CHAPTER Ill

SURVEY OF RELATED STUDIES

CHAPTER I l l
SURVEY OF RELATED STUDIES
This chapter presents studies on specific research studies and is meant to
supplement the conceptual review of literature given in Chapter II. It is
structured into the following subthemes:
A. Environmental Cognitionleducation
B. Curriculum Contextualisation Studies
C. Multigrade Teaching on Small Communities
D. Community and Outdoor Education (General)
A. ENVIRONMENTAL COGNlTlONlEDUCATlON
Piaget has shown that mathematical and scientific knowledge cannot be
acquired simply by reading books or merely from the words of the teacher.
They have to be 'constructed' by the child through his own experience of
the world and applying his mental schemata. For young children
experience with concrete material is necessary for constructing the
schemata as well as the scientific concepts. But working in limited closed
settings Piaget probably underestimated the ability of young children to do
certain tasks. For example, Piaget and lnhelder claimed that young
children possessed only topological concepts in space, i.e., concepts that
allow the encoding of locations as next to one another, but do not entail a
full reference system; only in later childhood is the individual said to
acquire a Euclidean system, metric in nature, and based on a full
reference system.
On the other hand, the en,vironmental cognitivists (Moore and Golledge,
1976, Spencer et al., 1993) have shown that experience with the
environment helps children to acquire many of the competencies much
earlier than what Piaget theorised. Some studies on these lines are cited
below. Some of these studies go the preschool years; yet they are cited in
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order to focus the latest view that the capacity of primary school children to
learn certain aspects especially in mathematics, science and geography
has been grossly underestimated.
Hart (1979) showed that environmental knowledge was directly related to
individual children's activity range. Parents allowed boys greater freedom
than girls and therefore they were much more knowledgeable about their
neighbourhoods.
Develin (1 976) found that experienced travellers were able to build a set of
expectations about a typical town and could use these expectations to
understand a novel town better. This suggests that an individual's own
past experience may generate increased sensitivity. Hence wide
individual differences may be expected in the effect of cognitive style,
training and experience on the individual's environmental cognition.
Landan et al (1984) showed through a series of experiments that a 2-yearold
congenitally blind child has spatial knowledge. On the basis of the
results, they challenge Piaget's characterisation of the spatial knowledge
of the pre-school child. They claim that their blind subject demonstrated a
Euclidean frame of reference.
Martin (1976) has claimed that the very young child has full Euclidean
knowledge and challenged the view hat topological representation
precedes the Eucledean. The results obtained from the experiments
conducted by Laurenduau and Pinard (1970) do not support the view that
topological concepts develop prior to Euclidean and projective concepts in
the child's representation of space. Kato (1984) concludes on the basis of
experiments that by the age of four, children can recognise shapes on the
basis of Euclidean features.
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Coben and Coben (1982) compared children walking through an
environment with and without interaction with landmarks, and found that
children developed a more accurate map when the activity was given a
theme that functionally links with landmarks. As soon as mobility permits,
the infant explores novel spaces in the context of a secure base (the
parent) and thus acquires a huge amount of environmental learning.
Rogoff and Waddell (1982) argue that along with acquiring spatial
information, children also develop skills in making strategic use of the
contextual organisation of the array of locations. This use is tacit and
unreflective in pre-school years, but becomes deliberate in the early
school years.
Wellman, Somerville and Haake (1979 a) showed that even 2-year-old
children were capable of sustained logical searches and their performance
improved with age. The type of task as well as the age will determine
whether he adopts a spatial-associative search strategy (based on
knowledge of locations strongly associated with the object or event), a
general strategy (a procedure for exhaustively covering the space, and
monitoring which locations have been checked and which are still to be
checked), or a logical search strategy (procedures that select from a
potential general search just those locations that suit the immediate task.
The logical search requires much more specific memory of events, order
and sequences and the ability to use logical inferences to prioritise the
search and to eliminate some possible locations.
Wellman, Somerville and Haake (1979 b) have found that the increasing
use, with age, of the more efficient search procedures can be related to
increase in the child's abilities both in memory and logical deduction.
Complex heuristics are also developed as the child grows older. During
the first year of life, infants do not show an ability to relate their own
movements to the knowledge of spatial layout and their own position within
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it. During the second year, they begin to relate their own movements to
their knowledge of target locations. Strategies for self and object location
improve with age. By three years of age, he child has achieved route
reversibility and is beginning to develop a more complex cognitive
mapping of a whole area.
As the child grows, relational and dimensional terms may be used
differently with different objects in a systematic and sophisticated way.
Smith, Cooney and McCord (1986) showed that the categorical use of
relational terms involves "a rich and intricate knowledge system," and that
it takes considerable time to acquire and organise he relevant information
about the world.
According to Acredolo (1978), infants begin to use landmarks by about six
months for predicting future positions of a moving object. A year later, the
young child shows evidence of a grasp of the mutually exclusive nature of
earlier and later positions.
Harris (1985) attributes inaccurate performance of an infant to hislher not
being sure how many objects he or she is dealing with; an expectation of
lawful relationships as well as the use of number skills seems to play a
part. Although very young infants are capable of discriminating between
arrays consisting of one, two or three items, the concepts of subtractions
and addition - which are essentially transformations of an array by the
displacement or replacement of an item - become available to the child
only at the period when he or she is able to work with the displacement of
objects in space.
West, Morris and Nichol (1985) showed that spatial knowledge can affect
performance on a broad spectrum of cognitive tasks, which, in turn, may
have implications for later academic performance.
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Kosslyn (1973), working on collateral development of spatial cognition and
imagery presents experimental evidence to suggest that mental images
containing spatial content preserve relative metric distances between
places, objects or features; that imagery facilitates the learning of both
verbal and pictorial material and plays a major role in the recall process
and in solving problems by inference.
Acredolo, Pick and Olsen (1975) showed how familiarity with an
environment interacts with the complexity and differentiation of that
environment as determinant of the child's memory for spatial location. The
level of competence in environmental cognition acquired through spatial
experience will interact with the characteristics of a specific environment
(its structural, organisational, social and affective features) to determine
what particular image the individual develops of a setting.
Dawizch and Spencer (1984) showed that children's memory for a route
could be significantly improved when their attention was drawn to
appropriate landmarks along the way. Rather than viewing children's
developing knowledge in fixed stages, it may be more appropriate to
consider children's ability in terms of their ability to apply efficient
strategies for selecting appropriate information from the environment.
Even young children can rernember a lot about a simple route after one
exposure to it, but they may be less proficient than older children or adults,
if they do not realise the benefits of noting effective information as they
move through the environment.
King (1992) investigated two aspects of spatial ability of students in a
three-dimensional logo environment: (1) the differences in reasoning
between students with high spatial ability and those with low spatial
ability, and the inferability of these differences using student interactions
with a three-dimensional computer graphic programme; (2) the differences
in spatial strategies of the students as they engage in the threedimensional
graphing activities. The students were observed during
lessons in three-dimensional graphing using a programme. They
attempted tasks such as representation of a rectangular solid, a
tetrahedron, and a triangular prism. They also completed a series of
lessons designed to test both their spatial and their problem-solving
abilities. The observable results included:
1. There is, in environments such as the ones studied, a forced
integration of verballsymbolic skills in order to construct the desired
graphic representation
2. It was necessary for the subject to have verbal/symbolic skills in order
to construct the desired graphic representation.
3. There was a direct relationship between the amount of
anticipationlreflection and students' success in completing the task.
Acredolo and Boulter (1984), investigating the effects of hierarchical
organisation on children's judgements of distance and direction, found that
children remembered the relative position of two places in different areas
of a map by reference to the relative location of those areas. They
interpreted the findings in Piagetian terms, by suggesting that the children
in their experiment were particularly sensitive to the topological properties
of the maps and that the topological notions of enclosure, belongingness
and similarity may have been operating to distort the preoperational
children's memory for distance and direction. Stevens and Coupe (1978)
had earlier found that the same distortions occurred in adult's memory for
similar maps, indicating that adults also could be limited to a topological
understanding of space.
Cadwallader (1979), investigating problems in cognitive distance and their
implications for behavioural mapping, showed that distance estimates are
both intransitive and non-commutative. Subjects are quite likely to say that
distance 1 is longer than distance 2; 2 is longer than 3; and 3 is longer
than 1. They are also capable of estimating the distance from A to B as
being different from B to A. The intransitivity and non-commutativity of
estimates indicates that people 'do not posses cognitive representations of
their physical world that have the mathematical properties of metric space'.
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Any internalised spatial representation of the physical world will be highly
complex.
A few studies were conducted to find an answer to the question, "What
factors about the environment might facilitate environmental information
processing?" Weisman (1981), working on evaluating architectural
legibility: way finding with built environment, examined the relationship
between ease of orientation and four architectural variables: interior
signing, the possibility of seeing outdoors; architectural differentiation
between the areas of a building; and overall plan configuration.
Appleyard (1970), in his study of styles and methods of structuring a city,
discusses the importance of physical distinctiveness for both one's
orientation and one's aesthetic response to the city.
Evans, Smith and Pezdek (1982) made a study of cognitive maps and
urban forms. They observed that the building features that predict how well
subjects recall places include: the amount of movement around the
building; shape and high use, arid thereby, familiarity. The other building
characteristics that enhanced recall included: the presence of natural
features around the building, uniqueness of architectural style, and sense
of pedestrian access.
Atkins's (1981) study on introducing basic map and globe concepts to
young children and Muir arid Blaut's experimental study on the use of
aerial photographs in teaching mapping to children in the first grade
attempted to check whether children before the age of 7 years are (1)
limited to the topological stage of development; (2) spatially egocentric;
and (3) too young to start any map work. They showed that children may
be able to learn about maps well before they reach the projective stage of
spatial development (7 or 8 years). From the earliest play with objects, the
child receives practice in trar~slatingb etween viewpoints. The aerial views
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of a toy car anticipate the plan representation that would be found in a
drawing view of the car from above.
Biel (1982) studied children's representation of their neighbourhood: a
step towards a general spatial competence and showed the child's home
occupies a key position in six-year-old's representations. When asked to
imagine him- or her-self at various known points or near home, and to then
decide which of two other landmarks that the child has mentioned is
nearer, then one finds the child's representation of the location of these
landmarks to be internally consistent, and to coincide with their actual
locations. Biel cites this as evidence for six-year-olds being able to use
projective and Euclidean concepts when dealing with a known area. It is
clear from this study that in map drawing of real, familiar environments,
landmarks play an important role for the young children.
Poag et a1 (1983) suggest that from a number of theoretical perspectives,
active movement through the environment has been assumed to be an
almost essential condition for the construction of spatial representations of
large-scale environments.
