Transformational Bharatiya Pedagogy
सा विद्या या प्रमोदिनी
Researchers :
Suryanarayana jammalamadaka, Radhika Vennelaganti
According to Vedic wisdom, the primary pursuit of all creation is delight. The obstacle to delight is limited perception and power. Removal of limitation can only come from knowledge of the tattva (essential nature) of things behind appearances also called as dharma. Hence, dharmic perspective means awareness of the true tattva and action in accordance. The purpose of education is to delve into the true tattva of things and hence, it is the only path to lasting delight. Vedic knowledge provides the most comprehensive and self-consistent understanding of the tattva of the universe (both matter and consciousness). While the western knowledge aims to achieve the same its conception is not as comprehensive.
Effective education requires acquiring the following meta-learning skills: grahana (keen observation), dharana (retention and recall), karana (execution: ability to make things happen), tattva vicharana (scientific inquiry: grasping the inherent nature behind appearances) and samvedana (sensitivity and empathy: resonating with the feelings of others, to understand other perspectives). Modern education has no direct method to teach these skills whereas gurukula education explicitly hones them.
The objective of this project is to develop a novel method of pedagogy that brings back the positive aspects of the gurukula approach in modern conditions and bring back joy in learning. To do so we cater to the demands of various aspects of human self, called the koshas. We focus on inculcating the following traits in the student: curiosity, self-learning, summarization, competition, application and teaching. Each trait gives a different kind of joy. We augment the pristine gurukula approach with additional traits drawn from the best of modern education to make education enjoyable and effective.
| Modern Education | Gurukula Way | Proposed Way |
|---|---|---|
|
Fastest and Slowest student taught in the same way |
Different learning paths based on student ability |
|
|
Push based by ?? |
Pull based by raising questions and letting student seek answers |
|
|
Taught the output of science – imparting information |
Learn from experience |
Teach the method of science |
|
Learning flows from teacher to student |
Learning flows from teacher and fellow students |
Peer learning and mentoring from senior to junior students |
|
Lot of load on teacher |
Lot of load on teacher |
Teacher only prepares questions to trigger learning |
|
Very little application outside textbook context |
Limited application |
Compulsory application |
|
Teacher talks more than students in class |
No structured classes |
Highly interactive classes |
|
Evaluation creates success-failure divide |
No failure |
Evaluation includes teaching by the student |
Rationale
Effectiveness of senses means the ability to grasp the information fully and accurately, which most of us are unable to do. Without that training, buddhi operates on inadequate data. Sri Aurobindo also stresses on training the senses. But our approach to training is based on arousing interest. Interest is the basis of all concentration. Concentration is the basis of accurate functioning of all faculties, i.e. senses,manas,buddhi etc. Concentration means the yojanam of aatma with the whole machinery – buddhi, manas , indriyas etc.
Montessori takes it for granted that the student already has interest in the subject. Their student is very young who has a natural curiosity for everything. If the student doesn’t have that interest, Montessori will fail. But we cannot assume that in our case. Hence we have an explicit step of jijnaasa. We rely on the student’s innate urge for delight to arouse interest.
Delight –> interest –> concentration–> better assimilation of knowledge, whether sensory or otherwise
Approach
The central focus of our pedagogy approach is svaadhyaaya. All other aspects are to support that. We are open to adopting whatever method of svaadhyaaya is appropriate- experiential, argumentative, speculative , contemplative – as the subject demands it. But we differ by recognizing that the needs of learners are different. Not all are interested in knowledge for knowledge’s sake. We recognize that delight is the ultimate prayojana, and cater to that in the process by taking the svabhaava of the learner into account. We introduce a powerful technique of organising knowledge that reduces the complexity and ambiguity by capturing the author’s intent (vivaksha) faithfully in a canonical manner using shaastric methods.This is how we differ from mindmapping, by paying attention to vivaksha.