Jodo Gyan, is economically independent. We work with some private schools and some government. Schools. The focus is on Maths, and Science. Video of her presentation at Chintan Shibir Usha M, Jodo Gyan at Chintan Shibir - YouTube
In the alternative education space, we try to change text books, curriculums, etc, however the classroom which is the heart of the education process, has not fundamentally changed. Reason? We seem to have underestimated the power of existing mental models that people have of education.
This mental model includes teachers, parents, policy makers. administrators. While we speak of the culture of the classroom as a community, for many people learning is an individual process. How do we overcome the problem of assessment which makes this learning individualised. This is backed up by a mental model which is ideological, where competition is seen as good and privileged. Whereas in society we know that nobody works alone… everybody working in teams. Reward however is individualised…
Where we have tried multi grade classrooms, non graded classrooms… we do face some mental models, which say that certain basic things like addition , subtraction, that have to be “studied” and learnt. Have we underestimation of the work involved in in developing alternatives, the importance of the evolutionary nature of concepts and how it is learnt?