Monday, February 13, 2012

Rote Learning, attention span and Mathermatics

, The Island.

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By Dr. Douglas King

The editorial in Thursday’s edition of The Island has hit the proverbial nail on the head. As a young teacher in primary school in the UK during the education revolution of the 60s. and so called Plowden Reforms, I stood out as an agent provocateur. I was in favour of many of the details of the report, although I was already implementing many of these, I argued vehemently that some aspects of rote learning had a value. The methodology of how best to teach children reading has came under the scrutiny of Plowden, and phonics was now on the back burner. I insisted on teaching multiplication tables through chanting (and other ways) and basic reading skills using simple phonics in addition to whole word and context clues. The reading levels in my classes were always high and by year 6 (grade 6) almost all children had rapid access to not only "tables" but also quick addition and subtraction mental arithmetic. I have always argued that if little children can so easily learn nursery rhymes (in UK and Sri Lanka) they can learn other more useful material.

At a recent convocation lecture I gave to degree level students, I gave them one minute to adhe consecutive numbers from 1 – 100. None of the 200 students or faculty voiced an answer, and even reducing the challenge to 1 – 20 brought forth no response. Anyone with basic arithmetic skills plus a problem solving approach will appreciate that 99+1 =100, 98+2=100, 97+3=100 and so forth. Only the middle 50 and the 100 stand alone to total 150 so there are 49 sets of 100 = 4900 plus 150 to make a total of 5050. This can be done with any set of consecutive numbers, My point is that creative problem solving skills must accompany rote learning to be of real value. Several children in my grade 6 classes discovered the quick solution to adding 1-20. The ability to recite the numerals from 1 – 100 is a prerequisite to a full understanding of their numerical values. I would have though that "Rap" and other pop music styles, lend themselves very easily to rhythmic chanting. Educators need to remember that familiarity breeds success. Several days ago in a local bookshop I bought two items costing Rs: 120 and Rs;110. These were totaled on a calculator ("just to make sure") and then change necessary from Rs: 300 also calculated the same way.

As far as attention span goes, much depends on the content of the lesson and its application by a skilled teacher. As an English teacher/advisor in Sri Lanka, some teachers may remember my demonstrations in government schools when I gave lessons lasting nearly two hours to students without using a single text book. Of course this was not in keeping with curriculum requirements at that time. However several years later, a very thoughtful and determined President quite rightly ordered "everyday conversational English" to be part of the curriculum. I had been advocating this for several years, and was criticized for my approach. President Mahinda Rajapaksa may not be a teacher but he values innovation and creativity, that may be lacking in much of the educational system. No wonder so many students are not reading high quality literature when the emphasis is not on enjoyment in either Sinhala or English, but simply getting through the examination and for teachers to complete the curriculum. With so many students starting their day for the 6am school transport, waiting for the same transport to take them home and then attending various tuition, homework and dharma classes, there is not much physical or mental energy left for an hour or more of reading for pleasure.

The times they are a changing, in the words of Bob Dylan, and education needs to reflect these changes, but at the same time not succumb to fashion or charlottes that have ready made answers. This applies to the teaching of mathematics and English language, where some traditional methods have stood the test of time. Hardly a week passes without large advertisements appearing in the Sunday newspapers with gurus promising massive intellectual growth, superb organization skills and personality development that propels you to the highest levels, obtainable in one single day’s seminar. All this for an "investment" of only Rs:10,000 to Rs:20,000. Obviously the advertisements work and hundreds avail themselves of the opportunity. Sadly, similar events are also aimed at children, and well-meaning parents are persuaded that their normal children will become intellectual giants.

I am reluctant to discuss government policy towards the teaching of English as a useful rather than academic skill. No doubt this has been done by many people with advanced qualifications and extensive experience in this area... It appears that all the decisions and changes have been made according to the wishes of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. It remains to see whether these changes will have the desired effect. However, some of the traditional teaching methods used in Colonial times, may partly account for the excellent conversational English that many elderly people use. At its basic level English has greater simplicity than most Asian languages, and this initial simplicity needs exploitation.

douglasking1939@yahoo.com

Quality Tertiary Education outside the (state) University sector at very low cost

, The Island.

