Why I Believe Learning Should Be Free?

I was lucky enough to get into a state-sponsored elite university called CIEFL, now EFLU (English and Foreign Languages University) at Hyderabad, India. My tuition fees were ridiculously cheap. I guess it was about 500 Rs approx i. e $10 per semester. My complete living expenses came to around $ 30 per month. I had access to some of the brilliant professors with two foreign degrees to their credit. Of course, I had to take a national entrance exam and beat hundreds of other students, in order to enjoy this privilege. Hence I became a part of the ‘elite’.

EFLU has 5 schools (I guess they have added some more now) dedicated only to teaching English Language! I never knew an M.A in English was that deep. We had a library of three floors for a batch of 60 students with a student teacher ratio of 1:2, yes, that is two teachers per student. There was a joke that CIEFL was a research institution with more professors than teachers. It’s no longer so, as EFLU is now a full-fledged Central University with hundreds of students although it enjoys the same state-sponsored privileges. For more information on how to enroll, visit www.eflu.ac.in

We were given a lot of freedom to think, to express ourselves. –‘ We don’t care about what the experts say about Shakespeare- what’s your view?’  we were asked. We had open book exams. We thought that was cool at first. But then we realized, it was really hard. It was similar to doing an assignment. Only, there were no readymade answers available on the Internet, or in books and journals and we had to submit it by the end of the day!

But I wanted more. After my first semester at CIEFL, I enrolled for courses in video documentary production. I ended up making 3 documentaries telecasted by India’s national broadcaster, Doordarshan’s education channel. I also did field investigation i.e research work requiring feedback, questionnaires, interviews etc for an Internet led School Learning initiative called ‘Schools Online’ and an UN funded IT based agricultural improvement programme. I even got paid, although I was pretty happy just getting to learn a lot about the initiatives, (which I should say were not necessarily running to their full potential).

My favourite haunt was the computer lab. I designed my first website for the CIEFL Film Club in around 2002 using Microsoft Frontpage after I discovered the ‘power of the hyperlink’. I was fascinated by how a hyperlink could magically transport me from one context to another in an instant. It was literally like time travel for me. I was just about getting to know the Internet at that time in 2001.

I was hardly ever present for the classes. Somehow, my professor’s did not seem to mind. They were OK with the fact that I was doing ‘more important work’ - producing documentaries, presentations for national level conferences, building websites, assisting with the film club and the news letter etc. So that was cool.

How did I do it? I spent a lot of time in the library. It was like a paradise. I had access to all these world class journals on English Language Teaching like Oxford University’s ELT Journal etc and even more online.

CIEFL was cool also because the library subscribed to Computer Magazines despite being a primarily English teacher training (ELT) institution. I devoured all of them and tested out all the trial software CDs'. That's when I also stumbled on the Open Source Software Movement.

 I understood that there are organizations around the world striving to make learning free and open. And I found out it was already a reality as long as one had an internet connection. I recall how I resisted using the default Internet Explorer and used Netscape Navigator or Mozilla/Firefox as a browser because the latter was open source.  In those days, open learning initiatives was primarily spear-headed by the MIT’s Open Courseware Initiative www.ocw.mit.edu Today we have many like Wikipedia,  TED,  Khanacademy etc.

I began believing that the privileges’ I enjoyed being a student at an elite university, sponsored by the taxes paid by hard-working Indians, could be enjoyed by everyone, at least as long as they had an internet connection. I was also mindful of the fact that I made it through to the entrance exam because my parents were well-qualified, encouraged me to learn at home on my own and could afford to send me to a good school. I wanted more kids to have that privilege, even if they didn’t have parents who were educated.

That was the key inspiration behind the New Teaching Manifesto and the Creativity and Critical thinking in School Project.

Please feel free to  share your school teaching/learning experiences as a student or teacher. Send them to chetanwpinto+NTM@gmail.com along with a small introduction about yourself.

As a matter of policy, all published posts will be clearly acknowledged by name and designation on the blog as well as on social media. 

