Creative Knowledge was released on the occasion of inaugration of Ritu Sinha Knowledge Centre for Creative Learning at School of Creative Learning on December 27, 2009. Visit Picasaweb RSKCCL for RSKCCL Inaugration pictures.
Category Archives: Books
How to start a game?
Creative Learning requires development of activities in the form of games. In order to organise these activities, we should adopt the prevalent methods of collecting players, choosing leaders, making pairs or teams, etc. We shall first discuss the general principles involved in these activities.
For a PDF of the same, click Creative Learning Games I
Collecting Players
Before starting a game, the first task is to collect players. Two or three children decide as to which game is to be played. Then they join hands and go on chanting in loud voice by shaking joined hands up and down.
We want to play Queenie, Queenie.
We want to play Queenie, Queenie
Who wants to play Queenie, Queenie.
Who wants to play Queenie, Queenie.
Or
Come and join, come and join.
Join the ring, join the ring.
(Replace Queenie, Queenie by the name of the game played).
On hearing the chanting the children interested in playing “Queenie, Queenie” join hands and start chanting. This way the voice becomes louder and louder. The process continues till the required number of children have given consent to play the game.
Read stories from the first day
(Excerpt from the book Creative Learning by Vijoy Prakash)
One of the interesting findings of researches on learning is that the child should be exposed to reading books from quite early in life. This process should start as early as possible without even waiting for the child to show responses to the stimuli. Now it is also being suggested that a child should be read a story or shown pictorial stories right from his/her birth, when he/she returns from the hospital. It may appear that the child is not responding to the story or is not looking at the storybook, but gradually, it would be realised that the faculty of reception sharpens. It has been found that if a child is read a storybook right from birth, he/she may start reading the book right from the age of 3-4 years.
Similarly, if a child is exposed to songs, tunes and rhythms right from birth, s/he becomes more receptive to the rhythmic tunes. If a child were shown more and more pictures from early childhood, his/her spatial intelligence would be more developed in comparison to the child who is not shown any such pictures. Since information is received through sensory organs, all sensory organs should be fully developed to receive information. Hence, games and activities must be designed for developing all sensory organs in early childhood.
Grandma’s Techniques
Many children show great reluctance in eating. There is an age-old tradition to make various designs of ‘rotis’ (breads) for children. Some breads will look like animals, for example, goat, or birds like parrot, or in some geometrical designs. These designs are not only suited to the temperament of the child to facilitate eating, it also makes them learn about various animals, birds, geometrical designs, etc.. Even if the child may be reluctant to eat, he eats the bread, when it is presented in the form of some geometrical design. Many parents further facilitate eating by linking the design to some story. For example, they may narrate a story of a bird and present the bread in the form of the bird to the child.
Dining Time Interaction
(Excerpt from the book Creative Learning by Vijoy Prakash)
Dining time is another great occasion for learning. Dining together in a family situation is helpful not only in binding the family together, it helps in understanding likes and dislikes of family members also. It is also useful in effecting emotional closeness among family members.
Traditionally, mother and grandmother used to remain present during dining time of the children and other persons, even if they were not dining themselves. This was helpful in showing concern for the family members.
Dining time interactions can be an extremely useful period for learning. This period could be used for
• Learning the experiences of the children during the day in the school and outside.
• Telling the experience of parents during the day.
• Telling the history of the family and the village.
• Discussion on the problems encountered during the day by different members of the family and possible solutions thereof
• Story/puzzle/jokes telling session by children/parents
• Discussion on any news items or important events of the day.
Interact with children during bedtime
(Excerpt from the book Creative Learning by Vijoy Prakash)
When young infants go to bed, they expect their parents to be with them. This is a good occasion to interact with them. It has been seen that songs and stories narrated to them at this time have great impact on the development of their brains. Earlier, we had folk stories for these occasions. Now, as parents are living in a nuclear situation and are generally extremely busy people, most of them do not remember these stories. As such, they are not able to make best use of these occasions. There is an urgent need to collect such stories or to write new stories and supply them to young couples.
Shampa learns Hanuman Chalisa at 3 years
Shampa was born in a middle class family. When she was a child of 3 years, her mother Sharda Sinha, a teacher educator, used to sing Hanuman Chalisa (40 couplets in the praise of Lord Hanuman), when she went to sleep. She used to start singing, when she was going to sleep and continued till she was fast asleep. As a result, Shampa learnt Hanuman Chalisa by heart, even at the age of 2 years, which is a commendable feat for any child. Today Shampa is a teacher at Teacher’s Training College, Patna. She feels that such techniques used by her mother had a great impact on her life.
