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From Karnataka Open Educational Resources
→10. Language as a barrier to learning and classroom interactions
== '''Caselets based on interactions with students as part of the Technology Integration for Inclusive Education Project''' ==
== '''Caselets based on interactions with students as part of the Technology Integration for Inclusive Education Project''' ==
=== 1. Padma - Case of a child with possible learning difficulties _ 16th March-23 ===
=== 1. ''Padma'' - Case of a child with possible learning difficulties _ 16th March-23 ===
Padma's parents are in Gulbarga, Padma's mother has six daughters; she is the third child, who was delivered at home through vaginal delivery. Her aunt adopted her because they do not have a girl child after four sons, Padma was adopted as fifth child and father's holy pet daughter, the father takes care of her very well, getting anything she asks for, and not scolding her for anything.
Padma's parents are in Gulbarga, Padma's mother has six daughters; she is the third child, who was delivered at home through vaginal delivery. Her aunt adopted her because they do not have a girl child after four sons, Padma was adopted as fifth child and father's holy pet daughter, the father takes care of her very well, getting anything she asks for, and not scolding her for anything.
• In what ways can we support/interact with such a child where she only responds in individual interactions?
• In what ways can we support/interact with such a child where she only responds in individual interactions?
=== 4. “Mujhe bhi bholne ko chance diyo yar” _19th March 23 ===
=== 4. “Mujhe bhi bholne ka chance diyo yar” _19th March 23 ===
It was an activity where, children of grade 6 were asked to create a horror story in groups of 5-6 each. In one of the groups, there was a student Sumukh (name changed) who was involved as one of the group member. Sumukh is always seen as silent, not interacting with others, not giving answers to questions but when given problems to solve he would solve quickly and correctly. After several discussions and interactions it was found that he cannot understand Kannada as he is from West Bengal who has recently shifted to Bangalore. Before he was studying in Shantinikethan school in west bengal. After shifting to Bangalore he got an admission in GHPS School. When we tried speaking to him in Hindi he started expressing about himself a bit comfortably.
It was an activity where, children of grade 6 were asked to create a horror story in groups of 5-6 each. In one of the groups, there was a student Sumukh (name changed) who was involved as one of the group member. Sumukh is always seen as silent, not interacting with others, not giving answers to questions but when given problems to solve he would solve quickly and correctly. After several discussions and interactions it was found that he cannot understand Kannada as he is from West Bengal who has recently shifted to Bangalore. Before he was studying in Shantinikethan school in west bengal. After shifting to Bangalore he got an admission in GHPS School. When we tried speaking to him in Hindi he started expressing about himself very comfortably.
During the activity of creating a horror story, as we knew that the boy knows Hindi we asked him to create the story in Hindi. Then the other children complained that they cannot understand. Then the boy immediately said, “ Mujhe bhi bholne ko chanace diyo yar”. Then one of the girl who knew both languages agreed to translate his story to others and others story to him. As the group was creating stories and adding their inputs this boy added his inputs so imaginatively and realistically as if it was his own experience. His language skills and vocabulary were so excellent that he went on describing the story for about 6 minutes continuously adding details so vividly.
During the activity of creating a horror story, as we knew that the boy knows Hindi we asked him to create the story in Hindi. Then the other children complained that they cannot understand. Then the boy immediately said, “ Mujhe bhi bholne ka chance diyo yar”. Then one of the girl who knew both languages agreed to translate his story in kannada and other language to others and others story to him. As the group was creating stories and adding their inputs this boy added his inputs so imaginatively and realistically as if it was his own experience. His language skills and vocabulary were so excellent that he went on describing the story for about 6 minutes continuously adding details so vividly.
We had never seen Sumukh to be so expressive and imagined him to be so talkative till then. After this incident, Sumukh Started expressing his ideas and thoughts in classroom. He would also share with us what happened throughout the day in School.
