FEBRUARY 2019 | VOLUME 1 | ISSUE 2
®
Gulf Edition
A MATTER OF PRINCIPAL
STUDENT
CENTERED
(PEDAGOGY E= mc2) Ms. Zita Lobo
Ras al-Khaimah Medical and Health Sciences University (RAKMHSU).
GENERATING
HAPPY MINDS
T. Premkumar
Principal of Indian Educational School, Kuwait
HAPPY SCHOOL =
HAPPY A P Sharma,
CHILD TEACHER PARENT
Principal, Birla Public School, Doha, Qatar
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Invitation to Write
Share your thoughts for Mentor on the following topics: • Practical strategies to assist RTE children in the classroom • Wise words on managing crisis in school • Financial Literacy Among Students • Share your thoughts and opinions on any of the topics above and we will publish it in Mentor*!
• You can also send your article under any of the following categories: School Pedagogy, Governance, Leadership and Innovation.
Word Limit: 1,300 words E-mail: info@lxl.in Submission Deadline: 5th March 2019 E-mail Subject: “Mentor Magazine”
* Subject to Editorial Discretion
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2 | Mentor | February 2019
Contents Vol. 12 | Issue 9 | February 2019 | info@lxl.in
03 Mentor Thoughts
Letter from the Editor..............................................03 What’s Trending.......................................................04 Sultan Speaks..........................................................05 CBSE Gulf Sahodaya Principals Discuss the Need for Reformation as “Our Children Deserve More …”..............................06
09 Pedagogy
Student Centered Pedagogy E= Mc2....................09
14 Governance
Prioritising School Culture ....................................14
16 Cover Story
Happy School=“Happy Child” Happy Teacher and Happy Parent.......................16
20 Leadership
Why is it Necessary to be a Rebel Leader in Education..................................................................20
23 Innovation
Generating Happy Minds ......................................23
All Rights Reserved 2016 EduMedia Publications Pvt. Ltd. Publisher & Owner: Syed Sultan Ahmed Editor: Kalpa Kartik | Content Developer: Farah Javid Designer: Muhammad Juraij K H Production: Praveen. U. M, Sathish. C, Guna. V Printer: Elegant Printing Notice: the contributions in Mentor Magazine are solely the views of the author and are in no manner to be directly associated with the views of the editorial team or LXL Ideas. Authors/contributors are responsible for the authenticity of information they provide in the article. The publishers do not accept liability for errors or omissions contained in this publication. By submitting letters/ emails or other publication materials to Mentor Magazine the author/contributor agrees that it is the property of Mentor Magazine. All communication to Mentor Magazine must be made in writing. No other sort of communication will be accepted. All decisions regarding publishing of a contribution is the prerogative of the publisher and editorial team of Mentor Magazine. Mentor Magazine is owned and published by EduMedia Publications Pvt. Ltd. for and on behalf of Mr. Syed Sultan Ahmed. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts and forums in Bengaluru City.
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Letter from the Editor
E
ducation is a creative and collaborative leadership of a teacher as facilitator in exploring the capabilities by charging the synaptic nerves of a learner. Keeping in mind today’s busy and over-committed reader, Mentor has been designed with compact care, including vital and necessary contemporary issues relating to education. Moreover, it has been divided furthermore into four different segmentsPedagogy, School Governance, School Leadership and Innovation for easy comprehension and better alignment. These segments encompass the gamut of education and give the articles, their desired structure. Mentor is perfectly poised to be the new voice for education in GCC. The future is in the hearts of students. The heart of a student is in the hands of a principal. That is why we have made Mentor a “matter of principal”. This month Mentor talks about leadership among principals of the Indian Schools in Qatar who facilitated an excellent Conference at Bangalore from 2nd January to 5th January 2019. “Our Children Deserve More …” by Principals representing the six GCC Countries. MENTOR MAGAZINE an initiative by LXL Ideas was LAUNCHED AT 31st Principals Conference of the Council of CBSE Affiliated Schools in the Gulf. In education, Head, hand and heart are the three essentials of a growth mindset in the prevalent system of education the head and hand dominate but the heart is missing. Only by adding heart to our endeavors of education and development, we can dream of a genuinely complete growth mindset or we may call it a positive mindset in schools. A nonapprehensive environment in school and openness to diverge thinking can only aid to better learning environment. It is the Principal’s responsibility to ensure that there is no bitter burnout in the workforce and at the same time work gets accomplished effectively. Creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, global and cultural awareness are now some of the fundamental requirements of the times. Whatever way the future unfolds itself in, with these skills, at least our youth will be able to navigate well. This is possible only if the culture of learning is re defined in the institutions of learning and intellectually stimulating and challenging culture is created by educators in leadership position.
We hope you enjoy Mentor and contribute and share with the Fraternity!
Kalpa Kartik Editor
2019 February | Mentor | 3
WHAT IS THAT www.lxl.in
Whats trending
OUR CHILDREN DESERVE TODAY? To answer this question we need to first understand what it is that our children deserve, and who is responsible for providing it to them. The world has been in rapid flux this past 20 years, and will continue to do so, as man progresses. This brings with it a unique dynamics, with resources of the past paving way to potentials of the future. We need to stop worrying whether technology will replace classrooms and its teachers and instead reevaluate how we can better educate our children. Our children deserve to be molded into productive resources capable of driving the future we envision. Human diversity needs to be embraced and encouraged for human resource development. Students must be given a role in deciding how their potentials need to be tapped. As parents and educators, we need to introduce a flexible spacetime learning, where each student can learn at their own pace with tools that suit their distinctive capacities in areas of their interests. Education as a process, we must not forget that classic education is a humanizing process, and would always remain irreplaceable for character and social evolution.
Dr. E K Mohammed Shaffe Principal & HOI IIS Dammam, KSA
4 | Mentor | February 2019
Sultan Speaks
EQUIP STUDENTS WITH SKILLS TO DEAL WITH DISPLACEMENT AND MIGRATION
M
ost of us are aware of the fact that one of the biggest factors that is changing the face of our world is the technological advances and the disruption that it brings with it. This fact is well understood by the educational planners and educators worldwide and there is a lot of focus on coping with the changes that come with the unprecedented influence of technology in our lives. In addition to technology the other big changemaker that is shaping our world is ‘Displacement & Migration’. This aspect is not common knowledge for educators worldwide and its understanding is very low among school leaders. According to the UNHRC statistics there are about 68.5 million people forcibly displaced in the world today. Of this 40 million people were internally displaced, 25 million refugees and 3 million are asylum seekers. The internally displaced population are those people that fled because of conflict or natural disasters.
or migrating than ever before in the history of mankind. The challenges of migration are many and very varied, it creates a scarcity of resources and job creation needs are very high. Migration also brings with it new cultures, traditions, practices, morals and habits. This poses a very unique challenge for our children to learn to cope with the changes that come with this movement. While we are all very mindful of equipping our children with skills to deal with the demands of the future workplace and future jobs, we have to equip them with skills to deal with new people and new places. History, Geography and Social Sciences that have traditionally been taught in our schools, we need to now relook at what is the purpose of teaching these subjects and how we could navigate the curriculum to suit the needs of the new world.
According to the International Labour Organisation - ILO there are 258 million migrant workers in the world. India is right up there among the largest migrant working populations of the world. Most Indian migrant workers move within the country in search of work and we also have a large population that moves out of the country in search of better opportunities abroad.
There is an urgent and unprecedented need for our schools to start teaching and sensitizing our children to the fact that people are moving locations like never before. Including world culture and dealing with people from different ethnicities is a basic life skill that children need to be taught today. While the governments and education bodies wake up to give direction to the world of education in this matter, there is a unique opportunity for school leaders to work on their own plans to make this happen.
The fact of the matter is that our societies are constantly changing as more people are being displaced
Acknowledgement of this fact by the educators is a good first step, creating events and projects in schools to make
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the children mindful of this would be a great second step. Including migration and displacement as part of the mainstream curriculum studies should be our urgent and ultimate goal. This will help us prepare our children to handle the demands and challenges that they will face in an ever moving world.
