Structure
1 Introduction
2 Objectives
3 Curriculum Organization
4 Curriculum Transaction Strategies
4.1 Discovery / Approach
4.2 Enquiry Learning
4.3 Integrated Approach
4.4 Infusion Model
4.5 Multi-disciplinary Model
5 Planning and Organizing Classroom Activities
5.1 Group Activities
5.2 Outdoor Activities
6 Teaching-Learning Strategies
1 INTRODUCTION
In recent years, it has been increasingly felt that environmental study be made an integral
component of the Primary School Curriculum. Such a curriculum should be need-based
with reference to the pupil as well as the community on the whole. The Introduction to
Environmental Studies merely as an area of learning is not enough. Much depends on the
effective transaction of this area of learning. In this unit, an attempt has been made to
study the organization of the curriculum in environmental studies and to explain some
strategies for its effective transaction, which may be useful to the primary school teachers.
Whenever one sets to evolve guidelines for organising, planning and transacting course
content, the following questions arise:
! What should be the nature of the course content?
! How should the course content be transacted?
! What is the teacher’s role in the context of transaction and organisation?
This unit has been designed so as to find answers to these questions. It is also hoped that
this unit will provide a practical guide to you for organizing teaching-learning activities
both in the classroom and outside it; and also help you to develop abilities for effective
transaction of Environmental Studies curriculum in your school.
2 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you will be able to :
! organise and plan the curriculum for environmental studies based on certain criteria;
! understand and analyse the underlying considerations for organising curriculum at
the primary stage;
! analyse and choose the appropriate strategies to transact the content effectively;
! interpret and reinforce your role as a teacher in organising and transacting the
curriculum.
3 CURRICULUM ORGANIZATION
The curriculum in environmental studies at the primary stage is based on the following five
core considerations.
i) Organization of the curriculum in an integrated manner based on the real life situations.
ii) Child centred teaching-learning.
iii) Demonstration/activities based on the following:
a) real issues and problems from day-to-day life.
b) objects, events, phenomena her natural and social surroundings.
c) child’s interest, abilities and need.
iv) Development of skills and attitudes in children to adjust to the environment – to the
existing situations or the ones likely to meet in future.
v) Emphasis on the development of attitudes, values concerns, feelings and commitment
towards the environment, and its protection on a long-term futurist basis.
If you examine carefully the basic concerns listed above you see that they directly relate
to the guidelines for development of curriculum in Environmental Studies discussed in Unit
I.
How have these basic considerations been reflected in the curriculum developed for the
primary stage? What are its implications for a classroom teacher? How can you identify
and exploit the-potentialities of your local environment? We shall try to answer these
questions in the following sections.
Selection of Content
As the child in the early stage interacts with the environment in its totality, an integrated
approach has been visualized for designing the curriculum for classes I and II. A child
interacts with and reacts first to her surroundings. Therefore, the units related to one’s
own body, family, neighbourhood, etc. have been sequentially arranged. The activities
suggested in these areas are expected to expose the child to the things and happenings that
take place in her surroundings. Therefore, the selection of content for this stage of education
should be based on the situations and potentialities of the local environment. Hence, it is
not desirable to have a formal and rigid syllabus at this stage. The teachers’ of Class I and
Class II should include a large number of activities based on locally relevant situations on
the interest and abilities of the pupils and also on the knowledge she already has about her
environment.
The curriculum of Environmental Studies-I (Social Studies) for Classes III to V has been
designed to widen the horizon of the child’s understanding from her home, school,
neighbourhood to her state, country and the world. Here, the content includes the study of
physical environment like physical features, climate, natural resources, and so on. It also
includes study of various social aspects of life of people in the child’s own neighbourhood,
village, town, district, state, country and the world.
Keeping in view the maturity of the child, units on different aspects of physical and social
environment have been identified for each class. While selecting activities you should
keep in mind children’s interests, maturity level and previous knowledge.
The curriculum for Environmental Studies -II (Sciences) has been organised around the
various components of the natural environment and man’s interaction with them, Major
units are plants and animals, their structure, function and adaptations; human body, its
structure, function and ideas about some organs and organ systems; food and various
food related groups, its function, food-related deficiency diseases and their preventive
measures; communicable diseases, their causes and prevention; materials and their
properties, force, energy and work, transformation of energy, preventing improper use of
energy, its conservation, alternate source of energy; soil and crops, soil erosion and
preventive measures; earth and sky, man and environment.