We had never seen Sumukh to be so expressive and imagined him to be so talkative till then. After this incident, Sumukh Started expressing his ideas and thoughts in classroom. He would also share with us what happened throughout the day in School.
Language is not a barrier to learning. But, it should be considered as a means to learning.
Language is not a barrier to learning. But, it should be considered as a means to learning.
=== 5. Empathetic teacher (Manjula madam)_20th March23 ===
=== 5. Behavioural issues among children ===
Students of class 7 are playing a dice and colouring game in a 100-grid, where one wins when they reach 100 first. However, one student, Abhi (name changed), starts multiple arguments when his peers got higher scores or he got lower scores. Abhi has difficulty interacting with his peers and teachers, and often reacts aggressively with vulgar words and displays non-cooperative behaviour. Other students have tried to reason with him, but they give up after a while. In this instance, they let him make up his score and did not pay him much heed while they continued to play as per the rules.
Students of class 7 are playing a dice and colouring game in a 100-grid, where one wins when they reach 100 first. However, one student, Abhi (name changed), starts multiple arguments when his peers got higher scores or he got lower scores. Abhi has difficulty interacting with his peers and teachers, and often reacts aggressively with vulgar words and displays non-cooperative behaviour. Other students have tried to reason with him, but they give up after a while. In this instance, they let him make up his score and did not pay him much heed while they continued to play as per the rules.
• How can we make the atmosphere in the classroom more inclusive and empathetic for the children?
• How do the bullying, teasing, ‘ganging up’ affect classroom culture?
• How do the bullying, teasing, ‘ganging up’ affect classroom culture?
• How can we build collaborative / cooperative skills among the children?
• How can we build collaborative / cooperative skills among the children?
=== 7. Attitudes towards the opposite sex ===
=== 6. Attitudes towards the opposite sex ===
“Agalla mam, thu avl pakkana nan ninthkolalla, nan illi evn pakka nilthini” (Not possible, ma’am. I am not going to stand next to her. I will stand next to him instead) – This is what Dhamu (name changed), a student of class 7 told his teacher, and started questioning the teacher’s decision to make girls and boys stand in an alternating manner. When the teacher tried to explain that girls are also his peers, and when he can interact with the women in his family, he can do the same with his classmates, but he replied,
“Agalla mam, thu avl pakkana nan ninthkolalla, nan illi evn pakka nilthini” (Not possible, ma’am. I am not going to stand next to her. I will stand next to him instead) – This is what Dhamu (name changed), a student of class 7 told his teacher, and started questioning the teacher’s decision to make girls and boys stand in an alternating manner. When the teacher tried to explain that girls are also his peers, and when he can interact with the women in his family, he can do the same with his classmates, but he replied,
=== 8. A case study on dealing with disciplinary issues ===
=== 7. A case study on dealing with disciplinary issues ===
As a part of some post-baseline sessions, a story-reading session was planned for grade 6 at one of the schools under TIIE. These sessions, where images in the story are displayed using a projector, and the audio plays along, are well-liked by students across schools and grades, and all students were excited to see what the story was about.
As a part of some post-baseline sessions, a story-reading session was planned for grade 6 at one of the schools under TIIE. These sessions, where images in the story are displayed using a projector, and the audio plays along, are well-liked by students across schools and grades, and all students were excited to see what the story was about.
• What can NGOs such as ours working in school do to address these issues?
• What can NGOs such as ours working in school do to address these issues?
=== 9. A blurry future? - Case of a child with eyesight problems ===
=== 8. A blurry future? - Case of a child with eyesight problems ===
It is a regular school day at a government school in South Bengaluru. The teacher writes something on the blackboard, encouraging students to pay attention and respond. A little later, she shares a worksheet to assess what students have learnt. However, amidst the eager responses and student chatter, one child is distracted. Pritam (name changed) is struggling to understand what is being taught in class. He squints to focus on what is written on the blackboard but is unable to understand the letters. He tries squeezing one eye shut and bringing the worksheet within 2-3 inches of the other eye. This helps a little, but before he can decipher all the questions, the class is over and the worksheets are collected back. Pritam doesn’t perform well in this test.
