DEEPINDER KAUR
Math educator & academic administrator, National Hill View Public School, Banashankari, Bangalore.
Deepinder has a M. Sc and M. Phil (Mathematics), and a Degree in Education of Mathematics. She has 13 years of teaching experience at Senior Secondary level. Deepinder has prepared students for All India competitions, has conducted workshops for teacher training and is an evaluator for AISSCE.
With the invasion of technology in our lives and the changing mindset of people, the eld of education has also seen a transition from the traditional classroom environment to use of apps as a learning resource. Out of many emerging trends of 21st century, the ones considered most effective are -
Integrated learning
Bite-size learning
Augmented Reality
Personalized Learning
All of these methods have transferred the focus from teacher to learners in the classroom. The role of teacher has changed from primary source of knowledge to being a facilitator and guide. The use of videos, games and online lectures have impacted students learning, the progress of entire process and the assimilation is taken care of with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
Due to modification in information processing of the brain, the attention span of young learners has reduced drastically, and the concept of bite-size learning has come into picture. Also, the pace of learning is different for different individuals, therefore personalised learning also makes sense.
However, in country like ours with limited resources, it is the Integrated learning which scores over all the methods. It has caught the attention of the educators as the most sensible approach towards education and imparting knowledge to students. Integrated Learning is redesigning of the curriculum involving all the subjects while teaching a particular topic.
This method has the following advantages -
It is an effective method for understanding a topic at a deeper level.
The relevance of all the subjects is understood by students.
Students get more engaged in learning and the method encourages active participation from them.
The process of learning is taken as a whole, than in bits and parts.
Teachers also get oriented towards upgrading their skills in redesigning curriculum.
However, its only drawback is that it is more time consuming and not suitable for the topics which require a lot of drilling. Despite this, the method is especially recommended for middle school (i. e classes 6-8), where the requirement is laying the foundation for a strong base of knowledge.
Here is an example of integrated project on crop production, hoping it is helpful for teachers and students (of age group 12 to 14)
Convert statements to linear equations and find the correct route to reach the destination by solving them
The above integrated project takes care of the following concepts:
• Measuring units of crop production.
• Crop rotation.
• Subsidies to farmers.
• Fertilizers and pesticides.
• Linear equations and their solutions.
• Comprehension of statements and their conversion to equations.
• Improvement in skills of writing by giving an essay on how to convert land to a farm.
• Learning steps of conversion of land to a farm and enhancing knowledge of social science.
• Integrating Art Education by making collage on the crop of India.
This article originally appeared in the TeacherTribe Magazine November 2020 edition.