Syed Sultan Ahmed MD & Chief Learner @ LXL
2019 February | Mentor | 5
EN
DR L I H A Y C A …” E HOD E “OUR R A S O F M L U CBSE G S DISCUSS TH S DESERVE NA PAL PRINCI REFORMATIO OR NEED F
P
lanning and preparation for the Principals Conference started months before the event and the excellent teamwork of the organizing team of School Principals from Indian Schools in Qatar facilitated an excellent Conference at Bangalore from 2nd January to 5th January 2019. The most challenging part of planning was deciding on the resource persons for the educational sessions which made most of the Conference. Meetings after meetings discussing about all possible eminent personalities who had done some pioneering original work and contributed remarkably towards improvement of school education in one way or the other. The team finally decided and the most significant observation in the delegates post conference feedback was about the careful selection of resource persons. The resource persons for the rich educational sessions of the conference were Padma Bhushan Dr. B. M. Hegde, Cardiologist, Medical Scientist, Educationist, Author and the former Vice-Chancellor of Manipal University, Mr. Deepak Vohra, www.lxl.in
renowned and highly successful Indian Diplomat, Padma Shri Dr. Mylswamy Annadurai, former director of ISRO, programme and director of Chandrayaan-1, Chandrayaan-2, and Mangalyaan, Mr. Anil Swarup, former Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy, Government of India, and promoting “Nexus of Good” and Dr. Jitendra Nagpal, Senior Consultant, mental health and child psychology. Mr. Syed Sultan Ahmed, 1st generation social entrepreneur and winner of six President of India’s National Film Awards, advisor to MHRD, CIET-NCERT, and educator transforming education through School Cinema, ‘Krayon’, and ‘Mentor’ through sharing educational ideas, and Mr. Saiju Aravind, Former DRDO Scientist turned educationist, pioneer of BUILD (Brain Utilisation in Learning and Development) programme. Meaningful interactions with the resource persons enriched and rejuvenated all the school leaders to be better change leaders.
The ambiance in the conference venue, ITC Gardenia, was excellent and inspiring and the delegates were passionate to discuss various topics during the sessions. The conference brochure looked so attractive and all the sessions progressed in accordance with the plan. Dr. B.M. Hegde urged the Principals to make their schools feel like an ice-cream parlor to children! Through simple personalized anecdotes he brought out the limitations of our school education systems and gave practical suggestions to improve the scenario as our children deserve more! By the way that was the conference theme and the most appreciated session was a panel discussion on the conference theme “Our Children Deserve More …” by Principals representing the six GCC Countries moderated by Mr. A. P. Sharma, Principal of Birla Public School Doha. Mrs. Asna Nafees was the panel member from Qatar. Mrs. Asha Sharma from Kuwait, Mr. Arun Sharma from Bahrain, Dr. E.K. Mohammed Shaffe from Saudi Arabia, Mrs. Papri Ghosh from Muscat and Mr. 6 | Mentor | February 2019
Srivalsan Murugan from Sharjah were the other panel members. The most significant outcome of this discussion was the need of a futuristic approach in designing curriculum and a consistency in approaches pertaining to assessments and evaluation. There was a perfect agreement among the panelists about the requirement of transforming schools into a place for joyful learning that gives ample opportunities to children to develop skills and to become confident to innovate and to pursue their dreams. Mr. Deepak Vohra in his active session spread rich positive vibes and drawn the delegates to feel proud of India’s great achievements in various fields and emphasized the need for the schools to communicate about these achievements to children to boost their confidence and optimism. His rich experience as a successful diplomat who was instrumental in achieving evacuation missions that involved many nationalities made the
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delegate spellbound as they realized how important is the decision making skill for everyone to achieve desired results and to have a meaningful life. He emphasized the extreme need for skill development of our youth for employability and entrepreneurship as the nation is steadily marching towards unimaginable development in recent and coming years. Mr. Mylswamy Annadurai shared the story of his success and the great achievements of the teams that he led. He attributed the success to the ability to ask simple yet powerful questions as questions decide everything else, including the processes and tools. India’s success in space research is instrumental in the technological advancements in many other fields as many tools and materials emerged as an offshoot of space research. He urges the schools to encourage children to ask simple and straight questions as our children deserve the right to ask!
Mr. Anil Swarup reiterated that there are so much goodness in people and the good practices teachers innovate must be replicated for a large number of children to derive the benefit. He also shared his rich experience as a bureaucrat and enriched the delegate about the right ways of approaching the government machinery for positive results. He expressed great optimism regarding the efforts of the CBSE in the series of reforms that the examination body is planning to implement. Dr. Jitendra Nagpal went into the intricacies of child psychology and enriched the delegates with the right pragmatic ways of letting the child develop its mind naturally. He cautioned that childhood is a journey and not a race! He also stressed the possible interventions that will be right in the school education process towards this goal. Mr. Syed Sultan Ahmed shared the challenges that he and his team faced in developing and promoting creative
2019 February | Mentor | 7
ways of influencing teachers, parents and children. His innovation helped the International Kids Film Festival to reach millions of children who otherwise could have missed such a wonderful experience. His project Value Education Through Cinema is gaining acceptance and popularity. Children deserve to have better visual learning experiences and there are high quality cinema available for the schools to select. He also released the first Gulf Edition of Mentor magazine during the conference. Mr. Saiju Aravind reflected upon the need for data driven analytics instead of narrative for making informed decisions for better interventions in school education. He also discussed neuroplasticity and brain friendly learning and stated that our children deserve to celebrate knowledge and this happens when they learn how to learn and get rid of the illusions of competencies and when learning is not a burden any more but a joyful pleasure giving experience. The special guests from CBSE, Dr. Joseph Emmanuel, Director – Academics, Dr. Biswajit Saha, Director – Skill Education and Training, Shri. J. K. Yadav, Regional Officer – Delhi, and Shri. K. Srinivasan, Regional Officer – Chennai interacted with the principals and shared the future plans of the CBSE towards improvement of curriculum
standards and examinations. They also promised better communication with the schools in the gulf and speedy solutions to the unique problems faced by these schools. The message from Ms. Anita Karwal, IAS, Chairperson of CBSE was presented for the Principals. Delegates representing six GCC countries shared chapter best practices for promoting excellence in education based on the objectives of the CBSE Gulf Council. The best practices of the Qatar Chapter were presented by Mr. Vinod Bhatia (Doha Modern Indian School). Principals of 11 Indian Schools in Qatar who participated and organized the conference were Mrs. Hameeda Kadar (MES), Mr. Syed Shoukath Ali (Ideal Indian School), Dr. Subhash Nair (Shantiniketan Indian School), Mrs. Asna Nafees (DPS-MIS), Mr. A. P. Sharma (BPS), Mr. Vinod Bhatia (DMIS), Mr. Shibu Abdul Rasheed (Noble International School), Mr. M. P. Philip (Bhavan’s Public School), Mrs. Manjari, (Pearl School), Mr. P. K. V. Prasad (Loyola International School) and Mr. Jacob K. M. (Olive International School). The business sessions chaired by Mrs. Prasanna Bhaskar, Chair Person of the CBSE Gulf Council discussed and amended its constitution and renamed the Council as CBSE Gulf Sahodaya as the main objective of the Council is collaboration among its 174 member
schools in the Gulf Countries with the purpose to give more opportunities to our children. The executive committee that organized the conference included Mrs. Prasanna Bhaskar, chair person, Mr. Premkumar, Secretary, Mr. S.J. Jacob, Treasurer, Mr. M. Abubaker, Custodian of funds, and chapter conveners Mr. Palaniswamy (Bahrain), Dr. Binumon (Kuwait), Mr. Shareef (Oman), Mr. Mohammed Haneef (Saudi Arabia), Mr. V.V. Abdul Kader (UAE) and Dr. Subhash Nair (Qatar). Mr. Premkumar, Principal of Indian Education School Kuwait, is inducted as the new Chairman, Dr. Subhash Nair, Principal of Shantiniketan Indian School Doha as the Secretary. The new chapter conveners of the Gulf Sahodaya for the year 2019-20 are Mr. Shibu Abdul Rasheed from Qatar, Mrs. Anju Dheman from Kuwait, Dr. Mohammad Tayyab from Bahrain, Mr. Prabhakaran from Oman, Mr. Sanjeev Kumar Jolly from UAE, and Mr. Abdul Samad from Saudi Arabia. The Gulf Sahodaya web portal and mobile application were launched by Mr. Premkumar, in the presence of Dr. Binumon and Dr. Subhash Nair who took initiative for the design and development of a dynamic portal that makes interaction and communication among the member schools and chapters better and meaningful.