It is a regular school day at a government school in South Bengaluru. The teacher writes something on the blackboard, encouraging students to pay attention and respond. A little later, she shares a worksheet to assess what students have learnt. However, amidst the eager responses and student chatter, one child is distracted. Pritam (name changed) is struggling to understand what is being taught in class. He squints to focus on what is written on the blackboard but is unable to understand the letters. He tries squeezing one eye shut and bringing the worksheet within 2-3 inches of the other eye. This helps a little, but before he can decipher all the questions, the class is over and the worksheets are collected back. Pritam doesn’t perform well in this test.
• How can we strengthen our existing systems to avoid cases such as Pritam’s from escalating and resulting in long-term damage? How can awareness regarding applicable government provisions and schemes be raised among the parent community?
• How can we strengthen our existing systems to avoid cases such as Pritam’s from escalating and resulting in long-term damage? How can awareness regarding applicable government provisions and schemes be raised among the parent community?
=== 10. Learning challenges brought on by a long learning gap ===
=== 9. Learning challenges brought on by a long learning gap ===
“ma’am avanige akshara ne baralla!” (He doesn’t even know the letters!)
“ma’am avanige akshara ne baralla!” (He doesn’t even know the letters!)
• What can be done to avoid such cases from happening in the future?
• What can be done to avoid such cases from happening in the future?
=== 11. Language as a barrier to learning and classroom interactions ===
=== 10. Language as a barrier to learning and classroom interactions ===
Language barriers in the classroom are ubiquitous in a country that has over 19,500 spoken languages. Such diversity brings its own set of challenges, but from an educational perspective the results are especially disastrous. UNESCO estimates that 40% of school-aged children don’t have access to education in a language they understand. Following are the cases of such children in government schools in Bengaluru whose home languages are different from the school’s medium of instruction and they need to learn a new language to understand their teachers and peers.
Language barriers in the classroom are ubiquitous in a country that has over 19,500 spoken languages. Such diversity brings its own set of challenges, but from an educational perspective the results are especially disastrous. UNESCO estimates that 40% of school-aged children don’t have access to education in a language they understand. Following are the cases of such children in government schools in Bengaluru whose home languages are different from the school’s medium of instruction and they need to learn a new language to understand their teachers and peers.
• What additional measures can be taken?
• What additional measures can be taken?
=== 11. Child who is very confused and disturbed_20th March 23 ===
"Rohan" (name changed) is a 13 years old, enrolled in grade 7 in the Government Higher Primary School. He is the oldest child of his parents, and has a younger brother who is a fourth-grader at the same school. He was previosuly enrolled in a Shantinikethan school till grade 6. It is uncertain why he was moved to GHPS. He comes across as a sincere child who maintains good discipline and takes initiative, but is frequently quiet in class and has had trouble befriending his classmates.
During our sessions and continuous interactions with him we observed that Rohan is comfortable with both English and Kannada and is able to understand the dicsourses provided in either language. He had to be given individual attention during the Math sessions because he struggles to understand the instructions given. He also faces difficulty in comprehension and tends to forget previously covered concepts. It was likely that he also has an eyesight problem since he finds very difficult to read it from the distance more than 1 metre and tends to squint.
During the math sessions, where the activities were mostly conducted in smaller groups, Rohan needed personalized one-to-one support to make him understand the concepts. His retention level is very low – he often forgets previosuly covered concepts and requires a detailed recap to be able to move forward. For example, in a session on subtraction using FLU Model, Rohan found it difficult to solve the sums and was struggling a lot. He had to be prompted every time to initiate counting the dots. The facilitator would have to demonstrate how to count the units and represent it in the form of dots, which he would then replicate. The concept of breaking the tens to make units was also difficult for him to understand. He faced difficulty in grasping the concept of ‘borrowing’ while doing subtraction as well (say in questions such as 23 - 16). This helps us to look back and reflect on the lack of conceptual understanding of greater and smaller number sense.
