Teaching Grammar

Grammar is central to the teaching and learning of languages. It is also one of the more difficult aspects of language to teach well.

Many people, including language teachers, hear the word "grammar" and think of a fixed set of word forms and rules of usage. They associate "good" grammar with the prestige forms of the language, such as those used in writing and in formal oral presentations, and "bad" or "no" grammar with the language used in everyday conversation or used by speakers of nonprestige forms.

Language teachers who adopt this definition focus on grammar as a set of forms and rules. They teach grammar by explaining the forms and rules and then drilling students on them. This results in bored, disaffected students who can produce correct forms on exercises and tests, but consistently make errors when they try to use the language in context.

Other language teachers, influenced by recent theoretical work on the difference between language learning and language acquisition, tend not to teach grammar at all. Believing that children acquire their first language without overt grammar instruction, they expect students to learn their second language the same way. They assume that students will absorb grammar rules as they hear, read, and use the language in communication activities. This approach does not allow students to use one of the major tools they have as learners: their active understanding of what grammar is and how it works in the language they already know.

The communicative competence model balances these extremes. The model recognizes that overt grammar instruction helps students acquire the language more efficiently, but it incorporates grammar teaching and learning into the larger context of teaching students to use the language. Instructors using this model teach students the grammar they need to know to accomplish defined communication tasks.

Material for this section was drawn from “Grammar in the foreign language classroom: Making principled 

Section Contents

Goals and Techniques for Teaching Grammar
Strategies for Learning Grammar
Developing Grammar Activities
Using Textbook Grammar Activities
Assessing Grammar Proficiency
Resources

Teaching Listening

Listening is the language modality that is used most frequently. It has been estimated that adults spend almost half their communication time listening, and students may receive as much as 90% of their in-school information through listening to instructors and to one another. Often, however, language learners do not recognize the level of effort that goes into developing listening ability.

Far from passively receiving and recording aural input, listeners actively involve themselves in the interpretation of what they hear, bringing their own background knowledge and linguistic knowledge to bear on the information contained in the aural text. Not all listening is the same; casual greetings, for example, require a different sort of listening capability than do academic lectures. Language learning requires intentional listening that employs strategies for identifying sounds and making meaning from them.

Listening involves a sender (a person, radio, television), a message, and a receiver (the listener). Listeners often must process messages as they come, even if they are still processing what they have just heard, without backtracking or looking ahead. In addition, listeners must cope with the sender's choice of vocabulary, structure, and rate of delivery. The complexity of the listening process is magnified in second language contexts, where the receiver also has incomplete control of the language.

Given the importance of listening in language learning and teaching, it is essential for language teachers to help their students become effective listeners. In the communicative approach to language teaching, this means modeling listening strategies and providing listening practice in authentic situations: those that learners are likely to encounter when they use the language outside the classroom.

Section Contents

Goals and Techniques for Teaching Listening
Strategies for Developing Listening Skills
Developing Listening Activities
Using Textbook Listening Activities
Assessing Listening Proficiency
Resources

Teaching Speaking

Many language learners regard speaking ability as the measure of knowing a language. These learners define fluency as the ability to converse with others, much more than the ability to read, write, or comprehend oral language. They regard speaking as the most important skill they can acquire, and they assess their progress in terms of their accomplishments in spoken communication.

Language learners need to recognize that speaking involves three areas of knowledge:

• Mechanics (pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary): Using the right words in the right order with the correct pronunciation
• Functions (transaction and interaction): Knowing when clarity of message is essential (transaction/information exchange) and when precise understanding is not required (interaction/relationship building)
• Social and cultural rules and norms (turn-taking, rate of speech, length of pauses between speakers, relative roles of participants): Understanding how to take into account who is speaking to whom, in what circumstances, about what, and for what reason.

In the communicative model of language teaching, instructors help their students develop this body of knowledge by providing authentic practice that prepares students for real-life communication situations. They help their students develop the ability to produce grammatically correct, logically connected sentences that are appropriate to specific contexts, and to do so using acceptable (that is, comprehensible) pronunciation.

