Second attempt. - Intro: The concept of significance

The essay requires that I pick a theory first. This is difficult for me because I generally move with a complex, complicated, approach to theory - believing that one must have no theory to go by initially, then go on to take what is good from all the theories after being initiated into them , form one's own multi-faceted theory over time and transcend theory eventually after finding out the right balance between theory and practice. Another difficulty that presents itself to me is that I am, by nature, a strongly theory-oriented thinker/writer, and left to myself I would keep writing theory and leave out documenting the practical aspect totally, because the latter is what I'm good at.
(Leave out this first paragraph safely)

Of the given theorists , due to familiarity and inclination the ones that attract me the most are Dewey, Skinner, Piaget, Bruner, Vygotsky, Gardner and the brain-based learning theorists. This is not a value judgment. Since that's still too long a list and the brief is to choose primarily just one or two I would like to concentrate, perforce, on Bruner and constructivism, although I will be referring, if necessary, to the other theorists.

(Leave this paragraph out too)

A major development in the twentieth century for a student of theory in the transdisciplinary field of linguistics, stylistics, literature, criticism, art, anthropology, sociology, history, politics, philosophy and psychology was the evolution of a few defining terms that were seen to be highly utilitarian in their ability to refer to all the above mentioned disciplines simultaneously, making multiple interfaces possible. These terms are the sign, signifier, signified, signification, referent and the text - in their fullest connotations.

(First paragraph of essay)

These words or defining terms stand for key concepts that show a shift in perception that occurred in the twentieth century, bringing in a new paradigm in theory and practice in all the above mentioned fields. The shift was away from nineteenth century trends and open to twenty-first century changes which have had to take rapid breakthroughs in science and technology - resultantly in media -into consideration.

(Leave out the above paragraph)

As to what the terms stand for - to put it in a very simplistic way which subverts the very effort of the proponents of these terms to expand their frame of reference to include, if possible, all disciplines - the sign stands for anything with symbolic value, the signifier is usually its re-presentation and the signified is the interpreted or interpretative Meaning of the sign/ifier. The branches of learning which study these phenomena are called semiotics and hermeneutics. The how, why, when , where, who and what of Meaning's occurrence , also called semantics, is called signification or the signifying process and deals primarily with the relationship between the signifiers and how it generates meaning. The sign and the signifier always stand in relation to its referent - and studying the connections between such multi-pronged terms was the contribution of Structuralism which dealt with the relationship between elements rather than the understanding of the elements themselves. The final concept I have mentioned, that of the text, assumed staggering importance after Derrida's mercurial and controversial rise to prominence in the theoretical world, with his notion of textuality as perenially closed and kinetic; a chain of endless signifiers based on difference rather than identity and repetition, a notion that neatly yet radically does away with the concepts of the the signified and the referent.

Second paragraph - for the layman. Should I use it? - depends on final word count)

Naturally, with this kind of modernist theoretical grounding, theory in these disciplines moved towards post-structuralism, post-modernism, deconstruction, post-colonialism, post-feminism, post-Marxism, post- colonialism and decolonization, subaltern studies, minority and marginalized discourses being given voice etc. All this was made possible because the previous theorists had opened up whole schools of debate and their discourses dealt with subjectivity and relativization, making it difficult in the post- Nietzchean & Foucaultian ambience to come to conclusions on any "subject" without first rigorously testing whether one was thinking clearly. Theory had become meta-theoretical, a natural concomitant to its rising importance.

(Leave out the above paragraph)

As readers of learning theories may notice, these important terms did not, seemingly, leave much of an impact on the discourse of Education. My effort in this essay will not be to ask why but to connect these theoretical terms to learning theory and my practice, finally generalizing on the output. The obvious fear that comes to the surface whenever theories that stem from Saussurean linguistics, structuralism, post-modernism, deconstruction and political empowerment of the sort envisaged by Foucault are discussed in connection with learning and education is the one about whether these are anarchic and subversive and will undermine the very foundations of what education, especially child-centered education, is supposed to be. Deconstructionists will, of course, laugh at the idea that education is supposed, a priori, to be this or that . It is true that such discourses deconstruct commonly held assumptions. But to believe that they are automatically anti-constructivist is misleading. Au contraire, to rigorously test the philosophical concepts that underpin a system, an institution or a philosophy is to do it a great benefit. From this kind of scrutiny they have a chance to emerge positively cha(r/n)ged, unscathed or diminished.

