Pune : FLAME University’s Centre for Knowledge Alternatives announces a research project on ‘Enhancing Reading and Learning Outcomes through Pre-Text Method in Schools’, in collaboration with The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University. FLAME faculty members Prof. Yugank Goyal, Associate Professor of Public Policy, and Founding Director, Centre for Knowledge Alternatives at FLAME University, and Prof. Shivakumar Jolad, Associate Professor of Public Policy at FLAME University, will work with Prof. Doris Sommer, Ira Jewell Williams, Jr., Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University, for this project.

Harvard University’s Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute has partnered with FLAME University in India for this project, along with the Cultural Agents Initiative in the US. Pre-Texts is a pedagogical intervention that uses art and performance to enhance reading interests and outcomes amongst students. It has been implemented in Latin America and Africa, where kids are being empowered with a newfound interest in reading and learning. The project will employ Pre-Texts in pilot schools in Pune (first time in India). The first part will be to train the teachers in this method, and then enable them to adopt it in their classrooms. Through several baseline and endline surveys, the project aims to evaluate the degree, level of improvements in learning outcomes in the schools. The study will also examine how has the intervention influenced a child’s cognitive capacities, their willingness to be proactive, engage in co-curricular pursuits, and explore an ecosystem that expands their curiosity. Scholars hope that in line with the evidence from other parts of the world, Pre-Text will encourage children to learn about themselves and the world, and be more attracted to read.

Prof. Yugank Goyal, Associate Professor of Public Policy, and Founding Director, Centre for Knowledge Alternatives at FLAME University says, “There are two most interesting parts of this exploration, namely, the joy of infusing creativity in a classroom that has taken a backseat in the rote learning environment in our schools, as well as the potential it contains in scaling up, because every trained teacher becomes a trainer for another teacher.”

Prof. Doris Sommer, Ira Jewell Williams, Jr., Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University says, “We have experienced what neuroscience has been trying to teach educators for over a decade: that pleasure is a driving force for learning. Therefore, socio-emotional development goes hand in hand with cognitive advances. Favoring one over the other, as often happens, limits development and can trigger depression.”