Section Contents

Goals and Techniques for Teaching Speaking
Strategies for Developing Speaking Skills
Developing Speaking Activities
Using Textbook Speaking Activities
Assessing Speaking Proficiency
Resources

Material for this section was drawn from “Spoken language: What it is and how to teach it” by Grace Stovall Burkart, in Modules for the professional preparation of teaching assistants in foreign languages (Grace Stovall Burkart, ed.; Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1998)

Teaching Reading

Traditionally, the purpose of learning to read in a language has been to have access to the literature written in that language. In language instruction, reading materials have traditionally been chosen from literary texts that represent "higher" forms of culture.

This approach assumes that students learn to read a language by studying its vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure, not by actually reading it. In this approach, lower level learners read only sentences and paragraphs generated by textbook writers and instructors. The reading of authentic materials is limited to the works of great authors and reserved for upper level students who have developed the language skills needed to read them.

The communicative approach to language teaching has given instructors a different understanding of the role of reading in the language classroom and the types of texts that can be used in instruction. When the goal of instruction is communicative competence, everyday materials such as train schedules, newspaper articles, and travel and tourism Web sites become appropriate classroom materials, because reading them is one way communicative competence is developed. Instruction in reading and reading practice thus become essential parts of language teaching at every level.

Reading Purpose and Reading Comprehension

Reading is an activity with a purpose. A person may read in order to gain information or verify existing knowledge, or in order to critique a writer's ideas or writing style. A person may also read for enjoyment, or to enhance knowledge of the language being read. The purpose(s) for reading guide the reader's selection of texts.

The purpose for reading also determines the appropriate approach to reading comprehension. A person who needs to know whether she can afford to eat at a particular restaurant needs to comprehend the pricing information provided on the menu, but does not need to recognize the name of every appetizer listed. A person reading poetry for enjoyment needs to recognize the words the poet uses and the ways they are put together, but does not need to identify main idea and supporting details. However, a person using a scientific article to support an opinion needs to know the vocabulary that is used, understand the facts and cause-effect sequences that are presented, and recognize ideas that are presented as hypotheses and givens.

Reading research shows that good readers

• Read extensively
• Integrate information in the text with existing knowledge
• Have a flexible reading style, depending on what they are reading
• Are motivated
• Rely on different skills interacting: perceptual processing, phonemic processing, recall
• Read for a purpose; reading serves a function

Reading as a Process

Reading is an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the text, resulting in comprehension. The text presents letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs that encode meaning. The reader uses knowledge, skills, and strategies to determine what that meaning is.

Reader knowledge, skills, and strategies include

• Linguistic competence: the ability to recognize the elements of the writing system; knowledge of vocabulary; knowledge of how words are structured into sentences
• Discourse competence: knowledge of discourse markers and how they connect parts of the text to one another
• Sociolinguistic competence: knowledge about different types of texts and their usual structure and content
• Strategic competence: the ability to use top-down strategies (see Strategies for Developing Reading Skills for descriptions), as well as knowledge of the language (a bottom-up strategy)

The purpose(s) for reading and the type of text determine the specific knowledge, skills, and strategies that readers need to apply to achieve comprehension. Reading comprehension is thus much more than decoding. Reading comprehension results when the reader knows which skills and strategies are appropriate for the type of text, and understands how to apply them to accomplish the reading purpose.

Section Contents

Goals and Techniques for Teaching Reading
Strategies for Developing Reading Skills
Developing Reading Activities
Using Textbook Reading Activities
Assessing Reading Proficiency
Resources

Teaching Writing

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Section Contents (will be available soon)

Goals and Techniques for Teaching Writing
Strategies for Developing Writing Skills
Developing Writing Activities
Using Textbook Writing Activities
Assessing Writing Proficiency
Resources

Reading is basic to democracy

Opinion » Lead January 19, 2011 Updated: January 19, 2011 23:02 IST Class 1 to Class 12 - Lessons, Animations, Videos & more… Math, EVS, Science, English, SST… www.meritnation.com/CBSE

Krishna Kumar

TOPICS

education

higher education

preschool

teaching and learning

education

The teaching of reading during early childhood — when attitudes, habits and skills acquire life-long foundations — assumes crucial significance for the efficient functioning of democracy.

Literacy is the foundation of school education but in our country the term ‘literacy' is used almost exclusively in the context of adults. This is not surprising, given the embarrassingly large share of India in the global count of adults who can neither read nor write. Why India's share has not dwindled significantly is partly related to the fact that the years spent by children in primary schools do not necessarily make them literate. Many who acquire a tenuous grip on literacy during those years fail to retain it in the absence of opportunities to read, compounded by elimination from school before completing the upper primary classes. Even in the case of those who acquire lasting literacy, schooling fails to impart the urge to read as a matter of habit. Those who learn to perceive reading as a means to expand knowledge and awareness are a minority. Sensational surveys of children's poor performance in reading tests throw little light on the deeper problems that the teaching of reading in India suffers from. If these problems are not addressed in an institutionalised manner, the newly enacted law on the right to education will remain ineffective.

