ALfA, or Accelerated Learning for All, is an innovative educational approach developed by Dr. Sunita Gandhi. It focuses on dramatically improving foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) skills in a short time, typically achieving results within 45 days. This pedagogy promotes peer-to-peer learning, where children teach and support each other, and teachers act more as facilitators than traditional instructors.
The ALfA program addresses the global challenge of literacy by compressing the learning timeline, making it possible for children to reach a Grade 3 proficiency in subjects like reading, writing, and arithmetic in as little as 10 days in some cases. In addition to boosting core literacy and numeracy, the program nurtures essential 21st-century skills, such as creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication.
6 STEPS OF ALfA
- Teacher Demo
- Teacher – Child Demo
- Child – Child Demo
- Whole Class working in pairs
- Creating questions in pairs
- Reflect and Perfect
In ALfA, students are accustomed to the weekly tests which provide them better opportunities to reflect upon their mistakes and errors and rectify and fix them. Teachers take instant feedback by asking multiple -choice questions and record their answers in the form of signals. Depending upon the feedback, teachers take necessary actions like making fresh pairs ,revisiting the topics etc. Thus the students exhibit self confidence, better comprehension skills and better academic performance.
In the ALfA sections, there is a 100% engagement of the students. Paired learning is not restricted to a few activities rather it is a foundation of ALfA pedagogy which enables them to collaborate ,to know their hidden potentials and further strengthen their skills. There is a consistent growth of all the students, No child is left behind and even a shy child becomes a better communicator. Over a period of time, students exhibit analytical skills by framing a variety of questions for each other. They demonstrate creativity in all their work.