Introduction

 

The issue of teaching of science has figured in umpteen number of discussions, debates both from the points of view of content as well as pedagogy in India and abroad. As a matter of fact it has several dimensions, which are of particular interest for the science teachers and educators. These dimensions have been evolving ever since science emerged as a subject. So there cannot be anything ultimate in this issue, and hence no such attempt has been made in the article. The author has made an effort to share his experiences as a science teacher and communicator in Indian perspective.

 

It has largely been felt that the most significant outcome of teaching of science ought to be the development of scientific temper among the pupils. As a matter of fact the development of scientific temper is enshrined in the Constitution of India (Clause 51A, Item(h)) as a fundamental duty of citizen. This is possible by way of inculcating the spirit of inquiry, encouraging creativity and innovation. For some teachers teaching of science irrespective of the level amounts to dissemination of information. It is particularly true of the elementary level, where the teachers feel that one should not tax the tender minds by exposing them to too much of reasonings. But I feel strongly that the essence of learning science should be that nothing be accepted without valid reasons. This trait should be cultivated from the early childhood. A very strong recommendation in this regard is the emphasis on development of questioning skills rather than answering skills. Attempt has been made in the article to substantiate this aspect through relevant examples.

 

Background

 

The author has himself been a science teacher primarily at the undergraduate/ postgraduate level and a science communicator. He has interacted with teachers of science of the elementary, secondary, senior secondary and tertiary levels and also a large number of students. On the basis of such interactions, a priority list of instructional objectives can be drawn as under:

 

• Learning basic concepts of science.
• Learning the definitions/ explanations of important terms in science.
• Preparing for standardized tests
• To prepare for further studies in science, engineering and technology
• Arousing students’ interest in science through narration of science fiction stories and tales of important discoveries.
• Taking a journey through the landmarks of science.
• Learning about application of science in business and industry
• Learning about application of science in real life situations.
• Learning about history of science
• Learning about relationship between science, technology, society
• Learning to evaluate arguments based on scientific evidence.
• Learning to probe/ question/ explore
• Getting adapted to the process of scientific method of inquiry.
• Learning the art of science communication

 

The list of instructional objectives mentioned above is quite exhaustive. It is also reflective of emphasis on learning to probe/question/explore and also to know about application of science in real life situation. But in practice it seldom happens like that. It is a matter of serious concern as regards teaching of science, particularly at the elementary level at institutions in India. Probing a matter with logical reasoning is the key to development of scientific temper and application of scientific knowledge in the real life situation provides credibility to science from the point of view of the common man. Science should be able to provide benefit to the common man.

 

Let us emphasise on development of skills of questioning

 

Has the science teacher ever asked himself as to what does he intend to develop in the student – answering skills or questioning skills? A teacher is considered to be good if he can provide answers to many questions particularly those which are asked at examinations. The book markets get flooded with notebooks, guidebooks consisting answers to so called important questions. These lend some kind of service to the students as they facilitate the students in preparing for the examinations. But it becomes a general tendency of a student that if he gets readymade answers his thinking faculty gets a backseat. In this regard, it would be worthwhile to obtain examples from the lives of some great men.

 

Examples from the lives of great men

 

Prof. Albert Einstein, during his childhood, would get amazed at the sight of a magnetic compass needle always pointing towards the north. He used to ask as to why it happens like that. He did not get a satisfactory answer from his teacher but at a later stage he has made phenomenal contribution towards the understanding of magnetism. Among some of his other juvenile questions perhaps the most interesting one was related to the concept of relative velocity. He used to think that he was travelling in a vehicle where speed can be increased indefinitely. Now, if he ended up increasing its speed to the extent of that of light would he have seen light to become standstill? He sought the answer to this and many related questions and arrived at the special theory of relativity which revolutionised our understanding of science.

 

Questioning and raising doubts about the accepted beliefs were strongly inbuilt in Einstein’s attitude towards life. The regimentation at Luitpold Gymnasium, the school he attended in Munich, created in him a deep rooted scepticism about authority in general and academic authority in particular. In fact scepticism turned out to be a virtue for him which he could cling on throughout his life. He used to say, “The teachers in the elementary school appeared to me like sergeants and in the Gymnasium the teachers were like lieutenants”.

