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ANY ONE CAN LEARN! It was really very satisfying that we concluded a week long stay at a Power station with a Learning Skills Workshop for school children. The workshop was attended by about 200 students of classes 7 to 12 and a few teachers. It was very heartening that they responded so well to a session which lasted for about 3 and a Half hours (10 a.m to 1.30 p.m).
COLOURED LENS
After formal introductions by the organizers, the session began with a conversation that questioned perceptions and belief patterns of the students vis-a-vis themselves (I am good at this, not so intelligent, not fast enough etc.), subjects (like History is boring, maths is difficult!, Sanskrit oh please!, why biology?!) and attempted to establish that all of these (perceptions and beliefs) work as coloured glasses that we wear and lo! the world appears to be exactly that!
As you believe, so it shall be!
The conversation went on to discuss relevance of each subject in life and that each subject can be made (perceived) interesting. And about their self-belief, it was made clear that they were creating their reality. We reminded them of Henry Ford's statement on self belief:
"If you think you can or you think you can't,
either ways you are right!"
The session went on to discuss shifting their thinking such that they can leave negative past behind and impact their future by postive action. We suggested shifting their existing thinking pattern of
PAST -- PRESENT -- FUTURE
to
PAST --PRESENT --NOW
=
FUTURE
Because present (the way most of us experience it) is beliefs and perceptions PRE-SENT from the past and hence our thoughts and actions are influenced largely by nothing but the past. In order to produce a different result what we say-believe-do NOW is all important. So put your past in the past and let the FUTURE YOU WANT influence what you do NOW!
7 LEARNING STYLES/SKILLS
A self assessment psychometric test was administered to identify preferred learning styles. Through 70 simple statements that either matched their styles or did not, the students found out their learning strengths as well as weaknesses. It was also explained to them that based on their preferred learning styles they were bound to like-dislike, be very good-or-average-or-bad in certain subjects as compared to others; and by improving their learning skills they can improve their grasp of certain subjects or even specific topics.
The opportunity is to excel in every subject because each student has the potential and required skill to do so. It is now, only a matter of identifying the skill which needs to be sharpened.
In summary, the 7 learning styles/skills are:
1. VISUAL: You prefer using pictures, images and spatial understanding
2. AURAL : You prefer using sound and music
3. VERBAL: You prefer using words, both in speech and in writing
4. PHYSICAL: You prefer using your body, hands and the sense of touch
5. LOGICAL: You prefer using logic, reasoning and systems
6. SOCIAL: You prefer to learn in groups or with other people
7. SOLITARY: You prefer to work alone and use self study
The learning style test lead to a long discussion about which learning style will make which subject easier to understand and learn, how one could use appropriate style to improve ones' scores in a particular topic etc.
SPIDER WEB, CONCEPT MAP AND MIND MAP
The Students were then introduced to these techniques, which can be used for revising/recalling lessons already studied as well as taking notes while attending regular classes or lecture sessions. Though such techniques have now been known for very many decades and books and softwares are also available, it is seldom used by people because of its holistic nature, which is uncomfortable for the logically trained brains! A gold mine which can solve most of learning difficulties and deficiencies have yet to become popular and widely used.
To demonstrate its value in comprehension and recollection of lessons learnt, we asked the students to create a map of the 3 hour session they attended with us since that morning. Even though quite some information was shared with them, it was not expected that the students would remember much of it. But results of this exercise were quite astonishing to the students as many of them could recall almost all of their experiences and lessons from the session! However, there were some who couldn't get into the flow of creating the map as these were exceptionally left brained students.
Most students said that they found it difficult to take notes while attending a lecture. Their question was "should we take notes or concentrate on what is being taught?". The Mapping techniques do make it simpler to take notes during lectures and help much better retention. This, however, takes a little practice like all other techniques and skills but the result is quite amazing.
The session had to be concluded with just the Introduction to Mapping techniques as we ran out of time and postponed practicing the technique and understanding in depth, to the next meeting. We did, however, find time for a question answer session attempting to give a positive perspective to the students' grave issues and problems.
We bid farewell to these wonderful children wishing them best of luck!
TILL WE MEET AGAIN!
