Ankita Gupta teaches at St. Mary’s School, New Delhi

Compassionate learning space as it says it should have compassion which means taking care of each other. Like for any skyscraper to stand high its foundation pillars should be very strong similarly in human life one of these pillars is compassion. Compassion is something which cannot be taught using a book. It has to be reflected in our behaviour,  not just towards a particular group of society or material things but towards everyone without discrimination. A compassionate learning space may help in acquiring this trait in our behaviour as well promote leaning. A learning space is composed of educator, learners and all other things which facilitates learning. So it is necessary that every part of this learning space is compassionate towards other parts. Educator has to be compassionate towards learners, learners have to be compassionate towards other learners, educator and all those things which are facilitating their learning. But now the question is how to create such a compassionate learning space or what are the qualities of a compassionate learning space?

For instance , every compassionate learning space must give freedom of expression to everyone. It should have an atmosphere where everyone can pay respect towards other’s feelings as well as accept the differences among each other.  Compassionate learning space also allows you to seek help as well as to reach out to others to help them. Thus in a compassionate learning space everyone look after each other. So this type of compassionate learning space should be able to lay the foundation stone for inclusive education. 

According to the very common perspective about inclusive education, it gives equal academic opportunities to students according to their needs, accepts the diversity of students, allows students to learn at their own pace etc.  Along with these, there is one more important element of inclusive education which is assessment.  As we know, we can’t judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree similarly assessment has to be different for students with different needs. These assessment methods have to be designed while keeping our objectives in mind which can be different for some students. 

Now this is a challenge for teachers to find best tools and methods of assessment which not only helps students but also allows teachers to redesign curriculum and teaching practices. 

Inclusive setup should also be able to develop a feeling of belongingness and a sense of responsibility. 

Thus these two aspects, compassion and inclusion, of a learning space not only helps students but also the helps in the betterment of the society which they are part of.