Benefit of different teaching strategies

Teaching is not a cup of tea as said by expertise, as it demand couple of strategies to inspire the learners and to make teaching lively and meaningful. Learners in the school cannot be fitted by same spoon/tool every day. It needs to be adjusting as per the requirements and development of the world.  As to mention about strategies that I am applying in present situation, normally I go for variety of strategies and skills as per the teaching subjects, for an example, in teaching of science inductive strategy suit more and in mathematics deductive. I am also using cooperative learning as well as constructivist strategies too.My intention of using different kinds of strategies and skills in daily teaching is to teach learners productively, to make teaching lesson more interactive, to impart subject contents meaningfully and to achieve purpose of teaching in the school. Cooperative learning strategy is where our children are totally involves in group/peer discussions pertaining to topic and here subject teacher just facilitate, monitor and evaluate the progress of the activities. This strategy benefits child with retention ability, discover responses to the question through exploration, improve leadership skill and interaction skill. It foster interpersonal relationship, encourages alternative assessment techniques, improve attendance and less distractive. It also stimulates critical thinking and helps learners clarify ideas through discussion and debate. The other beneficial strategy is constructivist approach whereby children learn through building their ideas and it has couple of benefits to the learners; Children learn more, and enjoy learning more when they are actively involved, rather than passive listeners. Constructivist learning is transferable. In constructivist classrooms, students create organizing principles that they can take with them to other learning settings. Constructivism gives students ownership of what they learn, since learning is based on students' questions and explorations, and often the students have a hand in designing the assessments as well.
    The students are also more likely to retain and transfer the new knowledge to real life. Constructivism promotes social and communication skills by creating a classroom environment that emphasizes collaboration and exchange of ideas. Students learn how to articulate their ideas clearly as well as to collaborate on tasks effectively by sharing in group projects. Students, therefore their exchange ideas and so learns to "negotiate" with others and to evaluate their contributions in a socially acceptable manner. This is essential to success in the real world, since they will always be exposed to a variety of experiences in which they will have to cooperate and navigate among the ideas of others.There are clear differences between the inductive approach and deductive approach. Inductive tends to be more efficient in the long run, but deductive is less time consuming. We might try and compare both of these approaches at certain points in our teaching to see which is more effective for our students. I found that inductive approach makes students active and learns effectively where as in deductive students tend be passive listeners and less effort from them.     

                Peer sharing                                                     Children in cooperative learning

By implementing of various strategies in my daily teaching, children become active participants, interacting effectively and even their performance in my teaching subjects was good in mid-term examination.The disadvantages; it affect flow of lessons as we have to achieve the goal of education ministry, our curriculum is time bound as we need to cover syllabus within given time frame. Time constraint, resources and classroom size is factors that affecting effective implementation of strategies. Thanks

Local Festival (Dashain)

Dashain

Introduction:

Dashain, the main southern Bhutanese and Hindu festival/celebration which normally falls in October every year and it is especial occasion for Hindu religion. During this holiday, all the houses are cleaned and re-plastered to bring good luck, gifts are exchanged between relatives, and families gather together for the celebration. Dashain has been a public holiday in Bhutan which was declared by our Fourth Druk Gyalpo. Also known as the Vijayadashami, Dashain is the biggest festival of the year in Southern Bhutanese which falls in October (corresponding to the 10^th day of the ninth month in the Bhutanese calendar) and is celebrated by the Hindu community over here. Therefore to find out more about this particular festival, its importance, cultural life and the festival and how it is celebrated in this locality, I carried out a small project with the help of the local Hindu priest and some elderly people of this gewog.

Data collection tools

 In this project, data was mainly gathered through field notes, semi-structured interviews and observations. For in-depth study of the Dashain festival in the locality four Hindu scholars and four elderly villagers were selected. A series of interviews was conducted with all the participants for in-depth information. The interviews were recorded and transcribed later and I as a participant observers gathered field notes and collected information from all the documents related to the past Dashain celebration in the locality. Thus interview, observation and document analysis were the main tools used in this research project.