Spencer, Mitchell and Wrisdom (1984) in their attempt to evaluate
environmental education in nursery and primary education conducted five
projects at the Ladywood school in which 3- and 4-year-olds learned
about spatial relationships within a house; the same age group
investigated the three-dimensional structure of a house; and, in a third
project, worked on a cognitive map of their route through the village in the
school. Project four was a more complex mapping exercise of the same
daily journeys with 7- and 9- year-olds; and project five was 'Mapping the
classroom' exercise included in every textbook on beginning mapping. All
these were chosen as typical kind of exercise that nursery and primary
school teachers have been encouraged to do. In each case, the simple,
conventional procedure of an empirical study was outlined. Before and
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after measures, with control groups, development of category systems and
other procedures for evaluating children's concepts were undertaken.
The results showed that the control and experimental groups were
comparable; there was very little change in the control group's knowledge
ad concepts over the term between pre-test and post-test. In contrast, the
experimental group showed significant improvement in the post-test. All
trained children then benefited considerably from the teaching programme,
with the slightly older children showing better performance than the
younger at both the pre-test and post-test stages. Thus the effectiveness
of environmental education on children's knowledge, concepts,
environmental awareness, geographicacy and better locational skills was
established.
Rachel Kaplan (1976) has presented a case study on "Way-Finding in the
Natural Environment" The ideal is to present a 'future' environment in a
way that facilities envisioning it. This has not yet been fully met.
Meanwhile the four transition experiences described by Kaplan include:
exploratory study of cognitive mapping, use of a board game as prior
experience, different games as prior experience and a new location
contour map and aerial photographs. Playing the different way-finding
games had significant positive effect on confidence in finding their way
about knowledge of natural environment and built environment.
Spencer et al (1989) suppoll: the idea that children are manifestly ready
for, and are indeed using, geographic concepts as early as 4 or 5 years of
age. They have thought about the world's position in the universe, about
distant places; local and immediate areas; and are able to use directly
gained information about the environment to perform locational and
orientational tasks.
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Mitchell suggests that very young children, even before they are four, can
explore, make protomaps and can do geographic experiments. Although
graphicacy is basic to the expression and investigation of ideas in
mathematics, design and other areas in the school curriculum it has been
claimed by geographers as especially their concern, which indicates that
there is close connection between mathematics and geography and
through study of geography, a number of mathematical concept can be
developed in children.
B. CURRICULUM CONTEXTUALISATION STUDIES
A principle-oriented analysis of the major contributions from the project
sponsored by the Department for International Development of the United
Kingdom [Taylor and Mulhall (1997)l to explore the use of a local-based
occupation like agriculture as a contextualising media in primary education
has been presented in Chapter II. In the present chapter, some of the
typical research studies testing the principles are presented.
Mulhall describes the cases of two schools to illustrate common
involvement in Tanzania. An innovative school situated in a village in the
Arumeru district of Tanzania consists of 540 pupils and 17 teachers.
Agriculture is the main economic activity in the village. The main cash
crops are coffee, banana, maize and beans.
There is considerable interaction between the school and the community.
The villagers were very much interested in the education of their children.
Community spirit and co-operation were promoted by the relative diversity
of tribes. A village school committee facilitates community-school relations.
The committee is concerned with the problems like discipline and absence
of pupils, school developmerlt and even occasional lectures in areas like
health, veterinary Science and extension. The absenteeism is due to
sickness, pregnancy, and work in parent's farm or local mines.
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Two schools are compared to understand the conditions in which a
progressive reform may be accepted. School A has high academic
reputation. The primary and secondary school were constructed largely
using local community contributions. Cabbage and tomatoes are grown in
school plot to supplement the income. Science lessons are entirely theorybased
with chalk and talk and occasionally demonstrated. Teachers do
make some teaching aids from locally available materials. Agriculture
demonstrations by teachers are brief and not followed by practice. The
parents viewed education as being very important for their children as the
key of life. They were sorry that they could not interact with those who
decided what their children learned in school. But they prefer their children
not to enter agriculture, since they wanted them to go beyond what they
had achieved themselves. They wanted them to become self-reliant and to
get employment in the modern sector.
School B is situated in a village of Tanzania. Agriculture is the main
economic activity in the village. Coffee, maize, beans, banana are the
main cash crops. Livestocks are also kept. Some are employed in a large
rose growing industry. The village school committee has a trend to
dominate the school, and the chairman would sometimes arrive expecting
to check on how things were going. The experts who came to the school
did not seem to play those roles in the community. The curriculum was
problematic with irrelevant content and centrally developed curriculum was
constantly changing and inadequate. Teachers struggled due to shortage
of text books, teaching aids, resources and the newly introduced subjects
like Skills and Civics have no materials. Community members had
contributed a new office I-oom and a class room. Farming parents want
their children to become Inore advanced than themselves. It seems that
the wealth of parents will be the deciding factor in the educational life of a
child. Pupils interviewed described ways in which they applied what they
had learned at school in the home environment. One boy mentioned that
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he had been taught to draw the map of Tanzania by his brother before he
started school.
Teachers at B did try to relate teaching and learning to the pupil's
experience like English syllabus sections on the farm and soil. All
instructions were given in English and the pupils appeared to enjoy the
practical activity. The teacher explained that the previous lesson was
based on the preparation of breakfast and pupils had made tea for
themselves.
Teachers thought that agriculture was a good medium of education to use
for pupils who live with these things but the teacher's knowledge about the
local agriculture was insufficient and there was no resource teacher in
agriculture. Parents thougnt that agriculture was a good way of linking
school and home learning, since they liked their children to practice at
home what they had learned at school.
School B is officially classified as an average school. But from the
incidents reported above, it must be considered as a superior school. Here
contextualisation of learning is practiced by some teachers and a more
immediate understanding of the contextualising learning seemed to be
reached by parents, pupils and teachers.
Elstgeest (1987) notes a progressive approach to primary education in
Tanzania based on problerns that they can handle. By asking questions
based on their own experience, the children can respond positively and
build on their confidence and motivation. An example is given of the fifth
grade class in Kigururunyembe, Tanzania, where children used equal
amounts of soil, using washers and nuts as units of weight. They then
translated their findings into a picture, and proceeded to establish what
amount of water their soils could carry. Another example was of children
counting the number of seeds in a cob of maize to assist them in
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developing skills in numeracy. When the children set out to count the
seeds, they were surprised that there were 470 seeds, as many of the
children had a vague idea of large numbers. Elstgeest notes that the
children can learn that by manipulating and controlling the environment
they can influence and control the response and behaviour of living things
in certain ways; this demonstrates a particular value of agriculture as a
contextualising subject.
The Ministry of Education, Sri Lanka (1993) launched Plantation Sector
Education Development Programme (PSEDP) self study materials and
graded learning. It started in 1987 as a programme of support to primary
education in the tea and rubber estates. Until fairly recently estate schools
had been managed and owned by plantation companies. They were
connected with the National Ministry of Education through a grant-in-aidsystem
in which schools were subjected to an annual inspection and
award of grant based on academic achievement. During the 1970s, these
schools and teachers began to be taken over by the state and were
incorporated fully into the state system. In 1984, there were 558 estate
schools, with a total of 63389 students and 1148 permanent teachers. The
average student-teacher ratio was 55:l. A large proportion of the schools
had only one teacher.
The programme started with an analysis of the fundamental problems
facing children in the estate community - large numbers of children
dropping out from primary school, too few teachers and too many
untrained teachers. As and when some of those problems are being met,
more attention is being given under the programme to appropriate
pedagogy for groups of 46-50 children: (1) through the development of self
study materials, and (2) through individualised approach to the learning of
reading. Both strategies can support multi-grade teaching as well as multiability
teaching within a mono-grade structure.
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Peris (1976) and Baker (1988) describe an integrated approach to
curriculum development in primary education in Sri Lanka. The basis of
the curriculum was that children should carry out activities related to their
own experience, using subject content as and when necessary in their
work (through a project approach, planned well in advance and focusing
on identified knowledge, skills and attitudes). The nature of the work itself
is expected to generate an enthusiasm producing an internal selfdiscipline
and would be made more responsiveness to their own
environment.
The focus and aims of the study of Kent and Mushi (1995) is the
examination of both the structures and processes that assist in the training
of youth who aspire to become artisans working in the informal sector and
the operational characteristics of subsistence and small-scale enterprises.
Originally mechanical and electrical trades' training was expected to be
focussed. But later more common trades such as carpentry and tailoring
were added.
In a recent study of rural schools, pupils were frequently found to play
truant in order to avoid self-reliant activities (TADREG, Tanzania
Development Research Group, 1993). Both parents and pupils resisted
such activities as explosive for two reasons. Firstly, pupils were not taught
useful skills and secondly they did not see any tangible evidence of
improvements to their schocjl for their efforts.
Reducing the number of subjects, or introducing work skills does not
address the fundamental problern of curriculum reform, i.e., how to make
the content of primary education more relevant to the needs of the client
group.
In 1993-'95, pilot projects began in two regions, Mbega and Zanzibar. The
first stage in the process was to establish rapport with the consumers, i.e.,
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to establish the needs of parents through workshops designed to raise
their awareness of issues and to encourage them to become active
participants in the programme.
Diversified secondary schools were introduced in 1975 with funding from
the World Bank and Specialised in Agriculture, Home Economics,
Commerce and Technical Education. The aim was to shorten the time
taken to produce skilled labour by equipping the students with the
knowledge and skills necessary to become productively self-employed in
the rural and urban informal sectors. However, subsequent studies
considered them to be ineffective and withdrew their support. However
some of these schools continue to operate although ineffectual. There was
also a tendency to give the disciplinary approach, i.e., to teach science as
three separate subjects - physics, chemistry and biology. The curriculum is
characterised by overloaded syllabi that are presented in a fashion, which
decentralises the various topics making them appear abstract.
The Secondary Science Project (SSP based on the British Nuffield
courses was first tried in '1968 but withdrawn in 1971. The most recent
endeavour was the World Bank-funded, TIE-developed Unified Science
Project (USP which ran tom 1990 to 1994). This initiative in principle
represented the opportunity to introduce radical reform in a holistic manner
similar to the primary PEP project. In practice, it was considered to be too
radical, as it challenged long-held beliefs among politicians, administrators
and teachers about the elitist nature of science education and science
teaching and in response to a number of reports, was abruptly cancelled
by the Commissioner of Education (TADREG 1995).
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C. MULTIGRADE TEACHINGISELF-LEARNING IN
SMALL COMMUNITIES
In 1993, the Sri Lankan Plantation Sector Education Development
Programme (PSEDP) embarked on a programme of development of selfstudy
materials in the Tamil language for use by students in years 3 to 5 of
the primary cycle. Some of the results of the summative evaluation in two
schools are as follows:
In School I, there have been three testing. Pupils with A grade increased
from 0% to 21%. E grade decreased from 35% to 7%. In School It, there
were five children in five year class who could not read at all. They were
started off with the year one book. After six months two of the five got their
promotion to year six, they were able to read at the year five level. The
other three did not reach the level and will repeat the year, but they will
catch up.
