CHENNAI: While the government is busy revising the syllabus and heralding a system of learning for the rote-fatigued kids in class, multiple options are evolving from the modern day techniques, with one of them being the “multiple intelligence techniques” that has on just a short trial, spiked attendance in an economically backward school — Sri Khongurunathar Vidyalaya at Sevvapet in Tiruvallur.
“Today, only a person who does math well or a person with good academic skills is called intelligent, whereas others, though they are good in other skills, “intelligent” is not the term used for them. The multiple intelligence methodologies, which is adapted in this school challenges the idea of single IQ and believes that there are eight kinds of intelligence that people might have,” explained Madhumati Narayanan, head-academics and cofounder, Shraddha.
The teachers at the school are being trained by a team of seven from Shraddha who is certified in multiple intelligence modules. Translating into easy words, the kids are taught lessons with the help of models, songs, audio-video techniques and adapting natural ways of teaching. For example, the math teacher Geetha makes the children do yoga postures and then explains the geometric angles with the help of it. Similarly, each teacher comes up with an innovative concept to teach the kids.
“As we use the models and songs to explain the lessons, we have observed that the students are grasping it at a quicker rate. Also, the number of absentees has gone down considerably,” said N. Geetha, a Math teacher. P. Athirai, a class five student exclaimed that she often finds herself “singing” her lessons at home and this way, it is easier to grasp the lessons and the teachers have recognised her to be “musically intelligent”(one of the eight kinds of intelligence in multiple intelligence modules). SK Vidyala is a small primary school in Tiruvallur with a strength of 420 kids. The team of Shraddha would soon work on implementing the same technique in several schools in the city.