The ability to decipher isolated letters of the alphabet is not a promising beginning in the child's progress towards becoming literate. However, this is precisely what conventional wisdom tells teachers to focus on. The wisdom is based on millennia-old practices which enabled a few children to become literate. When we apply this wisdom today, we forget that the method worked in a socio-cultural context which was altogether different from our context now. When literacy was confined to a thin upper strata of society, the teacher demanded from his wards a mastery over letters and sounds for its own sake. It took years to acquire such mastery, and the methods used to ensure it included oppressive drills and a punitive regime that can have no place today. When people feel nostalgic about traditional education, they forget that it was based on a view of childhood few would approve today. Moreover, the traditional system had no intention to cover all children. The methods it used for the teaching of reading are unsuitable for a universal system of education. The traditional approach does not recognise the child's nature and agency, nor does it respect individual differences.

New approach

The traditional methods are incompatible with the modern psychology of childhood and the knowledge available today on the acquisition of language-related skills. Contemporary expertise is based on the premise that children have a natural drive to explore and understand the world; hence, reading should give them the opportunity to make sense of printed texts from the beginning. ‘Making sense' as an experience involves relating to the text, generating a personal engagement and interpretation. If children are not encouraged to relate to the text, or if the text they are given has little meaning or relevance, the outcome will be a crude kind of literacy, which will remain isolated from their intellectual and emotional development. If this wider meaning of reading is applied to make an assessment, our system of primary education will arouse far greater concern than children's test scores in achievement surveys do. Persistent effort under the pressure to perform does make children capable of reading aloud a written text, but they fail to find any meaning in it. And the ability to decipher a text mechanically does not encourage children to actively look for new texts to read. The anecdote narrated by ChinnaChacko, a former member of the NCERT, in a paper she presented at the International Reading Association in 1971 continues to hold true. When she asked a child to read aloud, he asked: “With the text or without the text?” Reflecting on the methods used in Indian schools for teaching children how to read, ChinnaChacko wrote: “Many things are done the same way they have been done for centuries and, as a result, our primary teacher-training schools and primary schools are like museums in which old ways are carefully preserved.”

The cost of this museum-mentality is high, if we take into account the role that a reading public plays in a democratic order. The practice of democracy assumes both the habit and the capacity in all citizens to engage with matters which transcend personal or immediate reality. We can call it the metaphysics of daily life under modernity. It compels every member — without exception — to share a collective anguish and to respond to it in one way or another. Engagement with this expanded universe cannot be sustained without the tools of literacy, in addition to — and not as a substitute of — the oral means of interaction. In this model, reading serves as more than a skill; it becomes an aspect of culture. It must enable citizens to reflect on what is going on, not merely a skill to decipher printed texts. From this larger perspective, the teaching of reading during early childhood — when attitudes, habits and skills acquire life-long foundations — acquires crucial significance for the efficient functioning of democracy. This perspective implies drastic changes in the currently practised pedagogy of reading in pre-schools and the primary classes. Instead of letter-recognition and mechanical decoding, pedagogic effort must focus on building bridges between words and meanings, and on nurturing an interpretive stance from the earliest stage. This kind of pedagogy requires meaningful texts and a sustained use of children's literature. The texts used for the teaching of reading should treat the child with dignity, showing respect for the child's inner drive to interpret and relate. The sociology of the text content is equally important. We need texts that make children excited about the social and cultural diversity that they encounter in their ethos. We also need kind and affectionate teachers who are themselves habitual readers and can encourage each child to perceive reading as a means to pursue his or her own interest.

NCERT's role

A 40-part series of books for beginner readers, published by the NCERT, successfully responds to these various expectations. Entitled Barkha, this series was prepared by the department of early literacy and libraries under a special project of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. The little books included in this series mark several innovations, including those in design and illustration, and not just in the conception of child-centred narratives. In place of the usual patronising attitude towards children that we see in educational literature, the Barkha books present real children, doing the kinds of things ordinary children do at home and in the neighbourhood. A radical attempt has been made in these books not just to move away from stereotypes, but to challenge them. It is the first time in India that a graded reading series, with a literary approach to reading, has been introduced. The early literacy department of the NCERT, which created this series, has been working with several State governments, encouraging them to develop similar material in their languages and to train teachers to adopt the imaginative approach to reading what Barkha represents.

