Schools adopt activity-based learning for new academic year

[Timothy Gangwer]

Schools adopt activity-based learning for new academic year

Tuesday, 15 September 2015 - 7:40am IST | Place: Thane | Agency: dna | From the print edition

• Ankita G Menon
  
  Billabong School in Thane, recently had a flower exhibition for its students. They also asked their students from the higher section, to make replicas of forts within Maharashtra.

With smart phones in the hands of every child, the increase of technology and the availability of information on their fingertips, has made it very competitive for teachers. The teachers need to keep themselves updated at all times, as the attention span of the students has also gone low. Teachers are including various visual methods to explain various subjects within the classroom. Some have also adopted activity-based teaching for the children.

Billabong School in Thane, recently had a flower exhibition for its students. They also asked their students from the higher section, to make replicas of forts within Maharashtra. "We involve the students in various activities so that, they learn as they work. Visual learning has a greater impact on the students, when they are asked to do an activity, as they involve themselves and do a research on it out of excitement, which helps, as the new information is then passed on to the rest of the students too," said one of the teachers from Billabong.

The teachers and students had recently conducted a flower exhibition wherein, they made replicas of many flowers and a few real flowers were also used and the room was decorated completely. "Involving the students in various activities helps develop their minds and also helps them to understand the concept better. Hence, we ensure to include different activities as per the subjects and topics in their curriculum," said Ranjani Krishnaswamy, principal, Billabong School.

Euro School has been clubbing their art and craft sessions with the various subjects taught in classroom, so that children can easily recollect the various aspects involved in the topic. "For example, if the children are learning about the Harappa and Mohenjodaro civilisation, the art teacher will teach the students to make jewellery with clay like the ones used during those civilisation. This works like a revision for the students, making it very helpful. Apart from this, we also give the students various difficult words every week, which they have to learn and practice, a spell bee competition is conducted at regular intervals. This makes the students thorough with their spellings," said Rajany Pattabhiraman, principal, Euro School.

Meanwhile, a similar concept was introduced in over 1300 schools in the Thane zilla parishad, various participatory methods and activities were included in the syllabus to ensure that the students understand the concept within the classroom itself.

"It is essential that the child does not only learn by heart but also understands the subject and its application. Hence, we need to instill a fun way of teaching to capture the attention of the little minds. We have adopted the new activity-based learning for the new academic year and this will definitely benefit the students for their future too. It will also help to keep them away from the rote learning method," said Meena Yadav, education officer, zilla parishad, Thane.