Do innovative teaching methods work?

Bengaluru - Certain well-qualified people have quit comfortable jobs to teach science to children from impoverished backgrounds

It's a common lament that textbooks and teachers don't render science to the students in a manner that makes concepts clear. Even the best intentions have to be tempered with the reality of exams. Finishing the syllabus is a real worry for teachers and school administrations. The alternative is to withdraw from the system and go your own way. There's a middle path which involves using props to teach science to children in a way that they can understand. There's something marvelous about this variant of the Aha Experience.
Let's take a brief look at well-qualified people who have quit comfortable jobs to teach science to children from impoverished backgrounds, according to scroll.in.
1)      Aavishkar
Description: Science and Maths teaching method for students and teachers
Run by Sandhya Gupta and Sarit Sharma
Qualifications: Electrical engineers with doctorates
Location: Palampur, Madhya Pradesh
2)     Innovation and Science Promotion Foundation
Description: Science education for children
Run by software engineer Vishal Bhatt and Procheta Malik, PhD Astronomy
Location: Bangalore
3)     Agastya Foundation
Description: Teaches science to underprivileged children in 21 states.
Run by Ramji Raghavan
Location: Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh
All these projects are labours of love. They use discarded items for everyday life to explain concepts to the students. The aim is to teach children skills like critical thinking, collaboration, communication and data analysis. There are also attempts to make the children good citizens by making them aware of the way bureaucracy works. It is important for citizens to know the intricate system that is at work in the land. If you want to get things done in your community you need to persist and know how the system of governance works at the micro level. There is a need to know how the system works so that you don't succumb to the temptation of bribing.
The allure of innovative teaching methods especially in teaching science usually gets both students and teachers excited about the possibilities that it holds. To see science in action helps in understanding what is presented in textbooks and in classrooms. As is with everything else there is criticism from teachers and school bureaucrats to innovative methods. And it isn't necessarily a dislike of change or a desire to maintain the status quo. Of course, there will be people who feel that students today should experience what their teachers did when they were students. The dangerous logic can cause much drudgery and opposition to the fact that time has passed.
It's important to think things through before taking action. It's the uneasy relation between thinking and acting. Or it put it more clearly between understanding and activism. It's important to consider the long-term consequences of the things you do. This account of well-qualified people leaving well-paying jobs to teach children from economically backward backgrounds is noble. But does it end up giving dreams that are out of their reach?
It's also important that we decide whether the skills that will make you a good employee make you a good person. Good is an ambiguous word but it's important that we let kids be kids and allow them to enjoy their childhood while they can. There's plenty of time for them to acquire the skills that employers will look for in them 25 years later. Also the idea that compassion can be taught through some version of the scientific method is worth pondering. The social sciences can do a very good job at sensitizing children to the things that require sensitivity. Gender studies and an emphasis on patriarchy can open young minds to a system that is vastly inequitable and deep rooted.

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