EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY IN THE MODERN SCHOOL

EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY IN THE MODERN SCHOOL

There has always been a gulf between our knowledge of the nature and needs of the young, and our practice in the care, training, and education of children, and we have gone much farther in our investigations of educational psychology and our knowledge of educational growth and development than we have gone in adapting our educational methods, procedures and programmes to the nature and needs of children. 

The investigator has been too busy ferreting out truths to consider whether teachers and parents engaged in the task of educating children take advantage of his studies, and teachers and parents have been too engrossed in the practical task of bringing up and educating children to pause to understand technical studies and material pertaining to the nature and needs of childhood and youth. 

As a result of this gap between our knowledge of educational psychology and our school practices, our methods of teaching and our programmes in schools have failed to promote effectively the physical, intellectual, moral and social well-being and development of the young, and the traditional schools have come in for some angry comments. 

Educational psychology seeks to use and apply psychological facts and principles in such a way that the educational growth and development of the individual is efficiently directed and controlled. 

Modern schools in the country and abroad are doing pioneer work in bridging the gap between our rapidly advancing knowledge of educational psychology and our educational practice in terms of educational objectives, programmes, curricula, procedures and methods. 

In this chapter an attempt will be made to examine some broad features of schools in India and show how modern progressive schools are employing the rapidly advancing knowledge of educational psychology in changing, revising and reconstructing school objectives and goals, curricula and programmes, methods and procedures.

The major functions of the school centre round the following and our discussion of the subject will divide itself accordingly:

1. Objectives of the school

.2. Organizing the curriculum

3. Promoting effective learning

4. Promoting healthy emotional and social development

5. Guidance and evaluation of pupils' progress

Objectives of the Modern School

If education is directed growth it must have goals, objectives and purposes. They are the things which the teacher hopes to .accomplish, and constitute his general scheme of values with regard to his work and effort. 

One group of educators seeks these goals and aims in the educative process itself for they argue that the aim and reward of education is “continued capacity for growth”. They accept general aims but not specific aims which they consider as restricting educational activity. 

Another group considers this too vague and formulates aims -and objectives outside the educative process to inspire it. And what promotes better living for both the individual and the •society is sure to promote further education as well.

A modern school formulates its educational objectives for without them it cannot plan and act intelligently. In organizing, equipping and administering a school, in planning buildings, libraries, assembly halls, in selecting equipment and teachers it seems very essential to know what one is trying to accomplish. 

These objectives give a sense of direction and zest to the work aiul effort of teachers and pupils alike, and help the parents and the general public to appraise the efforts and accomplishments of schools in terms of those objectives. 

If everybody associated with a school were to know what the school is striving for he would be more likely to co-operate in trying to accomplish the objectives.

Elsewhere education has been described as effecting desirable changes in behaviour and the very objectives it sets must be desirable. 

They should be general, all-inclusive, and balanced. They should be flexible so that they can be suitably adjusted to changing conditions. Instead of being rigid and final they should be suggestive and tentative. And above all they should be very clearly conceived and clearly stated. 

Too often they are expressed in highsounding terms to impress the public and fail to guide those who are striving to achieve them.

The evolution of educational objectives has involved a long conflict between the individual and the society. Which has a prior claim for consideration in the educational system? Rousseau argued that educational practice must be in harmony with the nature of the individual child and must develop his individuality to its fullest capacity, and that the state, the greatness of which depends on the greatness of the individuals, owes to itself, for its own preservation, to educate its future citizens, each one according to his natural capacities. In our own times, Sir Percy Nunn, the leading educational philosopher in England, has clearly and definitely expressed the individual aim in education. Education must secure for everyqpe M the conditions under which individuality is most completely developed.

But for Nunn individuality is an ideal, a goal, something that is not yet, it is the spiritual perfection possible to each individual.” The individual never attains the full individuality, he is constantly striving for it. 

The individual aim in education is perhaps better expressed by the term selfrealization provided the self that is to be realized is not the undisciplined self claiming unrestricted freedom but the fully developed ideal self which is the goal of both education and life. Eucken calls it the “spiritual individuality. 

Every individual has such a life-embracing task in the cultivation of genuine personality and a spiritual individuality .” 

individualism and social organization may seem irreconcilable the resolution of the old dilemma between the individual and the group seems entirely possible; individual development and social service can develop side by side. 

