What to learn at what age?

By Guruprasad Athani, Co-founder, Real Learning Centre

---

I am a practicing educationist.

What does it mean? I am both an educationist and a practicing teacher.

Being an educationist one has to answer many questions. The questions can be as fundamental as; why does one need education? Is it at all essential to impart knowledge and skills through formal education? Or, a more practical question like, how does one teach a particular concept?

The usual questions like “Why?”, “What?”, “When?” and “How?” are applicable to the field of education also. However each one of these questions opens up a vast field of study and delving deep into any one of these questions can take lifetime of an individual, so there are experts who spend their lives researching and debating these questions.

Here is where the adjective ‘practicing’ comes to my help. I am a practicing teacher, I need to go and teach children tomorrow, so I cannot spend all my time debating over finer details of education psychology and education philosophy. I have to take a stand, form opinions and then build my lesson plans.

But why do I need to do even that? Can’t I simply follow a certain syllabus or a certain methodology or a certain technique and simply teach?

Here I do have some freedom compared to a conventional teacher. A conventional teacher has to go to a school, take an allocated period and teach a lesson which is pre-planned, and follow a methodology which is prescribed. This way, he has to work within certain pre-fixed boundaries. My scenario is very different from this; I get to choose ‘the class I teach’, ‘the topic I teach’ and ‘the method I teach’. Being an educationist gives me that freedom and along with that a lot of responsibilities.

The Questions “Why?” and “What?”:

Why do we need formal education? My reasoning goes somewhat like this: almost all animals learn by imitation and by trial and error, and we know that human beings have progressed much farther than other animals because we have an additional way of learning, by imbibing distilled knowledge, which we call formal education. I have no answer to people who undermine human progress. I believe building skyscrapers, traveling to space, curing diseases and trying to question the origin of universe are all signs of progress. Animals have done none of these. Formal education has serious advantages. Only through this means human beings learn from vast number of other humans of the same and previous generations.

What should we teach? This is not an easy question to answer. There are many opposing but compelling theories on what has to be taught to every child. Some educational philosophers believe in teaching only essential things and then they go about trying to find out what these essential things are, and they believe that all the other things would be learnt by the individual during the course of his life in the real world. Some others believe that students have to be taught only those things in which they show interest. Experts are also divided over who should be the beneficiary of the education system, is it the individual or is it the society in which the individual lives.

I take a more practical stand on what should be taught. I would like to equip my students with the kind of knowledge, skills and values so that they can succeed and lead a happy life in the current context of the society and if possible contribute something to the society at large.

Here is a list of things I would like to teach every child.

1. Value system that is suitable for today and tomorrow. 2. Reading, comprehension and writing skills in a couple of languages. 3. Basic mathematics 4. Basic physical and biological sciences 5. Basic social sciences 6. Engaging in some form of art 7. Participation in several games and sports 8. Basics of economics 9. Computer literacy and programming 10. Emotional strength

In my view this list would suffice for children up to age 16. Anything else would be optional. After age 16 they can choose to go deeper into the areas they like most.

The Question of “When?”:

Now that the questions “Why?” and “What?” are settled, we can talk about when should children learn a particular thing. The question is about sequencing. This has answers in two levels.

At first level we may need to answer questions like should we teach math first or language skills? So it is about age appropriate sequencing of the above list.

Secondly, in every subject, what should be the sequence of topics to be covered? What should be the sequence of skills to be learnt? Answer to these questions has a dependence on the development of cognitive abilities of a child as she grows up. Here matching the skill to developmental state of child’s brain is very important. For example expecting a child to do well in a work that requires fine motor skills even before child has learnt writing is a bad idea. Because when a child practices writing, her fine motor skill improves. Another example is forcing a child to think in abstract terms even before child’s pre-frontal cortex expands is a sure way of derailing the child’s future. So what is the right sequence?

I cannot give a comprehensive list of topics to be taught every year from age 4 to age 16 and their sequence. However this is an important task and is generally done by syllabus designers. For example National Curriculum Framework of India has mandated certain sequencing. I would like to propose some parameters that can help us determine the appropriate sequencing.

I would like to introduce certain stages of learning here to help sequencing.

1. Age up to 9: Habit forming stage 2. Age from 9 to 12: Experiential learning stage. 3. Age from 12 to 16: Conceptual learning stage. 4. Age above 16: Formal learning stage

Habit forming stage:

Most important habits that are needed for effective learning have to be formed early in child’s school life. Following things can be imparted up to age 9. This stage of learning can be called as habit forming stage.

1. Listening habit, questioning skills, observing habit, narrating skills, reading habit and first level reasoning 2. Habit of thinking in numbers, quick quantitative skills, measuring and comparing 3. Habit of spending time on one task for a long time (which they like), working in teams (not just playing), involving in large group activities like praying, meditation or any activity where a child will participate as a small part of a big fraternity.

The above points can be covered under the heading of teaching language, mathematics, science and social science at very basic levels. At this stage, focus is on teaching the skills and providing opportunities for the child to form habits. These habits help children later in life to easily acquire various kinds of skills and knowledge. These habits are also important for strengthening their ties with the local society and pave the way for a child to grow into a mentally healthy and a responsible citizen.

