Learning without Burden This book looks at education reforms, planning and policy through an exploration of the Yash Pal Committee report (1993) in India, which made recommendations to improve the quality of learning while reducing cogni- tive burden on students. It analyses the wide-ranging impact the report had on curriculum, peda- gogy, teacher education reforms and the national policy on education. The book examines the legacy of the report, tracing the various deliberations and critical engagements with issues around literacy, language and math- ematics learning, curriculum reforms and classroom practices, assessment and evaluation. It reviews contemporary developments in research on learn- ing in diverse disciplines and languages through the lens of the recommen- dations made by the Learning without Burden report while engaging with challenges and systemic issues which limit inclusivity and access to quality education. Drawing on extensive research and first-hand academic and teaching experience, this book will attract attention and interest of students and researchers of educational policy and analysis, linguistics, sociology and South Asian studies. It will also be of interest to policy makers, think tanks and civil society organisations. Mythili Ramchand is a Professor at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, India. She has designed and anchored several cross-country teacher education programmes including the Post Graduation Certification programme on Contemporary Education Perspectives for teacher educators. She is currently engaged in comparative research on initial teacher educa- tion across BRICS countries and the UK. Ritesh Khunyakari is an Associate Professor at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Hyderabad, India. He has a PhD in Science Education from the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, TIFR, Mumbai. He has been involved in developing courses for various undergraduate, postgrad- uate and doctoral programmes of TISS. He is also involved in teaching, research and development activities, projects and activities involving col- laboration with organisations and institutions. Arindam Bose is an Associate Professor at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, India and a Visiting Faculty at the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), Brazil. He is the current Vice President of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (IGPME). He has served on several national committees for DEd and BEd course design and textbook and curriculum development committees. His research area is in Mathematics Education. Learning without Burden Where are We a Quarter Century after the Yash Pal Committee Report? Edited by Mythili Ramchand, Ritesh Khunyakari and Arindam Bose First published 2023 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Mythili Ramchand, Ritesh Khunyakari and Arindam Bose; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Mythili Ramchand, Ritesh Khunyakari and Arindam Bose to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book ISBN: 978-0-367-48709-6 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-29067-6 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-04605-9 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003046059 Typeset in Sabon by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai Contents List of Figures vii List of Tables x Editors’ Bio-notes xi Authors’ Bio-notes xii Acknowledgment xvi Foreword xvii A Note on Illustrations xx 1 Unpacking the Construct of Burden 1 RITESH KHUNYAKARI, MYTHILI RAMCHAND AND ARINDAM BOSE PART 1 Systemic Perspectives 35 2 Policy Perspectives on Learning without Burden 37 ARCHANA MEHENDALE 3 Initial Teacher Education: Possibilities and Limits of Curriculum Reform 57 SHIKHA TAKKER AND MYTHILI RAMCHAND 4 Reforms in Curriculum and Textbooks: Challenges and Possibilities 83 HRIDAYKANT DEWAN 5 From the Tall Tower to a Lush Garden 104 R. RAMANUJAM 6 Assessment and Learning in Indian Context: Compelling Association, Invariance or an Educational Folly? 120 RITESH KHUNYAKARI 7 Learning without Burden in the Era of Connected Computers 144 AMIT DHAKULKAR vi Contents 8 Education of Children with Diverse Learning Needs 163 JAYANTHI NARAYAN 9 The Demands of Ethical Learning and Character Development in Our Changing Times 183 ALOK MATHUR PART 2 Perspectives from Domains 209 10 Learning in the Arts and Aesthetic Development 211 RITU GOPAL 11 Growing into Literacy: Part 1: The Building Blocks of Literacy 236 JANE SAHI 12 Growing into Literacy: Part 2: The Devanagari and Telugu scripts: Tools to Lighten the Burden of Learning Literacy 251 MAXINE BERNTSEN 13 Understand Language to Acquire It: The Burden Is Incomprehensibility 268 R. AMRITAVALLI 14 The Unfinished Agenda of Mathematics Curriculum Reform 282 K. SUBRAMANIAM 15 Strengthening Learning through Visuospatial Experiences: Initiatives from the Indian Context 305 RITESH KHUNYAKARI, SHAMIN PADALKAR, FARHAT ARA AND GARIMA SINGH PART 3 Looking Back to Look Forward 351 16 Reflections on the Process and Impact of the Learning without Burden Report: Key Take-aways from the Interviews of Two Members of the National Advisory Committee 353 MYTHILI RAMCHAND, ARINDAM BOSE AND RITESH KHUNYAKARI Epilogue 423 ARINDAM BOSE, MYTHILI RAMCHAND AND RITESH KHUNYAKARI Index 427 Figures 1.1 The burden of academic load visualised through R.K. Laxman’s cartoons. Source: R.K. Laxman. We pay Tribute to R.K. Laxman on his 100th Birth Anniversary 7 3.1 Re-imagining teacher education landscape. Source: Authors 69 3.2 Pre-service teacher education programme at TISS. Source: Authors 76 6.1 Relation between curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. Source: Author 125 6.2 Resource provided for paper modelling of DNA structure. Source: Author 134 6.3 Learning concepts around DNA through a modelling engagement. Source: Author 135 7.1 The load of learning. Source: Author 146 7.2 The XO Laptop from the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Project was specifically designed keeping children in mind. Source: Author 146 7.3 The textbook and real-world cake cutting. Source: Author 149 7.4 Writing with a pen is a difficult skill. Source: Author 150 7.5 Typing with a computer. Source: Author 151 9.1 Aspects of human nature Source: Author. I am grateful to Professor Jayashree Ramadas for her suggestions for refin- ing Figure 9.1 as well as Figure 9.2 188 9.2 Aspects of morality, ethical learning and goodness Source: Author 192 11.1 Story making with wooden blocks. Source: Photograph by Saumyananda Sahi 237 11.2 Different stages of sneezing. Source: Photograph by Saumyananda Sahi 239 11.3 “Bed going for a walk” – drawing with explanation by a three-year-old. Source: Photograph by Saumyananda Sahi 240 11.4 Here a three-year-old was looking at a newspaper and mak- ing his own version on a piece of paper that was provided, viii Figures entitled BEAR NEWS. Note the blending of letters, numer- als and markings. Source: Photograph by Saumyananda Sahi 241 11.5 “The dots are the moon’s writing, but you can’t read it – it’s a secret”. Source: Photograph by Saumyananda Sahi 242 11.6 A make-believe bus journey. Source: Photograph by Saumyananda Sahi 242 12.1 The Devanagari script 255 12.2 Barakhadi. Source: Author 257 12.3 Telugu script. Source: Author 258 14.1 The Chunking Method. Source: Author 296 15.1 Student’s diagram of the sun-earth-moon system – an exam- ple of incoherent diagram (the earth and the moon are not in their orbits and the moon’s orbit is not around the earth) 313 15.2 Student’s diagram for explanation of day-night based on revolution of the Earth – an example of incorrect explana- tion using correct mental model. Source: Shamin Padalkar 314 15.3 Gesture for space internalisation – using a stretched hand to estimate an angle, typically used in amateur astronomy to determine the position of a star above the horizon. Source: Shamin Padalkar 315 15.4 (a) Internalisation of phenomenon through gesture tracing the path of the sun. (b) Diagram representing the path of the sun at different points of time on the Tropic of Cancer 315 15.5 Gesture for model internalisation – right-hand thumb ges- ture to identify direction of rotation of the Earth. The same gesture can be carried out on a diagram 316 15.6 Grade 5 student (schematic) depiction of HDS in textbook and through a students’ drawing. Source: Garima Singh 321 15.7 Students’ mental models of HDS captured through draw- ings. (a) Grade 6 (male) student’s model – partial (mouth to torso), (b) Grade 5 (male) student’s model – complete/end- to-end (mouth to anus). Source: Garima Singh 322 15.8 Glimpse of students’ visual documentations from the field trips. Source: Farhat Ara 326 15.9a Designs showing tendencies of behaviour emulations: (a) an MDF engraver inspired from the drumming behaviour of a woodpecker Source: Farhat Ara 329 15.9b A canopy design inspired from the canopy feeding behav- iour of a black heron Source: Farhat Ara 330 15.9c Flexible and collapsible packaging/container inspired from the barrel cactus with the team’s ideation on the working mechanism of the packaging (bottom). Source: Farhat Ara 331 15.10 Designs showing tendencies of form emulations for inspira- tion: (a) a fog collector inspired from the beach spider lily Figures ix flower, (b) a vegetable chopper inspired from the grinding teeth of a parrot fish. Source: Farhat Ara 332 15.11 Design productions of a group depicting the evolving design idea from the initial (a) exploratory sketches to (b) detailing the designed product. Source: Ritesh Khunyakari 336 15.12 Design-and-make task manifested through (a) explora- tory sketches, (b) problems and potential solutions, and (c) detailing of the designed product. Source: Ritesh Khunyakari 337