In another school, it was found that when tested in March there no D's and
quite a few A's, but when retested in June using a different book but of
about the same level, not the set Tamil reader, this time there were no A's.
It was felt that the children had been memorising the set book and were
unfamiliar with reading anything that was outside the set-book.
Although neither the self study materials nor the reading project arose
primarily out of a need to final solutions to the problems facing the multigrade
teacher, clearly the materials and approaches developed were
found appropr~atefo r both the muti-grade and mono-grade teacher.
Zambia's experiment with teacher education and support for multi-grade
schools presents several insight in this direction. In-service training
courses in multi-grade teaching were developed and mounted by the
Malcolm Moffat Teacher's Training College (MMTTC).
Among the two schools which participated in the project the Mwape
'
primary school did increase the enrolment beyond grade five by this
method. Nut? the school community relationship was not particularly
strong and no contribution had been made by the parents towards the
rehab~litationo f school building.
The Kalombe school experience increased the enrolment rapidly after the
introduction of multi-grade teaching. Parents expressed the view that the
provision of upper primary grade schooling, made possible through the
multi-grade teaching, had been one of the attractions of setting in the area.
Teachers felt that with multi-grade teaching students were better prepared
for self-learning after they had left school. It was felt that multi-grade
teaching contributed greatly to the mastery and enduring impact of basic
skills, as interesting preparation, which would warrant further investigation.
In contrast to Mwape the school community relationship is very strong.
Learning Activity Centres in each school complement the study guides. In
service training is an integral part of the new school strategy. This training
involving students in the organisation of the school, the use of learning
centres and group work in the organisation of learning, and the
mobilisation of community resources for the mobilisation of the school.
Colbert, Chiappe and Arboleda (1993) describe Escuela Nueva (the new
school programme) in Cc~lumbia. It arose as an attempt to address the
problems of rural education, which persisted in spite of the unitary school
approach. By 1992 the new system had 17,000 schools.
It provides active rnstruct~on, a stronger relationship between the school
and the community, and a flexible promotion mechanism adapted to the
life style of the rural child. It comprises four main components-curriculum,
training, administration and community relations.
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The programme assumes that the rural schools involved in the programme
are multi-grade with self instruction, flexible promotion learning centres
strategy.
Self-instruction study guides for grades 2 to 5 in Natural Science,
Mathematics, Social Studies and Languages adopt a method, which
promotes active learning, cognitive skills, discussion group decisionmaking
and the development of application skills within the local
environment. The guides contain sequenced objectives and activities.
The supply guides reflect both the national curriculum and regional and
local adaptations. The study guides are used by groups of 2 to 3 children
at a time and facilitate the work of the teachers required to work with
several grades in the same class room. Conventional text books tend not
to facilitate self instruction.
Learning activity centres in each school complement the study guides. In
service teachers training is an integral part of the new school strategy.
The workshops are conducted in three stages. Follow-up workshops are
organized monthly to exchange ideas, analyse problems and discuss
results. These local non formal workshops become formalised as micro
centres. These centres serve as a participatory experience where teachers
could evaluate, create, enrich their own experiences, innovate, criticize,
analyse and carry out projects for the improvement of the school and the
community.
Both the micro centres ancl demonstration schools maintain a horizontal
training network and are regarded as a 'decentralised, in service, low-cost
mechanism to maintain quality in the process of going to scale".
Rodriguez (1979) inferred during the first stage that there was no
difference in the levels of creativity of children multi compared, compared
with mono-grade rural schools, but the self esteem of both boys and girls
was higher.
Rojas and Castillo (1988) report that a majority of teachers believe that the
new school is superior to other types of traditional rural school. Students in
new schools performed better on tests of socio-civic behaviour, self
esteem and some subjects in some grades.
In short, it has been suggested that the new school system responds
successfully to the needs of the rural child in Columbia because
t the learning strategy adopted encourages active, creative, participatory
and responsible learning.
t children learn at their own pace using self instructional materials.
t materials are affordable-one set is shared among three children and
each set lasts several years. The content of the materials reflects a
national curriculum and can also include regional and local adaptation.
t the in service training of the teacher in local, replicable and permanent.
In short, it has been suggested that the new school system responds
successfully to the needs of the rural child in Columbia because
the learning strategy adopted encourages active, creative,
participatory and responsible learning.
children learn at their own pace using self instructional materials
materials are affordable - one set is shared among three children
and each set lasts several years. The content of the materials
reflects a national curriculum and can also include regional and
local adaptation.
the in service training of the teacher is local, replicable and
permanent.
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D. COMMUNITY AND OUT OF SCHOOL LEARNING (GENERAL)
Gordon (1998) examined the effects of an integrated organisational
strategy on an intermediate school in Texas, which developed a true
feeling of community. The strategies were looping, interdisciplinary
instruction and use of technology as an integrated tool for learning.
Purposive emergent sampling was used to maximise information from the
school population. Both structured and unstructured interviews were
conducted by the participant observer. Small learning environments were
created by forming teams of teachers and students, assigning advisors,
teaching critical thinking, active citizenship, grouping for learning, flexible
scheduling, teacher influence, building governance, teacher leaders,
expert teachers of adolescence, meaningful roles for parents keeping
parents informed and shar~ng a vision. The findings of the study also
responded to the two research questions that guided the study. What were
the nature of the interpersonal relationships that formed between parents,
teachers and students, and to what degree were the relationships of result
of the implemented instructional strategies.
Miller (1997) discusses improving the school-to-work and community
transition program of 41 mildly disabled secondary students during their
educational careers in a rural district setting. During an 8 month practicurn,
41 mildly disabled high school students, their teachers, parents and
counsellors, and community business representatives co-operated in
defining individual school-to-work transition goals in education,
occupationallcareer, and sociallpersonal areas. The major aim was to
realistically and adequately prepare these special needs students for
community life after exiting high school. Techniques used to achieve their
goal included student and parent surveys, questionnaires, parent and
teacher workshops, restricted curricula, co-operation of community, school
and itinerant personnel and student-set goals. The major findings were:
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1. 5 of the 41 eligible students were formally enrolled in a schoolto-
work programme.
2. 20 of the 38 teachers and aids working directly with the 41
students were able to correlate at least two specific curriculum
goals with the students' traditional plans.
3. Parents of 22 of the 41 students expressed satisfaction with the
transitional plans, and
4. 16 of the 41 students were able to share one education, on
careerloccupational and one sociallpersonal transitional goal. All
outcomes except number 2 were met, only 12 teachers
indicated their ability )o correlate at least two specific curriculum
goals with students' transitional plans.
John (2000) developed a Guided-Field-Study Model (GFSM) and tested
its effectiveness by comparing the achievement in Ecology of the
treatment groups, viz. Guided-Field-Study Method (GFSM) group.
Lecture Method (LM) grclup and Self-study led to the conclusion that
Guided-Field-Study Method is superior to Lecture Method with regard to
post test achievement. The study also showed that resource units based
on GFS models are a necessity in higher secondary schools to help
teachers realize the possibilities and potentialities of this approach.
Han, Eun Sok (1991) made a comprehensive analysis of the teacher
school administrator attitudes toward out-door education. The study
found that, in general, teachers and school administrators are quite
positive towards the value of outdoor education and school camping.
(camping kyonggi). Another significant finding was that the teachers and
school administrators are not equipped with the knowledge and skills
related to another education and school camping.
Lindenmeier (1996) co,nducted a study on outdoor education
components. The research project was undertaken to determine to what
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degree Environmental Education and Adventure Education are
interdependent components of outdoor education. The study found that
environmental education and adventure education are significantly
dissimilar in several key respects.
Orion (1993) developed a model for the implementation of fields trips as
an integral part of the Science curriculum. The important conclusions
arrived at regarding the role of field trips as a tool of concretization were
that
1. the field trip should be placed at the early stage of the learning
process and
2. the field trip should focus on concrete activities which can not be
conducted effectively in the classroom.
Thies (1997) conducted a study to determine efficient procedures for
operating residency outdoor environmental programme. The analysis of
result revealed that:
The environmental programmes are weak, if not integrated
with ongoing educational curricula.
Better training programmes and certification requirements
need to be developed.
Inquiry methods with hands-on-student activities need to be
developed for such programmes.
The current interest in environmental education is to be
exploited for programme support.
Universities should arrange outdoor environmental education
courses for teachers.
A survey by Turner (1997:) examines eleven integrated Science courses
for the age range 11-14 in countries as diverse as West Germany, the
U.S.A, Nigeria and the Pacific Islands. It describes the circumstances
which gave rise to each course and how the course was shaped to suit
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local needs, either by importing and adapting a proven course or by
creating an entirely fresh course around local curricula and materials.
In a survey by Chambers (1983), 89% of the respondents listed their
dealers as a good source of agricultural information. Thus the farm input
dealers constitute an important link in the extension chain for
dissemination of agricultural information to the farming community.
E. ENVIRONMENTALIDEVELOPMENTAL EDUCATION STUDIES:
INDIAN UNIVERSITIES
Patel (1978) conducted a study about the educational facilities and
utilisation of educational opportunity by the slum children. The major
findings of the study were as follows: 1 in the matter of school resources,
the slum schools were not at par with the schools in non-slum areas; 2. the
resources of the schools in the slum area were interior and inadequate; 3.
the curriculum was inappropriate for the slum children's needs and level of
ability.
Aikara (1979) conducted a study about the problem of out-of-school
children of the school-going age. 20% random sample of the out-of-school
children and 5% random sample of the in-school children were drawn for
the purpose of interviewing parentslguardians. The major findings were
1. The out-of-school children had a relatively poorer educational,
occupational and economic background compared to their counter
parts in school.
2. By and large, the parents of the out-of-school children were eager and
willing to send their children to an educational programmer that would
be suitable and convenient to them. An educational programme that
combined literacy with vocational training seemed to be the most
acceptable. The parents of the majority of children wanted the medium
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of instruction to be the mother tongue. About two hours in the evening
appeared to be the most suitable time for the new educational
programme.
Ambika (1973) conducted a study on the potentialities of field trips for
learning Biology of standard IX. The study aimed at finding out the field
trip experiences that are currently being provided in the learning of
Biology and also those field-trip experiences that can be made possible
for improved teaching-learning of Biology. The study came to the
conclusion that the teaching of Biology at present is very much formalised
within the class room. The teachers are unaware of the latent
potentialities of field trips and how they can be used in learning Biology.
It was also found that teachers tended to avoid out door activities.
because they were very often unfamiliar with the philosophy, technique
and organization of field trips.
Raju (1985) and Sheenil (1995) studied the utilisation of available
community resources in the teaching of Biology in the secondary schools
of Kerala. Both studies revealed the improper utilisation of community
resources.
Ravindranath, Sowrirajan and Nair (1990) studied the use of computers in
the teaching of environmental education. The main objectives of the study
were to find out how computers could be effectively used in schools to
support the teacher with the necessary information on the local
environment and how instruction could be made locally specific. The main
conclusion of the study is that with the availability of sophisticated
gadgets like computer, classroom instruction could be made more
creative and challenging.
