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Paper outline - Assignment # 2 (Activity Based Learning, Tamil Nadu Case)

EDU 501: Educational Theories and Practices: A Critique

Submitted to: Dr. Monica Gomes From: Salahuddin Mahmud

Key issue / the problem: Bangladesh is the most densely populated country in the whole world at 948/sq. kilometer i. The literacy rate is about 55%ii. Even thought the gross enrolment rate in primary education in 2002 was 97 percent (though enrolment rates in urban slums and the CHT remain significantly lower). While two thirds of those enrolled complete the five-year primary school cycle, upwards of 25 percent of children drop out before reaching the fifth grade as per the UN country office report.iii Among many other issues of this drop out, one of the major issues is the class room size or the teacher students ratio being too high. This makes the teachers unable to pay attention to all the students but only to the front benchers (in class exclusion) and the back benchers feel left out who lose the interest in the class and eventually drop out. Approach: Activity Based Learning The approach I have chosen for this is Activity Based Learning (ABL) will help many ways to reduce the drop out. A few ways it can contribute are: The main approach of this ABL as it says, enable the children learn by doing and make the learning process joyful. The students will be interested in the class and this will keep them coming to the class and more importantly so, staying in. Eventually reducing the dropout rate; This self and peer learning will also allow the teacher to concentrate on the students who needs help (who are most likely to dropout) while keeping the rest class busy with activities.

Model of the approach - Tamil Nadu model Underpinning of the approach and Context/Background of ABL: The ABL concept was initiated at the Neel Bagh school around 1944 by David Horsburgh, a British gentleman who was inspired from this concept from the Rishi Valley School was established in 1926 in Andhra Pradesh who emphasized greatly on human interactions (activities) and cooperative learning environments where students learn from each other rather than a competitive Environment (peer learning). However, after his death the school was not run successfully and later acquired by Rishi Valley. The Tamil Nadu ABL model was developed by M.P. Vijayakumar in 1994 inspired from Mr. Horsburghs Neel Bagh school and Rishi Valley School that revolutionized the entire education system in the province as well in India. This model empathizes on learning by doing or activity based learning the main goal of this is to make the learning process joyful and interesting. The foundation of this model 1

Key features & principles - Strategies used in ABL Child centric: Children are the focus of this model in this child centered model. They learn by various activities like reading, story-telling, rhymes, dance, music, art, drawing, and by games which they love. In class teaching (class-room based): This model allows children to learn it in the class and they do not have to study at home. Since it discourages the after school learning, there is no requirement of private tutoring for all students (other than special needs). This class room based teaching ensures the equity to the poor children who often have to do domestic work when they stay home and otherwise would have fallen behind from the children who do not have to do the domestic work at home. Integrated model: The curriculum is integrated and designed to support the model. The curriculum is integrated in a way so that, it fosters the ABL and emphasizes on the relationships between the students-teacher as well as the relationship amongst students. Multi- graded/Multi-paced: The class rooms are multi graded the students range from pre-school to grade five. Another interesting concept of this model is multipaced: as the learning capacity of all students are not of the same. Children study according to his/her aptitude and skill. This multi-paced model helps all students to learn and this is actually the key of keeping the students who fall behind in the class and they do not feel pressured which ultimately results in lower dropout rate. Fosters peer/self learning: This model allows learning by doing and working in groups as well as individual learning with minimal supervision of the teacher. This way, they not only learn themselves but also learn from peer students. This allows the teacher to free up her time and concentrate on those who needs special care or who missed classes. Quick and easy learning: When a child misses a class for some reason, she does not have to catch up with the class by pressure but she starts at her level where she left. This way, the model makes the learning process easy for the children without any additional burden or pressure and results in quicker learning. Child-friendly and verities educational aids: The educational materials used are inexpensive, easily available and child-friendly. No tote learning: Memorization by tote learning is discouraged in this model which most children find boring and difficult. Rather, they learn by practice and activities.

Methodology/process of teaching-learning of ABL: The children constructs their own world of knowledge from their past knowledge and/or current experiences and interacting with information. They actively seek new information and actively engaged in the process where they gain, assimilate, and utilize knowledge they already have. The facilitator (the teacher) engages learners in outlining real-world problems in the first place instead of starting with a classification of problem-solving methods. Competencies/skills are measured by a LADDER system. This is the unique feature of this model. A ladder is being used to measure the competencies or the skill levels they achieve. Skills/competencies are divided into different parts/units and then converted them into activities. Each of this are called milestones.

Picture: LADDER used in ABL model for self assessment These milestones are clustered and linked as chain and this chain of milestones is called LADDER. Each of these milestones has different steps of learning process and each step of learning process is represented by graphical logo. Milestones and also activities in each milestone are arranged in a logical sequence from simple to complex in a progressive manner so that it is easy for them to progress. To enable the children to

organize in groups group cards are used, the evaluation is built in the system. Separate cards / activities are used for this purpose. Each child is provided with workbook/worksheet for further reinforcement activities. Children's progress are recorded through annual assessment chart and cannot move up the ladder unless the meet the competency level.