Strangely enough, the NCERT has decided to close down the department that was promoting this approach. This is not the first time in India, or within the NCERT itself, that a distinct attempt to focus on reading and libraries has been prematurely abandoned. Institutional vicissitudes are much too common to require comment. One can only hope that the Ministry of Human Resource Development, which controls the NCERT, will review this decision and restore early literacy's academic identity. Strong institutional leadership is required to motivate State governments, NGOs and private publishers to take children's literature, especially its neglected aspects like design and illustration, seriously. The illustration copied here from a children's book recently published by the National Book Trust shows how insensitive even a reputed publishing house can be towards violence on women. After decades of advocacy for gender-sensitive material for children, the larger scenario remains quite alarming. Many NGOs have now taken to publishing for children, and in the absence of expert guidance and institutionalised review processes, they are churning out poor quality material, often with explicit ideological bias. State governments purchase such material with the copious funds that the SSA provides for classroom libraries. The NCERT does need to play a leadership role in this anarchic scene.

Keywords: education, higher education, NCERT, educational issues, literacy programmes, children education

Posted by Chaudhari narayan prasad at 20:42

Revolution, Counter Revolution And Indian Constitution

Dr Ambedkar Architect of Indian Constitution

Ambedkar’s work ‘revolution and counter revolution’ is an alternative version of Indian history. This version is a necessary alternative to the Vedic and puranic interpretation of Indian history. The work revolution and counter revolution is a piece of subaltern history. Indian history which is written from the viewpoint of Brahmanism and patriarchy, is rewritten by Ambedkar through the lens of oppressed and marginalized of course good amount of reading, observation and research have been invested by Babasaheb in this venture. It also points to the fact that one needs to correct and reinterpret the history for a social change in favor of the oppressed. This is a complete deconstruction a reformation that starts from the very root of oppression.

There are many interesting revealing in this book to Ambedkar there was a period of time when Shudras were kings to him the first turning point in India’s political history is the emergence of kingdom of Magadha in 642 b.c. founder was Sisunag and he belonged to the non-aryan race of nagas it grew to an empire and then in 413 b.c nagas were succeeded by nandas in 322 b.c nanda king was deposed by chandragupta who established the maurya dynasty under emperor Ashoka the empire became so vast and Ashoka made Buddhism the religion of the state this became a blow to Brahmanism. Brahmins lost the state patronage and means of occupation the revolution that happened amid brahminism was Buddhism for almost 140 years of maurya rule brahmins lived as depressed class. Pushyamitra who was a samvedi brahmin brought an end to maurya empire and thus happened the decline of buddhism this was the counter revolution that happened. History of India is not uniform it has a brahminic phase, Buddhist phase and Hindu phase.

Buddhism emerged as an answer to the evils that existed in brahminic society, buddhism was the revolution against brahminic society. Decline of Buddhism emerged as a result of the revival of brahminism under the king Pushyamitra, with the help of Manusmirti this lead to the establishment of hindu religion with its rigid caste system and suppression of women.varna system was replaced by rigid caste system with strict division of labour and endogamy. Manu smriti was the gospel of counter revolution against Buddhism. ‘If the Revolution of Pushyamitra was a purely political revolution there was no need for him to have launched a campaign of persecution against Buddhism which was not very different to the campaign of persecution launched by the Muhammad of Gazni against Hinduism. This is one piece of circumstantial evidence which proves that the aim of Pushyamitra was to overthrow Buddhism and establish Brahmanism in its place. Another piece of evidence which shows that the origin and purpose of the revolution by Pushyamitra against the Mauryas was to destroy Buddhism and establish Brahmanism is evidenced by the promulgation of Manu Smriti as a code of laws. ‘(Revolution and counter revolution in ancient India, Ambedkar, b.r,)(date unknown)

Muslim invasions starting from 7th century AD lead to the fall of Buddhism. Even the muslim invasions targeted hinduism but it survived because of state support Buddhism was badly affected because of lack of state support and mass murders of monks. Indian history prior to Muslim invasion was the history of struggle between Buddhists and brahmins.

