Feedback for Learning

Feedback to Facilitate
Published in Education Times, TOI, 22nd September, 2008 By Meeta Mohanty

Akanksha, the description of the rainy day is beautiful. You have tried making a poem and the drawing also explains your idea very well. You can try using some more rhyming words.

Varun, I really liked the way you have recorded your observations. Your drawings are elaborate and you seem to have paid good attention to the minute details. It would be a nice idea if you try writing your observations in a list form next time. What about observing a banana leaf?

Imagine yourself as a child who receives this feedback on the task as opposed to a regular ‘good’ or ‘needs improvement’ by the teacher.
Feedback is one of the most powerful tool that a teacher can employ to facilitate learning in classroom. It can be used for a variety of purposes. For example to assess the learning outcomes, motivate a child’s indigenous style of expression, challenge his/her thinking, suggest alternatives etc. Feedback is as important as learning in a child centered classroom. It is often either ignored or evaluative in most cases resulting in loss of learning situations. Let’s examine some key features of effective feedback:

v Feedback should be both on the process and the product of learning. It is important to appreciate the efforts and unique style of a child. It also needs to provide a description of the expected learning outcome and help the child to assess his/her learning.
v Feedback should be quick following a task so that it can be implemented. It is also important for a feedback to be simple and comprehensible by the child. Avoid using judgemental words like good or bad.
v Make feedback clear, specific and complete. Do not use words like you can improve, well-written etc. Such feedback create bewilderment in the child as to what he/she should improve or what was good in writing the content, presentation, choice of words, style etc.
v Effective verbal feedback entails attentive listening by the teacher and other children. In most cases it is seen that the classroom discourse remains closed with teacher wielding power to initiate questions and also evaluate the responses as ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. Efforts should be aligned to make learning dialogic wherein a child initiates question and other children can offer perspectives. In such a classroom the onus shifts from a unidirectional flow of information to an inquiry centered classroom.
v To help children probe the subject matter, it is important for a teacher to give adequate wait time to students to respond. Often teachers ask closed questions like ‘When is Gandhi Jayanti celebrated?’ ‘What was he popularly known as?’ Hardly do we come across questions that challenge thinking, help children gather evidences or express opinions. To facilitate thinking the same theme can be dealt by asking probing questions like, ‘Do you think Gandhiji was right in breaking the salt law? How do you know about Gandhiji?’ Such questions give scope for subjective interpretations. An effort should be made to break away from the tradition of asking rhetorical questions.
v A teacher needs to vary the feedback according to a child’s level of accomplishment. For example if a child who has just begun to write receives a punitive feedback telling that he or she needs to improve her spellings or check grammar use can be de-motivating. It is important that the teacher provides constructive feedback highlighting the strengths of the written piece. A teacher should use feedback as a mechanism to enhance learning and not dismiss learning. Teacher’s expectations can be conveyed subtly and can be suggestive.
v Personalized feedback work wonders than generic ones. Addressing children by their names and highlighting their strengths increases the probability of desired outcome. It motivates and empowers the child.
v Feedback should be authentic and not just praise devoid of context.
v A teacher should be cautious of using negative injunctions like: Don’t write in upper case, Poor, Untidy work, Incomplete. Such statements are power-centric, closed and may disconnect the child with the learning process. Efforts should be made to engage emotions of the child by making feedback dialogic and non-threatening.
v It is imperative to set an equation for mutual feedback. Thus a child can provide constructive feedback to his/her peers. He or she should be encouraged to express views on what an educator creates. Such practices help in making the child fearless and democratic while giving feedback. It also decentralizes the power dynamics in the classroom.

Edu Talk: Are Textbooks child centered ?

Edu Talk: Are Textbooks child centered ?