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Nat (1990) conducted a study on environmental education to develop an
awareness of and responsibility for the environment at present and future.
He concluded that th~s coulcl be achieved by bringing environment into
school as well as the school to the environment.
Joshi (1981) in his study to Find out the environmental problems
particularly in the state of Rejasthan which might have a bearing on the
rural and urban classes, found that environment outside the class was
potent enough to initiate learning and suggested environmental education
as a compulsory subject at primary level. Teachers and syllabus were the
main obstacles in limiting the growth of this approach.
Gupta (1986) conducted .a study of attitude of teachers towards
environmental education. The findings of the study: 1. the mean attitude
score for all the groups of teachers showed a favourable attitude towards
environment education; 2. the order of favourableness were junior college
teachers, secondary and primary teachers; 3. the teachers pointed out
constraints like crowded classroom, lack of time for proper planning of
activities, loss of interest in the absence of regular follow up action etc. on
implementation of environment education programme.
Rajput et al. (1980) conducted a study of environmental approach of
teaching at primary level. The Madhya Pradesh State curriculum for
classes 3 ad 4 was redesigned to build the scope for environmental
approach of teaching. The effect of implementing the redesigned
curriculum in primary schools was assessed (with a sample of over 100
students) on environmental awareness and achievement in science. The
study revealed: (1) Only orte of the four groups (2 schools x 2 classes)
was significantly different as environmental awareness at pre-test stage,
whereas, at the post-test stage, two experimental groups were
significantly better than the control group. (2) The difference between the
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experimental group and the control group on a traditional achievement
test was not significant.
Pai (1981) prepared and tried out a curriculum I environmental studies
leading to life-long education for college students with the following
objectives: (1) to help students acquire an awareness of the interrelationships,
interactions and interdependence existing between
biological and physical aspects of the total environment and sensitivity
towards the environment and its applied problems (2) to help students
acquire strong positive attitudes, sound ecological values towards the
seeds of a better environment and the necessary motivation for actively
participating in its protection and improvement; and (3) to help students
develop skills necessary for solving environmental problems and taking
preventive measures The environmental curriculum prepared was tried
out experimentally (N expt=72, N control=60).and tested with specially
prepared tools.
The findings of the study were: (1) There was significant difference in the
performance of the envirc~nmental group as compared with the control
group on knowledge scores and attitude scores. (2) The experimental
group had gained more than the control group in environmental activities
inventory. (3) As a result cf instructions for using the curriculum, students
reflected clearer and more vivid images perceived in terms of the
sensitivity towards the environment. (4) Unit-wise analysis of he
performance of the students in the experimental group showed that they
had gained in overallknowledge in environmental problems.
Gupta, Grewal and Rajput 111981) conducted a study of the environmental
awareness with the following objectives: (1) to know the components of
environment in wh8ich children from rural [R] and urban [U] areas were
lacking and the areas in which the students from both the streams were
well acquainted; 92) to compare the environmental awareness of schoolSurvey
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going children [F] and children studying in nonformal centres [NF]; (3) to
suggest means for developing environment-based curriculum for
universalisation of elementary education . The sample consisted of 110
students of standard 4 - 20 from rural schools [FR], 30 from urban
schools [FU, and 60 from nonformal centres [NFE]. An Environmental
Awareness Test by Rajput and associates was administered on the
sample. The performance of the three groups was compared.
Significance of mean difference was tested by t test.
It was found that: (1) The difference between FR and FU on
environmental awareness was significant and in favour of NFE. (2) The
difference between NFR and FU was also significantly in favour of NFE.
(3) The difference between NFE and FR on environmental awareness
was not significant.
The SCERT of Andhra Pradesh (1980) compared the old and new science
curricula in environmental studies of classes IV and V and found that the
new curriculum relevant to environment was more effective. According to
the teachers, the new S,cience curriculum fulfilled the educational
objectives as prescribed by the Directorate of Education.
Geethalekshmi, C. (1994) identified the curricular potentials of ten local
edible fruit yielding plants for the study of Botany at higher secondary
school level. The fruit yielding plants selected for the study were mango,
jack fruit, papaya, amla, passion fruit, anona, guava, coconut, pineapple
and banana. The study showed that all the ten plants selected for the
study have immense potential for teaching-learning of the content covered
in the Botany text books of higher text books of higher secondary classes.
Joseph (1976) explored in detail the potential and practices of using
school resources in conducting science clubs. The study found that
resources like yields, agricultural farmers and gardens are present near
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almost all schools. But only a small number of teachers use these
environmental resources for teaching Science.
Scaria's (1984) study on the curricular potentials of local plants of food
value revealed that the majority of the secondary school students are
lacking practical and utilitarian knowledge about the commonly available
local food plants. The investigator suggested that pupils should be
encouraged to make use of these plants, as it may be helpful to reduce
some of the deficiency dist.> ases.
Exemmal (1974) conducted a study about the use of environmental and
ethnic resources in the teaching of Botany in the primary classes of
Kerala. The study attempted to find out how far the environmental and
ethnic (cultural) resources of Kerala were used in the teaching school
botany. The investigator found that agricultural field is the only resource
reported by the majority of teachers as being used for teaching botany.
Observation and analysis revealed a number of environmental resources
like profuse plant growth in and around the school which could illustrate
several botanical concepts and principles (which remain unused or
recognised by teachers., use of plant products for beautification,
ornament, medicine et . Ethnobotanic classification and analysis
embedded in the ordinary Malayalam language (such as the use of two
words for leaf ila for non-palmate leaf and ola for palmate leaf), have
potentiality for initiating scientific thinking and for bridging the home and
the school. The diffusion of modern science among the ordinary people by
the Farm Information Bureau at a rate faster than the official mechanism
spreading practical and functional modern science in schools is another
potential resource..
Sulochana (1984) made ail attempt to prepare certain instructional models
based on farming for the learning of Science in high school classes. The
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models prepared were found to be good for learning Biology through the
medium of farming.
Leelammma Mathew (1975) developed some models of relating the
teaching of the agriculture-based items in Standard 9. biology with the
resources of the agricultural extension services. The study was based on
the data collected from 113 natural Science teachers and 40 agricultural
officers. Teachers in the sarnple reported that the most common methods
used by them for teaching a!zjricultural ideas to pupils are lecture, showing
pictures, charts or specimen, group discussion and taking pupils to
garden. The agricultural officers were using much more modern methods
function ally related to the environment in teaching the farmers, because
they were more specifically trained for the job. Unlike the teachers, they
were dealing with a non-captive clientele, who will take lessons only if it
was worthwhile. All the agricultural officers think that agricultural
education can relate education to environment. 85% of the agricultural
officers suggest that agricultural education in schools can make Science
teaching more interesting.
Pillai (1975) constructed and tested models of relating the teaching of the
ecology-oriented portions of Class 9 with the local environment. Visit to
forest to observe different species, conducting vanamahotsava (treeplanting
festival) were the items in the rating scale which gogt the IOowesgt
score in terms of present use. The investigator suggests that a spirit of
cooperation between schools and external resources of the state as done
in the young farmers' club and young naturalists club would be very
relevant for science teaching.
Elizabeth Mathew (1976) conducted a study on the formulation and
evaluation of environmental approaches in biology education and arrived
at the conclusion that environmental approach is superior to formal
approach in terms of developing or achieving many educational objectives
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including environmental understanding, aesthetic aspects and academic
objectives. One interesting finding in her study is that in environmental
teaching the usual sequence of prior objective followed by designing
learning experience and evaluation is often reversed. The environmental
experience directly provides a learning experience from which relevant
educational objectives car1 be extracted. An interdisciplinary transaction is
also commonly met with in environmental education situations, e.g., in
teaching pest control, learning experiences and objectives pertaining to
botany, entomology, chemistry toxicology etc. come naturally together.
Exemmal (1980) followetj up her master's study in environmental and
ethnic resources in the teaching of school botany with a more
sophisticated constructive and experimental study, adapting analytical,
constructive and follow-up judgement techniques too. The study resulted
in: (1) The construction of very analytical models for teaching botany
using detailed environmental observations, folk science, phylotaxy etc.
and drawing out educational objectives from these ordinary situations. (2)
the efficacy of the environmental approaches were tested by comparing
the achievement in botany (a) of the environmental approach group and
formal approach group (overall groups) and (b) within the overall groups,
of equated subgroups (equated separately for each of the variables such
as intelligence, science interest, attitude towards science teaching and
learning, socio-economic status, and present achievement scores) in
terms of (i) immediate post-teaching achievement, (ii) delayed memory
achievement, (iii) extent of forgetting (special tools were constructed,
item-analysed and used). The experimental group showed significant
superiority in achievement - immediate and delayed memory. (3).
Environmental approach had significant positive effect on the attitude of
pupils towards science teaching and learning. (4) the suitability of the
teaching models was tested (in terms of the ratings of experts and
teachers) with respect to (a) availability of suitable outdoor resources for
developing the select learning experiences, (b) stage suitable for
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introducing the select learning experiences, (c) competencies required for
handling the select learni~ge xperiences.
Mercykutty (1996) conducted a doctoral study on developing and testing
models of teaching mathematics using environmental resources. The
study used a large amount of qualitative methodology, supplemented by
some quantitative methodology. The investigator conducted a lot of
activity analysis - of the mathematical competencies embedded in crafts
like tailoring, embroidery, carpentry, gardening etc. and various play
activities. She even apprenticed herself to a tailoring teacher in order to
make the analysis functional. She observed a variety of objects in the
environment and drew sketches. A project was conducted with her B.Ed.
students to analyse the rnathematics embedded in Onarn celebrations.
Participant observation and Onam and Christmas celebrations yielded
rich mathematics com~onents.
The school textbooks iri mathematics were first analysed by the
investigator in terms of environmental examples for development of
mathematical ideas, invitations extended to students to explore
mathematics from the environment etc. Contrary to popular belief, it was
found that all the textbooks do contain plenty of environmental references.
They progressively get dirninished as the student goes up the grades.
But many of the references are of a verbal nature. The book does suggest
concrete and project-type activities, but usually they come at the end and
hence tend to be omitted. 'The preface to the book seems to suggest that
children should first master the content through verbal understanding and
drill and thus 'strengthen the permanent contact with the environment'.
But this does not seem to work with young children. Mercykutty has
identified several un-Piagetian approaches in the textbook presentation in
the lower classes. The difficulty with the prior verbal presentation is made
more complicated by unnecessary use of heavy words with a Sanskrit
diction far above the level of the language studies for the corresponding
standard, neologisms, homonymy (different terms for the same concept),
polysemy (the same term having multiple meanings), importing of English
terms in the most unexpected context, withholding of crucial English
terms when they would have sewed as a bridge between the Malayalam
term and the symbol, inconsistency in the use of terms between classes,
and even between chapters, dissonance between the discourse and the
term (e.g., in LCM, HCF), confusion through artificial syntax modelled on
English syntax. Though the textbook writers seem to know the subject
very well and able to explain it in clear verbal terms, they often do not
seem to think of it in terms of the experience and point of view of the
young child. One of the most cruel examples is the dumping of the
modern complex number system made more complex by the difficult
terminology at one lump in Class VII without proper iconic support.