if Buddhism was the revolution and establishment of hindu religion was the counter revolution then in the modern times Indian history witnessed the revival of this revolution. This revolution was lead by Babasaheb Ambedkar, his revolution was the greatest revolution that India ever witnessed. He revolutionized Buddhism and rejected Hinduism with its very basis of Vedas and shastras and he burned manusmriti that emerged as a counter revolution to Buddhism. When the reformation he aimed didn’t materialize from within he went outside the frame work and challenged the structure by the mass conversion. His period and the times after that witnessed the greatest dalit assertion and constitution of India became the gospel for the revolution renewed by Babasaheb Ambedkar if Buddhism, the revolution was the thesis then Hindu religion, the counter revolution was the antithesis. Buddhism was a proposition then hindu religion, the counter thesis negated it then Babasaheb’s revolution, is it a synthesis? certainly not, because synthesis is a stage where conflict is resolved between synthesis and antithesis by reconciling their common truth and arriving at a new proposition, this didn’t happen Babasaheb went out of the hindu structure completely and  the conflict was not resolved and it’s still going on. The struggle in front of all of us who believes in this revolution is to keep this revolution lively till Buddhism gets the recognition it deserves, it’s not even recognized as a historical phase in Indian history by society.

Babasaheb officially destroyed the authority of manusmriti by drafting the Indian constitution that established rights of Dalits and women as human rights. As a part of the fieldwork a survey was conducted to know the awareness of second year MSW students regarding constitution of India. The questionnaire consisted of three parts. First part was to analyze the knowledge of students regarding the history of constitution like, when did it come into force, drafting committee chairman etc. Second part was to figure out the knowledge of students regarding the structure of the constitution like number of parts, schedules etc. third part was to analyze the knowledge of students regarding the themes like which part abolishes untouchability, which part talks about right to education etc, sample size was 123,.survey was conducted in Mumbai, Pune , Satara, among the MSW students.

For the question, when did the constitution of India came into force only 36 were able to give the correct answer, the most rightly answered question was who was the chairman of Indian constitution drafting committee 91 answered  it rightly as Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar compared to the awareness regarding history, awareness on structure and themes were very less. For example only 17 gave right answer for the question, how many parts are there in Indian constitution, only 21 gave the right answer for the question, which part consist of fundamental rights. not even 10 were able to write all our fundamental rights correctly, only 37 mentioned correctly 73^rd and 74^th amendment, only 40 answered correctly the article that abolishes untouchability, 44 didn’t answer the question, ‘do you think it’s important to know Indian constitution’.

My argument is that students even from MSW course have a very general understanding of constitution. This is because of the way it’s taught. In our schools and colleges only some primary information regarding constitution is shared. In-depth and organized knowledge should be provided regarding constitution right from school level and this knowledge should be organized around history, structure and themes because as Indians we owe our obligation to constitution of India. It is the document that replaced manusmriti and also it is the origin of any policy, legislation and reform for social change.

India’s present political plight is because the political class, lawyers and judges ignore the British Constitutional ethos on which Ambedkar modelled the Constitution. Three books that help us understand that ethos. By A.G. NOORANI

India’s present political plight is because the political class, lawyers and judges ignore the British Constitutional ethos on which Ambedkar modelled the Constitution. Three books that help us understand that ethos. By A.G. NOORANI

“IT would suit the conditions of this country better to adopt the parliamentary system of Constitution, the British type of Constitution with which we are familiar,” Vallabhbhai Patel said in the Constituent Assembly of India on July 15, 1947 (Constituent Assembly Debates (CAD); Volume 4, page 578). He was reporting on the conclusion arrived on June 7, 1947, at a joint meeting of the Provincial Constitution Committee, of which he was Chairman, and the Union Constitution Committee presided over by Jawaharlal Nehru.

A barrister himself, Patel overrode Gandhi’s objections and got Dr B.R. Ambedkar elected to the Constituent Assembly. This barrister of Gray’s Inn was steeped not only in British Constitutional Law and History, but, unlike other constitutional lawyers, was learned in Political Science as well. He was named Chairman of the Assembly’s Drafting Committee, in which capacity he constantly cited British precedents while explaining the provisions of the draft Constitution.

