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| Wednesday, 24 December 2003 |
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Buddhist values integrated with language skills development My First Word Book: In a world in which violence is rampant and the turmoil created by the unprecedented growth of greed, hatred and delusion is universally prevalent the message of peace contained in the teachings of the Buddha is of great contemporary relevance.Social philosophies that have justified violence for effecting social change and achieving justice have led to numerous conflicts in the world, the perpetrators of which seek to justify in terms of their own prejudiced and self-centred opinions. One effective way in which the horrendous human suffering produced by the growing proneness to resort to violence to seek solutions to our problems is a radical transformation of our ways of thinking by educating people for peace. Education is the key to wise living and the lack of wisdom is the cause for the present turmoil. The Buddha is undoubtedly supreme among ancient teachers of mankind who educated people for peace. The ultimate goal of Buddhism is the attainment of peace (santi) within each individual, and thereby, eliminating the source of social conflict. The Buddha, as a teacher of mankind is known to have demonstrated the highest skill in using effective techniques to educate mankind for peace. As the Buddha repeatedly emphasized, his teaching was to understand the suffering produced by human ignorance and to remove it by means of cultivating insight and wisdom. Ignorance and craving produce the suffering of the individual, and individuals who suffer from ignorance and craving produce suffering for the rest of the society. In Prof. G.K. Ananda Kumarasiri's My First Word Book: Buddhist Pedagogical Approach he has made a commendable attempt to apply the Buddhist pedagogical approach as a technique of educating people for peace beginning from their formative years during which they acquire linguistic skills and concepts. Prof. Kumarasiri has put clearly and succinctly what he intends to achieve by using the method he proposes in the education of the child in the following terms: Much of the real meaning and value of the education is lost as a result of the over weightage in the systems of education the world over on the cognitive level of teaching and training. Rationale The real challenge of education today is to ensure a globalized society of cultured human beings, in the true sense and meaning of the term. The answer lies in elevating pedagogy from the function of merely providing cognitive or knowledge or 'knowing', to internalisation or the 'living' and 'being' of the learning in a person. In terms of teaching and training methodology and techniques this means that the systems of education should move away from continuing to be hooked on to the conventional knowledge-based learning mode to the more potent experiential learning pedagogical approach which harnesses both the affective and psychomotor levels of learning as well. There is much wisdom contained in the fifty-four pages of Prof. Kumarasiri's book (p.31 to eighty-five) where he gives the rationale for his approach to child education. He offers a very valid critique of existing methods of education that merely stuff people's minds with factual information even beyond the capacity of one's memory. His remarks in this regard are particularly valid in connection with moral education. For, what is required in moral education is that "Through psychomotor learning the child internalises what is being taught". The need to bring about a transformation of the affective level of the person through education is emphasized by Prof. Kumarasiri. He quite rightly notes that even in some conventional methods of teaching and learning the dhamma such transformation does not take place. They produce only the acquisition of a large body of facts remaining merely at the cognitive level of the mind utterly unrelated to any change of inner experience or patterns of overt behaviour. Prof. Kumarasiri points out that "Buddhist pedagogy goes beyond the conventional, knowledge base mode of instruction and learning and appreciably expands and deepens the scope of learning by employing the affective and psychomotor levels of learning in full measure." Part II of the book consists of four chapters to which the attention of anyone who is concerned about Buddhist moral education should be drawn. In Chapter I of part II of Prof. Kumarasiri's book he points out the need for a change in our approach to dhamma education. In Chapter II of his book he highlights some of the Buddhist pedagogical techniques that can be profitably used in the formulation of current teaching methodologies. Chapter III deals with the parental role and responsibility in the education of their children and Chapter IV outlines the aims and objectives of the Buddhist pedagogical approach. In all these chapters there is much that is of value from the point of view of Buddhist educational psychology. On page 33 of Part II of the book the author has mentioned "the affective and psycho-motor levels of learning are hardly touched in the learning process. Morals, ethics and civics taught do not get internalized in the individual child." That is the real problem that we are faced with in our education system in Sri Lanka. However, now attention has been drawn to this problem in educational reforms. According to the new approaches, in a lesson plan, the teachers have to write behavioral objectives and keep in mind the fulfillment of cognitive, affective and psycho-motor objectives actively. The author has explained cognitive, affective and psycho-motor learning very clearly through Buddhist pedagogy that is directly linked to the development of the mind. It is in Part I of Prof. Kumarasiri's book that he has attempted to experiment with the method that he has proposed in Part II, the theoretical portion of his book. As a pioneering attempt it is commendable and the principle underlying it is, I believe, more important than the content of that section of the book. It is a method that could be perfected with more and more skill and exercise of one's imagination. It is a technique that ought to be given much encouragement and support with the objective of achieving even more effective practical results. Moral concepts The author has attempted to introduce gradually and systematically Buddhist moral concepts in such a way that along with the acquisition of familiarity with the grammar, syntax and vocabulary of the English language the learner also acquires familiarity with the Buddhist ethos and the Buddhist ways of thinking. A number of Buddhist terms of ethical and doctrinal significance have been introduced along with lists of traditional Buddhist proper names. In the first part of the book, Prof. Kumarasiri has tried to inculcate Buddhist values through the English alphabet while at the same time facilitating the development of language skills. The child's feelings or his emotional conditions influence the development of language skills. The inward happiness and the sense of security of a child is the foundation for the development of language skills. This makes it a requirement for the language teacher who engages in developing language skills in the child to see that the child is emotionally well balanced and that more opportunity is given to the child to use the language. The encouragement given to the child to speak about his/her experience and to discuss the activities he gets involved in, are particularly useful in developing language skills at the early stages of a child's development. It is necessary to provide opportunities to the child to express himself/herself while he/she is engaged in numerous activities. Words become more meaningful to the child when he/she sees, touches and smells things and speaks about them. The best way of helping him/her to understand the use of words is to make him/her use them in the appropriate contexts while engaged in the various activities. The word will then become meaningful and useful. In this My First Word Book, the author has made use of this method in part I introducing English words through pictures. By using this book the child not only learns meaningful words but also good qualities. On page 4, for example introducing new words beginning with letter 'A' the author has used 'Attend Dhamma School', 'Alms giving', 'Abstain from killing or hurting living beings' and so on. On the whole we wish to commend Prof. Kumarasiri's effort and hope that more on the same lines will be attempted by him in time to come. This is a method which can be further perfected by the author himself and by others as well who wish to pursue it as an effective Buddhist pedagogical technique. We at the Centre for Buddhism (International) stand to gain much from Professor Kumarasiris present and future work. Through our Dhamma Dana project we distribute Dhamma books to the needy schools and pirivenas. Looking to the future we hope to bring out books, in simple language and picture stories that would help inculcate Buddhist values in children. Of greater relevance is our project for developing a Buddhist approach to pre-school education and training teachers for same. Professor Kumarasiris work can be of guidance to us both in our present work in the Sinhala medium and in our proposed work in the English medium under these two projects. - Prof. P.D. Premasiri Professor of Buddhist Studies and Vice-President, and Ms. I.T.K. Karaluvinne, Chairperson, Committee on Pre-School Teaching with a Buddhist Approach, Centre for Buddhism (International). |
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