In fact the modern educator believes that the cultivation of individuality and exaltation of personality is possible only in a social medium, through the service of society. Self-realization is possible only through self-sacrifice. Personality is essentially a social concept, “we are all members of one another*'. Vasudhaiva Kutum bam — the entire universe is our family.

The modern school is fully conscious of both the individual and social aspects of its programmes. It seeks to promote the maximum development of the individual's aptitudes and abilities, to encourage initiative and self-reliance and to stimulate habits of vigorous and fearless thinking and criticism. 

The inner reaches of the human spirit must be fostered and cultivated. Freedom of expression, of teaching and learning must be preserved. 

But in view of the growing interdependence in the present-day world the individual must be socialized and taught to co-operate and live together. Education must lead to the maximum development of individual intelligence and personality but consistent with the welfare and progress of society. 

In working for social progress and welfare the individual acquires a new understanding of his role and imbibes deep sympathy for his fellow men. This helps to enrich his personality. 

The modern school is emphatic about the dynamic character of education. While it has to conserve the established social values inherited from the past, it has to be constantly adjusting its programmes and objectives to meet the changing needs of the rapidly changing social order.

A modern school in India seeks to promote and foster allround development of personality involving acquisition of knowledge and information, cultivation of intellect and reasoning, refinement of feelings and taste, social Sense and community spirit, a democratic approach to solution of conflicts and problems, social efficiency, and a number of motor skills which help both physical power and adjustive capacity. 

These objectives are consistent with the psychological conclusion that all aspects of mental life, knowledge, feeling and action, need a balanced development. The emotional and social sides of  

personality so long neglected in traditional schools are receiving an extra fillip.

There has been no formal formulation of educational objectives at the national level but the tempo of national planning and reconstruction is being maintained at a high standard and the country in general and progressive educational institutions in particular are conscious of the goal of democratic socialistic egalitarian order. The general goals of education laid down by the Educational Policies Commission in America are a good guide for all democratic countries. They are:

Self-realization Human relationship Economic efficiency Civic responsibility

Translated into more specific objectives these goals affirm the following:

Good health

Command of fundamental processes

Worthy home and community membership

Civic usefulness

Vocational efficiency

Good moral character

Worthy use of leisure

Drawing upon psychological findings specially in the field of learning, developmental stages, individual differences, intellectual abilities and aptitudes, and mental health, educationists are defining specific objectives for each stage of education. These objectives are briefly described below.

The objectives at the primary school or junior Basic level include physical development, health, cleanliness and body care, healthy emotional and social adjustments, co-operation and fellowship with other children in the class and the school, obedience to and respect for teachers and school regulations, mastery and effective use of language skills in reading, writing, spelling, speaking and understanding quantitative relations in arithmetic and solving problems independently, understanding natural and social environment — physical and biological facts and phenomena, history, geography, civics, economics, administration and the Indian way of life, and practical skill in making and constructing simple things of life. The system of Basic education now adopted as our national system of education lays down objectives of functional knowledge based on activity and experience and derived from one of the handicrafts taught in the school. Basic skills and fundamentals are closely integrated with the daily experience of the group also.

These learnings and skills are consolidated and perfected in the senior Basic school.

The Secondary Education Commission Report, 1953, has formulated objectives of secondary education in India with special reference to the needs and ideals of our country and the needs and abilities of pupils at this stage. The report lays down:

It is clear that we shall have to formulate our aims with reference to these broad categories — the training of character to fit the students to participate creatively as citizens in the emerging democratic social order; the improvement of their practical and vocational efficiency so that they may play their part in building up the economic prosperity of their country; and the development of their literary, artistic and cultural interests, which are necessary lor self-expression and for the full development of the human personality, without which a living national culture cannot come into being.

Under democratic citizenship the Commission stresses the need of developing the capacity for clear thinking and a receptivity to new ideas, dearness in speech and writing, faith in the dignity and worth of every single individual as a human being, qualities of discipline, co-operation, social sensitiveness and tolerance. 

To improve vocational efficiency stress is laid on crafts and productive work, diversification of courses to enable students to take up agricultural, technical, commercial or other practical courses. 

To release the sources of creative energy and to promote the appreciation of their cultural heritage, to cultivate rich interests for leisure and to contribute to the rich heritage, stress is laid on craft, art, music, dancing and hobbies. Finally, the secondary school stage must provide for education for leadership whose need at all levels of community living is urgent in a rapidly growing democracy.

