Modern Learning Methodologies that the Best Schools in Gurgaon Apply

by Samiksha S. Author

On the surface, it is easy to assume that schools are merely burdened with the responsibility of facilitating learning or acquiring knowledge. You may also believe that schools play a crucial role in building values and imparting skills. Simply speaking, those are indeed what schools look to do even now but the methods they follow have drastically changed. No longer is education seen as a mere trove of information. Neither do companies have the time and resources to hire candidates who come without skills. Modern schooling look to shape personalities, hand over competitive abilities, and promote free-thinking, along with imparting knowledge and developing skills. The best schools in Gurgaon achieve this academic feat by applying contemporary learning methodologies that go beyond the boundaries of direct lectures and note-taking.

For the right buildup to understand the prevalent techniques of modern learning, it is crucial that we discuss the necessity first. The socioeconomic world that is functioning today is quite different than what it used to be a decade back and the future is about to bring more challenges that we can barely fathom now. Schools, with the help of educational researchers, predict the upcoming hurdles; the ambiance today’s students are likely to face and design the learning methods based on those guidelines. Thus, it is only logical that we take a similar approach in this post as well – analyse the present and future first and then build the modern learning methodologies over them.

The socioeconomic world of the 21st-century

One of the major successful outcomes of proper education is income or occupation. In fact, that is what social economics is all about. By allowing students to receive a rich education, we are merely enabling them to build a stable future where they will find jobs to sustain themselves and their families and lead an overall stress-free life. Education definitely takes care of other individual angles as well, like behaviours and beliefs, but income and occupation are the topmost personal parameters we look to ascertain with schooling.

And in that specific arena, no one can deny that the modern job world is highly competitive. Students now have to grind more than their previous generations in order to land even the basic of jobs. The top profiles are currently reserved for the elite intelligence and unfortunately, those are the jobs that come with decent paygrades.

In a recently conducted survey, reports showed that the 21st-century will have no jobs for people with an IQ of less than 80. The disturbing statistics that followed stated that almost 15% of the world’s population actually falls in that region of no jobs. Human beings are not equipped to decide their IQs and our unprecedented economic growth is going on raising the bars of intelligence that is required to survive the modern world.

Lastly, there is technology. And our children face the challenge of automation. Intelligent machines will take away more jobs and students will be left with options that are only in the top hierarchy. All these merely show that archaic educational systems cannot exist in schools anymore. If humans are incapable of raising their IQs, their learning must reach the required depths and they must know how to play to their strengths. That is what modern learning is all about. Instead of targeting an abundance of information, it looks to achieve context, skills, and relevance.

The 6 pillars of modern learning

It goes without saying that the best schools in Gurgaon do identify the unsettling challenges of the 21st-century. Naturally, the pedagogy they follow involves learning techniques that look to meet the demands of the modern socioeconomic world. Plus, the social existence of our children is also threatened by factors like climate change and nuclear weapons that have nothing to do with their ability to generate personal income but still play major roles in shaping their futures. Modern schools look to address all. And their tools to achieve these educational goals are learning methodologies that they implement regularly in their classrooms.

In a report published in 2015 by the Open University, in collaboration with SRI Education, the institution mentioned 6 “overarching themes” or pillars of modern pedagogy upon which the learning methods must exist in this technology-enabled world. They are:

Scale
Connectivity
Reflection
Extension
Embodiment
Personalisation

Although the actual report touched upon these factors from an online education perspective, schools can apply similar approaches in defining their own learning methodologies.

Scale is probably one of those attributes that continue to challenge schools even today. How to prepare a scalable curriculum that will meet the needs of all students in the present classroom and also accommodate the learning requirements of the future classes? Schools must follow an all-inclusive pedagogy. Education must be scalable to include all students of varying needs and diverse preferences.

Connectivity is synonymous with collaboration. There needs to be connectivity among like-minded learners to ensure the fusion of different ideas and growth as a whole. Today, connectivity must also include the potential offered by educational technology. And resources being free of location and access boundaries. Modern schools should identify the evolved form of connectivity and involve the right essences of this parameter.

