– BY GAYATHRI TIRTHAPURA, CO-FOUNDER TRUSTEE AT TEJASVITA TRUST

We often hear that children are naturally curious and love to learn. How can we set up a classroom environment that awakens this natural interest in learning in children? At Tejasvita, we believe that when learning goals and the environment are oriented towards building adaptive expertise in children, children’s natural interest gets awakened. Adaptive expertise is a broad term and involves many different dimensions. Very simply put, it’s the ability to apply your skills to problems, set in completely new contexts that you haven’t encountered before, and solve them. While research on adaptive expertise is a lot more prevalent in teaching and learning for higher age groups and for very complex problems, it is not difficult to stretch this idea to the domain of preschool education for foundational concepts too. 

For example, if you are trying to build adaptive expertise in pattern recognition in preschoolers, you would set a goal for the children to develop the expertise to recognise not just intentionally arranged patterns on a worksheet or with learning materials in the classroom but also in many different random contexts –  such as on a dress that someone is wearing or in nature and so on. Or in the case of counting from 1 – 20, the child should not just be able to count and tell us the number of objects in their textbook worksheet but also count in many different random contexts – such as the number of cooking vessels in your kitchen or the number of vehicles that you passed by in the street and so on.

So, how does one go about developing adaptive expertise? To develop adaptive expertise, one needs to develop conceptual understanding. In addition, the degree to which the child is exposed to random contexts within which they can apply their conceptual understanding helps build adaptive expertise.  For example in order to be able to independently recognise any new  patterns that the child encounters, the child needs to deeply understand what a pattern is, at a conceptual level. For this, we need to offer a variety of experiences where the child is able to have her “aha” moments about what a pattern truly is. Apart from lessons and demos, the child needs to be given exposure to a plethora of contexts in which the she can apply the concept and be scaffolded if necessary.  It is not enough if the child with the help of the teacher identifies the different “patterns” in a chapter in the textbook. This would only remain as factual knowledge in the child’s memory in the context of the textbook. If the latter is the only type of  lesson that is offered in the classroom, it would be akin to rote learning.  

In Tejasvita classrooms, for every cognitive skill we aim to teach, we offer a variety of experiences to build adaptive expertise. For example, pattern recognition is an important curriculum goal for our children. Following are a few of the experiences that children have towards development of this skill. Every child is exposed to hands-on activities with lessons, demos and appropriate scaffolding for identifying and copying colour, shape, size , object based patterns through a variety of materials like felt, coloured paper, lacing boards and worksheets. We conduct interactive storytelling activities with props which showcase visual and sound patterns in the stories. Children get to explore the concept through appropriate educational manipulatives too. We sing rhymes and songs containing simple sound patterns in them. We bring a variety of materials showcasing patterns in real-life contexts into the classroom. We also read-aloud many wonderful books showcasing patterns.  As children progress, we increase the complexity of the patterns and also move them to higher order skills like creating their own patterns.

Research also shows other factors that aid the development of adaptive expertise. Fewer rewards encourage children to experiment, and emphasis on development of skills rather than the speed at which the child performs a task helps them focus on conceptual learning. Tejasvita’s preschool classroom processes are designed to offer self-paced learning experiences for each child. We don’t offer any extrinsic rewards in the classroom for any child who finishes early or to perfection. Our assessments of the children are indirect and based on teacher observations, and are used only to determine where each child is in the learning curve so that our teachers can decide what to offer next to the children. 

One may argue about the importance of repetitive activities that enhances the speed at which a child performs a skill. For example, unless the child practiced writing alphabets, she would never be able to write efficiently. Or unless children practiced doing math sums, they would never be able to do arithmetic mentally and move on to more complex math. Yes, this is true. Repetition and practice have a place in learning. But these types of activities don’t need to consume all of the learning time. When  children spend a majority of their time in developing adaptive expertise through conceptual learning, they see the value in repetition in order to master the skill, on their own. They are also more likely to remain interested in learning. And we certainly see this happening in our classrooms. We often have children asking for second “servings” of materials so that they can repeat the activity. Children also spontaneously display their understanding of concepts in contexts that are new to them – for example in case of concept of patterns, they recognize a pattern in an all new story we share with them or they create an art piece with an innovative pattern in it during process art activities.  

Pattern recognition is just one of the preschool curriculum goals for which we expose the children to an environment that builds adaptive expertise. A few other curriculum goals for which we use this method are matching, classifying, seriating, problem solving, English language comprehension and so on. For a complete list of our preschool curriculum goals, please refer to our 2019-20 Learning Outcomes Report. Our data from the 2019-20 academic year shows that more than 80% of parents (N=54) and partner school management and staff (N=13) who we interviewed say that children’s interest in learning has increased as a result of our program. More than 70% of the partner school management and staff report that children’s academic abilities have increased as a result of our program. 

