सहाध्याय दिन, An Experiential Learning Day

 सहाध्याय दिन, An Experiential Learning Day

At Jnana Prabodhini Solapur, we organize a special activity titled "समाजदर्शन उपक्रम," which translates roughly to "Insights into the Essence of Society." A few years ago, on a specially organized day, all students across different standards were grouped vertically for this unique experience.

Solapur is a city of remarkable linguistic diversity. Initially, as a border district, we anticipated finding families speaking Marathi, Telugu, Kannada, and a few other languages. However, after an initial survey, we discovered families speaking more than 20 different languages.

On a special day, group of students, accompanied by their mentor teachers and parent, visited these families. They stayed with them for a few hours to understand their reasons for migration, the uniqueness of their languages, how many family members could read and speak their mother tongue, and sing songs from those languages. They also learned how these families were adopting Marathi for local communication while protecting their native languages at home. Students identified similar words in both languages and explored about movies, songs, festivals and the culture of these migrated communities. They also enjoyed diverse cuisines from different linguistic communities.

Before the visit, the students learned about the linguistic diversity of India. They identified a few words to facilitate dialogue with the families and prepared a survey questionnaire to understand the impact of linguistic diversity on family and social culture.

After spending this special Experiential Learning Day (सहाध्याय दिन) with the families, students shared their experiences, processed data from the survey, and presented their understanding of the linguistic diversity across Solapur. They also reflected on the unity of India through its linguistic diversity.

Spending this special Experiential Learning Day (सहाध्याय दिन) with these families helped to create a meaningful connection between different families across Solapur with Jnana Prabodhini, fostering a deeper appreciation for the rich drapery of culture within the community.

What is Experiential learning day (सहाध्याय दिन)

Experiential learning day is a theme-centered activity day offering students a broad range of experiential learning opportunities designed to enhance their understanding and engagement across diverse fields and contexts.

 Experiential Learning Day is an intentional educational event that aims to guide students by offering purposeful learning experiences. These experiences provide opportunities for reflection, exposure to diverse perspectives, active engagement, and the integration of concepts from various disciplines.

Unlike traditional outdoor education, Experiential Learning Day is distinct in its focus on purposeful learning experiences. During this day, teachers carefully choose and adapt activities to align with syllabus outcomes, catering to students' unique needs and interests. This approach fosters a multidisciplinary understanding that extends beyond the confines of the traditional classroom, enriching the educational experience.

Why to organize an Experiential Learning Day:

Experiential Learning Day provides a structured yet flexible framework that enables teachers to overcome limitations of schooling and traditional classroom settings, providing teachers and students a means to participate in a rich purposeful learning experience.

1.    Overcoming Time Constraints: Experiential Learning Day provides dedicated time for organizing and executing activities without the constraints of daily class schedules, allowing deeper engagement.

2.    Resource Availability: Concentrating resources for a single day enables teachers to use a variety of materials, tools, and environments, maximizing the impact facilitating richer learning experiences.

3.    Expertise and Collaboration: The thematic focus of Experiential Learning Day promotes collaboration among teachers, experts, and community members, enriching students' learning with diverse perspectives beyond the textbook.

Characteristics of an Experiential Learning Day :

Experiential Learning Day is a purpose-driven approach to teaching and learning, where teachers carefully select and adapt activities to align with syllabus outcomes while also catering to the unique needs, interests, and experiences of their students. It goes beyond the traditional classroom setting to create a holistic and multidisciplinary learning experience. Here are the key characteristics of an Experiential Learning Day.

1.    Teaching with a Purpose and Perspectives: Experiential Learning Day encourages teachers to design engaging and challenging activities with purposeful learning that expand students' perspectives, fostering deeper insights into content beyond traditional classroom boundaries.

2.    Theme-Centered Learning: Experiential Learning Day revolves around a specific theme, and students engage in a series of activities related to that theme, fostering a real-life, holistic perspective.

