Mr. VNP Raj
21 June 2020
A good assessment system, blended with good learning, is a prerequisite for a good learning performance by children. Many schools focus more on teaching in order to achieve good scores. But the question arises: Do good scores certify a good learning performance of children?
What is the purpose of learning? Is it to secure good scores, or to secure admission in colleges, or finally to secure a good job in the future?
If a child is able to secure all the above, do we think that the purpose of learning has been achieved? Or, do we think that the child has more to achieve?
Learning has purposes to achieve more than the above-mentioned points. It has to develop children as honest and honourable citizens in an emerging world. They should possess ethos of their community and also should be global in approach. Accordingly, they should have good skills to apply their knowledge with good common sense. They should also possess a balanced mind and good human values of honesty, integrity, risk sense, and decision-making.
All that is said above encourages one to develop the ability to liberate oneself from the feelings of possessiveness of the self and to liberate oneself from the feelings of I and mine.
In other words, learning needs to create in individuals the quality of self-independence. Similarly, an individual also has to give freedom to others to be self-independent. Unless these qualities are achieved by an individual, then the ability of an individual to secure a good family life, a good social life, enriching a career, and achieving satisfaction and peace of mind maybe difficult to achieve.
Therefore, to achieve good qualities, as mentioned above, an individual will need several skills that can be achieved only through good learning. The skills needed to develop the ability to learn include logical thinking, problem solving, self-exploring, risk balancing, communication, situational awareness, confidence, goal seeking, and harmony with nature. All these skills when achieved in good learning, an individual creates values for himself or herself and also for society. Therefore, the scope of learning has widened and has become bigger challenges than learning for a job.
To what extent are teachers capable of taking up this challenge? Do they have the skill to develop these qualities in a child in their classroom?
Teachers work hard to complete their portions as well as to complete the assessments. Teachers are also generally focused on teaching concepts. However, they fail to realize that teaching goes beyond concept teaching, syllabus covering and examination results; and instead, goes into context-based concept analysis, connecting to real life, and to learn to use learning to create values for oneself and to live in the community.
A child must have diagnostic assessment at the beginning of learning and formative assessment throughout the learning. Diagnostic assessment measures the knowledge of a student before the learning takes place and formative assessment challenges the thoughts of a child through the learning process.
Formative assessment helps a child to think on different situations, real life applications, develop thoughts on how things happened in the past, how it is used in the present and how it can be used in the future.
If teaching and assessment do not help the learning process as stated above, I think such schools do not contribute to secure the future of the children.
A good formative assessment requires a lot of engagement and contribution from the teacher. A teacher becomes a Guru (master teacher) when the knowledge and skill of a student exceeds that of the teachers. In the story of the Indian epic Mahabharatha, Guru Drona did it. Arjuna and the Pandavas exceeded the knowledge and skill of Drona. Therefore, he achieved full satisfaction as a teacher. So, should be the story of every teacher.
Gurudakshina is a word used in the same story which is a gift by the student to his/her teacher upon accomplishment. Gurudakshina has been many times considered as the right of the teacher or Guru. However, it should be a heartfelt gift from the student to his/her Guru. Students maintain a life-long respect for their teachers.
Challenging a child to think and explore is the prime duty of a teacher. In Bhaghavat Gita, Arjuna was asking a lot of doubts to lord Krishna and was not willing to do his job as a warrior. But Krishna as a mentor encouraged him to ask more questions and guided his thoughts to clear all his doubts and to get ready for his job enthusiastically. This is exactly the job of a teacher.
To what extent does education and assessment systems support the individual and social transformation of a child? The net result of the poor transformation is reflected in the public life. For instance, improper use of public property, littering roads with wastes, indisciplined crowd, and inappropriate behaviour at home and public places. If education does not lead to socio-cultural transformation, it fails.
Similarly, to what extent does education bring about changes in the conduct of business in corporate and public establishments? In many companies, including private and public firms, the work ethics are sacrificed for personal favouritism and non-transparent ways; thereby, justice gets denied.
Likewise, to what extent has education influenced the personal life of a person? In the current education system, children are less confident and more in fear of expressing themselves. They shy away from exploring the depth of their minds. They are also insecure, under high tension, worried, and intolerant.
I do hope that all educational systems in the world shall use diagnostic assessments before the start of learning and improve skills of learning through proper formative assessments during the course of teaching because we need the future generation to be global citizens with their community’s ethos.
Comments