Dr. Subhash Nair Principal, Shantiniketan Indian School Doha, Secretary, CBSE Gulf Sahodaya
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8 | Mentor | February 2019
Pedagogy
2 c m = YE G O G A PED ip of a Teacher D E R E T CEN laborative Leadersh T N E D STU Creative & Col INTRODUCTION This article focuses on the role of the teacher as a leader and facilitator. Exploring and experimenting with the multiple capabilities of the learner by identifying their learning styles. The article derives from the author’s collaborative research on both brain mapping of dominant intelligences of students and matching them with teaching learning methodologies in a medical and health sciences educational context. “Designing educational experiences without an understanding of the brain is like designing a glove without an understanding of the human hand” – Leslie Hart 1983 We live in a world where everything changes overnight with modern technology. Perspectives in education perhaps is the fastest to catch up with these changes. Innovations in the dissemination of knowledge through the web have become essential parts of trying to bring the best in our students. Deriving the formula from the relativity equation, of the great German physicist, Albert Einstein’s, I suggest: www.lxl.in
E=mc2* in pedagogy. E represents Education, m represents the multiple intelligences that are inherent in every child and c2 is the facilitator’s creativity in exploring and experimenting those multiple capabilities by identifying the learning styles of the child. Although Hippocrates, Plato and the other Greeks and the Egyptians showed curiosity with the location of the brain or argued about whether the brain or the heart was the seat of intelligence, most studies on the brain and its functioning, which is neuroscience are arguably not more than a century and half at the highest.
Children by birth are equipped for learning through observation, imitation and creation
It is only in the 20th century that discoveries with empirical evidences in neuro science and continued developments in cognitive psychology presented new horizons of thinking about the brain’s contribution to learning. Over the past 30 years, the field of cognitive neuroscience has emerged as an important growth area in neuroscience. Cognitive neuroscience combines the experimental strategies of cognitive psychology with various techniques to examine how brain function supports mental activities. With the knowledge of what the students are capable of doing it is easier for the teachers to orchestrate the teaching-learning process. Children by birth are equipped for learning through observation, imitation and creation. The neural networks get strengthened and expand exponentially as a child grows creating more and more synapses or neural connections. A passive learning system does not work for the greater good of our children. We are witnessing in schools a major paradigm shifts from the passive teacher-centered methodologies to learner-centered methodologies. 2019 February | Mentor | 9
Pedagogy The hither to beliefs that students’ brains were ‘like clay to be molded’ or ‘vessels to be filled’ are hold no water anymore! More than one student could excel in academics! Education is brain building with abilities of problem solving and creative thinking.
innate capacities inherited by birth. He defines intelligence as the “capacity to process a certain kind of information that originates in human biology
A major breakthrough in revolutionizing pedagogy comes with Howard Gardner, a developmental psychologist who I had the good fortune of discussing the multiple intelligence theory. His first book in which he expounds the theory is “Frames of Mind” (1983) which went on the become a classical model to understand learning styles based on
Education is a creative and collaborative leadership of a teacher as facilitator in exploring the capabilities
and human psychology” (Gardner, H., Multiple intelligence, 2006). What attracted me to this theory is it finally gave me the answer to a constantly nagging question of whether people were born intelligent or according to the intelligence quotient theory “idiots”? Or as kinder educationists called them slow learners? The internet is filled exponentially with the explanation of this theory. Initially, Dr. Howard listed only seven, while the spiritual and the naturalist intelligence were added later on.
DOMAINS OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCE INTELLIGENCE and CAPABILITIES
TOOLS OF/FOR LEARNING
Linguistic or verbal Reading, writing, gift of acquiring languages, poetry, brains get ignited by words
Textbook, pencil, worksheet, newspaper, etc, word processing, electronic mail, desk top publishing, web-based publishing, speech recognition devices,
Mathematical or Logical Numbers, step by step thinking, excel in mathematics, equations
Lecture, cuisenaire rods, unfix cubes, tangrams, measuring cups, measuring scales, ruler/yardstick, slide rule, graphing calculators, spreadsheet, search engine, problem solving tasks and so on
Visual spatial Shapes and designs come naturally graphics and visualization, designers, engineers, artists.
Overhead projector, television, video, movies picture books, art supplies, chalkboard, dry erase board charting and graphing, monitor, digital camera/camcorder, scanner graphics editor
Kinesthetic/Bodily Physical activities and body movements, actors, athletes
Construction tools, kitchen utensils screw, lever, wheel and axle, physical education equipment, manipulative materials, assistive technologies, digital probes and so on
Musical Music, sounds rhythm, performing or playing musical instruments, composing, musical pieces.
Pattern blocks, puzzles, musical instruments, phonograph, headphones, tape player/recorder, digital sounds, online pattern games, multimedia presentations, speakers, CD ROM disks, CD ROM player
Intrapersonal In tune with one’s inner feelings, EQ high, self-realization and quest for knowing one’s self
Journals, diaries, surveys, class debate, real time projects, online surveys, online forms, digital portfolios with self-assessments and so on
Interpersonal recognizing other people’s feelings, organizing abilities, group activities & social relationships
Class discussion, post-it notes, greeting cards, laboratory, telephone, walkie-talkie, intercom, board games, costumes collaborative projects, chat, message boards, instant messenger
Naturalist Love plants, animals and nature, insights into natural world
Magnifying glass, microscope, telescope, bug box, scrap book, sandwich bag, laserdisc, floppy drive, file manager, semantic mapping tools
Existentialist/spiritual Concerned with inner life of mind, body and soul.
Art replica, planetarium, stage drama, classic literature, classic philosophy, symbols of world religions, virtual communities, virtual art exhibits, virtual field trips, MUDs(multiple user dimensions), blogs, wikis, virtual reality, simulations
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10 | Mentor | February 2019
Pedagogy Multiple intelligences pluralize the traditional concept of intelligence as the only benchmark to assess achievement. The main advantage of the multiple intelligence theory is that it is an all-inclusive in the sense that every child is born with several intelligences or the capacity of the brain to be capable of doing various things. Opposed to the traditional system, multiple intelligences along with, brain mapping for learning styles provides educators with a conceptual framework to revisit curriculum and pedagogical practices both in the school level as well as in higher education with the promise of inherent multiple capacities of the learner. This also opens a pandora ’s box of opportunities of innovation for the teacher who was limited by the four walls of a classroom and a limited scope to facilitate a multisensory learning experience to involve every learner. The only challenge as students come with different sets of developed intelligences they should structure the material to engage most or all sets of developed intelligences. Focusing on every and learner not just a few.
In collaboration with two colleagues Omar Al Jadaan, Associate Professor in Computer Science Engineering and Dr. El Sayed A. F. El Zayat, Professor- General & Vascular Surgery, I administered Kolb’s Questionnaire based on Howard Gardner’s MI models to first year students of Medical and Health Sciences University of the years 2010-2011 and 2011-2012. The main objective was to map the dominant intelligences to correlate intelligence with learning styles in students of Medical and
We set out with the hypothesis that a common dominant intelligence is prevalent in the majority of students who have opted for medical and health sciences programs. www.lxl.in
The scores of each intelligence calculated for each student, then the average of each intelligence domain calculated based on the programs starting with MBBS, BDS, BPharm, and BSN program is presented in figures [1 - 4].
MBBS 2010-2011 29.5
BDS 2010-2011
28.2
30.6
30.5
28.3
27.6
26.7
30.0
29.5
28.4 31.4
BPharm 2010-2011 30.5
29.0
32.9
28.3
When I decided to work on the brain mapping I was so excited with the concept that I decided on speaking with the theorist himself.
As students come with varied needs, it is imperative that we individuate at the same time pluralize the methods of instruction.
