S6-Interview

The teacher was confident. He had come for an interview. He was asked to
demonstrate his teaching to a class. He had informed them that he would take it on
team working & team leading. He had finalized a group activity and prepared a
detailed worksheet. He knew that an experiential activity is effective method to
learn such concepts. He spent 2 hours on it to ensure all points of team working and
leading is covered. He entered the classroom. But he got a shock. There were just 4
students in the class. The activity needed about 15-20 students. The worksheet was
already distributed. It was just impossible to do that activity with 4 students. There
was no time left to prepare anything else. What to do? What would you suggest
him?

Think harder
The teacher got a minute in the name of waiting for others to join. The teacher
prayed to God and quickly thought. What is it that forms crux of that group activity?
He listed 6 points- 1. Experiencing a work/activity 2. Creating conditions for
everyone to take up a challenging goal 3. Everyone understanding ones role 4.
Everyone putting efforts in the right direction 5. Direct feedback & appreciation to
everyone on performance 6. Encouragement for consistent & best effort till
achievement of goal. Then he quickly recalled a challenging puzzle of which there
are 7-8 different solutions. He played the first round. Everyone understood the role.
Then he marked 7 levels of solutions on board. He asked if the 4 students were
ready to take the challenge of reaching to 7 levels. They agreed. They started
performing. He gave them direct feedback & appreciated every new solution. When
they were stuck he encouraged them to continue putting their efforts. This way
they crossed all 7 levels. The same worksheet was utilized. It took same time.
Barring one point, remaining 41 points of the worksheet could be utilized as it is.
The students were quite satisfied. They gave very good feedback to interview
panel. The teacher obviously was selected. Learning- Can we focus on purpose
rather than problem?