Naturalistic intelligence among the upper primary students studying in rural schools following Kerala syllabus

Dr VijayakumariAssociate ProfessorFarook Training College

Aju RajendranM. Ed StudentFarook Training College

Naturalistic intelligence or nature smart involves how sensitive individual is towards nature and the world around him.

People’s delinking from earth has deeply affected Bio-diversity and Ecology.

The present study analyses the level of Naturalistic Intelligence among Upper primary school children.

‘Colors of Paradise’ - Majid Majidi(1999) -the story of a blind child, Muhammed who can

identify the message in the voice of the birds, Locate the spot and distance, Imagine shape and identify flowers with its touch.

Gardner defines …• Natural intelligence is the ability to see the patterns in

nature and work in natural environment with live stock, wildlife, plants etc .

• It acts as a strong tie between the nature and humanity.

Naturalistic intelligence or in other terms nature smart involves how sensitive individual is towards nature and the world around him.

Deals with sensing patterns and making connections to elements in nature.

One with Naturalistic Intelligence will be very much interested in other species or in the environment and the earth.

Children are usually interested in stories and programmes with animals and plants as the characters.

Naturalistic Intelligence can be observed in children during their early stages of life, when they express a strong affinity to the outside world or to animals.

The future citizen are the hope of tomorrow and the Mother Earth is to be safe in their littlie hands.

Educational system as a whole must make them know more of their environment.

A skilled interaction with nature is essential for sustainable development.

The environment studies must create among children a sense of interconnection with the nature and familiarity in their immediate environment.

This will help them develop the naturalistic intelligence as coined by Gardner.

A nature smart will …..

Notice patterns and things from nature easily. Be with keen senses and will observe and remember

things from his environment. Like animals and be eager to know and remember things

about them. Really appreciate being outside and doing things like

camping, climbing, even just like sitting quietly and noticing the subtle differences in the world of nature.

Make observations about natural changes, interconnections and patterns.

Method Research design

Survey method was used for conducting the study. Participants

Population is upper primary school students from rural schools following Kerala Syllabus. 100 seventh standard students of Malappuram District constituted the sample

Method contd… Instruments

‘Test on Natural Intelligence’ with three items based on the learners experience with nature.

- the sounds that can be perceived in a paddy field- plants that can be seen in a paddy field and their

procedure of reproduction- draw a figure of a ground including various

animals, birds, plants etc with suitable colors and dialogue boxes

The assumption is that all students are familiar with paddy fields and have the experience of walking through it.

The test covers major aspects of naturalistic intelligence at the basic level only.

The scoring was done under four dimensions:

Number of possible sounds identified.

Number of plants identified that are seen in paddy fields.

Their procedure of reproduction ( ie., whether by seeds, stems, roots or any other)

Picture: Color combinations, variety, accuracy and the dialogues made

Results and Discussion Most common sound identified by students in the paddy

field is that of frog and no body achieved a zero score. 49 students out of hundred were able to identify more

than four sounds. Thirteen students made only one or two responses

under this category.

Results…. Students were asked to write at least five plants they see

in the paddy field. Only 21 students have written five or more plants

correctly. The common response was ‘paddy’. But three got zero score in this dimension. That is,

three of the hundred children can not list any one plant correctly

Results….Analysis of responses on reproduction of the plants they

listed revealed,

- only eight children responded correctly for almost all the plants they listed.

But 25 students was not able to respond correctly even for one plant and hence have the score ‘zero’.

Conclusion

Picture of a meadow with possible plants, animals and birds will help to know awareness about an ecosystem

The dialogue between the elements will suggest their knowledge about the relation between various elements of the ecosystem.

The empathetic feeling will also be revealed through these dialogues.

Conclusion…

But majority of students were not able to find the relationship between various elements

Not expressed any empathy towards the elements. Three of the students draw pictures of cricket

ground with out a blade of grass. The pictures drawn by 14 students revealed their

knowledge and attitude and it was satisfactory to some extent.

Conclusion

. Forty nine percent of rural upper primary

school students are aware of various organisms in the paddy field and the activities going on there.

But more than fifty percent of students are unaware of these.

Conclusion…. Students’ awareness about various plants in a

paddy field is not satisfactory. Only 21 percent recollected five and more plants in the field.

But the details regarding these plants are not collected by majority of the students. This indicates lack of scientific enquiry among the students.

Conclusion…. Only 14 percent of students are

aware of the interrelationship between various components of an ecosystem.

Majority of these students do

not possess any empathetic feeling towards the nature and its elements.

Some of the responses…..

Implication

If this condition continues, one cannot put hope in the future that the environment will be protected by the coming generation.

The visions of RIO Earth Summits will be rewarded only if the intelligent beings on the Earth are more naturalistic than materialistic.

Some suggestions are….

Make the class room teaching learning process more connected with environment.

Give direct experience as far as possible or make use of technology to get a virtual experience.

More importance should be given to the affective part / values especially in environmental studies.

Suggestions…..• The governmental programmes like

BALA should focus on environmental issues and the nature.

• Activities like visiting a zoo, a paddy field, river side/beach etc., can be given in schools with proper reporting students on what they experienced and promote their imagination about various biotic elements they observed there.