Need for child centred classrooms

Schools play a vital role in child’s learning. Making a connect between home and school is only possible if the four walls of the classroom reflects the essence of belongingness for the learner. Indian classrooms by and large, are dull, not welcoming and in Sylvia Ashton Warner’s terms- inorganic.

When we deal with live learners why our classrooms are not alive. Let’s look at simple ways we can enhance our classrooms while being cost effective and learner centred:

1. Make classrooms print rich. Drawing from the emergent literacy perspective, we need to make our classrooms print rich. The language could be child’s mother tongue or target language which we want to focus. Print rich environment will include labeling of cubby holes, articles like fan, tubelights, board, chart, key holder, projector, chalkboard, pinboard, desks etc with names of articles. This not only enhances language learning, one has to be careful about the font that you use- some schools choose to use uppercase, lowercase, print, cursive when it applies to English language. The font that we select for labels will automatically register in child’s mind. The best way to learn language is through immersion in the target language and this is one of the effective techniques.
2. Qualitative Bulletin Boards: I choose to use here an evaluative statement that the posts and materials on pin up boards need to be qualitative. Qualitative does not mean decorations, borders, cartoons, frills, excellent art work, moralistic stories, preaching from religious texts etc. Why I specifically state this is because it is very obvious to find teachers spending endless hours in decorating their classes/ bulletin boards that is futile. Similarly religious preaching in form of shlokas, verdicts, sermons, do not really help much as religion is a way of a life more caught rather than taught. These spaces- bulletin boards can be more creatively utilized and some ideas are posted here:

a.       Open-ended stories: To make a board interactive, it is important for the learner to have scope for interpretation, modification and creativity. Instead of posting complete stories- illustrate half stories and leave the plot in between- What will happen next? open for learner’s to predict. This will build their curiosity to read and tell stories.

While dealing with middle school students, likewise the same concept can be upgraded by adding on middle or end of a story and allow students to create their story beginnings. This also teaches story structure.

b.      Thematic:  Thematic postings help in cross curricular learning and enhancing learner’s peripheral knowledge. For example while learning about modes of transport- we may post our bulletin board with metro rail maps and ask some questions on map interpretation, some metro signs etc- hence taking learning beyond the text. The postings on theme could also include pinning up a boarding pass, railway ticket etc.

c.       Inquiry centred: It is important for boards to arouse interest and generate questions rather than only be telling information, stories and morals. There can also be a post on “question of the day”. Each child by rotation everyday will post a question that is Top of his mind- could be about vacations, examinations, climate, parents- and there should be scope for discussion on the question either in quality circle time or class procedures depending on the quality of question.

d.      Learner’s work: Allow students work to be displayed on the board. Kindly refrain from selecting and posting only the best piece of work- because that only fosters competition and our motto as a teacher is to foster learning and high self- esteem. Involve students themselves in bulletin board maintenance.

e.       Change: Change is vital to learning, the boards need to be changed frequently at least fortnightly/ weekly else they cease to act as catalysing agents for learning. Knowing enormous pressure that teachers face in Indian classrooms, it is also advisable to share bulletin board stuff with other section teachers and multiply effort.

f.        Access: This is perhaps the most vital aspect of pin up boards. In majority classrooms it is seen that pin up boards are not at the eye level of learners. They are kept out of reach, mounted high up on the wall with a view to make it inaccessible to students who may spoil the resources pinned up. As a result, it never brings in any ownership in learners. It is important to have pin up boards accessible and at learner’s height to avoid condescending them, and giving them equal responsibility in maintenance of the same.

3. Create class libraries: Initiating a class library with story books and variety of children’s literature is an effective way of language learning. Students should be encouraged to contribute their favourite books in class libraries and talk sessions about the book, show and tell stories and other activities that engages learners should be part of the curricular planning. Student’s contributing books to the library also brings in sense of belongingness and ownership in them and bridges gap between the home and school environment.
4. Create Learning Corners: The concept of learning corners is very effective, but difficult to maintain as per learning styles of learners. So one pragmatic solution is to initiate one corner/ learning space and sustain it for some time and then change the resources according to different learning styles. For example: Jan- Feb- the learning corner can be Bodily Kinaesthetic and hence materials and planning for kinaesthetic activities should be kept here. Example: puppets, props, masks, manipulatives etc. March-April- it can be addressing visual spatial learning- thus CDs, picture prompts, blocks, puzzles, drawing colours, clay etc. should be part of corner and instruction. Likewise, all Multiple Intelligences can be addressed on a rotational basis.

It is important for classrooms to change on these lines and become more welcoming for learners to learn. The classroom has to be a space not only that is cognitively challenging but also affectively bonded with the child who spends his/ her maximum time in school.

By Meeta Mohanty- The author works into teacher training and curriculum development and is a publishing professional.