The thoughts which I am about to pen down are borne out of the constructive interactions and discussions with those teachers and students who have influenced my thoughts at different stages of my life. My humble salutations to all these ‘Giants’(in their own respective ways) standing on whose shoulders ,I am putting forth this write-up.

Before I proceed, A WARNING. This is not an essay. So a perceptive reader should not look for continuity, a beginning, a middle and an end vis-a-vis a central idea. This is a collection of discreet ideas on some aspects of scientific/mathematical learning for young children, and how it can be made joyful and yet, productive.

1] THE NET GAINS OF OUR ACADEMIC LIFE : THE TOOLS

When you are posed with a new problem, in any walk of life, how do you try to tackle it?

Based on our past learning experiences; we ACQUIRE certain ‘tools. These “tools” may be, the concepts, principles or techniques which we pickup mostly during class 7-12[comprising our formative years] They may also be references, from past, to some situations/problems with which we had spent so much time and efforts that they become part of our psyche. These tools last with us forever.. Their limitations and strengths are well known to us. More often than not, we find these tools very effective in solving the problems at hand. Hence the need to have, correct range of tools and also the skill of applying each tool.

I do not see among young students, a conscious effort to design such set of tools and their usage. The teacher has a definite responsibility towards making the students aware of this. In the absence of such guidance, the onus falls on the students to develop their own set. Those who subconsciously develop and understand the usage of their tools are more successful and can be easily distinguished from those who do not have any. In some cases, even the realization that, in the subconscious, they posses a tool, comes much later for the users. This prevents them from completely exploiting their tools.

This process of inculcating the habit of creating TOOLS can only be initiated by the ‘Masters’ in the schools.

VERY FEW OF US ARE LUCKY ENOUGH TO FIND SUCH ‘MASTERS’ IN OUR SCHOOL DAYS

One might meet such people with required vision and profound teaching methods only at later stages in life. Such teachers generally derive pleasure in teaching and delving at the levels of B.Tech/M.Sc/PhD. Unfortunately, at these levels, correcting thought process of students becomes much harder as the students,

a]have already lost the virginity of mind and developed a set pattern of learning.

b]are hard pressed against time[to cover much larger portion in much shorter time, vis a vis the school days]

c]don’t have frequency of interaction with the teachers, high enough to come out of their shells.

The process of development of ‘TOOLS’, needs activity- oriented interaction and dialogue-between-the-student-and-the-teacher, based learning methodology .This requires the luxury of time and hence

High School is the apt place for deploying this technique.

Learning by committing mistakes, asking the right questions whose answers lead to the correct solution etc., not only help in longer retention and deeper understanding of a concept but also create the right attitude towards learning something new. This greatly helps in approaching, organizing and selecting the correct direction, for solving unseen problems, research, decision making etc. The TOOLS get formed automatically.

LET US TEACH OUR CHILDREN TO CREATE THEIR OWN TOOLS, WHILE THEY ARE IN THE SCHOOL.

THE PRINCIPAL SHOULD EITHER IDENTIFY/ENCOURAGE THE TEACHERS WHO CAN DO IT OR TAKE CONTROLLED HELP OF EXTERNAL AGENCIES.

2]THE PROCESS OF TOOL CREATION AND ENJOYING LEARNING

The root cause which induces human action is ‘hunger’. This hunger for knowledge is closely related with the joy derived from learning something. Once caught in the vicious circle of hunger- thought – joy, the recursive process will lead to the intellectual enrichment of a person.

In the absence of the inner urge, most students need to be motivated for thinking by an external agency, say a teacher or a parent. The enlightened teacher should perpetually be goading them to ask the right questions and indirectly help them move towards the right answers. This requires the rediscovery of a student in , first the teacher . Once the teacher does it, the rest becomes, believe me, very simple.

HOW WE ARE TAUGHT VS HOW WE COULT BE TAUGHT : ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS AND EXPLORING THE POSSIBLE ANSWERS, THEN ELIMINATING THE ILLOGICAL SITUATIONS.

In most of our learning process, whether from a teacher or a book, we are first introduced to a set of FACTS/ LAWS etc. and then the entire process of teaching involves just supporting them. It is analogous to implanting a foreign body into the system and forcing the system to accept it.

Little wonder that most of the time, the mind is fighting to reject it. Even if the system accepts it due to the rigorous practices: the IDEA remains, primarily an adopted one only.

Instead, if the students were to, first, get exposed to a situation/ problem and asked to analyse it from various perspectives and guided by a teacher[by giving suitable hints if necessary]to arrive at a result, it becomes, not only an enjoyable game but the student starts OWNING the result. I will go a step further: Like a mother he thinks THE IDEA is his CHILD, and who can UNDERSTAND a child/idea, better than a mother?