Are textbooks child-centred?
Education Times-25 Aug 2008, 0614 hrs IST, Meeta Mohanty

Textbooks play a key role in socialisation of the child — through them a child vicariously experiences the world. Thus, the publishers and authors who select the text have a great responsibility. However, a survey of the textbook market in India would probably reveal: -

--Textbooks, in general, are overloaded with information, facts and figures.
-- Most textbooks may profess to abide by the guidelines enshrined in the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005. But, while they adopt the themes as examples, their approach remains archaic, ie to disseminate information to the child
-- There is hardly any scope for the child to explore, investigate or question the text. The content is sacrosanct and can no way be wrong or interpreted differently by the child. Thus, the text is closed and not open to subjective interpretations
-- Little effort is made to embed learning in a social context. So, a mathematics textbook shall have operations devoid of context, a social science or science text shall sequentially unfold information
-- Gender sensitivity, mental health, life skills, peace education are key words picked up from NCF 2005 and exploited only as marketing tools .

A perspective
There is a need to delve into the sociological, psychological and pedagogical impact of the text before publishing. NCF 2005 clearly emphasises the importance of a trial of books to assess the content and context validity. It states: 'It may be a good idea for the initial lessons to be piloted, ie to be taught on a trial basis, with the textbook writer observing the transaction in the class while also receiving feedback from both teacher and students. This is also important when innovating with the textbook content in order to understand and place them within the realities of the classroom and teacher preparation.'
The new NCERT textbooks have been a sincere effort in this regard. The textbooks are an apt example of child-centred text that is well researched. They integrate the cultural milieu of the child and encourage inquiry; draw abstracts of children's literature published by NBT, CBT, Eklavya and others; and engage children.
Some efforts in this direction have also been made by private publishers, who made books skill based, integrated text thematically, incorporated relevant case studies, life skills, etc. The presentation of the books is changing with some exploration projects, vivid illustrations, comic strips, stories, etc. However, by and large, the approach remains interventionist with innovation representing only an added feature. One must remember that a child doesn't need fragmented bits of information in a better layout, what he/she needs is an integrated curriculum. So, while such new textbooks seem like 'old wine in a new bottle,' the need in reality is for 'new wine' — a new text, the content that generates in a classroom in sync with the child's interest. Such a curriculum would be creative, innovative and worth teaching.
It is important for parents to be critically aware of child-centred text. Intelligent questioning and reading educational research is important. If parents are not well informed, then there is little scope for innovation. As consumers, it is important to create a 'demand' and the publishers will 'supply.' This is how the market forces operate and how the face of Indian education system can change. All that is needed is a happy child and the joy of learning.

Some Suggestions
Curriculum progression: Evaluate the learning outcomes in the beginning and end of the book. Question whether the book provides necessary scaffold to the learner to gain competencies as conceptualised. Vertical progression also needs to be evaluated. How a concept progresses through class I, II, III and so on. Progression needs to be observed in the skills and the level of reasoning, not merely in adding new concepts.
Relevance of text: A child needs to enjoy the immediate benefits of learning and, thus, something that is linked to the daily life. Concepts like money, weights and measures, can be understood well through examples of a market or interviewing a grocer.
Approach: Textbooks, in general, have an informative tone. More narratives like stories and personal experiences; persuasive writing like ads and editorials; procedural writing like recipes and experiments; and transactional texts like interviews and invitations should be integrated into the textbook.
(The writer has taught in both mainstream and alternative schools, and is currently editing children's books)

Edu Talk: An alternate approach to reading

Edu Talk: An alternate approach to reading

An alternate approach to reading
Often we as educators and parents are concerned about inculcating reading habit in our children. Reading (as dealt in most primers and classrooms) is decoding the symbols of the language( A to Z). As a child ushers into the school his/her reading trajectory begins with alphabet recognition, 1-2 syllable words, sentences & text. It is assumed that this is the progression i.e. simple to complex.
The constructivist viewpoint in education talks of an active learner who constructs meaning of the text based on his/her subjective experiences. Frank smith adds that a learner supplies non-visual information to the visual information while reading. Reading is essentially a meaning making process. However, the texts that flood the market are largely based on the approach progressing from alphabet to words and sentences devoid of any context to which a child can relate. Reading here symbolizes ‘mastering the code of the language’.