We have moved a long way since Prof. Myron Weiner wrote an essay on “India’s Two Political Cultures” in mid-1962. In his classification, “the first can be characterised as an emerging mass political culture and the second as an elite political culture” (Political Change in South Asia; Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay, Calcutta, p. 114). Even 50 years ago, this was a bit of an oversimplification. Now, the two cultures have merged in essentials, while retaining differences in appearances.

The Centre has faithfully copied the States on defections, unprincipled coalitions, misbehaviour in the legislature, securing political support through bribery, coarse rhetoric and much else. Ambedkar’s devotees laud him for his contribution to the uplift of the downtrodden Dalits, the “untouchables” of his time. They are not alone in ignoring his profound insights into constitutionalism and constitutional values. Does Mayawati care for them? Why pick on her alone, when you have the likes of Mulayam Singh Yadav, who praised a person accused of a crime like murder because he had voted for him; the three Lals of Haryana—Bansi, Bhajan and Devi—Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal, and Lalu Prasad and his predecessors in Bihar? What about the regimes of defectors (Charan Singh and Chandra Shekhar), that of the prince of corruption and political dishonesty, P.V. Narasimha Rao, and the ramshackle coalitions of H.D. Deve Gowda, Inder Kumar Gujral, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh?

Education Establishment: Giving Their All for Gold, Glory, and Gospel of Progressivism

By Bruce Deitrick Price

During the 1500s, the Spanish came to America (we were told in history classes) for "gold, glory, and gospel."  Merchants made money; soldiers distinguished themselves in war; Catholic priests spread religion.  The three Gs were a handy way to understand why people ventured across 3,000 miles of dangerous ocean in little boats.

Surprisingly enough, when we jump forward four centuries, we find that we can use this mnemonic to understand our Education Establishment, one of this country's more peculiar and inscrutable subcultures.

GOLD: Professors of education make excellent salaries without having special abilities or skills, other than being enthusiastic enforcers of the party line.  H.L. Mencken sized up the big picture all the way back in 1928 (from "The War On Intelligence"):

To take a Ph.D. in education in most American seminaries, is an enterprise that requires no more real acumen or information than taking a degree in window dressing. ... Most pedagogues ... are simply dull persons who have found it easy to get along by dancing to whatever tune happens to be lined out. At this dancing they have trained themselves to swallow any imaginable fad or folly, and always with enthusiasm. The schools reek with this puerile nonsense. Their programs of study sound like the fantastic inventions of comedians gone insane. The teaching of the elements is abandoned for a dreadful mass of useless fol-de-rols[.] ... Or examine a dozen or so of the dissertations ... turned out by candidates for the doctorate at any eminent penitentiary for pedagogues, say Teachers College, Columbia. What you will find is a state of mind that will shock you. It is so feeble that it is scarcely a state of mind at all.

GLORY: Education, in its progressive forms, attracts people who think that making a Brave New World is an accomplishment -- never mind how much you have to hurt people when forcing them into their new roles. 

Brave New Worlders want to tear down the old world and build a new one according to their specifications.  They become the bosses of the new society.  Wouldn't you want to join a new ruling elite?

Top educators gain glory by concocting new methods for the public schools.  There is great honor in being first with some twist of jargon or a fresh spin on a failed method.  The praise for Look-Say, New Math, Constructivism, Common Core, and all the other gimmicks can be compared to nuns singing about religious events.  (For one example: "Constructivism is a scientific theory that explains the nature of human knowledge. It is also the only known theory that explains children's construction of knowledge from birth to adolescence.")

Glory (that is, ego, self-esteem, prestige, pride) is quite a motivator.  Ordinary people, covered in glory, can more easily believe they are geniuses.  A hunger for glory explains a lot.

GOSPEL: That's the progressive doctrine according to John Dewey.  He provided the tools for a Marxist transformation of society.  His central teaching was that schools of education should be used to indoctrinate teachers, who in turn would indoctrinate their students and thus society.

"[T]his view of Dewey as the creator of an implementation strategy for a Marxian society is confirmed by what Lenin did in 1918 when he and the Bolsheviks were broke and the Russian Civil War was still raging. They started translating and publishing Dewey's books on education into Russian. ... Clearly the Kremlin considered Dewey's recommended educational practices to be an essential weapon to gain control over the Russian people."  That story has continued in America as well until the present day.  ("Credentialed to Destroy," page 49.)

