“The great aim of education is not knowledge, but action.” — Herbert Spencer, English philosopher, biologist, anthropologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era
Working along the same lines, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) was initiated by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in the year 2000. The sole objective is to analyze educational systems of various countries across the globe by testing the learning levels of 15 year old students with cognitive and problem-solving questions of science, mathematics and reading. Since then, this exam is conducted every three years and focuses on providing comparable data based on which the participating nations can improve their education systems, policies and outcomes.
India participated in this two-hour assessment for the first time in the year 2009 and was ranked second last among 73 nations. Our country is seen as an education power based on institutes such as IITs, but the PISA results indicate that a change in our education policy has become mandatory. The education system of India has been revised over a very long period of time to provide a competitive and progressive environment but, there is still not enough room for the philosophy of learning-by-doing which is the need of the hour. The most crucial requirement is the introduction of a type of learning which is joyous and experiential. This would lead to detailed conceptual cognizance paving way for the creation of scientific temper in students and teachers alike.
The country will participate in this exam for the second time in 2021 for which the mock test would be held in 2020. In order to improve our performance and ranking globally, the Government of India has decided to collaborate with the Centre for Creative Learning (CCL) at IIT Gandhinagar for making necessary preparations.
CCL was established in April 2017 with the aim to provide hands-on creative pedagogy so as to bring back that happiness and shine in the eyes of thousands of people which usually gets lost because of the ratta-fication (mindless memorization of facts) and theory oriented education system! The objective of this Centre is to immerse oneself in order to understand any concept of math or science — to tinker and play around rather than memorize without comprehension.
The Centre has commenced training from June 2019 which comprises of several creative sessions and practical workshops at regular intervals for teachers and instructors of 1199 Kendriya Vidyalayas, 58 Navodaya Vidyalayas and 150 schools in Chandigarh. It would promote students to imbibe an enhanced practical learning which is entertaining as well as useful. In a short span of two years, CCL has developed 500+ fun-learning toys, projects, models and exhibits and created numerous illustrated books, guides and activity booklets that help in making the science and math curriculum engaging and inspiring so that understanding and learning becomes amusing and fruitful for students.
“Most school teachers focus on completing the course syllabus and are least concerned with developing and nurturing the required curiosity-oriented-scientific attitude in students. This is the reason why they are unable to grasp the importance of and difference between one kg and one litre of something. They lack the practical approach which has become a necessity to survive and succeed in today’s world. This is where we need to change and Centre is trying to work in this direction,” said Prof. Manish Jain, Principal Coordinator of the CCL.
Different batches of 100 teachers each will be attending the preliminary workshops out of which 20 will be selected for the advanced sessions.
Santosh Kumar Mall, Commissioner of the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS), attended a workshop recently organized by the Centre between 24th — 28th June 2019, along with five Assistant Commissioners, Additional Commissioner and Ahmedabad Region’s Deputy Commissioner. Promoting capacity building of teachers from different parts of the country, the aim of this initiative was to inculcate a sense of active and applied learning which serves as the backbone for practical application of classroom concepts in real life. On the last day of the session, when he asked the participants about their experiences, he was informed that it was the first workshop which could not let them sleep. Coupled with captivating presentations and activities, it was full of life and very far from boring! Such exciting activities and projects promote critical thinking, logical reasoning, problem solving in teachers as well as students encouraging in-depth exploration of concepts, effectively explaining the science behind them.
“This is exactly the type of exposure we need so that every child can have access to interesting education throughout the country. Such sessions are beneficial not just for PISA preparation, but even beyond that. There is a need for us to think long term for the betterment of our students,” expressed one of the participating teachers.
Another teacher added further, “This workshop with its unique activities was an eye-opener for me. The monotonous education policies of our country need to be reformed and CCL is striving to do a great job at that! I realized the meaning of follow your heart and pursue your passions through this experience — for us teachers, it is making our students capable enough so that they can utilize their learning to solve the burning problems of the present times.”
The Centre believes that toys and models are the best way to educate students. This is the reason its workshops have a session where instructors are encouraged to teach the complex concepts by means of things as simple as flute-from-a-straw, numerous puzzles and the cheapest and smallest DC motor all the way to 1000 year calendars, 3-bottle fountain, 3-D clock, bird whistle, charkha generator, dancing ghost cubes, south-pointing-chariot, levitating pen stand, mechanical frog, spider walking robot, sine curve drawing car, ride front-and-back cycle, gear lamps, movable solar system, self working magic tricks, to name a few. In words of one of the CCL lab members, “As the course curriculum gets more complicated, children and teens tend to get bored more quickly than ever. The solution — a wide range of toys! So, why not convert this source of entertainment into a source of imparting practical education. We have seen that students grasp concepts real quick when learning is made fun and interactive for them rather than the conventional means.”
“There are chapters which require 1–2 weeks to complete as they are difficult for students to understand. But, I feel that if we use models and exhibits like the ones we saw and made during our CCL workshop, we can easily complete them in 2–3 days. And, it would not just be theoretical, our children would be getting a first-hand experience of the practical aspect of each chapter,” said another teacher.
The next workshop conducted by CCL will commence from 26th August 2019. The Centre aims to prepare students and teachers across India to face and overcome various challenges in the most efficient ways possible.
“The best way of learning about anything is by doing” — Richard Branson, British business magnate, investor, author and philanthropist
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(A detailed article on the Centre for Creative Learning at IIT Gandhinagar can be found here. CCL would be happy to hear about your creative STEM projects at cli@iitgn.ac.in)
Written by- Apeksha Srivastava (Senior Project Associate, External Communications, IIT Gandhinagar; M.Tech 2016–18, Biological Engineering, IIT Gandhinagar)