Crucial Aspects of Reading:
· Readers do not read by decoding alphabets. Rather they read by integrating meaning from the context. These contextual clues function in an integrated way. For example: “Our school has good quality t.....”. Definitely as a reader we may supply this word as teacher and not truck or trumpet. This happens because it is not only the phonetic clue that we use i.e. ‘t’ rather we make meaning from the context and this is what we need to model to young learners. They need to learn how to use contextual clues like picture clues, phonetic clues or look at the meaning of the text. This is key to good reading and needs repeated exposure and modeling by an educator or a parent.
· A reader also uses comprehension strategies while reading . For example : ‘ A new paradigm in education talks of an active role of a learner.’ A person who reads the word ‘paradigm’ for the first time does not get stuck with the word. S/he reads on and comes back again and tries to substitute a temporary word meaning like viewpoint/ theory/ perspective etc. to make sense. Some readers might try to recall the previous read piece where s/he might have encountered this word. Thus these strategies like reading on, omission, substitution, connect with previous knowledge are some comprehension strategies which readers employ.
Strategy selection is also determined by the purpose set for reading . If a reader is reading a text to get an overview of the text s/he will use strategies like skimming, scanning the text and shall focus attention on title, subtitles, diagrams etc. However the strategy differs when a reader is reading to extract key information, thus s/he shall use boldfacing, underlining, inserting comments, note taking etc. Thus setting a purpose for reading is also crucial.
Ironically, it’s amazing the way children are taught to attack new words by splitting them into syllables and through right pronunciation or encouraged to use a dictionary rather than integrate meaning from the context. In most cases children are either unaware of the purpose of reading or the purpose is set by an educator. More children engage in defining the purpose on their own, more shall be their motivation to read.
A reader in Smith’s words supplies non- visual information to the text. For example:
‘ At the interbank foreign exchange market , the rupee opened higher at 42.9350/9550 a dollar and was trapped in a narrow range of 42.93 and 42.98 before ending at 42.93/94, up by 3.50 paise from Thursday’s close of 42.9650/9750’.
It is difficult to understand the meaning of the text cited above, though we might be able to decode it fluently. Meaning making only happens when a brief about the share market and economy is supplied to us enabling us to make some connect with the text. Similar background building is important when children begin to read. Thus meaning lies in the interaction between the textual information and the information stored in the reader’s mind. Smith rightly said “ The more non visual information you have when you read, the less visual information you need and vice versa.”Thus it becomes important for an educator to build and activate child’s background information. Let’s look at some of the ways of doing so:
· Talk : Giving opportunity to children to talk about the topic they are about to read helps in activating background information.
· Know your learners: It’s important to know the learners background so that an educator can make connect while teaching. While talking about Dusshera in North India, a sensitive educator could ask a Bengali child in his/her class to share about Durga Puja celebrated at the same time. Nurturing diversity widens the background information of children. Besides this giving freedom to express about a topic either through dance, drama, poetry, role play, writing, builds the background information of children and also caters to different kinds of learners.
· Brainstorming : A technique of putting down all responses by children related to the topic on the board. Such a visual organizer helps to collate information that children have about the topic.

A sensitive and observant educator can use many other ways of building background information by narrating a story, playing a song, an instrument that relates to the theme. There can be multiple entry points and variety is what keeps the classroom alive.


{By Meeta Mohanty, Currently employed as an editor for children books. Has taught in both mainstream and alternative schools}.