Picture: How the learning LADDER is used

The other unique part of this model is the children. Each milestone has different type of activities such as introduction, reinforcement, practice, evaluation, remedial and enrichment activities represented by different logos. The inspiration of this methodology is by practice as follows: I hear, I forget; I see, I remember; I do, I understand. Theorist and practitioners contributed to this approach: Vygotsky's social constructivism theory is used in this model for peer learning through interactions. This is based on students' active participation in problem-solving and critical thinking regarding a learning activity. The reason they find it interesting is, they find the learning relevant and engaging. The children are "constructing" their own knowledge by testing ideas and approaches based on their prior knowledge and experience, applying these to a new situation, and integrating the new knowledge gained with pre-existing intellectual constructs. It is not a completely new teaching style; it can be traced back as far as Socrates and Humboldt. However, it has been rediscovered by progressive educators such as John Dewey (Dodge, 1998). This particular Tamil Nadu model is being practiced by M.P. Vijayakumar and earlier by Mr. Horsburgh and Rishi Valley School in Tamil Nadu. Later, this was introduced in the province as well as many provinces in India. 4

Developmental theories it relates to - discussion on the theories those supports ABL: Activity-based learning (ABL) theory is a cognitive-learning theory which is considered a constructivist learning theory of Vygotsky (Hein, 1991). This theory is also referred to as problem-based learning theory as they children learn from their everyday life/problem they face. Reflection / evidence in Bangladesh context: Although children are starting primary school in greater numbers than ever before, more than half of the children who start primary school do not complete the full cycle of education. Bangladesh has done well in the enrollment in primary education in the last decade and even though the entry to Grade-I has remained steady near around 60% the dropout still remains at large. Individual and socio economic factors like poverty, poor health (under/mal-nutrition), child labour (related to poverty), distance of school, and migration are the major factors consisting about half the causes of dropout. However, another half is consist of class room and/or school factors, e.g., in class environment such as lack of motivation, quality of education (they find non-interesting), teacher absenteeism, class room size (teacher : student ratio). Another reason is pressure to catch up when they comes back after sickness or the migrated children coming back from their home villages to their school area. Most of these could be significantly improved by incorporating the ABL method in school. Among the children who drop out over two third is due the socio economic condition and the class room pressure/teaching method. First of all the ABL will make the learning interesting and joyful. It will help the teacher to concentrate on the children who needs special needs or who falls behind due to absenteeism without feeling any pressure. Also, this will help to reduce/eliminate the virtual or silent exclusion (not paying attention to some). The peer/self learning will allow the teacher to pay special attention and time for the special needs children and eliminate the virtual exclusion as well. A data found in a research shows that, children who repeats the same class are more likely to drop out. This model can also help to mitigate this using the ABLs LADDER where they can tell where they are instead of pressuring them. The major challenges incorporating this are the lack of trained teachers and socio economic condition of the parents. TOT can be arranged for selected bright teachers and then replicate the process using them to teach the other teachers. If the children find the school to be interesting, then the parents do not have to convince them to go to school on a daily basis. This model will also encourage the parents to send the children to school if they do 5

not have to be engaged with home work at home as they need to help their parents with domestic and agricultural help. This model also encourages the continues assessments (and self assessment/peer assessments) instead of the terminal assessment that children have fear and many children do not do well in these exams due to many factors such as migration, sickness, fear etc. Another benefit of this method is using low cost educational material from everyday life. Most schools are unable to purchase fancy educational materials that traditional school think as essential tools. Whereas, the ABL uses simple available local materials as educational materials/tools. Given the dropout situation and the success of the Tamil Nadu province (drop out reduced to 1.2%) and the local availability of materials and teachers this can be successfully implemented and should be implemented in Bangladesh if we are seriously thinking of reducing the existing and huge dropout rate.
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UNFPA data http://www.unfpa-bangladesh.org/php/about_bangladesh.php Bangladesh Literacy Survey, 2010 http://www.bbs.gov.bd/WebTestApplication/userfiles/Image/Survey%20reports/Bangladesh%20Literacy %20Surver%202010f.pdf iii http://www.un-bd.org/bgd/index.html
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Additional sources: The class reading given - A Report on an Innovative Method in Tamil Nadu (Activity Based Learning) By S. Anandalakshmy Ph.D. from the link http://www.ssa.tn.nic.in/Docu/ABL-Report-byDr.Anandhalakshmi.pdf ; http://www.pomsmeetings.org/ConfPapers/011/011-0782.pdf Learning Theories and Transfer of Learning - http://otec.uoregon.edu/learning_theory.htm Dag Ofstad, Centre for Practical Knowledge, Department of Professional studies/ Nordland University and FAFOL - http://www.nafol.net/index.php?page=dag-ofstad-centre-for-practical-knowledge-department-ofprofessional-studies-nordland-university-and-fafol Activity-based Learning Experiences in Quantitative Research Methodology for (Time-Constrained) Young Scholars -Course Design and Effectiveness http://www.pomsmeetings.org/ConfPapers/011/011-0782.pdf PREVENTING DROPOUT IN BANGLADESH - http://www.createrpc.org/pdf_documents/Bangladesh_Policy_Brief_6.pdf Article by Mr Tom Power, Senior Lecturer in Education, Faculty of Education and Language Studies Department of Education - http://fels-staff.open.ac.uk/t.j.m.p.power Article by Sabur Khan http://saburkhan.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=200:bangladesh-team-get-tips-onnovel-teaching-methods&catid=89:primary-a-secondary-education&Itemid=73 QUALITY INITIATIVES & Issues and Strategies (Article/chapter on ABL) http://www.ssa.tn.nic.in/Docu/Chapter%20III.pdf Blogs of Subir Shukla - http://subirshukla.blogspot.com/search/label/activity-based%20learning Pictures & diagram: Thanks and courtesy of the previous batch Med students

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