Pedagogy
Curriculum
Teaching Learning Materials
Bodhsalas: An Overview
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Pedagogy
Bodh’s pedagogy seeks to facilitate the
development of a child into a balanced individual with enhanced thinking and logical
abilities, artistic temperament and sensitivity. He/she can draw on his/her education
in dealing with life situations. The pedagogy utilised has evolved from a continuous process of ideation, action
and reflection. The interactions between theories and
practice have been explored within the larger institutional focus of working with
deprived communities.
The key pedagogical principles followed are:
Understanding
and utilising inputs from universal, context specific and individual approaches
A conscious attempt is made to understand the three levels – universal, context
specific and individual. The emphasis is on taking theoretical inputs from relevant
disciplines
at the larger level and then exploring them in a more defined and specific
manner in subsequent levels. Thus, aspects such as socio-cultural relationships,
conditions of upbringing (at the contextual level) and child’s needs, notions and
experiences (at the individual level) become important reference points. All of
these act as inputs that help determine the content and nature of the teaching learning
interactions.
The learning process hinges on the learner’s abilities and his/her
interactions with the facilitator
It is believed that children construct their own
learning. Teachers must act as facilitators who provide a conducive environment
that can produce appropriate learning outcomes.
Learning has to be real and meaningful
Learning which is relevant to the children’s life situations and contexts can only
be considered as real and meaningful. Thus, there is a need to develop an integrated
approach to learning which does not present subjects as fragmented and unrelated
disciplines. Such an approach would enable children and their communities to see
the continuing relevance and applicability of education in their lives.
Learning
processes must facilitate a link between the child’s inherited notions and experiences
and the formal knowledge presented in schools
Often children experience difficulty
in negotiating the space between their inherited notions and beliefs and what is
taught as formal knowledge in classes. The discrepancies/contradictions cause children
to compartmentalise their experiences and knowledge. For appropriate concept development,
it is important that children are encouraged to share their experiences and beliefs.
Classroom processes should facilitate discussions that provide space for understanding concepts and beliefs in a scientific but non threatening manner. Community and school
interactions become a non negotiable element. It is these interactions that provide
a facilitative environment for continuous and integrated learning.
Classroom and
school culture can positively impact children’s development
It is believed that
the classroom and school culture must incorporate that which it seeks to develop
in children. Thus, children will learn more about co-operation if this is consciously
practiced and encouraged. If teachers and others present a direct experience of
democratic and empathetic functioning, children will understand and practice that
amongst themselves, especially in peer group based activities.
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