Reflection is a modern finding. The best schools in Gurgaon is slowly doing away with the strict one-directional teaching approach as present researches have shown that the scope of education is not only limited to lectures. Students also learn when they are thinking about or reflecting on a topic. Knowledge growth also happens when children discuss among themselves, perform their own research and bounce ideas off each other.

Extension is where the theoretical facts find connection real-world application. Learning methodologies need to be such that students can readily connect the rules of energy conversion to cooking or theories of gravity to digestion. Without extension, knowledge is simply unused information. When students start understanding the context of education, the purpose of it all, only then can true excellence come to classrooms.

Embodiment touches the human aspect of learning. It entails that, at the end of the day, we are all guided by our natural instincts and our learning trait is no different. Embodiment learning supports the use of our senses – vision, touch, and hearing – to learn new concepts and take academics out of abstractness. The burden on the mind to picturise information reduces as it now learns through its primal instincts.

Lastly, personalisation is probably the only learning currency that has been adopted by almost all top CBSE schools in Gurgaon. The Open University report terms personalisation as the missing piece of education. Modern pedagogy identifies the unique intelligence of all students and looks to target that instead of just focusing on one curriculum for all. Through personalisation, schools can ignite interest and create engagement, things that conventional schools have missed out on for a long time.

As evident, the modern learning methodologies that schools can follow must include the above 6 pillars. With these themes creating the foundation, schools can truly prepare their students for the upcoming socioeconomic world. Most institutions have their own innovative strategies that they follow to include these ingredients into their learning approaches, however, there are a few typical learning techniques that schools need to follow today. The next section elaborates on the absolute essentials of modern learning.

Effective modern learning methodologies

Inquiry-based learning

Often used under the same breath as problem-based learning, this learning methodology involved a cyclic process where questions are followed by answers which lead to more questions and thus, more answers. Students generally express their curiosity with questions. And with curiosity comes the need to know. When answers are presented to these questions at an appropriate time, it leads to greater retention of the subject matter. Plus, the knowledge obtained is situational or realistic in nature. An inquiry initiated by the student will typically look like, “why does the rainbow appear after a rainfall?” and not, “what is a refraction of light?”

Teachers can also use inquiry-based learning to promote critical thinking. They also lead to problem-solving abilities if the students are left on their own to find out why rainfall causes the rainbow. Naturally, a student will need the theory of refraction first but that is where the teacher can terminate his/her contribution to learning for the time being. Asking the right questions leads to better education. And inquiry-based or problem-based learning looks to convert it into a life-long habit.

Embodied learning

Or learning by real-world experiences. In fact, the popular educational approach known as Reggio Emilia surrounds the principles of embodied learning where the idea dictates that children are capable of learning from their environment. It employs strategies that make space for self-expression, analysis, and communication as the environment remains the teacher at every step. For instance, with the Reggio Emilia approach or embodied learning, students learn about speed and acceleration by travelling in the school bus during an excursion. The history lessons come in the museum while language is learned by actual communication. The surroundings become the classroom and the body’s ability to learn by experience is acknowledged.

Understandably, embodied learning touches the embodiment pillar. It also makes way for personalisation, reflection, and extension in unique ways. The learning technique also teaches skills like collaboration and negotiation along with making way for representational development. Teachers play a crucial role in being constant mentors. Students will need help to connect the real world to the existing theories.

Cooperative or Collaborative learning

The best schools in Gurgaon will often group students to either complete a project, compete at an activity or discuss a subject matter. Collaboration elevates the outcome of any task and education is no different. When students work in a team, they gather perspectives from peers. And the learning process does not stay limited to classrooms only. They will have to collaborate outside school. The discussions can happen in the corridors. That brings about engagement, involvement, and constant accumulation of knowledge. Then there is the factor of competitiveness. Be it internal or external, collaborative learning is efficient owing to the involved competition and students drive themselves to work harder in order to strive ahead.

Plus, the skills that cooperative learning teach are also well-known. Not only do students learn leadership and team-spirit, conflict and stress management also come into the fray. All throughout their lives, students will have to collaborate with other individuals. Forming the habit right from the school is thus essential.