Elder people who helped me in sharing their valuable insights during interview

Gaining Access:

 Before starting the project, I obtained formal consent from all the concerned participants, and the Gewog authorities concerned. Written consent from each participant was also obtained before interviewing and recording their interviews. Conducive and interactive atmosphere was created to discuss the modality of conducting interviews and observations. The medium of communication was Lhotshamkha but I took the help of one of my colleagues to interpret the language to me as I am not very familiar with the language. I made the participants fully informed and aware of the purpose of the project. This was done in order to avoid suspicion of the participants which may affect in getting the correct information from them. The participants should feel safe to speak from their heart without any fear of being cheated or even defamed later on. The participants were also informed that their anonymity, confidentiality, privacy of participants’ opinions, views, expression, roles, incidents and identity shall be valued and kept top secret. Lastly, all information regarding the project materials, such as field notes, interview recordings,

photos and transcript and observation records has been kept under top secrecy. This will be available only to me.

A brief historical overview on Dashain

According to pundit (Hindu scholar) Narapati Bhandari of Semjong Gewog, Vijayadashami also known as Dussehra, is one of the most important Hindu festivals and is celebrated in various forms, across southern Bhutan, and all the Hindu community across the country. The name Dussehra is derived from Sanskrit. Dasha-hara literally means Dashanan ravan (the name of Ravan and in short Dasha and Hara (defeat)) referring to Lord Rama's victory over the ten-headed demon king, Ravana. He also explains that for decade’s people have been celebrating this festival and it is very important for every Hindu in this locality to continue celebrating this important festival in order to keep our valuable culture alive. He also asserts that we must make sure that people continue to celebrate this festival every year in order to keep alive our rich cultural heritage and religious beliefs. He says that if we lose this festival, it will be like losing our customs and tradition.

Puret (Hindu Priest) Chandra Lal Sharma of Semjong Gewog also asserts that the Dashain day also marks the victory of Goddess Durga over the demon Mahishasura. The Goddess fought with evils for nine nights and ten days. The name Vijayadashami is also derived from the Sanskrit words "Vijaya-dashami", literally meaning the victory on the dashami (Dashmi being the tenth lunar day of the Hindu calendar month). He explains that many people do not understand why they celebrate it but they do it because it has been the custom for everyone to celebrate it. He says that in fact only the learned Hindu pundits (Hindu scholars) and purets (Hindu priests) actually know why we celebrate this important festival. Common people only know that it is celebrated in respect for Lord Ram who defeated the evil Ravana.

Objectives of the festival

According to Pundit Narapati Bhandari, in this locality the people believe that the harvest season begins at this time because the Mother Goddess is invoked to start the new harvest

season and reactivate the vigor and fertility of the soil. That is why the locals believe that by performing religious activities and rituals cosmic forces are invoked which rejuvenate the soil. As a result they will be blessed with more vigorous agricultural success the next season. Many people of the Hindu faith observe the festival through social gatherings and food offerings to the Gods at home and in temples throughout the village. According to the Astrologer of the locality, Mr Pal Man Saru, the local people enjoy this dashain festival with great vigor and do everything possible to make it as enjoyable as possible. He asserts that there is no other festival like the dashain where all the family members gather to celebrate joyfully. Family members travel from far distances to get tika (rice mixed with curd and colour) from the elderly village people. Therefore, I firmly believe that this festival shows the strong family bond that exists within the local culture.

Locality and celebration

Though this festival (Dashain) is celebrated throughout the southern region of Bhutan, people respect and celebrate this particular festival and belief that it is very significant celebration in the locality where I have been working for the last five years. An elderly member, Singh Bir Pradhan, of this village states that, there is a very strong belief in the culture that they must celebrate this festival to show that they all are bound by the power of God Ram who defeated the Demon king Ravana. He also mentions that if one cannot celebrate it meaningfully, he or she is miser or has no respect for the religion and culture. As I have observed that people celebrate Dashain at all cost, even by taking loan from the richer villagers. They believe that if they cannot celebrate it, it is a shame for them; they even sacrifice some domestic animals to offer to the God as to satisfy their spirituality/believe. Therefore, Dashain celebration is strongly rooted in their culture.  

