Catering to the Needs of 40 Different Children in Each Classroom is Impossible - Coursework Example

Catering to the needs of 40 different children in each room is impossible” – A discussion. At the present global order, education is perhaps the most talked about topic in the academic arena that has a social bearing. Question has remained over the years about what should be the optimum size of a classroom in terms of student strength. Nowadays, corporatisation of education often leads to over crowding of the class for more economic profit and that ends up with restricted flow of knowledge combined with improper development of the students. The following paper enshrines light on the fact about what may be the challenges a classroom with a student strength more than its capacity and coming from different cultural and lingual background, is facing. What are the reasons behind this and how to overcome these problems? Introduction: Eduation that once had started from the gurukul (during the Vedic Age) encompassed great length to reach the era of laptops. Over the time the necessity, requirements and the inherent need of the human society has transformed the education system so far. This transformation is not at all a surprise and will be qualified as a positive transformation as far as the inner soul of the system remains sacred and pious. However, with the globalisation of the education system, the diversity of a class room regarding the cultural, social, national and religious background of the students have increased a lot. Owing to this diversity providing each individual student or different clusters of students withint he same class their requirements is becoming quite arduous nowadays. Moreover, the present time also witneses an increase in the number of students per class and that is making the job even harder. To cope up with this changed need, the policies and techniques followed have changed as well. Different techniques came through, with an aim to cater these needs to the optimum. With the stakeholder’s interest into the education system growing day by day, the techniques of delivering education, the involvement of the parents, all need a reorientation. Professional development: The quality of knowledge that a student carries depends a lot on the quality of teacher he or she has come across. At present, with the growing compeition in the market a proper development of a student will determine his future as well as the future of the society. If a teacher comes across a class which is overpopulated and in true sense a global one, he must at first learn how to handle the cultural diversity in the class. Suppose a teacher is within a class having students from countires like United States of America, Japan, Germany, Norway as well as Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Now, if a lecture is going on fertilisation, a teacher must be cautious while explaining the process. This is only because when on one hand, the process of fertilisation is only a biological process to the students USA, Germany and Norway and even Japan, it may be very uncomfortable to accept anything on that in an open classroom for the students of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. This follows from the cultural difference that plays as the main distinctive feature between the two groups of learners. Perhaps, this is one of the main reasons that makes mutual knowledge sharing within a multinational classroom quite difficult. The teacher, at this juncture, must possess that amount of statesmanship which is necessary to guide the class away from these problems and make the delivery of knowledge sound like a preaching rather than creating discomfort for the students. Competency developmnent: It has often been found that people are less or more competent owing to their origin. The national development level also determines the competitiveness of its inhabitants. As the growtha nd development levels of different nations are different, so flocking students from different nations into a same classroom may bring a notion of inferiority or superiority complex to different clusters of students. Day by day, competition among the mass is increasing. It mainly comes from the disparity between the level of opportunity and the number of deserving cadidates. At present, only those will survive, who has or developed that stink within him or her and ompetitive enough to survive the onslaught of the common global order. From a teacher’s perspective, his job is becoming more and more difficult. He has to find new avenues to untap the competitive potential among his students and make one feel that he is just as good as his competitor or anyone else. The teacher might restore to vocal tonic that will impress his students and encourage them. Also, the teacher, in order to encourage competitive behavior, may arrange or provide a competitive environment to his students. This can be done through arranging a competition among the students or among two or more groups on the study material itself. Tuning different cultural groups of the same class For an educational professional, this may sound quite tough and almost impossible to implement. As an experiment, the teacher may divide the calss into small groups according their cultural background and try to grasp their motive and approach towards life. To do this, a teacher has to be well versed with almost all the different cultural backgrounds present in a class. This is not an easy job for an individual. Understanding several cultural backgrounds at a time and then transforming each of them is almost impossible for a single individual. That has remained as one of the bottlenecks of accomodating 40 or more different students in a single classroom. Constructivism: Constructivism suggests how ideal learning process should happen. Usually students gather experiences and try to identify them with their internal representation of the world. In the process learners use their experienced knowledge to absorb new things and teachings. However each student would have his/her own weak or strong areas to focus on. The instructor needs to help them develop and build their inner framwork of knowledge in that direction. In a class of diverse background and culture this is a definite challenge. On one hand cultural diversity in a clas leads to a self perpetuation of knowledge due to the interaction between different groups. This diverse knowledge about different culture definitely incorporates a greater understanding and tolerance among the students. However, it has also been observed that often students of two mutually hostile nations indulge in verbal or physical conflict. If this happens, then it definitely hinders the peace of the class. Again, as previously mentioned, tha a class with a population over 40 and in the same time culturally diversified is hard to pursue the objectives on behalf of the teacher as well. So, as a whole, it becomes almost impossible to accommodate that many students in a class and at the same time carrying on the prime objectives of the education system. Personal development: The ultimate goal of the education system is not only transmitting knowledge from one source to another, that is from teacher to the students. A knowledge only counts when it manages to bring some positive transformation among its recipients. To pursue this objective, it has to be a one-to-one correspondence. With the numebr of students increasing in a class, it will become harder fo rthe teacher to approach each student individually and deliver knowledge in its purest form, attaining its actual goal. Self evaluation: In such situations perhaps the key to oversome the maladies remains with the process of self evaluation. The teacher and the student will evaluate themselves and come up with the gaps that are preventing to achieve the optimum situation. When the teacher will ome to know by himself that these are the areas where he can improve, his own effort will fulfill those gaps and no third person involvement will be required. Similarly, self evaluation on behalf of the students will highlight he areas of ignorance to him and he will try to improve upon them. This process of self evaluation is most imporant if we want to carry on with a large class. This process will definitely save time and improve upon the quality. The process: Till now some of the processes have been illustrated that are needed to cater to a diversified large class in today’s competitive environment. As a whole, a teacher has to be more understanding and innovative in order to teach in such a class. He may follow a group specific or individualistic approach, moulding himself in the required shape that each different group desires. For some, he may act as a commnading officer and to another he may behave as a long friend. His ability to adjust and lead will determine his success, the success of his students, and in the long run, the success of the society. According to Andy Hargreaves (Thomas More Brennan Chair in Education at Boston College), the connection between theory and practise in education is very important to maintain. Many times, what the students learn in theory differs a lot from the practical world where application is necessary. Sometimes students might not know how and where to apply their knowledge in the real world. It is the responsibility of the teacher to show the different paths and openings pertaining to a certain branch of study so that the students would find a purpose and motive to work hard. For instance, a student of psychology might feel at a loss after passing out as he might be indecisive about which stream to take up in order to make a living or whether to diverge from the main stream of study or not. Proper motivation during the education can prevent such situations. A student would be able to relate the theory, whichever branch of study it might concern, with the real world outside that is unlike the traditional gurukul system where students were the ‘brahmacharis’, cut out from the flow of life in the outside world. So, making the students well acquainted with the changing world and encouragiung them towards applying the knowledge they carry is another important goal of the teacher. With this goal attained several problems related with the education systemw ill be addressed. The education system can only operate with full efficiency if and only if the professionals engaged in this system behave optimally. Only degrees cannot create a teacher. They have to be developed through a certain process in order to bring a professional approach to their behavior. So development of teachers may be one of the prime objectives in order to attain a well functioning education system. As much a teacher will understand the necessity to remain a student for the life time and the difference between acquiring and delivering knowledge, the education system will receive new boost encompassing bigger horizons. Thrive towards improvement: Afterall, the motivation to improve determines the effort on behalf of an individual. As long as an individual does not understand or commit to improve, the expected goal is never achieved. External intervention may lift a person to some extent but in order to reap the full potential of the individual, his own efforts come forward as the determining factor. This has been well illustrated in the words of Michael Fullen in his book ‘Leading in a Culture of Change’, “those dealing with failing schools have drawn this very conclusion: the need for