One example: Instead of a student being told in the History class that Gandhiji, after coming to India, started his ashram at Wardha, the students could be asked after being given a map of India, from where would THEY begin the movement? 10 out of 10, would encircle a region in THE CENTRAL INDIA. [I am sure, because I have myself experimented with this, successfully]. Now the teacher can tell the class that Wardha falls in the same region. THE STUDENTS GET SO ELATED; they start thinking, they are similar to GANDHI. Actually, I am convinced, instead of being told what Gandhiji did in a particular situation, if, to them, is recreated the scenario and asked what they would have done, some of them surely would come with THE SAME IDEA that occurred to Gandhiji. Still further, I am convinced, some of the proposed ideas may still be better than Gandhiji’s.

I HAVE EXPERIMENTED WITH SIMILAR SITUATIONS IN SCIENCE/MATHMATICS MANY- A- TIME WITH STUDENTS. THEIR JOY IS TO BE SEEN TO BELIEVE WHEN THEY ARE TOLD, WHAT YOU HAVE JUST SAID IS EXACTLY WHAT NEWTON OR LAGRANGE SAID, KNOWN BY THE LAW……………………….so and so….

Learning becomes as easy and natural as breathing; tremendously Enjoyable and so much worth Seeking.

The trick is to train the students to ask the right questions, self analyse the obtained answers and discard the illogical ones. Then to look for, subsequently, arising the right questions………………………………….

Here I would like to add one of my all time favourite examples.

To cite a popular myth, Galellio never dropped two different masses from the leaning tower of Pisa to prove that, if Gravity were the only force present, the time taken by a heavier and a light mass to travel the same distance vertically, is the same.

Apart from being historically incorrect, A BIGGER PROBLEM WITH THIS KIND OF TEACHING IS:

1] the student is virtually forced to accept a fact, as a Gospel of Truth just because Galellio said so.

2] and having followed the same method of learning[?] over a period of time, his entire so called learning only means , quoting a set of laws; as if, if the laws were not discovered, the happenings in the Nature would have been MAGIC.

AS AN ALTERNATIVE, in fact very simple, method of introducing this concept would have been to ask the same question that the great Galellio asked himself: Let me suppose that a heavier mass, say 5 Kg, takes 2 seconds to fall the same vertical distance which a lighter mass, say 1 Kg, takes 3 seconds to fall; now what time will be taken if I tie them tightly and throw; and what time will they take if I have a string connecting them and throw them such that 1Kg mass follows the 5 Kg mass?

To me, this is one of the simplest and , yet, epoch creating questions ever asked by the entire bunch of creators in the history of Science.

Coming to the point, the students would not only enjoy thinking of the various logical possibilities, but they would own the idea, when it strikes them.

To reiterate, what I am saying, as an example, is instead of simply making a student accept the Archimedes’principle as a fact, let them know what were the questions Archimedes asked in his bathtub so that when he got the answers, he got so ecstatic that he ran naked shouting, EUREKA, EUREKA, FOUND IT, FOUND IT……..

In happiness no one has gone even half as far, after finding his ANSWER.

While doing all this, even if five percent students come up with theory which resembles the actual principle, and later we say that ‘You have done what Archimedes the great had done!’, I am sure each one of them will realize the joy of learning and thinking. If some one comes up with unacceptable ideas and is told why it is unacceptable, the amount of mental activity put in, will enable him to retain the right concept much longer and he can in the real sense appreciate the concept. These ‘five percent’ may be THE REWARDS of an entire teaching carrier.

3] GIVING THE CHILDREN IN THE SCHOOL AT LEAST ONE HOUR,WHICH THEY SPEND WITH A LEARNED TEACHER, WHERE THERE IS NO FIXED AGENDA, NO FIXED SYLLABUS………WHERE THERE IS JUST ASKING QUESTIONS AND DISSCUSSIONS…..ANY QUSTION………ALL POSSIBLE TYPES OF DISSCUSSIONS….

The nature of joy derived in this type of activity is, IMMENSE.

There is no fear of failure. There are only Gains….THE realisation that one came up with an illogical approach, also is a gain. Removed from the fear of failure, the child automatically opens up, mentally.

This is, by itself, the biggest prize of education.

The fear of failure to meet the required goal creates insecurity and, in turn defeats the very purpose of motivation of achieving the goal.

LEARNING IS: LEARNING TO ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

The problem for the teacher is: to Create “The Right Questions”

Next time, we shall discuss some methods to find the series of right questions which could be with respect to the various topics in science and mathematics. However, to begin with, a general thumb rule to be followed is to explore the history of the invention of the corresponding ideas and to find the questions which haunted the mind of the discoverer.

ARUN ROY.

• problem-solving attitude
• research and analysis
• education to handle life
• high standards
• spirit of community and challenging

– making IITs just not as institutes but Brand developing tools.