DATA ANALYSIS
AVERAGE SCORE IN EACH OF THE SEVEN DOMAINS OF Multiple INTELLIGENCE
OUR RESEARCH ON THE THEORY
As the author and theorist himself reiterated in a personal message that “I am sure that you will find a range of intellectual profiles in your students, and it is worthwhile trying to ‘individuate’ and ‘pluralize’ your instructions” (Gardner H. , 2006).
Health Sciences. The sample was analyzed to determine the dominant intelligences and, consequently, their learning styles. A statistical analysis of the sample data was generated.
BSN 2010-2011
29.0
32.9
26.0
30.0
29.5
28.4 31.4
Linguistic Musical Spatial-Visual Intrapersonal
24.7
29.0
25.9
24.6
24.3 25.4
Logical-Mathematical Bodily-Kinesthetic Interpersonal
2019 February | Mentor | 11
Pedagogy AVERAGE SCORE IN EACH OF THE SEVEN DOMAINS OF Multiple INTELLIGENCE for 2010-2011 sample S.No
DOMAINS OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCE
MBBS (53 students)
BDS (14 students)
B PHARM (24 students)
BSN (8 students)
1.
LINGUISTIC
28.2
29.0
29.0
24.7
2.
LOGICAL
28.3
30.0
30.0
25.9
3.
MUSICAL
26.7
28.4
28.4
24.3
4.
BODILY KINESTHETIC
28.3
31.4
31.4
25.4
5.
VISUAL SPATIAL
27.6
29.5
29.5
24.6
6.
INTERPERSONAL
30.6
32.9
32.9
29.0
7.
INTRAPERSONAL
29.5
30.5
30.5
26.0
What was interesting and exciting about the whole research was that while collating all the results of both the years, interpersonal intelligence was found to be the topmost common dominant intelligence among medical and health sciences. • MBBS and BDS share Intrapersonal Intelligence as the second domain whereas B.Pharm and BSN share Bodily Kinesthetic. • Interestingly, the third domain is Logical, Bodily Kinesthetic, Intrapersonal and Musical for MBBS, BDS, BPharm and BSN respectively.
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• In fourth domain too each discipline shows a different Intelligence; MBBS (Linguistic), BDS (Logical), BPharm (Musical)and BSN (Visual Spatial) • Furthermore, Visual spatial took fifth Intelligence domain by BDS and BPharm while MBBS shows Bodily Kinesthetic and BSN showed Intrapersonal. • In the sixth domain MBBS showed Visual Spatial , BDS Linguistic , Bpharm and BSN shared Logical Intelligence. • Remarkably, Musical Intelligence was shared by MBBS and BDS while Linguistic was shared by BPharm and BSN.
These results helped us in suggesting the preferred learning style for medical and health sciences students in general and designing and delivering courses for each individual program as required. Effective teaching learning methodologies beget effective learning in outcome based education. It is the collaborative efforts of educators to constantly rethink curriculum and methodologies to suit students learning styles as they have immediate implications for attitudes and academic performance. In an interdisciplinary quantitative study, we as a team aimed at finding the teaching methodology that is most preferred by students of Rak Medical and Health Sciences University, (United Arab Emirates both in the basic sciences and in clinical teaching as they determine the attitude and performances of the students in medical and health sciences education. The more competent the healthcare professionals are, the higher the quality of patient care. Therefore, to facilitate the training of students to be effective health care professionals, the efficacy of teaching methodologies
12 | Mentor | February 2019
Pedagogy
is taken into serious consideration in both preclinical as well as clinical years following the model of ‘constructive alignment curriculum’. ([1]. This study aimed at finding the teaching methodology that is most preferred by the students of RAKMHSU both in the basic sciences and in clinical teaching. This was important because the preferences of the teaching methodologies determine the attitude and performances of the students in their academic roles.)
SUMMARY The essential requirements of a good clinician are a good combination of interpersonal, kinaesthetic, intrapersonal and logical intelligences. Interestingly, in this study, too, all four colleges of the university had clinical skills teaching as the most preferred methodology. Clinical Skills methodology employs learning, experiencing, reflecting, thinking and acting, which are the bases of Kolb’s learning theory. The process of Clinical Skills learning is in tandem with Kolb’s four stage learning cycle—Concrete Experience (CE) – feeling, Reflective Observation (RO) - watching, Abstract Conceptualization (AC) – thinking, Active Experimentation (AE) – doing.
and collaborative leadership of a teacher as facilitator in exploring the capabilities by charging the synaptic nerves of a learner. Even the sky is not the limit. Pedagogy entails the leadership and innovation on the part of the teacher who facilitates through communication and critical thinking, the knowledge, skills and competencies for students to take responsibility for their own lifelong learning. Thus will continue the legacy of the mentor destined to be teacher, coach, counselor and facilitator building children for theirs and the nation’s future with the allencompassing E=mc2* in pedagogy.
Dr. Zita Lobo Prof. Dr. Zita Lobo is the Professor and Chairman at General Education Department Ras al-Khaimah Medical and Health Sciences University (RAKMHSU). She is an Avid Researcher in Higher Education,Textbooks and short story writer. She has won various Accolades in the Toastmasters Events at an International Level. Her most recent one being Honoured as Distinguished Leader In Humanities And Social Science in the Higher Education. zita@rakmhsu.ac.ae
Therefore, education is a creative www.lxl.in
2019 February | Mentor | 13
Governance
URE T L U C L OO ng at School H C S G N Feel They Belo I S I T I R PRIO ping Students Hel
INTRODUCTION
S
chool culture is the most important foundational element of the school. The definition of school culture is so vast and includes many different aspects of a school and the environment within that school. A positive culture leads to increased morale and satisfaction. A healthy school culture affects students’ and teachers’ success more than any other aspects. Strong school culture have better motivated teachers and if the teachers are motivated they achieve greater success in performance and results of students. Positive school has an impact not just on the attitudes of students and teachers but on the entire learning experiences. It is a place where your efforts are translated into positive experiences for both teachers and students. Success, joy and accomplishment are all main features of a positive school culture. When any educator searches for a job he/she is searching for an opportunity at school that have an open, friendly and positive climate. Even the parents while searching the correct school for child look for the same. Teachers www.lxl.in
and students spend more than eight hours a day at school and thus school’s culture greatly impacts the education that takes place. If we associate, it is same as family culture. A positive family culture imparts good values in a child and likewise a positive school culture plays an important role in making a better individual.
ADMINISTRATIVE SCHOOL CULTURE Administrators, teachers, staff members, students, parents, families, community members, school board members, etc. are the one who must have invested
By proper planning, students can be guided to create a positive school culture
directly or indirectly in the welfare and success of a school and its students. Altogether they share the responsibilities of creating positive school culture. Administration makes the rules for the school, teachers guide students to follow the rules and parents and family members also have the responsibilities of maintaining respect and obedience of child for school and teachers. Administrators must also take care that school culture must not be disturbed by politicians or trust members who just try to impose their powers and make us follow the orders which can be harmful for the school culture. Students are the main components who affect as well as are affected by the school culture. By proper planning students can be guided to create a positive school culture. For that we can have service based learning. If they are involved in such service based learning opportunities they often participate in order to meet their goals and try to complete the expectations. It’s really great to get the students to volunteer and perform service activities and let them get one another to do it as well. Talking about school culture as negative and positive, I really feel glad and proud to say that my team 14 | Mentor | February 2019
Governance is working in an enormously positive school culture where students’ happiness and contentment is taken care of more than anything else. Our main motto is to give a positive environment for teachers, students and their families where they can freely deliberate their doubts and problems confidently and come up with their clarifications. Teachers are happily imparting knowledge, students are learning and improving their intelligence and of course their parents and families are happy and satisfied to know that their child is growing in a positive atmosphere where he/she is not only trained in academics but also in discipline and culture.