Edu Talk: The Art of Questioning

Edu Talk: The Art of Questioning

Questioning is an integral part of an inquiry centred classroom. It is a learner’s thinking tool to carry out investigation about a subject matter. It is however sad to witness that in most Indian classrooms this tool is used to monitor children. The power to question is vested with the teacher who uses this tool to either approve or disapprove of children’s knowledge thus empowering or disempowering them. Thus the child finds it safe to remain silent, killing the essence of an inquiry-centered classroom.
Glimpses of an Inquiry-centered classroom
· A teacher needs to assume the role of a facilitator where s/he can probe into children’s cultural knowledge and integrate it with the text. This helps in engaging emotions.
· S/he can pose a variety of questions ranging from simple recall to questions that require analysis and interpretation of visual data, graph etc. She can encourage children to collect evidences, verify the authenticity of collected data and help them re-search the given topic and generate new knowledge.
· S/he can also frame questions that help children express and advocate their perspectives . Role reversal can help children to think back and forth. For example: while talking about a new government children can argue as PM themselves and then as general public.
· A teacher can pose questions to help children become critical thinkers. S/he can help them understand the bias implicit in a text or a documentary, the subjectivity of the author etc. For Example: Baghbaan, a popular film propagates a viewpoint and we ally with the central protagonist Amitabh Bachhan . However if this story was retold from the vantage point of his elder daughter in law who is a professional, homemaker and a mother our allegiance shall change. Thus a text always presents a perspective and a teacher should pose questions like: Who is the central character? Why we never hear or see character X? What if this story was set in primitive era? Such questions shall lay the foundations of a thinking classroom.
· A teacher can extend a child’s response by giving relevant feedback and adequate wait time. S/he needs to focus on thinking process of the child. She needs to engage children with a variety of tasks that need both objectivity and subjectivity.
· Engagement with real life projects can spark curiosity in children. Genuine questions and mutual inquiry by both the educator and the pupil helps. Thus children can be engaged in collecting data, observing and studying patterns, interviewing people etc. This provides children an extended audience.

Tagore: Ideas in Practice

Re-living Tagore’s ideals
Rabindranath Tagore, a writer, thinker, philosopher strongly felt the need to revitalize the existing educational system. In his famous article ‘My School’ he cites: ‘We devote our sole attention to giving children information, not knowing that by this emphasis we are accentuating a break between the intellectual, physical and the spiritual life.’
A close look at majority schools in our country substantiates Tagore’s findings.

§ Academic excellence takes priority over pursuit of art, craft, dance, drama and sports. These activities have got space in the curriculum though as mere tokenism as co-curricular activities.
§ Hardly an effort is made to nurture these competencies in every child.
§ Emphasis on academics is also reinforced by parent’s expectations which build enormous performance pressure on children.
§ Examinations in India remain paper and pencil tests which require a child to be a proficient reader and writer. What if a child is good at logical reasoning and spatial drawing but fails to perform in a paper and pencil test? How valid is such a test? Does it measure child’s learning?
Tagore critiqued schools for grinding out uniform results.
§ Education of the heart, the spiritual self hardly finds any space in the curriculum. It is mostly confined to prayer meetings, value education slots in the timetable or special cultural events. The approach remains in form of a monologue. Whether it is the teacher or the textbook both feel compelled to narrate some stories emphasizing values. Rarely do we find text that investigates values with reasoning.
Tagore commented, ‘The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes life in harmony with all existence. I believe that the object of education is the freedom of mind which can only be achieved through the path of freedom.’ Thus Tagore envisaged a culture of investigation of the world and introspection of the inner self.
He was a proponent for experiential education. In his article he quotes, ‘I well remember the surprise and annoyance of an experienced headmaster, reputed to be a successful disciplinarian, when he saw one of the boys of my school climbing a tree and choosing a fork of the branches for settling down to his studies. He believes in an impersonal knowledge of the tree that is science but not in a personal experience of it.’
A pertinent question here is to probe ourselves as teachers and leaders, ‘Do we provide children this personal experience of nature or is it limited to a few nature walks without talk?’
§ Learning, by and large remains encapsulated between the four walls of the classroom in contradiction with the child’s intrinsic nature to explore.