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Prof J N Oleap Fernando, PhD
(Lond); Chartered Chemist & Chartered Scientist
(Honorary Rector & Honorary Senior Professor, College Chemical Sciences
Chairman/ Academic Board, Institute of Chemistry Ceylon
Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, Open University of Sri Lanka)

The two tertiary level programmes conducted by the College of Chemical Sciences (CCS), (which is the educational arm of the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon) over the past four decades have proved to be typical examples of the type of tertiary education that can be provided at low cost, without delay, efficiently, effectively and without the constraining effects of state bureaucracy and political interference.

The Graduateship Programme in Chemistry of the CCS today produces annually well over 40% of Sri Lanka’s Special Degree level Chemists within a four year period at an average cost of about Rs 3 lakhs which surely must be the cheapest of any such programme in any part of the world. With an average cost of well over Rs. 1 million to produce a similar graduate in the Sri Lankan University system, it should be noted that the 822 Graduate Chemists produced by the CCS through 29 batches (1983-2011)represent a human resource development (HRD) which would have otherwise cost the national exchequer, well over one billion rupees. In addition to many Scholarships, Merit Bursaries and Need Bursaries, Best Performer prizes are offered for every course which together with numerous other awards, benefits and concessions provide a salutary atmosphere and a good driving force for excellence in academic performance. About 15% of the CCS student community of about 600 are concurrently following courses in state universities (including Medical faculties and Universities in the Provinces), which they usually complete much later than ours.

Income generated from fees have been very carefully managed and savings used not for individual benefits but towards enhancing the quality and standard of the programmes and strengthening the necessary infrastructure. Though the programme commenced operations in 1979 without any office, staff or a building, the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon moved into their own premises in 2005 and now have a regular full time staff of nearly 50. Library (air-conditioned) and other facilities have been enhanced. Due to the difficulty and delay in obtaining an additional piece of land nearby, CCS, after much delay, is about to embark on a five storey building extension on the only available limited space around Adamantane House. Students can therefore expect more facilities and better services by 2013 when the extension is due to be completed. While savings are being recycled in an extremely productive and useful manner, not a single officer/official of the Institute/College has as yet gone overseas using Institute funds. If only CCS had access to additional land at a convenient place, we could have expanded further and made an even greater contribution to Human Resources Development. CCS could then have supplemented the insufficient and much more expensive production of Graduate Chemists from conventional universities at a much lower cost in larger numbers and faster.

The service/need oriented, professionally based and non-mercenary objectives and activities of the professional body of Chemists in Sri Lanka can be well gauged by the fact that the very first formal educational programme was at the Technician level and remains, even today after four decades, as the only such programme producing fully fledged Chemistry Technicians at the MLT level in Sri Lanka. That programme which commenced in 1973 at Aquinas College was the first priority of the Institute after incorporation in 1972 in order to meet a much felt need at the middle level; the Institute did not levy any fee even to issue the certificate of completion during the first decade of the Technician programme.

The College has also been able to strengthen the professional activities of the Institute as a spin off result from the unforeseen financial and academic success of its educational programmes. Training seminars, quiz competitions, debating competitions, titration competitions, exhibitions etc have been conducted with increasing regularity and professional competence. The interests of school children have remained uppermost and multi-faceted activities have been conducted to further their skills, abilities and knowledge. The Institute was also able to play a crucial and important co-coordinating role during the International Year of Chemistry (2011) as the National Secretariat with the holding of two exhibitions and in many other ways with special focus on school children and in other ways.

However, the incomes generated from the educational activities have not been used for other Institute purposes for which alternate sources of funds have usually been tapped. The several international conferences held over the past have however been very successful and possible largely due to the solid infrastructure and human resources now available at all levels available within the Institute/College through the conduct of its educational programmes. The Institute and the College from the very inception fortunately got its fundamental priorities right so that the CCS has been careful to ensure that funds generated from educational activities were utilized essentially for furthering the educational programmes with no profit making initiatives. The CCS is therefore able to confidently go ahead with the proposed building programme without serious financial problems. Educational programmes of the Institute thus become the direct beneficiaries of these pragmatic policies.

