Contemporary Studies Through Mythology

Contemporary Studies through Mythology Approach Paper Sunipa Sen
			2010
Contact Details: sunipasen@gmail.com

Contemporary Studies Through Mythology

http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/twelvelabors/ig/12-Labors-of-Hercules/

Objective:

1.  Middle and high(secondary) school students along with their facilitators use holistic and collaborative approach to cognitive learning of various disciplines-subjects.
2. Through holistic and applied learning approach the learners consciously learn various concepts of different disciplines together under the guidance of their facilitators. This is 
3. Applied learning effectively uses Learning Heuristics for, the learner applies the concepts, procedure and laws while becoming aware of them. 
4. Depth of knowledge of various concepts are easily defined by the variation and degree of difficulty of the learning activity devised for the learners at different levels of learning.
5. Mythological stories describe the people, the environment, their life and culture, philosophy along with their perception, thought process, belief and, faith. Such stories appeal to the learners' curiosity and imagination - their ability to relate it to the contemporary life in terms of social studies, geography, science, history and, language. This helps the learners to analyse, assimilate and synthesise their learning with ease.
6. Teacher-facilitators are able to design and devise a curriculum that helps the learners in achieving HOTS learning objectives with ease.
7. This approach has teachers facilitating the learning process. The teachers can reinforce the learners' learning by using the learners also as mentors. The students of middle school mentor the students of primary school in sports, curricular and extra-curricular activities. In the process of mentoring their mentees they invariably develop a sense of responsibility, discipline that helps in honing their behavioral skills and reinforcing their academic achievements. 

We take the mythological story of  the Greek hero Hercules. The learners learn geographical, natural (biological) diversity and subsequent social and cultural (lifestyle) diversity by relating the story to the:

1.  Historical facts 
2. Geography and geographical diversity according to their country's geography.
3. Social studies: understand and appreciate the cultural and social diversity.
4. Science and Math: scientifically- analytically study the mechanisms, tools and structures mentioned and described in the story.
5. Language and Literature: communication and literary skills with the ability to appreciate social and cultural diversity relating to the learners' own social and cultural background.
6. Applied learning approach to develop and hone creative thinking, lateral thinking and critical thinking skills along with psycho-motor skills. 
7. Continuous and comprehensive assessment is appropriate to evaluate how effectively the learners' have achieved their learning objectives.
8. The following is a simple example of the approach. Learning Duration (including assessment: 7 hours.) Learning Mode: Face-to-Face activity based. Blended Learning supporting remote-team learning. 

Requirements:

·        Following Gagne’s Nine Principles of Learning, the Teacher facilitator easily gains attention of the learners by narrating the story of Ancient Greek Hero Hercules and why he had to perform twelve labours for King Eurystheus. (can use Video Clips/slide show illustrations to narrate the story).

·        Explain the objective of the integrated study of different subjects (history, geography and biology through this story form)

·        Divide the students into ten member study groups and ask them to recall the story and note down the names of characters and places in the story.

·        Let the students go through the Computer or notepad with internet connection as learning tool to gather information. Refer to the following links for information on "First Labour of Hercules" and find out more about the characters using the following links:

·        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labours_of_Hercules (Twelve Labours of Hercules).

· Take the link to The First Labour: "Slay the Nemean Lion": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemean_Lion

Read the story and find all the noun forms in it:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labours_of_Hercules (Twelve Labours of Hercules). (Objectives: study of noun forms and explain their comprehension as intra and inter group activity.)

· The link to "The First Labour": Slay the Nemean Lion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemean_Lion  

TABLE A: Study group(team) to follow the links(URLs) and find more information on the listed noun regarding the characteristics and discuss what Noun type qualifies it. While facilitating the discussion, encourage participants to question and clear doubts by reading aloud the pieces of information they have researched and noted for the discussion. Students connect the learning from TABLE A with that of TABLE B.  Relate the information and learning with the concepts - topic (subject-wise) as part of contemporary study exercise.  The students research and collect information for group discussion, study note or a project such as on volcanoes and volcanic activities with historical, geographical, social and cultural reference. Teacher-facilitator can design and devise the depth of knowledge as the learning objective as per the learning level of the learners(students). The students can also write stories, notes and essays as part of their language and literature lessons. Table A: Table B: Name Noun Form Detail Link Relational Logic Contemporary Subject Work Detail on contemporary topic(s) Typhon Animal Son of Gaia, Tartarus http://www.pantheon.org/articles/t/typhon.html [URL] Physical description Geography: Volcano; Typhoon Function: group discussion with Research Paper Gaia Person (from the website) [URL] Mythological name of Earth Earth (Geography, Geology) Function: group discussion or essay writing Tartarus Person (from the website) [URL] Name of Famous Tribe and place Tribe: Tartar (History, Geography) Function: group discussion with Research Paper Echidna Person Mate of Typhon [URL] Description matching with animal Biology (Animal: Endangered species) Function: group discussion with Research Paper Cereberus Animal Son of Typhon & Echidna [URL] Unique feature of function of guarding Biology (Brain: parts) Function: group discussion with Research Paper

As part of the activity to enhance retention and transfer of knowledge, make the student groups prepare a relation map of the character, objects and places they have found unique in the story (Sample Map given below). Make them relate them to contemporary topics and the information researched. They can use the mind mapping approach to do this activity.

Organize the student groups(teams) for a quiz session. Test them on the how much they have learnt in  this process.
 

Table C:

We can further elaborate this simple example mapping the concepts and the depth of applicable knowledge the learners can achieve at different learning levels: primary, middle and secondary school and how the learners perform the role of learners too. In this approach the learners also use Exploratory Form of Learning. For instance, relating the concept of noun (Name) in Table C like Echidna with the biological concept of "Echidna" and the students can research how the animal "Echidna" an ant-eater derived its name. This is a vivid example of applied curiosity where the students can be encouraged to imagine and draw the image of the mythological character based on its verbal/textual description and then view the images of the mythological character and the animal named "Echidna".  The students can involve in team(group) activity.

Blended learning approach can be effective even in case of remote team(group) activity. Facilitators can devise rubrics to assess the behavioural, cognitive, and psycho-motor skills the learners developed through such activities. It can be a 360 degrees assessment with the mentors and mentees assessing each other. 

Thank you for reading the blog-post. For more information on Holistic and Collaborative form of Applied Learning you may like to read "The Curious Case of Bird Feeder"
Do comment your views and insights.

Original Source of the Approach Paper: https://www.scribd.com/document/31864074/Contemporary-Studies-Through-Mythology-ver1-0