Develop family as the first school
(Excerpt from the book Creative Learning by Vijoy Prakash)
Family is said to be the first school, but we have done little to develop it as the first school. Swami Dayanand had identified father, mother and teacher to be the three pillars of education of a child. In Satpatha Brahman it was said,
matriman pitrimanaachryavan purusho ved
(A man is knowledgeable, if he is under the guidance of learned mother, father, and teacher.)
Unless all pillars are equally strong, the child cannot be said to be properly educated. Today couples get married. They also have children. But, they are never trained in the methods of rearing the children. They are never told how they should steer the child in the elementary stages of learning. It has now been established that about 90% of the development of brain take place before the end of 5 years. Since couples do not know how to take care of the child, they depend mainly upon hit and trial methods. Thus, children may not attain full development of brain as per their own potential. As such, they are not fully prepared to take advantage of the learning system, when they enter the school system.
Abhivanchiton ka shikshadhikar: Educational Rights for Underprivileged
The book Abhivanchiton ka Shikshadhikar – Education for Underprivileged, authored by Vijoy Prakash and Prof Shailendra Kr Shrivastava has been published by Rajkamal Publication, New Delhi.
About the book
Modern education system serves the needs of upper and upper middle class only. Confined to their own world realities Lower middle and middle class children don’t get anything get anything except imitating others. We have tried to take education to underprivileged and marginalised, but we are yet to assess the real impact of this education system on them. This book tries to develop parameters of assessment of nature, quality and quantity of education to different communities. At the same time it provides the assessment of education in different communities based on the detailed census of one Panchayat.
Based on the action research the book also suggests a practical model for making positive intervention empowering underprivileged to take better advantage of the education system.It also underscores that underprivileged children are as much valuable capital as are children from well off families. What is needed is an honest and sincere effort to bring them into mainstream. For this purpose the book also suggets modalities for broadsteaming of education for mainstreming of children.
Address on the occasion of the Book Release Function
Address of Sri Vijoy Prakash on the occasion of the Book Release Function of the book EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY
His Excellency the Governor of Bihar Sri Raghunadan Lal Bhatia and dear friends,
I express my deep gratitude to His Excellency for having spared his valuable time to release our book Education for Democracy. This book was born out of the desire to see a democratic society based on the principles enshrined in the preamble of the Constitution of India. Sir, in last sixty years the shoots of democratic governance has spread and matured in our country but we wanted to see how much deeper has the roots of democracy gone into the soil. We understand that development of democratic values in citizens is the primary condition for the success of democracy in a country. As children are our future citizens, in 2004 we tried to study the orientation of democratic values in 1366 school going children in the age group of 11-18 years in the district of Patna and Samastipur.The result is with you in the form of the book Education For Democracy. Continue reading Address on the occasion of the Book Release Function
Education for Democracy
More than half a century has passed since India had adopted democracy as a way of governance. We had also visualised evolution of a democratic society through this process. How far have we moved towards realisation of this goal? How does our adolescent mind think about democracy and democratic way of living? Is our education system capable of producing a citizen as enshrined in our constitution? Now the time has come to study and analyse the mind of school going children who are going to run the future course of our society so as to decide the nature of interventions for our march towards a democratic society.
The book provides an in-depth study conducted on the school going students of Bihar (India) who are going to be the main participants of the democracy in the country. It has tried to diagnose various issues critical for the development of democratic way of living. It also suggests special interventions in the form of ‘Education for Democracy’, which can pave way for evolution of a democratic society. In this connection it outlines the nature of Social Science Laboratories to be established in schools and colleges. It also suggests establishment of Family School to prepare citizens for a democratic society. Continue reading Education for Democracy
Creative Learning: A Handbook for Teachers and Trainers
We are gradually moving towards a knowledge-based society, which sustains on the strength of information to be used in all walks of life. The phenomenal rise in the use of information marks the movement of the society into a new phase of socio-economic order.
In this era of information-based socio-economic order, creativity is going to become an all-important quality. The challenge before us is to design an education system which may enable us to develop creativity in society so that we can acquire the ever-expanding base of information and apply it to the best use of humanity. The book examines the basic concepts of education and suggests approaches and methods for their improvement. Designed as a handbook for teachers, trainers, academicians and parents, this book offers a comprehensive plan for the overhaul of our education system, which will enable it to meet the demands of the present, and the fast-approaching future.
Continue reading Creative Learning: A Handbook for Teachers and Trainers