World Transforming Yet Some Aspects Remain Constant - Devi Kar's Perspective
In a world where technology is rapidly evolving, the principles that underpin quality education remain steadfast. These perennial principles, as highlighted by a veteran school educator based in Kolkata, include purposeful practice, teacher's pedagogical content knowledge, connecting learning to enduring knowledge and culture, and assessment for understanding and progress.
Purposeful Practice
Effective learning, according to this educator, requires deliberate practice. By breaking down skills into components and practicing them correctly with appropriate feedback, students can commit knowledge to long-term memory and reduce issues like summer learning loss. Repetition and retrieval practice play a crucial role in this process.
Teacher's Pedagogical Content Knowledge
Deep understanding by teachers of both the subject content and how to teach it effectively significantly impacts student learning gains. This principle, timeless despite changes in educational technology or media, underscores the importance of a well-informed and skilled teaching force.
Connecting Learning to Enduring Knowledge and Culture
Incorporating elements such as classical literature, philosophy, and universal human questions helps anchor education in a stable core of human knowledge and beauty. This transcendent connection, often embodied in a liberal arts core curriculum, remains a foundational guide for meaningful learning.
Assessment for Understanding and Progress
While methods evolve, the principle of using assessment—both formal and qualitative—to guide instruction and measure meaningful educational progress remains consistent. This principle emphasizes the importance of understanding each student's learning journey and adjusting teaching strategies accordingly.
Despite the speculation during the Covid-19 pandemic, physical school buildings and human teachers have remained. Schools are constantly thinking of changing curriculums to suit the times, but core subjects like literacy and numeracy, and the basics of psychology or behavioral science, remain important.
The author finds comfort in the fact that some things, like the importance of ethics and kindness, do not change. The challenge is to be sensitive to the principles of life that should be regarded as axioms that are perennial. The author emphasizes the importance of holding onto the golden value of being kind to each other as human beings to ensure a happy world for future generations.
The practical aspect of each subject is given more emphasis today, but learning about the past, about the world, space, and environment, is still important. Memorization, contrary to some students' preference for "thinking" subjects over those that require memorization, is necessary in multiple areas, such as formulae in chemistry or mathematics and quoting.
Schools still use traditional tools like practice and drill after mastering a new concept, and have not done away completely with chalk and talk in a hi-tech classroom. The author suggests that reward and punishment, known as the carrot and stick, are effective methods for developing character, instilling discipline, and encouraging good behavior in education.
The author also finds inspiration in the words of Arthur Schopenhauer, who noted that wise people throughout history have said the same things, while fools have acted alike and done the opposite. The author refers to Sunanda K. Datta-Ray's interpretation of Morgan Housel's book "Same as Ever," which emphasizes the importance of understanding universal truths that never change. Carl Jung remarks that the same physiological and psychological processes endure over hundreds of thousands of years.
In conclusion, while the world around us changes at an unprecedented pace, the principles of education that foster quality learning, deep understanding, and meaningful content remain unchanged. Schools, in their quest to adapt to the times, must remember to hold onto these enduring principles.
- Engaging in both education-and-self-development and personal-growth requires deliberate practice, as highlighted by the educator's emphasis on purposeful practice and repetition.
- The educator's call for a well-informed and skilled teaching force, focusing on a teacher's pedagogical content knowledge, underscores the importance of personal-growth and continuous learning for educators.
