Good Morning to one and all present here. Thank you for the question.

Yes, it is really crucial to deal with a 21st century learner for both parents and
students.
I would like to add: Children do learn what they live, then they grow up to live
what they have learned.
So, children whatever they see they learn. As a parent/teacher I would suggest at
first we need to make a healthy environment to build up a socio- emotional skill.
Let me begin with a real-life scenario. We all, as parents and teachers have been
facing thousands of such issues since years. I would like to take your attention
towards a child of 7 years studying in second grade. After getting admitted to school,
we found that he was very aggressive, didn’t talk to peers and would sit alone most
of the time. When he was approached by teachers, he used to shout at the top of his
voice and use unruly language, which was very uncommon for a 7-year-old child.
Extremely disturbed by his behaviour, the whole class used to rebel in the beginning.
So, for us to handle this situation, as teachers was indeed a challenge, especially
dealing with early childhood. We called his parents and there were some issues. We
keep conversing with him and patiently reply to all his irrelatable talks and that
impacted the child positively immeasurably. We said to his classmates(did not
pressurize them) to be polite and show some good behavior and no doubt, in today’s
date, things are way better and the child is doing well and has transited very
smoothly. But my intention behind sharing this situation with you all is that socio-
emotional development of a child is tremendously important in today’s world and for
us as teachers and parents, this development is required for the child since we are
the ones who need to guide and handle them with utmost care.
Joyful Learning
In alignment with the NEP, Central Board of Secondary Education has taken quite a
few measures to make learning at schools holistic, skill driven, competency-oriented
and joyful. Joyful Learning necessarily imbibes the element of deriving pleasure with
a sense of achievement and accomplishment during the process of learning. It
enables the learner to improve all 21st century skills. Whether it is Experiential
Learning, Art Integrated Learning, Activity-Based Learning or Project-Based
Learning or any other approach, as long as it facilitates curiosity and inquiry in a
learner and helps him/her to attain the feeling of creating something new, it is a step
towards Joyful Learning. All these approaches help a learner to develop
competencies required by him/her in real-life.
Example: For example, in order to sensitize students towards saving water to ensure
its future availability, teachers may design a learning experience wherein learners
are required to make a model of a rain harvesting system using clay, blocks or any
other easily available material. Not only such experiences would bring ‘aha’
moments of joy and instill a sense of achievement inü learners, they will also serve
the purpose of the lesson, to make learning happen in authentic, real terms.
Math Magic for grade 1 has a story on how the camel gets inside the tent of its
owner. Besides developing vocabulary and an understanding of spaces, this story
can also be used to discuss empathy towards animals. The teacher can have
questions such as ‘what must be the camel feeling? What must be the man feeling?
What would you have done if you were in his place? Have you ever done this for
anybody?’ Etc. Such questions will lead the child to think from the camel’s
perspective and feel its pain in this context.
Language, out of all the subjects, provides an infinite space to inculcate a lot of
socio-emotional skills through its curriculum. One way of inculcating such skills is
through poetry recitation. The children when enacts the poem, it evokes a lot of
feeling and emotions in the child. For e.g., in NCERT English textbook -marigold for
grade 2 the poem “Granny Granny, please comb my hair” has a lot of scope for
discussion around identifying emotions, maintaining positive relationships, co-
operation and compassion. The teacher can talk about the emotions being
expressed through the poem- love, care, joy and many more. The children can be
encouraged to identify such emotions by relating it to their own lives.
Merging critical thinking with any subject at any level has become an inevitable
part of NEP now. Let me take the example of the Nursery Rhyme Humpty Dumpty
sat on a wall. We can merge critical thinking by asking such questions and seeking a
reply from the toddlers:
Who is Humpty Dumpty? It is an egg shell
Why did he fall?
Why couldn’t the powerful people put it back together again?
Practical concept:
Nouns (real life approach)
With the advent of 21st century and the extreme polarisation in views leading to
violence, aggression, discrimination and intolerance across the world, the education
system also realised that accomplishment of learning outcome is not enough if the
feelings, wants and needs of the students are not taken into account.
Observation: ( Parents)
With the students flipping through the last pages of their answer sheet to see the
marks rather than the qualitative feedback from the teacher . The parents sharing
their child’s scores to their relatives rather than sharing about their qualitative growth
or appreciating the child. There has been a focus only on the cognitive domain or
rote learning not only by parents and schools but also by the various entrance exams
for higher education. Child-centered education somewhat went astray when the
focus of school education shifted to learning outcomes, objectives, standards, and
exam results.
Teachers will have to find teachable moments to integrate socio-emotional skills
within class lessons. Most of the chapters provide enough opportunity to have a
discussion around several societal and cultural issues and concerns. It also provides
opportunity to encourage creativity, critical thinking and collaborative learning.
Certain illustrations in our textbooks can also be used to initiate discussions or
activities to nurture several socio-emotional skills such as empathy, sensitivity,
recognition of emotions etc.