"INSIDEPIDP"

I taught for eight years in one of the biggest commerce and management colleges in India that has a track record of producing the best and most skilled workforce in the region. Yet every single year I and all of my colleagues had to face struggles of

 

• seeing engaged faces in the classroom,

• making students more concerned about learning than the score,

• making students understand the curriculum and its benefits and truly learn rather than always asking for the important chapters and questions.

 

There is another experience I have, that is with the students I had a chance to work with small groups, whether on a research project or in the preparation of a workshop or an event. These students always ended up getting bonded with the small group and with me as a teacher in some way and I knew them better. That always created engaged learners in my classes. After working with them in small groups for a small time, I always ended up getting the learner response I always desired.

 

Thus, I think somewhere Sir Ken Robinson’s ideas resonate with me. I saw a video on the opening minds curricula and all the time I was wishing that my son has an opportunity to be part of such a powerful learning environment one day.

 

Here is the link to the video

 

As per the criticisms held against the ideas of Sir Ken Robinson, there are little that resonate with me. Any new idea that comes to people is often criticised and devalued, and that is important for refining it. Also, no idea/theory is perfect, they are mostly angular perspectives of thoughts and need refining, additions and subtractions that are mostly situational. For example, Sir Ken Robinson, stresses upon group work and collaboration, an idea that has highly criticized by Susan Cain in Quiet- the power of introverts. That does not mean that it should always be group work or individual work that should be promoted. For me, it is just a way of understanding that in some situations group work may lead to the best solution and in some we need to let students work individually.

 

Thus, for me the idea of the open curriculum is exciting and could be a great alternative. However, I am a supporter of the “Respect every thought and perspectives are situation campaign” and thus I believe that it’s a mix and match of ideologies that works best for any given situation and environment. And instead of following one idea, one perspective we need to learn to collaborate on ideas in a similar manner as we learn to collaborate with people.