At Tejasvita, we believe that cognitive learning in children should happen in a way that boosts their interest in learning. Setting up an environment that focuses on adaptive expertise and conceptual understanding awakens the natural process of learning in children and hence bolsters their interest in learning. 

– BY GAYATHRI TIRTHAPURA, CO-FOUNDER TRUSTEE AT TEJASVITA TRUST

One of the core characteristics of a child-centric environment is the freedom of choice for the child. If one hasn’t been exposed to an environment where children make their own choices, he/she may wonder how it is even possible for young children to make choices for themselves and learn what is important to succeed in this complex world. Contrary to this belief, various studies have shown that when children (even infants) and adults are given choice in a learning environment, they learn better and also engage in tasks more and longer. Choice has also been shown to increase the emotional well-being of people. Consistently having the freedom of choice helps children learn to make decisions, hold themselves responsible for their choices, and become self-directed in their learning. These are very important skills to possess in order to thrive in this complex world and what better time to build them if not in childhood, when children can practice these skills in safe spaces! 

Freedom of choice is central to the Montessori method, which is one of the most well-defined and widespread methods of child-centric education, in the world. Having chosen child-centric education as our modus operandi for the Tejasvita preschool program, we borrowed many ideas from the Montessori method, but we also employed  out-of-the-box thinking to design an environment to suit our specific context. As visitors to preschool classrooms in low-income communities, we are graciously permitted to spend six school hours every week with the children by our partner schools. While six hours a week provides ample time to implement a fairly holistic curriculum, we also wanted to build a program that could be scaled to other schools in low or middle income communities for a much longer period if needed. Hence our design not only had to be portable but also modular and low-cost in order to support scalability. 

Through an example of one of our classroom processes called Books Library Time, I’ll demonstrate how we have incorporated freedom of choice in Tejasvita’s preschool environment and also the results we are seeing. Our main curricular objective for the Books Library Time was to build English comprehension, speaking abilities and vocabulary. We wanted to create a safe space where children interact over books,  among themselves and with the teacher. An additional objective was to get children to experience the joy of books.

Dr. Montessori found that in order for children to make productive choices, the environment has to be prepared to stimulate constructive activity in children. For this, 

1. The appropriate choice of materials have to be chosen based on the objectives of the curriculum 
2. The optimal quantity of materials has to be prepared or arranged to limit the choices (research studies have shown that abundance of choices may limit constructive work)
3. Materials have to be arranged in an orderly fashion so that children can find what interests them easily
4. The materials have to fall within the optimal challenge level that engages a large number of children
5. The materials are easily accessible to the children

Following is how we have applied these principles for the Books Library Time.

Since the children we work with have limited exposure to English language compared to their privileged peers, we have paid special attention to choosing books that provide them the optimal challenge for growth. We use books with big vibrant illustrations and limited text,  which the children can comprehend fairly easily when teachers read them aloud with gestures and voice modulation. We make sure that the books have multi-dimensional features in terms of attractive illustrations, variety in illustration styles,  rhyme and repetition, variety of settings that mirror their real-life scenarios and have intriguing plots so that it would engage children with a wide range of abilities at the same time. The books can be enjoyed by children by either browsing on their own,  by engaging with the pictures or by choosing to have the teacher read it aloud to them.  

For a class of about 30-35 children, our teachers pack 45-50 books in a bag and transport them from our office to the classroom before the session (add a picture here). We vary the selection of books a bit every week so that children are exposed to at least a few new books regularly. The Books Library Time is held for about 45 minutes every week. 

Just before the Books Library Time, our teachers arrange the books in an orderly fashion in one corner of the classroom in a way that is easily accessible to the children. During the session, the children choose the books they like and sit with it in a space on the mats we lay out at the other end of the classroom. While one of our teachers facilitates the books selection by the children, two more teachers are available for the children if they want the teacher to read-aloud the book they have chosen for them. After having enjoyed the book to their heart’s content, the children can choose to exchange the book at their will from the book display corner.

In classrooms where children are experiencing our program for the first year, it takes a few weeks for all children to understand the rules of the Books Library Time. In fact, one of our findings is that because children have hardly been given the freedom of choice before in their life, they don’t yet understand how to handle this freedom responsibly. But when our teachers explain and enforce the rules patiently, empathetically and repeatedly, children begin to understand and practice the rules. What we start to see typically after the first few weeks is that the majority of the children become comfortable with the balance of choice and responsibility and in fact, start to expect it. We start to see the whole classroom engaged in books.

