Monday, June 1, 2020

Principles of Education



The first image that comes to my mind thinking of my school days is “Classroom”, “Lectures” and the extremely horrifying experience of attending parent-teacher meetings. The routine classroom scene was, the teacher came, delivered, and left. I cannot generalize this recollection as others might have had a fairly better experience. I for one was a student who always had to catch up on studies and did not have the time to make happy memories with school friends and amazing teachers in it.

When I had the chance to revisit my school recently, to my astonishment and embarrassment, I had failed to remember a few of my teachers, and only after serious recollection was I able to place them. They had left no lasting impression on me. The only teacher I remembered was my history teacher in grade 5. The whole point of this article is why I remember her and not the others. 

I asked myself, what could I do differently? How can I make a difference in each one of my students? What are the missing component and the secret? After a lot of self-reflection and introspection, it came to me. The answer was “Sincere Love”. Love towards teaching and educating love towards children, and a sincere interest in seeing them emerge as individuals under your care. We teachers cannot replicate parents; we do not have to, but can become the strongest of mentors for their continuous development.

I continuously researched “latest education techniques that made a real difference” (Reseachgate, 2019) not just for an average child but a below-average child as well.  I got an opportunity to work at a school that had its roots in Holistic Education based on “Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Education philosophy” (Ignited 2018). It was here that I learned a very valuable lesson, I will never forget. There are no average students, only incompetent teachers. It was not just a statement but it was an epiphany, a revelation. In fact, I think that I deserve more credit by allowing myself to cite it under my name year 2014.

There are many who developed “alternative pedagogical theories” (Researchgate, 2020) in response to the “perceived deficiencies of traditional institutional education” (Igniting Brilliance: Integral Education for the 21st Century, 2010). My practices and beliefs of teaching receive great influence by Sir Aurobindo’s “An education for the future” (The New Leam, 2017) and other models of education that are striving to successfully include and apply holistic, progressive or alternative pedagogies and educational approaches.

INTEGRAL EDUCATION INSTRUCTIONAL MODEL:

Esbjörn-Hargens (Ed) 2010) in his Integral Education, states that:

The teacher, the students, and the classroom can engage in transformation processes through various practices of awareness, interaction, and organization. It is of utmost importance that the teacher continually engage in his or her own transformation  practices, such as meditation and self-reflection, in order to better stabilize post-rational modes of being and knowing


“This holistic approach recognizes that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” (Aristotle). We are missing something significant in our modern reductionist practices. This mechanistic view, which works by breaking things into constituent parts, does not tell the whole story. In essence, the holistic perspective takes into account that life emerges out of individual elements.

Let me give an example here, I applied this principle in my classroom. I presented students with an activity where they had to write down all that they could find about “Banana”. The challenge was that they could stop the task only after no new information remained. After exhausting the information they already knew, the students requested for some time to research new information. With every new attempt at research, they came up with newer information. Finally, they marveled at the amount of information present in the world on just one topic and realized that the possibilities were infinite. In this effort, I got them to read a lot more than I could teach.

Ken Wilbur is an American writer on transpersonal psychology and his own integral theory, a systematic philosophy that suggests the synthesis of all human knowledge and experience.

His Integral Map enables the user to gain a more comprehensive understanding of any issue – including education — and using an Integral approach can help to facilitate greater self-awareness. Applying the integral approach to education, we consider all the following aspects:

FOUR DIMENSIONS: The educational space has four irreducible dimensions that are all equally important and must be included in multiple ways: a subjective experience, objective behavior, intersubjective culture, and inter objective systems. Each of these four dimensions has depth and complexity that develops over time; this development can be facilitated. In particular, Integral teachers need to monitor how they are meeting their students where they are developmentally and not placing them in over their heads. These four levels are associated with the four most prevalent worldviews: traditional, modern, postmodern, and integral. Each of these worldviews has its own preferred behaviors, experiences, culture, and systems.

DEVELOPMENTAL LINES: It is crucial to attend to the multiple developmental lines in teachers as well as students. This involves understanding the complex relationship between the capacity to take multiple perspectives (the cognitive line), to interact in meaningful ways with others (the interpersonal line), and to engage in the world centric ethical action (the moral line).

DIFFERENT STATES: Teachers must recognize and work creatively with the many natural and non-ordinary states of embodiment and awareness that they and their students cycle through both in the classroom and in daily life in response to class content and activities. The more that teachers can support students in accessing various gross, subtle, causal, and witnessing states, the more fluid they will be in their own embodied awareness.

DIFFERENT TYPES: Because there are many types of learners and dimensions of learning, an educator needs to work with multiple typologies in order to provide the most responsive and effective educational space. Key typological categories to use include the five senses, gender, personality, and preferred narrative style (i.e., first-, second-, and third-person).

CONCLUSION

At the beginning of this essay, I had mentioned my History teacher. I give her a lot of credit to who I am today. She recognized the emptiness in me and filled the gaps. She gave me a lot of encouragement and reinforcement. She did all this while teaching a class of 40. I always felt she was teaching only me. She was patient, understanding, rewarding, and impartial. While she continued her pace with the rest of the class, she allowed me to work at my own pace. She was never judgmental or complaining. I do not remember hearing a shouting or act of intimidation from her. Her attitude had it all. She never minded if someone did not want to learn. She could still teach them and learn from them. With her, the classroom, time, hot Indian afternoons quite escaped my notice. The parent-teacher meetings were an occasion worth celebrating as she always sent my parents back with a smile.

The philosophy of Integral Education spoke to me of all the ways that I could be like her. I practiced this with perseverance in my class. In this philosophy, I share her spirit and revolution. It transformed me so much that I do not recognize myself. Today education is my strength and not my weakness.


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