 

The origin of all landmark discoveries in science has its origin in questioning. Nicholas Copernicus had questioned the geocentric model of the universe. He proposed the hypothesis of heliocentricity which got established through the observations of Galileo. Newton had questioned, “Does the moon fall towards the earth in the same manner as the apple? Are their motion guided by the same principle?” The outcome of his probing the answer to these questions was the universal theory of gravitation. Sir C V Raman raised the question, “Why is the ocean blue?” His urge for seeking answers to this and many similar other questions led to the discovery of Raman Effect. During the five years he spent on the Beagle (December 1831 to October 1836), Charles Darwin as a young man raised umpteen number of questions and kept making correspondences with almost everyone who he felt could help him with answers. The march towards aiming at his theory of evolution is a journey of experiential learning triggered by several questions.

 

The urge of learning through questioning in not restricted to the domain of scientists only. Let us see examples from the lives of some stalwarts in the other fields of excellence.

 

Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore did not have a formal education. He used to question a lot. The author had the privilege of visiting a particular section of Rabindra Bhavan in Shantiniketan (The Abode of Peace) where some books which were actually read by young Rabindranath were kept. One of those books was on science where at a page having the description of an Electromagnet, Tagore in his childhood remarked in Bangla – “Khub Jotil Bishoy, Naa Dekhle Bojhar Upaye Nei”, which essentially means that, it is a complicated matter, one cannot believe it unless one sees it. It is indeed a reflection of his attitude to question the accepted beliefs.

 

Swami Vivekananda during his quest for God had approached many contemporary saints and sages, and asked the question “Have you seen God?” The emphasis is not on any religious belief but the appreciation of the directness of the question.

 

Mahatma Gandhi never performed any experiment in a laboratory. The acids and alkalis were not picked up by him from bottles kept in the shelves of a Chemistry laboratory. He picked up these from the realities of life and performed his experiments. He raised umpteen number of questions and sought answers to them from the core of human existence.

 

The point that has been brought home through the said examples is that one should not accept anything without probing deep into it or without getting the doubts clarified. So one has to take the trouble to question.

 

The emphasis in the textbooks of science as well as in the deliberations of the teachers is more towards dissemination of information, facts and figures of science. Most of them believe in the school of thought that we should not pressurise the tender mind by discussing too much of reasons. They make their students absorb the facts without spelling out the reasons inspite of those having very strong reason base. They feel that analysis by way of reason is not an essential part of the teaching-learning transaction and it can be postponed to a later stage when according to them the students become mature enough for handling reasons. The author has a strong disagreement to such an attitude towards teaching of science. It is strongly felt that nothing should be accepted without the reasons and this habit has to be inculcated even at the elementary level. Several teachers have a tendency to discourage asking of questions by the learners. On the contrary such tendencies should be encouraged. Thinking faculty of young mind should not be underestimated. Here is an instance to substantiate the above point.

 

Most of the primary schools in rural India are still managed by one teacher. He/she heads the institution, takes classes of all subjects like Language, Mathematics, Science, etc. In one such school, teaching of mathematics was on for the students of Class I. The teacher was explaining ‘Subtraction’ and the example chosen was ‘72 minus 45’. The teacher stated that, “Since the unit place digit of the subtrahend is greater than that of the subtractend, we shall have to take ‘1’ as loan from‘7’ at the ten’s place so that we get ‘12’ which enables the subtraction of 5. Before the teacher could proceed any further a bright young girl stood up and said, “Teacher, in the previous language class, you have said that taking loan is a misdeed and it should be avoided.” The teacher got perplexed by this interruption and somehow managed to provide a reply which might or might not have satisfied the girl. However, my reaction was two-fold. The first was a feeling of shame as I was having a credit card of a multinational bank in my pocket and the second was a sense of respect for the girl. I realised that the thinking capabilities of a learner should never be underestimated.

 

We shall now highlight another bane in the teaching-learning transaction of science, that is the insensitivity towards practical applications.

 

Our insensitivity towards practical applications

 

Some real life experiences substantiating the theme of the above sub-title are being narrated below.

 

The author happened to visit a school and interacted with the mathematics teachers and students of fourth standard. The teacher was taking a lesson on “Measurement of length by the metric system”. On asking the teacher about the status of the knowledge acquired by the students he replied that he had been taking a revision class as the pupils had learnt everything and a class test had been scheduled on the next day. So the author asked the students, “Do you know the relation between a kilometre and a metre?” All hands got raised up and they came out with the perfect reply, 1 km = 1000 m. “What about the relation between a metre and a centimetre?” Again, all hands got raised up and everybody answered perfectly, 1 m = 100 cm.