So, to frame my present effort, through which I hope to temporarily discover my philosophy or theory of learning, let me start by asking a few questions that seem relevant to me. What is my main signifier and, to rephrase thnigs in terms I am familiar with as a theorist, what does it really signify? What is its referent? What is the text and what are the subtexts? My temporary answers, simply put, are: The learner is the signifier under consideration -whether in singular or plural. No learner, no education. The signified, consequently, is learning. And the referent of the process of signification which is naught but the process of learning is - a surprisingly DesCartesian finding- the interaction and interface between the self and the world. The text therefore will be, naturally, the sum of these four parts. This self-sufficient and significant system which might have been rampant once has been contaminated by bringing into it the three subtexts which are
a. the ideology of power
b, the theories of learning and
c. the need, due to financial, social and economic constructs, for (artificial?) middlemen between the learners and actual learning or education.
This impasse has to be faced now because it is a reality. My attempt will be to deconstruct these three subtexts using some of the salient principles outlined in Bruner's version of Constructivism , of which he is only one of the proponents.

apology in frostian/blakean terms

casw sessions make us wise
but, alas, a deadline doth me await
and i still have seven reports to write
yea, i still have seven more reports to write.....

think: a couplet

I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours- Hunter S. Thompson

when is it told then?
from five to nine?

A great poem by Miguel Hernandez

What does the wind of bitterness want
that it comes down the gully
and forces the windows
while I dress you in my arms?

To overthrow us, pull us down.

Overthrown, pulled down,
both our bloods receding.
What more does the wind want
more bitterly each moment?

To part us.

A day in the life of a poet like Tagore?
03/25/06
(edited Saturday, Mar 25, 2006 08:54)
purify your heart and find out
what the truth is and/or the truth is not
purify your heart and you shall see
God in fire ether earth wind(air) and sea
purify your heart and we can be
one as the two faces of the multiple High
purify your heart in the motives and intentions of all your dreams
purify your heart
so that all you are and say and do is more than what it seems
till you know you are your silence and not just your deeds
and your reacting and your refraining from evil purify
be good, dear heart
purify your single singular heart
and find it linked to the sacred(ness of the) heart and all the other hearts
in the expanding universal heartland(s) of the pure.

Anu's session

Teaching a chapter on stress that was both content-rich and content-heavy Anu found out that the last lesson which she made an interesting one based on brain based strategies to motivate learning was perhaps the most successful of the lot. She showed us a video of the class in which she had made use of Nina John as a subject expert.
Her consequhent reflection led to this unexpected key question - unexpected but relevant for many of us teachers who deal with lots of content and concepts in a year's syllabus - :
How - through what methods (tools) -can direct teaching be made interesting?
Direct teaching, she explained - and we concurred - was the only way to teach large chunks of theory whichroug was needed as background for the discipline - those dry but necessary sections.
For someone like me who had majored in direct teaching the question came as a pleasant surprise - because it made me rethink how it could be made interesting.

Intriguingly, of the six sessions we have held so far only two dealt directly with assessment of student work. Two dealt with motivating students to work/learn better and the other two dealt with questions connected more with improving our teaching practice as professionals.
The range is what makes this exercise worthwhile.

My suggestions for improving direct teaching included bringing in the lement of performance - body langugage, jokes, gestures, eye contact, use of movement and space by the teacher in the class, preparing rigorously beforehand for the lecture, timing things perfectly , including the pauses and the time and places for discussion in the course of this kind of "delivery".
Other suggestion I made were that tech tools like video files, audio files and powerpoint presentations be made use of in direct teaching classes to enhance content rather than as media for building the student's potential to learn. Thus interviews with famous personalities - subject experts - , case studies etc could be projected making the classroom a serious space and the things shown and heard would be a documentary nature .
The idea that Anu took to most was that of personalizing the content, because however dry the topic is, if the students find a genuine link in it to their own lives, it will enthuse them.

Bala facilitated the session ably.

During the collaborative strategy building session we formulated a strategy that helped all of us
in its definitiveness.
Bala's role in insisting that the collaborative strategy sessions should really move towards a single combined strategy is worth noting as a concrete and positive move.
So is his role in making for us a document in which we can easily write down our session notes. If fine tuned this wil be of lasting importance to future CASW Sessions.
The debriefing did not contain anything much of note except the suggestion that contextualizing
the key question sometimes get confusing becasue the presenter is busy not only speaking but also handing out notes etc.
The necessity to be punctual was also stressed.
Anu was quite happy with her take-away.
All of us heaved a big sigh of relief, having completed the first round.