external intervention is inversely proportionate to how well the school is progressing. In a case of persistent failure, dramatic, assertive leadership and external intervention appear to be necessary. In the long run, however, effectiveness depends on developing internal commitment in which the ideas and intrinsic motivation of the vast majority of organizational members become activated.” Education system – the stakeholders. It is quite surprising that the stakeholders to the education system have never received their deserved importance. The students’ needs received minimum importance when they are the prime stakeholders of the system. The authority hardly gave it a thought that how can the students be taken as the participants int heir approach to development of the education system. The proper functioning of the education system can only be assured when the authority as well as the teachers will manage to win the heart of the students and thereby their spontaneous cooperation. Adequate importance must be given towards the classroom management as well as to the improvement of the environment within and outside the class. Maintaining discipline through mutual cooperation on behalf of the authority, teacher and the students will definitely ensure a far better environment leading to the flourish of the education system. The role of the parents, the other important stakeholder of the education system has also not been givena dequate attention they deserve. However, in this matter parents also have their share of short comings. The Parent Teacher Association (PTA) once been found to promote mutual cooperation between the parents and the teacher in order to provide proper education to the students ahs failed to leave up to its expectations. Often, the parents’ suggestions regardingt he improvement of the system have ben ignored. Parents also have been found to be reluctant to attend meetings and often restricted themselves to speak out because of the fear of any personal grudge that may be unleashed on their child. There are sufficient instances where the parents are not even keeping adequate information of what their children are doing regarding attaining class or preparing their homework. Education gets its true meaning when after completion of the formal education, a student manages to excell in the greater sphere of life, that is, at the workplace. Often the knowledge a student acquires through the education system has little relevance regarding what he is expected to do at his work place. This behavior is making the corporate houses a bit reluctant and uninterested in the development process of the eductaion system. In order to develop a mutually beneficial relationship between the education system and the workplace, the education system leads to cater to the needs of the corporate houses throguh incorporating relevant knowledge among the students. In this manner the corporate houses as well will feel to invest in the education system and become a true partner of the development. School policy and practices: Most of the schools are becoming business houses and focussed towards making profits by admitting more and more students at a high price. On the other hand the practice they follow towards the students remained at an ancient level. In the last ten years, apart from incorporating information technology as a facility towards the students, nothing substantial has developed. A school is just like a temple or a church and that should be devoted towards the incubation of the future leaders of the society. The motive should be clear, nourishing knowledge and looking after the benfits of the students. More innovation, forthsight, planning and implementation of relevant policies are the needs of the time. Unless these needs are properly catered, soon people will lose interest and from within the schools will turn into wreckage. Conclusion: So far, whatever has been discussed portrays the fact that diversity within a large class is quite difficult to handle and that is mainly because of the inadequacy of the process, policies and the system. The present system has almost made it impossible to cater to the needs of 40 different children in each classroom. However, with adequate improvement on behalf of the teachers as well as the students, with the authority standing as a supporting factor, even this peak can be reached. Last but not the least, parental involvement into the whole system, their collective bargaining power and the goodwill of the authority towards the importance of the parental involvement will not only facilitate but also led to the true reorientation of the whole system. References: 1. ‘Andy Hargreaves’, http://www.andyhargreaves.com/ 2. Fullen M., 2007, “Leading in Culture of Change”, Jossey-Bass; Rev Ed edition 3. Funderstanding, Constructivism, http://www.funderstanding.com/constructivism.cfm 4. Funderstanding, ‘Theories’, http://www.funderstanding.com/theories.cfm 5. Matthews, M.R.: 2000, Constructivism in Science and Mathematics Education.  In D.C. Phillips (ed.), National Society for the Study of Education, 99th Yearbook, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, pp. 161-192 6. National PTA, “Become a National PTA Member”, http://www.pta.org/jp_national_unit.html 7. Polito T.,2005. Educational Theory as Theory of Culture: A Vichian perspective on the educational theories of John Dewey and Kieran Egan Educational Philosophy and Theory, Vol. 37, No. 4 8. Solomon, J.: 1994, ‘The Rise and Fall of Constructivism’, Studies in Science Education 23, 1-19 9. Steffe, L. & Gale, J. (Eds.): 1995, Constructivism in Education, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ 10. “What is Improvement?” http://resources.sai-iowa.org/si/desiredfuture/whatis.html Read More