High fives. School spirit. Team pride.
School-based sports programs can bring out noticeable positive reactions and behaviors in teens.
In addition to social and emotional benefits, sports can bring about intangible benefits to the school and the community as a whole. Sports create important opportunities for students to contribute to the school community, which may cultivate an increased commitment to, or identification with, school and school values.

In India, the domain of sports is largely unexplored by many, until now. This is mainly due to the
social opinion that all students are supposed to pursue a professional degree and then move on to finding a job in the “usual” fields of engineering, medicine or software. A plethora of opportunities go untapped as a result of this mindset and a career in sports is one such
opportunity most children miss out on.

Sports-friendly infrastructure at PICT
Exercise, yoga, sports and other physical activities play an important role in keeping the student active and energetic. Moreover, sports in PICT Model School is not “extra –curricular”. It is a part of main stream academics which cements the foundation for a career in future. Hence, we have dedicated time for physical training and sports such as basketball, football, tennis, etc.

At PICT we consider sports as an equal career option as any other.
At PICT, we strongly believe that a career driven by passion is sure of attaining the success everyone aspires for. Hence, learners at PICT are encouraged to perform and develop in a field of their individual interests, be it rocket science or fine arts, engineering or sports.
Sports as a whole is now being considered a lucrative career option in India. The best way forward in this direction is to pick an activity of interest and begin pursuing excellence in the same.

We ensure that all students are actively engaged in physical activities keeping in mind its health, social as well as emotional benefits. Post this stage, for those who may develop an inclination towards a certain game, are entirely supported, trained to perform better and achieve excellence in that game.

There are multiple career options in sports and playing professional is one of them – albeit the most glamorous one. Students at PICT are encouraged to pursue their passion which brings out in them the drive to over-perform and excel in that field as a professional endeavor.

Why do some students in a course perform better than others of roughly equal ability?
The answers, of course, are as varied as are students. Some spend more time studying, or study more efficiently; some have other priorities; some don’t connect with the instructor. Some of these factors relate to metacognition, defined variously as knowing about knowing or being able to understand why we learn the way we do.

What is Metacognition?
Metacognition, simply put, is the process of ‘thinking about thinking’. It is important in every aspect of school and life, since it involves self-reflection on one’s current position, future goals, potential actions and strategies, and results. At its core, it is a basic survival strategy.

For example, a student with metacognitive skills may realize after a disappointing test that he/she didn’t work on remembering facts or application of concepts or using the key words in the answers and needs to devote more time to academics. A student without such self – reflective skills, may blame the teacher or the circumstances.

How is metacognition incorporated at PICT?
At PICT, we dedicate an hour each day, for students to summarize and go over the contents that they learnt throughout the day. We apply various strategies for metacognitive learning. Some of them are:
Pre-assessment of content
A simple activity such as finding out what students already know about a topic can help students begin to think about how learning works.

Self-assessment of learning skills
Students aren’t going to learn how to be good learners unless we engage them in activities and discussions about how they perceive themselves as learners and to see what approaches are working and not working for their learning.

Think aloud for metacognition
The educators provide opportunities for the learners to talk out loud about their views regarding the concepts taught, sharing their thinking with peers, helping them become more reflective in their own approaches towards the subject.

Reflective writing
Reflective writing helps students make connections between what they are learning in their classrooms or through home assignments and how are they integrating the content into their current learning structures.

Connect-Extend-Challenge
Students are encouraged to connect new ideas to concepts they are already familiar with and then extend those connections to see what challenges may result in their thinking.

Metacognition is an integral part of the virtuous learning cycle, and the one that is amenable to further improvement through instructions.
With metacognition, students learn to accurately predict how much knowledge they have for an upcoming test or requirement. In the long run, students become more accurate with their predictions, be it a test or even life-altering decisions.

There is a huge difference between accumulation of information and assimilation to synthesize. Gathering knowledge is the initial process which is later followed by comprehension, application, analysis, evaluation and synthesis. While Memorizing is defined as the acquisition of knowledge through study, experience, or being taught and store in memory for later recall, psychologists have defined Comprehension as a psychological process related to an abstract or physical object, such as a person, situation, or message whereby one is able to think about it and use concepts to deal adequately with that object. Understanding is a relation between the knower and an object of understanding.

Many parents complain about their children unable to remember certain concepts no matter how many times they go over it. And no, we aren’t talking about the learning difficulties your child might be facing, we mean the instances when your child has preferred memorizing to actually gaining an understanding of the said concept. Psychologist Benjamin Bloom described, in order for meaningful skills and comprehension to develop, “knowledge” must be practiced and applied. It’s only through repeated application of “information about something” that ideas are transformed into deep comprehension, real ability and useful “real world” skills. Therefore, application of information help remember complex concepts taught in the classrooms.

How do we do it at PICT?

Our teaching – learning methodology supports “active learning” which provides opportunities for accumulation of knowledge and assimilation through experiences.
- Passive learning has no place in our classrooms. Educators do not believe in recycling information with the traditional ‘chalk and talk method’ and subject the learners into endless listening to their lectures. They believe in creating an environment in which the child is stimulated to ‘think’ and ‘express’ their perception of concepts, apply the concepts in real life situations, debate and discuss with fellow mates, ponder over others’ opinion and synthesize a conclusion.
- Rote memorization of facts is more prone to be forgotten over a period of time. Such is not the case with application. Learners correlate data from different situations and dig deeper into concepts, strategies, ideas, etc.
- We want our learners to become smart-thinking individuals by including conceptual understanding and the creation of rich, integrated knowledge structures.

So instead of asking, “what are you learning?” we must ask “how are you learning?” Because in the long-run, the learners will remember the concepts that they have understood, rather than the voluminous information that they were forced to memorize.