Inclusion of spirituality in education

Spirituality is a set of beliefs and attitudes of people and spirituality education leads to important effects on people’s psychological health.

It is imperative that we educate students to explore deeper and higher dimensions of human resources so they can successfully work for the fulfilment of their ideal dreams.

Our teachings need turn to the dimensions of values, will power and cultural, ethical and spiritual potentialities.

Education through using religious doctrine included the patience, trust, mercifulness, adoration, proper thanks giving to God, theology, self- reflection and presence of God in life.

The focus of education has been more on material improvements and pecuniary benefits, rather than on holistic growth of mind, body and spirit.

For an inclusive education philosophy, the following could be useful pointers:
1. Education should teach a student about the real nature of the individual and Nature.
2. Demonstrate that all life is a play of consciousness with itself.
3. Relate the evolution of living success to the movement of conscious life towards increasing higher levels of awareness.
4. Declare the purpose of each life to be the realisation of divine potential.
5.Teach students the art of dynamic equilibrium so that they never tend to extremes, but tread the middle path.
6. Educate to train our mind so that we always live in the present.
7. Teach students to exert their utmost to achieve their objectives as if everything depended on their effort, yet simultaneously also realise that all events are divinely ordained.
8. Make students take life as it comes, accept whatever comes as a gift from the Divine and remain in a state of equilibrium under all circumstances.
9. Help students to be steadfast in their views, but not claim exclusive truth for their doctrines; to be ready to accept alternative versions of the truth.
10. Integrate with modern doctrines of science, gender, parity, liberty, equality and fraternity and human rights.
When spirituality will be completely embraced by our education system, our students will not only make a living in this physical world, but also make living a success and experience every moment of life as new, every day as a day of uplift, blessing  and enjoy lasting peace.
Stay strong with educational spirituality to rock your platform!

Tips for Attitude Change

Tips for Attitude Change

The following mentioned are few points that help in bringing change in attitude.....

1. First identify the change you want in yourself

2. Look out the solution for the problem detected

3. Look for some role model

4. Try not to say no

5. Try to apply the solution in your daily life

6. Reach out to maximum people

7. Stop thinking about the past

8. Think about the change in your life

9. Do not have expectations

10. Do not move out to the one’s who lead you down

11. See positivity in everything

12. Read good books in life

13. Count the blessings in life

14. Let go of the negative things

15. Make a list of things you are grateful for

16. Make use of the positive words

17. Help others

18. Indulge yourself in some work

19. Meditate a lot

20. Take an initiative always

21. No one is perfect, so just move on

22. Read positive quotes

So, above are some of the points on positive and negative attitude and how to improve attitude by turning your negative attitude into positive one.

No matter what difficulties you have to counter in life, make sure you stay strong, positive and happy always.

Only positive thoughts in the mind can help you gain all what you need in life.

Happiness, success and satisfaction in life, all can be achieved when your mind is at peace and mind can only be at peace if you let positivity rule your life.....

STUDENT CENTRED LEARNING AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH-Part3

STUDENT  CENTRED LEARNING  AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH-Part3
Dr.S.Sekar,  Educational consultant & Academic Researcher

HELPING STUDENTS TO LEARN HOW THEY LEARN:

This is the most important thing that human beings ever learn.  In an educational institution, it is vital that everyone is fully aware of the natural processes underpinning human learning, so that they can take control of these consciously, and develop them systematically. 

The following suggestions may help you to keep learning to-learn uppermost in your teaching and in your students approaches to learning:
1. Remind students how long they have been learning to learn 
2. Ask them to reflect on just how much they actually learned during the first two or three years of life. 
3. Remind them that most of this learning they did more or less under their own steam, without any conscious thought about teaching, or even learning. 
4. Remind them that they still own the brain that did all of this, and can still use it to learn vast amounts of new knowledge, skills and competences.
5. Ask students about their learning in school.  They would have learned large amounts of information and would have forgotten most of this! Also, however, they would have learned a great deal about how to take in knowledge and information, and will still have this skill.
6. Remind students that they will never stop learning to learn:  Get them to talk about learning to senior people they know, and retired ones too.
7. Ask them what they have learned only recently.  Ask them how they learned it.  Ask them what they found out about themselves while learning it.  Then ask them which of these was most important and most interesting to them.
8. Provide programmes for students to learn about learning.  Training programmes can help students to tune in to the power of their own minds. 

