Unboxing Learning

Integrated learning… what does it really mean? In layman term - when learning is not boxed or bound by boundaries but involves merging of boundaries, issues, topics, subjects. It brings together different subjects/topics together in such a way that our learning happens simultaneously on different yet related ways. So, for instance, if I am learning about volume, I can integrate it with knowing about the geography of water bodies, about the science of water cycle, about the engineering of boats and ships about the art of water colours and mixing of colours, about the proportion of water to clay in pottery, about the poem of seasons.

I have seen how enriching, wholesome and fun integrated learning can be. Why? Because it weaves together seemingly separate topics into a more comprehensive method of learning.

A couple of months back a friend posted on FB how Crochet is a great medium for learning basic maths and geometry. The right calculation of stitches- counting, adding, subtracting, dividing, multiplying- helps make the perfect geometrical shapes. So, for a child or even an adult interested in Crochet, it is a great medium for learning maths and geometry. Small kids can be taught patterns and sequences through Crochet. The Waldorf Steiner method of education uses crochet as a part of its learning process.

Rangoli too can teach symmetry and geometry. I saw my neighbour from Bangalore start her daily morning ritual with a rangoli. First, she would distribute the dots equally to form a square, rectangle or circle and then she would start interconnecting them with strokes, waves, loops and lines. The dots laid out the geometrical base followed by the symmetrical design. Wow! Power packed math and designing right there!

My kids love baking. Initially I used to give them the measured ingredients. Then when I saw that my older daughter is being introduced to fractions in school, I used this as an opportunity to add my bit in helping her use the concept of fraction practically. And what other better way than using her interest in baking to bring this about. 1 cup, ½ cup was easy to begin with. Then came ¼, ¾, two-thirds which needed some calculation if the measuring cups were missing! Which in our case was! I grabbed this opportunity and we had a small math class in the kitchen to figure out how we can do these measurements. Now she is comfortable with her fractions be it in recipes or school.

Integrated learning can be followed in many ways. In my daughter’s previous school Aurinko Academy in Bangalore, she experienced the most fascinating way of learning English language through theatre. Performing in a theatre didn’t mean just learning the dialogues and acting but it involved writing scripts…writing scripts involved learning direct and indirect speech, punctuation, creative writing, reciting and voice modulation.  Children first prepared short stories, converted them into scripts, some comic, some tragic, some adventurous, some science fiction. Then they graduated to dialogues, stage timings and finally performance. What a wholesome way of learning and bringing ones learning to an end product. In this one experience I saw my daughter’s confidence level just sky rocketed. The whole process gave her personality a boost. She was a complete participant from the beginning to the end, from the learning, knowing, doing to the making and performing.

As a parent I am always seeking appropriate opportunities where I can integrate play and learning. In the case of my 5-year-old it is mostly while playing that I try and steal in some fun learning. She loves to sort. So, we sort a lot! If I am assembling something, I ask her to sort the different parts, the nuts and bolts. If it’s cleaning up the stationary shelf, then I ask her to sort the working sketch pens and the non-working sketch pens or the wet paints from the dried-up paints. She enjoys it! The learning… getting to know what organising things is all about.

Recently we sorted some of our all jumbled up Lego sets. It involved identifying and counting the number of pieces, sorting them by shape, size, colour and of course lots of patience. It was not just about shapes, numbers and size but also about stimulating the brain. It’s like giving the brain fodder to chew on! So many things were happening at the same time…just like the theatre preparations. She was counting, tallying the pieces with the instruction book, sifting through the pile, feeling elated on finding the right piece and getting frustrated at not, patiently staring at the pile to spot the piece in question (as my little one put it!). And finally, at the end of it all sitting down to build the set… the end product of all the hard work.

Here is another interesting way of integrating a subject like geography with art. A teacher in my daughter’s school in Hyderabad has made geography fun to learn. She asks her students to use art or craft, 3D modules, to recreate what they have understood. Children are learning about land forms through rock painting, clay modelling, collage making. They are learning about civilizations through 3D models, Ancient Egyptian-art book dividers! Getting to learn geography along with different art forms. And yet again a beautiful end product!

My niece and nephew, who are un-schoolers, are learning the Japanese language. But they are not just learning reading and writing the language. They are getting to know about Japanese culinary, how to cook Japanese food, how to use the chopstick; they are getting to learn about the famous Japanese anime films and the illustrators; they are learning about the Japanese traditional dress Kimono. Their learning of Japanese is accompanied by getting to know about Japanese art and dance forms, the Japanese culture of sitting on the floor and having a meal. Isn’t this real learning?

Boxed learning can be very stifling. Children enjoy when they are active participants in the entire learning process and not when they are passive learners. I have seen my children feel excited when they are able to give their learning a solid form or convert it into an end product. The end product can be a sorted stationary cupboard and toys to a visual representation of history, to a poem or meme on algebra or to a musical on the creation of earth. There are innumerable combinations that can be done if only we unbox learning.

 

 

The Hidden Curriculum

 

As I spend more and more time talking, playing and watching my kids, I can see that there is no end to learning nor is there an end to the different ways of learning. In the past one year I have noticed how my younger daughter who at present is about 5 years old has been ‘educating’ herself silently.

Here is a recent incident. A couple of months back when virtual classes began, my older daughter was having difficulty in managing her online classes and her ‘me’ time. So, we decided to sit together and work out a routine that would help her manage her day well without compromising her other interests. As we were busy in our conversation my younger daughter was silently playing with her toys in the same room. A couple of days later she came up to me and asked me to help create a routine for her as well. As I sat with her, to my amazement, I found that she already had a fair idea of how to plan her activities through the day! I realised that all that time when we were sitting with her sister, she had been silently assimilating all that we were saying. And by the time she came to me for help she had already worked out her plans for the day.

