Tamil Nadu - Erode   

Lecturer comes up with innovative teaching model

Staff Reporter

It will make learning easy

M. Selvam

ERODE: Students, including slow learners, can now relax; studying may no longer be cumbersome. And, teachers too can unwind, if the innovative teaching model developed by M. Selvam is anything to go by.

The professor from the District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) has come up with a tabular format, in which most lessons - be it science or social science for the middle school - can be condensed to a single page, making learning easier.

Many advantages

"A chapter of four or five pages can be compacted to a single page of columns and rows. First, all keywords of chapter have to be identified and placed on the first column. Each keyword will make a row. Against each keyword, a picture relevant is placed in the second column, and the third column, with sentences of a few words, explains the keyword. The fourth column poses a question relevant to the keyword and the fifth the space to answer that."

Statistics

This, the lecturer claims, has many advantages. "Since the first two columns have verbal and visual elements, the left and right sides of the brain get activated, helping longer retention. With a simplified process, the teachers' role is limited and it will be more of a self-learning process for the students. Besides, it will also alter the teachers' role to that of a facilitator."

In support of his claim, Mr. Selvam has statistics backing him. After teaching a chapter in Science for Class Seven students of the Panchayat Union Middle School, Perundurai Union (West), he conducted a surprise test for 20 marks and found the results encouraging.

Documents

"The average mark the 45 students of Class Seven obtained in a test after the lesson was taught traditionally was 11.9. In a surprise test conducted after the lesson was taught using the new method, the average had increased to 17.5," points out the lecturer, citing the documents. He, however, admits that the model has to be fine tuned to suit various subjects and chapters of higher classes. Mr. Selvam is now refining his model, which he calls `Sema-stubbic' to work across subjects and classes.

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