Though the textbooks do contain plenty of environmental references,
especially in the lower cases, intense interviews were had with 50
teachers to check up the teachers' awareness and use of these
environmental references revealed that their judgement of the adequacy
of such references is not c.ategorical. Their rating is centred at 'to some
extent'. But the question whether the environmental references are
placed in the textbook in si~cha way that they can be effectively used for
concept formation the response is zero. All the responding teachers
claim to make use of the environmental references verbally. When it
came to function al use of the environmental references, most teachers
seemed more concerned to explain why they could not do so. The most
common reason is that if they follow environmental activity methods, the
topic cannot be covered (96%). Many consider this approach a waste of
time (56%). Examination focus. and parents' expectations are also cited
as excuse (80%). About three-fourths of the sample (74%) said that it is
not practicable in the present school system. The same number
suggested that the syllabus should be changed. 86% suggested that the
investigator should prepare a curriculum suitable for environmental
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teaching and influence then authorities to implement it. 68% endorse that
these approaches should be started from the lowest classes.
The investigator conducted a one-group experiment with 15 pupils for five
days to test the environmental bridge materials prepared by her in solid
geometry with one group pre-test, post-test design. There was
continuous formative evaluation of the process with reference to each
learning unit, which corltributed plenty of insights. The summative
evaluation yielded a post-test mean of 27.07 as against the pre-test mean
of 12.27 (t= 8.04, P<.01)
Mercykutty academically adapted a carpenter's son who was versatile in
crafts but weak in mathematics scoring only 8% in maths at that time.
His skill in mat-weaving was used to give him exercises in mat weaving
which would build in the multiplication tables. He quickly got over his
negative self-concept with reference to mathematical studies, and is
scoring good marks. He is also helpful in preparing improvised
mathematic aids for high school pupils. Plenty of other anecdotal
episodes are also given in the study.
Mercykutty prepared bridge materials for learning mathematics on the
basis of her sketches of various shapes in the environment, from
carpentry, paper folding, palm leaf play, drawing, painting and enlarging.
These were validated on the basis of judgement by a purposive sample of
100.
On the basis of all these experiences twelve models of teaching
mathematics using environmental resources were prepared: Free
exploration, patterning, ecstasy through mathematics-music
convergences, ethnomathernatics, linguistics relation, interdisciplinarity,
grid analysis, artistic vision, gestalt vision, socio-cultural learning climate,
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project, and physically perceived space penetrated through
mathematicophilosophic
space. These were consensually validated.
Krishnankutty (1997) cond~~ctead doctoral study of Development-based
Curricula for Coastal Students. He used a variety of methods, combining
both qualitative and quantitative methodology. One interesting aspect of
the study was the preparation of a number of environmental learning
episodes. The first was on the chakara (mud bank) phenomenon. This
phenomenon occurred in the Perinjanam beach (about 7 km from the
investigator's school). The investigator and 50 of his pupils observed it in
September 1996. they interviewed the inhabitants of the area to collect
the ethnoscientific details. The older inhabitants recalled earlier chakaras
that occurred as early as 1942 and 1939. Many were able to recall the
one that occurred in 1968, not far away from Perinjanam. The fishermen
recalled that in olden days the ordinary fishermen could catch a lot of fish.
Now trawlers tend to catch most of the fish. The pupils observed the
phenomena carefully and prepared their notes and drawings. They
recalled stories and songs about it. Another episode was about kaitha mat
weaving, a crafl popular in the area. Kaitha is a shrub which grows quite
tall and used as a natural fence. Its leaves are long like coconut leaves,
but slightly thicker. Some children in the school also knew the craft. One
got a prize in work experience. There is great mathematical potentiality in
the work, which is not exploited. Another episode centred round the work
place Mr Thangal at Perinjanam. He also had a private mosque, which
looked like an ordinary Hindu house, like the original Cheraman mosque of
Kodungalloor. He had a pond ecosystem in the tank in front of the
mosque. He manufactured a number of concrete articles, which were
studied by the children for their mathematical properties. This study was
extended to the Nirmithi type holobricks, slabs and building shapes.
A study visit was made to Binani Zinc limited, Alwaye. Surprisingly, it was
found that zinc is not prepared by the method found in textbooks of
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reduction of zinc oxide (prepared by roasting zinc blende), but by
converting zinc Ooxide to zinc sulphate and electrolysing the solution. It
was explained to the group that cadmium, which is an 'impurity' in the zinc
gets separated by this method, and since it is very strategic in nuclear
technology, a lot of profit comes out of this. This visit showed clearly that
what is presented in the formal textbook is only then basic matter.
Environmental information gives the real world information with the latest
technology. There were some sea-oriented animatory episodes too.
Krishnankutty's study also included an analysis of the decentralise
developmental planning documents. The Report of the Mathilakam
panchyat in which the school of the investigator is located explicitly brings
out the educational value of the knowledge of he social and cultural history
of the locality. It has 'plenty of tales to tell from the footprints of llango
Adigal to the battle marches of Tippu". Old Tamil literature such as
Chilapatikaram, folklore and Sanskrit sources are used in addition to
historical remains in order to learn history through investigat~on. The
reports of the adjoining panchayats and Kodungallor municipality are also
equally illuminating from the educational point of view. The panchayt map
of he area was used to re-teach map literacy to pupils who had studied
geography only mechanically and made little progress. Apart from map
reading, some geololgicl features such as ekkal mannu (soft sand in
coasgtal areas), kidappara (biologically formed rocks), and five landcorms
in gthe area have been noted in the Report. Development issues were
also clearly broughtr out. Kerala coast and its developmental significance
was brought out from gthe ar~alysis of the Report of the State Committee
on Science, Technology and Environment (1 988).
Krishnankutty's study also included a judgement schedule administered to
teachers and experts. The mean scores (maximum 5; minimum I) and/or
ranks of a few items from the segment, 'Development-oriented education
for coastal areas' are giver1 below. Out of the 17 items given in this
segment, the item Kerala's sea coast has brought new contacts and
enriched culture throughout the ages' got the second rank from both
teachers (mean 4.15) and experts mean 4.33 (three items with this score
stood at the top in experts': hence all three are given rank 2). 'Pollution
around coastal industries should be brought out in the curriculum' is
another item sharing the experts' second rank, whereas teachers give this
item the rank 6 (mean 3.99). The third item getting experts' rank 2 is 'The
school curriculum should start from the immediate environment, but
gradually move towards a common core' gets the first rank in the teachers'
ratings (mean 4.23). IN the experts' rating the mean score 4.17 is tied with
five items (ranks 3 to 7, all of them statistically given the rank 6). The
teachers' ratings vary widely for these five items: 'Children should be
made sensitive to the precious minerals in coastal areas' (Teachers' mean
4.07, Rank 4); 'The crafts around the coast should be related to the
curriculum' (4.00, Rank 5); 'Coconut craft and crafts around the plant
products of the coastal areas should e cultivated in school' (3.98, Rank
7.5); 'The inspiration provided by the sea should form themes in literature
and history teaching' (3.78, Rank 11); and 'While much of the syllabus will
be common, teaching in the coastal area should be from a coastal
perspective' (3.72, Rank 12). items with a conservative stand get low
ranks from both experts and teachers: 'The curriculum should be
absolutely uniform throughout the state' (Rank 15), and 'The curriculum
should be absolutely uniform throughout the nation' (Rank 17).
A recent study was conducted in Kerala by Susan (2000) to identify the
curricular potentials of select biology-based occupations for the study of
biological sciences at higher secondary level. The study used descriptive,
analytical and experimental methods. Observation, interview and task
analysis were also done with the help of suitable schedules. The tools
used were textual content analysis, questionnaire for teachers (N=180)
and students (N=1250), model action plans and evaluation schedule for
experts.
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The data collected through the different sources were analysed using
appropriate statistical techniques such as computation of percentages,
critical ratios and chi-square test of significance. The major findings that
emerged from the study are:
1. the existing curriculum of the higher secondary course in the
state of Kerala is inadequate to develop the occupational skills
of the students.
2. in Kerala there are a number of biology-based occupations that
can be utilized for the learning of Biology and the development
of occupational skills simultaneously.
3. biology-based occupations have the potentials for both the
learning of biology at higher secondary level and the
development of occupational skills.
4. the learning of biology and the development of occupational
skills can be integrated if the potentials of the biology-based
occupations are identified.
Of even greater relevance and lasting value than the statistical findings
are the deep analytical constructs yielding a clear analysis and description
of content set against tasks like selection of site, raw materials,
preparation of support material, sterilizing the straw, preparation of
polypropylene bags, arranging, maintaining the bags in the dark room,
controlling the diseases, harvesting -for identifying the task Mushroom. A
similar depth analysis is done for coconut cultivation.
Poultry farming was analysed under more complicated column headings:
major tasks, task analysis as done before, content, learner competencies,
teaching-learning strategies, evaluation of learning outcomes.
The attractive pictures communicate the aesthetic dimensions of the study
in addition to summarizing in a way the cognitive analysis too.
Benedict (2001) conducted a doctoral study of nonformal models in
Chemistry Education. His main objectives included the following.
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1. to explore the concept of nonformal education in a variety of
positive, flexible, life relevant and creative dimensions.
2. to seek a consensus about the concepts so obtained from a
competent panel
3. to construct nonformal chemistry education models and episodes.
4. to explore the applicability of some of the models in real situation
5. to test the product (models) and processes (modeling) in terms of
relevance, acceptability and integration potential in the system.
6. to synthesise the results.
With reference to Objective 4. twenty-six models were constructed and
explored in the study: Technology-Enhanced Secondary Science
Instruction (TESS), Group Concept Mapping (GCM), False concept Map
(FCM), 'V'-Mapping (VM), Concept Cartoon (CC), Stage Craft (SC),
Science-technology-Society (S--T-S), Activity Based Industrial Visit (ABIV),
Cross-Curricular (CRA), Play Space (PS), Out-door-Laboratory (ODL),
Realistic Table (RT), Museum Outreach (MOR), Science and Youth (SAY),
Team-Games-Tournament (TGT), Co-operative Learning (CL), Reciprocal
Teaching (RT), Cross-Age teaching (CAT), Directed Activities related to
Text (DART), Site-based management (SBM), Science Story (SS) and
Scaffolding (Scaf).
Of these the first 12 are studied intensely with four sub heads, Inspiration,
Essential Elements, Episodes and Supporting materials. A kind of
continuous formative evaluation (noting the joy, confidence, openness of
reaction, willingness to work hard) was conducted along with the tryout of
the episodes. The product models were tested in terms of relevance,
acceptability and integration potential with the help of 31 judges and
validated.
