LEARNING AS CONSTRUCTION OF KNOWLEDGE

 

LEARNING AS CONSTRUCTION OF KNOWLEDGE(NCERT,2005)

          The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is an autonomous organization of the Government of India which was established on 1 September 1961 as a literary, scientific and charitable Society under the Societies' Registration Act (Act XXI of 1860). Its headquarters are located at Sri AurbindoMarg in New Delhi. Dr. Hrushikesh Senapaty is director of the council since September 2015.

         The NCERT was established with the agenda to design and support a common system of education which is national in character and also enables and encourages the diverse culture across the country. Based on the recommendations of the Education Commission (1964-66), the first national policy statement on education was issued in 1968. The policy endorsed the adoption of a uniform pattern of school education across country consisting of 10 years of general education program followed by 2 years of diversified schooling.

     For NCERT, the 1970s was a decade flushed with curriculum research and development activities to relate the content and process of education to Indian realities.

National Curriculum Framework:

         The council (NCERT) came up with a new National Curriculum Framework in 2005, drafted by a National Steering Committee. This exercise was based on 5 guiding principles:

1. connecting knowledge to life outside school

2. shift from the rote method of learning

3. enriching the curriculum for overall development of children so that it goes beyond textbooks

4. making examinations flexible and integrating them with classroom life and

5. nurturing an identity informed by caring concerns

        In the constructivist perspective, learning is a process of the construction of knowledge. Learners actively construct their own knowledge by connecting new ideas to existing ideas on the basis of materials/activities presented to them (experience). constructivism is an approach to teaching and learning

§ NPE 1986, assigned a special role to NCERT in preparing and promoting NCF.

§ Yash Pal Committee Report, ‘Learning without Burden’ (1993) observes that learning has become a source of burden and stress on children and their parents.

§ Considering these observations, Executive Committee of NCERT decided at its meeting of July 14, 2004, to revise the National Curriculum Framework.

§ The process of development of NCF was initiated in November, 2004 by setting up various structures like National Steering Committee Chaired by Prof. Yash Pal and twenty-one

National Focus Groups on themes of curricular areas, systemic reforms and national concerns.

Vision and Perspective

§ To uphold values enshrined in the Constitution of India

§ To reduce of curriculum load

§ To ensure quality education for all

§ To initiate certain systemic changes

Guiding Principles

§ Connecting knowledge to life outside the School

§ Ensuring that learning is shifted away from rote methods

§ Enriching curriculum so that it goes beyond Text Book

§ Making Examination more flexible and non-threatening

§ Discuss the aims of education

§ Building commitment to democratic values of equality, justice, secularism and freedom.

Focus on child as an active learner

1. Primacy to children’s experience, their voices and participation

2. Needs for adults to change their perception of children as passive receiver of knowledge

3. Children can be active participants in the construction of knowledge and every child come to with pre-knowledge

4. Children must be encouraged to relate the learning to their immediate environment

5. Emphasizes that gender, class, creed should not be constraints for the child

6. Highlights the value of Integration

7. Designing more challenging activities

School and Classroom environment

§ Critical pre-requisites for improved performance – minimum infrastructure and material facilities and support for planning a flexible daily schedule

§ Focus on nurturing an enabling environment

§ Revisits tradition notions of discipline

§ Discuss needs for providing space to parents and community

§ Discuss other learning sites and resources like Texts and Books, Libraries and laboratories and media and ICT

§ Addresses the need for plurality of material and Teacher autonomy/professional independence to use such material.

Systemic Reforms

§ Covers needs for academic planning for monitoring quality

§ Teacher education should focus on developing professional identity of the Teacher

§ Examination reforms to reduce psychological stress particularly on children in class X and XII

 

 

Examination reforms highlight:

§ Shift from content-based testing to problem solving and competency-based assessment

§ Examinations of shorter duration

§ Flexible time limit

§ Change in typology of questions

§ No public examination till class VIII

§ Class X board exam to be made optional (in long term)

Teacher Education Reforms emphasize on preparation of teacher to

1. View learning as a search for meaning out of personal experience, and knowledge generation at a continuously evolving process of reflective learning.

2. View knowledge not as an external reality embedded in textbooks, but as constructed in the shared context of teaching-learning and personal experience.

Guidelines for Syllabus Development

1. Development of syllabi and textbooks based on following considerations

§ Appropriateness of topics and themes for relevant stages of children’s development

§ Continuity from one level to the next

§ Pervasive resonance of all the values enshrined in the constitution of India the organization of knowledge in all subjects

§ Inter-disciplinary and thematic linkages between topics listed for different school subjects, which falls under different discrete disciplinary areas.

§ Linkage between school knowledge and concern in all subjects and at all levels

§ Sensitivity to gender, caste, class, peace, health and need of children with disability

§ Integration of work-related attitudes and values in every subject and all levels

§ Need to nurture aesthetic sensibility and values

2. Linkage between school and college syllabi, avoid overlapping

3. Using potential of media and new information technology in all subjects

4. Encouraging flexibility and creativity in all areas of knowledge and its construction by children.

Development of Support Material

§ Audio/video programmes on NCF-2005 and textbooks

§ Source-book on learning assessment

§ Exemplar problems in Science and Mathematics

§ Science and Mathematics kits

§ Teachers’ handbooks and manuals.

