The Appeal of the Pen and Paper Approach

Karen B. Bandibas

Crude as it may seem and primitive in the eyes of the modern-day teachers and much more, “a left-out” or simply out-dated for a digital teacher, the pen and paper approach somehow is still appealing in the teaching and learning processes even in the current times. Notwithstanding the effectiveness and practical application of digital instructional materials and devices which are notably suiting the demands of the 21st century learning, there are reasons that made the pen and paper approach equally practical and could suit the learning requirements especially at times when technology or any other means of modernization can no longer function given a discomforting realities of power failure, technical errors and most likely unavailability of the expert to operate.

In a remote region in India along the Pakistan border where social distress has been a perennial scenario and worst the apparent infractions by the expansion of China in the region, schooling is fundamentally done on a caste-type class attendance. The lowly caste facilitates learning through the aid of the government where teachers are sent in the village center which is normally a public establishment where all sorts of social, economic and even political assemblies are usually held. In that place, teaching and learning happen almost coincidental with the usual daily activities of the village. Digital connections and much more, ICT equipment are likely scarce if not available most of the time. Hence, teachers would resort to the traditional and pen and paper approach. The idea is as simple as the approach. Since there are no sufficient learning materials and devices to assist the learning process, every Hindu learner is apparently held in the condition of the pen and paper approach. With little to time to spend in the village center for learning and more time to assist in the family daily living obligations, the pen and paper approach eventually provide the Hindu learners an instant resource that they can manipulate in the process of learning and can bring home as a sort of a reference book for retention and reinforcement purposes.

Teaching and learning in this region is more on the inductive scheme where teachers present and discuss lesson while learners are kept busy on writing notes and figures and in the process they constitute the day’s lecture which in turn can be a reading resource which the learner and his parent could likely benefit at home especially during review time. Not as much as that, the parent is guaranteed that his child has new learning based on the lecture that his child brought home and while this is a general conception among parents, the latter somehow take the opportunity to read upon their children lecture and even learn in the process.

How the pen and paper approach depend largely on the motivational outcome of the instructions. Teachers encouraged the learners to always keep a pen and stacked papers when attending class. Considering that they are in a distressful state, it is imperative that they obey their teachers and follow every instruction they get. As it goes in that perspective, the pen and paper approach virtually provide the learners their own share of the burden of acquiring knowledge-as the teacher present the day’s lesson, they earnestly listen and jot down untiringly. Every time the teacher stipulates and clarifies or even includes and asserts, they write these down. They even mimic handwriting, try harder to draw as accurate as the one presented before them, copy bullets in the same way they are arranged, make use of their own interpretative organizers, and sometimes even a remark that may no longer a part of the lesson is eventually copied. The point of these all is that the pen and paper approach establishes upon the learners a commonality in outlook at the same time a seemingly profound standard in learning is associated. In the end, the same attributes in the paper and pen approach is relevantly manifested when these learners transfer learning in their communities. And so the diligence and patience of the learners are intensified making them responsive at every turn of the course of the teaching and learning outcomes. Although this approach is becoming irrelevant in the modern global society, the matter is equal to knowing that learning remains residing in the use of available resources in order to complete its purposive package of wisdom.

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The author is Teacher III at Mauaque High School (Resettlement School)

,Mabalacat City Pampanga