TLM Innovation Center : A route to fun, affordable and effective learning

There are various genuine reasons which disable the teachers from creating or collecting teaching-learning materials (TLM) and using them in the classroom. Let us traverse through some of them and the probable ways they can be dealt with.

1. Once a student asked me to join him while he was playing in the sand. I felt awkward but after realizing the need of the moment, I took out my boots, rolled up my sleeves and put forth a memorable stunt for the students. That awkwardness was very real. And many educators, teachers, and trainers face it. Before we try to overcome it, we first need to accept it. In learning activities, the first and foremost requirement is to be very comfortable in engaging with students through activities using the TLMs.                               
2. Manorama Ben who was the teacher in class 3 of Bhagini Nivedita Primary School of Surat, was able to joyfully engage the students in the activities, even used to dance with students on baal geet at times. She created a different kind of aura in the classroom. Students respected her while learning and enjoying in the class. I believe there is just a need for example-setting to help teachers overcome the awkwardness.
3. “People do what their society rewards them to do. If the society rewards trust, people will be trusting.”  — Amish Tripathi. A major part of our society regards those teachers to be efficient whom the students fear. TLMs and fun activities require the removal of the typical strictness in the teachers and fear in the students making such learning environments less popular.                 

Using TLMs to facilitate activity-based learning will disrupt the customs of a conventional classroom, demanding the teacher to create a fear-free joyful environment. The students may not sit in one place throughout the day or may not remain silent all day while scribbling pages of notes every hour. The teacher may not be a strict dominating figure but a friend or guide or mentor who is completely approachable.

Such characteristics in teachers and in classrooms have to be acknowledged and encouraged to promote TLMs in the classroom or vice-versa. We need to explore the definition of an efficient teacher in this era.

Now if we overcome the above two problems, the other major constraints for a teacher will be time, funds and the aptitude to innovate. Teachers may not get enough time in the school hours to ideate and create TLMs as per the subject and the need of the students. With limited funds for the thousands of schools in India, it will also be more challenging to bring out teaching and learning aids from trash or low-cost collectibles. And it may not be possible for the teachers to innovate new TLMs regularly to suit the student’s learning.

An excerpt from the National Curriculum Framework 2005

Other kinds of resource materials, such as maps and picture folders, and specific equipments could be shared among schools if they are placed in the cluster centre, which can then serve as a resource library so that for the period of teaching the teacher borrows materials from the cluster and thereafter returns them to the cluster to enable some other teachers to borrow them. In this way, the resources gathered by one teacher can also be utilised by others, and it would become possible to have multiple sets necessary for the whole class to use.

The availability of such resources depends on the funds available and the member of schools that need assistance. How can the school build such resources? Some government programmes, for instance, Operation Blackboard, have laid down norms for the minimum materials that should be available in each Primary and Upper Primary school. Similarly, there are new schemes that allow for cycles and toys to be purchased for a cluster of schools. Schools could benefit from these opportunities, and also explore the possibilities that are available at the local level for augmenting their teaching-learning and play material. There is a growing emphasis on Educational Technology for ‘effective’ learning. Some schools are now being equipped with computers, and in some areas radio and TV-based instruction is being introduced.

The idea of TLM Innovation Centre

Bissamcuttack is a block in the district of Rayagada in Odisha. The block of Bissamcuttack has 21 school clusters. Each cluster comprises of 12 schools on an approximate average and the total number of schools in Bissamcuttack is around 269.

The Block resource center (BRC) functioning under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan program can be a very ideal space for enabling an TLM innovation center to create effective teaching-learning materials. And with a TLM resource library in each of the Cluster resource centers (CRC), the materials can be shared among different schools in the cluster as suggested in the NCF 2005.

So, in the case of Bissamcuttack, one TLM innovation center at the block level and 21 TLM resource libraries at the cluster levels can support and encourage the usage of TLMs in the schools among teachers.

Similarly, we have 7068 blocks in our country. A TLM innovation center in each of these blocks will propel the need to promote fun, affordable and effective learning in the classrooms.

The TLM Innovation centers will regularly innovate context specific, subject specific and student centered teaching learning materials for the teachers. The idea will also be influenced by the kind of raw materials available in the block. In Bangalore, electronic wastes like keyboards, CDs, etc., can become creative learning aids while in villages like Bissamcuttack, seasonal agricultural products, and by-products or knick-knacks can be interesting materials to align with the learning goals of the classroom.

There can also be a fellowship program functioning at the block level to assist the teachers in understanding and using the TLMs in the classroom. One trained TLM enthusiast assigned as a fellow to each school cluster will imbibe the energy and enthusiasm necessary for facilitating activity based learning in the classrooms. The young fellow will attend the schools with the TLMs and promote its usage among teachers by setting examples. This might help the teachers overcome the awkwardness and will also give an opportunity to the teachers to suggest the customization in the TLMs as per the classroom.

The goal of achieving effective education can be achieved by radicalizing the teaching and learning in the classroom. And manifesting the TLMs as a significant part of our classrooms may act as a catalyst in achieving the goal.