An onlooker who is a novice to child-centric education, could interpret a snapshot of the classroom as chaotic because he/she would see each child engaged in something different – some children may be moving around trying to find the right “next” book, some may be sitting and browsing their book, others sitting in pairs could be pointing to the pictures in the book discussing it, while some others could be sitting around a teacher listening to a read-aloud and discussing the book with her. But an expert onlooker will realize that every child is engaged in a purposeful activity based on their interests and that an environment that consistently emphasizes freedom of choice can start to create magic in children’s lives. We’ve found that even children who were earlier not interested in books, start to explore picture books in their own terms and progress to exploring a variety of such books and start requesting teachers to read-aloud the book to them. Slowly they start to comprehend English, and enjoy both the illustrations and the English language content in the books. Some children develop favourites and pick up and ask the teacher to read it aloud several times during the academic year, while others are excited with every new book we take to the classroom and are anxious to get a turn to browse it and have the teacher read it to them. Occasionally, a child may still not get the book they want, when they want it, ‘cos some other child may be engaged with it. This is an opportunity for the teacher to help the child practice waiting for his/her turn or maybe even learn to negotiate with the child to read the book together.  

Books Library Time is only one of the several classroom processes we have, where children have freedom of choice. Children get to explore thinking activities, art and music-movement this way too. We find that when freedom of choice is built into a learning environment on a consistent basis, it not only leads to higher interest in academic learning but also helps build many life skills like decision making and self-responsibility. Our data during 2018-19 and 2019-20 academic years shows that children’s ability to express their preferences and make confident choices in our environment increased 119% on an average. We believe that this is a direct result of our environment that encourages freedom of choice. During the 2019-20 academic year, more than 80% of the parents of 54 children we interviewed and 85% the partner school teachers reported that their children show more enthusiasm for learning because of our program. When we think about the benefits of freedom of choice, it’s no wonder that the acceptance of our program increased multifold in our partner schools in the past couple of years.

– By Gayathri Tirthapura, Co-Founder Trustee at Tejasvita Trust

The National Education Policy (NEP), a landmark document in Indian education system which was released on July 29th, 2020 has been hailed as an education policy that will shape both the future social and economic fabric of India. It’s hard to find any serious critics of this policy, and this in itself is a win considering that the Indian education system serves more than 400 million learners with diverse needs.  Reading the policy has brought in a lot of hope and optimism for me about the future of education in India. From the get-go, the policy takes a no-nonsense approach to creating a new high-quality education system aligned with the aspirational goals of 21st century education. To quote the policy, ”it is becoming increasingly critical that children not only learn, but more importantly learn how to learn. Education thus, must move towards less content, and more towards learning about how to think critically and solve problems, how to be creative and multidisciplinary, and how to innovate, adapt, and absorb new material in novel and changing fields”. 

Highlights of the policy

At Tejasvita Trust, we have done significant work in developing a quality curriculum, pedagogy, and teacher reported assessment methods for preschool classrooms in Affordable Private Schools that serve low-income populations. We have also developed professional development modules for new and in-service teachers to match our curriculum and pedagogy. Here are some key recommendations in the NEP 2020 that are relevant to the work we do in the field. 

1. Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) will now be integrated into the formal schooling system. This move is highly significant for the Anganwadis. Anganwadis are publicly funded child care centers for preschool aged children and were set up in 1975. They serve an estimated 80 million children all over India. Preschool education at these centers  typically takes a backseat due to the centers’ wide-ranging objectives related to health and nutrition of the whole community. The critical importance of stimulating environments for optimal brain development during the early years cannot be overstated. Hence NEP 2020 makes a superior preschool curriculum a burning priority, and also the need to restructure the Anganwadis, it’s management and the hiring/training of Anganwadi workers in this regard. 
2. The curriculum and pedagogical structure of the entire school education will be re-organised to meet the new goals. Specifically for the younger years,  five years of foundational learning (preschool + grades 1 and 2) will be instituted during which time “learning is flexible, multilevel, play and activity based”. The foundational stage will be followed by three years of preparatory learning (grades 3 – 5) which again emphasises “play and activity based learning and introduction of light textbooks and interactive classroom learning”.  Learning in mother-tongue will be emphasised during early childhood while the importance of exposing children to multiple languages during their younger years in quality learning environments  is highlighted. 
3. The absolute urgency of all children attaining foundational literacy and numeracy by the end of Grade 3 has been recognised in the policy. Currently, an estimated 50 million children in elementary schools don’t attain these foundational skills.  “The rest of this policy will become relevant for students only if this most basic learning requirement (i.e reading, writing and arithmetic at the foundational level) is first achieved”, says the policy. A timeline to achieve universal foundational literacy and numeracy by 2025 has been set and all viable methods including curricular and professional development, one-on-one peer tutoring with volunteers, developing inspirational books and increased focus on libraries will be taken up.
4. Nearly 50% of the children in India attend privately managed schools and hence it is imperative that any education policy takes steps to improve the quality of education in private schools. NEP 2020 recommends many steps in this direction – reducing regulation to a minimal set of standards for setting up schools and increasing emphasis on learning outcomes for each school,  removing conflicts of interests in monitoring schools and setting same criteria for assessing of public and private schools, national or state level key stage assessments at grades 3rd, 5th and 8th grades for students in order to evaluate the quality of education in the schools and full public disclosure of learning outcomes of each school so that parents have effective information to decide the right school for their children. 
5. The policy firmly establishes teachers at the center of the delivery of education and calls for their empowerment and the need for supporting them at all levels. At the same time it recommends putting in place professional standards and appropriate performance based incentives for teachers, and  basic methods for their quality and accountability. Given that education in the 21st century requires teachers to up-skill themselves to use advanced pedagogical methods, the policy proposes moving teacher education to multidisciplinary universities and heavy restructuring of B.Ed programs, it’s curriculum and pedagogy to suit the context.