The special interest in the present study is that about ten of these models
are clearly related to the present study and also bring out how community
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resources can be used. In the Museum Outreach Model, Benedict actually
coordinated a planning group consisting of pure and applied scientists and
the chemistry gallery was accepted in principle by the Director of Science
and Technology Museum.
For the Activity based lndustrial Visit Model, he actually made a complete
survey of 134 chemical industries out of 1324 medium and large scale
chemical industries in cooperation with Kerala State Industrial
Development Corporation. The community study model was conducted in
the education-centred community at Mitraniketan. Some of them are deeply
analysed from the point of view of curricular potential of industry.
A. SOME SPECIAL PROJECT TYPE STUDIES DONE1 PRESENTED
IN KERALA
Manuel (1982) analysed some worthwhile environmental education
models in lndia and abroad and the relevant materials from the point of
view of developing a functional theory of environmental education
relevant for lndia. The study involved (1) analysis of the textbooks in
environmental studies of the NCERT and of six state systems from the
point of view of components which might facilitate or hinder genuine
environmental approach; (2) analysis of textual and non-textual matters
from the point of view of potentialities for environmental education; (3)
development of some models for EE representing a reasonable
compromise between EE theory and the present conditions in the majority
of Indian schools and non-formal educational content.
The main findings of the study are:(l) Very few genuine EE-type activities
as understood in modern developed systems seemed to be undertaken in
the primary schools. (2) The lead materials (textbooks) at the national
level seemed to have some worthy aspects such as process approach in
science, activisation, some directives to observation and visits, stimulating
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questions with some open tables to fill in the answers, thought excursion
through the country profusely illustrated with pictures (in history portions),
clear verbal processing and the like. (3) The national level textbooks
lacked the higher specifications commonly adopted in modern EE
procedures and in open, mufti-disciplinary approaches to the
environment. Defects such as pre-emptying investigation (by suggesting
the answers), premature precision (overlooking the initial phase of
'romance' in environmental exploration), simulations and artificial
situations even where natural situations were available in the environment
(e.g., for soil erosion), adaptation of spectator approach where participant
approach was possible, and insufficient respect to work culture were
frequent. (4) NCERT's Curriculum framework which had obviously guided
the textbook gave useful negative guidance lines, but specific positive
guidelines needed by environment education workers were lacking. (5) As
regards the state level textbooks, some of the drawbacks of the national
level books were carried over and some of the merits seemed to have
been missed, like replacing open exploratory tables by closed tables,
more pre-empting of environmental exploration. (6) Work done at the
Vikram Sarabhai community Science Centre, Ahmedabad, Kerala Sastra
Sahityaa Parishad and workshops conducted with the British Council
collaboration in Tamil Nadu and Kerala were instances of functional EE
starting from the ground en\lironment and developing useful constructs.
(7) The study yielded some theoretical analysis of environmental
knowledge and some relevant models representing a combination of
modern EE theory and the local context and culture.
Manuel (1990) reports the innovations developed at CERlD (Centre for
Education, Research, Innovation and Development), Mitraniketan, where
the various crafts, art forms and the local environmental setting were full
of potentialties for drawing out the intellectual and other educational
outcomes. After explaining the theoretical framework based on the
philosophies of Tagore, Gandhiji, Dewey, Marx and Freire, and the
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psychologies of Piaget, Bruner, Gagne, Ausubel, Vygotsky and Maslow,
he has presented (noting the concerned workers as co-researchers) gte
various activities such as tailoring and embroidery, tie and die, batik,
weaving and woodwork, plastic wire patterns, educational projects in the
hostels, environmental education, music, art and cultural education and
the activities conducted at the Rural Technology Centre, Krishi Vignan
Kendra and sericulture unit. The more transparent mathematical linkages
include: equations for graphs through embroidery, area conceptualisation
through tailoring, (a+b12 and other identities through plastic wire patterns,
and mathematics through muslc and rhythmic activities.
The Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishat has always been doing continuous
animatory extension and formative educational research. Occasionally
they do summative evaluation studies too. Two such studies relevant for
the using community resources in education are summaised below:
Ramakrishnan (1994) has analysed the activists of the Kerala Sastra
Sahitya Parishat (KSSP) in developing new models of educational
planning and motivation. C)ne of the most significant items reviewed in the
present paper is the school complex programme suggested by Kothari
Commission through pupil participation. This had been dubbed by
educational authorities as a failed experiment due to the lack of
imaginative leadership and academic resources. However, KSSP took it
up seriously in 1992-93 in the school complex with Sivapuram high school
(Kannur district) as nucleus. The complex had twenty, primary schools
spread over three Panchayats.
The objectives of this study was
To improve the teaching-learning processes and to make the
learning processes inside and outside the classroom more effective.
To develop educational strategies which make learning peoplecentred,
life-related, interesting and activity-oriented.
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To make teaching a joyful exercise to teachers and to establish a
forum for teachers of various schools to interact with each other.
To develop a healthy relationship between schools and the people
of the local locality thus enabling the community to take up the
responsibility of various activities in the schools.
To develop an organic interest for parents, especially mothers, in
the school activities of their children.
The studies include comprehensive intervention in the curriculum
transaction from Class I to IV under the guidance of KSSP. The Madikkai
experience is specifically focussed. The president of the District Council
was the Chairman. At the panchayat level, the panchayat president was
the chairman. Of the school level the president of the mother PTA was the
chairman. 1858 pupils and sixty five teachers spread over 10 schools were
covered.
The Aksharapulari programme conducted during 1992-93, provided a
strong basis for the activities. Detailed modules were prepared in a
workshop where conducted in the early stage of Padanotsavam. This was
used as the teacher's hand book. New technologies of evaluation were
tried out to measure the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains.
The programme was effectively monitored. The people's representatives
visited the schools to solve unforeseen problems.
The following possibilities emerged from this study:
1. An attempt could be made to involve the whole society in the
educational planning execution to transcending the limitations of the
existing parent teacher association
2. The expertises of the local level artisans were used widely in preparing
classroom learning aids.
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3. The qualitative improvement of the schools by the people's
interventions strengthened the parent's self-confidence encouraging
the principle of neighbourhood schools.
4. A new united front could be forged consisting of pupils, teachers and
guardians.
5. The re-training of teachers could be undertaken depending on the local
needs and on the fast expanding horizons of knowledge; the teachers
could exchange their improved expertise among themselves
6. The mother's forum helped to identify educational, psychological,
nutritional and health problems of children.
Ramakrishanan (2001) in his analysis of local level initiative and peoples
alternatives in school education notes that though social injustice and
impractical existed in the different regions which consists of Kerala
Malayalees always get an awareness and constant vigil against them.
These Social Reform Movernent paved the way for universal access to
primary education.
Thus community participation in education has a long tradition in Kerala.
He makes a list of number of problems which arose out of which the most
relevant are selected.
1. Community participation has given an impetus to the quantitative
achievement in the field of education, but the impact on quality needs
to be assessed.
2. The whole educational process has become rigid and bureaucratised
totally hindering further development.
3. Competition has replaced co-operation among children and the parents
are under the impression that education must be to train the child to
win this cut throat competition.
4. The vested interest groups, who have an axe to grind, take advantage
of this anxiety of parents and are running parallel educational centres
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with the support of cornrnunal and religious groups. Thus education
has been a 'business' in Kerala.
5. Community participatior~ in education was facing the axe and by the
late seventies society was almost completely alienated from the
educational system.
In order to overcome the defects stated above, and others Ramakrishnan
suggests alternate attempts with community participation. The forerunner
of this process with the help of community intervention was the formation
of 'Aksharavedi' at Vellanad. It was an attempt to identify the slow learners
and bring them to the main frame through child-friendly strategies spread
all over Kerala.
Another alternative strategy is the integrated approach in teaching tried
out in 35 schools in Thiruvananthapuram district in 1989. Others were
'Science Co-living Camps' and 'Festival of Learning'. Effective community
participation could be ensured in all these activities.
All these as well as the experiment in the Sivapuram complex under the
leadership of District Couricils were incorporated under the peoples'
learning programme.
The curricular reforms that have been taking place in primary education
during the past eight years have been subjected to a lot of projection in the
media - both favourable and unfavourable. They have also been
subjected to fairly extensive research studies. Two of them have been
reviewed here in some detail because they have relevance for
environmental linking, liaison with the community and to integrated
pedagogy which is inevitable wherever environmental approaches are
adopted.
Some studies presented in the Psian Regional Conference on Educational
Technology in Trivandrum (Sivadason Pillai, K. (compiled), 1989j -
especially those in the technology-extension interface - are of interest in
revealing some community resources and new ways of using them.
Susan, in her paper presented in the Asian Education technology
Conference (1989) identify the sports and games field as an unusual
resource, whose potentiality has been underestimated. This is particularly
important because sportsmen fare badly in school subjects. She has
made out a case for disinterested underachieving sportsmen and sports
fans to re-enter academics through a medium they are interested in. It has
been found that the Engl~sh language (terms, vocabulary and full
sentences) can be picked up effortlessly as a result of being exposed to
the sports atmosphere. Several interest-centred learning materials which
lead directly or indirectly to language development have been identified ad
evaluated.
Anandavalli Mahadeven (1989) presented a paper on "Multidisciplinarity
(Infusion) Model for environmental Education - a Feasibility Survey at
School Level" in the Conference. The multidiciplinarity model involves
integration of the concepts with established disciplines in the curriculum. It
is expected to be more practical, can be extended over long stretches of
time, allows application of EE concepts, and develops problem-solving
skills. In the study programme 130 teachers were involved in two phases.
An outline of the key ecological concepts like the quality of the total
environment and man's interference were resented through slide
presentation, lectures, and demonstration by professionals The teachers
were introduced to different strategies and methods of EE, like field study,
experimentation, action programme, exhibition and microteaching. Based
on the analysis of the responses, a of the teachers and their lesson plans
for this approach the feasibility model was arrived at.
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Two papers are specially important from the community/environmental
resource reading point of view. The paper of Viswanathan (1989), Director
of Mitraniketan, entitled "From Rural Technology to Development
Education Complex" starts with a preamble that there is no separate
brand of technology called 'Rural technology, or 'Appropriate technology'.
The view that these are inferior forms of technology meant for the rural
poor must be dispelled. Any technology that is appropriate to the situation
is appropriate technology. This calls for choice and discrimination, not
only in the designing but also in the use. Hence intrinsically appropriate
technology is educative. All technology in the service of the rural sector is
rural technology. It has potential educative value because often high
grade science, at least as product, is exposed to and is actually used by
the rural people. When the awareness of it is conscioujsly developed, it
can actually become educative. Rural technology has another meaning,
the ethnoscience of the rural people. CERID, Mitrraniketran is giving
serious attention to it. CAF'ART and other people's science associations
are also sensitive to it.. When new technologies are built upon or related
to known old technologies, the chances of acceptance, intelligent use and
educational yields will be high.
