Why I UNSCHOOLED myself...

I was an above average student in school. Ah! why be modest? I prided myself on being part of the cream layer in my schooling batch. I won a seat in the best college in my city and took up subjects of my choice. As I slowly progressed into my degree obtaining years, my will, interest and keenness to study were burnt out. I began unschooling myself at that point, without, of course realising it at that time. You will never realise it while it's happening, only in retrospect do you see life events for what they were.

Its amazes me that what you remember eventually is only what you felt at the time- the moments, the specifics of the experience all fade out of memory, only the haunting feelings remain. These come back in a knife edged manner, stinging the heart and soul even today- feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, dissent, dissatisfaction, dismay, disquiet, restlessness and disillusionment.
These were omens- of a change I was beginning to make- slowly but surely- of unschooling myself. 

My unschooling began when I realised that college couldn't teach me what i wanted to learn. The teachers were incapable of helping me. It started with searching for what drove me- experimenting with various roles and figuring out my true passion/s. Instead of attending college full time- I began to work-

• With NGOs supporting social causes related to the environment, education, child rights, disaster management;
• Spent the vacations interning with hospitals, labs and industries;
• And using any spare day to take out camping trips exploring the wilderness, working with children, corporates, families, educational institutes and government officials.

My reputation grew in these circles, and somehow the initial schooling helped me ace my college classes as well. I developed skills such as photography, public speaking, presentatation, collaboration, innovation, critical thinking and problem solving- Skills that no formal education had ever been able to impart to me.

I went ahead an completed a master's program in biodiversity and conservation and cocooned myself in the world of research and education for 6 years thereafter.
And today, I've taken a sabbatical for a couple of years to study independently again- as I had, all those years ago- And what today I am educating myself on- is alternative methods of learning- with an aim to set up my own un-schooling alternative education institute in the near future.
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The biggest challenge of education is preparing children for jobs of tomorrow in a fast changing world of today. 

So what is UNSCHOOLING and why choose to do it?

Unschooling is a learner curiosity driven process in which the classroom is life and the medium of learning is experience, reading, experimenting, discussing and debating. The process of unschooling is dynamic, in the sense it changes direction and focus with developing and altering questions. The learner develops the skill to think and question, criticize and search for possible explanations. There are no time lines to follow, nor any instructions laid out in advance. The learner may learn at his/her own pace and needn't use any one set pattern/method of learning. He/ She may learn whatever interests him/her, with no set syllabus to follow. 

Unschooling teaches the learner how to learn and teach himself- which is the biggest lesson in itself

To read on related topics, click on the links below:

• How to unchool?
• We Don't Need No Education
• Radical Unschooling
• Unschooling FAQs
• The Sparkling Martins
• Unschoolery

Assessment- Is it necessary?

Do we really need a gleaming signpost declaring to us as teachers that what we are trying to teach our students has been assimilated? And if this be a necessity, what parameters guide us to understanding that this is learning by assimilation and not simply learning by memory?

On a broader level, is assessment necessary for the teaching-learning environment? Can teachers not be satisfied that they have imparted quality education- without assessing how well they have imparted it/ how well it has been received by students? On the flip side, can students not be learning for the sake of learning and continue to learn for the sake of learning?

I am a student of the 1990s and a teacher of the 21st century. I have studied in an environment where assessments were benchmarks in our path to glory! We studied to "score", to "top" and to outdo others in examinations. In retrospect, what did we think were we doing? I didn't ever study to learn something new, I don't remember ever being curious about anything! The only thing I recall is I wanted to be top of the class, I wanted a full score and I wanted to beat that girl in class.

I teach in classrooms of students with varying abilities and strengths. I teach through active participation, audio-visuals, kinesthetics and problem solving games. In spite of a holistic method of teaching, I have learned that assessments teach me minimally about my style of teaching or my students ability to learn. Then why exactly do we assess?

Some educators talk about assessments aiming at driving performance, effort and policy at the system level- be it the government, university, school or teacher level. The traditional need for assessment was to guage the deficit in understanding by students. What do students not know? How can it be taught better?

Teaching students with disabilities gives you a fresh insight into the way we learn.
1. Every individual learns at his own pace
2. Every individual learns in a different manner
3. Every individual may learn a certain proportion of the overall concept; which most of the times will be very different from another individual.

This insight led me to explore how cognitive development takes place in humans.

That's when I came across the works of Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) and Robert Glaser (1921- 2012)

Their work brings out 3 main points:

1. Learning  (both cognitive and social) is developmental.

2. Every individual has a base level of development and a zone of proximal development (ZPD) which is defined as the difference between this base level and the potential level of development that may be achieved by the individual. 

3. Learning is not a categorical quantity;

not simply "Understood" or "Not understood" 

But it is a continuous variable

i.e. When we learn something, it may be to some degree that we understand it, and this degree may be represented on a continuum from 0% understanding to 100 % understanding; or more qualitatively in terms of behaviours representing proficiency gained. 

So, if we can quantify at what level of development an individual has achieved, this knowledge may be instrumental in designing teaching objectives, focussing skill development and improving overall learning outcomes of students. 

Is it then maybe, a better idea to assess the level of development of individuals rather than their deficiencies?

Further readings

1.  Care, E. (2014). Assessing 21st century skills. Centre for Education Research and Practice, 21 January 2014  https://cerp.aqa.org.uk/perspectives/assessing-21st-century-skill
2. Patrick Griffin, Kerry Woods, Roz Mountain, Claire Scoular, Developmental learning frameworks, Module 1 ATC21S™ © Assessment Research Centre, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, 2013