The Gospel according to John Dewey can be summarized this way: we need to control the public schools so we can level the children -- that's the foundation for a better society.  Thus spake John Dewey.

This school-reconstruction saga started almost 100 years ago.  Gold, glory, and gospel persuaded many a professor to join the Socialist crusade.

These self-appointed experts told parents they were trying to educate children, when they were actually trying to destroy the society created by the parents and grandparents.

Here's where we ended up: "For well over a decade, college instructors have been complaining about students who are not only apathetic and unmotivated but who belittle and resist efforts to educate them[.] ... Without sugar coating it, Paul M. Levitt flatly declares, 'many college kids are a sorry lot. Preoccupied with their hair, their clothes, their cars, they have never developed a critical turn of mind and have no interest in doing so.' It does not bode well for higher education that many students entering college do not have--in the words of Peter Sacks -- 'anything resembling an intellectual life.'"

These kids, please note, are the ones going on to college.  You can imagine the devastation among the kids who drop out or quit after high school.  It seems that our students, at all levels, have little education and little interest in being educated.  That's what our Education Establishment has engineered in return for gold, glory, and gospel.

Bruce Deitrick Price explains education theories and methods on his site Improve-Education.org.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/01/education_establishment_giving_their_all_for_gold_glory_and_gospel.html#ixzz2rOQxbu4o
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Education

Education

© UNICEF India

Girl in classroom

Despite a major improvement in literacy rates during the 1990s, the number of  children who are not in school remains high. Gender disparities in education persist: far more girls than boys fail to complete primary school.

The literacy rate jumped from 52 per cent in 1991 to 65 per cent in 2001. The absolute number of non-literates dropped for the first time and gross enrolment in Government-run primary schools increased from over  19 million in the 1950s to 114 million by 2001.

90 million females in India are non-literate But 20 per cent of children aged 6 to14 are still not in school and millions of women remain non-literate despite the spurt in female literacy in the 1990s. 

Several problems persist: issues of ‘social’ distance – arising out of caste, class and gender differences – deny children equal opportunities. Child labour in some parts of the country and resistance to sending girls to school remain real concerns.

© UNICEF India

Girl at school

School attendance is improving: more children than ever between the ages of  6 and 14 are attending school across the country. The education system faces a shortage of resources, schools, classrooms and teachers.

There are also concerns relating to teacher training, the quality of the curriculum, assessment of learning achievements and the efficacy of school management. Given the scarcity of quality schools, many children drop out before completing five years of primary education; many of those who stay on learn little.

Girls belonging to marginalised social and economic groups are more likely to drop out of school at an early age.

With one upper primary school for every three primary schools, there are simply not enough upper primary centres even for those children who complete primary school. For girls, especially, access to upper primary centres becomes doubly hard.

Global Action Week of the Global Campaign for Education

Problems with school education in India

Articles

Problems with school education in India

Nitin Pandey, Founder & CEO, Parentune.com

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Guest Author Profile:-

Nitin Pandey is the Founder & CEO of Parentune.com, a young Leader in Child Development & Education domain. Nitin’s driven to making parentune a pro-parenting community empowering each parent to achieve more for his or her child. He is a Laureate & was handpicked for the Leadership Program at IIM-B. He engages as a Learning Faculty right from early years to schools to leading B-Schools. He's done workshops & focused courses with B-schools. He’s also authored various case studies & case analysis with top B- schools, like IIM A, IIM B, MDI, IMI & Symbiosis. Nitin has also been a strategic Advisor to firms & has also mentored start-ups in the last few years.

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Indian Education industry is a $90bn opportunity; Government’s outlay is the 3rd largest on education after US and China. We have more than 2 lac recognized middle and senior basic schools and more than 6,50,000 primary and junior basic schools in India. The allocation per child has increased from ~$390 in 2010 to ~ $800(é213%) in ’12. This is an impressive scale indeed and if we don’t go beyond, this would make India one of the most successful school ecosystems. Perhaps, there is a merit in going beyond scale and asking the not so often asked question about quality. So, how do we stand in terms of the quality of school education?

Let’s look at quality standards with PISA as a point of reference. (PISA) Project for International student assessment is an international comparative survey of 15 year-olds’ (46,000 learners) knowledge and skills across reading, mathematical and science literacy. India was represented by the states of Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh. The recently unveiled PISA report spread over 74 countries including the Plus nations (10 countries were added to the original 64), the two Indian states (Tamil Nadu & Himachal Pradesh) came up 72nd and 73rd out of 74 in both reading and Math. In short, India faired miserably across the three areas.

