Bayview Beach Resort, Batu Ferringhi Beach, Penang, Malaysia

27-30 September 1999

Learning to Lern

N. K. Mohandas

Director (operations), DPEP, Trivandrum, India

Abstract

How do children learn?
How far is learning and achievement linked to the amount of interaction between the teacher and the child?
How do parents and adult mentors help children in their cognitive development?

Children try all the time to make sense of the experience they have and in consequence have theories or schemata about the world-some of which may be at variance, incomplete or even wrong with the world as it is.Children constuct their own meaning by learning to reflect, to raise essential questions, to see connections, to discover patterns, to solve problems, to make good decisions, to understand and value diversity, to work cooperatively with others, to take risks and to manage change. The teacher's job is to find ways of modifying, extending or elaborating the children's schema and act as a facilitator .Learning has to be intellectually stimulating and real-to-life. It is no longer decontextualised.

The District Primary Education Programme (DPEP)implemented in the six districts of the state of Kerala went identifying, developing and implementing a variety of inputs and strategies for a holistic pedagogic renewal at the primary classes.Curriculum development, text book revision (in a participatory way), intensive teacher training, on-site support to the teacher, setting up Block Resource Centres, Cluster Resource Centers, changing the evaluation system, etc are some of them. The learning process was made child - centred, experiential and activity based making way for children to get real opportunities for applying his/her innate potential. All these have brought about substantial changes in the classroom. Learning by doing became the norm , not the exception.Students are to be actively engaged , not passively subjected. Learning has to be intellectually stimulating, real-to-life and no longer decontextualised, students learn in ungraded, co-operative groups.

The significant fact is that learning is no longer restricted to the classroom.

It is in this background that DPEP initiated an innovative programme called "PATANOTSAVAM", a 16 day programme organised during the summer vacation Nearly 28000 teachers and three lakh students participated in the programme The programme, in addition to fulfilling other objectives, attempted to address the issue of upgradation of teacher skills in handling multi - level , multi-grade situations and develop strategies for managing group work and better interaction with the students.The program's uniqueness was the involvement of the parents and community(they too had a role!)

My paper proposes to describe in detail how the programme was conceived and implemented, the philosophy behind it and how it has helped in the learning process of the child, teacher, parent and the community.