Nature’s Way of Preserving Fresh Fish

This is a guest post by Pooja Srivastava

I had gone for picnic with a small group of friends while spending holidays in Ladakh. A small group of children went to explore the picnic spot along with Dad’s friends.  We would carry some food and refreshments and be away for hours till lunch was ready to eat.

On this particular day we were picnicking near a small river. We decided to explore the place by walking further along the bank.

After walking for an hour or so we came across a solitary fisherman sitting by the side of the river. We were all excited seeing a local there, we greeted him loudly saying ''Juley''(the only Ladakhi word we knew) and were curious to know whether we could speak to him using a little of Hindi and English.

All of us took turns to ask him how he caught fish, how much fish he caught everyday and how much time he spent there. He explained that he fished regularly during the summers and even a small catch of fish, for which he spent about two hours, was enough to feed his family of four. The man looked a little poor and it seemed the fish was a welcome addition to the family meal.

One of us asked, how he preserved the fish at home (he didn’t look like he owned a fridge at home).

That is when I made one of the greatest discoveries of my life. Until then we thought like the most of you, the only way to preserve fresh fish was in a refrigerator.

What he showed us, amazed us.

He asked us that his fridge was right there and took us along to a shallow portion of the river. There he moved away some moist sand and showed us a handful of fish he had saved. He said, the fish could be preserved for two to three days, even without cleaning and it would remain fresh. That he said, was nature’s way of keeping fish fresh.

Pooja Srivastava is a Special Education & School Teaching Expert based in India.

Priceless School Learning Experiences – At the Fire- Station

This is a guest post by Pooja Srivastava

We, the teachers of a primary school section of a famous Hyderabad based residential school were given permission to go on a field trip to the planetarium. However the planetarium was closed. But instead of taking the students back to the school, I decided to try getting permission for a demonstration at a nearby fire-station. This was against the instructions of the school principal who had asked us to bring the school kids back if the planetarium was not open. But I thought it better not to waste the time and resources and decided to worry about the school principal later.

We met the person in charge and he was more than happy to give our students a demonstration of their emergency fire drill.

A senior fireman collected all the students in a group at a little distance from him and showed the kids how he operated the water hose pipe to put out the fire. The children were all very excited, they got splashed with water on a hot summer day and were observing and admiring the force of the waterjet. They asked the fireman for repeating the Hose pipe drill and he happily obliged, urged by their whoops of joy, loud clapping and jumping.

Next, the fireman took all the children for a tour of the premises showing them all the fire extinguishing equipment and the space where a huge, bright red fire engine was parked. There were unanimous requests from the children to see the fire engine in action and hear the loud siren. The fireman complied with their request immediately, moving the fire engine back and forth with the siren wailing loudly.

Some of the kids wanted to sit in the seat beside him. He agreed, not finding the request unusual.  He accommodated the two lucky kids as he could not let everybody have a go.  But the kids were glad enough to see their classmates get a chance.

At the end of the demonstration, the fireman was beaming with pride and satisfaction, he felt really appreciated by the kids and all of them shook hands with him thanking him profusely for the memorable experience.

We left after thanking the Commander of the Fire Station on behalf of all the kids and he said that he felt really glad that he could be of use in enhancing the awareness of the children and that we were welcome to bring other groups of children at any time we wanted.

The most difficult part was getting the children to line up and sit in the bus for the ride back, they were all gazing longingly at the fire engine and some of them were mimicking the siren all the way back!

This was a little field trip. But it had a big impact. The school kids got a free, fun experience, akin to a paid theme park.

They learnt about fire safety and fire hazards.

But the biggest impression was made on the underpaid and under-appreciated firemen, who felt that their services are as useful to education as they are for saving lives.

I guess, the firemen had tears of joy in their eyes. I had!

Certain experiences are truly priceless.

Pooja Srivastava is a Special Education & School Teaching Expert based in India.

