The chapter “How Teachers Learn” is Chapter 1 from Tulip Series English for Class 8th students of JKBOSE. It is an abridged version of How Teachers Learn written by an American author John Holt. The post is about How Teachers Learn Class 8th Summary and Word Meaning. You will find Difficult Word Meanings, A Summary of How Teachers Learn in English, Hindi and Urdu. In my previous post, I provided you with Question Answers to How Teachers Learn in Class 8th. Let’s not waste much time and get started:

How Teachers Learn Class 8th Summary and Word Meaning
Introduction
The Chapter “How Teachers Learn” is a type of remainder for grown-ups about the learning process in children. It describes the certain things that teachers sometimes learn while teaching the students. The chapter talks about an incident where a teacher learnt about the learning behaviour of students.
How Teachers Learn Words Meanings
Word | English Meaning | Hindi Meaning | Urdu Meaning |
---|---|---|---|
Weekend | Saturday and Sunday | सप्ताह का अंतिम दिन | ہفتہ کا آخری دن |
Beginners | Who are just beginning to learn | आरंभ करने वाला | شروع کرنے والا |
Upbringing | Treatment and education during childhood | बड़ा करना | بڑا کرنا |
Enlightened | Free from prejudice, ignorance, superstition etc. | जागरूक | جانکاری |
Difficult | Hard | कठिन | مشکل |
Misread | Read something wrongly | गलत पढ़ना | غلط پڑھنا |
Particularly | Especially | विशेष | خاص |
Explaining | Making something plain and clear | समझाना | سمجھانا |
Rarely | Seldom | शायद ही कभी | شاید ہی کبھی |
Suggested | Put something for consideration | सुझाना | صلاح دینا |
Happen | Occur by chance or otherwise | होना | ہونا |
Strange | Unusual | अजीब | عجیب |
Learning | Gaining, knowledge or skill by study | सीखना | سیکھنا |
Figure out | Understand | समझाना | سمجھانا |
Skip it | Leave it out | छोड़ना | چھوڑنا |
Bluff | Pretend to deceive | धोखा देना | دھوکہ دینا |
Badly stuck | Finding it very difficult to go on | बुरी तरह फस जाना | بری طرح فیس جانا |
Ad | Advertisement | विज्ञापन | اشتیہار |
Type | Shapes of different letters (made in metal) used for printing | मुद्रण के लिए प्रयुक्त विभिन्न अक्षरों के आकार (धातु में बने) | مختلف حروف کی شکلیں (دھات میں بنی ہوئی) طباعت کے لئے استعمال |
Oriental | Of the eastern part of the world, e.g., countries such as India and China | ||
Trivial | Unimportant | तुच्छ | ممولی |
Unlettered | Illiterate | अनपढ़ | انپڑ |
Formal Instruction | Regular teaching in the classroom | कक्षा में नियमित शिक्षण | کلاس روم میں باقاعدہ تعلیم |
Detailed Summary of How Teachers Learn in English
In this chapter the author explained how a five-year-old child named Nora taught him some good things about the children that do while they teach themselves to read, the problems they face, and the ways they solve or try to tackle them.
The teacher used to visit Nora’s house over the weekend and soon they became good friends. Whenever Nora found him doing nothing, she would come up to him with a book in her hand and ask him for help. She was reading a book named Hop on Pop
The narrator who is a teacher used to sit still and idle most of the time so he was confused and unable to understand how Nora wanted him to help her. He just used to observe Nora reading words. However, on rare occasions when Nora was badly stuck, he would say anything to help her. Even at that time, he didn’t tell her the word but suggested to her how she might figure it out. If she still could not get the word, the teacher would tell her to skip the word and proceed on.
Soon after an odd thing happened to Nora. She misread a word that she had read correctly earlier and she repeated the mistake several times. He also has faced the situation in his classroom where children would forget things they were supposed to learn. The teacher was puzzled and upset because Nora was a very intelligent girl. She was reading the book with full concentration. The mistake was not intentional by Nora. Therefore, the teacher wondered how could she know one word on one page and forget on the next.