In terms of vision-related issues, Rohan did undergo a free health check-up as a part of the ____________ campaign. However, he seems to have still have not received his prescription glasses. The facilitator tried to inquire from the class teacher about the same, and although she was aware that he had not received the glasses, she was not sure of the reason behind it.
Rohan faced few challenges in learning, inspite there were other challenges too which was brought up in the school by his parents.
One day his parents came to the school after the school hours around 3.30. Rohan was engaged in one of the activity with the facilitator. Suddenly his brother entered the class and said “ Appa bandidare manega karkond hogakke” after listening to it he requested the facilitator to end up the activity because he was very happy and excited to see his parents. As soon as he went outside he saw his parents speaking to the class teacher and 6<sup>th</sup> grade teacher. Once he went near his parents, they started to complaint about Rohan in the school premises where most of the children were looking at him due to that he also started to cry. After few minutes when the facilitator found this she went to speak to their parents. She introduced herself that we are from an organisation we are taking sessions for him since 9 months. Later The facilitator started to praise the child that he is a very good, obident soon she started to complaint about the child that he still behaves a childish. He has just grown up but no intellectual development. As he was the elder child his parents brought up with love and care. He was not made to go outside for anyone of the things nor told to make friends. As he was grown up within the 4 wall now his parents expect him to make friends get united with them and play together and try to understand the outside word. For this the facilitator with his parents give him some time to get adjusted to the outside atmosphere suddenly expecting him to do such things is very difficult for a child to do so but his parents are not ready to agree and started to compare his brother “look at him he is his younger brother” when he is able to do why he cant do it. His parents were very angry and upset on him. The facilitator wanted to check about his eye glasses because he was finding very difficult to look at the board or books at a certain distance. So their parents said no we already have got eye check up but its normal. I tried to convince that we may also help the child in getting the glasses to him but their parents refused it and said he just squit the eyes when he is looking but he do not have any eye problem. This was very disappointing to know that his parents were not agreeing that he is finding difficulty.
== TEACHERS CASE STUDY ==
=== 1. MODEL TEACHER IN ACTION ===
One of the teachers, "Amulya," has been working as a computer teacher as a guest teacher from a NGO in the Government higher primary school for the past ten years, managing the school's information updates and other work while also teaching computer basic literacy to the students. There are around 12 systems in the computer lab with which are working in good condition.As computer lab is flexible and a open empty space so mostly our sessions were conducted in the Lab. During the sessions she had her update work in-spite she was very interested to know what the facilitators are trying to do in that particular session. Also motivated the students to participate in the session and learn effectively which is very useful for their Academic performance. From her continuous observation in the sessions she felt few students ( child X, child Y, child Z.....and so on) have shown interest in learning after our sessions. also most of the students have changed in their behaviors and are behaving in a well disciplined way. As All the facilitators were very friendly and polite to every child this has impacted the students and also tried to engage, participate and retain it. Learning with joy/ Happy was observed in most of the children faces also they used to share about the sessions with very Interest, Perhaps always ask me to call the facilitators to inform to come to school and take sessions.
She herself was also interested to help the students towards their learning, Perhaps tried to implement some of the activities that was conducted in the lab such as Tux Math which had Addition, subtraction, Multiplication and division to do hands on practice through games. She herself observed that students were more interest to learn using the computers and Language Lab for other grades students. Their engagement and participation was also good was She is very interested and motivated to conduct the sessions what she has observed from the session. She is very positive to learn and teach the children.
She always took an initiative to call our team to confirm our presence to the school or to intimate that the students will not be available due to some other programs. She is very interested to observe our sessions. She herself started to
The teacher said that I liked the way of approaching to the students for effective teaching, the interactions you have with children, way of speaking with love and caring them. Sometimes they were not keeping quiet even while during our class but your sessions were their favorite sessions. The facilitator used to make children understand better through her teaching, and they would demonstrate interest throughout the session and would await for your sessions”.