How Schooling Destroys Self-belief And Confidence

This is a guest post by Pooja Srivastava

Radhika is a class topper. Once, when we were invited to her home, Radhika was doing her Science homework assignment on soluble and insoluble materials as explained by her teacher. She had collected different types of materials like flour, a piece of wood, small pebbles, some sand, talcum powder, sawdust, salt, sugar and corn starch, some glasses and water. She was asked to distinguish soluble from insoluble. 

She put the different materials into a glass of water and tried to mix the contents with a spoon. Radhika’s mother was sitting nearby observing her as she proceeded with her work. Radhika would glance at her mother after she had tried to mix a particular material in the glass of water asking her mother for feedback, whether the substance was soluble or insoluble.

We noticed this and asked Radhika to wait for sometime after stirring the contents in the glass to check whether the substance had dissolved completely, dissolved partially or was totally insoluble in water.

Radhika continued to look very unsure and was unable to make up her mind about the end result without her mother’s help, despite having the evidence right in front of her.

However, rest assured, Radhika will continue to be a class topper.

Pooja Srivastava is a Special Education & School Teaching Expert based in India.

How Schooling Disables Critical Thinking

This is a guest post by Pooja Srivastava

Neha is a 12 year old studying in the sixth standard at a Public School in Pune. On a visit to her home we began chatting with her about her school and what subjects she studies. A Geography lesson came up and she mentioned that she had read about soil types in the class.

We asked her about the difference between fertile and arid soil, she was able to repeat the definitions exactly as she had read in her textbook. When she was asked about which regions in India have arid soil though, she had no response.

 We tried to lead her to the right answer by mentioning rainfall patterns and climate conditions but she was unable to give any response.

Finally she broke down crying. You see, she was the best student in the class and she realized she was unable to make the most basic connection to the real world. She also said, this question was not taught in the class or explained by her teacher. I consoled her and helped her calm down by asking her to find out the correct response by asking her teacher in the next class.

Pooja Srivastava is a Special Education & School Teaching Expert based in India.

New Teaching Manifesto

Education is Learning By Doing!

We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.

- Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Click to view and download as PDF

   The New Teaching Manifesto a scalable template to quickly implement Multiple Intelligences and Bloom’s Taxonomy in the classroom. It is a framework for improving critical thinking and creativity in schools.  It hopes to reform an education system based on textbooks that tell us how things should ideally work but does not let us try it out until the ‘student is ready for it’or for fear of failure or a need for seeking perfection before getting started! The NTM aims to change this by encouraging students to think critically about the challenges we face today by exposing them to real-life, real world challenges for a comprehensive, well-rounded understanding of our world based on multiple perspectives and literally crate and build solutions to check their understanding.

All the education imparted through the NTM can be personalized and contextualized in such a way that the students discover their own self through the activities they do, the things they build, through their interaction with other students, with their parents and family members and the community. All of these enriching experiences based on observation or imitation would be accounted for in their grades and assessment or at least an individual project portfolio to begin with.

Bernard Shaw once said, “If you teach a man anything, he will never learn.”  Thus the Manifesto aims to create an inside out educational experience. It believes that unless one has figured out oneself, there is no way of meaningfully understanding the world around us and how it works and the best way of doing so is by actually building or creating things. Therefore, the students are given a free hand to try out the task as soon as they feel they are ready provided they have committed themselves to complete the project.

Failure by default is considered as a part of the learning process and is used as a personality development strategy that discourages ‘mavericks’ and encourages collaboration.

Perfection is not sought out nor is the concept of getting it all right. But a high value is attached to systematic self-assessment and evaluation of what went wrong where, when, how and why. This leads to a brainstorming on the next steps and a plan on how to move things forward and complete or better the project.

The NTM uses a two-tiered structure to transform the current education setting in a school- 

·         Learning To Do      -By Observing An Expert

·         Learning By Doing  -By Trial and Error

Thus the NTM is a not just a document. It is reflective of a framework of how our education was actually meant to be! It serves to act as a guiding light for educators and policy makers to engage and motivate a generation brought up on the Internet.

