IMPORTANT TO KNOW...

 

ERRORS IN LEARNING

Certainly, the culture in learning has shifted focus. Yes, scoring marks is deemed a priority over those of skill and knowledge acquisition. The euphoria of ‘scores’ has reached a crescendo that young boys and girls are endlessly tormented by parents, teachers, schools and training centres to focus on cornering all the marks prescribed for a paper. From the day the candidate enters X standard,[s]he finds self surrounded by ‘ring masters’ of varied hues, ready to crack the whip; it is an effort of forcing the child achieve ‘what they say’.  The ‘bandwagon’ approach to scores has made deep inroads destroying the natural abilities of grasp, comprehension, assessment and appreciation. The volume of matter to be studied is vast enough to overwhelm any one. LEARNING shall be by PLEASURE and not by PRESSURE.  Pressure is a kind of duress, making mechanized approaches which ruin grasp and deliberation.  The blind adoration of ‘scores’, ignoring the fine nuances of mind building is not the spirit of learning. Slowly, the culture has percolated down and parents assume that the low-scoring child is an idiot [honestly the parent seems to be one] and put pressure on him /her by resorting to special coaching [tuition]. In plain terms, some parents believe that ‘extra coaching’ helps the ward to learn. The paradox is the parent is more eager of ward’s high scores than the ward’s correct learning. Overzealous efforts of pushing lessons down the throat of the student begin and keep growing by the day. With the ‘round the clock’ vigil, the boy or girl resorts to ‘memorizing’ words, formulae, steps of derivation of answers to problems, without realizing the logic behind any of these. If the memory serves right, [s]he manages tall score to make it to profession studies. But, unfailingly fails at higher levels. So, gross errors of learning methodology need to be rectified forthwith, lest should generate ill-equipped crowd of graduates, who have not gathered or bothered of ‘comprehension’-the vital tool of learning.       

  EDUCATION: THE RIGHT APPROACH                        

The value of education is empowerment of the ‘educated’. It is opportune to draw a line between the qualified and the educated in India. Such a distinction owes itself to the process by which our students ‘learn’ their lessons or subjects. Some have learnt the mechanism of learning while many have mastered the mechanics of clearing examination. The former is brain-related and the latter mind –related. These are respectively the grasp and the memory. Grasp is an asset in that it recognizes the basic ramifications and interrelationships of components to information. Memory on the other hand tries to retain information without ‘understanding’ the innate relationships. Anything understood is clear; things memorized are not clear and have to be brushed up now and then. Unlike understanding, memory is saturable and can turn taxing. Memorized data do not help logical deduction or cohesive argument. It is useful to take advantage of memory and understanding as mutually inclusive strategies of knowledge acquisition. In fact, ‘understanding’ promotes memory; the converse need not happen.

Learning is a process of clearly understanding any idea. Memorizing does not mean learning. The line of distinction between these seems to have been ignored in an overzealous effort of scoring marks. So, appropriate learning begins with proper understanding. In plain terms, grasp begins from correct gathering of meanings.  At this point, avoidance of error needs emphasis. Errors in understanding can arise from ‘assumed’ meanings, while authentic meanings are far different. The issue is complicated for languages like English, as we tend to draw meaning by relating new words with those already known. This is how we slip into errors and persist with them, as we do not verify facts. Use of standard Dictionaries and facilities of Thesaurus must be taught in the formative stages. These sources must also be utilized for learning syllables and pronunciation of words. Once we get into the habit of clear usages, our grasp improves. There is no burden of holding things in memory; understanding helps better retention and encourages any effort of learning.  Comprehension is a delightful experience and it helps to learn with delight as it does not burden the mind with confusion, fear and contempt to the process of education.