The role of the festival in cultural life

As already mentioned above that Vijayadashami is the biggest festival of the year in this locality, people celebrate it differently according to the different classes. As quoted by Pundit Narapati Bhandari, the 10th day of Dasain is Vijayadashami, on which elders put Tika (rice mixed with curd and colour) and Jamara (tender shoot of corn) on the forehead of younger members of the family. Jamara is sown on the first day of the festival which becomes greenish yellow of about 10–20 cm length which represent symbol of victory.

All the people continue to receive tika and blessing until the following full moon, which is about two weeks. Depending upon the relationship, people offer 'Dakshina' (present) after receiving the Tika and Jamara. As mentioned by Puret Chandra Lal Sharma, people sacrifice animals to Goddess Durga. But this is not done by everybody. As mentioned by some other elderly people of the village, meat is heavily consumed after the sacrifice taken as the gift of god. People visit their relatives and exchange greetings throughout the 15 days of the festival. For many people; especially the children, buying of new clothes and other wears are considered to be the most important to them as celebration comes once an every year

Its impact on curriculum

Dashain is the festival that marks the victory of lord Ram over the evil Demon King Ravana. Thus, Dashain festival epitomizes the victory of Good over Evil. Therefore it has great significance in education by building good values in the life of school going children which teaches those arts, family values cultural bond and how to differentiate between good and evil. Though the epic Ramayana is not found in the curriculum, but there are lots of books found in the school library which narrates the story of Rama’s victory over the evil Demon King Ravana. By reading such books or even by giving project works to the students about such important religious text we can inculcate good values and develop the concept of taking right action in our life and impart to the students. On the other hand, we can also teach the students values family, by citing the examples of the gathering of family members during such festival. Such practices could bring GNH for the society. By dramatization of such important religious epic students can learn the art of drama which is as good as the drama of Shakespeare. Even some paragraphs are reflected in social studies text which talks about how God subdued the Demon.  This type of story gives our children to imagine and analyzed, improve how to think and to create stories.

 Importance of festival

In this locality Dashain is the most important festival which is celebrated once a year by every house hold irrespective of their religion, Hindu or Buddist. As responded by all the participants in my project, they have pointed out that without this festival our life would be stale and everyone would feel that something is missing from their life. In some families this festival would start well in advance, about a week before the actual date, which shows that they are so eager to celebrate that they could hardly wait for the actual celebration day to arrive. In most of the families alcohol is consumed heavily for more than fifteen days to show their joy and also as a means of relaxation after a year of hard work in their field.

As reflected by a very old person in the gewog, people used to work very hard for one whole year and save some money in order to celebrate Dashain when he was young. He also agrees that it is a very important festival in this society because we have been celebrating it for our whole life and it was handed down to us by our great grandparents. He concludes that if we discontinue celebrating Dashain, we would be betraying our forefathers which would bring bad luck to our society.  

My opinion on festival

As already mentioned above that I have been working in this society for more than five years, I have visited many houses during Dashain celebration and I also felt that it shows, it is deep rooted in this society which they feel is very important to continue to celebrate in order to keep strong family bond and also respect for elderly people. I have observed that usually the elderly people give tika, blessings and presents in form of cash to the younger generations. They younger generations usually visit their elders like the parents, grandparents, paternal and maternal uncles with gifts and new clothes. People also prepare delicious dishes and offer to any guests that visit their houses. I have observed that young children enjoy the most visiting their relatives whether near or far. The children feel that the more they can visit the more fortune they receive from the elderly people. Most people that I interviewed reflected that once the celebration is over they feel very happy and satisfied that they could celebrate it successfully in order to keep at par with the society.  

 

Receiving ticka from head of the family & participated during celebration last year, 2015.

Conclusion      

After I carried out this small project I learnt a lot in comparison to what I already knew. In the past years I just visited the families who invited me, enjoyed the delicious meals and came back without knowing anything about the festival. But now, after doing a through interview and inquiry, I really learnt the in-depth content about this important festival. In fact I have great respect for this festival because it has deep meaning in it. It was fit for the society about a thousand years ago, it is fit for the society now and it will be fit for the society after another thousand years from now because it talks about respect for the religion, respect for the elders and the respect for the tradition and culture of this society. It’s like story how mask dances came into an existing in Buddhist history and other famous stories of Buddhist religion.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_holidays_in_Bhutan  retrieved on 8th March 2016

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijayadashami retrieved on 8th March 2016