"School's out for ever" - Alice Cooper

Do you remember what you felt like on the last day of school after the last school -exam you'd ever write?

The Quiet Auditorium and Beyond
Tue, 21 Mar 2006 05:01:06 -0800

i was found standing
in a wide but closed space
on a sleepy noonday

a tall death's head glided
skeletally past me
to a long and spectral bench

tall, swaying trees came in
hemmed in by small seats
their branches, silent; moving

the hourglass turned thrice
i was found sitting
sleeping(!), sometimes writing

pacing is distracting
pacing shows distraction
eyes feasting on fair calves

ankles, thighs and muscles
shapes, twisting and turning
chairs and skirts, leaves rustling

three aeons went by
(for them but thirty seconds?)
of minds and sinews working

the clock struck five quietly
they rushed by, in gladness
22 soft-eyed gazelles

no longer penned in by/with questions
in "convent-ual" fences
free to roam the city

as if t'were green savannahs
to their hearts' feline dis-content(s)
in the heartless neon-lit streets

no more of school-exams
no more they, school children
no more they, girls; thinking

w/trapped in women's bodies
running out , gracefully
liberated, pretty gazelles

finally 'wisdom's' children
their sparkling faces declared
at one with their lissome limbs

and i was found walking
out of the gates of division
into the place, (of) my poem

setting it free, long-legged gazelle
into the azure - "nu/ew blue" - skies
of your desirous readings.

Gnome - 2

There is no need to feign
Poetry is worth nothing
But, then again
Nothing is worth Poetry.

Writing

"Habit is the ballast that chains the dog to its vomit" - Samuel Beckett in his monograph on Marcel Proust

What is friendship , according to Proust? Two people at the same level of confusion.....

How are these things connected to writing?

A writer needs to free himself from all preconceivedness to become a potent silence.

A change of mind & the importance of the prefix RE

I am unable to post a picture of Patrick White. I think I'll drop it. I want to return to my thread on evolving a satisfactory philosophy of education that will fit and extend my present needs as a facilitator.
I would like to be a bit subject or discipline- specific this time. However, the thoughts here are, as always, in media res; and should not be taken as a final position on anything I am pondering about.
In every subject at present a knowledge of English is needed.
So students should know English well.
What is the process by which a(ny) language can be learned 'well'?
Hearing and listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing
Thinking in the target language
These are commonly known denominators.
But in the 20th century , after modernism and post-modernism the prefix "re-" has become important.
The process of learning is not only about the impact of the first time
but about words like
re-petition
re-membering
re-inforcing
re-ifications

In literature especially, which if a man becomes an adept at, he naturally becomes good at language too - a cycle begins to form which I now feel is extremely valid
It goes like this.

Reading - RE - reading - Note-taking - RE - reading - Note-making - P(l)anning for writing -Writing - RE- reading - RE - writing (some people plan what they want to write so well they don't need to rewrite - they edit in their head- but these are exceptions)
In the circle also comes things like hearing and then hearing again, (the second is what I call ac tual listening) , viewing and RE-viewing (actual looking/seeing), thinking and then RE-thinking, doing and RE-doing, making and RE- making, creating and RE-creating.....
In short, I speak of the importance of the prefix RE and of RE-working everything to come closer to perfection....

This needs to be explicated using examples but it is potent enough as a seed for now. Ideally everything would need to be done thrice.

One of the twentieth century greats - Derrida

This picture was called " the blind deconstructing the blind."
Derrida is on the left. You can see that his hair has been deconstructed, perhaps by the wind.

Michaelangelo once said:

"i am still learning"

5th CASW session - Viji's.