Implementation challenges

NEP 2020 has set a very high bar for the quality of Indian education. For it to become a reality, several government institutions will have to work together to construct the curriculum, training, implementation, monitoring and regulatory frameworks. This is a huge effort that requires high levels of coordination across many government bodies at national, state, local levels and the educational institutions themselves. In the midst of all this, let’s not forget the primary intention of all these efforts, which is the improvement of the quality of teaching and learning that is required in the field. 

NEP 2020 recommends that pedagogical methods in the classrooms should make learning “experiential, holistic, integrated, inquiry-driven, discovery-oriented, learner-centered, discussion-based, flexible and enjoyable”. Such a teaching act is incredibly complex.  It requires teachers themselves to have higher order skills of critical thinking, creative thinking, problem solving, collaboration and communication skills.  Our experience on the ground has also shown that providing a classroom environment where every single child can progress, requires teachers to be constantly “present” for children and resolve classroom management issues in compassionate ways, so that a safe space is created for children to be just who they are and pursue joyful learning. In addition, effective parent – school – community partnerships need to be built where the whole community of adults serving children become growth-oriented and build the skills required. 

In India, a culture of rote learning and learning for the sake of scoring high marks has seeped into every stage of learning including early childhood. To change this culture to one where children enjoy learning and curiously seek new knowledge and skills as opposed to just for scoring marks, will require significant intentional effort. The high-stakes nature of exams should be curtailed at a systemic level. Awareness should be built among the stakeholders and  in the society about the true purpose of education as described in the NEP and the natural learning process of a human brain. 

NEP 2020 has catapulted the aspirations of the country for its education system to be one of the best in the world by 2040. It seeks to build an equitable and just society accompanied by a thriving economy where every job seeker is employed productively and working towards resolving the challenges that the world is facing in the 21st century. A synchronised effort across all stakeholders must accompany the changes sought in the system to make this goal a reality. But most importantly, the needs of the learners and the teachers should be kept at the heart of any planning and implementation. Only then the goals of NEP 2020 can become a reality.

BY BINDU AJAY, TEACHER AT TEJASVITA TRUST

Over the last couple of years, we teachers at Tejasvita have developed a set routine for the way we prepare for our class, in the mornings.  And this is being perfected by the year, thanks to the diverse pool of human resources we have as teachers.  We meet in the office every morning and while we greet and exchange pleasantries with each other, we also check on the material required for the day, rehearse stories and rhymes, discuss and even plan for the next day.

Very soon, all this feeling of preparedness starts becoming a little shaky, as we step into class, with neatly packed bags and the day’s routine playing in our minds. The moment the children see us, they greet us with so much cheer and excitement that we stop thinking of our plans and be forced to enjoy the moment. The days we carry art supplies like paint/crayons and other materials for exploration, their excitement is much more obvious.

And here was such a day – a day when we had art activities in our schedule. We call them “stations” in Tejasvita parlance. On one day of the week, we set up two “stations” with two different art activities, giving children the opportunity to dabble with paint/crayons and a variety of media to explore. This includes both common and unique materials, and daily life objects like leaves, twigs, toothbrushes, ear-buds, pencil shavings and the like, which children might have seen around them.

I considered this particular day’s station activity very important, thanks to a training session we teachers had the previous week with an Art Therapist called Alagu.   I had experienced, to an extent, the wonders that art can do to children through our work at Tejasvita. But the way we conceived and delivered the process underwent a paradigm shift after Alagu’s session.

As children gathered around me for material, I was trying to recall all that or at-least the key points that Alagu had outlined in her session.  And I felt it was not an easy task, considering the wealth of information that she had given us. In keeping with the protocol as laid out by Alagu, we set the context for the “stations” that day, by telling the children about the material we had brought, what we intended doing with it and how.  “Foreshadowing” was the word she had used for this small briefing that we gave. That day we had taken bubble wrap as a printing medium with two different colours of paint. We then gave each child a small piece of bubble wrap to first touch and feel.  And for the next ten minutes or so, we could hear so much of laughter, cheer and excitement along with the popping sound of the bubble wrap.  We teachers also played around with it, popping it, and soaked ourselves in the overall excitement of the class. We also felt very humbled when we realised how some of the things we adults take for granted, are so precious and cherish-able to children; the amount of joy a small piece of bubble wrap brought to them that day was invaluable.

