Educational_Initiatives.pdf

7/29/2019 Educational_Initiatives.pdf

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Educational Initiatives is an effort with a vision of a world where children everywhere are learning with

understanding.

Introduction: EI combines focussed research into how children learn concepts in grades 3-10 with ground work with

over 1500 private and public schools mostly in India, but also in the Gulf, South Asia, Singapore and the USA. EI

provides specific support to teachers based on the strengths and weaknesses of their students and personalised,

adaptive learning software for Maths and language. EI also works with policy makers and governments by providing

information on student learning levels based on large scale assessments. EI partners or has partnered with

organisations like Google, the World Bank, UNICEF, Harvard University, The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation,

various state governments and NGOs offering services to accurately and meaningfully measure student learning.

Student Misconceptions: It is easiest to understand this concept with a simple example.

When asked the length of the pencil shown in the question above, only about 11% of class 4 students (age 9-10years) correctly identified the length as 5 centimetres. The sample size of students in these students is very high,

rarely less than 10,000 students! Over 75% students insisted the length was 6cm, and the reason for their belief is

extremely non-intuitive see this video excerpt to understand their thinking:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx-

qRfftmTE

Mindspark: Mindspark is a computer-based adaptive learning system which was created by EI to systematically help

students overcome these misconceptions and thus improve the quality of their learning. Mindspark uses questions,

rather than explicit instruction to help children learn. The philosophy underlying Mindspark is that students learn

when they have to think either to answer a question, or perform an activity. Thus Mindspark is complementary to

the teacher and in fact an unobtrusive professional development tool for the teacher

himself:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej7lytwhiP0&feature=relmfu

How Mindspark Helps Teachers Teach Better: By providing teachers insights into how students learn and the

mistakes they make, Mindspark helps teachers become more effective. An on-demand snapshot of current

understanding levels of students enables the teacher to prepare for the next class based on where the need is rather

than merely the schedule. Mindspark provides insights based on historical data on where students have

misconceptions and makes the teacher aware of what to expect in the classroom.

Mindspark Centres for Students from Poor Families: EI has set up Mindspark Centres in Delhi slums to provide a

remediation program for children aged 5-16 to learn language and Math in their mother tongue. Children come in for

3 hours a week to use Mindspark and learn in small groups facilitated by an academic mentor that enables them to

learn at their current understanding level.

Detailed Assessment: This is a monthly topic-based assessment which provides teachers the ability to test how well

students have learned the current topic. A detailed analysis showing overall and student-wise areas of weakness plus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx-qRfftmTEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx-qRfftmTEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx-qRfftmTEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx-qRfftmTEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej7lytwhiP0&feature=relmfuhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej7lytwhiP0&feature=relmfuhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej7lytwhiP0&feature=relmfuhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej7lytwhiP0&feature=relmfuhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx-qRfftmTEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx-qRfftmTE


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recommended remedial action is provided within 12 hours. The following video provides information about the

product as well as feedback from some of the teachers who use it: http://vimeo.com/33329303.Students key in

their answers to the test questions either on basic mobile phones or tablets (not shown in the video).

ASSET:This is EIs annual standardised assessment taken by 350,000 students every year. Th e test is for students of

classes 3-10 and covers English, Mathematics, Science, Hindi and Social Studies. It is Indias largest diagnostic test.

Each student and teacher receives a personalised booklet with their performance and specific action points based on

the test results. A lot of free teacher support material, including Teacher Sheets (1-2 page sheets that explain to

teachers the common wrong answer, why students select it and potential ways to remediate in the classroom.) is

also provided.

Cover Story in India Today (sometimes called Indias Time Magazine):EI conducted a detailed study of student

learning in 5 metros covering over 32000 students. The results were featured on the cover of the India Today

magazine.