Organizing the Curriculum in a Modern School

With these general and specific objectives the modem school must provide a curriculum for their attainment. 

The curriculum includes not only subjects of study but all those activities and experiences that are designed to develop in pupils understandings, attitudes, abilities, skills and interests which the school believes will bring about changes in behaviour and help to achieve the objectives.

The curricula in traditional schools are restricted chiefly to subject-matter consisting of a collection of unrelated and abstract items drawn from the knowledge and experience of others. 

A rigid mastery of these items is insisted upon and drill and practice eat up most of the time and effort. Such curricula make for uniformity and inflexibility. There is no room for the teacher. 

But in a modern school subjectmatter is one of the many projects and programmes. The curriculum very rightly includes all the extra-curricular activities, games and sports, library and laboratory work, music and craft, dramatics and social work. Thus it means much more than formal subjects of study and is all-inclusive. 

Such a curriculum is also flexible and provides for experimentation and new projects arising out of daily experiences. A modem school believes that education is a social process and a social function, and that is why there is greater emphasis on social aims, social material and social organization. 

Its programmes seek to produce in pupils a social spirit, social-mindedness, not by teaching civics but by socializing everything that is done and taught in the school precincts. And, finally, progressive curriculum in a modern school aims at promoting the growth of the child's intelligence. 

This cannot be achieved by encouraging mere mastery of facts and information doled out by books and teachers. Because children are too immature to draw conclusions or generalize, readymade conclusions and generalizations are presented for acquisition. 

The teacher simplifies, reviews illustrates the material of instruction but at no stage do pupils feel the challenge which may stir their intelligence and provoke it to solve new problems and difficulties. The modem school provides opportunities for experiences, activities, projects, problems or work units which stimulate critical thinking among pupils and help them to observe facts and make them their own. Learning by doing, self-expression through self-activity, exercise of initiative and the meaningful and the purposeful activities are some of the essential features of a progressive curriculum. And, finally, in a modern school an attempt is made to integrate the different items of the curriculum. In real life, learning is an actual trial of various ways of doing a thing, and it is by such trial that the learner finds the significance of what he is learning, proves its worth, and makes it his own. In a modern school learning is a dynamic process.

In the primary or jpnior basic stage reading, writing and arithmetic are supplemented by hygiene, civics, geography, biography, nature study, story-telling, dramatics, music, painting, drawing, games and sports, gardening, craft work and the like. The variety and richness of the programme adds zest to the pupils’ work and their interest is kept up. 

In basic schools craft work like spinning, weaving, carpentry, gardening, etc. is used as a medium of instruction and all that is taught is sought to be correlated with one craft or the other. Learning by doing is the key-note and group activities receive greater emphasis. 

There is a tendency towards organizing learning materials into what are called 4 units of work” consisting of those activities or experiences planned by the teacher to enable pupils to acquire certain information, attitudes, ideas and generalizations. 

A group of pupils may be assigned some such unit of work as transportation, water supply or life in a small village, and around that study may learn a number of useful things. 

A unit of work is a large section or division of human experience which cuts across a number of formal subjects and ignores their boundaries. 

Such an organization of the curriculum is based on the sound principles of learning by doing, integration, group work and individual initiative. It serves to make knowledge functional and meaningful.

The curriculum at the secondary stage is designed to meet the needs and interests of adolescents. 

At this stage their in- and terests and needs, talents and abilities begin to take specific forms and directions and therefore curriculum organization must be diversified to suit divergent interests and abilities. 

According to the new pattern recommended by the Secondary Education Commission, 1953, the curriculum of the multipurpose higher secondary schools is designed to meet the educational needs of all the youth of the country. 

These needs include general education in the form of a core curriculum of language, social studies, general science including mathematics and one craft. 

For the large majority of adolescents the secondary stage is the highest standard of education they will ever receive and therefore this core curriculum of general education will meet the needs of the future citizens of our increasingly complex democratic society. 

Besides there are seven streams of elective subjects to meet diversified interests and abilities of individual pupils such as humanities, sciences, commercial subjects, technical subjects, fine arts, agriculture and home science. 

