This new school year we looked to begin to more intentionally incorporate into our after-school project in Annai Nager a more holistic, experiential and integrated approach to learning. In Mother’s words, each day for children holds the possibility of so many learning opportunities; “varied, complex, full of unexpected experiences, problems to be solved, clear and striking examples and obvious consequences“. And with our new Integrated Learning sessions we aim to open up a space specifically for such opportunities to supplement or expand on students’ regular daily school and home routines. Though this already happens in many ways during their time in Thamarai – the fundamental difference with these new sessions is that we are trying to intentionally design/ facilitate this space in an ‘integrative’ way; as a space that prioritises the processes and opportunities for learning expression, integrates across domains and contexts to potentiate broader development and includes attempts to identify what particular approaches/ strategies support various individual student needs across different contexts and subjects.
So beginning 1 June we scheduled a 45 minute session four evenings per week for the older group (6th to 9th standard). In this time together we offer interwoven awareness/ embodiment/ learning/ development activities and practices; aiming to provide holistic, creative, integrated, multimodal opportunities for the students to learn, experience and explore/ experiment, to encourage their innate potential to discover connections and work towards enhanced expression of their particular individual capacities within themselves and in their world.
The program primarily aims to provide a regular space in which we are:
- Nurturing an understanding of the fundamental aspects of healthfulness
- Consistently responsive to the learning needs of students as individuals
- Fostering foundational connections and relationships amongst aspects of learning and living
- Broadening English exposure and encouraging its use
- Prioritising fluid connected learning and demonstration of applied learning in the moment
- Keeping centred on the ongoing, recurring process of students trying things out, sometimes failing and continuing to try.
The usual performance measure of “did this child learn this particular teaching today and can they recall and answer correctly?” is not our main purpose. Rather our overarching objective is to provide students with a fun and dynamic space to bring forward into the particular situation of that session whatever knowledge/ learning/ skills arise in them in that moment while engaged in that particular task/ activity – and if we are present with them and ready to offer appropriate support, prompts, encouragement and flexibility in response to what arises, then hopefully this session is one extra part of their day that helps with nourishing their intrinsic capacity for building awareness and understanding of interconnections, adaptive neurocognitive pathways, mind-body-energy awareness and regulation, sense of self-efficacy and reflective choosing/ decision making etc.
I keep an overarching view of objectives, structure and design to ensure holistic inclusion and ongoing development of the program, and attempt to address gaps, organize needed resources and support and nourish new ideas and inputs from others, in collaboration with the wonderful, committed support and increasing depth of understanding and contribution by Thamarai Facilitators Gothai, Madhu and Vishnu. After three months we are now at a key review point, and are very much looking forward to the next three months to see how this exciting experiment continues to unfold and progress!