The study was repeated in 2011 as the Quality Education Study. It received wide publicity and was commented upon

in the lead editorial of the Times of India newspaper. The links to the study findings are given here:

Executive Summary: http://www.ei-india.com/wp-content/uploads/Executive_Summary.pdf

Full Report:http://www.ei-india.com/wp-content/uploads/Main_Report.pdf

Google-supported 18-state Student Learning Study: While the above studies related to

student performance in private schools, Indias largest independent study on student

learning in government schools was conducted by EI in 2008 with financial support from

Google. The link to the study finding is given here: http://www.ei-india.com/student-

learning-study-an-india-report/

International Recognition for EI: Huffington Post featured EI founder Sridhar among 25

globally renowned thought leaders in education (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/c-m-

rubin/the-global-search-for-edu_2_b_880028.html). EI was invited to a meeting of

leading international educational innovators where Sridhar presented EIs vision for the need of a new Science of

Learning that builds a body of knowledge about how students

learn:http://www.fundacionbankinter.org/en/videos/education-in-india

Mindspark cloud based adaptive learning program for Std 1-10 students for Maths

Genesis of Mindspark:

Educational Information and Computer Technology (ICT) solutions have been too little educational and too much

ICT solutions. In Mindspark, this problem was approached from the education end by utilizing 12 years of data on

student learning (with no ICT offering in that period). This was driven both from the experience of setting up and

running a school as well as assessing the learning levels of lakhs of students annually across private and government

schools testing for understanding and not mere recall of facts or procedures. Following the assessments, student

interviews were conducted on important misconceptions that came out1

which enabled to understand whystudents

were thinking in a particular way. Through workshops and diagnostic Teacher Sheets this feedback was shared with

teachers. This rich educational data provided the foundation to create a product that demonstrated measurable

learning improvement.

1The article The Potential of Assessment in Science(2009) by Agnihotri et aldescribes this process and also some interesting misconceptions

found among students.
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Why ICT is Critical the Complexities of Learning:

The complexities of the process of student learning are such that one has to rely on computer technologyif one really

wants every child to learn with understanding. The complexity comes in two ways:

1. The process of learning new concepts is inherently complex and probably contains more stages and

nuances than a person who has learnt them realises.2

2. Each students way of learning a concept, not to mention the pace, tends to be different. This

constructivist paradigm can be supported with hard, detailed data on the learning levels of

thousands of children.

Mindspark - an adaptive learning program:

1. Helps students learn Maths and language by employing a constructivist theory of learning by

answering questions that are appropriate to their current understanding

2.

Remediates misconceptions identified through 10 years of ASSET tests with more than 2 milliondata points

3. Supports teachers in schools to teach to where the need is as opposed to a regular rehearsal based

on his/her own intuition on what kids dont know

Underlying Principles: Mindspark is a computer-based adaptive learning system which primarily uses questions to

help children learn. The questions are finely-gradedmeaning that there are a very large number of questions of

gradually increasing levels of difficulty. Questions are specially designed to test understanding and to help students

clear misconceptions. (Increasingly, Mindspark student usage data is itself throwing up prevalent misconceptions.)

There is very little emphasis on instruction due to the belief that students learn when they have to think either to

answer a question, or do an activity on the computer. This is also done as we see Mindspark as complementary to

the teacher and in fact an unobtrusive professional development tool for the teacher himself

Implementation of Mindspark:

When a student answers a question incorrectly, she may be provided a simple

or detailed explanation, or be redirected to questions that strengthen the

basic understanding. These decisions are taken by an adaptive logic which is

expected to get better and better with increased student usage. The system is

available in private and government school editions and in both, it is used in

schoolwith usage time-tabled into the schedule. It thus aims to use not just

the interactivity of the computer, but its intelligence; and to mimic the

diagnostic capabilities of a good teacher.

2Many researches on student learning confirm this. Seemingly basic concepts like place value, the notion of respiration or the measurement

of learning can be surprisingly difficult to really grasp. See, Kannan and Shukla (2008) and Kamii (2006).


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Specific Information for Teachers: When provided with data which is actionable, teachers took interest and tried

acting upon it. Teachers themselves sought certain reports and these have turned out to be the most useful reports

across all schools. Teachers say that information about concepts not learnt by all or even a sub-group of students is

extremely useful for them and allows them to immediately address the problem. There are occasionally cases where

the student has not learnt in spite of various system strategies. Such cases are referred by the system to the teacher

something teachers have appreciated.

