Online Educatation Blog

“No subject is ever well understood and no art is intelligently practiced, if the light which the other studies are able to throw upon it is deliberately shut out.” Education is a co-ordinated process. Teaching of various subjects is hence correlated. Herbert first conceived the idea of correlating the teaching of various subjects. Later on Zillar made this theory of correlation more elaborate. Then De Garmo and John Dewey laid stress on the integration in the teaching of various subjects. Today, correlating of teaching of different subjects is considered highly essential.

Kinds of correlation and coordination:

1. Vertical Correlation: In vertical correlation an attempts is made to correlate the teaching of the various divisions of a subject. An attempt is also made to make the subject taught in the lower classes useful for the teaching of the same subject in higher classes.
2. Horizontal Correlation: In horizontal correlation an attempt is made to co-ordinate the teaching of various subjects. This is done by two methods - Casual and Systematic.
3. Correlation with Practical Life: According to Herbert Spencer, the main aim of education is to prepare students for future life. This aim can be achieved only if education is correlated with life. Therefore, teaching of various subjects should be correlated with various aspects of life.

Yesterday – the 5th September was celebrated all over the country as Teachers’ Day – a day when the country shows its appreciation of all those who have taken it up on themselves to build societies of the future. Although, the date of Teachers’ Day vary from country to country, it is held on 5th September in India in remembrance of the birth day of Dr.Sarvapalli Radhakrishnana, the great academic philosopher and second President of India. In tune with the rest of the country, our big village council also organized a gathering of teachers at the local town hall. In total, teachers from 18 schools attended the celebration. There were lots of cultural program like music and dance performed by teachers along with discussion on teaching. In between refreshments in the form of tea, snacks and sweets were given. So it was a day meant only for teachers. On 4th Sept. the students became teachers as they conducted and taught in the classes.
During the discussion I was forced to do introspection about the prevalent education system and the way teachers are teaching. I am sorry to say that – nothing is right with it. The prolonged terrorism in the area has not helped either as no teacher wants to go to work in interior schools. Those schools exist just in the government’s record book. In urban areas where there is no fear of terrorism – most teachers have made education a commercial item. Education being primarily a government’s operation, there is hardly any accountability for what teachers do and how they teach. So teachers just somehow pass their time in schools and give private tuitions to students for hefty fees. The situation has become so bad that even after government circulation and bond signature; teachers are still continuing this harmful practice. It has given rise to a culture where students and their guardians think that they could not do good results without private tuitions. This commercialization of education by selfish teachers is the single most important factor that is paralyzing the educational system in my locality. Read the rest of this entry »

“Even the best curriculum and the most perfect syllabus remains dead unless quickened into life by the right methods of teaching and the right kind of teachers”

Method is the means of reaching predetermined ends. It forms the most important link in the total teaching-learning chain with the goals and purpose on one hand and results and values on the other. Method is the middle link connecting in the objectives with its value. Method determines the quality of results.

All decisions regarding teaching procedures in civics should be governed by the objectives of teaching. The objectives are the specific goals or purposes of a particular unit as well as the nature of the content area of the unit. These would largely determine the methods to be used in teaching or dealing with the unit. In order to achieve the objectives of teaching civics, methods are needed to expose the pupils to knowledge and experiences helpful in the development of understanding, critical thinking, practical skills and interests. The procedures adopted should also provide training in constructive thinking, reasoning, and critical judgment. The goal, expectations in the teaching of civics involve deeper and extensive participation of students in learning. Hence lecture or merely question-answer method would not be adequate. If comprehensive objectives of teaching civics are to be realized in students, the child should be exposed to a variety of learning experiences involving book learning, observation, interviewing, surveying, interpreting, reviewing, recording, reporting and evaluating. The need to make him an enlightened, discriminating, dynamic, productive and democratic citizen would make it imperative to provide him learning experiences geared to that end.

 
Reason for a variety of methods:

The civics teacher must be conversant with the theory and practices of different methods of teaching the subject due to mainly, two reasons:

1. There is no royal road to successful learning. The teacher should be able to use a permutation and combination of methods, devices and techniques to make the subject interesting, vital and living. He may use lecture or discussion method or a combination of these two, to lend color to class-teaching.
2. Avoiding monotony. If a teacher uses the same methods in every lecture, then it becomes monotonous. In the past few decades a tremendous increase in Read the rest of this entry »

This is my first economic assignment - with each brief notes consisting of 150 words and broad notes consisting of 400 - 600 words. They also carry 3×3 and 10+6 marks that makes 25 marks in total

Though it is difficult to categorically define and under-developed economy, the United Nations experts say an under-developed economy is one in which per capita real income is low when compared with the per capita real income of the U.S.A., Canada, Australia and Western Europe. But UNO focuses only on one aspect of economy viz. poverty. In reality there are so many more features like population, nature of the economy, capital, labor and natural resources which are so essential of a modern economy.

Hence main features of an under-developed economy are:-

• Low per capita income
• Deficiency of capital equipment
• Excessive dependence on agriculture
• Rapid rate of population growth
• Unemployment and under-employment
• Under utilization of natural resources
• Foreign trade orientation
• Low levels of technology and skills
• Economic backwardness
• Inequalities of income and wealth
• Dualistic economy
• Inadequate infrastructure
• Peculiar demographic features

National Income

There are various definitions of national income. But the definition given by Colin Clark, a renowned British economist is most complete. According to him “ The national income for any period consists of the money value of the goods and services becoming available for consumption during that period, reckoned at their current selling value, plus additions to capital reckoned at the prices actually paid for the new capital goods minus depreciation and obsolescence of existing capital goods and adding the net accretion of or deducting the net drawings upon stock, also reckoned at the current prices.”

In simple term, national income is the aggregate factor income which arises from current production of goods by the nation’s economy over a period of time minus depreciations, indirect taxes and subsidies.

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