Just after about ten minutes of so much noise and excitement, I looked around to see children quietly explore the activity of painting on the bubble wrap, by themselves – with so much calm, focus and intent. As I was looking around and savouring the peace, Alagu’s voice came back to me. ” There are no mistakes in process art”, she had said.  “It is an opportunity for children to explore and discover- explore the material and the techniques. It gives them a sense of autonomy and  also teaches them self-regulation, other than building on their imaginative art, which is a skill that helps children change their way of thinking, when needed. Teachers can also use the opportunity to build the children’s vocabulary by talking to them about lines, colours, value, light and other elements of art”.

“Miss, Paint”, a child’s voice brought me back to the present. There were three small faces in front of me.  As I was re-filling paint for one child, Harshik, “Miss, See”, said Priya, proudly displaying what she had done with the paint and bubble wrap.  She had created her own design with a combination of the colours given to her.  She always surprised us with the unique ways in which she used the material given to her.  As I was looking at her work and talking to her about it, I could see Dakshik standing there and closely looking at one of the demo pieces I had hung on the wall. Looking at the focus on his face, I could say that he was striving to make his work look as closely as the demo hung in front of him.  Conformance seemed to give him lot of joy.  And then there was Shreyas who came for the fifth sheet of plain paper in the previous ten minutes.  All that he wanted was plain paper and lots of paint.  He loved to splash paint randomly on paper trying different strokes and combinations. That was the only time Shreyas, an otherwise fidgety and nervous child, seemed to be calm and at peace. As I looked at the three faces, I realised for the nth time, how different and unique each child is.

We wound up for the day feeling happy that our “stations” as a process, had something to offer, for every child in our class. And that is why, maybe, art is such a powerful form of therapy. If through this simple window of opportunity, for children to explore and experiment without inhibition, they are able to build on their confidence, self-esteem and other social-emotional challenges, we are definitely doing our bit to contribute that many happy and joyful adults to the society.  It was just another day, but it was a day when I felt, once again, that we at Tejasvita, are indeed doing something very meaningful and deep, though it may sometimes look mundane and simplistic at the outset.

By Gayathri Devulapalli, Teacher at Tejasvita

As a teacher at Tejasvita in the Preschool program, I work with children very closely and I view this as a great opportunity for my own growth.  Each passing day with the children brings in fresh insights and opens up the window of opportunity even more. It makes us unlearn our old beliefs and learn new ones. This is because of the children and the process of working with them. Let me say that the relationship we teachers share with the children is a symbiotic one. A symbiosis where we help the children to realise/explore their potential and they help in turn by making us grow as people. If you are wondering if this is even possible then I can say an emphatic “yes”. Children do this unintentionally and that is what makes it even more impactful. A tiny word here, an innocent conversation there are what I am talking about. Let me share some of these experiences to make it clearer.

A beautiful instance comes to mind. One day, during art activity which  is an opportunity for the child to unleash, explore his/her creativity through process based art, we had given play dough with moulds to children. We had demonstrated to the children, how to use the simple moulds to make models. All the children were working with the moulds very intently. One boy came up to me and showed me his creation with the dough. The boy had explored the dough with his free hands without the moulds. He told me that he had made a “JCB”. I got to understand that a  “JCB” is a crane used for construction of buildings etc. He also told me about the construction work going on near his house and how he loved watching the JCB do its work. His creation did not look like JCB to me but the child’s belief that it was a JCB made me realise what self-belief can actually do. Self-belief breaks all the limiting boundaries around us and makes us free. And with self-belief we are free to explore, learn and grow. As adults we worry about the goals and destination and in the process forget to enjoy the beautiful journey unfolding with interesting experiences. The little child made me realize the simple pleasure of exploring something with a free/unbiased/limitless mind without worrying about perfection and correctness. We as adults who are constantly trying to fit into moulds of perfection and  conformity, suddenly realise that all these do not hold any weight in the world of children. It was indeed a big learning for me. 

Our journey, as teachers, is loaded with such experiences every day at Tejasvita. Each experience is a rung which adds up to the ladder of our growth. Another example is when we were doing a pattern recognition activity with the children, and I got to know what pure innocent joy was. I understood how happiness can be brought about with simplest things in life. In this particular activity we asked the children to make patterned “torans” using a strip of paper and mango leaves themed paper cutouts. We gave the children, paper leaves of different colours and asked them to stick the leaves on a strip of paper in a pattern. We also gave them decorative articles to decorate their “toran”. The children enjoyed the activity very much and poured over various designs to decorate their toran.  Normally, we take their creations back from them and give it back to them only after a few months, after evaluating their work. But this time, when we told them that they could take these creations home, they were ecstatic. The pleasure of seeing them derive joy from such a simple gesture was amazing. They had an extra “skip” in their gait that day owing to this. Wonderful isn’t it?

