The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Madurai News : A tool to scientifically clear misconceptions

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Wednesday, Jul 02, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Madurai

A tool to scientifically clear misconceptions

Staff Reporter

Educational Initiatives brings out ‘Teachers’ Sheet’

MADURAI: Questions must be answered and misconceptions cleared, especially when they are raised in classrooms — they are not asked just for the sake of it.

To clear students’ doubts, teachers need to be aware that they have set-beliefs and incomplete understanding that can conflict with what is being taught at school. Teachers need to build on ideas of students and slowly lead them to more mature understanding. The role of teachers in teaching-learning process is central to ensure that students learn with a good understanding of the subject.

With these objectives in mind, Ahmedabad-based Educational Initiatives, a consultant for education entrepreneurs and schools, has come out with a simple tool called ‘Teachers’ Sheet’ to correct misconceptions in a scientific manner.

The sheet was introduced at an orientation programme held at TVS Matriculation Higher Secondary School in the city recently.

Educational Initiatives would send the sheets to 1,000 schools in the country. They would be specific to a class and subject, and each school would receive one or two sheets for select subjects, said Sudhir Ghodke, its Director.

“The teacher sheets are designed in such a way that they would highlight one common misconception that most students have and provide guidelines to the teacher on why that misconception was created in the first place and how it could be addressed,” said Mr. Sudhir.

The sheets would be dispatched at the beginning of every month and teachers were encouraged to send feedback once they tried the suggestions in the sheet. Different concepts and misconceptions would be discussed that would help teachers to solve the most prevalent misconceptions across the subjects, get insights into how students thought while answering those questions and possible ways to handle them and prevent those misconceptions, said G. V. Krishna, Zonal Manager.

Suits all boards

The sheet was a tool to address specific areas of concern where even the teacher’s comprehension might not be perfect due to which he or she would not be able to communicate the concept well. Above all, the sheet would suit all boards of education.

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