Differentiated Learning:

Current status:

Mindspark is used by 60,000 students in 150 schools/independent centers. On average each child is spending 1.5

hours per week (in 2-3 periods per week). Over 1.5 lakh questions delivered on a daily basis, which generates data to

improve content based on where students are struggling.

Personalised Learning that seems to lead to Learning Improvements:

Programs like this try to tackle the challenging question what is needed to help children learn a new concept well?

As most teachers know, the answer seems to be different for different topics, different students and even at

different times!

At times, students seem to learn through repeated exposure that increases the familiarity of a concept. At other

times, identifying a key misconception and providing more exposure to that concept seems to aid learning. And

sometimes, a difficult or non-intuitive concept has to be carefully explained.

Some interesting examples where all these three seem to work. Three cases, one of each type, are shared below:

Case 1: Counting in 10s:

In a municipal school which was using

Mindspark, students of class 5 were

struggling with class 1 and 2 concepts

(unfortunately, a common situation)

Sapna, a Class 5 student, was doing place

value questions in Mindspark. She

reached a question in which she had to

Brighterkids

EnrichmentsChallenge

Questions

Weakerkids

RemedialsScaffolding

All kids

GamesPractice Q Introductions

Fig 6: Simple animations here, a set of beads that need to be counted before

they disappearhelped a child understand counting by tens.


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count the total number of beads. She counted all the beads one-by-one up to 84, in that case! But after a few such

questions, in the next level, the visual would disappear quite quickly, not giving her time to count in ones. On the

third or fourth such question, she started off really fast and furiouslydus-bees-tees-chalis-ektaalis-bayalis-tetalis-

chawalis-paentalis ... all in one breath!! Then, she took one long breath and wrote 45 (the correct answer) in the

blank! The observers burst out laughing - she had learnt to count in tens-and-ones without instruction.

Case 2: Understanding Angles:

One of the most interesting analyses is the study of a students trail the questions attempted by him or her one by

one (sometimes over weeks). Here are some questions in a trail of questions on angles attempted by a class 5 child.

The questions were done over a week and the sequence numbers are shown. Though only 4 questions are shown

here, the inferences are based on analysing the students responses to many more questions and the pattern is clear.

Fig 7 (left): recognising a right angle in standard orientation

Fig 8 (top): recognising a right angle in non-standard orientation

The student was unable to identify a right angle visually in the beginning either in the standard or non-standard

orientation. After a number of questions that both challenge and explain this concept in different ways, the child is

clearly able to answer these questions correctly.

Fig 9 (far left)

and Fig 10:

more

questions on

right angles


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Case 3: Operations with Negative Numbers:

In some cases, students learn when

they are given conceptual

reinforcement that addresses a doubt

or a problem they have, or gives them

an appropriate analogy that helps

learning take place. This applies to

doubts related to negative numbers,

the concept of variables in algebra,

etc.

In all these cases, more studies need

to be conducted to confirm that the

learning is really robust. However,

early indications were clearly positive,

and suggested that some of these

strategies were working to help

children learn key concepts they were

previously struggling with.

Fig 10: The above is an interactive remedial item that is only given to students who

are not able to handle integer operations. By giving analogies and leading the child

through a series of exercises, some children were found to understand the concept

(rather than simply remember and apply a rule to handle problems.)

The Long Term Vision: Some people fear that the use of computers in instruction is undesirable and ignores the

human and relationships aspects of learning. There is also a fear that such technologies may further weaken the role

of the teacher. Doubts are expressed whether students can really learn through questions.

Though it would not be possible to discuss all these objections in detail, we believe that in the long term, computer

learning programs like these will be an important part of education, which will strengthen, not weaken the teacher.

The teacher will continue to provide instruction, inspiration, challenge and guidance; the computer will provide

individualised practice, remedial, challenge, clearing of conceptual doubts, and to the teacher pointers on where

she should focus. This freeing of the teachers time, we believe, will allow him to spend more time on many things

that are desirable but get left out today development of social and team skills, project work and real-life activities

and the ability to focus more on individual children and their specific needs.