 

The school was situated on the outskirts of a town and the author was curious to know how they commute to the school from their homes. In that connection, he asked the students, “How far is your home from the school?” Now, no hands were getting raised up. Let us think of it. The question was about a distance which they tread day in and day out. The author got similar reactions when he asked the students to give an estimate of the length and breadth of the classroom, or to tell how many centimetres was his pen. Finally, he asked the students, “Do you know how much is a metre? Can you show me your estimate of a metre?” The students were extremely hesitant and generally not at all forthcoming with their replies. However, with some persuasion some of them tried to provide their estimates of ‘a metre’ using body language which were far from accurate. When the teacher was asked that how it had been like that they know the conversion factors with exactitude but they do not know how much is a metre, his excuse was that he had not been provided with a metre scale by the headmaster. The whole episode brings out our insensitivity towards practical applications of what we learn in the classroom.

 

The author had gone to the Annual Sports Meet of a very renowned school in Kolkata. The school was holding the meet in a rectangular shaped ground of approximate size 110 m by 60 m. The ground was small. A famous school where the students have to go through several stringent stages for securing admission ought to have given a little more importance to sports. We seem to have forgotten the advice of Swami Vivekananda who asked the youth to leave aside the Bhagavadgita and to go to play football. However, keeping in mind the fact that there is heavy premium on real estate in a metro like Kolkata we may not mind about the size of the ground being small but the matter causing more concern was something different. In almost every sports meet, 100 m race happens to be the most popular event. The tracks for the said race were drawn parallel to the longer side (i.e. 110 m) of the ground. The underfoot condition of the ground was quite deplorable. Upto 100 metres it was still manageable. But beyond the finishing line it was atrocious. There were items like stones, broken earthen pots which can cause injury to the tender feet. Now, a 100 m race does not get over at the finishing line. Owing to inertia of motion, most of the runners would be crossing the 100 metres mark and would attempt to get their speed checked within the available 10 metres. In the process most of them were falling and getting injured. Later I had come to know that the chief organizer of the sports meet was a mathematics teacher. Quite surprisingly it did not occur to him that the 100 m tracks could have been drawn parallel to the diagonal giving sufficient cushion beyond the finishing line and thus allowing the young runners to avoid injuries by having their speeds checked.

Again, the author was taking a session with the B.Ed students of a distance learning institution. These students were all in-service teachers. He was interacting with the student-teachers about the issue of conduction of quizzes at schools. As an example he cited the following question: If the equatorial radius of earth is ‘R’, then which one among the following is the closest approximation to the distance between the northernmost extremity of Kashmir to Kanyakumari? (a) R/2 (b) R/3 (c) R/4 (d) R/6. Incidentally, R = 6400 km (apx.) and the distance between the said places is about 3200 km. So (a) is the right option. But surprisingly only one teacher came out with the correct reply. A further probe into the matter revealed that most of them knew the value of R but they were not aware about the distance between Kashmir and Kanyakumari. They knew R because they had read about it somewhere. If they could remember it they knew it. But the distance referred to might not have been documented categorically at a single place. It requires the knowledge of geography, may be little bit of imagination but more than anything else it requires sensitivity towards measurement and practical application. It is not being hinted that the distance between the two said places of the country would be measured by the teachers. But most of them must have travelled in a train and should be aware how long it takes a train to travel from Udhampur to Kannyakumari, or say from Itarsi to Tiruvananthapuram. The first one is almost 90% of the said distance, whereas the latter is about 50% of the same. So if we have an estimate of the average speed of a train which varies between 40 to 50 kilometres per hour then by making a quick calculation one can strike at a reasonably good estimate. Making such an effort is an indication about the sensitivity we are hinting at. However, answers like R/4 or R/6 are definitely causes for some concern.

 

Sometime back in Kolkata the author was listening to his next door neighbour’s daughter preparing for her ensuing examination. She was chanting a particular sentence time and again, “Kolkata Hooghly Nodeer Tire Abasthita Ekti Sahar”, which means that “Kolkata is a city situated on the banks of River Hooghly”. The author asked her father as to whether this is the prescribed way to learn that Kolkata is a city situated on the bank of River Hooghly. Can’t she be taken to one of the ghats and shown the river? She will readily realize that the city of Kolkata is situated on its banks. But the gentleman replied, “You do not know. Unless she reproduces that very sentence in the answer script she will get a zero. “One can not agree with such statements”. A real teacher cannot be so prejudiced. Moreover, a student has to be assessed regarding his/her capability of comprehension and not memory. It seems that it is the fear psychosis of the parents, guardians which percolates into the tender minds of their wards and adversely affects their mental get-up towards the process of learning. This adverse effect gets impregnated in the mind of the learner and remains there in some form or the other throughout his studentship tenure.

 

All above examples have been cited to bring home the point that science is not delinked with our lives, rather it is instrumental in shaping our life. This aspect should be given due consideration while handling the students of science.

Dr. C. K. Ghosh