Colearning Experience in Making Spaces
During one of the early visits to the early after-school classes, the environment of the making space seemed a bit uneasy for some of the teachers. They had difficulty in navigating their roles. During the school hours they were teachers, the knowledge authorities of their respective subjects, and during the after-school classes they had to take on the role of colleagues to the students. Just like the students, the teachers too were unfamiliar with the concepts and tools related to robotics. The idea of not knowing in front of their students seemed to make some teachers uncomfortable and they had suggested that we conduct separate classes for teachers before they work in the making space with their students.
During the start of the class, Sharada and some students sat around a table. Sharada picked some tools and instruments from a box on the table and asked her students about the object. The grade 8 girls correctly recalled the use of the tools but couldn’t remember the names. Few questions later, Sharada asked the students to define an insulator. It’s a concept they learn in their science curriculum. Teachers have often tried to connect Kheldai Sikdai lessons to curricular concepts whenever possible.
Minutes later, the facilitator started the class. The introductory lesson was about getting everyone familiar with the basic tools and learning to use them. Sharada and Madhav often seemed to take on the role of deputy facilitators, repeating and explaining the facilitator’s instructions to the students who are also learning and working alongside them. They had some difficulty in letting go of their roles as teachers in this space meant for learning together. On the other hand, Rupa and Prasamsa had no visible difficulty in learning from the students. During the breadboard activity, Prasamsa and Rupa worked closely with students. Their curiosity and simple questions made them look like beginners and put them on the same level as their students.
“I couldn’t figure it out at all,” Rupa said to the students she was working with. She let the students lead the making process and she contributed as a curious helper.
“Jenisa pass!” Rupa later celebrated as her student successfully connected her circuit and made an LED glow. She told everyone that Jenisa taught her how to do it.
Prasamsa is an ECD teacher who also taught computer classes till grade 8. She worked with Karishma, a girl from grade 6. Prasamsa clasped her hands in excitement when the light in their circuit glowed. When she and her student partner tried to troubleshoot the circuit, Prasamsa asked her about the connections and suggested that they look at the photos of circuits from the last class. She seemed comfortable in letting her student partner know that she too doesn’t know much about the concepts they were engaging with.
There’s a moment of laughter in the space when Prasamsa accidentally pulled out the inner wire while trying to strip the insulation. Students sitting next to her said that the same thing happened to them when they had tried to strip wires.
Prasamsa and her partner tried to get wire for their circuit. Prasamsa looked like she had taken the role of a student. She and her partner take a roll of red and black wires and try to find the free end of the wire. They had some difficulty in getting it due to a difference in ideas on extracting the free end. After wrestling with the roll for some time, Karishma, the student partner, told Prasamsa to cut the wire using the bottom part of the stripper. She took the wire roll from Prasamsa and pulled out a segment for her to cut. Karishma seemed patient with Prasamsa, helping when she felt like Prasamsa was stuck, and handing materials when needed.
Their LED glowed after they pressed the switch. Prasamsa expressed her excitement again. She then asked the facilitator about completing circuits. She didn’t seem to hesitate to inquire about things that the students around her already knew.
When I asked Prasamsa about her experience of learning alongside the students, she said that it didn’t feel awkward at all. “I am just like a child. I sit in these classes simply as a student,” she said. “These students have attended previous lessons so they know more than me. I asked for their help wherever I needed.”
During the soldering activity too, Prasamsa and her partner worked together. They laughed at some mistakes. Parsamsa handled the iron and her student partner held the wires. Prasamsa often asked her if the connection was done. Even while testing the circuit Prasamsa held the wires and her partner inserted a coin cell inside them.
Sharada worked alone during the class. There were students sitting next to her but she didn't engage them in the making. A grade 5 student named Joyce sat next to her. He seemed disengaged as the older boys sitting next to him didn’t include him in their work. He sometimes stared at Sharda doing her work and sometimes at the boys next to him. One time he was asked to hold the roll of wires while another boy cut it. Other than that he was hardly engaged.
During the end-of-lesson reflection, one of the boys was asked to share some rules on safety.
“Can I help?” Sharada asked, seeing the student struggle. Rupa, who was the principal, asked her not to and encouraged the student to share. Seconds later Sharada dropped some hints that, in a way, felt like mocking.
“We should touch others,” she said with sarcasm about using the hot soldering rod.
A week later, the after-school class was about learning to use RGB LEDs.
“Our LED didn’t glow. You did it before us!” Rupa complemented a group of boys sitting towards the back of the class. She went around to look at the work of other students. She and Madhav were working in a group. She returned to her seat and asked Madhav if their LED had managed to glow.
Joyce sat next to Sharada in this class as well. He played with some toy motors, placing them together and getting them to stick due to the magnets inside. Sharada was working alone most of the time. Joyce was seated between adults on both sides - Sharada on one side, and Rupa and Madhav on the other. The teachers, immersed in their own work, fail to notice that Joyce wasn’t engaged in the lesson. He either looked at the screen of Sharada’s computer, or played with materials in the hardware box in front of him.
Students seemed to feel comfortable in approaching their teachers. One of the boys came up to Madhav and sat on the vacant stool. He said something to Madhav, making him laugh. Madhav told me later that the boy had said “I’m sir’s friend. I’ll sit here now.” Madhav recalled with amusement. Like Sharada, Madhav too preferred to work alone. He didn’t seem interested in working with students. But with the boys asking him for help, Madhav tried to show the circuit he had made. He was unable to zoom into the circuit and asked me if I could teach him. He didn't hesitate to ask in front of his students.