The very effective manner in which productively administered educational programmes can perform a very useful and constructive supporting role in HRD has been amply established through the academic, financial, professional and social success of the educational programmes of the CCS. It is a great pity that we note there is a general resistance to the provision of similar alternate facilities outside the state sector despite inadequate academic staff numbers in universities and reluctance to increase salaries of senior academics to an attractive level. Recent events have unequivocally proved that the state university system is clearly unable to expand any further except at great loss of quality and efficiency. This has been well illustrated in the unplanned expansion of state universities without planning and inadequate funds to serve largely political ends. It is obvious that the quality and equivalence of a university degree cannot be guaranteed merely through a UGC circular that presently states that similar degrees awarded by any university are equivalent o each other.

Therefore the government would do much better with greater productivity and less expenditure if it recognizes and supports much more alternate opportunities that could be made available outside the bureaucratic and highly politicized state sector. Broad basing Tertiary Chemical Education need not necessarily be profit oriented as it is generally believed and expected to be. Opening up educational opportunities outside the state university sector in Sri Lanka, particularly through the non bureaucratic and non politically oriented professional bodies, can in fact have a symbiotic and synergetic effect as well. The College of Chemical Sciences of the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon has convincingly proved how this could be done in order to take Sri Lanka towards making it a knowledge hub in a very practical and efficient manner.

The need for closer collaboration between universities, corporations

, The Island.

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Welcome

Welcome to the seventy seventh (77th ) edition of the regular column "The Catalyst".

Here, we discuss a wide range of topics around Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), many aspects of Business, SME Development, Agriculture, Education, Entrepreneurship, Creativity, Innovation and the Society at large.

Innovation

If you have been following this column, you would remember that last week we discussed about the importance of creativity and innovation for the progress of a country. However, I think it’s evident that one column of an article does not do justice to the broad topic that is ‘creativity and innovation’.

Just to remind everyone a few snippets from last week; "Creativity is the ability to see things differently and have an original idea, and innovation is the ability to make new ideas actually happen."

One thing that was stressed and discussed was the need to develop the innovative culture within us. The feeling that ‘we can do’ needs to be injected.

Michael Porter, in his book "Competitive advantage of nations" has described the ability to innovate as one the key things for securing the well being of a nation. And that is why we have been discussing the importance of it for Sri Lanka too.

Industry-academia collaboration

Last week we touched on the topic of industry-academia collaboration. Research is a key factor driving innovation in a society. And one of the best places to carry out research is within a university. This is where industry-academia collaboration can help. Companies can work with universities to research and develop different things. The industrial body, usually funds the research either financially or through the provision of facilities. If a new innovation is born, the company takes it to the market. A win-win situation for all that’s involved. If the university students and staff discover some important new knowledge, again the company can use it for their benefit.

One of our readers took the time to write to us in detail after reading last weeks’ column, concurring with what we discussed and also adding more perspectives. I thought I will discuss some of it here as that insight reveals certain methodologies used by other countries. Of course we can and have to localise them to suit our needs, but then again these examples and models will help us in our thinking.

Ranil Jayanetti is a Sri Lankan currently living in Switzerland. He is a Research & Development Engineer for a company there.

Ranil points out that in Europe, universities and companies work together much more closely than in Sri Lanka. His personal experiences are narrated from the time he did his internship and his thesis at two leading car manufacturing companies during his Masters degree in Germany. Over there, the companies use university resources to find solutions to their technical problems.

During his two year Masters program in Polymer Technology in Germany, he was given the chance to do a six month industrial internship. His task was to identify mold technologies to make vehicle prototype parts in a cost-effective manner. Usually molds are made of steel and can produce about 200,000 parts, but are expensive. A leading car manufacturer generally makes 50-60 prototype cars; so steel molds are not very useful. The task that Ranil was given, didn’t involve development of technology itself, but to search for new technologies that are still unknown to the company. Through this process of recruiting a student to do this work, the company makes financial savings (payment of about €600 as opposed to €3500 for a qualified engineer). Additionally, the student brings new thinking and ideas. The student can also get guidance from a professor as to which direction to go, which helps both the student in his personal career and also the company.

Ranil further explained that the study program involved a thesis written over a six month period. Around the same time, another leading car manufacturer had introduced its new car series into the market and had noted a quality problem in one of the parts of its body. Ranil as a student researcher, had set up a series of activities to understand the problem, then searched for new test methods to characterize the problem, and had isolated the possible causes.