These are but a few examples of what I experience every day with the children of Tejasvita. The impact of working with children also helps me to become more patient, more aware and empathetic towards children. I have now become more thoughtful and mindful than before,  when I am around children. Each child is unique and has a different thought process. I realise that applying the same formula to help/teach all children will not work. We as teachers must be ready to adapt and change our methods of helping children after knowing them a little better. This is what a symbiotic relationship is all about. Isn’t it?

 

– BY GAYATHRI TIRTHAPURA, CO-FOUNDER TRUSTEE AT TEJASVITA TRUST

We start every academic year with a month long training program for all teachers,  so that we learn new concepts, equip ourselves with tools and resources and incorporate new ideas into our preschool intervention. On one such morning during this year’s training in June 2019, the teachers arrived to a surprise! We were going to play a collaborative game to understand young children’s brain development better. The Brain Architecture Game designed by the Harvard Center for the Developing Child is perfect to understand how young children’s brains develop for success or failure later in their life. 

Let me first briefly explain how this game works. This is a game of chance where teams of adults build pretend brains containing the neural circuitry based on the first five years of a fictitious child’s life, using simple materials like pipe cleaners and straws. The goal is to build a strong and tall brain that is capable of learning new skills and which can withstand the stresses of life from her sixth year onwards. Through the roll of dice or by drawing life experience cards,  the players get either stronger or weaker materials for building their brains. For example, a stronger material is won if the child has a strong genetic makeup or has many positive social supports in the family or has positive experiences during the first five years of life; the positive experiences could be from growing up in language-rich environments, having highly skilled and loving caregivers, living in safe and friendly community and so on. The team gets weaker materials to build the pretend brain if the child has weaker genetic makeup or fewer social supports or if they have many stresses in their lives like domestic violence at home,  severe neglect of basic needs, caregiver substance abuse, premature birth and so on.  Once the foundational neural circuitry of the first five years are built using the materials they get, the team tests the pretend brain with stresses of life (represented by small weights). The brains either collapse or stand stable,  depending on how strong the foundational neural circuitry of the first five years is. 

Teams of teachers played the game with great enthusiasm and built five different pretend brains. We then reflected on the experiences we had while building the brain and had a discussion. Here are a few of the main insights we got from the discussion. 

• Firstly, the super importance of the first five to six years of a human life became plain obvious – and this is something that neuroscience research in the last few decades has prominently highlighted. 
• It’s fairly common knowledge that positive experiences strengthen the foundation of the brain. But if there are strong negative experiences during the first years of life, strong social and/or caregiver support was a deciding factor in whether the children’s brain became strong enough to withstand the stresses later in life and focus on learning. The more stresses the children faced in their first years of life without strong social or caregiver support, the weaker their foundational neural circuitry was. And the weaker the circuitry was, the faster their brain collapsed with the stresses from sixth year onward. 
• It was definitely possible to strengthen the circuitry even after first few years by retrofitting the foundation with stronger materials. But it came at the cost of not being able to build a tall brain – a taller brain represented a child with higher cognitive, physical and social-emotional skills. 
• What was also pleasantly surprising for us, was the fact that children who were born with a weak genetic makeup (and hence weaker neural base) were able to surmount the challenges presented by it and build a strong foundational neural circuitry with the help of strong social supports and caregivers. 
• In summary, lots of positive and stimulating experiences and strong social supports and caregivers during the first six years of life are the key to building strong brains that will lead to success and lifelong learning.

Playing this game was like opening a blackbox called the brain and exploring the components inside. It helped us understand the necessary and important role we Tejasvita teachers play as social supports in the lives of children we work with. We understood that, yes, playing this role is helping build stronger foundations in their brains. A strong and effective social support or a caregiver is someone who is unconditionally responsive and supportive to the child’s needs, who provides a stimulating and developmentally appropriate environment to the child and invests time and effort in building coping skills in the face of adversity. 

We come across many learning and behavioural challenges in Tejasvita’s preschool classrooms, triggered by many life challenges that the children face. In the past five years, we as a team have focused on giving a rich and stimulating environment for the children through our play based approach. We’ve also strived hard to build a program that caters to the social and emotional developmental needs of the children through our child-centric approach. We have incorporated many best practices from proven child-centric classroom approaches like choice, purposeful movement, positive discipline and so on. Music based activities, free play, process based art, read-alouds of world class books, building critical thinking skills through hands-on activities, learning through storytelling are all part of our curriculum. We also regularly build their cognitive and social-emotional resilience by offering the right level of challenges based on their individual abilities.

After playing the Brain Architecture Game, it was heartwarming to know that we are working in the right direction. Yet the question for us has always been, as to how we can progress from strength to strength and make improvements to our preschool intervention every year. Following are a few examples of new ideas we’ve introduced this academic year. We would like to be more ‘present’ for the children so that we can cater to their needs better. In order to do this, we are increasing our group mindfulness and self-care practices as a team. We have also increased activities that are designed to increase the level of their brain’s Executive Function. These are fun activities that build their working memory, inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility and which help in retrofitting their neural circuitry for a strong foundation. Certain kinds of music and related activities have been proven to have a positive effect as well and we have now integrated them into our program. As a team, we have also managed to attract many committed, passionate, responsible and educated adults from privileged communities to work with these children. 

