Proceeding with Kamala Mukunda's book had me think a lot about these concepts like 'working memory' and 'recognition memory.' As a teacher, it is fascinating that the brain develops with age and seeks new kind of stimuli, builds new information with it and processes it at a different speed with age.
Like always, some questions haunt me- How do I make lesson plans for my students with this background knowledge now? Do I base my decisions on theoretical understanding or completely on what I see in front of me? If I know this theory now, can I have a shortcut? Can ChatGPT make my lesson plans based on inclusivity and brain development? When teachers sit together with tea, the presence of our teacher identity, our vocation, students, their wellbeing and our wellbeing is always entering the conversation. It branches out to different things. This is what happened this week at Brewing Knowledge with our wonderful group of teachers. We read about Child Development and some teacher raised a question to the group- Where are we going wrong as teachers? In this era, we are doing this and that, having activities and what not, why is it that children are still learning less? Why are they not able to retain? Why is the memory span so low? We had a long exchange where we recognised our limitations as teachers and that we are living in times where so-called knowledge is readily available at the tip of our fingers and information is now tailored in seconds by AI, can we then still resort to the same methods of teaching like before?
When I mull over the ideas about Child Development, I am also asking myself- Are the assessments/examinations aligned with this idea? Kamala Mukunda's book looks at you in the face with compassion because she addresses you while challenging you to a better version of yourself in the classroom.
Brewing Knowledge can make you question how can reading online be relevant for teachers but one has to be there to know. The session does not offer a real cup of coffee but a real version of some reflection that would have gone along with it and I often come out of the session with more questions that in my head than when I entered the session.