A good learning facilitator can help students to gain control of the processes by which they learn most efficiently.  Many students find it useful to explore how their minds work in the company of other students, and learn from each others experiences.

Provide resources to help students to learn about their own learning: 
1. Not everyone is comfortable attending a training programme about learning to learn. 
2. Some students fear that inadequacies or deficiencies may be exposed. 
3. Computer-based or print-based packages that help students explore their own learning in the comfort of privacy may be more attractive to such students.
4. Get students asking themselves:  What did I learn about myself when I learned this?. 
5. Learning to learn is closely connected with understanding ones own mind, and ones own preferences and choices.

Get students asking:
What really worked when I learned this?  The chances are that the factors that made one element of learning successful will be transferable to their next element of learning.  There are long works for this, such as  metacognitive processing, but it is simply about helping students to be looking inwards at what works for them when they learn, and what doesnt.

Get students teasing out what slows their learning down.  The more we all know about how the brakes work, the better we can use them only when we need them.

Devloping students key skills.
The development of students problem solving skills is also increasingly being addressed in Sr.Secondary education.

The following suggestions may help you think about your own ways to implement students development of these skills:
Try wherever possible to build into your course provision the assessment of students key skills. 

Whilst stand-alone key skills assessment and accreditation is now available international school students, the evidence suggests that a subject-based, integrated approach works better for most students.

Use assignments as the vehicle for testing studentss key skills.  When designing assignments, angle of activities and tasks that you set towards meeting specific key skills criteria.  For example, look at how an assignment might involve working with others elements. 

Be careful, however, not to pack in too many key skills requirements, or to allow assignments to become too unwieldy for students to undertake, or for you to assess.

Where possible, store your handout materials on disk.  Go for small print runs.  It is then easy to make considerable adjustments and additions to handouts each successive time you use them.  Avoid the waste associated with piles of handouts that youve subsequently replace with updated , improved versions.

Marks are neither the measure of Education nor the Success….

Marks are neither the measure of Education nor the Success….

Every year, the CBSE 12th Class Result  come as an Eye opener to all of us and the bitter reality dawn  on us about the stress and the pressure which has become an indispensable part of our children’s lives…

Thousands of students across India securing above 95℅, is compelling enough to make us sit together to introspect the situation.

The admission to many prestigious Colleges and Universities is becoming much tougher every year  with a large no.of students securing 95% and above.
Then what about the students who have not been able to fare well?

Where is it going to take our children to?
Shouldn’t we consider some other options, other than the traditional ones, Engineering, Medical or MBA?
Marks or the knowledge without creativity is meaningless.

if knowledge is the tool in one’s hands, creativity is the expertise or the skill to use it effectively.

So, one must try to acquire one or the other skill which fascinates him the most and should try his level best to attain proficiency of higher order in it.
When one’s hobby or anything of his interest becomes his profession, nobody or nothing can stop him from reaching the top rung of the ladder of success.
We can find hundreds of such examples of such people around us who are excelling in their respective fields as they chose their hobby or the area of their utmost interest and had even developed and groomed it to the fullest without bothering about their marks or their rank in the school, state or the Board.
The most glaring example is that of the Great Physicist and Nobel Laureate, Elbert Einstein, who was compelled to leave the school as he resisted the traditional methods of teaching with undue emphasis on memorization and rote learning only. There was no room at all for creativity or imagination.
And the rest is history. The theory of Relativity, as invented by him, is the basis of all the nuclear operations.
To sum it up, the students must sharpen their creativity or imagination, hone their skills in the areas of their interest and the rest will come to them naturally, effortlessly, whether good marks, high rank or admission in any course in any prestigious College or University!!!!

Integrating the Science of Resilience in Schools

Integrating the Science of Resilience in Schools

Schools are places where young people spend a great deal of their time, and as such they play a key role in the development of students’ resilience. This occurs in a range of ways — via formal teaching opportunities and the informal learning that occurs through modelling and practice of new skills.

Elementary or primary school is an excellent time to begin teaching resilience to children. The earlier children begin building resilience, the more likely it is to “stick.” However, resilience is not something that can only be built in young children; children in middle school can also benefit greatly from resilience building.

A great resource and suggestions for resilience building in young children comes from Professor Helen McGrath’s Bounce Back! program.