4 CURRICULUM TRANSACTION STRATEGIES
The Curriculum transaction involves selecting and organizing certain planned activities,
which would enable a teacher to achieve the objectives set forth. How to teach is the key
word. A child must achieve the expected learning outcomes as a result of these transaction
strategies. Transaction strategies must also flow from the objectives.
From the discussion in the previous section you know that child-centered, activity based
teaching-learning has been emphasised. For teaching to be child-centred and activity-based, it must involve children, their interests, ideas and motivation in the learning process.
A child must discover for herself. Therefore, the emphasis is on enquiry/discovery approach
which lays stress on the processes of scientific inquiry, problem solving-skills and creative
thinking abilities based on locally available natural and human resources.
You as a teacher, you are expected to encourage active pupil participation through
environment-oriented activity based approach. How will you achieve these? For this
purpose, you should know the structure and potential of your surroundings both in school
and home. Thus the location, animals, plants, trees, rivers, land, social institutions, etc.,
should be thoroughly surveyed. This will also help you in taking pupils for field trips.
Simple, scientific processes of observation, measurement, classification and communication,
can be developed through simple activities which do not need any special equipment.
4.1 Discovery/ Approach
What does an act of discovery entail ?
Discovery learning emerged from the desire to give pupils the excitement by finding
things out for themselves, following in the footsteps of such lists. It was a reaction to the
formal transmission of knowledge from teacher to pupil in which there was no room for
participating in science. The aim is for pupils to be involved in the investigation of a
relationship such as that describing the balance of forces when an object floats, to gather
data for themselves and to use it to ‘discover’ the principle which applies.
You should fully utilise the child’s curiosity and exploratory attitude. You will realise that
the development of child’s intellectual faculties will be easy if she learns to discover
knowledge for herself. Discovery is not restricted to the act of finding out something that
is so far unknown to human kind. It includes all forms of knowledge obtained for the first
time by use of one’s own mind. Discovery comprises of these elements, namely:
! collection of data or study of consequences;
! drawing inferences.
While it is easy to see the value in the approach since engaging in the methods of science
is an excellent way of learning them, the approach has its limitations when used
inappropriately as the sole teaching method. The practical problem with the method is
that children’s manipulations are too rough in many cases for exact relationships to be
found from experimental work.
4.2 Enquiry Learning
Enquiry learning can also be called ‘problem-solving’ since it starts from a problem which
pupils are expected to solve through practical work or observation. As with discovery
learning, there is a modified version, known as ‘structured enquiry’ in which the pupils
receive suggestions for the procedure to use how together data organise it, and a series of
questions which ‘lead’ to the solution of the problem. In the unstrutured version only the
problem is posed and the pupils devise procedures for themselves.
There are two main difficulties with this approach. The first is that many of the problems
lead not so much to scientific activity as to work is how seen to be technological activity.
This is probably clear at the primary levels. Making a wind mill from paper, for example,
will involve the application of scientific ideas but perhaps not the development of this ideas
if the activity stops at the point of solving the problem. The second point is about the origin
of the problem. The whole devices of having a problem to solve is that it is motivating and
engages intellectual activity. But if the problem is not of interest to the pupil or may not be
seen as a problem at all, the value of the device is lost.
At the primary level, much emphasis is placed upon children working on their own problems
in order to avoid the work seening artificial and unimportant. This is much more in line with
the view of science as being about problem posing rather than about problem-solving.
Thus the emphasis moves from finding problems for children to solve to finding warp of
engaging children in interaction around them so that they find their own questions to try to
answer.
4.3 Integrated Approach
What is meant by Integrated Approach?
Integration means the act of, or the process of integrating or unification into a whole.
Approach means seek communication with, the way of dealing with, the means of access,
and the attitude towards. Integrated approach ‘means the way of dealing with children for
the formation of unified personality or the way of communication with children for unification
into a whole. Here, integrated approach means to adopt a method of teaching-learning
process, which involves an understanding of different aspects of environment – natural,
physical, social and cultural as a whole.
Environment is a very broad term. It includes all the aspects, which influence the life of
the child. In Class I and II, the child should be introduced to the environment as a whole,
without making any distinction between natural, physical, social and cultural aspects of the
environment. In other words in Class I and II, Environmental Studies should be taught as
a composite course, covering different aspects of the environment. The method of teaching
environmental studies in Class 1 and II should be based on activities, which require careful,
systematic and well-directed observations, by a learner as a means of acquiring knowledge.
