Not long ago, when the millennials were school students, most of them relied on the teachers to spoon-feed them with the answers that were important for the exams. The trend of filling in the answer sheets as per the bookish language, was considered to be a sign of intelligence of the student. However, with the changing times, being a bookworm has become outdated, as experiential and creative learning has proven to be more effective for a student\u2019s mind. This Children\u2019s Day, it is time to acknowledge the benefits of experiential learning to ensure that our children understand the importance of learning beyond textbooks knowledge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being a Bookworm- #NotSoCoolForSchool <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Books are indeed our best friends, but to mug up every word by word of a book isn\u2019t its true purpose. One must understand that books are an avenue to expand horizons of knowledge and imagination. With this concept, the term \u201cexperiential learning\u201d, has paved its way as a trending topic on educational platforms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Experiential learning<\/a> focuses on providing learners with meaningful, hands-on experiences. After engaging in these activities, learners reflect on their experiences and discuss them with peers to analyse the challenges they encountered and how they addressed them. The next phase involves generalisation, where learners connect their insights to real-world situations and explore how these lessons can be applied in both similar and diverse contexts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inspired by this teaching methodology, the NCERT director Dinesh Prasad Saklani<\/strong>, mentioned that \u201cLearning has to be joyful, not stressful<\/a>\u201d. He emphasises that children must be encouraged to think innovatively. With this aim and with alignment to the National Education Policy 2020, the STEM pedagogy has been introduced to ensure that students garner quality and conclusive education through experiential learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With additions of modules to understand the country’s development and achievements, along with yoga the aim is to offer students a holistic learning environment that enhances their learning skills and fosters their ability to be intrigued beyond bookish knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is STEM the way to go? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) is the new pedagogy that has been introduced for young learners to have a conclusive experiential learning experience where their mental skills are expanded to enhance their curiosity, problem-solving skills, self confidence through learning and task accomplishment ability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Through STEM, educators can interact with students through practical experiments that can give students a first hand experience. Through STEM, students and educators can create a learning environment that pushes both of them to think out of the box solutions, rather than following the traditional approaches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Something that has been learned through experiments makes a bigger and impactful sensory experience. Therefore, STEM promotes an authentic learning experience where students are trained to tackle real life and world problems. The objective is to train students from an early age to think and act for the bigger and real world, so that from the start, they have adapted critical thinking skills giving them an edge to be ready to face any sort of challenges in their future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the primary benefits of STEM education is that it encourages students to be curious. As it is an interactive pedagogy, STEM is based on discovery, discussion, ideation and innovation encouraging students to keep their minds open for new learnings. It makes the learning process engaging to be discussed and practised beyond the classroom, keeping students curious to learn more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n STEM encourages students to learn the value of working together. With practical experiments done together as a team, this method of learning often helps students to communicate better, have an increased sense of patience and enthusiastic participation skills fostering a sense of confidence and better communication skills from very early on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As India\u2019s educational reforms adopt new pedagogical approaches such as STEM and STEAM, it has become imperative to ensure that every child regardless of their socio-economic background, is given the opportunity to garner quality education through STEM and STEAM education. <\/p>\n\n\n\n India\u2019s Rural educational landscape has improved over the years, with an increased number of girl child students in schools and less drop out rates, however, the challenges like lack of quality education and educators, safer space for girl child in schools, gender inequality in classrooms and accessibility still prevail. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, in such a scenario, Smile Foundation<\/a> has been working closely with socially economically disadvantaged communities of India ensuring that children from such communities do not get left behind from the ambit of quality education.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat is Experiential Learning?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Benefits of STEM Education <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Children\u2019s Day & STEM for all \u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n