Viswanathan presented a list of high level groups or centres working on
technology for the rural sector. CSIR, CFTRRT, RRLS, AIMAP, ICAR,
SLRI, CBRI, NIO, NBRI, llT, CAPART, AFPRO and IAAS come under this
category. Several foreign agencies also have made valuable contributions.
The development departments and research laboratories play an
important part in rural development, but they think in terms of technology
delivery systems and in terms of packages. Even then, the 'unpacking
skills' call for some amount of education. Mitraniketan is an agency which
serves such bridge and catalytic purpose.
Viswanathan then went on to describe the various wings of Mitraniketan
and the functions it was serving for creative and productive training
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especially to the rural people in agro horticulture, animal science,
handicrafts, village industries, appropriate science and rural technology,
development t of the environment, health care, formal and nonformal
education, creative expression and aesthetic appreciation.
Manuel (1989), Director, Centre for Educational Research, Innovation, and
Development (CERID) presented a paper complementing the exposition of
Viswanathan, and designed to read the appropriate technological and
cultural environment educatively. It was entitled "From rural
Technology/Folk Culture through Educational Technology to Enriched
Individual and Community L.ivingU. While the development components in
Mitraniketan might be the 'product' of hard labour of body and mind of
several persons. But the product of the labour could hide the high level of
intellectual process. This reading was education at its most penetrative
aspect. This was the main task undertaken by CERID.
This analytical task has been applied not only to the several units of
Mitraniketan, but also to individual crafts and art phases, e.g., the fingers
of a craftsman working a pattern in mt making or basket weaving, or of a
veena vidwan performing a niraval in Carnatic music may be intuitively
working with a logic which, superimposed with certain mathematical,
symbols, can be seen as working problematically with complex
arithmeticallgeometricallalgebraic tasks. Compared with the skills
sequences and problem-identifying and solving approaches already
achieved intuitively, this symbolic super-imposition is a relatively easy
task, comparable to the lower orders of the Gagnean hierarchy. A large
number of co-investigators, most of them not having high paper
qualifications, possess intricate skills in crafts and are teaching them. The
educational technology task in process is primarily one of learning from
them and analysing the skills. The educational technology products may
take the form of bridge materials in enactive, iconic or (easier) symbolic
forms. They can be used differently for those who have mastered the art
or craft and who wish to acquire formal educational
qualificationslcompetencies. In preparing the b ridge tasks, what is
implicit has to be made explicit. They may have to slow down the
operation and analyse it. After the hidden academic concepts begin to
stand out, the symbolic association can be made. Sometimes iconic
bridges too may be needed.
Educational technology in the context of creative education has a duty to
do all this hard and systematic task analysis, pattern analysis, refitting
possibilities etc. But it must play and unobtrusive role, waiting for and
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seizing the occasion, placing the right tool at the right moment before the
right person to serve the cause of educational growth and illumination. It
would then serve as a bridge between the simpler level of the people's
technical and artistic culture to higher levels, leading to enriched individual
and community living.
Two major studies covering the recent primary education curriculum
reform in Kerala are reviewed in detail because they have direct relevance
for the study. In fact they will be quoted again in Chapter VI, and the
further analysis will be built of them.
Anita Rampal (2000) reports the study undertaken by her in collaboration
with Mohan Menon on Curriculum Change for Quality Education: A study
of schools in DPEP and non-DPEP districts in Kerala. On the basis of tests
administered she found that on certain items such as writing, reading
comprehension, drawing, problem analysis, arithmetic operations,
comparison, map reading and classification, children of class 4 in districts
where DPEP (District Primary Education Programme) infrastructure had
been well organised, not only perform remarkably better than in non-DPEP
districts, but also outperforrr~ the older students of Class 8. In the present
review the interest is more on the environmental and community resources
being use, the activity and integrative pedagogy used. She notes that
most of the classrooms visited presented a relaxed and friendly interaction
between teachers and children. It is in sharp contrast to the old picture of
the stern presence of the teacher with the help of a cane to highlight his
role as a law-keeper, with children sitting passively and dutifully following
the dictates of the teacher.
Children's free response without fear of the teacher is identified as the
basic condition of any learning environment. Classrooms are visibly
changing, and traditional sc1i001s are slowly accepting that children need
to be allowed greater freedom of expression. Sister Ferera, the
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Headmistress of Aided FMLP school at Chinnakanal, amusedly recounts
how
earlier she could manage to enforce 'neatness and discipline' in school,
and that children only wrote their names on their books. But now with all
these activities, like paper folding and so on, children happily tear pages,
make airplanes, and write all over their books. She laughingly shrugs her
shoulders and benignly accepts "I now find them quite out of my control".
However she also asserts that she is satisfied that her children, most of
them 'poor and destitute' and looked after by the school hostel, are
learning well and are gaining confidence.
Rampal also recounts that Mr Basheer, the Deputy Director of Public
Instruction, Palghat is unusually sensitive about child-friendly pedagogy,
unlike his other colleagues, who may have been distanced from children
and their developmental rieeds by the dry nature of their administrative
chores.
The vision of the new classrooms are as learning centres where the
material needed for children are to be locally specific and need-bases;
they are to be prepared by children using local resources, under the
guidance of their teachers and experts in the field. In such learning
centres, the child gains confidence inn facing problematic situations;
interacts freely, meaningfully and joyfully with her classmates, teachers
and teaching learning materials; shows interest in interacting with groups
and makes use of other resources for expanding her knowledge;
compares events, things, facts and findings and arrives at logical
conclusions; assesses her own progress in her work, identifies errors and
rectifies them with the help of peers, teachers and parents; and
undertakes tasks on her own without any hesitation and selects reading
material of her own choice.
Rampal cites a newspaper article (Indian Express, July 31, 2000) in which
under the influence of the [)PEP scheme, even the traditional Ashan Kalari
in Muhamma got transformed to a friendly place. Children were taught
writing by helping the child inscribe words on sand beds. Each child gets
personal attention; the kids are made to dance, sing and narrate stories
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and thus develop their talents. Even newspapers which were originally
critical of the scheme, like Malayala Manorama, began to give favourable
reviews such as the multi-column report and large photographs describing
how 'joy and music had rained during Knginikootam inauguration' (June 6,
2000).
Kinginikootam is the ten-day hands-on training (following a 5-day training
during vacation) held in the beginning of the year It begins with
Praveshanotsavam to welcome the new entrants on the first day of school,
and ends with the Adhyapaka Sangamam where all teachers gather at the
panchayat level to meet the Village Education Committee members and
the monitoring committee, for a thorough analysis of the training. The
Rampal Committee visited some schools during the 'First Day
Celebrations' where the organisation had been well done, with
participation of parents and panchayat members, but noted that in some
schools not all were actively engaged in strengthening their reading
corners, the wall newspapers and Ente Kuttikal (My Children - record of
teachers). They suggest that such key aspects should be seriously
followed up.
The Committee notes that most parents were satisfied with their children's
performance in school, especially about the intrinsic interest and
enjoyment of schooling. Mothers were proud of children's creative efforts
including stories and poems composed by them, their own story book,
diary and song book. The Ralnpal committee found the participation of
parents, who constitute the School Support Group (SSG) a unique aspect
of the Bock Resource Centre training in Kerala. In one batch of forty
participants studied by her, there were seven parents, five women and two
men
They were fully attentive and took part in the discussions and all the
activities along with the teachers. Through this process parents and other
members of the community also gain a legitimate place in the school
activities and develop a meaningful bond with the teachers. For instance,
in one session on 'the objectives of making a Teaching Manual', a teacher
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said that it could help a member of the SSG to take the class, if for some
reason the teacher was unable to do so. However, not all SSGs are as
active as they are expected to be, and there is need to again mobilise
their support and keep them fully involved.
The Committee cites cases where parents visited school regularly and
also took classes during the last period used by teachers for the School
Resource Group (SG) planning. In one lower primary school during the
Kinginikootam period mothers came to conduct sessions on paper-craft,
drawing etc. Some educated parents said they did not understand how to
help their children at home with the new type of activities being done by
children. But in ldukki, one of the backward districts, parents expressed
satisfaction with what children did at home: 'They conduct experiments at
home, such as, about floating and sinking of objects'; they 'know more
about medicinal plants than we might know'; 'they improvise and make
lamps or other useful things at home'; 'this should be extended to the
higher classes so that they continue to have more practical knowledge.
High school students cannot even write an application'.. But there were
others who put a premium on formal literacy rather functional literacy and
they felt standards were going lower.
While the cooperation with cornmunity members is quite high, and the
training system for activity pedagogy is on the whole quite dynamic, the
Rampal Committee found an unhealthy 'defensiveness' in the non-DPEP
districts. The collaboration between the SCERT and the DPEP resource
group is not deep and substantial enough. It has cited instances of
"discordant notes right through the training 'cascade' and we found
significant disagreement even at the very top" The interest shown by the
minister for education is rec:orded by the Committee, but they felt that the
senior officers of the Deparlment appeared ill at ease in the face of public
queries or criticism
Our meting with the Director of Public Instruction in effect turned out to be
a protracted debate about basic curricular issues in mathematics
teaching. Unfortunately, he was not ready to acknowledge the visible
change in classrooms but insisted on his own views that 'some learning
has to be painful in order to be effective'. It was clear that much more
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orientation and open sharing is required within the Education Department
itself, so that its officers may understand and ably promote the pedagogy
renewal process.
A large number of positive and a few negative case obse~ations
have been given in the Report. School 1 (Trichur District) presents
evidence of the support given by the panchayat, children sitting in benches
arranged in a circle and the teacher writing on the blackboard words of
objects seen during a festival - the words are initiated by girl pupils,
followed by boys. School 2, ldukki (a poor locality, with two posts not
filled) presents Class 2 where not much activity is going on, and nearly
one fourth cannot read or write properly. But in the very same school the
English Second Language Acquisition Programme with Class 5 pupils who
have studied the language for only one year, resents a different picture:
They talk confidently, even though their teacher is not as confident, and
are not inhibited by their lack of fluency. They narrate a story from their
lesson and excitedly try gto carry on a conversation, asking questions,
responding to our queries, etc. They know names of many trees and
vegetables gfrOown in their houses, and tell us that they walk up to four
kms to school. The HM tells us that parents are very happy with the
progress children have made in English. In fact, those who send their
wards to private schools say they are ready to shift them here if his school
can also arrange for a school bus.
The Committee was also informed about the sahavas (residential) camp
held in the school for underachieving 'backward' children of classes 3-4.
Parents too had joined in and helped in the cooking etc. It became like a
'mela' (celebration) and was highly appreciated by the community. DPEP
Programme Officer informed that 250 such camps have been conducted.
