Client: USID Gurukul 2013
Project Summary: The theme was to find design solutions to existing social problems .
USID Gurukul 2013 Focus areas:
-Education & Learning
-Healthcare & Wellness
-Ecology & Environmental
-Rural & Craft sector
-Public policies & Social Impact.
-Women Empowerment & Gender Issues
-Old population
-Women Empowerment & Gender Issues
-Old population
Have choosen Education & learning out of above mentioned areas . Our motto is to design a solution to Intrinsically Motivate Children to Read and thus encourage self-learning at the onsite Gurukul held at
IIT Kanpur.
Project Duration: One Week (December'13)
Team members : Six
Status: Completed
An outlook of the Design Process followed to approach the final Solution
The words "education" and "learning" have very broad definitions. Learning doesnt only happen in the school, but also at home and from the environement. Learning not only takes place through teachers but also from parents and peers. To be "educated" doesnt mean to only excell at academics but also to be good in other aspects of life as an individual of the society and as a human being.
What motivates a person to learn ?
-some people are intrinsically motivated to learn new things - a self desire (curiosity )
-some people are extrinsically motivated - studying for a purpose, may be an aim to achieve good grades or a good job.
-some people remain/become unmotivated.
-some people are extrinsically motivated - studying for a purpose, may be an aim to achieve good grades or a good job.
-some people remain/become unmotivated.
Here the target Group - Children
Learning starts from the point a child is born. The initial ages of development is very important for the future of the child. All kids have a natural curiosity towards exploring new things, but when it comes to academics , the motivation is not always present. Parents mostly try to motivate the kids extrinsically. But this kind of motivation doesnt always work - because not all kids can see the long term results of the process of studying the syllabus. Rather, they live in the present and are more keen towards achieving the short term goals.
Apart from academics, children also need to be intrinsically motivated to analyze and learning good habits and behavior.
Hence there is a need to encourage the natural curiosity in the kids - motivating them towards "learning to learn"
There has been a large improvement in education in India lately. Grading based systems have been introduced. Some schools (campus school) employ a constant feedback system from the teachers to the parents. Opportunities are being provided to the children to develop skills in extracurricular activies such as dancing/ singing/ games. The text books have been redesigned to discourage rote learning and encourage activity based learning.
But still, problems exist and they can be summarized as follow:
Education - regarding academics
-Over competitive environment
-Fear of failure in kids and parents
-Lot of text in books
-Mugging/ rote learning still happens in certain subjects.
-Single source
-Lack of opportunity and self motivation to create/ design/ explore
-Fear of failure in kids and parents
-Lot of text in books
-Mugging/ rote learning still happens in certain subjects.
-Single source
-Lack of opportunity and self motivation to create/ design/ explore
Education - regarding social/ behavioral knowledge / moral values
-lack of respect
-lack of integrity
-lack of self desire towards hygiene
-lack of love towards Nature
-lack of integrity
-lack of self desire towards hygiene
-lack of love towards Nature
Shows the curriculum difference followed between the pre-primary and primary&secondary
The following gaps were recognized after the survey
Social
-Know social behaviour but don't necessarily practice it
-Being surrounded by boards of moral slogans, don’t ensure reading
-Being surrounded by boards of moral slogans, don’t ensure reading
-Know what they want to be but don't know how
Academics
-Rote Learning
-No Text-book reading Habits
-Too much text, difficulty in understanding
-Source of inspiration is limited
-Source of inspiration is limited
-Reduced Creative approach to learning
-Less creative opportunities based on syllabus
-Less creative opportunities based on syllabus
Most of this problems can be attributed to students not trying to learn intrinsically.
Reading as a medium to encourage students to learn.
Hence we found that these points lead to the following Actionable Problem Statement:
To design a solution to intrinsically motivate children towards learning by encouraging them to read.
A pull-based system should be there to encourage students to learn how to learn.
These are the benchmarks which works in case of children which do not need any kind of push to do it
After deliberating, it was decided that we will approach the problem through a game which has been summarized in this video
A Sample story has been choosen to show how we have approached to the final conclution of our proposed solution to enhance self - reading in children which eventually leads to learning
This is second solution proposed where we want to develop a collabolative study in students and make them to get a kick start for self reading.
It is an activity based solution which enhances children to learn together.
It is an activity based solution which enhances children to learn together.
It is just a frame of solution proposed which leads to "collaborative learning to enhance creativity" in children