3.    Expanding Learning Outcomes: Experiential Learning Day aims to expand learning outcomes by surpassing syllabus limitations, offering enriching experiences that deepen students' understanding, while also fostering appreciation for diverse concepts, making learning engaging and meaningful.

4.    Holistic and Multidisciplinary Learning: By integrating elements from various disciplines, Experiential Learning Day breaks down subject silos, to create a well-rounded educational experience that goes beyond the classroom.

5.    Active Engagement and Reflection: Experiential Learning Day prioritizes hands-on activities, discussions, and reflections, encouraging active engagement, deeper understanding and appreciation.

Categories of Experiential Learning Day:

After goal setting, a teacher can select relevant activities to attain the goal. Following are examples of activities that can be used to achieve the goal.

1.    Field Visits: These can include visits to various industrial settings, research institutes, educational institutions, social organizations, government institutions, and museums, providing students with firsthand exposure to real-world environments.

2.    Study of Systems: Students can explore different systems, including ecosystems, distribution systems, physical systems like rivers, village structures, and administrative systems, fostering a deeper understanding of how these systems function.

3.    Understanding Society: This category involves studying social problems, specific social groups, and conducting surveys to address social issues, encouraging students to engage with and analyze societal concerns.

4.    Service-Based Activities/ community engagement: Engaging in service-oriented activities like patient care, hospital nursing, agriculture, and skilled or physical labor, instilling a sense of community involvement and hands-on learning.

5.    Interactions with Significant Personalities: Students have the opportunity to interact with notable individuals from various fields such as poetry, literature, administration, sports, science, and defense, gaining valuable insights from these experts.

6.    Appreciation: Activities in this category encompass the appreciation of art, music, movies, and sculptures, allowing students to explore their creative and aesthetic sensibilities.

7.    Workshops: Subject related skill enrichment workshops as map reading, origami, art and innovation related workshops, life skills workshops as communication, critical thinking, leadership, teamwork, financial literacy.

8.    Special Days: Include subject-specific events (e.g., Science Day, History Day), commemorations of notable figures' birthdays, and observances of special days as Environment Day.

9.    In-House Day in a Lab: Providing opportunities for hands-on learning within school facilities, including science labs, math labs, makerspaces for innovation and technology, and dedicated spaces for music and art appreciation.

Experiential Learning Day effectively integrates all aspects of Kolb's cycle of experiential learning:

1.    Concrete Experience: Through carefully chosen and adapted activities, students engage in challenging experiences that encourage them to explore concepts with a clear purpose, providing a concrete experience.

2.    Reflective Observation: The day prompts students to gain a new perspective on content, themselves, and society, encouraging reflective observation of their experiences.

3.    Abstract Conceptualization: The learning activities on Experiential Learning Day go beyond textbooks and school, emphasizing the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary nature of knowledge exploration, fostering abstract conceptualization.

4.    Active Experimentation: Students and teachers actively perform a series of theme-centered activities, gaining different experiences that help in understanding and appreciating different attributes of a concept, aligning with active experimentation.

      Integration: Experiential Learning Day integrates elements from other curricula, outdoor recreation, and the environment, creating a holistic learning experience that goes beyond the classroom and encourages students to explore various dimensions of the concept, ultimately achieving integration.

Experiential Learning Day (सहाध्याय दिन), practiced at Jnana Prabodhini is a unique educational initiative and tool for experiential learning, offering students immersive learning opportunities through theme-centered activities that foster active engagement, diverse perspectives, and reflection, where students engage in theme-centered activities aimed at enriching experiences.

In this series, I will share experiences of organizing Experiential Learning Days and planners to assist teachers in creating impactful experiences at their schools.

Ref: Article सहाध्याय दिन, by Vivek Ponkshe from शिक्षण व्हावे चैतन्यदाई 

Prashant Divekar 

Jnana Prabodhini, Pune