Experiential Learning Stage:

Children from age 9 to 12 have to be taken through various experiences. I call this an experiential learning stage. Following things can be imparted during this stage 1. Children should be made to read a lot of books- mainly stories. Biographies, interesting science books, puzzles, and essays can be included. Watching videos is fine but cannot substitute reading. 2. They must be encouraged to write as well. Stories, travelogues, essays, poems and observations and procedures of science experiments are to be tried. Participation in debates and discussions is an added advantage. 3. Teachers should make students perform as many science experiments as possible. They must include physical sciences, chemistry and biology. Wherever needed, we should extend their eyes using microscopes and telescopes. Visiting or participating in science exhibitions, visiting science museums, planetarium and observatories are also very useful. 4. Quantitative techniques have to be practiced in real world projects and in day to day dealings. Quantitative manipulation of time and space in addition to handling buying and selling of things are essential. Fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios and proportions are to be practiced. Mathematical puzzles are great tools for generating interest. Geometry is another area where children start to enjoy in this age group. Origami, paper cutting, model making are all good ways to experience geometry. 5. Visiting places is another important activity where students experience history, geography, economics, nature and human diversity. This can profoundly influence their thinking and broaden their outlook. Exposure to different ways of life in cities, towns and villages across various strata of society plays a key role in connecting the various disciplines of humanities. 6. There must be sufficient daily doses of sports and games. Children must be allowed to play on their own with just a bit of supervision from adults. Too much of grooming and practicing for competitions is not a good idea for this age group yet. 7. Children should be allowed to indulge in their chosen area of art. Basic guidance is needed here to start learning the fundamentals of the art form. The chosen art can later develop into a hobby or a main career choice.

These are basic minimum things that we need to engage children of 9 to 12 age group. Children may develop individual preferences at this age group. We must encourage them when they try to go deeper in any area, however, we must not allow them to reject some things because of lack of interest or some limitations in their ability. In such situations the teacher has to make it interesting for the student by changing the teaching methods.

Conceptual learning stage:

The next stage of learning is the concept forming stage. Children of age group 12 to 16 can start generalizing their experiences and begin to form concepts in their brain. The prefrontal cortex develops during this age. We can call this stage as conceptual learning stage.

Students start to generalize their experiences during this age on their own. But they tend to make mistakes which are often necessary in the learning process. However, a teacher’s guidance can help them learn quicker. Teaching sessions should be planned such that students are given enough data and allowed to form generalizations. They must be observed carefully and nudged towards more preferred ideas.

During the experiential learning stage, experiences are mostly exploratory. Students wouldn’t have a prior understanding or expectation of the experience. However, during the concept forming stage they must be encouraged to design experiments / experiences that can help validate, modify or reject the concepts that are already formed in their mind.

Some examples here would clarify my statements. 1. Why do the solar and lunar eclipses not happen every month? The student can create a Sun-Earth-Moon movement model to explore this concept 2. We use soap to remove oil, but do we know that soap is actually made from oil? Let the student make soap using coconut oil and understand the saponification reaction. 3. Let the student experiment with growing certain plants and measure the growth rate. Or watch microbes under a microscope daily for a week and estimate the growth rate. 4. Let the student estimate the mass of a nearby hill by using basic math and physics 5. Visit historical places to validate stories regarding that place. Learn to read ancient writings on stone and see whether your understanding of that period of history matches with what is written on the stone. 6. Visit villages and farmland to understand the relationship between type of sand and climate to what is generally grown in that land

A good teacher can list many such activities in every subject. It is important to note down student’s understanding of the topic before and after the activity. Discussions can be arranged before and after the activity so that teacher can help students form generalizations.

In this age group, children start questioning the morals and start creating their own moral framework. In every activity, it is important to discuss moral implications. When you make your own soap, it is a good idea to discuss about the effect of allowing soap water to mix with clean water in our daily life. At this stage, it is essential to build the moral framework on strong foundation with three pillars: scientific reasoning, empathy and freedom.

Formal Learning Stage:

What a student learns up to the age of 16 determines how she leads her life. Will she be happy? Will she be useful to the society? Will he have good relationships with others? Can he survive well? Answers to these questions are generally determined by 16.

The only question that still needs an answer is “will she be successful in her chosen area?” This question is answered in the first few years after 16. Formal learning is a key to success in any given area. So what is this formal learning? Every subject has a formal way of learning. Formal methods guarantee sufficient depth and speed of learning.

For example • Formal way of learning Physics is through mathematical equations and highly accurate measurements • For Chemistry, it is well controlled experiments and understanding the constructions of related theories • For Biology, it is classification, naming and evolutionary sequence • Mathematics is full of formal methods • Similarly, there are formal methods in other subjects also

It has to be noted that formal way of learning is not always fun. At this stage, if students are already passionate about some subjects, then they can easily tolerate the rigor of formal learning. Otherwise, formal learning can become painful. But, once the student has developed a taste for formal learning, there will be no looking back. Teachers and parents have to support the students emotionally during this stage. Competition starts playing heavily during this stage. In earlier stages, it was a good strategy to avoid competition, but in this stage, students need to learn to compete. Emotional strength and strong fundamentals can carry them through this stage unhurt.

I said I would answer questions “Why?”, “What?”, “When?” and “How?”. I have answered the first three questions but I will not answer the “How?” question now. How to teach something depends entirely on the ‘thing’ that you are teaching. I will explore “how to teach” for some specific topics in my future blogs.