BRINGING NEW INNOVATIONS IN SCHOOL CULTURE We as leaders keep on finding out the complications of teachers and students and also their parents and families and try to solve them at our best. We work as family. If a child is holding a book and reading numbers we say he is studying but if a child is holding a housie game and identifying numbers and striking, we say he is playing. But according to me in both situations he is reading numbers. But isn’t it good to get knowledge without being known that we are studying. Every child likes to play. Why can’t we impart the knowledge in the form of games instead of books? What is important? Giving knowledge or just using books. Why can’t we use the method which they love the most? I have tried it and I’m successful in doing that. After thinking a lot about parents’ disagreement, last year I took the step and removed books from school curriculum. You won’t believe I received miraculous response. Now students are taught in their favorite method i.e. play way method not only in pre-primary but also in primary level. Our teachers think and create games like board games, dominoes, Legos, etc. as teaching aids and teach them with that. Even www.lxl.in
children make their own educational games and play and learn with it. Reading part is done with story books. Writing is through worksheets. They read, discuss and find out solutions of different problems. They are trained physically, mentally and emotionally. Their bags are extremely light, even they do not have stress of exams as they are assessed regularly.
culture is not a one-time work. It is a continuous process. We must keep on finding about the performance of teachers and students. We must not neglect even the parents’ views. We must continuously assess the working of the school. Every components of any institute are like tires of a car. If one have problem the whole car won’t move properly.
By this not only students, their parents and families are also happy as their child is learning in the stress free positive culture which is the need of the time. Regular interactions, discussions and information about child’s progress keep them satisfied and obviously happy. Positively, I have experienced the impact of the positive school culture on the students. Last year, I got new admissions in class 6 in mid- session. In the previous school their parents had the complaint about their behavior which was affecting their academics, too. After the completion of a month we had a regular PTM, and the reviews were entirely changed. They said that their children have entirely changed and they were happy of their decision of admitting their children in our school.
SUMMARY
In spite of having a simple infrastructure, people of even well to do families are interested to admit their children in our school. Not only this they also advised others also to admit their child in our school. This reflects that positive school culture directly or indirectly related with the positive growth of a child mentally, physically or emotionally. But maintaining a positive school
School culture is the most important foundational element of the school
Similar to the way we hand pick the stones (negativity) from the grains (positively) and make it edible, the same way we must keep on searching for negativity and must remove them so that the culture becomes positive. This can be easily done by maintaining the proper communication and interaction among the different factors of school culture. At last before ending I want to say that we as the mentor in education are the source of imparting knowledge and creating better future. It is necessity and our duty to maintain positive school culture.
Rashmi Vishvesh Patel Rashmi Is the founder and Principal, Multi Talent Academy, Bilimora, Gujarat. She has completed post graduation in Engish Literature with Shakespeare as the main subject. After working for five years as a teacher in different subjects, Rashmi was promoted as the head of the department. She has also completed A.I.E.C.C.E course. vrjaanvi09@gmail.com 2019 February | Mentor | 15
Cover Story
D” L I H C Y APP Y PARENT! H “ = L O HO ND HAPP , Doha C S Y P HAP EACHER ABirla Public School T l, HAPPY P Sharma, Principa A
QUALITY LEADERSHIP Quality leadership is certainly the most important catalyst for the success of the school. I would like to give credit for the whole leadership team. The success is measured by the leadership’s capacity to translate vision and mission of the organization into reality by putting up cumulative efforts. I myself can’t bracket it in to a specific category, however close to “participative”. I believe in invigorating competencies of the team for optimum results. I don’t believe in creating followers rather, I empower my team by delegating them power and responsibility. In first stage they become “Induced leaders” while accepting responsibility and in second stage they become “performing leader” where accountability is added. I myself set example of conduct and accountability during various tasks to deal with problems.We set “SMART” goals (specific , measurable, attainable, reasonable and time bound) and believe In integrity of my intent, ethics based working yet firm in decision making. I try to change/ www.lxl.in
improve myself at every opportunity to set higher benchmarks for my team.
Another key practice that I follow is to anchor resilience and zest in my team to overcome any challenge.
I follow the flow listed > understand > weigh > lead. As a team leader I have a mantra-I tell my team “either I convince you or your convince me” after that on the basis of unanimity we work with same dream, spirit and shared vision. Sometime a leader wants to be a “democrat” and does not define the limits of brain storming, it may turn into fiasco.
HIGHER EXPECTATIONS FROM WORKSFORCE
My change agents further influence, ignite and inspire their team member like a chain reaction.
We wish to have a “Happy School” when we give a better exposure to teacher.
I am grooming leaders and we have best outcomes by following the above mentioned practices. Everyone knows the duty assigned and feel free to take required decision during flow of project and programme. A leader must have higher expectations from the workforce and of course by putting them on a pedestal of self-confidence. “Higher” is a comparative term that shows progress. Hence if we equip the team with foresightedness, pace control and continuous follow up, the team will meet expectations. One has to be very careful as this approach can be a disaster due to lack of clarity, motivation and support. School is a set of stakeholders and service provider and any mismatch can lead to dissatisfaction. We wish to have a “Happy School” when we give a better exposure to teacher. A series of subject and 16 | Mentor | February 2019
Cover Story competency based workshop have been conducted. The school has a large population of 7500 students and 600 staff, and we bridge the gap between the expectation of stake holders and service providers.
The school management supports the initiative whole heartedly. Every alternate Saturday CPD sessions are organized to hone their teaching skills.
On other hand I conducted class wise and age wise” parenting workshops” and received overwhelming response as the parents could understand the changing need of students and impact of generation gap.
There are important domains of students’ development (based on various educationist s research)
PARAMETER TO JUDGE THE SCHOOL I judge my school on some basic parameters; however I have added few more to the generic ones. Capacity of students and teachers should be increased to evolve a system based on “design think”. This innovative approach is required for everyone to keep pace with changing dynamics of the world and their requisite aspiration. Hence following are the parameters:• Everyone in school must learn human values above anything else. • Satisfaction of stakeholders and their willingness to contribute to school. • Out of box thinking and continuous innovations and teaching and learning process. • Critical thinking and problem solving capacity. • Intangible ones: - a “happy child”, happy teacher and happy parent. We must keep our learning goals to meet all affective and cognitive domains with collaborative skills.
STUDENTS DEVELOPMENT
• COGNITIVE - Mental skills (knowledge) through formative assessment. • CHARACTER - Regular value based assessments. • PHYSICAL - BMI observations • LEADERSHIP - By giving them opportunities. • SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL - Through counsellor’s test and observations, during out reach programme • CREATIVE/INNOVATIVE - This is the foundation we have initiated “Birla Bay Bridge” project through which we develop their skills and measure it by regular tests. We have a team of teachers under “face of the school forum”. They pick and award students for turnout, Honesty, Human Values. Students are awarded badges and their photo id is displayed on their board for a week. This encourages them to follow the same and develop a sense of pride.
DYNAMIC CURRICULUM – BEST PRACTICES • Dynamic curriculum – the school has started preparing its own teaching material (specially in kindergarten and primary ) on
the basis of the paradigm shifting of expected learning outcomes for 2030.Thematics teaching and integrated curriculum are few steps in this direction. Quite interestingly aspect of new vocabulary and hand on learning with “STEM” has been initiated right from kindergarten .Results are overwhelming. • Birla Bay Bridge – This is an interesting project where regular sampled testing is done with battery of questions which are not text book based, mostly based on applications after completion of a topic in the class. Teachers can assess themselves the outcomes and take up remedial lessons. Presently this has been introduced in class 6,7,8. As you can’t build up any concept without assessing thefoundation of that during formative years. • Compulsory breakfast – At the beginning of each day, after the morning prayer, 15 minutes are allotted for compulsory breakfast in all classes in the presence of class teacher. As most of the students come by school buses and they are picked up from the house around 5.15 a.m. to 6. 30 a.m. , in haste they don’t have proper breakfast. If a child is forced to learn with empty stomach, the “brain “ needs energy and incase it doesn’t get it, the pressure may weaken the arteries. When initially we started it for primary, other parents also requested for the same and now many other schools in Qatar are following the same as it was appreciated by education department and media. • Project Eureka – Science stream
CAPACITY BUILDING Our school has a separate “capacity building and quality enhancement department (CBQED) for the same, A unique experiment and may be pivoting the need of the same. In charge Vice – Principal arranges class observations and self- appraisal of teachers and on the basis of their personal needs, continuous CPD session and orientation programme is conducted throughout the year. All the teachers are motivated to take-up at least one online “MOOC” course in a year related to their subject or interest www.lxl.in
2019 February | Mentor | 17
Cover Story students of class XI and XII, bring one multiple choice type question every day and drop it in a box. The best question in every month for all subjects is awarded with a“Parker pen”. The concept behind this project is, if you know how to tie a knot you can open it also. i.e. if you know how to put a tricky question you can identify such types during board exam. The students who are unable to bring the question, drop a slip with the words, “God Bless me “.All these questions are put up as “practice test “ on school ICR to solve “online”. • Positive reinforcement: In most of the cases of indiscipline, we take up positive reinforcement by giving them a project to help younger students or use any other constructive way. Hence if we give him a chance to improve this way, he will not attempt to repeat it ,the results of this approach are very encouraging as children know if they tell the truth they may be pardoned or get ”positive reinforcement “ task. They are many other tiny steps knitted well in school system. • The school was the first in the gulf countries to organized a “TEDx event.” This year again we organized the event in which outstanding thinkers from all over the globe were invited. The whole programme was conducted by “student body” of the school very effectively. • Competition with Self- Students take part in the project and set their goals for academic sources who so ever make it is awarded with a certificate. The school participated in “PISA” and they gained international assessment. School tops the country in averages. The other assessment that we take up are science Olympiads, TERI, ASSET, and Tallentx by Allen institute. Other than that students participate in “Shastra Pratibha”, National Science Congress ,toastmaster Qatar debate etc.