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Education SpecialistEducational Initiatives Pvt Ltd - Ahmedabad Area, India

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Educational Initiatives is a 11-year old organization working with private and government schools by creating

effective assessment and learning solutions. EI works or has worked with Google, the World Bank, most leading

private schools in India, the Dell Foundation and many state governments in this area.

EIs core strength is a deep, data-driven understanding of how students learn. It involves knowing, for example, that

grade 4 children think that 3 cm is a point, rather than a distance. Similarly, that grade 8 students know that the

chemical formula of water is H2O and that steam is the gaseous form of water, but are not able to correctly deduce

the chemical formula of pure steam from these facts. By understanding such micro-issues in learning based on data,

EI provides through its ASSET and DA assessments, deep insights to schools, teachers and parents on what their

children are learning well with understanding, and recommends micro-solutions to them. EI also devises solutions

that help children learn with understanding, through its intelligent adaptive learning product, Mindspark.

These insights into "how learning happens" come from and form part of a new inter-disciplinary science that we call

the "Science of Learning". EI believes that the development of this "Science of Learning" is as critical to education as

development of new vaccines, medicines and treatments are in healthcare. You can also read the report that became

a cover story of India Today on EIs website.

EI's solutions, ASSET, DA and Mindspark, currently reach over 400,000 students every year, and create over 100

million data points that feed EI's insights, along with a deep understanding of the topic/subject to be learnt, and

other detailed studies with students and collection of large-scale data from the entire spectrum, spanning India's

leading international private schools, to rural Government schools from the country's most impoverished districts.

The solutions are created by EI's scientists who balance research with development that has practical, day to day

real-life use and implementation. EI's team of learning scientists have deep domain expertise in how learning

happens, acquired from hands on experience, research, reading the best international material available on the

subject, and interacting with globally leading academicians working on the same. This is however, applied on a day to

day basis to produce assessment and learning solutions. To strengthen this team, EI is seeking more Education

Specialists to join its team.

Job Description

1. Researching and understanding the Science of Learning by reading pedagogy related research work, analysing EI's

rich student response data, conducting student interviews and interacting with teachers to figure out how children

think and learn. Fair component of data mining, data analysis in Excel. Optional: Some work in SQL programming.

2. Using this research to build discerning questions and create interactive content like maths games, enrichment

modules, etc to help children learn with understanding online. Optional: Coding the same in HTML5 by the person

3. Building notes that highlight misconceptions based on the data and insights, and providing tips to address the

same. Think of creative ways to reduce and remove these misconceptions.

4. Networking and collaborating with research institutes and scholars in India and globally to understand and

implement their high quality work.

5. Publish papers in international education journals and presentations at TEDx type events.

6. Peer review colleagues' work and participate in brainstorming sessions to improve EI's offerings, especially MS.

7. Do mini-projects from start to finish that aims to solve a big problem and allow for a "entrepreneurial" experience

8. Optional: Taking up special assignments - such as coding for partial solving, migrating existing Flash content to

HTML5 to make it iPad compatible, thinking of system architecture and improving the speed of the software by

increasing efficiency through sophisticated algorithms.


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Desired Skills & Attributes

1. Academic brilliance in High School and college, being in the top 5-10% in your batch throughout,

2. Interested in delving deep into Maths and how kids learn,

3. Excited about creating learning and IT solutions that will impact children and transform education,

4. Ability to do quick math,

5. Penchant for research- ability to interpret research papers written on Math along with strong quantitative and

qualitative research skills,

6. Should enjoy working in a team and across teams (within the Mindspark Development team and the IT team),

7. Should enjoy healthy debates and arguments which are critical for insight development,

8. Desired but not necessary: Ability to quickly and independently learn new technologies like HTML5 and sufficient

experience in PHP, MySQL

Education

1. Bachelor's degree in any major, Master's degree or a PhD welcome from leading colleges/universities/institutes.

Must have been in the top 5% in the institute throughout. Roles will be different based on education.

2. Prior work experience outside of education sector will be useful but not necessary

Documents

Educational_Initiatives.pdf