Dr Dennis littky and MANIT JAIN speak with Sangeeta Yadav about re-imagining schools through innovative and personalised career centric curriculum that encourages children to learn on the field
Tell us about Big Picture learningIJ
Dennis littky: Big Picture learning was established in 1995 by Elliot Washor and me to design innovative and personalised learning curriculum to provide hands-on training to the student by a mentor. This education module has one advisor for every 15 children who helps them to generate and sustain innovation. Currently, there is a network of 40 schools across the country, 25 in Australia and 13 in the Netherlands. The idea is to build awareness in India to bring a change and set up the models of excellence.
What is the connect between the Met School and the Heritage SchoolIJ
Manit Jain: Philosophically, we are very aligned in terms of figuring out the need for change in education particularly in our country. Our whole pedagogy is very delivery-based didactic model where children come to look at good teaching as it were a movie and it’s a very passive process. If you see how workplaces have evolved, if you spoke to any leader of the organisation, they would be looking for people who could follow instructions. Now leaders are looking for people who can exercise their minds, innovate and create.
What is the biggest innovation done by the students of Heritage SchoolIJ
MJ: Raahagiri was seeded at the Heritage School. Four years continuously, our children ran a project and wanted to get a bike path in Gurgaon. They stood on the roads, did research, they counted cars and cycles, talked to the cyclists, figured out issues of safety, gathered data and finally went to the traffic commissioner. On the fourth year, we established Raahagiri. We got together with four NGOs, raised money for the event, gave the entire plan to the DC and that’s how we made it happen. Children ran the event for six months. Through this bicycle project, they learnt about science, physics, they learnt how to dismantle bicycles and made them again.
How can we transform the Indian education systemIJ
Dl: India’s education system is very structured. It’s built around tests and doesn’t allow the students to have the kind of thinking and follow their interest and passions that I think students need in order to be a successful human being. It’s difficult to find good teachers too. We need innovation in education. If the schools are not innovating, then how are they going to build innovatorsIJ
Tell us about the teaching moduleIJ
MJ: Children of Class IX to XII figure out what their passion is. They spend two to three months in exercises of self awareness and try to figure out where their interest lies. Then we help them design their entire learning experience around that passion.
Is it like vocational trainingIJ
Dl: It’s not like vocational training. if somebody wants to be a restaurateur, we will find him a restaurateur-mentor who will give him hands-on training.