SYSTEMIC

Deliver content from the one who knows to those who do not know. In this teacher-centered approach to education, in which the standard lecture is considered to be the principal mode of delivery. Historically, ‘one who knows’ were small in number and access to factual content was extremely limited. During these period lecture as the means of delivery was probably a necessary process.

Content delivery by a learned sage via a one-way transmission mode – may not be needed anymore. It’s now readily and abundantly available virtually anywhere and anytime via technology. Sage is now free to stand aside, and adopt more of a ‘guiding’ or ‘facilitating’ function.

In a normal classroom teacher is the sage-on-the-stage delivering lecture. Student are passive note taker, a receiver of content, an accumulator of factoids. In Vikalp classroom students leave the role of passive recipients and join the ranks of active participants in the teaching-learning process. Nonetheless, the responsibilities of students become more varied and self-directed than those required simply to receive content from lecture delivered by teachers.

Information consists of facts; knowledge involves understanding where the information comes from and what underlies it. Knowledge also involves the ‘capacity to use, apply, transform or recognize the relevance of knowledge in new situations’.

Information retrieval is only the first step in the learning process by which we utilize information – work with it, interrogate it – to create knowledge and gain understanding. Deep learning not only involves information and knowledge, but more importantly, it involves the transformation of information into knowledge.

It underscores the fact that education is not about the accumulation of passively received information and so the responsibility for actually engaging in the processes of information-knowledge transformation lies squarely with the students. Consequently, student adopt to their new role, which requires them to actively participate in the very processes of curiosity-driven analysis, reflection, synthesis, and discovery. Hence students assume greater level of participation and control over the learning processes.