"It was a wonderful experience interacting with you and appreciate the way you have planned and executed the whole publication process within the agreed timelines.”
Subrat SaurabhAuthor of Kuch Woh Pal
Is there a way of exploring the work of students beyond just ‘right’ and ‘wrong’?
If mistakes are an important part of the learning process, do they need to be explored deeply?
Does a teacher stand to gain a better understanding of the workings of her students’ minds if an attempt is made to systematically examine the thought process behind every mistake?
What is the hidden takeaway (missed take) in every mistake, for a student as well as a teacher?
Four teachers (two language, two maths) examined such questions as part of their action research into students’ mistakes – and eventually effected a turnaround in the way that their ‘struggling’ students began to approach subjects like English and mathematics.
In this compilation of four engaging journeys, the impact of such an investigation on both the teacher and the taught emerges: as teachers begin to gain new insights into their own mental biases and tacit assumptions, students, too, begin to loosen their grip on age-old fears and prejudices – the phobia(s) slowly giving way to the desire to look for stimulating challenges.
There is also a roadmap for teachers who wish to try such an exploration in their own classes in order to empower students to turn into reflective learners.
Neeraja Raghavan is Founder-Director of Thinking Teacher (www.thinkingteacher.in) and author of several research papers and books, including The Reflective Teacher and Teaching Tales, Learning Trails (co-edited with Vineeta Sood and Kamala Anilkumar). She holds a doctorate in chemistry from Princeton University, and has more than two decades of experience in teaching and research.