School 3 (Kozhikode District) was the most disappointing. Traditional
methods of teaching and policing were adopted. School 4 (Kasargode
District) displays children 's drawings and charts. Children respond
happily and confidently. The school has an active Parent Teacher
Association and a garden with many trees and medicinal plants. School 6
(Malappuram District) has no playground space, but the new building were
constructed out of the funds of the local Member of Parliament. The
lesson on plants (class 3) was done actively in an environment-related
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way. Children in the school seem to have conducted many projects. The
Committee observed the planning stages for preparing a poster for the
market place to promote aware ness on environmental pollution. There
are other schools too where children work on their own even when the
teacher is other wise engaged. On the whole he new approach has
popularised active, independent, environment-oriented and communityresource-
tapping approaches, though there were resistant and dissenting
voices too.
Manuel (2001) conducted a study on Integrative Approaches in Classroom
Transaction of Poothiri Texts, Subtexts, Inter-texts and Contexts:
Problems Solutions, Relevant functional Theory Illustrated with Practical
Models. The study starts with calling attention to the existing state of
affa~rs in the formal school where the time and transaction have been
neatly divided into 'gong-regulated periods and book-regulated subjects'.
Teachers are accustomed to teach in this style, but it is unnatural for the
very young child. Hence attempts were made to integrate the approaches
in the lower classes. But the attempts failed. The DPEP scheme works on
the model of language, arithmetic and environmental studies treated as
one integral unit in Classes 1 and 2. This is understood by ordinary
people and even by some educators as presenting in one book called
Poothiri what was earlier presented in three books. This accounts for some
of the misunderstandings about the project. The textbook transaction
alone will not effect the integration. lnteg;ation has to be in the educative
experience of the pupil.
In fact the DPEP scheme does not depend on the book alone. The term
refers to the pupils' text -- which is called Poothiri in Malayalam,
Katambam in Tamil and Jok:ali in Kannada. The Teachers' Handbooks
which give clear instructions about how to transact the curriculum 'around'
the text, as swell as the environment are included under the term 'Subtext'.
Inter-texts refer to the extra books referred to or used in the class, the
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teacher-made and pupil-made materials to enrich the curriculum
transaction. Context includes all the environmental, administrative, social
stereotype factors which might promote, sustain or hamper curriculum
transaction, contributing to DPEP image-making or image-breaking. The
project is elaborate covering several objectives. Manuel used lot of
analysis - conceptual, documentary, situational, and structural. He also
conducted two quantitative surveys. Plenty of qualitative methodology
was adopted to get qualitative transferable findings. The present review
focuses only those aspects that are relevant to the theme of the present
research.
One set of results in the study is a condense presentation of integrative
pedagogy theory drawn from the modern critique of the school (Rousseau,
Illich, Freire); creators of childhood education system (Froebel and
Montessori); Decroly who represents those who moved from therapy to
education; the new educ:ation (\'education nouvelle) represented by
Cousinet, Indian national ~?ducators(T agore ad Gandhiji), Work-centred
liberal educators abroad (Dewey and Krupskaya), constructive intelligence
and developmental stages. (Piaget and Bruner); Vygotsky, the social
constructionist; the behaviourist, Skinner; the humanists (Rogers and
Maslow); and some modern themes relevant for activity pedagogy
(experiential education and creative education). Some of the contributions
brought out above refer to mental structure, developmental stages etc. Of
specific interest for the study is the fact that almost all of them have
attacked isolated pedagogy. Most of them insist on contextual,
community-related, environment-oriented education.
The attitude scale consisting of 35 items related to integrated pedagogy
(including components such as activity, environment and community
orientation) was administered to 593 members of the public (including
parents) (315 men and 278 women) drawn from all the six 'DPEP districts'
and three 'non-DPEP districts'. The mean of total scores in non-DPEP
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districts is 106.97 (just 1.97 higher than the neutral score of 105 for a 35-
item scale. The mean in DPEP districts is 118.46 (13.5 higher than the
neutral mean. Thus the attitude is more favourable in the DPEP districts.
Among the DPEP districts ldukki (127.60) and Wayanadu (121.97) are
distinctly higher than the rest. Among the non-DPEP districts Ernakulam
alone stands distinctly low, with a score of 96.13, well below the neutral
score.
The Likert-type scale perrnits analysis of scores of individual items and
compare them. Among the high-ranking items those relating to children's
joy in going to school (Rank 2), 'makes learning interesting' (Rank 3),
'helps children to think for themselves' (Rank 4.5), 'helps children to
express themselves without fear' (Rank 4.5), 'develops learning based on
play and activities' (Rank 7:1, 'Learning becomes more meaningful because
drawn out of experience (Rank 6), 'Develops children's imagination and
creativity' (Rank 8) refer to the individual gains, but even they have
relevance for the environmental approaches because these are gains from
a pedagogy which breaks away from verbal, passive approaches. But it is
interesting that the item which gets the first rank is directly environmental:
'helps learning to transcend the limits of the classroom and extend to the
home and the environment' 'helps to approach problems with a sense of
reality' is also a typical environment-oriented item (Rank 10). Another
environmental item is 'Textbook helps the teacher to use situations like
festivals and seasons to develop the lesson' (Rank 14). The item 'Helps
even handicapped children to be accepted in the school' (Rank 9)
represents a social concern for the weak members of the society. Another
items with a clear social relevance is 'creates situations in which the
school, teacher and various social agencies cooperate in learning
activities' (Rank 12). Two items with clear social relevance fall exactly at
the median: 'The school learning is improved through identifying the
learning resources in social institutions' (Rank 17.5), and 'Chances of
improving the standard of education are high through cooperative learning'
Survey of relored studres
(Rank 17.5). Though these two items share the middle ranks, the item
mean (3.31 is well above the neutral score of 3.00.). On the negative side,
while environmental investigation is definitely educative, it may degenerate
in the hands of an unskilful or irresponsible teacher. This perception is
tested with an item which earns a low rank: 'Lessons consist only in
collecting leaves, flowers and fruits' (Rank 23), but even here the item
mean (3.15) is higher than the neutral point. On the whole, it may be
inferred that the new approaches when actually adopted makes learning,
more interesting, more enjoyable, more creative etc.. and also extends the
learning environment beyond the school classroom and develops several
social values in a form admitted by most parents. The questionnaire
responses suggest that some parent committed to oppose the scheme, do
admit some of the benefits, though reluctantly.
The Teachers' Handbooks were defined as the subtexts. These books
give excellent practical suggestions about using the environment for
drawing out educational objectives, and for using the material and human
resources of the community.
The materials prepared by the teachers and pupils were defined as the
inter-text. A questionnaire administered from 132 teachers elicited the
extent to which the teacherlpupil-made materials exceed the amount they
were made before the scheme came into operation. The judgement was
on the basis of whether the amount of materials or relevant teacherlpupil
behaviour is now More, Less or the Same. Comparisons are by the index
of More-Less. Only the environmental/community-oriented items are
highlighted in this summary. Closer relations between home and school
records the highest increase with an index of 118. 'Closer relations
between the community and school' gets an index of 112 (Rank 7).
'Integration of the home and school' increases by 110 (Rank 10.5). Among
pupils' mathematics-related behaviour, comparison of sizes and shapes in
the environment (am good grounding for real mathematics) records clear
Survey ofrelured.srr~dies
improvement with an index of 115 (Rank 4.5). Measuring and recording
(from the environment t) has an index of 11 1 (Rank 8.5). Relating
mathematics to life has a increase index of 95 (Rank 17). Sensing
problems occurring in life and finding solutions has an index 57 (Rank 23).
Among pupils' general behawour, number of teacher-made learning
materials (from the environment) has an index of 113 (Rank 6.5). Number
of pupil-developed learning materials gets 115 (Rank 4.5). Teacher's
innovative adaptations gets 86 (Rank la)..
Another item in the teachers' questionnaire in which the environmentoriented
items can be gleaned for the present purposes pertains to 'The
ways in which the textbook is supplemented for effective curriculum
transaction'. Several teacher behaviours are rated on a 3-poin scale,
weighted as 2 (Often), 1 (Sometimes), 0 (Never). The comparisons are by
overall mean scores which can vary from 2 to 0. Only the environmentoriented
items are highlighted here. In teaching language. 'eliciting the
environmental words focussing key letters and writing tern on the
blackboard' gets the second rank (Mean 1.61). 'Discussion on
environmental themes (Rain etc.:~ to draw, language, maths, science' has
a mean of 1.52 (Rank 6.5). 'Starting off the pupil's names and other
dominant ideas to trigger litel-acy' gets a mean of 1.29 (Rank 11).
One important aspect of Manuel's work is the analysis of texts, subtexts
etc. In integrative pedagogy suggested in the handbook, reading does not
start from the letter, but froni the idea in the context. Thence, sentences
are read holistically, deconstructed into word and letter, to be again
reconstructed letter+word+sentence. It is in environmental studies
(especially that of Class 2) that the textbook excels, providing plenty of
opportunity for holistic experience, to branch off ingot communication and
language, comparing, measurement and mathematics, observation,
hypothesising, making various kinds of tests and verification developing
scientific skills.
Survey oj'rclrrlud sfur/ic.s
The context analysed in the research is not on ly that of the physical
environment, but also the social and administrative climate. There is also
a climate of joy, cooperatiori and celebration. There is also a climate of
resistance, and often resolution Some of the criticisms made aga~nst
DPEP are analysed here.
One criticism against DPEP is that the principle of deconstructing holistic
experience into components, analysing them and rebuilding them into
larger units is not easy for the ordinary teacher. Many teachers do some
holistic play, and then teach language and arithmetic by the old method.
In the methods suggested in the training sessions some ways of bridging
have been developed. Manuel has suggested some methods of
maintaining the integration, but gently and naturally facilitate the
deconstruction. This has been suggested for mathematics as well as
language. The method of drawing out mathematics from rhythmic poetry,
by first securing the enactive form through clapping, rapping, stamping,
dancing etc., then writing out the poems on a large chart, grouping into
bars (ganams) marked out by vertical lines, and pasting secants in each
bar to get the iconic form. Whereas the enactive mathematics is fleeting
the iconic form can be gazed at leisure, till a pattern emerges. If the
symbolic numbers etc are given at this stage, insights and mathematical
gestalts can be developed. A special looped wire wide enough to hold ten
beads is arranged in such a way that problems like 5+7=12 can be solved
within insight, answering some children's unspoken question, "Sow do two
large numbers 5 and 7 become two small numbers , 1 and 2. Games
around the wire help to develop the schema of ten with the digit moving
one place left, the one on the left having a value of ten which the child can
grasp.
In Malayalam reading garnes are suggested to help deconstruction of
'vallis' (vowel diacriticals in Malayalam graphemes), to separate conjuncts
and to read and write the complex Malayalam 'a' with ease.
The teachers and trainers also do a large number of action researches
which are reported in the publications of the Block and District Resource
Centres. Most of them are very valuable for meeting the immediate needs
of the teachers and pupils. Some of them are of a very high level.