Some suggestions
§ Curriculum should emphasize education of the mind, body and spirit in an integrated way. Thus a trans-disciplinary approach rather than compartmentalized subject delivery is proposed. Efforts should be made to integrate child’s personal knowledge. His/ her local language, customs, culture should get adequate representation in the text and teaching.
§ A shift from teaching children to learning with them needs to be emphasized. Thus there needs to be a real question for investigation for both the teacher and the learner. An ethos for inquiry centered learning is key.
§ It is important to explore nature. Thus being with nature, studying it through direct personal experience and observation is fundamental.
§ Diverse learning styles of children needs acceptance in the classroom. This implies that the same concept can be taught in a variety of ways to make it comprehensible. For example concept of symmetry can be taught through demonstration on the board, asking children to collect symmetrical objects from nature, through origami, drawing etc.
§ Varied modes of assessment should be used like maintaining audio-tapes, video records and portfolios. Assessment should be on a variety of tasks and in a variety of setting like individual, group, formal presentations and informal get together. Rubrics can be used to assess children on a developmental continuum and the teacher needs to effectively gauge child’s learning and challenge his/ her thought. Thus the teacher needs to scaffold children through challenge and support model.
§ A culture of reflection needs to be ingrained in the system for helping children peep into their values, beliefs and actions and investigate them rationally. Instead of conformity to beliefs, Tagore envisaged reasoning and assessing one’s reality with respect to harmonious existence.

Different Shades of Intelligence

Article: Different shades of Intelligence by Meeta Mohanty

Published in Times of India, Education Times, 30th June,2008

'I am not intelligent, I lack aptitude’ this is a general feeling with which a child lives within our Indian classroom where comparison and competing against one’s peer is a norm. Our educational system is geared towards achievement. Whether it is the curriculum or the teacher, operates on the fundamental principle of giving facts and enabling children to learn better and reproduce the same in exams. Fun, creativity, sensitivity to nature, music and drama are blanketed under the co-curricular section and holds less importance over reading and writing. However what we, as educators and parents, fail to see is that these are different ways in which children express themselves and learn.
Sir Howard Gardner’s research on Multiple Intelligences is quite relevant to understand children. He proposed that all children have different strengths called as intelligences that get manifested in varying degrees. The entire framework of Multiple Intelligences is based on discovering and harnessing the potential in each child. Let’ s look at some classroom examples:
Rahul is learning to read and write. However, he is drawn to nature and is fond of collecting feathers, insects and leaves and loves to share his observations with his peers. He is confident while talking about his findings in a group and can even handle tough group situations. His strength lies in learning from nature and he also displays ‘interpersonal intelligence’.
Similarly, Naman participates in sports and dramas and is a good orator. He is good at interpreting graphs, charts and visual information. However, he struggles to understand the rhythm in poetry and songs. He displays ‘body-kinesthetic intelligence’ and ‘visual-spatial intelligence’.He perhaps has less manifested ‘musical intelligence’.
Likewise, Sukalp is an avid reader but prefers to work alone. She can create new things and interpret texts while reading on her own, but shies away from group presentations and public speaking. She is reflective and learns best when working on her own. Therefore, she displays ‘linguistic intelligence’ and ‘intra-personal intelligence’.
Sir Howard Gardner talked of eight such intelligences which needs to be nurtured in a classroom. For a teacher, it is very important to be aware of the learner’s nature, interest and strengths.S/he must critically observe the learner in a variety of settings like during reading and writing tasks, role play, sports, poetry, presentations, nature study and many other informal learning situations. Let’s look at the table that shall help in identifying different kinds of intelligences in a classroom:

1 Linguistic Learners
Enjoys reading, writing letters,poems,stories, storytelling, oral presentations ,debates etc.
2 Visual-Spatial Learners
Creating maps, charts, bar graphs, comic strips, powerpoint presentations etc.
3 Bodily- Kinesthetic Learners
Role Play, dance, sports, making manipulatives, pantomime, putting together puzzle etc.
4 Musical / Rhythmic Learners
Composing melody, learning through rhythmic aids
5 Naturalist Learners
Collecting objects from nature, observing & categorizing plants/animals, environmental projects.
6 Logico-mathematical
Likes brainteasers, deductive logical problems, conducting experiments, reasoning games.
7 Interpersonal Learners
Likes group work,presentations,giving/receiving feedback, interviewing etc.
8 Intrapersonal
Prefers silent reflection time, self paced projects, diary/journal entry
(Ninth intelligence is proposed to be existential intelligence)
Most teachers find it difficult to give individual attention to students to identify and nurture MI in a classroom, given the huge teacher-student ratio and low budgets. Below are given some ways to do so:
Ø Establishing learning corners like a reading corner stocked with a variety of children literature shall rejoice a linguistic learner. Setting up a corner for inquiry with collection of flowers, leaves, seeds, stems or specimen of animals can give ample scope for discussing living stuff to a naturalist learner. Similar engaging corners having drama props, puzzles and manipulatives can cater to diversity in classroom.
Ø Spaces within a classroom should have charts, graphs, maps, personal letters from teacher and the students, graffiti space for children to write,spaces for displaying children’s work in form of charts, clay models, sculptures, art.
Ø Flexible grouping according to learner’s needs and strengths and self target-setting for children can be good.
It is important to give flexibility of expression to children. A teacher needs to observe the process of learning , the way different children approach , represent and solve a same problem rather than defining the way and output for them. For example while learning about family a child can either share something verbally, present a skit, sing a song, compose a poem, use natural objects to describe his/her family, reflect on memorable moments, frame riddles, make a collage etc. There lies diversity in our classrooms and we need to kindle it.

Instructional Leadership

Instructional leader - a new role in schools
Source:The Times of India, Education Times, 04, August 2008
Meeta Mohanty

Gone are the days when the head of a school was trapped within administrative processes, signing bills and recommendations, and had little time for facilitating and promoting learning within classrooms. With the upsurge of 'instructional leadership' in the 1980's, many progressive institutions began promoting instructional leaders in school. An instructional leader has several roles to play with his/her primary task being the promotion of learning within classrooms. Thus, he or she is a policy maker, mentor, facilitator, resource-provider, action researcher, decision maker and a curriculum developer in a school. Let's examine this multi-tasked profile of an instructional leader.

• Policy/decision maker: He or she frames policies that promote and directly affect learning. Such policies can be about decisions regarding the curriculum and assessment process, teacher-pupil ratio, teaching-learning material, recruitment and induction of teachers and so on. An instructional leader does not form policies in isolation but involves other stakeholders like teachers, parents, community members and students as well. A leader ensures that the policies are revisited from time to time and efforts are aligned keeping the organisational vision at the centre.
• Mentor: An instructional leader has an important role to play as a mentor to students, teachers, parents, and the wider community. For example, an instructional leader would understand a teacher's teaching and learning style, appreciate his/her strengths and accordingly provide opportunities to augment weaknesses. Similarly, he/she acts as a mentor to students who see him/her not as a figure of authority but someone who is approachable, humane and considerate. A leader also has the responsibility of engaging the parents and the community with the process of learning. So, parents are not viewed as mere paying customers but as partners in their child's learning.
• Facilitator: He/she also plays the role of a facilitator of learning at all levels, evaluates learning within classrooms through observations, helps teachers lay down the curriculum and draft assessment processes. Another important task is delegating responsibility and sharing leadership with teachers. Instructional leaders are those who make themselves invisible while making processes of learning more visible, thus fostering a democratic environment.
• Resource Provider: An instructional leader must generate and sustain resources. Generating resources pertains to helping individual teachers learn, observing children's learning, maintaining assessment records, discussing pedagogical issues and helping teachers experiment new ideas and carry out action research in classrooms. Sustaining resources implies offering personal and professional growth opportunities to teachers and other resource persons within the organisation. This entails nurturing a positive learning environment, helping teacher's set their own learning goals and harnessing their strengths.