Conceptualization of IITs is believed to have happened between Second World War and our Independence – to make India self reliant in technology.  Our First Prime Minister Pandit Nehru’s vision, to make the Indian students to be best equipped with technology that suits the International standards, gave us now the international acclaim by placing IITs at the fourth best educational establishments in the world

The idea that started with four IITs now has grown to 15 IITs and IT-BHU.  Now lakhs of intelligent students look up to this examination as the biggest scholastic achievement and benchmark for the intelligence.  The student intake in IITs is now touching about 8000. 

The Joint Entrance Examination for the admission into the Country’s premier most institutes – Indian Institutes of Technology is popularly known as IIT-JEE.

IIT-JEE has come through several modifications in the way its examination is conducted.  It can be said that it is one exam that assesses the caliber of a student through its questions alone as the admission is based on the merit in this examination only.  No group discussion, no face to face interview – but the students selected through this examination will acquire all those qualities that make a person successful in many respects. 

Is IIT-JEE tough?

If only one word is to be used for the answer – the word is – NO. But almost every student aspiring for it feels that it is tough to crack IIT-JEE.  TRUE.  The reason is the questions are asked uniquely to extract the best thinking potential from the aspirant. The questions test the qualities

• creativity
• application of multiple concepts
• strategy – problem solving skills
• comprehension
• assertion and reasoning ability

Decision making is the one best skill that the aspirant is expected to exhibit while writing the examination.  So, there is every chance that the questions appeared in a previous IIT-JEE look easy to many students.  Questions in IIT-JEE are demanding and innovative.  This makes the IIT-JEE totally different from many such exams at that level.  Many other equally good and reputed institutions are going for their own entrance tests, but they don’t stand to that quality of assessments.

Pattern – then and now

After making the IIT-JEE an objective type examination in recent years, testing the aspirants in innovative ways has become a challenge even for people who conduct it. Now, there are multiple choice questions with single or multiple answers, assertion and reasoning type, matching, and linked comprehension passage type questions as major components of the examination.  Of course, except for this skeletal information about the examination, IIT-JEE can throw surprises in any manner.  It keeps the students guessing till they face it.  So, getting mentally prepared for such non academic aspects of the IIT-JEE is another best part of it.  Though the scope of the syllabus is limited to NCERT; the paper setters of IIT-JEE find new ways of asking questions. Reducing the number of attempts to two in three years and no more attempts has created a bit of tension in the minds of the students. Students used to attempt for any number of times as getting into an IIT is considered so prestigious.   

How to prepare for IIT?

We can divide the requirements for the preparation for IIT-JEE into two categories – External and Internal.

First of the external ones is Planning. 

• Start well in advance – Don’t wait till you get to see that everybody in your peer group was started preparing. 
• You should figure out what you are going to do in the coming month - by making a monthly calendar for yourself.  Nowadays many digital and web calendars are available for your help.  List the chapters from your subjects that you will surely complete in the coming month. 
• Be realistic in setting the goal.  Be sincere to yourself while setting and working for a goal.  Only YOU are answerable for yourself. 
• Next comes Hard work, Practice - work hard as per your plan and practice as many problems as possible. While practicing the problems, don’t concentrate on only the answer you get the end of the problem.  It is not sufficient if you get the answer to the problem that you have just worked on. 
• Make sure you understand the principle behind the crucial steps that gave you the solution.  After the problem is solved, think again about those crucial steps and analyse whether you got those step accidentally, or you have applied some logic by your conscious.  It is great if it is the second case. 
• You should be satisfied only when the thought process of solving a problem helps you solve another problem. 
• Don’t go for too many books - this will disturb your work flow.  Go for the book which has almost all variety of problems covered. Keep your skills tested periodically. 

You can take help from online testing platforms which can assess your skills at your own pace and style.

Internal:  It is also necessary that you need to prepare internally. 

• First of them is the belief in self.  You need not be branded intelligent or best performer in your school.  It is also not enough if you are one.  What is important is how you know yourself and what your style of acquiring things is. 
• Next is the will to achieve.  Here, you should never aspire for IIT-JEE because your peers are also going for it.  You should genuinely be convinced that it is the best thing to do. 
• Motivation - you need to keep motivating yourself as the method of preparing for Board exam is totally different from the way that you prepare for IIT-JEE.  There may be situations that you are down because of your performance in your periodic tests.  It is important that you rework on the weaknesses and motivate yourself. 
• Finally, the Guidance - is also an important and influencing factor.  You should choose such a guidance which will help you develop some of your internal and external skills.  It could be a coaching institute, or group study or postal coaching. 

Nowadays you can find teachers online who can help from any place with their years of expertise.  With all such facilities available and with a bit of self motivation and a planned effort will always secure you a seat in any of the IITs. 

ALL THE BEST