Despite the absence of Anu and Hema , the former due to invigilation duty at Sophia's and the latter due to illness ; we held the fifth CASW session of the +2 teacher's group. Mohua joined in,
which was good.
Viji's key questions were
1.For projects based on research and collection of data how can the teacher ensure authenticity of data and no manipulation of the same by the student?
2. What measures can be taken by the teacher to ensure that students maintain integrity and truthfulness in producing genuine work based on research?
The questions , I felt , went into areas of research methodology, documentation, planning, assessment, life skills and ethics - a wide spectrum indeed!
The point she stressed most was that there should have been "systematic record of data, good arrangement of data, independant market survey, creative representation" in accordance with the proposed guidelines for marking with grades for 10th ISC internal assessment in economic applications projects.
She showed samples of project work where the students had not kept the criteria but it couldn't exactly be pinned down, so because of the superior packaging of the projects, they had , in a sense, got away with it....
This is what I wrote down in my indidvidual writing session:
To ensure they have done research give them specific locations. Scout those areas early or go with them. Check facts out if not with them. Collection of data must be backed by proof, not just charts.
Stick to assessment criteria and refuse to give marks/grades if what was asked for was not done.
Ensuring integrity by modelling research.
Don't let them consider the project completed until you are satisified.
The participant discussion was rich in specifying how ideas like the general ones above could actually be put into practice. I am putting them here in short hand:
Locate much of field study in school.
Bring back proof of interviews held.
Bring back bills and receipts.
Bring in research experts - to talk of how to do research and how exciting it is.
Bring back photographs and videos of the trips -
In case of dereliction of duty on the part of the student regarding quality of work done report the matter to the higher authorities
Map the work, break it down into manageable units, plan, collect data, analyze and write/present project. This makes close monitoring possible to avoid dilution.
Talk to the students of the need for ethics in research work. teach them skills of data collection, recording findings, documenting the process.
In the presenter reflection period Viji said that grouping wouldn't work and modelling was difficult. She also said that withholdoing marks and grades wasn't a feasible solution.
Collaborative strategy building :
1. Teach the students differnt styles of research;
library research, field study, market survey etc.
Also, how to record and write the results.
2.Provide structured parameters: selected locations, people, objects for study , time, sources.
3.Call in motivators and inspirers and be inspiring ....
4. Monitor the process and its documentation - evaluate and record. Surprise inspections can also be done occasionally.
The teacher has to talk throughout to students of work ethics.
If there is a clear case of plagiarism, copying, flagrant violation of copyright, patents or wholescale lifting of material from the internet etc. or stealing of intellectual property breaking those rights connected to it, the matter has to be taken to higher authorities.
Debriefing made us aware that the collaborative strategy session needed to be fine-tuned.
The facilitator's role was clearly delineated and his participant staus was seen to be less because of having to do two things at the same time.
Time has to be handled more carefully.
The points the presenter disagreed with were thought best avoided and not discussed in the collaborative strategy building session.

Next sessions:
Wednesday 22nd: Anupama's first session and/or Koshy's review. 2.30-5.00
April 1 - The other five review sessions. 8.45 - 3.15

Voss isst du?

		03/06/06 (edited Monday, Mar 06, 2006 19:04)
		Something’s stirring like a butterfly's wings It's clear that, again, someone's going batty Somewhere there's mud It feels so gritty under one's boots the sound drives you crazy In the damp rain falling hard taking shelter in a cowshed smelling of stale hay and piss so no one can think It's so nutty I feel like i’m almost about to scream There he says he knelt the gay writer with a name like W/white! Pa-trick luna-tic and he said he came to believe in the almighty - I’ve heard taller stories but i take it easy - and he wept like a baby cursin’ the damn rain (must have been night?!) beating on his wet face like thunder - Is that where he caught the chill that led to the Nobel? - I don't have an ace like that hid up my shirtsleeve I must have cheated at the game of life, gambling Voss, isst du, poker-face? The countdown for the usual cast off begins all over this year I wait in the days of Lent in a deserted vestry standing by the river in spate Can you hear the words of my roaring it asks I listen Hear It's the same old sound the crucified one crying out in human(e) agony

P.S. The experiments in language are intentional. A photograph of Patrick White shall duly be posted.

