Ask to ask – u

Ask to ask – u

“It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education” Albert Einstein Taking a cue from the words of Einstein, an acronym was formulated at Suncity School revolving around ‘curiosity’, which is the main source of sustenance to glean knowledge for any human being. However, curiosity without focus, knowledge and skill is a rudderless ship unable to seek direction to the shore. Curiosity is instinctive but it requires a base of interest to enable learning. That is where a teacher’s role starts- to incite interest, to enable the child to reflect and, then, become curious enough to explore, investigate and learn, which manifests itself in ASK. Thus Learning in Suncity is defined as ‘ASK’ to ‘ASK-U’. The acronym ASK represents the main aspects of learning –

• Application
• Skill
• Knowledge

To encapsulate learning, we sum up thus –

• Learning is embodied and concerned with human experiences -A
• Learning is interactive and social -S
• Learning is an integrated cognitive process -K
• Learning is an amalgamation of ‘observing, analyzing, synthesizing, evaluating and thereby creating’ -U

ASK involves learning through inter-disciplinary and multiple intelligence aided strategies based on the child’s learning style. Learning Strategies are always objective and outcome oriented, however a repertoire of strategies must always complement the learning style of a child for optimum benefit.

STRATEGY	TEACHER	LEARNER
Previous Knowledge/Over viewing	Activate previous knowledge, known to unknown, concrete to abstract.	Recollect/recapitulate a topic to help learn more.
Personalizing or linking information	Link the knowledge to student’s expressions & feelings using guiding questions & activities.	Link to one's own expressions & feelings.
Arranging & Planning or summarizing	Students to read text, watch films etc then summarize it and comprehend	After reading and expressing, reflect on it and then summarize to help comprehend.
Use imagery	Create meaningful content by adding new information.	Associate new information with a printed or mental image to help learn better.

The following are the factors, which influence the choice of learning strategies:

• No significant learning takes place without a significant relationship. Hence, motivation and predominantly intrinsic motivation help to combine with ASK to enable learning.
• Perceived gender role expectations, attitudes and beliefs shaped by the milieu in which students live and cultural backgrounds with their unique demands are also perceived to be important determinants.

At Suncity, keeping all aspects of learning strategies and influences in mind, we emphasize on the scholarship of learning by promoting multi - sensory activities.