Only a leader who is well informed and understands his/her teacher's needs can sustain resources. In a nutshell, instructional leadership is not just about control, power, authority, management and monitoring processes. It focuses on empowering all stakeholders and aligning all endeavours towards the processes of learning.

(The writer has taught in both mainstream and alternative schools, and is currently editing children's books)

Are Textbooks child centered ?

Are textbooks child-centred?

Education Times-25 Aug 2008, 0614 hrs IST, Meeta Mohanty

Textbooks play a key role in socialisation of the child — through them a child vicariously experiences the world. Thus, the publishers and authors who select the text have a great responsibility. However, a survey of the textbook market in India would probably reveal: -

--Textbooks, in general, are overloaded with information, facts and figures.

-- Most textbooks may profess to abide by the guidelines enshrined in the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005. But, while they adopt the themes as examples, their approach remains archaic, ie to disseminate information to the child

-- There is hardly any scope for the child to explore, investigate or question the text. The content is sacrosanct and can no way be wrong or interpreted differently by the child. Thus, the text is closed and not open to subjective interpretations

-- Little effort is made to embed learning in a social context. So, a mathematics textbook shall have operations devoid of context, a social science or science text shall sequentially unfold information

-- Gender sensitivity, mental health, life skills, peace education are key words picked up from NCF 2005 and exploited only as marketing tools .

A Perspective

There is a need to delve into the sociological, psychological and pedagogical impact of the text before publishing. NCF 2005 clearly emphasises the importance of a trial of books to assess the content and context validity. It states: 'It may be a good idea for the initial lessons to be piloted, ie to be taught on a trial basis, with the textbook writer observing the transaction in the class while also receiving feedback from both teacher and students. This is also important when innovating with the textbook content in order to understand and place them within the realities of the classroom and teacher preparation.'

The new NCERT textbooks have been a sincere effort in this regard. The textbooks are an apt example of child-centred text that is well researched. They integrate the cultural milieu of the child and encourage inquiry; draw abstracts of children's literature published by NBT, CBT, Eklavya and others; and engage children.

Some efforts in this direction have also been made by private publishers, who made books skill based, integrated text thematically, incorporated relevant case studies, life skills, etc. The presentation of the books is changing with some exploration projects, vivid illustrations, comic strips, stories, etc. However, by and large, the approach remains interventionist with innovation representing only an added feature. One must remember that a child doesn't need fragmented bits of information in a better layout, what he/she needs is an integrated curriculum. So, while such new textbooks seem like 'old wine in a new bottle,' the need in reality is for 'new wine' — a new text, the content that generates in a classroom in sync with the child's interest. Such a curriculum would be creative, innovative and worth teaching.

It is important for parents to be critically aware of child-centred text. Intelligent questioning and reading educational research is important. If parents are not well informed, then there is little scope for innovation. As consumers, it is important to create a 'demand' and the publishers will 'supply.' This is how the market forces operate and how the face of Indian education system can change. All that is needed is a happy child and the joy of learning.

Some Suggestions

Curriculum progression: Evaluate the learning outcomes in the beginning and end of the book. Question whether the book provides necessary scaffold to the learner to gain competencies as conceptualised. Vertical progression also needs to be evaluated. How a concept progresses through class I, II, III and so on. Progression needs to be observed in the skills and the level of reasoning, not merely in adding new concepts.

Relevance of text: A child needs to enjoy the immediate benefits of learning and, thus, something that is linked to the daily life. Concepts like money, weights and measures, can be understood well through examples of a market or interviewing a grocer.

Approach: Textbooks, in general, have an informative tone. More narratives like stories and personal experiences; persuasive writing like ads and editorials; procedural writing like recipes and experiments; and transactional texts like interviews and invitations should be integrated into the textbook.

(The writer has taught in both mainstream and alternative schools, and is currently editing children's books)