How practicals are done in India? How should it be done through inquiry-based approach?
Practicals in school and colleges are all about writing records. They spend most of the time on writing records, drawing fancy diagrams without even knowing anything about what they are writing/drawing.
Teachers also award students whose records are only visually appealing, not on the content/or not whether students have understood what they are doing.
e.g. recently I heard from a student that teacher managed to throw the notebook because she was writing in a rough notebook.
So, classes are all about writing records that teacher dictates with giving a very little practical knowledge
I even don't blame the teacher. He/she does the same thing what she/he has been taught in her/his times of college. So it just a repetition/ritual way of doing things what has been done since the inception of colleges.
So, how it should be fixed through inquiry-based approach?
It can be fixed by bringing a change in curriculum.
Let's look at the syllabus of practical. Just one or two lines statements of each practical.
Neither there are any good practical books, which gives complete detail about how practical should be taught? (not how it should be done?) Most practical books are written like notes, from which students can learn nothing.
So here is an example how practical should be taught, or books should be written? Please do look at it thoroughly:
Mixing sugar and water, what happens to sugar:
http://scientificargumentation.stanford.edu/assessments/mixing-sugar-and-water/
Teaching about surface tension and statistics(Classroom Strategies for Inquiry-Based Learning, http://www.edx.org):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSXAYhgCf4I
Teachers also award students whose records are only visually appealing, not on the content/or not whether students have understood what they are doing.
e.g. recently I heard from a student that teacher managed to throw the notebook because she was writing in a rough notebook.
So, classes are all about writing records that teacher dictates with giving a very little practical knowledge
I even don't blame the teacher. He/she does the same thing what she/he has been taught in her/his times of college. So it just a repetition/ritual way of doing things what has been done since the inception of colleges.
So, how it should be fixed through inquiry-based approach?
It can be fixed by bringing a change in curriculum.
Let's look at the syllabus of practical. Just one or two lines statements of each practical.
Neither there are any good practical books, which gives complete detail about how practical should be taught? (not how it should be done?) Most practical books are written like notes, from which students can learn nothing.
So here is an example how practical should be taught, or books should be written? Please do look at it thoroughly:
Mixing sugar and water, what happens to sugar:
http://scientificargumentation.stanford.edu/assessments/mixing-sugar-and-water/
Teaching about surface tension and statistics(Classroom Strategies for Inquiry-Based Learning, http://www.edx.org):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSXAYhgCf4I
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