On 25th June 2018, a motivational workshop was conducted by Dr. V. S. Ravindran for the teachers of The Indian School-Second Shift and The Indian School. Dr. V. S. Ravindran is a renowned educational psychologist and trainer. He has been involved in the training of people in leadership positions in educational institutions, corporates and government organisations for more than two decades. His areas of expertise include leadership development, counsellor training and teacher education.
Dr. Ravindran has been instrumental in starting counselling and guidance programmes in many reputed educational institutions in India and abroad. Presently he is Director-General of ICTRC.
The workshop began by defining the evolution of the role of a teacher, one of lecturer, to facilitator, coach and mentor- every teacher is now responsible for the holistic development of the students. Earlier, the content was driven by teachers alone, but now, it is student-driven. The content and context are now amalgamated in accordance with student-needs.
[gallery link="none" ids="15672,15673,15674"]Dr. Ravindran also shared tips on how to create a better learning environment., eg we must make use of relevant and interesting content to arrest the attention of students; to pay undivided heed to their areas of difficulty. A very important point that he mentioned is that while comparing those intellectually still developing, with the rest, we must omit the word normal and replace it with typically developing children. Elaborating the cognitive development of the child, Dr. Ravindran explained that our chronicled age and mental age may not always be the same. A little difference in its ratio can affect our Intelligent Quotient (IQ). For different IQs, psychologists have arrived at distinctive teaching methodologies. For example, a student with a below intellectually average IQ needs to be assigned tasks with less volume and intensity as retention and reasoning abilities are not compatible.
The second half of the workshop focused on behavioural management. It is very important for a teacher to be reasonable with the students but not reason with them. The teachers must engage with a childs problem professionally and not personally. Behavioural problems can be categorised as deviations from norms, negative behaviour, intensity and also manifest as hindrances to learning and development. Therefore, these need to be dealt with in specific ways.
Strike the iron when it is COLD, says the renowned psychologist, Dr. Ravindran. It suggests that when a child is into misconduct or inappropriate behaviour, the teacher must not act on the spur of the moment. Rather, when the former shows improvement in behaviour, the latter must be appreciated. It is important to make the child feel valued.
A prevention of behavioural issues can be managed by being definite, consistent, persistent, friendly ( but not friends) and being positive.
Dr. Ravindran invited questions from teachers, relating to practical problems faced in classroom situations and he addressed all these elaborately. These mostly dealt with issues of inclusive education for hyperactive children.
The popular speaker concluded with an inspiring quote.- I am not A teacher, I am THE teacher!
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