The promised picture of T.S. Eliot painted by none other than Wyndham Lewis

Bala's CASW session

Dealing with questions that touched upon the curriculum and the syllabus, bringing in the pedagogical issues of the real meaning of 'time' and 'space' and the logistics of handling them, Bala held forth in today's session a brilliant conundrum for the paticipants of how to deal with key questions that are highly relevant but totally out of the box in that they deal with student assessment rather than assessment of student work.
Art and Design coursework for AICE A level was the frame he set for us to discuss.
The key questions were:
1. How to schedule and plan sessions (practical work) when the locations are outside the school (eg; Lala Bhag Botanical Gardens or a view of the Hebbal lake) or outside the City ( eg; Mahabalipuram or Hampi )
2. how to facilitate learning in such a situation?
3. how to ensure completion of the painting as per the schedule, even when it is unmonitored.
Vijaya Rajeshwari facilitated the entire session ably.
The whole team had a lively session in which all felt comfortable and many good strategies were thrown up.
My responses to the key questions included the suggestions that the schedule should be made ready early and contact time making use of technology should be insisted on in the case of field trips ouside schoool where the students cannot be monitored by the teacher. Though I suggested self-assessment and peer-assesment as ways to keep them on target this idea - Bala rightly pointed out - is difficult to implement in the absence of the facilitator. About making sure they complete the work and don't drop out or produce shoddy work, the only solution I could think of was raising their level of motivation and interest and making them aware of the responsibilty they have towards art and life.
Strategies towards this end would include - meeting artists, discipline gained through earlier briefer field trips, showing films and works of art to them to raise their level of understanding of the intrinsic value of art and the consequent ethics and responsibilty expected of them in terms of integrity towards their work as artists which would include things like keeping deadlines etc...
In short i wanted them to think highly of their choice and calling so that it would automatically bring about in them a heightened awareness whereby they would turn in their best work.
The ideal time for field trips would be Christmas holidays, according to me.
Bala pointed out that while best work can be done only if they do go, if necessary, to far off places there were practical difficulties connected with that.....
The session ended with a serious appraisal of how Bala could handle coursework better next year - the best idea being by the "persistent" Vijaya Rajeshwari- a meticulous year plan- and debriefing where it was suggested that all of us should refresh our memory each time about the structure of the CASW meetings because at times we did forget and interrupted each other in sessions where we should have kept silent...
I feel that one thing that got forgooten was discussion on our take away from this enriching session. Mine was thoughts on how to mix school time and space constraints with the notion of how the world itself is a school and all time is meant for learning.....
Thanks to Bala for a thought provoking and tangentially illuminating session, typical of his aesthetic sensibility which always moves in a curve that is unexpected...
And to Rags and the others for harmonious participation. We missed the gregariousness of Anu who wasn't well.
The tea helped us in the fag end of the day to stay fresh.....
And to cap it all Tara's and Shuchi's feedback on my essay made a wonderful ending to a very pleasant day....

My continuing search for a satisfactory philosophy of education.

The Supertramp lyrics I quoted in the last post are, of course, interesting; but my training in theory, especially in the fields of literature and criticism, makes me read it against the grain.
When one is young is life really wonderful , a miracle, magical and beautiful?
The lyricist adds a qualifying "seems."
I remember: when I was small I actually wanted to go to school. This was because I have two elder brothers and a sister and watching two of them dress up everyday in their uniforms and take their schoolbags with books in it and go away made me feel they were more "grown up" than I...
When I did go to school, however, through sheer bad luck I got an awful teacher - a kind of bat out of hell- in the first standard and it ruined my schooling experience....
In those days , by the way, one could go to first standard directly... no K.G. ... no test...
When I reached college I 'felt' much happier . There was freedom there.
I came away from schooling pretty muddled.
The "confusion" of "learning" that Supertramp speaks of ..... I guess?! Partly inner confusion. Good teachers were rare....
I am writing this primarily from the point of view of a student....
In two of his poems T.S. Eliot speaks about how knowledge has been the bane of modern man's existence. I sought knowledge and that was perhaps the cause for my unhappiness with the system of education.....
He says that knowledge is different from wisdom...
We in India use the words gnana and vidya ....
I acquired vidya but found that what I needed was the gnana to apply the vidya...
It is clear that from the moment of birth man needs to learn....
But how does one learn? What? When? Where? From who? And last but not least, why and to what extent, i.e; how much? In other words how can I gain the gnana needed to move beyond the duality/maya of avidya and vidya...
A lot of it(learning) comes naturally and spontaneously. Some of it is "thrust", like "greatness" upon us. :).But of what we can consciously muster of learning, there we need to choose judiciously and wisely....
Samuel Beckett who was a brilliant academician discovered one day that he wanted to be an artist and threw up scholarship for consummate artistry. He eventually won a Nobel Prize for Literature but in the early years of struggle as a writer he wrote this revealing poem aptly titled
GNOME
Spent/d the years of learning squandering
Courage for the years of wandering
Through a world politely turning
From the loutishness of learning
My memory plays me tricks . I forget - but do not regret it - the exact tense of the first word of this gnomic utterance.
To sum up:
My children still learn in the same outdated system I grew up in, more or less, because I am (outwardly?) a conventional person.
But if I had a second conscious chance, what would I do?
What kind of schooling would I want?
Let me try and think it through......
(The photo is that of Samuel Beckett. I also wanted to post one of T.S. Eliot but I think I'll keep it for later. The photo is titled "Samuel Beckett's craggy stare" .....)

