Neha: So we were talking about organizing the book. Me: Hmmm… so what the things to be kept in mind before designing the curriculum. Neha: Before that let’s be clear about what is our aim? What is our aim? Our aim is to create a book and it should teach the students how to have good communication skills. Me: Hmmm…. And for that we must know about the factors that affect the learning? I mean, if there are factors that affect the learning? Neha: Yes, there are certain factors which determine the learning of a student. Me: Elaborate. Neha : The factors which affect the learning are PCM. Me: Physics, chemistry and maths. Neha: No… P stands for PERSONALITY, C is COGNITIVE STYLE, and M is MOTIVATION. Me: Wow…. It has already started looking difficult. Neha: No, in fact it is very easy and it will help you in organizing the study material more lucidly. See… cognitive style means the special way in which a person looks at anything. Me: Like…? Neha: Like the way a person perceives. If we see a car, I would sat “How beautiful is this…. So comfortable…!!!” Me: Hmmm…. And I will say it is too expensive. Neha: Yes, cognitive style is actually the way a person organizes one’s universe. For me, your study table is dirty, but for you it is arranged that way. Me: But what cognitive style has to do with learning? Are you talking about the taste? We say that some person has a taste for something. Neha: Perhaps Yes…!!! It is seen that people learn something fast, if they have some acquaintance with it. It is also seen that people who are passionate about certain things learn a lot simply by reading or studying on their own. They have developed a taste. Or perhaps it is the approach …some people feel that something is difficult and make it difficult for themselves, some people are so interested in something that they put their everything to know about it and they simply master. Me: Any example…? Neha: Eklavya…!! Me: So…a good study material must have topics, which an individual find interesting, according to the cognitive style of the student. Neha: Yes. Me: Ohhh kayy…! But it will not be cost effective idea because for most of the students most of the material will be useless. Neha: Mmmm…. You can put topics of general interest like health, style, money, interviews, education et cetra. Me: What were the other factors? Motivation and personality…? Neha: Hmmm…. See motivation is the most important factor. Motivation means the reason why someone wants to achieve something and what satisfaction one will experience while laboring for that. Take for example the students who join some English classes. Now, no one learns a language for the sake of it. Different people have different reasons. Me: Like…? Neha: Like, some people want to learn English for educational purposes- like reading books, consulting journals, listening to lectures. Others want to use English on the social media like facebook, twitter, LinkedIn et cetra. Some want to learn English to get promotion i.e. for professional growth. Some want to use it in FORMAL as well as INFORMAL setup. Some want to learn English so that they can teach their kids or to speak in English in parents-teacher meeting. Some people want to learn English so that they can impress others. Me: Means if I know the motivation part, I will come to know exactly why a person wants to learn English? Neha: In fact every English teacher should ask the student why do you want to learn English? And the answer will help the teacher to determine exactly how much should he teach the student? And not only this it will give the teacher a general idea of how much efforts a student is willing to put and thus can design the material (lesson plan) in a categorical manner so that any student can read only as much as it is required to reach the desired level. Me: Hmmm…. Personality…??? Neha: See… personality plays a crucial role in learning. Everyone cannot learn everything. Me: hmmm….. are there some advantageous personality traits? Neha: Of course…!!! Every student who wants to be a good communicator must make the maximum use of opportunities to communicate. He must try to encash every opportunity to learn. He must seek chances to experiment the acquired knowledge. (this creates fluency.) He must be willing to take risks of committing errors or be laughed at if such situation arises. A very important quality of a learner is his tolerance to ambiguity. The student must study to augment his learning and he must keep on analyzing himself by attending to the errors he committed. Me: How will he know about the errors? Neha: That comes by regular study. Reading voraciously. Me: Reading what? Neha: Reading eclectic things. Attempting the English Section and the General Knowledge Section of the question papers of IBPS or SSC is a very good exercise. It employs the brain while the student is trying to figure out the answers. And to study the explanations of the answers given at the end is the decisive factor in enhancing one’s knowledge and retaining it. Me: So, everyone has one’s own learning style based on one’s ability to associate things in a particular manner, and in order to be most effective, a teacher must design the syllabus according to the cognitive style, personality and attitude of the targeted student. Neha: Hmmm…. Me: But then there could be thousands to combination of PCM and it means that if there are 1000 students with 1000 different cognitive styles, 1000 motivations and 1000 personalities there must be 1000 different curriculum designed for them? Neha: Ideally…. Yes…!!! Me: Ohhh..Kay…!!! let’s talk about the “HOW” of it? Neha: The ideal syllabus should tell the student about 1. What they have done? 2. What they have to do/ 3. What are the problems which they would face? 4. How to remove those problems? 5. How to move ahead on the learning curve? That is to say, after reading the book the students should know what is necessary to have a good command over the language, and how they can have good communication skills. You should create the material such that after just reading it they can have the same level of understanding of learning the English language as you have. Remove every unnecessary detail. Make it crisp. … to-the-point. It should not be written in an academic tone, in an all-inclusive manner, seeing which students feel “ITNA KAUN PADHEGAA..??”. It must be written in a manner that the reader should want to read it again and again. It should serve as an aid to lifelong learning. Moreover, the material which you would design should enable the reader to 1. Learn like a child learn its MOTHER TONGUE. 2. To communicate on topics of general interests intelligently. 3. Should allow the reader to PARTICIPATE in reading the book ACTIVELY. 4. It should be written in a CONVERSATIONAL TONE. 5. Grammar should be there, but it should be only FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR. 6. It should include all the ideas and the tricks which can ENHANCE the VOCABULARY. Me: Structure it. Neha: There must be some introductory chapters, like A,B,C,D….in which you must TEACH the BASICS. And those basics must be written in PLAIN SIMPLE ENGLISH, so that they can master the basics easily. These basics should give them a clear understanding of what is expected of them when they are communicating in English. And once they master the basics they can read the rest of the book in any order they want. Plus, you must also include a lot of pictures so as to make it more lucid…. I mean if you can tell something by pictures, NEVER write anything for it. It will make your book more interesting. In fact, you should publish it on the internet, so as to get the maximum penetration. Plus, it would be more dynamic, and you can use it in several ways to invoke interest. Me: ….. Hmmm.
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 08:44:06 +0000
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