The extra tang!
Picture a school where children work alongside engineers and scientists, language experts, dancers and musicians to measure a building’s carbon output, write a novel or make a dance troupe. VIBHA SINGH explores the concept where schools join hands with ou
INa project, undertaken by Rachel Bolstad and Sue McDowall for New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) on the topic of schools collaborating with community and professional experts, came out an interesting hypothesis: For a variety of reasons, schools on their own can no longer be expected to provide all of the knowledge, expertise, and resources that students need for 21st century learning. Dr Liji Santosh, chief coordinator, SM Shetty Educational Institution agrees, and says, “What these experts bring is usually a high degree of specific professional knowledge and specialist skills which teachers themselves may not have. External experts are not a substitute for the teacher as the lead professional in the classroom. Their role is to work alongside the teacher using their expert knowledge and skills to enhance the curriculum.”
Become a wordsmith
In Symbiosis School, Pune, one of the most popular classes is the one on Shakespeare, where students are shown two short films (on Hamlet and Macbeth), following which there is a discussion on the plots, brainstorming session on ‘To be or not to be’ and drafting the character sketch of Macbeth. This exercise is part of the interesting session designed by Ketaki Latkar, journalist, language coach and managing director of The Wordsmith Club, who has collaborated with the school for a unique essay writing module. Comprehensions, essay and letter-writing, word games, debates and discussions on classics like George Orwell's Animal Farm, Roald Dahl's Going Solo and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman are some of the key components of the course.
“It is a fun, interactive and quirky course that is designed for 8th and 9th graders (taking into consideration their linguistic aptitude and needs). It is an after-school activity and is typically conducted six Saturdays in a row, where each session is of two hours. The idea is to handhold the students, guide them and help them improve their language and writing skills,” Latkar explains.
The students would be given to write two essays to judge their linguistic skills and Latkar will be choosing the best 50 essays, editing them and finally these essays will be compiled into a book--The Wordsmiths of Symbiosis. Anuja Gokhale, Class 9 student from the school, says, “The course has actually motivated me to start writing short stories. My vocabulary and pronunciations have improved a lot.”
Practicality is everything
The other issue schools face is that most children find it difficult to comprehend the concepts of science. Komal Gemawat, marketing manager, Science Utsav says, “We have developed a parallel educational programme for children of age from 5 to 14 years. The topics that are covered in the class theoretically, are discussed, examined and explored by participants using hands-on activities and research ideas. Worksheets, concept maps, observations and experimentations make this offering a very effective tool to complement classroom learning. This thus inculcates logical and analytical thinking abilities that results in better learning outcomes.”
The children are encouraged to ask questions about the ‘how and why’ of science to make the answering process exciting as well as thoughtprovoking. Even topics like the effects of playing the challenges of Blue Whale game are discussed.
Melodious tone
Indian classical music is one area which does not interest young students. Dakshayani Athalye and Mandar Karanjkar, who formed the charitable music trust, the Baithak Foundation realised that no one is really, seriously working to take this music to masses and children have no access to it because of cultural and economic reasons. “So we thought of creating a programme through which we can reach children in schools; especially form low income communities. We organise Indian classical music events and concerts in municipal schools, construction sites, communities etc and learning sessions. There are multiple ways in which music impacts children,” says Athalye.
The other form is dance has been found to be best way to boost creativity, imagination, and concentration and builds leadership skills in children. Riddhi Doshi, journalist, dancer, who has been taking sessions at Little Hearts School for children with special needs says, “The curriculum I have designed is more of a therapy. The children love these sessions as they enjoy the fun dance and creative movements.”
How it helps students
Most schools do not have the necessary resources to appoint a full time dedicated teacher and thus they outsource the requirement. This helps students get the opportunity that they may not get otherwise. This also develops their faculties which are not put to use in the regular school time. “You see a different attitude when students are working on something authentic as there are real deadline and ideas,” says Jyoti Nagare, a math teacher.
Challenges galore
The partnership works best when experts fully participate in a project, from the planning stages through feedback and assessment, and when the projects are tied to the curriculum. There are, however, several problems at school level in using external expertise.
Deepa Singh, biology teacher points out, “External experts have a wide range of knowledge and skills in their own specialised area. However, they need to know how best to deliver this expertise to a class of children and young people and that is the key behind the success of partnership.”
The other problem the schools face are how to get in touch with external experts, how to fit visits with the tight time schedule in schools, and how to link the visits meaningfully into the pedagogical curriculum so that the visits are useful, not only an additional or external activity.