Harnessing the child's learning potential

LEARNING IS an on-going process for the human species. It is a matter of necessity and an in-built ability linked with the mind and behaviour of the individual and is related to the environmental range both immediate and far-reaching. It is a fact that a child's learning capacity is at its peak in early childhood. As adults, we all realise that it is easier to recall early childhood memories that have been firmly etched in our mind. Early learning experiences invariably leave a lasting mark on the adult consciousness. The task ahead is to find ways and means to equip the child with learning tips early enough so that the child becomes empowered to question and satisfy the innate childhood curiosity which knows no bounds. It is important to view the young learner as a potential information gatherer and information processor.

Schools and educational institutions are centres that provide learning experiences. Ideally education should help in the acquisition of information or knowledge, by imparting learning skills. That is, the focus should be on ``the what'' of learning, through ``the how'' of learning. Schools and learning centres should concentrate on the second clause, ``the how'' of learning, regarding the child's learning abilities. Teacher training should be oriented towards this end.

If there is a general trend amongst children to detest activities like going to school, attending classes or taking up tests, then serious thought should be spent on why this is so. Constant review of curriculum, of teaching strategies and environmental conditions can help such institutions of learning to change this trend in attitude amongst learners and move towards positive growth.

Every child is endowed with a compact disc with subtle variation of memory space. This remarkable God-given software is programmed to store, recall, create and initiate newer processes within its range. Parents and those involved with children at this crucial stage when development takes place, play a mighty role in the development of this compact disc in the child. It is at the primary stage that the programme is set and developed for further use and access by the child. With this ability, the individual can probe the unlimited range of what is to be learnt at any stage of life. If parents or the school environments do not allow for this development, then they are denying the child further progress.

For this to happen, parents, teachers and those involved with children should realise their combined responsibility, and perhaps form a network to ensure maximum effect. Parents and school environments should be alerted to their role of helping the child develop himself/herself. It should also be remembered that knowledge, or ``the what'' of learning cannot be transmitted as one pours water into a pot, to work from a simple analogy. It should be looked upon as making the child responsible for filling the pot. Make the child aware of the pot; then make the child aware that it has to be filled. Tell the child of what material can be filled in it. It may be water, it may be rice, and it may be a lighted candle that can emit light into the pot. It can be many other things. But it is the role of the teachers/parents to reveal the available materials that can be used for filling the pot.

The next step is to show the method. For instance, placing the pot under a tap through which water is flowing can fill water. This is one method. Or water could be taken in small tumblers and the pot could be filled. Or it could be filled from a flowing river or from a well. There are many methods by which the task can be accomplished. The available sources of water (the material used for filling the pot) are symbolic of the infinite nature of knowledge. The child has to be sure of the concept of the pot that becomes his/her capacity. This again is not as finite in volume or as tangible in shape as the pot. The child's capacity is of an accommodating nature. It is the duty of teachers and parents to enable the child see this facet of his/her capacity. Then the child is to be made aware of the infinite nature of material that can be used to fill the pot. Following this, is the infinite variety of methods to fill the pot. Successful learning can result from the successful grasp of this concept, primarily by teachers and parents and then communicating this without distortion to children.

Teachers and parents should realise their role as of enabling kind. Education should ultimately help students become independent of formal education. Effective teaching lies in helping learners to access methods of learning, and then process what is learnt.

Mere possession of information or knowledge cannot become equal to learning. This has to be assimilated into the mental and imaginative grasp of children and available for practical purposes at any point of time in their lives. Children should be enabled to process information or knowledge. With so many learning opportunities around, like the television, or computers with multi-media facilities, teachers and parents should capitalise on improving the learning ability of children. An imaginative grasp of the situation is called for. A big leap is to be made to make the children realise this.

The innate curiosity of the child should be welcomed and the aim is to foster, not stifle it. Home and school environment has ample scope for developing this curiosity. Elders should forge ways to make all learning exciting and explorative. Mathematics or language learning should be made attractive. Teachers and parents should connive and probe their creative reaches to help the child and society. Computer based learning is exciting and attractive. Avail of the user-friendliness of this medium and initiate the child into this.

The joys of reading should be instilled in the child at early childhood. The art and hobby of reading, imparted in children is perhaps the greatest gift a child can receive. It will become a life-long acquisition for the child. Books cannot be written off. They are the most available art form. Shift the emphasis from the teaching to learning. Learning reading should be the goal for the child. The final delivery is with effective learning of the art of reading by the child. Each child should realise that the onus of learning is with himself/herself and not with the teacher. Most teaching has emphasised the role of the teacher as something supreme and authoritarian. Fear of punishment, which is the armour for instilling discipline in children, should not become the motive for learning. Such learning may not be really effective and certainly not enjoyable.The aim is to make learning enjoyable and make the children willing learners.

Tests are another feature used to measure learning. Though tests are time-tested and useful, parents and teachers should also realise that these tests are only a one-time snapshot of a child's performance.

More than tests and marks, it is true that the true measure of a child's stature is dependent on values and goodness, and the ability to practically apply learning to the realities of life. Elders should realise this truth and slowly inculcate this to the children.

Confidence building is another important facet of education. There are bound to be instances of people who might have come up in life and achieved their goals, but failed due to lack of encouragement from parents and teachers.

There are many successful people who do believe that their success is due to some inspirational fact transmitted to them through their parents or teachers at some point of time. It might have been insignificant at that time. But it has somehow become the spark that had edged them towards their success. Teachers and parents should worry not because the children are not obeying them, but more because children are always watching them. They have to be sensitive to their role as primarily inspirational and motivational and not lose any opportunity to help children recognise their inherent potential. Children have to be empowered to develop themselves.

The young learner is not a clean slate on which teachers and parents and other forces write. The young learner is a potential force who should be helped (initially) by teachers, parents and other forces to write his/her own slate. School curriculum and the atmosphere at home should make the child aware of the quality of life that depends on a sense of values, of positive trends and resistance to evil and violence. Should not the children be aware of the realities and problems like global warming that will help them become responsible citizens? It is after all, their world that is threatened, and they should be geared to look for solutions to the problems.

PADMINI DEVARAJAN

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Features
Previous : Unfinished business
Next     : Giving meaningful dimension to education