“Bounce Back!” is an acronym for some of the foundational principles of resilience, specifically:
B – Bad times don’t last, and things get better.
O – Other people can only help if you share with them.
U – Unhelpful thinking only makes you feel worse.
N – Nobody is perfect – not you, not your friends, not your family, not anybody!
C – Concentrate on the good things in life, no matter how small.
E – Everybody suffers, everybody feels pain and experiences setbacks; they are a normal part of life.
B – Blame fairly – negative events are often a combination of things you did, things others did, and plain bad luck.
A – Accept what you can’t change and try to change what you can.
C – Catastrophizing makes things worse – don’t fall prey to believing in the worst interpretation.
K – Keep things in perspective. Even the worst moment is but one moment in life.

McGrath applies these principles to building these components of resilience:
Courage
Managing feelings
Humor
Relationship skills
Self-knowledge
Goal setting skills
Optimistic thinking
Helpful thinking skills (avoiding cognitive distortions)

While planning a lesson, the above components of resilience should be identified and related activities must be incorporated. This definitely in a long run will help children to cope up with stress related situation.

Acquiring confidence before an audience

Acquiring confidence before an audience

There is a strange sensation often experienced in the presence of an audience. It may proceed from the gaze of the many eyes that turn upon the speaker, especially if he permits himself to steadily return that gaze. Most speakers have been conscious of this in a nameless thrill, a real something, pervading the atmosphere, tangible, evanescent, indescribable. All writers have borne testimony to the power of a speaker’s eye in impressing an audience. This influence which we are now considering is the reverse of that picture, the power their eyes may exert upon him, especially before he begins to speak: after the inward fires of oratory are fanned into flame the eyes of the audience lose all terror.

Students of public speaking continually ask, “How can I overcome self-consciousness and the fear that paralyses me before an audience?” Did you ever notice while looking from a train window that some horses feed near the track and never even pause to look up at the thundering carriage, while just ahead at the next railway crossing a farmer’s wife will be nervously trying to quiet her scared horse as the train goes by? How would you cure a horse that is afraid of cars, graze him in a back-woods lot where he would never see steam-engines or automobiles, or drive or pasture him where he would frequently see the machines?

Apply horse-sense to ridding yourself of self-consciousness and fear: face an audience as frequently as you can, and you will soon stop shying. You can never attain freedom from stage-fright by reading a treatise. A book may give you excellent suggestions on how best to conduct yourself in the water, but sooner or later you must get wet, perhaps even strangle and be “half scared to death.” There are a great many “wetless” bathing suits worn at the seashore, but no one ever learns to swim in them. To plunge is the only way. Practice, practice, PRACTICE in speaking before an audience will tend to remove all fear of audiences, just as practise in swimming will lead to confidence and facility in the water. You must learn to speak by speaking. Do not be disheartened if at first you suffer from stage-fright. For one reason or another, some master-speakers never entirely overcome stage-fright, but it will pay you to spare no pains to conquer it.

Be Absorbed by Your Subject:

Blacksmiths sometimes twist a rope tight around the nose of a horse, and by thus inflicting a little pain they distract his attention from the shoeing process. One way to get air out of a glass is to pour in water. Apply the blacksmith’s homely principle when you are speaking. If you feel deeply about your subject you will be able to think of little else. Concentration is a process of distraction from less important matters. It is too late to think about the cut of your coat once you are upon the platform, so centre your interest on what you are about to say, fill your mind with your speech-material and, like the infilling water in the glass, it will drive out your unsubstantial fears.

Self-consciousness is undue consciousness of self, and, for the purpose of delivery, self is secondary to your subject, not only in the opinion of the audience, but, if you are wise, in your own. It is sheer egotism to fill your mind with thoughts of self when a greater thing is there, TRUTH Say this to yourself sternly, and shame your self-consciousness into quiescence. If the theater caught fire you could rush to the stage and shout directions to the audience without any self-consciousness, for the importance of what you were saying would drive all fear-thoughts out of your mind.

Far worse than self-consciousness through fear of doing poorly is self-consciousness through assumption of doing well. The first sign of greatness is when a man does not attempt to look and act great. Before you can call yourself a man at all, Kipling assures us, you must “not look too good nor talk too wise.” Nothing advertises itself so thoroughly as conceit.