She was very happy about our sessions that were conducted for grade as they had a very good impact on the children and enable children to develop more interest. Requested us to continue taking classes even for the upcoming year.
=== 2. Influenced Teacher ===
Vadrupaly GLPS school teacher who attended the konankunte cluster meeting, This cluster meeting was planned to demonstrate the Language Lab work where 30-40 teachers had attended this meeting. The Language Lab work was presented and demonstrated one of the story in multiple languages. After the presentation one of the teacher in the meeting was very interested to explore it and implement it in their classroom. So she requested the facilitator to visit their school to look upon the condition of the available tech items and conduct a demo session to the student teachers by using the required devices. By considering her Interest one of the facilitator visited the GLPS school. It is quite a small school with 2 classrooms, 2 teachers including H.M, Around 40 students from grade 1- 5. Class 1-3 is combined in one classroom and 4-5 combined class in another classroom. There was no availability of technical devices so The facilitator planned to conduct a session on LL.
One fine day 3 facilitators visited to the school again to take up a session on Language lab stories for all the students. The teacher was very happy to see There were few follow up activities before taking up a story to check the previous knowledge of the students. Later the story "Timmy and peppe" was played using the projected in English Language. Those students were able to comprehend the visuals of the video and comprehend in the Home language. As students were familiar they were able to tell few small sentences such "I have a nose", "I have two ears", and so on....The students were engaged and participated in the classroom activities.
=== 3. Empathetic teacher (Manjula madam)_20th March23 ===
In Bangalore's Jayanagar South 3 block, there is only one small school. Around 125 students are taught by 4 teachers in that school. One of the four teachers, Mamatha (name changed), is exceptionally good in her subject matter and is also amazingly active and compassionate. Science, math, English, and Kanndada are some of the subjects she is taking classes for different classes. Extremely well-liked and respected by the children, Mamatha did lead their classes with enthusiasm. She is the one who consistently shows up to all of her school's meetings and training sessions, and she is a very interested to learn new things.
School has rooms for extracurricular activities, but they are filled with unwanted materials, such as the storeroom. When we approached her about setting up a computer lab in the school, she only cleaned that room and arranged infrastructure for placing computers in two days, with the help of 2-3 students.
She sometimes allows children to use the computer lab during her periods. She provided a space for children to explore their understanding through hands-on activities and experiments, and students actively participated in this.
Nearly 2-3 months of her academic year were lost because she was unable to attend any classes due to a health issue. On those days, she was missed by the students and other teachers. When she returned to school, her schedule was incomplete, and she wasn't ready to skip any lessons, so she looked into creative teaching strategies and methods. She planned to use technological tools like a projector, speaker, and computer to support her teaching. With our support, she explored some technical elements in her classroom.
The school has a projector, but it hasn't been used for teaching in the past. She explored how effectively a projector can be used to teach English lessons and other subjects as well. She learned how to download videos and audios, and she uses some video lessons to explain concepts to children so they can understand them better. Additionally, in order to finish the syllabus, she is taking extra classes, and in the meantime, she encouraging students to engage in extracurricular activities by giving them practise for group dances, songs, etc. among other things.
She is the one who came forward and said "aithu madam hogona nan barthini nim jothe nediri(Okay, I will come with you, lets go)" even though she was completely engaged in school activities when we discussed with her about 3 students having learning difficulties and suggested there is a need for some diagnosis for them at the NIMHANS. She coordinated the parents of the children, explained the challenges they faced, and introduced us to them. The teacher visited NIMHANS with the parents of the 3 children in order to get the children diagnosed and to take part in psychological counseling. She gave all support to us to take the children to the hospital when ever doctor suggested and she said “Don't worry about classes or exams; I'll take care of everything and arrange the exams when everything is finished.” We believe that only a few teachers take these initiatives and focus on children's needs.
[[Category:TIIE-EL]]
[[Category:TIIE-EL]]
