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Piaget's theory has major implications for all education and for science education in particular. 1. All science education must be activity based, particularly at the school level. 2. Motivation can best be achieved through challenging the mental structures. 3. Too much pressure can lead a student to rote learning instead of understanding. 4. The teacher can only produce an environment where the student learns by himself. 3. WHERE DO WE GO WRONG? In a system of education such as ours, where teaching through spoken word and books are the methods used and evaluation is based on producing the desired response, students resort to rote learning. Almost by definition, it is obvious that this cannot lead to application of the knowledge. Even the best of students will learn "how to" rather than have a conscious knowledge. So our system "derails" the natural learning process. In order to put it back on rails, we need to find out what structures the student has acquired and then give him activities to encourage his forming new structures and learning by himself thereafter, 4. WHAT ARE THE BASIC CONCEPTS NEEDED? The concepts listed earlier in Para 2 are basic to all life and we have only to make sure they are acquired by the students. This should be done by the age of 13-14 years. The further concepts basic to school level science are as follows: 1. Matter; energy and universe. 2. Space and orthogonal directions; 3. Types of growth; linear and exponential. Rural Development Through Education System 140