A strong plea has been made for integrating and correlating at least the core subjects but in actual practice very little is being done in this direction. The secondary stage is so overshadowed by examination success that anything suspected of militating against it is looked upon with suspicion. 

If some of the subjects in the core curriculum were not examined, the schools could be free to frame their own syllabi and have their own projects for teaching social studies and general science consistent with their social and physical environment.

A good many pupils in a modern school are prospective candidates for advanced professional training in technical colleges or universities and therefore a very high standard of instruction is maintained. 

But extra-curricular, or rather cocurricular, activities of a large variety and welded into rich programmes provide ample opportunities for physical, emotional and social development. 

A good many schools have a museum, an art club, a magazine, a stage for dramatics, social service leagues, debating societies, music classes and the like which encourage and promote side interests and talents and provide a training ground for several abilities so useful in adult life. They provide for healthy social and inter-personal relations.

Diversified programmes of instruction and co-curricular activities help the youth to discover and understand themselves, to imbibe feelings of personal worth and self-confidence and to develop use of their talents in various subjects and activities Accepting themselves for what they are worth they will be able to plan their future career in a more rational and realistic manner. 

This self-consciousness on the part of students sows the seeds of life-long tastes and ambitions, enthusiasms and hobbies* Very often dreams and hopes built in these years decide their future place and vocation in life and society.

The actual structure of the curriculum may be organized in several ways which are described here. In the first place the curriculum may be considered as a list of separate subjects, and all activities in the school are to be determined and organized on a subject-centred basis. 

A subject is an organized body of knowledge or a convenient way of organizing the experience of the race to facilitate interpreting new experiences. 

Specialists in several fields have collected kindred facts, laws and principles concerning a particular field and built them into logical systems of knowledge. 

These are simplified to suit the maturity, ability and experience of the learner and presented attractively in textbooks with illustrations and adaptations.The textbook has always been a popular vehicle of instruction. 

The teacher teaches page by page till the whole book is mastered. This is a very convenient method for both the teacher and the pupil. FacU and informaation are presented in a systematic manner and are easily understood. 

Teaching proceeds from the simple to the complex and if any changes have to be made they are easily made. 

Evaluation too is easy and since colleges and universities demand proficiency in separate subjects this organization of the curriculum is favoured. Parents and teachers generally approve of it, for these subject represent their cultural heritage.

But in spite of its general acceptance the subject-centred curriculum has been under fire for some time. 

No doubt subjects bring order and unity to our knowledge and the pupil draws upon the subject-matter to solve his problems, meet his needs and extend his interests, but it is remote from the experience of youth, presents knowledge piecemeal, unrelated to life situations in which it may have to be used. 

The modern school has set itself objectives in terms of healthy, social and democratic living and seeks to inculcate among young people a high social sensitivity, group feeling, co-operativeness and tolerante, but these are not likely to be achieved by a subject-centred, curriculum and textbooks used in traditional shools.

A second type of curriculum-organization is centred round experience or activities. What students should learn is determined by their problems and interests and the order of activities will depend on the level of the maturity of pupils. 

It is organized in terms of problems, issues and topics of interest to the pupils and with proper guidance it will include only those items of the subject-matter which are socially valuable. 

Such an organize ation of the curriculum promotes individual growth as it teaches pupils to see relationships without which learning is. neither profound nor meaningful. 

It also facilitates fusions, integration or correlation of facts and knowledge from different fields. Some items correlate very readily and easily, language can easily be integrated with social studies and so can science be with mathematics. 

In Basic schools different subjects are correlated and taught through the medium of craft work. It isalways possible to make a fetish of any idea like correlation but it does help to make instruction concrete, real, intimate and living. Whatever is taught and learned is shown to have some use ancl application. 

It is also possible to draw upon immediate social environment for problems and projects, and thus, promote pupil understanding of local community needs and problems. 

In fact activity-centred curriculum provides rich and numerous opportunities for the teaching and learning of social studies. Motivation in activities is strong and intrinsic and a curriculum integrated through interesting activities makes for effective learning.

Subject-centred curricula continue to be generally acceptable all over the world but progressive educationists plead for integration and unification of subjects and for their correlation with activities and experiences of pupils, with units of work and projects. 

A good deal of experimentation has been done with the two types of curriculum organization but it is difficult to pin-point any one conclusion as final. But the Eight Year Study considers the activity-centred curriculum more advantageous.