After returning back to their seats, one of the boys whispered to the others, “Let's go and see Sharada ma’am’s work too. Let’s see what things she has created.”
The class wrapped up for the day. For reflection, the facilitator asked about the function of an Arduino. The students gave their answers but Sharada interjected in their reflection. “To obey,” she added, implying that a microcontroller obeys the given instructions.
“To control,” she interjected again, minutes later. It seemed like she was teaching the students and not sharing among her peers.
Madhav conducted a guided activity in the next week’s class.
As a part of handing over the making space to the teachers, they gradually take more responsibility of the space from the facilitator but maintain a co-learning environment. He projected his laptop’s screen. It displayed the image of a red LED and an LDR connected in series with a 9V battery.
“I think you also need to code it, sir,” Sanchita said as Madhav presented his work to guide the students. Sanchita and some other students have seemed comfortable making suggestions to the teachers, and sometimes even disagreeing.
“Mine circuit too hasn’t worked yet. I’m also working on it alongside you.” Madhav told his students, preparing to build a physical circuit based on the circuit projected. As the classes progressed, Madhav seemed to have gotten more comfortable with letting students know that there are things that he doesn’t know, and he is also learning alongside them. While planning for the after-school lessons, Madhav had asked us to conduct separate lessons for teachers before working with students in the making space.
He eventually completed his physical circuit. It had an LED glowing while the LDR was exposed to light. Seeing it, Rupa asked the student next to her if the LED had gone dim when exposed to light. Sanchita, a student from grade 8, told her that coding was needed to create the effect that she mentioned. Rupa noded.
Some time later, Sanchita told Madhav that her LED didn’t glow. Madhav inquired with her about the circuit and the battery. The girls replied that they had already tested those but it turned out that the LED was connected in the wrong way. The LED glowed after they fixed the connection.
“So you had connected the LED the opposite way earlier?” Asked Madhav. The girls laughed but didn't say anything. The LED they had connected was a constantly flickering RGB. Some glow was still visible even when the LDR was covered. Madhav asked them to use a red LED. The girls looked dismayed with the change but it seemed to work. Having successfully made their circuit and gotten the LED to glow, Sanchita asked Madhav what else was there to be done. Madhav asked them to think of the applications of the project.
Meanwhile, Prasamsa built a circuit following the instructions on Rupa’s computer. She asked Sanchita where she could connect a F2F header. Sanchita says resistor, and helps her find an appropriate resistor from the box.
Two weeks later, the teachers and students learnt to use buzzers.
Sharada sat on the chair adjacent to the projection table. A group of three girls from grade eight sat next to her. Sharada invited one of them to work with her. Initially it seemed like the girls were reluctant to separate as they usually worked together. Namuna, one of the girls, decided to partner with Sharada.
Compared to the previous weeks where Sharada preferred to work alone, Sharada seemed more open to working collaboratively with her students.
“Where should the negative connection go?” asked Sharada.
“It says pin 7,” replied Namuna, referring to the guide.
Sharada wired the Arduino through a breadboard. Namuna told her the port numbers. Sharada seemed to be confused with connecting to ground, as the port she knew was occupied. Namuna showed her that she can make a connection in the ground ports available at the other side of the board as well. Eventually they moved to coding the circuit. Sharada started building the code without seeing the guide. It seemed like she had done this piece of coding before. Namuna looked at the instruction sheet and provided relevant information to Sharada. At one point Sharada got confused with locating the comment blocks. Namuna showed her where she could drag the blocks from.
”What do we do with the comments?” Sharada asked Sanchita, one of the students sitting beside her. She turned the laptop towards Sanchita, showing her the screen. Sanchita typed something on the computer. Sharada and Namuna ran the simulation. The speaker buzzed with sounds of two different frequencies. Sharada asked Namuna to try different numbers for the frequency.
While Sharada continued to work on the Tinkercad circuit, Namuna built the physical circuit on the breadboard. Later I saw them working on a circuit that combined an LED with the buzzer, both turning on and off simultaneously.
Later Sanchita approached Sharada for help and asked about the code she had used in her project. Sharada told her that the tone number was to be inserted in the block. Sanchita asked if the same number could be put in both blocks. Sharada replied with a question, “If the same number is used in both the blocks then how will the sounds be different?” Sanchita went back to work with her group.
Minutes later, Prasamsa asked Sanchita for help. Sanchita walked up to her and taught her to build a circuit in Tinkercad. Sanchita’s approach was very instructive. She told Prasamsa what materials to drag and which holes or points to connect. Sanchita gave her stepwise instructions: where to join, which thing to connect with. Later Prasamsa asked her if she had made the right connections.
Madhav and Sharada initially had difficulty in working with students as peers. This stood in contrast with Rupa and Prasamsa, who had easily embraced the role and were open to learning from students from the beginning. As the after-school classes progressed, there was a visible shift in the way Madhav and Sharada interacted with the students. Just in a few weeks, a more open, peer-like approach was seen. This shift was seen much quicker for the students, who had seemed more comfortable at working with their teachers.
Teachers and students working and learning together can have a positive impact on their relationship. It can provide students with a sense of responsibility and independence, while letting teachers step back and understand how their students are learning. Teachers get to step out of their conventional role as someone who imparts knowledge and skills in students. This kind of space allows them to enjoy making things, and does well to organically foster the making culture.