Are y'all familiar with the RIVER Project? (Rishi Valley Institute for
Educational Resources)
their website doesn't do quite justice on how concepts like this
multi-age social-based mentoring that is being shared have in a most
appropriate approach to education in poor areas.
http://www.river-rv.org/
"Over a decade the number of schools using this model has grown from 16
to 25,000. "
some more up-to-date info:
http://river-rv.blogspot.com/search/label/Theory%20of%20MGML
On 10/31/2010 10:23 PM, K. K. Subramaniam wrote:
On Sunday 31 Oct 2010 9:25:30 am Caryl Bigenho wrote:
Actually, Mitra's "Grannies" may not be actual grand parents and they do
have a curriculum.
True. A Grannie need not necessarily be a grand parent of the learner but a
curriculum-driven learning is very limiting, esp. in India with its extreme
social diversity. Sugata's high tech props distracts us from seeing the
facilitative aspects found in the environment. "Grannies" do three things that
facilitates the learning process. Firstly, they are there during learning[1],
Secondly, when a child completes a task, they celebrate the culmination of the
process regardless of the economic value of the outcome. Thirdly, they guide
the child to select the next process that is *meaningful* to both the child
and the *social context*. Such appreciation and mentoring are invaluable in
helping children learn faster and better.
A centrally planned curriculum applies a linear model of learning over a large
number of children in different social contexts. It assumes that there is only
one way for the next level. In practice, a child is faced with lots of choices
on what to pursue next.
Notice the slip in TED teaser's last statement - "results that could
revolutionize how we think about teaching". We have a hard time treating
education as a learning process.
[1] In Sikshana, our school intervention project, the physical presence of an
friendly adult in the classroom turned out to be the most important motivator
for learners. One such "Grannie" volunteer was a young village girl in her
twenties who was so impressed with this transformation that she joined our
project and is now replicating the model across a cluster of 15 schools.
Subbu
_______________________________________________
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
_______________________________________________
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
