Research towards the Creation of New Curricula for a holistic growth and development of the integral personality

Research and Curriculum development in educational institutes and universities today confines itself only to the Mind, and that too in a half-baked way. No research in Curriculum development is being done or incorporating the other parts of the being, i.e. the emotional-vital, the psychic and the spiritual.

This leads to dysfunctional individuals and societies whereby men are unable to control their emotions, resulting in violence, rape, and exploitation.

It was therefore seen as imperative by The Gnostic Centre, to conduct action research for the development of curricula which encompassed the refinement and culture of all the parts of the being (i.e. emotional-vital, psychic-spiritual, mental, physical).

Support Documents
• The Science of Living course folder
• Power of Attitude course folder
• The Art of Healthy Living course folder
• How to Bring up a Child course folder
• Integral Psychology intensive folder
• ICIS Preamble – opening new research fields in higher education
• ICIS Curriculum, Methodology & Evaluation
• Coursework Portfolio of a student – demonstrating action research through the Course: Self-reflective Journal summaries, Reflective Assignments, leading to identification of the Research Topic (registration of the monograph)
• Worksheets – a few samples

On-going Continuous Research in

Innovative Teaching Methodologies and Pedagogy

The Gnostic Centre has pioneered research into Three Principles of True Teaching as enumerated by Sri Aurobindo. Based on its wide and extensive experience since 1996 of working with these Principles, it has developed a unique system of Teaching and Facilitation called the Integral Pedagogy of Sri Aurobindo.

We recently concluded a two-year long Research Programme called Foundation Course for Facilitators, wherein this integral pedagogy was used towards the development of each student’s research interest.

THE THREE PRINCIPLES OF TRUE TEACHING
“The first principle of true teaching is that nothing can be taught. The teacher is not an instructor or task-master, he is a helper and a guide. His business is to suggest and not to impose. He does not actually train the pupil’s mind, he only shows him how to perfect his instruments of knowledge and helps and encourages him in the process. He does not impart knowledge to him, he shows him how to acquire knowledge for himself. He does not call forth the knowledge that is within; he only shows him where it lies and how it can be habituated to rise to the surface. The distinction that reserves this principle for the teaching of adolescent and adult minds and denies its application to the child, is a conservative and unintelligent doctrine. Child or man, boy or girl, there is only one sound principle of good teaching. Difference of age only serves to diminish or increase the amount of help and guidance necessary; it does not change its nature.”

“The second principle is that the mind has to be consulted in its own growth. The idea of hammering the child into the shape desired by the parent or teacher is a barbarous and ignorant superstition. It is he himself who must be induced to expand in accordance with his own nature. There can be no greater error than for the parent to arrange beforehand that his son shall develop particular qualities, capacities, ideas, virtues, or be prepared for a prearranged career. To force the nature to abandon its own dharma is to do it permanent harm, mutilate its growth and deface its perfection. It is a selfish tyranny over a human soul and a wound to the nation, which loses the benefit of the best that a man could have given and is forced to accept instead something imperfect and artificial, second-rate, perfunctory and common. Every one has in him something divine, something his own, a chance of perfection and strength in however small a sphere which God offers him to take or refuse. The task is to find it, develop it and use it. The chief aim of education should be to help the growing soul to draw out that in itself which is best and make it perfect for a noble use.”

“The third principle of education is to work from the near to the far, from that which is to that which shall be. The basis of a man’s nature is almost always, in addition to his soul’s past, his heredity, his surroundings, his nationality, his country, the soil from which he draws sustenance, the air which he breathes, the sights, sounds, habits to which he is accustomed. They mould him not the less powerfully because insensibly, and from that then we must begin. We must not take up the nature by its roots from the earth in which it must grow or surround the mind with images and ideas of a life which is alien to that in which it must physically move. If anything has to be brought in from outside, it must be offered, not forced on the mind. A free and natural growth is the condition of genuine development. There are souls which naturally revolt from their surroundings and seem to belong to another age and clime. Let them be free to follow their bent; but the majority languish, become empty, become artificial, if artificially moulded into an alien form. It is God’s arrangement that they should belong to a particular nation, age, society, that they should be children of the past, possessors of the present, creators of the future. The past is our foundation, the present our material, the future our aim and summit. Each must have its due and natural place in a national system of education.”

- Sri Aurobindo

'The Human Mind' in Sri Aurobindo and The Mother on Education 20-22.

Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1956.

Support Documents
• The Three Principles of True Teaching & Their Application in My Life – a student’s minor research paper
• Equality: through Surrender & Self-control – a student’s major research paper
• The Dynamic Power of Stillness – a student’s major research paper
• Aim of Higher Education: An Aurobindonian Paradigm – a student’s end-of-course research paper
• Feedback by Students – a few samples

Research towards the Creation of New Evaluation Criteria,

Process and Tools for the growth of consciousness

Whereas there is a plethora of Objective Evaluation formats and criteria, The Gnostic Centre has been doing specialized action research towards the development of Subjective Evaluation process and criteria, hitherto unattempted in academia. For an integral growth and development of individuals and societies, it is not only sufficient that the content and methodology of education encompass the subjective realms of consciousness; the evaluation process too must encourage an engagement with attitudinal process and change.

Some of the evaluation criteria being used are:
• Coherence of the thesis
• Understanding & Assimilation of the material
• Creativity of thinking & presentation
• Rigour & detail in treatment
• Extent & accuracy of scholarship
• Spiritual relevance for oneself
• Spiritual relevance for others

Support Documents
• Evaluation criteria & weightage – Foundation Course for Facilitators (2005-07)
• Sample Evaluation Formats
• Evaluation samples (self-evaluation by the student, peer evaluation, evaluation by the course facilitator, evaluation by external examiners)