Part 1- Learning To Do

Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes

—John Dewey

Aim- Learning By Benefitting from the expertise of your community

Identify a few passionate professionals from your community who are contributing towards making your community better in their own small way.

Background preparation for the presentation by the teacher

      Go over the textbook. This needs to be done at least 24 hours prior to the talk so that the students are ready with their questions.

      Read the main Wikipedia article (even better if you find a better article, check Wikipedia related links)

      If the topic is complex, divide the class in groups and let them focus on a sub-domain and let the expert do the rest

Criteria for expert’s presentation-

      Each of the experts should relate their expertise to the textbook, expand it and look at it from various points of views. For eg- baking can be linked to food or benefits of microorganisms fungi (yeast). Policeman can explain about law and order and how citizen’s can assist the maintenance of law and order.

      Each expert should be encouraged to give some actionable information to the students that they can try out instantly or at home. For eg- the baker can give an easy recipe for home-made bread. The policeman can teach students how to file an FIR.

      Presentations can be carried out either on Friday afternoon or on Saturday morning so the students get a chance to visit the place or get enough time at home to try out at home.

      The presentation should last a maximum of 40 minutes and should be followed by a detailed question and answer session for another half an hour. Students should be encouraged to ask questions. They will, if the presentation is interesting enough!

      The teacher or expert can give assignments or projects to the students on the same topic as a follow up activity which may involve visit the place of work be it a bakery or a police station a jail etc.

 Domain-Wise Samples of What Experts Can Present

We cannot create observers by saying ‘‘observe,’’ but by giving them the power and the means for this observation. And these means are procured through education of the senses.

-Maria Montessori.

The Manifesto proposes the following ideas-

1)     Baker- explains the baking process and its ecosystem| His daily routine-  when he wakes up, when he finishes his job, where and how he sources materials |their family life| A small demonstration| Invite to visit a bakery | Readymade Instructions to bake home-made bread using yeast

2)    Firemen- talks about his work- the dangers of fire |types of extinguishers | their family life| what happens during a fire emergency| a fire drill demonstration |Importance of safety | Invite to the fire station

3)    Policemen- explains about his profession and the importance of law and order|How the police perceive society and how people perceive them| why people don’t trust them| their family life| Process of Filing an FIR | explains the basics of the law |working hours |treatment of prisoners in jails| the process of investigating crime| Invite to the police station

4)    Banker- explains the role of banking| calculation of money and interest rate| the concepts of lending and borrowing and their role in creating businesses and entrepreneurs|plastic money| e-commerce and internet money transactions| their family life|Invite to the bank

5)    Organic farmer- difference between organic and regular farming|nutrition value and taste of organic produce| Effects of nutrition on health |How to grow vegetables in your backyard |basics of composting| Tips for a school kitchen garden| Invite to a farm | Tasting an organic fruit vs a regular fruit| | their family life

6)    Doctor/Nurse-  Importance of health and hygiene|types of illnesses in the area and how to prevent them| Invite to a hospital| How to administer CPR | Importance of First Aid | How to put together a First Aid Kit | The importance of blood donation and knowing our blood group | Family life|

7)    Lawyer/Judge- Citizen’s rights and responsibilities|Filing an FIR | out of court settlements, negotiation and compromise| Civil and Criminal Cases | Class-Action Suits|  Family life|

8)    Mayor/ Municipal official- Roles and responsibility|Describe where water comes from how it is supplied| keeping the city clean |current waste management practices| treatment of beggars and mentally ill| Family life|

9)    Successful entrepreneur- How to start a business|Characteristics of an entrepreneur| Characteristics of a customer| how to raise funds|Invite to their company| Family life| How to market a product | Tips on how to raise funds for a school project|

10)   Social Worker- Role of a social worker in society|Value of volunteering |importance of community service| how can kids participate| social problems and how to overcome them|how criminals are born| Invite to their NGO| Family life |

How To Invite An Expert

1.     Give preference to inviting a parent as an expert.

2.    Compose a formal letter from the school and ask for an appointment from the expert.

3.    Show the letter to the person and agree on the date and time.

4.    The teacher can appoint the best students to invite guests on behalf of the school (develop leadership potential)

5.    Give experts the topics to cover so that they have enough preparation time.

6.    A minimum of a week’s notice needs to be given.

Part II –Learning by Doing

The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible—and achieve it, generation after generation.

