Equity Based Instruction in Punjab

Every classroom has students from different backgrounds. Abundance of research shows that family size, family income, and other demographical variables influence a student’s learning. Thus, it becomes a challenge for the teachers to teach students such that everyone can be at the same level.

In rural Punjab, there are families who can provide their children with extra paid tutoring and other facilities. On the other hand, there are families who cannot even afford to send their children to school without financial aid. TeamUP talked to some education professionals about "equity based instruction" where teacher ensures that every students' needs are met, so that everyone can be at the same level by the end of the lesson. We received a lot of backlash. Expert teachers told us it was impossible.

So, our team took on the challenge.

Rajbir Kaur Hundal and Pahulmeet Singh prepared an equity based mathematics lesson with Ramandeep Kaur, one of the Mathematics teachers at Guru Harkrishan School, Nangal-Ghoman. Fifty one students of 8th grade and topic was Fractions. Although this topic was taught already, we decided to deliver the lesson again with different technique.

When students were instructed to divide into groups and solve problems together, there was not much conversation happening. Students with "high status" solved the questions for their peers and thought this would help their group. This was expected because typically students are not allowed to talk to their peers at all in their classrooms, and now suddenly, they were asked to participate in a group activity. The teacher interrupted the activity, and explicitly told the students that they are free to talk to each other, they will not lose grades for getting the answer wrong, and that they should be deliberate to find a solution together. Slowly, the students started communicating with each other. By the time they were solving their last problem, all students were engaged in questioning, explaining, and solving problems together.

Below is the list of sub topics, percentage of people who knew the concept before the lesson, and percentage of people who could make sense of the topics and perform calculations after our lesson:

One of the students was unconfident about his calculations. He was constantly trying to hide behind the desks and avoid eye contact with other students and instructors. Rajbir, however, approached him and helped him on his calculations. This student was later called to the front of the classroom to solve a fraction problem on the board. Other students were expecting him to fail and foreshadowed his embarrassment. This student, however, picked up the marker and solved the problem with his trembling hands. There was a smile on his face that was more satisfying than anything else. Rest of the class applauded his effort. Our happiness multiplied when another previously low-confidence girl volunteered immediately to solve a problem on the board.

We shared our results with other teachers of the schools and the administration. Staff was surprised. The school immediately adopted the equity based instruction involving group-work in almost all subjects.The Mathematics and Science teachers started teaching with sense-making and reasoning method combined with group-work.

This lesson and new instructional design had an impact that we did not anticipate. Students were enjoying Mathematics, and they were paying more attention to the teacher in classroom. Teacher was happy because she had delegated her work to students and students were learning "automatically."