Sunday, February 21, 2010

Local Books or Reference Books?

Whenever I start teaching my subject, my preparation starts with the study of the best books available on this subject. Whatever book I feel good, I use this. But, many of the students don’t feel the book is good for the study, not because of its language, but because of the lengthy contents and number of pages of the book.
One of the disadvantages of the Indian education system is that, we have made our students more exams oriented than the knowledge oriented. The phenomena have also followed in the technical education also. If we think about the primary and secondary education, we have focused onto the examination point of view towards students. Teacher tells students that this question is most important and probably asked in the examination also. So then, what student does? He used to mug up the answer without any understanding. Then he used to the same again and again. Even the teacher expect from student to mug up the answer. Teachers focus on the guide books provided on the subject which contains the question and answers, which are most probably asked in the examinations! No one (both teacher and student) don’t worry about the contents. They only worry about the questions and answers. I also observed this technique in my secondary education. That’s the reason why, students only study the ‘guide books’ rather than studying the textbooks in their syllabus.
The same continues in the technical education also. From the first year itself, they start to use the books which have only the required contents to make them pass in the examinations! So what is the difference between the professional education and the primary education? Nothing…! In case of the engineering study, I found most of the students use the books written only for the syllabus. If they asked any question regarding the subject, but not in the syllabus, they wouldn’t be able to answer the question. Even they focus only onto the examination. Their target in only to achieve the passing marks i.e. 40… This is because they have studied only the things which are there in syllabus. They only focus onto this. So they are not having the confidence to face any question regarding the subject. Whenever, the syllabus oriented books are written, these books will not contain the contents which are required for study but not in the syllabus. Even the books are not intended to study the subject practically. This harms the ability of the students.
I always have taken approach from the reference books to study. Students found the reference book heavy to study. They are having fear about vast content and size of the book. This is the laughing matter for the students who are studying in college to become an engineer…! Using the content oriented books, they are not studying the subjects; they are studying the syllabus only. If they really want to become a knowledgeable engineer rather than a certified engineer, they must have to use the reference books. Not only these, but they must refer various websites available on the subject. These also provide several useful information about the subject. If you want help regarding any subject just mail me:
tushar.kute@sitrc.org

No comments:

Post a Comment

to: tushar.kute@gmail.com