He has also given us details about an institute by the name of ‘Steinbeis’ that allows a university professor to use his lab resources and set up a centre that transfers knowledge to the industry. He needs to pay a fee to the university for using the resources and is also allowed to employ people on a salary. The academic can actually make a profit out of this business. It’s a win-win situation for all, and most importantly the industry is supported by research capabilities of the university in terms of both human resources as well as facilities. Using this method small scale companies can get easy access to the latest knowledge. Germany is a country where there are many medium scale companies which are world leaders in their respective fields. I am sure the above working models have helped in achieving that.

Sometime back we discussed about an innovative proposal by a Sri Lankan professional called Tilak Dissanayake (tilak@antsglobal.lk) that uses the strengths of existing technologies such as ICT (Information and Communications Technology), electronics, compressed air motors, and wind energy and has combined them in innovative ways to resolve the long standing issue of getting fresh produce to the market at a fair price to both producers and consumers. I am sure such ideas can be strengthened and tried in research with the support of academia and the university sector.

Even aspects like farming and agriculture can be improved and also be made attractive as a career choice if innovation is introduced in a stronger effective way. One reason that farming is considered a good career option in countries like Australia is the use of technology. Youngsters don’t necessarily feel that they live in the past as agriculture actually moves with time. We need that involvement too. If we don’t, we wouldn’t be able to compete on the production or the cost scale of the other countries anyway.

I hope these practical insights give our industry and academia a few things to think about.

Safeguarding Sri Lanka’s Oceans

An area that seems to need a lot of innovation is around protecting and safeguarding Sri Lanka’s oceans.

This is a very important subject. A few days ago some newspapers reported that Indian boats are bottom trawling our waters. Bottom trawling is about dragging fishing nets along the sea floor, which is very damaging to maritime resources since this can wipe out species in massive numbers. Illegal poaching in our waters takes place every day by illegal boats. We need to take action and protect our resources for the future generations.

Regulations, coast guard and an overall strategy are important to tackle these issues. That’s where creativity and innovation with forward thinking can be utilised practically for the betterment of the country.

In this light, the Kadirgamar Institute is organising an event with the international Fisheries and Maritime expert, Mr John Church to speak on Protecting and Safeguarding Sri Lanka’s Oceans for the Benefit of Present and Future Generations.

Mr Church will present on VMS (Vessel Monitoring Systems), MCS (Monitor Control and Surveillance of All Vessels), and FMPP (Fisheries Management Protection Programme), and discuss the technical, financial, and political aspects of such programmes.

Mr John Church, who has developed Fisheries Management Protection Programme (FMPP) propositions for Sri Lanka, has extensive experience of the consultation, background research, implementation and operation of VMS, MCS, and FMPP installations worldwide including the UK, USA, and the following countries: Cyprus, Eire, Equatorial Guinea, Falklands, Ghana, Greece, Indonesia, Liberia, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, St. Helena, Sierra Leone, Puntland State of Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania and Yemen.

The Kadirgamar Institute encourages all to participate and benefit from this presentation on this burning topic of national interest. The forum will be held at the Kadirgamar Institute in Colombo on February 13 (today) from 5:00 to 6:00pm.

Get in Touch

You may have experiences and suggestions for future discussions in this column. If you like, you can share them with us and those would add further value to our readers.

"Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than in the one where they sprung up." - Oliver Wendell Holmes

The touch point to get in touch is yva@lankabpoacademy.lk

See you next week!





The Columnist

Yasas Vishuddhi Abeywickrama is a professional with significant experiences. In 2011 he was recognised as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons (TOYP) in Sri Lanka. Yasas has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from University of Colombo and a Masters degree in Entrepreneurship & Innovation from Swinburne University in Australia. He has worked in the USA, UK, Sri Lanka & Australia and being trained in the USA & Malaysia. He is currently involved in the training organisation, Lanka BPO Academy (www.lankabpoacademy.lk). Yasas is also an Executive Council Member of the Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL – www.cssl.lk). Apart from this column, he is a regular resource person for ‘Ape Gama’ program of FM Derana (Sunday 3-5pm). Yasas is happy to answer your relevant questions – email him at yva@lankabpoacademy.lk