—Pearl S. Buck

Aim- Building and Creating For Self – Transformation and turning the school into a hub of local innovation through community collaboration.

1)      Build A Nature Lab- Creating or Enhancing the botony, zoology and geology labs by collecting and systematically classifying locally available samples of leaves, insects, ants, flowers, stones & pebbles, seeds, bones bird feathers, varieties of grasses etc

2)       Create/maintain and learn from a kitchen garden-

“The guy taught me how to be a good organic gardener and to compost. He grew everything to perfection. I never had better food in my life. That’s when I began to appreciate organic fruits and vegetables.”- Steve Jobs in Walter Issacsson’s biography

Understanding the basics of organic farming- Masanobu Fukuoka’s book ‘One Straw Revolution’ can serve as initial inspiration.

3)      Understand Government and Democracy by creating one at school- Hold an election for the school parliament | Design flyers | Publish candidate and party manifesto | Participate in a democratic electoral process | Hold debates etc (Instead of teaching democracy and government). Check out this TED video by Diana Laufenberg, 2010

4)      Maintain a School blog - (More Coming Soon)

5)      Edit a Wikipedia article- (More Coming Soon)

6)      DIY System Tinkering lab setup

               Websites for reference-

      Squishy Circuits- Make conducting home made dough and use it as a basic electrical circuit. Engg 101 http://www.stthomas.edu/squishycircuits

      Arvind Gupta- Making simple educational toys for teaching with easily available materials. Link To TED Video .  Teaching aids, models & props to teach students made from trash - Science Toys from trash

      Kiran Bir Sethi- Achieving better school results by inspiring students about social change. Link To TED Video

      Adafruit- Do It Yourself (DIY) electrical and electronics education kits http://learn.adafruit.com 

7)      Design a Social Awareness campaign -

Take a local Environmental issue like pollution, a Social issue like speaking out against child labour,  take a stand against buying things made with child labour and against alcohol and drug abuse, Design street play or a skit, or a mime, raise funds for educating poor kids etc

8)      Create a solar photo voltaic/solar thermal setup/ installation - (More Coming Soon)

9)      Create a Rain Water Harvesting System- (More Coming Soon)

10)  Mid-day meals programme run and maintained solely by children-

This includes everything from buying groceries, cutting vegetables, and cleaning their own plates. Children should also be encouraged to maintain the accounts and even raise funds if required. The actual process needs to be supervised by the teacher until the responsibility is delegated to students who the teacher is sure have understood the process.

How To Accomplish Learning By Doing?

      Select one project, get information from the internet and brainstorm on how it can be done.

      Create a systematic, step by step  plan of execution

      Learn the art of decision making, problem solving, brainstorming- use flow charts, mind maps

       Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand - Chinese proverb

 This document is for everyone.

   If you believe you deserved a better education but didn’t get one because it was too expensive you can volunteer your services as an expert.

  If you are a parent you can encourage your kid to learn by doing and building self-confidence instead of focusing only on grades and degrees.

   If you are a student you can take leadership to promote the NTM in your school, collaborate with friends and spread the word on the internet.

As you might have noticed already, The New Teaching Manifesto is a work in progress and your ideas are always welcome. Write to me at chetanwpinto+NTM@gmail.com. I appreciate criticism as long as a small part of the New Teaching Manifesto is actually tried out.

Upcoming Changes- 

• An entire new section on teacher training including lesson plans
• Video links for Part 1 and Part 2
• Updates based on user reviews and recommendations

Click to view and download as PDF

The New Teaching Manifesto is released under a Creative Commons License. You are free to use it as long as you acknowledge the source as ‘The New Teaching Manifesto’.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.