Children should be required to observe nature in all its aspects, including the vegetation
and animal life around them. They should be helped to sense and feel objects, study their
shapes and sizes and to observe things around them. They should also be helped to observe
people at work. Further, the students should be encouraged to participate in these activities
of the community.
The integrated approach of teaching science stresses these main aspects:
a) Development of skills, such as meaningful observation, measurement, classification,
communication, questioning, and prediction.
b) Development of scientific attitude.
c) Development of moral values such as honesty, open mindedness, sharing and so on.
4.4 Infusion Model
In this model deliberate attempts are made to give an environmental focus to an already
existing discipline. Some aspects of the content are deliberately selected and specific activities are included which give the student an understanding of problems and issues to
generate a general awareness of the environment. Opportunities are provided for children
to ask questions and seek answers to their queries. The students are motivated to probe
deeply into a topic under study.
For example, students (Class IV EVS-Science) should be motivated to ask questions
regarding things we get from a tree, why we should not cut, trees, etc. Teacher may ask
the following types of questions:
! Of what materials are the doors and windows of your school made of ?
! From where do we get wood for the windows and the doors ?
! From where we do we get firewood ?
! What will happen if all the trees are cut ?
Motivate them to seek answers to the questions raised. You should guide them and patiently
listen to their answers or provide answer, solve their queries. You should act not merely
as a communicator of knowledge but as also as a co-facilitator or a co-learner to your
pupils. Ask them to observe/recall their experiences they have had earlier.
Some of the other subject areas where such infusion of environmental knowledge, skill
and concerns can be easily instilled are Language, Art, Craft, Health, Physical Education
and Work Experience. How do we build up an Infusion Model? Illustrative examples of
how environmentally related content and concerns can be infused into some of the existing
curricular areas at the Primary Level are discussed below:
a) Language: Language is a tool for communication. Our country has a rich tradition
of oral communications. Our folk-lores and folk-tales convey great thought, feeling,
aspirations of people. They also convey the concerns of man towards his fellow
human beings and also to the society. Through the means of language, the cultural,
moral values and heritage are passed on from one generation to another.
Our ‘Jatakas’, legends, and other folk-tales are store-houses of many stories. Often
these stories have positive values which would help inspire pupils to develop a perspective
and awareness towards environment.
While selecting themes for language teaching see that following values are conveyed to
the pupils:
! all living organisms, including man are of a part of nature;
! all living organisms should be respected and hence protected;
! all living organisms are dependent on each other and also on their environment;
! one must be judicious in using resources;
! Earth is beautiful, but to keep it beautiful, we must take from it as much as we need;
! we all are members of a large global family.
b) Art and Craft : Another cultural dimension of our heritage is immense diversity
and originality in art and craft. Through art education, the teacher can develop in the
pupils a deep appreciation for physical beauty in nature and the importance of
preserving it for future. You can also draw the attention of students – towards man’s
integration in nature and its consequences. Examples of modern art/craft, which
make use of non-bio degradable materials, should also be given point.
4.5 Multi-disciplinary Model
The infusion model discussed above is one of the effective ways of incorporating the
concerns of environmental education at primary stage. In a primary school, generally one teacher teaches all the subjects to a particular class. Therefore, it is easier for her to
infuse the concerns of environmental protection to different subject areas. You, as a teacher,
must look for opportunities for including these awareness, skills, concerns, values and
attitudes of environmental education while teaching different subjects.
5 PLANNING AND ORGANIZING CLASSROOMS ACTIVITIES
Activity-based, child-centred effective teaching-learning requires considerable pre-planning
by the teacher. You must know which activity to select, how to conduct such at activity
and how to organize your class so that all children are involved. If you want to develop in
the children the skills of observation, recording, classifying, organizing data, finding out the
cause and effects, understanding relationship and the ability to draw conclusions, etc. you
must involve your class in various indoor and out-door activities.
How to plan and organize activities ?
Before organizing any teaching-learning activity, it is necessary to clarify or spell out the
objectives of the lesson in terms of specific learning outcome(s). These outcomes should
be spelled out in terms of knowledge of facts; understanding of principles/concepts and
generalization; skills; application; values; and attitudes to be developed.