PROBLEMATIC AREAS PREVAIL OVER Sometimes teachers become prejudiced or judgmental. The school could resolve it up to reasonable extent by continuous coaching of teachers. www.lxl.in
We know one teacher can’t teach the “whole” class the whole time allotted, as students have different IQ and grasping capacity. The school initiated one programme in Math we have parallel class of the subject in class 4 and 5 and students go to different classrooms as per their competency level. Few sections have slow pace, remedial teaching and few classes have enhanced and extended teaching ever beyond the syllabus. Results are overwhelming as teachers in every section address almost 100% students at 100% time.
in born in every child thereby helping them create a difference to their future. The overall development of our students is enhanced by stimulating growth in their physical, intellectual, social and spiritual sphere. We strive to create an empowered generation that seeks intellectual and aesthetic excellence in all spheres of life”.
The school pays best salaries to the teachers in the region and also award annually on the basis of their performance. These incentives inspire them to work harder.
• Teacher must know, One can’t be a teacher without expressing who he/ she is. Hence a teacher has to be a role model.
21 CENTURY SKILLS ST
The school is one among the very few in the world that has taken up “SDG”s (Sustainable development goals of UN) as the integral part of the activities. These goals are aimed at 2030 and we are adjusting our teaching methods, contents with a pedagogy we can force. School is working as “future skills”. These relate to digital skills and soft social skills like interpersonal communication, conflict management handling . Artificial intelligence negotiation, civic competence and above all to instill ethical values and personal attitude. They should be self-learners and dare to be innovators.
CLEAR GOALS AND DIRECTION FOR THE SCHOOL. A school can achieve desired goals by bringing together all stakeholders and aligning their thoughts and action in the direction of shared vision and common goals. The most important accomplishment of the school lies in happiness and wellness of students and contentment of stakeholders. Hence the goal is one, yet tools may be many as directive principals to reach the goal and their aspirations. Our motto –Enlightenment through education derives“In line with our motto the school focuses on bringing out the talents and channelizing the potential that is
As per the above mentioned motto, the school must have clear direction for teachers, students and parents.
FOR TEACHERS
• Technological competence to use adequate blend of tools and pedagogical opportunities. • Teacher should be a self-starter and autonomous learner. • Be Creative and innovative to make learning a joyful experience. • They must be able to integrate academics with moral values, community spirit and life skills.
FOR STUDENTS • S chool must be able to install in all the students the right virtue, sound moral values and a firm belief in truth. • To respect differences and be shaped as a global citizen. • To provide conceptual understanding and skill to derive it’s application through creativity, analysis and innovation. • To instill in each child a sense of selfesteem and habit to appreciate self too. • To provide opportunity and challenge in the equally rich fields of physical, cultural and artistic endeavours. • To inculcate social awareness and a sense of community that will motivate the children to grow as compassionate and responsible global contributor. • To inculcate the habit of “asking questions” and thinking “out of the box”. 18 | Mentor | February 2019
Cover Story
FOR PARENTS
• One many very few schools in Asia to take “Sustainable development goals” of UN for 2030. As the part of school curriculum and activities.
• To provide adequate information required for “Good parenting “ for different age groups and evels.
• May be among very few school having a separate dedicated department for “capacity building and quality enhancement” among teachers (CBQED).
• To support school’s initiative, to inculcate a sense of appreciation instead of criticism.
• Project “synergy” to utilize parents resource for career counselling of senior students. • To inculcate sense of belongingness with one objective to see their wards develop carefully.
SAFETY AND STRUCTURE Particularly Qatar government helps to create a safe environment in schools . Their regular and frequent inspection, awareness ,workshops have made schools adequately responsible as there is no compromise with schools safety requirements.
UNIQUE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE SCHOOLS • The school was first among the Gulf CBSE schools to organise “TEDx events in 2017 and 2nd edition in 2018.Now it’s an annual fixture. • The school has been first in the Gulf to initiate the “Atal Tinkering Lab” in the school to train young minds in the area of “Artificial intelligence”.
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• Biralites topped the Gulf schools in quiz conducted recently related to “Indian Cultural heritage”. • School’s parenting workshops are very popular at international level and have overwhelming followers on YouTube. • Birla Bay Bridge is a unique concept of formative assessment based follow up. A really very useful tool for strengthening conceptual cum application based learning. • School gets united to help when any calamities occur in the world, under the guidance of school management. • “Disha” platform for students to help them decide their stream and career.
SUCCESS STORY OF THE SCHOOL
Quite beautifully every child and teacher starts the day with positive outlook and self-appreciation. They stand in front of the mirror and affirm “I am the best “before coming to school every day. This is interesting to understand that this “self-declaration “means the willingness to become the “BEST VERSION “of one self every day. In the evenings they evaluate their conduct during the day and decide to correct the one error/mistake next day. Correction may be related to behavior or any other aspect. Many parents have also joined this movement .Result is “HAPPY SCHOOL”. When you repeat the same statement every day, somewhere your “Subconscious” brain starts working to achieve this. The movement has changed the perception of everyone following it. I receive students in the morning at the school gate with “Good Morning”. By receiving many good morning wishes, one’s morning is going to be good. This practice has developed great bonding and belongingness among children.