§ Teacher Training Packages.

§ Developed syllabi and textbooks in new areas such as Heritage Craft, Media Studies, Art Education, Health and Physical Education, etc.

§ Taken various initiatives in the area of ECCE (Early Childhood Care Education), Gender, Inclusive Education, Peace, Vocational Education, Guidance and Counseling, ICT, etc.

Overall Evaluation

NCF 2005 highlights the following aspects:

§ The value of Interaction with environment, peers and older people to enhance learning.

§ That learning task must be designed to enable children to seek knowledge other than text books.

§ The need to move away from “Herbartian” lesson plan to prepare plans and activities that challenge children to think and try out what they are learning.

 

Teaching for Construction of Knowledge

• learning is a process of the construction of knowledge.

• Learners actively construct their own knowledge

• collaborative learning provides room for negotiation of meaning, sharing of multiple views and changing the internal representation of the external reality.

• Construction indicates that each learner individually and socially constructs meaning as he/she learns.

• Constructing meaning is learning.

The constructivist perspective provides strategies for promoting learning by all

• Active engagement involves enquiry, exploration, questioning, debates, application and reflection, leading to theory building and the creation of ideas.

Learning in and outside classroom-learners motivation and socio-cultural factors

       Traditional teaching styles are becoming less and less effective at reaching today’s students.

Student boredom is a deterrent to learning, and education has been criticized for not sufficiently challenging students.

       Research confirms that students learn most effectively from active engagement with information and ideas.

         Students learn better when they take the initiative to apply concepts to practice, to solve real problems, to make decisions, and to reflect on the consequences.

         It enables faculty members to pose problems, observe how students go about solving them, facilitate learning, observe learning as it occurs, and help students make meaning of their experiences. In this way, faculty members can address errors and misunderstandings during the learning process, rather than after they have occurred in homework assignments

'Learning happens everywhere, not just in the classroom'

Learning outside school

v a class in nature helps kids be more attentive and focused

v Field trips

v Service learning and community engagement

v Technology outside the classroom

Learning outside school,

• Develops the whole student

• Builds community and enhances connectedness to the school

• Helps you discover your passions and strengths

• Inspires your resume

• Improves your organization

• Utilization of community resources

• Opportunities for first hand experiences

           Learning outside the classroom is a tool for teaching and learning which has been proven to raise attainment and achievement, improve behaviour and improve the engagement of all groups of pupils, including those who are hard to engage inside the classroom environment.

• “Learning outside the classroom activities are often authentic, hands-on, interactive and build on classroom learning.”

• Learning outside the classroom is the use of places other than the school for teaching and learning. It is about getting children and young people out and about, providing them with challenging, exciting and different experiences to help them learn.

• Places may refer to a location, activity or workshop, but regardless of where learning outside the classroom takes place, the purpose is the same - to give students a real-world learning experience that will set them up for success in life beyond school.

• Learning outside the classroom experiences differ from those that arise through conventional teaching methods as students may be encouraged to engage a broader range of soft skills such as teamwork, leadership and compromise in their learning environment.

• Conventional teaching focuses on repetition and memorization to educate students and is beneficial for sharing new knowledge and teaching students who learn best by listening. However, conventional teaching doesn't encourage students to develop critical thinking, problem-solving and decision-making skills, which learning outside the classroom can.

• Not only can learning outside the classroom lead to a deeper understanding of challenging concepts, but it can also provide a context for learning in many areas.

Ø  Develops the whole student.

Ø   Builds community and enhances connectedness to the school.

Ø  Helps you discover your passions and strengths.

Ø  Inspires your resume.

Ø  Improves your organization.

Ø   Utilization of community resources.

Ø  Opportunities for first hand experiences.

Why learning outside the classroom is important?

ü  Make learning more engaging.

ü   Make learning relevant.

ü  Nurture creativity and imagination.

ü  Improve attendance.

ü   Reduce behavioural problems.

ü   Develop interest in environment and wider surroundings.

ü  Expose children to new opportunities.

ü   Keep healthy.

ü  Enjoy almost limitless resources.

LEANERS MOTIVATION AND SOCIO-CULTURAL FACTORS

          Motivation is the desires, needs and interests that arouse or activate a leaner and specific goal.

         Motivation in school learning involves arousing, persisting, sustaining and directing desirable behaviour-C F Skinner

Ø Intrinsic motivation

Ø Extrinsic motivation

          It can be said, that the process of motivation in its simplest form is initiated by a conscious awareness of an unsatisfied need. A goal is then set and actions are taken that will result in the achievement of the goal. When the needs have been satisfied, new ones develop and the cycle continues.

Ways to motivate leaner?

o Define the objectives

o Give variety of learning experiences

o Make use of different types of teaching-learning materials

o Change scenery-field trips, learning outside classroom

o Create threat free environment

o Positive/healthy competitions

o Rewards

o Praise students positive behaviours

o Give students responsibility

o Allow students to work together

o Encourage self-reflection

o Make goals high but attainable

o Give feedback and offer chances to improve

Socio cultural factors

Ø  Customs, Traditions, beliefs.

Ø  Economic conditions.

Ø   Political conditions.

Ø  Family.