Once the objectives/learning outcomes are spelled out, next you may note down different
aspects of organization and management of activities. In this context, the following points
may prove useful.
! Prepare a list of instructions to be given to pupils before hand.
! Prepare a detailed, and complete list of materials needed for the activity.
! Organize your classroom in such a way that there is an interactive and exciting
learning atmosphere. For this to happen, it is essential to change the formal seating
pattern. Let there be more moving space for the children in the classroom. Instead
of seating in rigid rows, children may be allowed to sit in groups, in a circle or any
other suitable arrangement.
! Often make changes in classroom seating pattern. This well help you to have access
to more and more children and back-benchers will not be left out. Change the
seating pattern as often as the activity demands.
! It would enthuse the students if you plan with them to also involve them in the
organisation of the activity; this will give them a sense of involvement and
participation.
! Always remember to act as a facilitator or a guide and not as communicator of
information only.
! Encourage children bring to the classroom, and also make use of them.
You, as a teacher, can organize a variety of activities. Some of these activities may involve
the class as a whole, such as story telling sessions, discussions and so on. Some other
activities are organized in groups. Activities may also be organized inside the classroom
or outside it. For teaching environmental studies you need to organize more activities
outside the classroom. Nature and type of activities to be organized depends on the objective
of a particular lesson. It also depends on availability of time and resources.
5.1 Group Activities
For helping children develop various process skills as well as for effective learning you
may organize group activities. Group activities make teaching-learning process highly
effective. Since children are actively involved and often do things with their hands and
learn from personal experience, learning becomes permanent, interesting and rewarding.
There is a lot of interaction among members of the group. This helps peer group interaction
and children to work cooperatively. It enhances self-learning. Through group-activity,
children learn to accept responsibility for their own actions. In order to make group activity
an effective tool in the teaching-learning process, the following points may prove useful.
! A group should not have more than 5 or 6 children.
! Assign specific role to each member of the group. For example, let one child perform
the experiment, another record the data and yet another child report the result and so
on. For smooth conduct of an activity each group should have a group leader, and the
members of the group must work under her leadership.
! Rotate the role of each member, so that each and every child has an opportunity to
play different roles and take on different responsibilities.
! Do not form rigid groups. Keep changing the composition of groups to generate spirit
of cooperation and increase interaction among children.
! Assign different activity to each group and let them exchange their experiences with
other groups. Make sure that all activities relate to the topic/theme being dealt with.
! Encourage children to express themselves in different forms/media, for example,
through written report, making drawing or paintings, using pictographs, etc.
! Always have class discussion after each activity to help clarify doubts and in drawing
conclusions based on the observations and data collected.
! Display children’s work in the classroom.
5.2 Out-door Activities
In teaching Environmental Studies you often have to take children outside the classroom
for various kinds of outdoor activities. For organizing outdoor activities you need to take
some special care. It needs lot of pre-planning. All the points mentioned above for indoor
group-activities apply to outdoor activities as well. The following additional points could be
added to the list.
! You must make a prior selection of the place where you want to take the children for
outdoor activity.
! A preliminary visit to the place would be useful. Review the potential of the place.
For example, to study various plants in the school campus you must ensure that
there is a fairly good number of plants the school campus. Similarly, to study water
birds you would need to take the children to a nearby pond, Inhabited by a good
number and a variety of water birds.
! A pre-outdoor activity discussion with the class helps in scene-setting and conveying
the objectives of the activity to be undertaken. If possible, make an activity sheet for
each group and give it to the group leader. Tell them in simple language what they
are supposed to do, look for, or collect.
! Make a list of materials to be carried by each child. For example – each child should
have his/her notebook, pencil etc. Also make a list of the other things/equipment that
he/she would need. For example, hand-lens, measuring-tapes, carry bags, jars or
bottle, old newspaper, etc.
! Assign responsibilities to the group leaders to lead the group. Give specific activities
to each group.
! Organize the outdoor activity in such a way that you have sufficient time to followup activities in the classroom. Hence, encourage children to make their own
independent observations in their free time which can be used for class discussion
later.
! Take all safety measures and also explain to the children about the possible hazards
and the ways of avoiding them.