Supertramp › The Logical Song > Lyrics

When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful
A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical.
And all the birds in the trees, well they’d be singing so happily
Joyfully, playfully watching me.
But then they send me away to teach me how to be sensible
Logical, responsible, practical.
And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable
Clinical, intellectual, cynical.
There are times when all the world’s asleep
The questions run too deep
For such a simple man.
Won’t you please, please tell me what we’ve learned
I know it sounds absurd
But please tell me who I am.
Now watch what you say or they’ll be calling you a radical
Liberal, fanatical, criminal.
Won’t you sign up your name, we’d like to feel you’re acceptable
Respectable, presentable, a vegetable!

At night, when all the world’s asleep
The questions run too deep
For such a simple man.
Won’t you please, please tell me what we’ve learned
I know it sounds absurd
But please tell me who I am.

I think of the lyrics of this song, along with those of many others, while evolving my philosophy of education. Is this kind of confusion at the end of the process of education a good thing or not? In the band's case they seem to have become a succes by making creative use of their confusion, crafting excellent songs out of it. The contradiction implied in that is what interests me. How much of their success was due to their education and how much in spite of it?

Third CASW session - Presenter: Joel Kribairaj

After the initial tech hiccups the session took off with Tara Kini facilitating and Satish Jayarajan as observer along with Arun from the P.E. Department.
Joel was able to put across his key questions with such conviction that we were convinced both of the necessity for the children to partcipate more actively and regularly in athletics and for there to be a democratization of such participation without bringing in the element of competition at all.
As Bala said Joel's philosophy of education shone through brightly throughout.
Joel's key questions were
Why do students in our school have immense interest in foorball and basketball?
How to create an equal interest in athletics?

During the productive discussion that followed rich strategies and perspectives emerged.
I was of the opinion that the interest in football and basketball had to do with the school's own culture, subculture and game- history and also something to with the prominence of these two games in Europe and in America, especially basketball's status as black American subculture's game. Bala opined that athletes were usually in " touch with the soil. "
Regarding equalization of interest several strategies were suggested including showing films like Iqbal and Chariots of Fire , bringing in selectors and role models , using the need for peer acceptance as a means to raise motivation through competitions, training for competitions, using an interdisciplinary method etc.
my suggestion was simulating a computer game which was like a quest for teams and weaving in things like javelin etc to make it exciting and colourful so that they would learn these sports without actually realising they were learning it first.
The question of what we took away from the session was a good one.
I personally took away the desire to motivate my students so they have equal interst in different things I teach and don't love only some of the things.
Though Joel had titled his presetation the losing battle we felt that the fight should go on and some things may have to be a choiceless entity....
The debriefing session -
I felt this session, more than the ones before , should have been video'd.....
It was the best of the three so far.
As usual, to write everything down would make it too long but there were tonnes of interesting things happening there....

Thanks to the team for another memorable experience which will feed into my teaching practice.

...and thanks to Tara for the snacks I and Anu went and had in her room at the end.

Follow up and a kind of a fare thee well ....

Trying to implement CASW sessions suggestions. I have made/am making my students rewrite the essays. parts of which I had submitted to the CASW group as their last/latest sample. While one student completed the essay , taking into account all the suggestions - and she has done a good job of it - with the other student I am following two of the strategies suggested in the CASW session - namely that her actual issues are not being given enough time and a thinking skill deficiency rather than a writing skill one...
As a result of giving her a longer time schedule and sitting and thinking what she is writing through with her - thus bringing into play another suggestion which is constant monitoring and feedback - I find that her essay is gradually becoming a satisfactory one. However the first part of my key question remains unanswered as yet. I need to look at the strategies suggested once again.

I am also wondering about something Tara wrote: are our exercises dealing with brain based learning and strategies or are they collaborative problem solving exercises? i am not satisfied with the collaborative strategy building session yet.

On a different note: I joined Aditi on May 9, 2005 for my induction course. During the course two students joined the five of us who were already there along with Tara who was mapping out evolving professional practice for us.
They were Parbati B and Mahesh. Parbati, a Bengali, had come from Vasant Valley , which was Bala's old school too.
Parbati has left us now and moved to Mumbai.
She shared the staffroom with me and Srini, two of the seven.
The time we had together was good fun She remains a good friend and I am glad I can remember her as a good colleague.
I'm sure none of us will forget your lesson on "ethnocentricism"
A pity I couldn't find the Disney Jungle Book CD to give you.
Still owing you cake. Or is it ice cream?!:)
Keep using your blog and stay in touch via email. Hoping to see you again in March. All seven of us will think of you fondly every now and then. koshy a.v. a.k.a terrestrian@gmail.com
for anyone interested in keeping in touch with Parbati her email addy is toping@rediffmail.com