Have Something to Say: The trouble with many speakers is that they go before an audience with their minds a blank. It is no wonder that Nature, abhorring a vacuum, fills them with the nearest thing handy, which generally happens to be, “I wonder if I am doing this right! How does my hair look? I know I shall fail.” Their prophetic souls are sure to be right. It is not enough to be absorbed by your subject, to acquire self-confidence you must have something in which to be confident. If you go before an audience without any preparation, or previous knowledge of your subject, you ought to be self-conscious, you ought to be ashamed to steal the time of your audience. Prepare yourself. Know what you are going to talk about, and, in general, how you are going to say it. Have the first few sentences worked out completely so that you may not be troubled in the beginning to find words. Know your subject better than your listeners know it, and you have nothing to fear.

After Preparing for Success, Expect It:

Let your bearing be modestly confident, but most of all be modestly confident within. Over-confidence is bad, but to tolerate premonitions of failure is worse, for a bold man may win attention by his very bearing, while a rabbit-hearted coward invites disaster.

Humility is not the personal discount that we must offer in the presence of others, against this old interpretation there has been a most healthy modern reaction. Any man who thoroughly knows himself must feel True humility but it is not a humility that assumes a worm like meekness; it is rather a strong, vibrant prayer for greater power for service, a prayer that could never have uttered.

Washington Irving once introduced Charles Dickens at a dinner given in the latter’s honour. In the middle of his speech Irving hesitated, became embarrassed, and sat down awkwardly.Turning to a friend beside him he remarked, “There, I told you I would fail, and I did.” If you believe you will fail, there is no hope for you. You will. Rid yourself of this I-am-a-poor-worm-in-the-dust idea. You are a god, with infinite capabilities. “All things are ready if the mind be so.” The eagle looks the cloudless sun in the face.

Assume Mastery Over Your Audience:

In public speech, as in electricity, there is a positive and a negative force. Either you or your audience are going to possess the positive factor. If you assume it, you can almost invariably make it yours If you assume the negative, you are sure to be negative. Assuming a virtue or a vice vitalises it. Summon all your power of self-direction, and remember that though your audience is infinitely more important than you are, the truth is more important than both of you, because it is eternal. If your mind falters in its leadership, the sword will drop from your hands. Your assumption of being able to instruct or lead or inspire a multitude or even a small group of people may appal you as being colossal impudence, as indeed it may be; but having once essayed to speak.

BE courageous, it lies within you to be what you will.MAKE yourself be calm and confident. In facing your audience, pause a moment and look them over, a hundred chances to one they want you to succeed, for what man is so foolish as to spend his time, perhaps his money, in the hope that you will waste his investment by talking dully?

Several skills students need for their future

Several Skills Students Need for Their Future.

There are two major trends in the world that pose a fundamental challenge – and many opportunities – to our educational system. One is the world is shifting from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy. The other is the rising generation – brought up on the Internet – is very differently motivated to learn.

These two forces, argues Dr. Tony Wagner, co-director of Harvard's Change Leadership Group, compel us to reconceptualize education in this country. In his thoughtful analysis of future industry needs and education readiness studies, Dr. Wagner has identified what he calls a "global achievement gap," which is the leap between what even our best schools are teaching, and the must-have skills of the future:

1. Critical thinking and problem-solving
2. Collaboration across networks and leading by influence
3. Agility and adaptability
4. Initiative and entrepreneurialism
5. Effective oral and written communication
6. Accessing and analyzing information
7. Curiosity and imagination

Dr. Wagner points out that in today’s digital age, the “Net generation” is, among other things, accustomed to instant gratification and use of the web for extending friendships, interest-driven, self-directed learning; and are constantly connected, creating, and multitasking in a multimedia world – everywhere except in school.

In order to motivate and teach this generation, the school system must be reinvented to be accountable for what matters most. That means to do the work – teaching, learning, and assessing – in new ways.

Students must acquire knowledge, but “we need to use content to teach core competencies,” he states.

To learn more about the seven skills, and how to reinvent the education system to prepare our graduates for the 21st century, please view the accompanying presentation below.

This presentation is based on Dr. Wagner's book: From The Global Achievement Gap: https://www.slideshare.net/internationaled/the-global-achievement-gap Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach The New Survival Skills Our Children Need – And What We Can Do About It (Basic Books, 2008). The program was made possible through the generous and visionary support of the MetLife Foundation.