Every student and teacher feels charged right from the beginning of the day. We launched “Project –Be the best version “. 2019 February | Mentor | 19
Leadership
A E B O T Y R A S N S O E I C T E A N C U IT D S E I N Y I H R rld W E D ging Wo A n a E h C L e REBEL Role of a Leader in th M
uch has been said and written about leadership. I don’t mean to repeat or tweak the same. What I wish to share with you is to understand role and responsibilities of a leader in the changing world. Leaders of today have a significant role to play in the changing world when we are no longer fragmented by narrow domestic walls. Globe is flattened by technology and immense flow of information infused with unfathomable role of technology has brought us all at a stage where we have to devise creative ways to manage the onslaught. A leader, with the rebel deep inside, alone can fix this transition. We frantically need dynamic leaders who can appreciate and encourage different voices, diverse perceptions, dissent, disagreement, debate and discussions. Leaders like King Martin Luther, Gandhi and Steve jobs are a few classical examples of rebel leadership and this is what I want us as a community
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of learners to understand and look forward to. Who is a rebel? Rebel, surely, is not an authoritarian who pushes his point of view through by all means. An authoritarian leader perceives success in forcing his command and unilateral decision executed. A rebel leader, unlike authoritarian leader,
Creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, global and cultural awareness are now some of the fundamental requirements of the times
is open to ideas and takes his team along for the good of people. To me, rebel is one who breaks established rules to make way for new and creative ideas beneficial to people. A rebel can mean good and that is what I want to talk about- rebel leadership and how this kind of leadership forges constructive changes in a work culture. Such a leader has gumption to challenge status quo, conformity, standardization and linearity and thus helps organization to discover gap and push them to innovate and ultimately thrive. A rebel can manifest itself in a dissenting voice, trying to challenge a decision. Leaders who we celebrate today didn’t start out perceived as such. They created history by thinking differently. These leaders started alone, at times shunned by their own people for their approach to think divergently and challenge antiquated system. Their journeys have been daunting but not enervating. 20 | Mentor | February 2019
Leadership Motivation, persistence and resolve were the attributes that allowed them think big and act out of box. Let’s have look at education and the role of a rebel leader. The world of today and tomorrow is changing enormously. It offers different levels of challenges with breathtaking perceptions. It is very difficult to anticipate what the world would look like in the next ten years. Same was impossible to visualize a decade ago. Technology, especially use of AI, has enormously invaded into our lives. The crucial point is that there is, more than before, need to focus our attention to developing new set of skills among our children and youth. Creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, global and cultural awareness are now some of the fundamental requirements of the times. Whatever way the future unfolds itself in, with these skills, at least our youth will be able to navigate well. This is possible if the culture of learning is re defined in the institutions of learning and intellectually stimulating and challenging culture is created by educators in leadership position. The culture of learning with a mission to make it more engaging and relevant, there is a demand for leaders who have growth mind set with streaks of rebellion. They are not afraid of asking question. Questions ignite mind, jogs mind out of slumber and passiveness. Man is essentially curious by nature and his desire to learn more needs to be directed & stimulated right from early years, time when he joins school. If the environment, say school, doesn’t respond well to curiosity, the appetite may fade. Nurturing and stimulating its curiosity is thus what a rebel leader is capable of and we seek such leadership in education. Looking at the current education scenario, focus on unquestionable conformity, suppressing individuality, creativity and imagination cannot stay longer. It can breed disillusionment and discontentment. Standardization is doing no good. Our prevalent system www.lxl.in
of education is based on the concept of mass production. Education model during the era of industrial revolution had a different priority. It was meant to meet the labor needs. This system worked well and gave impetus to the revolution much needed at that point of time but the demands of 21st century are all together different. Industrial standardized model is no more a viable solution to current challenges. Honestly speaking, it has now become redundant. For a very long time we have acted like ostrich, not willing to realize that the old model of education is unsuitable to the circumstances of 21st century. It is high time to encourage leadership that can work towards this goal and challenge the prevalent education system. Priority of such a leader would be to create emotionally resilient and intellectually stimulating environment for adults and students thrive in and challenge status quo to invent better ideas. A leader has to stand up, think out of square, step out of comfort zone and lead the way. Our existing parochial education system calls for revolution. We cannot afford to ignore or defer it further. It is a rebel leader alone who can disenthrall the old model and forge revolution in education.
do, even in situations where routines and traditions exist, is to break away from them and find inspiration.” applying this principle in the context of education, it seems that we are following mindlessly old paradigm of education which is irrelevant to current times. As a rebel leader, head of an institution can create conducive environment to encourage educators to try and invent better ways of learning.
ENCOURAGE CONSTRUCTIVE DISSENT: “As humans, we often focus on just one perspective, and generally it’s our own,” Gino says. “Whether it’s in conversations or in meetings, we often seek out the opinions of people who have something similar to offer. What rebels do is fight that instinct. They find ways to steer some conflict or encourage disagreement.” In educational institution, an efficient leader will listen to various perspectives or even dissent of staff and community which allows stake holders to participate and have a sense of responsibility. A dissent is welcomed if that brings greater good to student community. Don’t frighten any voice that doesn’t toe the lines of others. Don’t reject an idea just because it is different.
Gino, who is a behavioral scientist, has embarked on a quest to find successful rebels. Based on her research, she argues that rebel leadership does contribute constructively and positively in any organization. And she makes the case that rebellion would make A rebel leader, unlike life more fulfilling. She authoritarian leader, is open to has come up with the ideas and takes his team along for a few characteristics the good of people. To me, rebel is one of a rebel leader in her book “The who breaks established rules to make Eight Principles of way for new and creative ideas beneficial Rebel Leadership.”
SEEK OUT THE NEW:
to people. A rebel can mean good and that is what I want to talk about- rebel leadership and how this kind of leadership forges constructive changes in a work culture
“It’s very easy for us all to fall back into routines and mindlessly follow them, day after day,” Gino says. “What this principle allows us to
2019 February | Mentor | 21
Leadership
OPEN CONVERSATIONS, DON’T CLOSE THEM: “Rebels are willing to keep their minds open,” says Gino. Open channels encourages a collaborative attitude which is so significant in the context of education also. Open conversation happens when a leader is open minded and willing to learn from others. He motivates and appreciates diversity.
REVEAL YOURSELF AND REFLECT: While rebel leaders focus on their strengths they are honest about their weaknesses and make an effort to reflect on both. “They don’t hide who they are, or pretend to know, or be something that they are not,” Gino writes. After all rebel leaders are not super humans. They can have brilliant idea which may or may not work sometime. But yes, they don’t give up till they find a better way.
LEARN EVERYTHING THEN FORGET EVERYTHING: “They have a deep understanding of what’s there, and that’s the basis that allows them to transform and create,” Gino says. “It’s really about developing a deep understanding of the thing that is already there before you break, transform, and create.” A rebel leader is not carried away by fancy or biases. Instead, he analyses all parameters before jumping into action.
FIND FREEDOM IN CONSTRAINTS: Often people complain that they cannot innovate because parameters of their job are too constrained. Rebels work through and even find inspiration in constraints. “Rebels work through the constraints, and, if anything, the constraints become a source for thinking differently about the problem. The constraints don’t hold you back, but they’re a platform you use to think creatively about the situation,” says Gino. www.lxl.in
LEAD FROM THE TRENCHES: “Another interesting aspect about the rebels I met is that they often take on roles or activities that you wouldn’t expect them to take,” Gino says. In short, rebel leaders are willing to get their hands dirty, and their employees respect them for that. As a head of an organization, there is nothing that he can’t do. This attitude demonstrates his willingness to do any job, small or big. A rebel leader rises above pettiness.
passionate, life-long learning through development of attitudes to become contributing part in the world of 21st century.
FOSTER HAPPY ACCIDENTS: “Too often, leaders believe that success depends on hierarchical command and control,” Gino writes in Rebel Talent. “Rebels, on the other hand, know the value of a happy accident. They believe in work spaces and teams that cross-pollinate. The rebel realizes that a mistake may unlock a breakthrough.” While trying a different approach, accident might happen but that could ignite mind further.
SUMMARY One can be a rebel without being a leader but to be an effective leader it is perhaps an asset to have rebellion in him. Let’s not forget that great revolutions have been led by rebel leaders. A rebel leader in the context of education is expected to foster a learning culture to enhance active,
Ms. ANJU KAUL Ms. Anju Kaul, Director, Wockhardt Global School, Maharashtra, India has worked in various senior leadership positions - Director Academics, Head of School and Director of School in India and overseas. Having a repertoire of experience in various programs like International Baccalaureate, Cambridge Assessment International Education, CBSE, AP, SAT and ACT, she has worked in challenging roles and is one of the leading educators today. anjukaul@yahoo.com 22 | Mentor | February 2019
Innovation
S D N I M PY P A H G IN ht Behind Education T A R E N oug GE The Th INTRODUCTION Happiness is a journey, not a destination… Ben Sweetland
T
he journey of being happy in one’s life begins on the day the child first sees the rays of the sun after landing on this planet earth and it ends only at the grave. From birth to death, it will be a long journey and it is everyone’s wish to remain happy always. How are we to achieve this common wish that languishes in the minds of all human beings? Our first school is home and our first teachers are our parents. Every mother sings lullaby to make her infant ‘happy’ and induce the sleep while her baby is in the cradle and this begins from the day one when she places her baby on her lap. The influence of music in the minds of children is therefore well established and it is not debated at all. Through this message I wish to establish the importance of sports, music, art, dance and culture for our happiness.