We feel very fortunate and grateful to be able to work with the children. They give us their utmost love and trust us everyday that we are with them. We also feel deeply responsible for their future and would like our six hours a week with them to be impactful so that their brains become stronger. Playing the Brain Architecture Game was simple and fun but also deeply insightful for us. It has helped us move through the planning and implementation of our preschool program with a new rigour. In the process, we also hope to learn and grow and make our own brains stronger. 

– By Bindu, Teacher at Tejasvita Trust

It is the beginning of another academic year- a new start and a new window of opportunity  Though we teachers equip ourselves with elaborate training and relearning/unlearning, the children do not fail to surprise us, every now and then.  

As we Tejasvita teachers spend only a limited amount of time i.e six hours a week with the preschool children, it becomes very important for us to make this time very effective.  Sometimes, this “limited time” aspect can be stressful on the teacher, as we would ideally like to deliver all that we have planned within this time. But thankfully, since the children are oblivious to all these “limitations”, very often they teach us the important lesson of going with the flow, through their playfulness.  This happened to me recently during “Circle Time” with the children.

We always begin our session with “Circle Time”.  This is the time we use to transition children from their conventional classroom scenario to our Tejasvita ambiance. And during the beginning of the academic year, we ensure that children get comfortable with us and the transition, by singing out their names, using puppets and giving a personalized greeting. We teachers also get to know the children and their names during this time.

In a pre-primary class, we sometimes struggle to differentiate children if they have similar names, since children at this age do not take their names as seriously as we adults do.  But this year, our challenge became a tad more challenging – we have two identical twins in our class , Vaishnavi and Vaibhavi and nobody in school, including themselves, could tell us one from the other.  We tried calling out their names frequently to see who responded first, thereby giving us a small clue. But this effort yielded different results every time. Totally confused, we went to their class teacher hoping to get some help.  She told us that the only difference between them is that one of them wears an earring in one of the ears. But was the girl with the earring, Vaibhavi or Vaishnavi, we still had no clue. 

So, one day after class, when I took one of them aside and asked her if she was Vaishnavi, she said no. “Vaibhavi?”. She again shook her head in the negative.  As I wondered how a child could not know her name, I got an idea. This time I asked the child what her mother calls her at home. I was in for a surprise when she told me, “Vismaya”.  “What about your sister” I asked. “Vinaya”. I then realized that these were their “pet” names at home. Now I know the real size of the challenge that we were facing. Four names for two identical children with only one earring as a clue. 

Not willing to give up, the next day during Circle time, I called “Vaishnavi” out of turn to see who will respond.  The twins who were chatting and playing with themselves till then, looked at each other, passed a naughty grin between them and looked at me simultaneously.  It was as if they had a silent pact to keep this identity crisis, unresolved.  

As I closed the attendance register, I could not help smiling at these two naughty faces.  “Letting Children be” is an important part of our Tejasvita philosophy and these twins reminded me of that, once more. And they also reminded me that, logistics could always wait.

If life could be interesting as an identical twin, it is more so for a preschool teacher. 

– By Gayathri Tirthapura, Trustee at Tejasvita Trust

Arokya, a 5 year old boy was diligently working on the activity of the day – sorting pictures of fruits by both the type of fruit and the colour. As he sorted and stuck these 12 fruit pictures to his heart’s content on a piece of paper in a 6*2 matrix format, he seemed confident of what he was doing. He was also completely engrossed and seemed at peace doing this activity. He fearlessly got up to request for more glue and sat down to complete the rest of the activity. With great pride, he handed over the finished work to the teacher.

The teacher beamed at the finished work and having realized that there was a mistake in the sorting, gently asked Arokya, “What color is this?”, pointing to one of the fruit pictures.

“Red” Arokya answered.

The teacher then pointed to rest of the pictures in that column and before she could ask anything more, Arokya started laughing and took his finished work back to his spot. He had realised his mistake. He had sorted that one picture wrong. He corrected it, all the time laughing at himself and his silly mistake. The rest of the children doing their activity around him were engrossed in their own sorting battles and didn’t seem to be bothered by this episode.

One of the things I love doing every week is to visit a few of the preschool classrooms we work in, in the urban low income communities of Bangalore, India. It’s hard to imagine the kind of backgrounds these children come from. Being children of house maids, truck drivers and many other low paying and/or unstable professions, they represent some of the poorest in the country. Conditions are hard at home but their parents have decided that their children will have a better future. They have chosen affordable private schools (APS) for their children’s schooling where we, a non-profit organisation run our preschool supplementary program to support the existing early childhood classrooms. Our program is holistic and supports the cognitive, physical, social and emotional development of a child.

