“The present teaching system involves lectures, readings, demonstrations, and audio-visuals but we have understood that it doesn’t help in enhancing grasping power of a child. Instead, hands on learning, teaching others, group discussions have a higher retention rate. And this has been proven as well that by involving kids in learning process balances education and enjoyment simultaneously,” said Pravesh Mohey, Regional Manager – Marketing & Sales, Butterfly Edufields.
He was speaking at the 11th School Leadership Summit 2019, Chandigarh, on the topic: ‘Bridging the Learning Divide – Experiential Learning is the Way Forward’. The summit was organised on April 12, 2019 by Elets Technomedia, a premier media and technology research organisation.
Explaining about his company’s narrative in providing hands-on learning experience to students, Mohey said, “We at Butterfly intent to address and bridge this learning gap by offering affordable Hands on Solutions in Science & Math. This might not answer all the whys but will surely bring out the fear of ‘why’ among children”.
As per the National Training Laboratories, Maine, USA – the average retention rate among students is highest with Hands on Learning – 75% whereas with discussion it is 50%. On the other hand, it is 30% with demonstration and 20% with audio visual whereas shockingly it is lowest in reading and learning with just 10% and 5% respectively. The data was revealed in an industry presentation given by Mohey during his address at the summit.
Explaining the reason for the name ‘Butterfly’ and his company’s vision, Mohey said, “We know the evolution of caterpillar to a butterfly. Every child has that potential and should get that opportunity to evolve like a butterfly from a caterpillar. We want to develop every child in a way that he gets a chance to learn from different formats”.
“Just like caterpillar every child has the potential to transform into a unique individual. Our vision is to make learning more enriching, engaging and fun for all sections of children in developing world and around. When children apply what they learn, they become doers and that’s what we want in the world right now. Doers are the ones who succeed in their chosen fields in the future,” he added.
Further, highlighting the importance of answering questions of kids, Mohey stated, “We cannot make a kid understand something by simply telling it – Ye Aisa hi hota hai (it is like this only) rather it is important to explain ‘why it is so’. So at butterfly, we make sure to appropriately explain “why” to the kids.”
“Interestingly, so far, Butterfly has been able to impact the lives of 11, 00,000 students, touched 9,000 schools, covered 18 states and expanded in 3 countries. Skills like scientific temperament, observational and critical thinking, curiosity and perseverance have been inculcated by the students while involved in hands on learning,” he added.
In Butterfly Edufield’s presentation – it was reported that an improvement of 40 percentile in Science was recorded in schools where Butterfly Edufield’s Hands on Activity related to Conductivity, Electric Circuit was done whereas a 25 percentile improvement was measured in Maths subject in which Hands on Activity related to geometry was conducted.
