand
Affiliation:C.B.S.E, New Delhi
Type:Boarding School (Residential)
Phone:0135-2658491, 2656088
Email: dnints@nde.vsnl.net.in

Jaswant Modern School Dehradun

 

City:Dehradun, Uttarakhand

Established:1949

Affiliation:C.B.S.E, New Delhi

Type:Boarding School (Residential)

Phone:+91-0135- 2744519

Email:principal@jaswantmodern.net

Kasiga School Dehradun

 

City:Dehradun, Uttarakhand

Affiliation:C.B.S.E, New Delhi

Type:Boarding School (Residential)

Phone:+91-0135-3205240, 3205245

Email:info@kasigaschool.com

Kendriya Vidyalayas in Dehradun

Maharishi Vidya Mandir Dehradun

 

City:Dehradun, Uttarakhand
Affiliation:C.B.S.E, New Delhi
Type:Day Scholar
Phone:+91-0135-2102488
Email:mvmdehradun@mahaemail.com

The Royal College, Dehradun

 

City:Dehradun, Uttarakhand
Established:2004
Affiliation:C.B.S.E, New Delhi
Type:Boarding School (Residential)
Phone:+91-9634058777, 9639645777
Email:principal@royalcollege.in

Tula’s International School Dehradun

 

City:Dehradun, Uttarakhand
Established:2004
Affiliation:C.B.S.E, New Delhi
Type:Boarding School (Residential)
Phone:+91-0135-2699333, +91-9458311000
Email:admissions@tulasinternational.com

Tribal's Education Problem In India.

 1.The problem of Geographic Separation.

The tribals of  India are in a way geographically separated from the rest of population . Some all them are living in the unapproachable physical areas such as deep valleys , dense forests, hill, mountains, etc. It is difficult for them to establish relations with others and hence socially they are far away from the civilised world. This kind of physical as well as social isolation or seclusion has contributed to various other problems.

2. Cultural Problems:

The tribal culture is entirely different from the way of life of the civilized people. The tribals fail to understand the civilised people, their customs and practices, beliefs and attitudes and so on. They are suspicious towards the civilised people. They are clinging tenaciously to their customs and traditions.

During the British rule some foreign Christian missionaries made an attempt to propagalt their religion in some of the tribal areas, particularly in the North-Eastern provinces. They even t” to impose their culture on them.

Even today such an attempt is going on. On the other hand, the Ramakrishna Mission, R.S.S, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other organisations are spreading the Hinduism in these areas. Some of the tribal leaders have now started popularising the tribal religion. These different propagandas have created a great confusion for them.

The cultural gap between the civilised and the tribal people is coming in the way of the assimilation and integration of the tribal people into the mainstream of the national life of India.

3. Social Problems:

The tribals have their own social problems also. They are traditional and custom-bound. The; have become the victims of superstitious beliefs, outmoded and meaningless practices and harmful habits. Child marriage, infanticide, homicide, animal sacrifice, exchange of wives, black magic and other harmful practices are still found among them.

They believe in ghosts and spirits. They have keen desire to maintain all these practices in general, and their individual tribal character. Hence it is said that “the tribals are the tribesmen first, the tribesmen last and the tribesmen all the time”.

4. Economic Problem:

The tribal people are economically the poorest people of India. Majority of them live beta the poverty line. The tribal economy is based on agriculture of the crudest type. The main economic problems of the tribals are explained below.

(i) Exploitation:

The innocence, illiteracy and helplessness of the tribals are exploited by the outsiders. The British policy, in particular, had led to ruthless exploitation of the tribals in various ways as it favoured the zamindars, landlords, money-lenders, forest contractors and excise, revenue and police officials.

(ii) Unprofitable Agriculture:

About 90% of the tribals are engaged in cultivation and most of them are landless and practise shifting cultivation. They need to be helped in adopting new methods of cultivation. The tribals possess uneconomic holdings because of which their crop yield is very less. A very small percentage of the population participates in occupational activities in the secondary and tertiary sectors.

(iii) Problems of land ownership:

A good portion of the land in the tribal areas has been legally transferred to non-tribals. Tribals demand that this land should be returned to them. In fact the tribals had earlier enjoyed much freedom to use the forest and hunt their animals. They and emotionally attached to the forests for they believe that their gods, spirits live in forests. The tribals
who are “deprived’ of their rights to the land and forest have reacted sharply to the restrictions imposed by the government on their traditional rights.

(iv) Unemployment and Underemployment:

A large number of tribal young men and women are either unemployed or underemployed. They are unhappy for they are not able to get jobs that can keep them occupied throughout the year. They need to be helped in finding secondary source of income by developing animal husbandry, poultry farming, handicrafts, handloom weaving, etc.

(v) Non-Availability of Banking Facilities:

Banking facilities in the tribal areas are so inad­equate that the tribals have mainly to depend on the money-lenders. The tribals, therefore, demand that “Agricultural Indebtedness Relief Acts” should be enacted so that they may get back their mort­gaged land.

5. Educational Problems:

Illiteracy is a major problem of the tribals. More than 80% of them are illiterate. Literacy among them has increased from 0.7% in 1931 to 11.30% in 1970 and to 16.35% in 1981. These shows more than 3/4 of the tribals are illiterate. They have no faith in formal educational organisation. Many of them do not know anything about education, schools, colleges, universities, degrees, etc.