This incident made the teacher realize that it is not easy for a child to recognize the words easily and so to understand their problems the teacher has to try to see things through their eyes. We feel it easy to read the words because have an expert’s eye and we are familiar with the words but for a child who has seen the word for the first time it is very difficult to identify and compare the different words.
The narrator explained this by sharing one of his real-life experiences. He said that once he took a sheet of printed paper in some Indian language and tried to find the words that were repeated on the page. It was surprisingly difficult. At first, the page looked nothing but a haphazard jumble of some strange shapes. The narrator found it extremely hard even to concentrate on one short common word. It took him a long time before he could figure out that word at sight and picked it out of the other.
Like the narrator experienced with a sheet of paper, it takes some time for a child to get used to the shapes of letters and words, to the point where he can recognise at a glance that this word is like that word. It is, therefore, necessary that we must try to see things as if through the eyes of the children. We must give children plenty of time to get used to the shapes of letters and words before starting formal education.
One of the reasons why children from illiterate homes are at a disadvantage is that they lack familiarity with the shapes of words and letters from the early stages of their learning. They have is no one to watch and observe who could guide them. The children should get familiar with the shapes of letters and words before the beginning of any kind of formal education.
Detailed Summary of How Teachers Learn in Hindi
इस अध्याय में लेखक ने बताया कि कैसे नोरा नाम की एक पांच साल की बच्ची ने उसे बच्चों के बारे में कुछ अच्छी बातें सिखाईं, जब वे खुद को पढ़ना सिखाते हैं, जिन समस्याओं का वे सामना करते हैं, और जिस तरह से वे हल करते हैं या उनसे निपटने का प्रयास करते हैं।
सप्ताह का अंत पर टीचर नोरा के घर जाया करता था और जल्द ही वे अच्छे दोस्त बन गए। जब भी नोरा उसे कुछ नहीं करते हुए देखती, तो वह हाथ में किताब लेकर उसके पास आती और उससे मदद मांगती। वह हॉप ऑन पोपो नाम की किताब पढ़ रही थी
कथावाचक जो एक शिक्षक है, ज्यादातर समय शांत और निष्क्रिय बैठा रहता था इसलिए वह भ्रमित था और यह समझने में असमर्थ था कि नोरा कैसे चाहती थी कि वह उसकी मदद करे। वह सिर्फ नोरा को शब्द पढ़ते हुए देखता था। हालांकि, दुर्लभ मौकों पर जब नोरा बुरी तरह फंस जाती थी, तो वह उसकी मदद के लिए कुछ भी कह देते थे। उस समय भी, उसने उसे शब्द नहीं बताया, लेकिन उसे सुझाव दिया कि वह इसे कैसे समझ सकती है। अगर उसे अभी भी शब्द नहीं मिला, तो शिक्षक उसे शब्द छोड़ने और आगे बढ़ने के लिए कहता था।
इसके तुरंत बाद नोरा के साथ एक अजीब बात हुई। उसने एक शब्द गलत पढ़ा जो उसने पहले सही पढ़ा था और उसने कई बार गलती दोहराई। शिक्षक ने अपनी कक्षा में ऐसी स्थिति का भी सामना किया है जहाँ बच्चे उन चीज़ों को भूल जाते हैं जिन्हें उन्हें सीखना चाहिए था। शिक्षिक हैरान और परेशान था क्योंकि नोरा बहुत बुद्धिमान लड़की थी। वह पूरी एकाग्रता से किताब पढ़ रही थी। गलती नोरा ने जानबूझकर नहीं की थी। इसलिए, शिक्षिक ने सोचा कि वह एक पृष्ठ पर एक शब्द कैसे जान सकती है और अगले पर भूल सकती है।
इस घटना ने शिक्षक को एहसास कराया कि एक बच्चे के लिए शब्दों को आसानी से पहचानना आसान नहीं है और इसलिए उनकी समस्याओं को समझने के लिए शिक्षक को उनकी आँखों से चीजों को देखने की कोशिश करनी होगी। हमें शब्दों को पढ़ना आसान लगता है क्योंकि एक विशेषज्ञ की नजर होती है और हम शब्दों से परिचित होते हैं लेकिन एक बच्चे के लिए जिसने पहली बार शब्द देखा है, विभिन्न शब्दों को पहचानना और तुलना करना बहुत मुश्किल है।
कथाकार ने अपने वास्तविक जीवन के अनुभवों में से एक को साझा करते हुए इसे समझाया। उन्होंने कहा कि एक बार उन्होंने किसी भारतीय भाषा में छपे कागज की एक शीट ली और पृष्ठ पर दोहराए गए शब्दों को खोजने की कोशिश की। यह आश्चर्यजनक रूप से कठिन था। सबसे पहले, पृष्ठ कुछ अजीब आकृतियों की बेतरतीब गड़गड़ाहट के अलावा कुछ नहीं दिखता था। कथाकार को एक छोटे से सामान्य शब्द पर ध्यान केंद्रित करना भी बहुत कठिन लगा। इससे पहले कि वह उस शब्द को देखते ही समझ पाता और उसे दूसरे से निकाल पाता, उसे बहुत समय लगा।