Well, it looks completely different, this school ecosystem, when it comes to the quality of education. To be fair to the schools and academic leaders across the nation, they understand this and are constantly on a lookout to improve this equation. Southern India especially has been open to trying several education solutions across the grades from III to VIII. It’s a sorry state, as not much of it has changed the learning outcomes. Learnmile is on the same mission, that to change this equation across teaching, learning. Here are some of the links which we find missing in the current day Education solutions.

1. Do we really understand the problem?

The amount of effort, energy we spend on understanding the need gap, root cause and core issues is far from desirable, from all quarters, be it the academia or the government. If the solutions are re-packaged with the same assumptions, how then, will they bring in any change? Doing same things again and again won’t change the outcome. There perhaps lies the big question in diagnosis of the problem, rather than trying to put answers to the wrong question. We need to constantly figure out the right question and ask ourselves before we try and fit a school solution in desperation to improving outcomes, “What am I trying to improve? What is the problem?”

2. Teacher is the problem?

The easiest way out to answering this tough question on quality is to put the blame on to the teacher. If this were to be the crucial cause, we would have long solved the quality conundrum in higher education in India. Teachers are at best a true reflection of our ecosystem’s standards. I have noticed that it has become a generalized statement, anyone can make, that the teacher is at fault or the teacher is not good enough. Generalization has hardly led to effective solutions.

3. Teaching v/s Learning

 School solutions today are being made with an idea to either substitute a teacher or that to reduce the teacher’s role down while teaching and learning. This approach hasn’t led to improvement in learning. There’s no study or empirical data, of improvement in learning outcomes with any such education solution, including a digital board.  Most of the current solutions suffer with the myopic vision of improving teaching. I would like to question the basic premise and ask, “How about solutions focused on improving thinking and learning among children.” PISA’09 results point to the fact that Indian students are one of the weakest in integrating and interpreting. Indian students scored 348 and 325 in Math against the OECD counties’ average score of 496.

4. Content v/s Hardware

Perhaps, its time that we asked the question, “Is it the box or what is inside the box which is the key to improving quality of learning?” The fad seems to be with the box right now. Most of the current day solutions have been made keeping in mind the entertainment factor for the learner. More than 30,000 schools in India have a digital classroom now. Does that ensure thinking and learning among students? There is an urgent need for meaningful, engaging, curiosity evoking, application-oriented and stimulating content. It’s perhaps for this very reason, that the government, MHRD has openly acknowledged and invited private players to come forward with superior content. To me, this shift from the hardware to the content is no more a question of choice. It’s inevitable!

5. Parents’ expectations

MHRD took a brave step with a change in the assessment framework across CBSE schools with CCE. The idea seemed right, that to change the goal to change the practices. Parents though haven’t warmed up to it much. The schools, which take the brave step of focusing on learning rather than memorization, are often met with a strong parental resistance. Parents perhaps need to ask the important question, “ Do I want to encourage my child to think and to innovate or push on testing her memory and speed. “

The current set of education solutions may miss more than they match. One way to look at it is to say that it’s on a natural evolution towards getting better, hopefully with a focus on improving thinking skills and learning. Here’s something from my twitter handle, to sum up my thoughts….

“The key divide between knowledge & learning is the ability to think and apply. Innovation in education then hinges on "to do new", to encourage “thinking” among young learners.”

Caste in a Casteless Language?

English as a Language of ‘Dalit’ Expression

Vol - XLVIII No. 39, September 28, 2013 | Rita Kothari

This paper focuses on a new archive of dalit writing in English translation. The "archive" has a forced homogeneity imposed by the term "dalit", which embraces an urban middle-class dalit and a member of a scavenger caste; the homogeneity is consolidated by the fact that the translated texts are in an international language. The questions asked concern the relationship between caste and the English language, two phenomena that represent considerably antithetical signs. Dalit writers accept English as a target language, despite the fact that local realities and registers of caste are difficult to couch in a language that has no memory of caste. The discussion shows how English promises to dalit writers (as both individuals and representatives of communities) agency, articulation, recognition and justice. The paper draws attention to the multiplicity of contexts that make writing by dalits part of a literary public sphere in India, and contribute to our thinking about caste issues in the context of human rights.

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