They feel no urge to educate their children. Since most of the tribals are poor, education appears to be a luxury for them. In the case of those people who are engaged in agriculture, their minor children are also engaged in it. The illiterate parents do not consider it as their primary responsibility to give education to their children.

i. The Problem of Language:

The medium of instruction is another hindrance to the promotion of education among the tribes. Most of the tribal languages do not have a script of their own. Hence the children are obliged to learn things in a language which is foreign to them. Even in tribal areas the number of tribal teachers is very less and hence communication problem always arises between the students and the teachers.

ii. The curriculum of education is another main problem:

The existing curriculum, as experts rightly have pointed out, is not suited and has little relevance to the tribal people.

6. Problem of Health and Sanitation:

Due to illiteracy and ignorance the tribals are not able to appreciate modern concept of health and sanitation. They do not take much care pertaining to their own health. They believe that diseases are caused by hostile spirits and ghosts. They have their own traditional means of diagnosis and cure.

Good number of them fall a prey to the diseases such as skin disease, forest fever, typhoid, T.B., leprosy, malaria, veneral diseases, small px, etc. Contact with outsiders further added to a few more diseases in the tribal areas.

Example:

It is observed that the Thodas of Niligiri Hills have been suffering from some modern diseases like veneral diseases, diabetes, blood pressure, etc. after com­ing into touch with the British who made Niligiri Hills one of their summer resorts. These diseases take a heavy toll of tribal life. Their suspicion and lack of faith in modern doctors have made them not to avail their selves of the modern medical facilities.

7. Problem of Separatism:

The “divide and rule” policy adopted by the British did a lot of damage to the tribal commu­nity of India. The British had superimposed their bwn administrative patterns in tribal areas and deprived the tribals of their traditional methods of interacting with people. The “Criminal Tribes Act” which the British had introduced gave an impression that the tribals were either “criminals” or “anti-social beings”.

The tribal groups such as Kolis, Mundas, Khasis, Santals, Naga, etc, who fought against the British were branded as “dacoits ” and “robbers”. The British government which wanted to humble these tribals and “correct” them gave direct encouragement to the foreign Christian missionary activities especially in, the Central and the North-Eastern Zone. These activities which

i. Tribal Revolts and Uprisings:

Numerous revolts and uprisings of the tribals have taken place beginning with the one in Bihar in 1772, followed by many other revolts in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Mizoram and Nagaland. The important tribes involved in revolt in the 19th century were Mizos. [1810], Kols [1795 and 1831], Mundas [1889], Daflas [1875],Khasi and Garo [1829],Kacharis [1839],Santhals [1853], Muria Gonds [1886], Nagas [1844 and 1879],Bhuiyas [1868] and Kondhs [1817], During the recent tribal uprisings the Nagas, Mizos and the Bodostook part in them in large number and created serious law and order problem.

ii. Smuggling, Infiltration and Drug Addiction:

The foreign infiltrators especially from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Burma and China are entering the borders of India through what are known as “tribal belts” Some of them take undue advantage of the tribals’ innocence and ignorance for their smuggling activities.

Prohibited drugs and unlicensed weapons are smuggled inside the land and beyond the borders of India through the tribal areas. Some of the tribal have been made the victims of drug addiction. Hence, tribal areas in the borders have become extremely sensitive areas.

Don't We Need A New Window?

A strong communication platform needs to be developed to ensure better and cohesive working between parents and schools for better future of kids.

 

In tier-2 cities of UP, UK, Bihar and Jharkhand , schools are changing the scene of schooling pretty fast. We can say a lot of money has come into schooling now in these mini metro cities, but has that really changed the scene of education sector? To be more precise, has this extravagance created a new relationship between schools and parents? Certainly not. Though, some may say, kids now have much to know, study and score better marks, but my question here, is it all we want from the education and schools in our cities? it is the school which plays a major role in deciding as to what the kid is going to become tommorrow. the foundation of future of laid here! So the most pertinent questions here is, How can we have a strong foundation for our kids and who is going to give our kids that strong foundation? Is it the school or is it the education system of our country or is it us, the parents? Most of the parents are of the opinion that  it is school's sole responsibility to create a better future for their kids. Of course, schools have a larger role to play on laying a strong foundation for kids, but as parents don't we have to share some responsibility? 

Schools and parents are two most important pillares which can hold the building of a student strongly. Most of the schools have very strong infrastructure, but leave out parents from their 'future building exercise'. Parents area included in this process only to the extent of reading notices sent in daily diary and attending P.T.Ms . How many P.T.Ms are there in a year?

Barely 3 or 4. And how many days students spend in schools in a year? close to 180. Just look at the difference in both the numbers. This tells the sorry state of communication between schools and parents in these smaller , yet growing cities. As a parent, I feel I have a lot to say and know from school and teachers about my kids. In fact, most parents feel the same way, but they can't do it freely on a regular basis. Sometimes, it  is absence of a system that allows parents and schools to have a healthy and free-flowing conversation.

We must make it better. Parents need an open window for communication with schools. We are living in a digital world. A virtual world which is quite active on social platforms. Why can't schools and parents use this tools for creating a new window of communication? there can be a closed group of parents and school teachers, principals on social networking platforms. there can be virtual hangouts wherein they can talk about students ' process, problem and solutions in a greater frequency . That will surely help build a strong foundation for our kids. Schooling has gone extravagant in terms of providing exposure to the students. Lets try and do something to make school-parents communication stronger , better and digital.

THE WHOLE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION IS TO TURN MIRRORS INTO WINDOWS...