- The education for children in a dynamic society is solely based on the aims of education that make meaningful interpretation for the purpose of education. The aims of education which are the foundation in terms of the subject to mean education for human being and the society is to be envisioned by all educational experts and policymakers. With this core aspect and the need for a certain period, educational aims were focused only on skill development in the 19th century without realizing human development. Because, this era was about industrialization where many skills in the different sector were demanded, hence, the factory model of the education system was envisioned by most of the country that influenced huge rote learning.
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| Image source: HackEducation |
However, a distinct education system has been realized
in the 21st century because of the advent of rationalization and
liberalization. The education for life has been stressed more in this era with
the aims of developing critical thinking and rational autonomy that came to be
core aims of education which have been mandated to be fit for the society of
21st century. This inclusive and rationalized system of education has made
realize a new vision of educational approaches that would influence critical
thinking and rational autonomy. The rote learning influenced by early factory
model of the education system is another forgotten and abandoned agenda for the
current era. Because rote learning enhanced by chalk and talk lecturing and rapid memorization without learning actual essence has made outdated and unfit for the survival in the present context. However,
there might be enormous issues and challenges which exist related to policy and
competency in terms of activation of meaningful learning.
Let us go a little deeper into understanding the scenario better:
Impacts of
rote learning
Rote learning is something rigid way of knowing things
without having justified reasons for solving things which are influenced by
random lecturing mode of teaching approach and memorization of the written text in
the book. In fact, rote learning is about deceiving a child intellectually as
they are not capable of solving or reasoning things even if they know the
things. Knowing things remains vague mere in the heart which is exposed by exam
grades but not realistic or mentally.
·
Lack
of critical thinking skills: Rote learning hijacks the
children from mentally grown-up- resulting in unable to think critically over the
matter and issues. Because the rote learning approach never deploy sensory (body,
heart and mind) implications in the learning environment.
·
Lack
of in-depth knowledge about subject matter: There is
not even a single knowledge without evidence and facts as knowledge is
collectives of information and the information is connected to reality. Rote
learning does not allow children to have space in terms of connecting the
bookish information into reality. Hence, children are not able to validate the
information as they just memorize things.
·
Lack
of application skills of knowledge in an appropriate way:
Knowledge which is just mouth and heart without experiment and connections to the
reality is vague. This happens when children are isolated from realistic
experiments in action.
Some
recommendations and suggestions to sort out rote learning
The core vital aspects have been categorized into
three so as to come up with a certain conclusion in terms of sorting out rote
learning and activation of active and meaningful learning.
Context
based policy
· Contextual curriculum to be mandated: The context-based policy to be mandated by respective policymakers especially in the curriculum. The curriculum is a set of subject matters and subject matters are a set of information over somebody or something. Hence, these set of information has to be mandated to be contextual as children are more accessible, and familiarity with the information surrounding them than information about in far-off places.
For
example, if a child of Northeast India is studying with CBSE or ICSE
curriculum, they would definitely find difficulty in order to have meaningful
learning as subject matters might be of different far-off places. They might not be able to connect with the things they see and hear most commonly. However, it
would be difficult in case of humanity subject.
Conceptual
understanding
·
Understanding
the aims of education: In-depth understanding of
purpose and aims of education are about understanding the actual meaning of
education, it is one of the foundational and core skills of every teacher. This
knowledge would help a teacher to formulate appropriate teaching approaches as
it is a master key of every educational initiative including, designing and
implementation.
·
Teacher
professional development in a reflective manner: The
teachers training must be very reflective so that teacher can practically
understand about reflectivity in reality. Unless teachers have gone
through a reflective mode of teaching while training, it is, in fact, a difficult
task for them to deal with students in a reflective manner. However, in today’s
in-service teacher training seems to be a cascade model where most of the teachers do not receive direct training.
Technical
competencies
· Meaningful and active learning approaches: The sound technical competencies are also another core part of the activation of meaningful and active learning. The meaningful and active learning approaches are newly imagined teaching strategy, where children enjoy lots of fun in learning with the full attention of body, heart and mind.
In this approach, teachers would remain merely as facilitators and maximum of time would be given to the children followed by questioning, discussing and reflecting. This approach is basically incorporated with activity-based teaching with specific tools required for the specific subject matters.
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