जैसा कि कथाकार का कागज की एक शीट के साथ अनुभव रहा, एक बच्चे को अक्षरों और शब्दों के आकार के अभ्यस्त होने में कुछ समय लगता है, उस बिंदु तक जहां वह एक नज़र में पहचान सकता है कि यह शब्द उस शब्द की तरह है। इसलिए यह आवश्यक है कि हमें चीजों को बच्चों की नजर से देखने की कोशिश करनी चाहिए। औपचारिक शिक्षा शुरू करने से पहले हमें बच्चों को अक्षरों और शब्दों के आकार के अभ्यस्त होने के लिए पर्याप्त समय देना चाहिए।
निरक्षर घरों के बच्चों के नुकसान का एक कारण यह है कि वे अपने सीखने के शुरुआती चरणों से शब्दों और अक्षरों के आकार से परिचित नहीं हैं। उनके पास यह देखने और मार्गदर्शन करने वाला कोई नहीं है। किसी भी प्रकार की औपचारिक शिक्षा की शुरुआत से पहले बच्चों को अक्षरों और शब्दों के आकार से परिचित हो जाना चाहिए।
Short Summary of How Teachers Learn Class 8th
There is no doubt about the fact that a teacher plays an important part in a child’s upbringing as he introduced the world of learning to him or her but this chapter tells us that sometimes children can also teach their teachers about the learning behaviour of students.
The author of this chapter John Holt narrates an incident which enlightened him about a child’s learning methodology. He was visiting a friend’s family over weakened when Nora, a five-year-old daughter of that family asked for his help in reading a book called Hop on Pop. He had to do nothing but sit still and silent watching her reading the book it was quite a difficult task for him to do. It is because he was more comfortable explaining things as he was a teacher.
The narrator found that though Nora was a bright student yet she found certain words difficult and could not recognize them from page to page. A word that she had correctly read earlier was misread by her. She repeated it several times.
The narrator felt annoyed as he thought that Nora was just being careless or was simply not making an effort to learn. But that was not the case so he got puzzled.
He realized that it is easy for him to recognize the letters and words because he was familiar but it is difficult for a child who is unknown to those words. The narrator explained this by sharing a learning experiment he had done years earlier. He had tried to read a page of printing in some Indian language and had tried to find words which looked similar. It was very difficult for him. That page looked nothing but a jumble of strange shapes.
It made him understand that for a child, the learning process is just the same as he experienced recognising words on a sheet of paper. It takes a child some time to get used to the shapes of letters and words and to see at a glance, the similarities and differences.
The narrator thinks that the child’s formal instruction should begin only after he has been given ample time to be familiar with the look of letters and words. Looking at books and magazines by a child is a wise and necessary first step to reading before giving him formal education.
Conclusion
There can be no doubt about the fact that children are taught by their teachers. But there are occasions when teachers are taught certain things by the children or the situations arising while dealing with the children. Therefore, teaching is a learning process in itself. We have to provide ample time for children to get used to the shapes of letters and words before starting formal education. Also, we must not get surprised by the slowness and stupid mistakes of children in learning because it is natural.
That’s it about How Teachers Learn Class 8th Summary and Word Meaning. Hope you found it useful. Do share your valuable thoughts about this post in the comment section.
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