As I survey the classroom consisting of 36 children and 3 teachers, all absorbed in sorting, I can’t help but feel awed by how the teachers have accomplished this feat of engaging everyone in learning. Just 7 weeks ago when we started classes for this academic year, we struggled to set the classroom expectations with the children. Back then, they seemed to have very low entitlement, survival instincts were high, they were not willing to share or take turns and more than a few even resorted to aggression when things didn’t go their way. Back then, learning cognitive skills in such an atmosphere seemed like a far away dream.

Working in the early childhood space for about 10 years now has convinced me that being a teacher for young children requires a big heart, patience and stamina more than any other skill. You may have a great curriculum and lots of training in pedagogy but it can only take you so far. This is especially true if you are trying to build lifelong skills and values in children. The child watches his/her teacher’s every move and absorbs the vibe – is she excited about this activity she is doing with me, is she angry that I made a mistake, did she get irritated because I kept calling her again and again without waiting for my turn, did she cheer the other child up when he was sad, did she help him when the other child hit him. These vibes in the classroom shape the child’s mood and hence the motivation to learn. The longer teachers can create a good vibe in the classroom, the more steady learners the classroom will have.

I think of all the different things a teacher has to do simultaneously in the classroom to create the right vibe. She has to engage children with the right level of challenges based on their abilities, scaffold each child’s learning, while at the same time handling challenging behaviours of children patiently and be cheerful and excited about the activities all through the session.

As Carl Jung, the famous Swiss psychiatrist once said, “The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child” . It is this warmth that can shape the motivation of a child to learn. On this teachers’ day,  I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the teachers at Tejasvita and across the world for their passion, commitment and the warmth they carry in service of the holistic development of children.

 

– By Rewati Karmarkar , Teacher at Tejasvita Trust

In my four years at Tejasvita, so many children’s faces flit through my mind as I remember them with a smile on my face. Some I “meet” even now, as they have become “seniors” in their school- first and second graders. I say meet, but its more like being totally engulfed in little arms trying to encircle me to the point of being in danger of losing my balance. I just can’t help but reprimand… and laugh at the same time.

One of these children is a boy named Lohith.

Lohith is one of twins. When I first encountered him in our preschool program, he was a bundle of energy and both he and his twin would be running all over the class. It would be difficult to get their attention…and keep it!! They were a team – with his brother Likhith being the more energetic of the two and leading them into mischief. The only time both would sort of settle down was during “Free Play”.

Free Play is a process, we at Tejasvita, have once every week. We arrange different activity materials like puzzles, blocks, thinking games, beads, pretend play material like kitchen set, tool set etc. The children can pick up anything they want, explore, use, play and exchange it for a different one. This is the most popular activity for children and teachers alike. This is simply because of the informality of the process. Personally, some of my most memorable interactions with children have been during this time. Something to be said for responsibly used freedom.

Anyway, back to Lohith. Initially, he would pick up the tool set and his brother would pick up some blocks regularly. They would try to monopolize these during the complete session. In one such session, they didn’t manage to get the tool set. I offered the “Lion and Mouse” story book ( which was kept as part of the free play) to Lohith. He reluctantly took it. I sat with him and we started looking at the pictures. I asked him about them. The story had been narrated earlier in class using the same book. So he was familiar with the pictures and also the story. Initially he was hesitant but when we came to the part where the lion laughs, he laughed the same way as we did in the narration of the story earlier. He slowly began to get involved in the story. His brother, in the meantime, had secured the tool set and was calling him to join. I expected Lohith to immediately keep the book away and join him. But wonder of wonders, he continued sitting with me with the book. He would look at a picture and say a word he had heard in the narration associated with it. He finished the book with me. I thought, that was a good start. He would surely, go to the tool set now. But another wonder, he brought “The Thirsty Crow” book next and sat with me.

From then onwards, in every Free Play he started with books and then slowly started exploring other materials. He saw a 20 piece sunflower puzzle one day. It was a tough puzzle as there was no reference picture – just a bunch of similar looking puzzle pieces in a bag. He brought that to me and said “How Miss?” I sat with him.  “See, this has a brown part, but other is missing… which piece will fit? “ And we went on. After guiding him for a while, I got up to go to another child. I kept glancing to see how he was doing. I half expected him to give up. But he just kept at it and he was left with 2 pieces which were not fitting easily. I thought he would call me. But he continued to struggle and finally he finished!!!!

I still vividly remember that face smiling from ear to ear, so much pride in the achievement. He took my hand and led me to his place. I wished I could have kept that solved puzzle just like that.

Since then, while he still had his occasional “energetic” moments with his brother, somewhere within he had changed. He was more confident and was more involved. He started taking more care even in explorative tasks, planning and thinking.

He still grins from ear to ear whenever he sees me in school. Once, he held my hand as he walked with me and asked “How are you Miss?”  

What can I say? I am super lucky to be able to receive so much uninhibited love from all OUR children!!!