Another such instance is when I would often find her sitting quietly and colouring in the same room where her sister and grandma were having a playful look at the globe. And then one day I find her looking very intently at the globe. On asking her what was she looking at, she started pointing out all the continents and countries to me. When I asked her how she came to know them she told me she had watched and observed her grandma and sister with the globe and she picked it up from there.

What is education or learning about? To me it is about assimilating information to be used when required. And the process of assimilation may not always be visible and it may not involve a direct verbal communication either, but only silent presence. Take for example in the natural world- animal cubs watch their parents hunt and gather food, storing all that they see and use it when they are old enough and on their own. In the olden days of Guru-Shishya tradition a lot of learning was through silent observation alone.  Many home-schoolers have gatherings where children are silent observers to the sessions. They are learning and assimilating knowledge in a manner which is unlike routine classroom teaching. Children in their everyday life are silently learning from their parents by observing how they communicate and behave with others. Nothing is new about silent learning but we always prefer verbal dialogue or one to one interaction when it comes to education. 

I use this method a lot at home, especially with my younger daughter. She is a silent observant of a lot of conversations between me and my 10-year-old daughter. I let her be present in the room playing, colouring or just pretending to do these! She is silently listening to our conversations on topics such as menstruation, media insensitivity, issues related to body shaming, absurdity of cosmetic and fairness cream ads, cyber-crime and internet safety, safety in public spaces. Though she might not have been directly exposed to these issues yet, they are getting stored in her memory bank, to be thrown up as and when she does come across them soon in the future. It is there in her memory and she will be able to recognize these issues and not be taken by surprise. It is a great way to initiate her into thinking and behaving otherwise from an early age.

Schools too can initiate silent learning. Some progressive schools are doing this. Aurinko Academy in Bangalore, for instance, has a system they call the “Hidden Curriculum”.  Younger kids sit silently and observe classroom activities of older kids. Knowledge assimilation is happening but invisible to our eyes. Recently my daughter shared with me that when her teacher, in her new school, introduced the topic of friction she instantly recollected having heard about friction in one of the hidden curriculum classes she had attended in a lower grade when she was in Aurinko. She was able to understand all about friction partly as a memory already stored in her and partly from what she was learning now. It made her learning process easier.

Another interesting way in which silent learning can happen in schools is having open classrooms. Younger children benefit from this type of learning spaces because they are able to recollect and use the information later on. In Aurinko Academy, for instance, classrooms do not have walls. Children sit with their teachers in groups and learn with their own peers as well as have the opportunity to observe other peer groups.

Some progressive learning schools have a system where children of mixed age groups sit together. Children get to observe and hear more diverse conversations, more diverse views. All this fuels their natural curiosity.

Education and learning to me is all about assimilating knowledge, storing the information like a data bank in our memory and then using it when it is most needed. This assimilation can happen silently and need not always require verbal dialogue. Our higher intelligence knows when and what to use from the vast information that is being assimilated by us. So, let’s give our natural curiosity and our higher intelligence the space to evolve and take us to our highest potential.

                                                                                                                                   

 

Tomato Rice on my plate.

Tomato Rice on my Plate

                             

I have always been a fan of experiential learning. Real learning happens when we experience- see, feel and do. It brings about practical understanding of the subject. But what I find more intriguing about hands on experiential learning is that besides the subject of enquiry there are other learning that also happen which are quite unpredictable! I am saying this from what I experienced when my older daughter was studying in a progressive school in Bangalore (Aurinko Academy) which believes in hands on learning. 

The kids in their 4^th year were taken on a day long farm trip. Now this is not a farm trip where you get to see cows, goats, sheep, ducks roaming around but an agricultural farm. Here they had first-hand experience of farming and agriculture. They learnt about sowing, irrigation and weeding. They got to know how to learn when the soil is ready for sowing, the different ways of watering the farms and the importance of plucking away the weeds from the plants. Of course all this was along with lots of fun like walking barefoot on wet soil, dipping hands in murky waters to pluck out weeds, getting sprayed by a hose pipe while cleaning up, getting a ride on a bullock cart and playing with the farm dogs!                                             

Besides learning about farm activities, the kids also got a taste of how, farming families in rural areas, still use natural, recyclable things in their daily life. The kids collected leaves from the farm, washed them and laid them down to eat their afternoon meal. Freshly plucked tomatoes cooked with rice- tomato rice- was served to the kids with chutney, dal (pulses).Now coming to my point of the unpredictable learning. My daughter came back from the trip and narrated all the things that they did at the farm. But out of all the things she was most excited about was the tomato rice! She was all praise for the fresh tomatoes and the fresh tangy taste of the tomato rice. She even insisted that I make tomato rice at home! Being a Bengali this is not a very common item on our menu. It was a surprise to me because she was never a fan of vegetables, especially tomatoes! But this was an opportunity for me to introduce some veggie into her diet.

And since then, there has been no turning back! We have tomato rice often and I sneak in other finely cut vegetables into it. My daughter loves it and gobbles it up. A tasty nutritious diet being voluntarily eaten by a kid…what else can a parent ask!Now who would have thought that a trip to a farm would have ended with a love for tomato rice! I must add though…every time she has tomato rice she says “but mamma it does not taste like the one I had at the farm with the fresh juicy tomatoes”. Perhaps one day she will her own farm or grow a kitchen garden and prepare a meal of tomato rice that will taste just like the one she had tasted at the farm…who knows?