Stimulating the learning process

S.C. Arora

A few days ago while shopping, I overheard a young lady using her mobile phone asking her mother to refresh her memory. Of the three items she had been asked to purchase she could remember only one. As a teacher my mind immediately went to the classroom situation. If a mature woman could not recall the names of three items for which she had come specifically, I wondered how young children’s minds preoccupied with playful activities would retain what they had been taught in the classroom.

Obviously, the young lady had not listened carefully and hence had promptly forgotten the names of the required items. The same applies to children. They learn better if they are trained to listen attentively and their attention is focussed upon course content through the ingenuity of teachers and parents who devise ways and means to prevent their minds from wandering.

This requires that teachers and parents create environments conducive to learning, which could quite simply, begin at home. For a start some must-do’s could be written and affixed to the door of a child’s bedroom, a frequently raided fridge or the bedside table. Children can practise spellings of difficult words on a steamed up mirror or a dusty windscreen. Parents could in a play-way style quiz them on a subject. This elicits enthusiastic responses in a fun-filled, relaxed atmosphere. Such joyful learning, gets imprinted on children’s minds.

Older readers might recall maths lessons in school when they were asked to calculate the time taken to fill a bathtub with two taps filling it and the outlet being left open. Or when questions were set on papering walls at a given rate. I remember getting the sums right but I could never relate the problems to real life situations. I always wondered why we should waste water or spoil walls by pasting paper on them. We ploughed through our lessons mechanically, doing sums and learning stories with alien names.

Effective learning is acquired when children are made to learn from real-life situations and experience. If my maths teacher had made special worksheets of problems which children actually experience, we would have learnt better and faster. That’s why instead of just sticking to textbooks children should be exposed to varied experiences by way of visits to workplaces for completing project assignments. This requires teachers to encourage students to accumulate experiences so that lasting learning takes place.

Indeed the best learning happens by doing, feeling, and being. Parents can initiate learning at home and lead children into ‘becoming’. To elicit the best response from a child, engage her in discussion followed by searching questions which prompt thinking and reflection. I remember contriving situations for my son to prompt him to learn. I would find age-specific articles or news reports which I would also ask him to read. Then we would discuss what we had read in the evening. The result was magical; his knowledge of life and environment multiplied, his language improved and ideas were concretised to the extent that he started writing opinion pieces for a youth magazine. Moral of the story: teaching is not just about imparting information; more important, its about prompting self-learning.

For example free access to an old toolbox containing nuts and bolts, nails, mirrors, lens, locks, keys, spring, wires etc could stimulate a child’s imagination and inventiveness. Let children discover that passing the rays of the sun through a convex lens can burn paper; the lid of a saucepan vibrates when water boils. Let students observe the orange glow of a sunset and compare it with the white-hot sun of noon; encourage every child to wonder how seeds turn into plants and marrow gets into bones. With skilful questioning in thoughtful discussions parents can lead children to learn important scientific principles. If a child’s imagination is ignited and a sense of wonder and curiosity about life and nature is adequately generated, a learning process is automatically initiated.

With the construction of schools and classrooms falling short of demand, large classes of 45 and above are the norm. In this scenario teachers cannot provide the individual attention that children require. Therefore, it is necessary for parents to supplement teachers’ efforts. There is no shortage of research studies which prove that an enabling and supportive home environment improves students’ classroom and examinations performance.

A last word of advice to teachers and parents: appreciate and praise the learning efforts of children. Therefore parents must keep reminding children that they are clever and bright. Life attains maximum fulfilment only when worthwhile goals are pursued and hence it is imperative that children are encouraged to set lofty goals for which they are willing to sacrifice ease and comfort.

Parents and teachers should discuss the how and why of things which will prompt children to think; to question, reflect and predict outcomes. Once a questioning, searching mind is created the child automatically gets hooked on reading and learning never ceases. The learning capabilities of children — indeed all human beings — are immense. I believe that every child is a masterpiece in the making. But his/ her achievement is directly proportional to the effort of parents and teachers in creating a congenial environment for intellectual, emotional and attitudinal growth.

(S.C. Arora is the vice-chairman of Lotus Valley International School, Noida)