INNOVATIONS: LAYING THE GROUND FOR TEACHERS’ PARTICIPATION
Teachers played a central role in the HSTP. This was expected and necessary in a discovery-based teaching-learning method because the open-ended nature of the approach meant that a chapter could follow different paths in different classrooms. One could never really predict the questions children would ask or what would happen in the classroom. So the teacher had to intervene at every step to weave children’s questions into the learning process without derailing or altering its course.
In traditional classrooms, the role of a teacher is limited. (S)he is only expected to explain what is written in the textbook. At most (s)he can supplement the explanation with examples or analogies. So teaching usually means reading the textbook to the children and dictating answers to questions once the chapter is completed. Read More... [PDF 616 KB]