Ashoka Fellowship for innovative teaching methodology
Ashoka Fellows are leading social entrepreneurs who we recognize to have innovative solutions to social problems and the potential to change patterns across society. They demonstrate unrivaled commitment to bold new ideas and prove that compassion, creativity, and collaboration are tremendous forces for change. Ashoka Fellows work in over 60 countries around the globe in every area of human need. Runa Khan has developed a series of "user-friendly" goal-oriented textbooks to replace the ossified rote learning methods employed in the Bangladeshi school system. The text books, which emphasize critical thinking and self-directed learning, have been instrumental in significantly improving student performance.
In 1979, while teaching kindergarten and junior school students in Chittagong, Runa Doja discovered that instead of being encouraged to interpret and understand the information presented to them, students were taught to memorize and simply regurgitate their lessons during tests. Runa observed an utter lack of coherent development in the children; they learned the alphabet and simple vocabulary, but could not use this knowledge for even rudimentary communication. If asked to deviate from the standard lesson plan the children were helpless. Runa was spurred by her teaching experiences to create an educational system that incorporates a variety of participatory methods in order to encourage critical thinking. She calls this system "methods of conceptual motivation." As her students' test scores began to improve markedly, Runa decided to develop a series of goal-oriented, self-instructional text books that would encourage students and teachers to become more engaged in the learning process.
Runa's unique approach to textbook design serves a dual purpose. First, the goal-oriented nature of the textbooks motivates students to complete each unit because they feel a sense of accomplishment as they learn a new, concrete skill. Second, because the books are largely self-directed, the teacher is free to spend more time with individual students, rather than standing in front of a class and reading directly from the textbook. As a result, students have more confidence in themself, begin to think critically, and therefore gain more from the time spent in school. As Runa says, "all I did was what any book should do–increase inquisitiveness for learning."