After an outdoor trip take stock of what experiences/children have gathered. Arrange for
class discussion and plan future activities. Let children display their work, hold a small
class exhibition. This will help them in broadening their Knowledge base as well as provide
motivation to children for further work. We have already discussed that you can also relate the outdoor activities in Environmental Studies to other subject areas as Languages,
Art, Mathematics and many more. While planning activities, you must keep such integration
in mind. Use the ideas children bring with them. These ideas can be moulded, modified
and reinforced by you. For effective teaching-learning keep following points in your mind.
! Be a co-learner with your pupils and help them to find out ways to solve day- to-day
problems.
! Develop a close and healthy relationship with your pupils so that they can unhesitatingly
confide in you.
! Help pupils avoid making mistakes and work collectively with them.
! Pay special attention to the shy, backward and slow learners. Help them out of their
problem areas and try bringing them at per with the rest of the class. This could
sometimes require additional work with these children. This will enable all children to
attain the minimum levels of learning, and create a better learning environment in the
class.
! Be up-to-date yourself so that you can guide your pupils regarding the recent
development pertaining to the topic having dealt-with.
6 TEACHING-LEARNING STRATEGIES
It is important to use a variety of techniques and strategies for effective teaching- learning.
Always select techniques that involve children and appeal to them. Some examples of
techniques are given below. These are only suggestive examples. You can design your
own ‘techniques/strategies.
For very young primary school children i.e., of class I and II you can have story telling
sessions; make use of puppets, dominoes, jigsaw puzzles and other games, as tools of
teaching.
While selecting a story remember the following:
! The story should not be lengthy. It should be short enough so that it can be completed
in one teaching period.
! The message in the story should be conveyed in an interesting manner and should not
look like preaching.
! Involve children in story telling session by assigning roles of different characters in
the story.
! Demonstrate by personal examples, the message you want to convey through a
story.
! Follow-up the story telling session with a discussion on possible solution to the problem
raised.
A story telling session can be an activity session for the whole class. You can use flash
cards, you can even ask children to retell the story in their own way, that is, they can make
their own dialogues. You can also use other methods to make the story interesting. Here is
a simple story with a message of environmental protection.
The Story
Kashi and Mary were friends. They lived in a small village near a mountain. It was green
all around. There was a meadow near their house. In the meadow grew variety of wild
flowers – some red, some white, and some pink. The meadow looked like a green carpet
weaved with beautiful flowers. Everyday Kashi and Mary came to the meadow. There
were bright coloured butterflies and honeybees too. They were friends of Kashi and Mary.
For long hours, the two girls played with the flowers. They never plucked flowers but
played with them. The great bumblebee; tiger butterfly which hovered over the flowers
for nectar were also their friends. The girls loved this beautiful meadow.
43
One morning on their way to school, Mary and Kashi saw some people on the meadow.
These people had bulldozers with them. The girls wondered why the people had come to
the meadow. On their way back from the school Mary said, “Let us find out why these
people have come”. Off they went to the meadow. When they reached there they found
that their beautiful carpet was destroyed. The flower friends were broken and lay dead.Butterflies or even the giant bumblebees were gone. Instead, bricks, cement and other
things lay on the ground. They cried and were very sad. Suddenly Mary exclaimed “See
those people resting under a tree. Let us go and ask them why they have destroyed our
meadow”. They ran towards the tree crying “Sir, why have you destroyed the meadow?
Why did you kill our flower friends? Why have you chased away the butterfly?” asked
Kashi. “Oh! Silly girl! Don’t you know we are building a hotel here; when it will be ready
you will have a nice place here. There will be music, there will be an amusement park,
and you can have joy rides. Many people from far off places will come to visit your
beautiful village. You will have a lots of nice things. Isn’t it great?’’ said the burly man
with a big moustache. “Oh no Sir! give us back our flowers friends, our butterflies and
bumblebees”— cried the girls.
Puppets
Puppets provides a simple way of focussing attention of children. It also helps to get
children involved in the story. You can either use a glove puppet or a stuffed or shaddow
puppet.
To make a shadow puppet, take some stiff black paper. Cut out the shapes of the
character(s) of the puppet story. For example, Butterfly, flower, Mary and Kashi. Attach
each cut out to a long wire. Take a large cardboard box or a discarded packing case.
Stretch a white sheet in front of the box. This is the screen. Place a lighted lamp behind
the screen. Now arrange the movement of puppet between the light source and the
screen to tell your story. You need to practice the movements sufficiently so that shadow
of your hand in not seen to the screen.