"Go find it out yourself."
Sugata Mitra's talk was certainly one of the most interesting ones I've seen thus far. I have always been thinking that once you are able to pique curiousity, learning will take place. However, my dilemma was always, "How do I pique that curiousity in students who always feel unamazed by the world around them?"
Sugata Mitra conducted a series of experiments where he used computers, on a ratio of 1:4 to learners, gave them a 'quest', and left them to explore on their own. The results were startling. Personally, I couldn't believe the outcomes of his experiments! How could 10 year olds, who simply spent 20 to 45 minutes reading up to answer 6 GCSE questions, remember exactly what they found out, 2 months later?
A few factors are required:
-Pedagogy: Obviously, before he planned what questions to ask the students to answer, he came up with HOW he wished for the students to learn, which translates to learning strategies.
-Experience of learning: When the students found the basic answer, and was asked to delve deeper, they took it upon themselves to read further and learnt many more related factors.
-Tone of environment: He set rules for them, and let them cooperate with each other when using the computer.
-Assessment: To judge for 'deep learning', he gave them a written test. This is also to allow the students to understand what level of knowledge they have.
-Learning content: Obviously, one should make sure that what they learn is relevant and useful, not corrupted and immoral information.
-Student-centered learning: Students initiate the learning, and they peer-teach when others in the same group do not understand
Certainly, based on this talk, I can almost conclude that teaching in a rural village would be more rewarding for a teacher despite the challenges of scarce resources.
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