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MAJOR CONCLUSIONS •M usic
can boost happiness and reduce anxiety in children and adults
• S inging
together
in choirs brings people
• I n school-going children, music plays a role in improving the verbal IQ
• P laying
sports is good for the development of healthy mind, body and spirit which adds to the happiness of an individual
• S ports
is one of the best media through which we inculcate leadership, team spirit, accountability, honesty and dedication. All these will contribute to the happiness of an individual
I have been working in the middle east for the last 35 years in various capacities and my vast experience has prompted me to choose this topic as the gulf school kids are having several behavioral and health related issues that deprive them of their ‘happiness’ and happiness of their loved ones as well. This does not mean that
kids back in India do not have these issues…they too have but to a lesser degree may be. But these days, why are kids more prone to these issues one might ask! Children studying in schools in this part of the world have far too many problems when compared to those in India. In the pursuit of amassing wealth fast, both parents well educated and experienced find lucrative jobs in the gulf. Again it is not just gulf parents who are working for money and amassing wealth. Back home also both parents are employed to make both ends meet. Parents working and leaving for their work place along with the children (who leave for school as early as 6am) sadly find time to look into the happiness and wellbeing of their children. As parents are working couples, from the time the kids are born, they are bound to spend most of their time with the maids or at the daycare centers. Maids and daycare centers are also interested in making quick money and so one cannot expect them to show the concern and care that kids at their tender age 2019 February | Mentor | 23
Innovation require. Thus these kids grow up in an environment where the love factor is deficient. Mothers don’t find time to cook food that kids like and this introduces them to junk food once they enter the temple of learning and it makes them obese at a very young age. The oily food containing food additives and preservatives have a profound influence on the behavioral pattern of the children in our school and there are scholarly research based articles on these. Our teachers often complain to me about behavioral issues among the children in the Kindergarten and primary school. Several studies have shown the effect the food has in altering the mood and behavior in children. The classic symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) include insomnia, lack of concentration, mood swings and frequent destructive outbursts. These are visible at a very tender age and kids are treated with strong medicines to overcome these. Another factor that helps the gulf kids to become lazy and obese is the ‘TV’ factor. All of them are residing in apartments and there is no playground or parks nearby for these kids to go and play and provide relaxation to their mind. The only entertainment they have is the television set or PSP games or these days using WhatsApp and chat!
most of all, they had fun and sported a smile always. Life is far too scripted today. Plans are made. Kids have very little control over their lives. Most of them are not truly happy. Now with parents who are successful professionals not having time for their kids who else can contribute to the happiness of a child one may ask. Well, here is the answer... The school teachers can surely contribute to some extent as most of the time is spent in the schools.
DOES SPORTS PLAY A ROLE IN GIVING HAPPINESS TO A CHILD IN A SCHOOL?
Thus, sad to say when it comes to children, most of the parents don’t think of their happiness. They just focus on their success. They have misconceptions and mistake success for happiness. Parents tend to compare. They think more about achievements, milestones and trophies.
Every school curriculum has both scholastic and co-scholastic activities. Children in our schools eagerly wait for their physical education periods. It is
Once upon a time, childhood was filled with endless days spent outside and very little time spent in front of TV or other indoor activities. Imaginations ran wild and kids sought happiness and fun with nothing but a few matchbox cars, stones, pebbles, or even an old cardboard box they played with. They played, they learned, they sweated out and they socialized. But
One who can be creative and can create something out of nothing finds immense joy
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worthwhile to mention that students in the gulf schools never want to miss school on the days they have physical education periods. They want to play however sick they are on that day. Yes, they want to mingle with their peer group, talk, laugh, shout, run and at the end of 45 minutes want to exhaust their energy and feel happy they could be together for that period of time. All they want is a burst of happiness and relaxation. Get involved in a physical activity because when kids are playing sports, working out at a gym, or taking a brisk walk, physical activities trigger brain chemicals that make them feel happier and more relaxed. Team sports in particular provide a chance to unwind and engage in a satisfying challenge that improves their fitness. They also provide social benefits by allowing them to connect with teammates and friends in a recreational setting. What we did and our findings: We pulled out all the kids who had various learning issues, behavioral issues that affected their ‘happiness’ and their parents’ happiness every morning before the classes started and made them exercise under the care of a welltrained coach. They were allowed to run, do simple yoga exercises and play for a while and then send back to the class teachers. It’s just plain fun for kids to run, jump, swim, ride bikes, and play ball -- ideally, with teachers joining in. After all, isn’t having fun the most basic definition of happiness? These children over a period of
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Innovation time showed a lot of improvement in their behavior and were more active in the classroom. Their academic performance too showed improvement and one of them who was highly autistic cleared the class XII CBSE exam with 87% (he had a scribe). Based on the success stories, we have three periods of physical education in our schools while most schools have one. This has increased the percentage of attendance of students as they are more than happy coming to school. They do not want to stay at home as they know that school is the place to find happiness.
MUSIC EDUCATION HELPS CHILDREN IN ATTAINING HAPPINESS Music and musical instruments are believed to have powers that heal both the body and the mind. Research has found that learning music, facilitates learning other subjects and enhances skills that children inevitably use in other areas. “A rich music experience in children in singing, listening and moving is really bringing enormous benefit to children as they progress into more formal learning,” says Mary Luehrisen of NAMM. Music education has profound influence in language development and it helps multiple sense organs to work in coordination with each other. Prof. Manjul Bhargav presently teaching at Princeton University, while he was a boy of three or four years of age, played tabala during his leisure and the pleasure he got from that got translated into the field of mathematics and today he says it is the basis of the Fibonacci number theory. While listening to music or playing musical instruments our brain cells release a drug known as Dopamine which makes us feel “happy”.
WHAT WE DID AND OUR FINDINGS? Not all our kids who are labeled as PWD (person with disability) could be taken out to the play-field, as some of them had physical problems as well. We put these kids in the music room and played soothing music or allowed them to sing along with the instructor. www.lxl.in
We could see tangible improvement in their mental state. Their sense of reasoning, logical and critical thinking improved. They were found to be more calm both inside and outside the classrooms. Our school has in its annual activity plan, group rhyme competition, choral recitation, choir in different languages so that everyone gets an opportunity to be a part of school choir, and the best form the school band. Every morning before the first bell rings we play soothing bhajans or instrumental music that reaches all the classrooms through the public address system. The end result is that everyone sits in the class and enjoys the music instead of running around and getting hurt. We have compulsory music education at school for all the kids from grades 1 – 10. Every year we hold a week long talent show program for all classes from grades 1 – 12 and it is heartwarming to see the kids happily participating and cheering the participants. Every class gets about 6 long hours to showcase their innate talents and feel proud of themselves.
SUMMARY We live in an age of ironic detachment, so you may not always be aware of the corrosive effect your flip comments have on your child. Yet a cynical attitude can take a huge toll on your child’s sense of security, a crucial component of happiness. Kids need to believe that the world is a good place and that people are basically decent. Express positive viewpoints about the people and the world around. Help your child find joy in everyday things. Happiness after all is the state of mind and there is no one thing that can make you and me happy. Aristotle rightly said “Happiness depends upon ourselves.”
ROLE OF ART EDUCATION IN ENHANCING HAPPINESS The connection between the creative process of art making and personal happiness is by no means a new idea that I am sharing through this paper. One who can be creative and can create something out of nothing finds immense joy. The concept of flow of creative art, points to two happiness factors that have enhanced human life for thousands of years. One is the capacity to find joy in creativity through the pleasure of invention and exploration. This capacity is based on evolutionary biology to ensure survival of individuals and communities through innovation. The other is the ability to get pleasure and relaxation from creating useful, yet aesthetic objects; this is a form of rejuvenation that is not only practical, but also health-enhancing. We conduct art classes compulsorily and hold inter-school art competitions.
Mr T.Premkumar Mr T.Premkumar is the Principal of Indian Educational School, Kuwait. His immense contribution to the field of education has earned him the most coveted ‘CBSE Teachers’ Award in 2016’. Premkumar is a very proactive and experienced member of the CBSE Gulf Sahodaya and is currently serving as the Chairperson of the same. He has had the privilege to serve the Oman Chapter for two consecutive years. principal@bhavanskuwait.com
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