Background
The support activities for teachers for
the initiation of active learning in the classroom are also situational like in
the case of classroom teaching. The nature of supports to be provided differs
with the situation faced by the teachers in respect of their own teaching
capacity, conditions of learning spaces, availability of teaching resources,
learners’ background and their learning styles.
While talking about the situational
analysis, I remember the teachers’ views on quality education which they shared
during cluster level meetings. It was in 2006, during my posting in South
Sikkim District, we started a program called ‘Going to Cluster’. This was the
program of visiting clusters by the officials from district office and
conducting teachers’ meeting there. Normally this type of meetings used to be held
at district headquarter with poor attendance and time limitation as the
participants from far off places want to leave earlier to catch bus or taxi. I
also remember the supports provided by Shri A.B. Gurung, the then Joint
Director and Shri M.K.Rai, the then Deputy Director of District HRD Office for
conducting these meetings. The agenda of the meeting was ‘Quality Education:
Our present Status and Our Future Plan’. In the meeting, the representatives
from different sections of teaching fraternity were given chance to place their
views from the dais followed by open discussions. During the course of these
meetings, four senior secondary school principals, eight secondary school
heads, nine junior high school heads, ten primary school heads, six post
graduate teachers, eleven graduate teachers and fourteen primary teachers
selected by the house placed their views on behalf of their respective sections.
It was a lovely experience being with the teachers and school heads, listening
their views on quality education and plans for the future. I was really touched
by their concern for the children. However due to the ill health of my father,
the program was discontinued; even if we could cover 50% clusters of the
district in which more than 60% teachers and school heads participated.
During discussion, all the school heads
and teachers advocated the child-centered teaching learning process but they
expressed their inability to design the suitable activities on the basis of
grade-wise learning requirements of the children. They also expressed the
teaching techniques suggested to them during their trainings are hardly
applicable at classroom level or the techniques are not matching with the real
situations at classroom level. Since then I began to probe the matter to unveil
the secrets of non-employability of the teaching techniques imparted to
teachers in the in-service short term trainings. In my every school inspection
I began to observe the style of teaching and difference of learning among
children in the classes taken by trained teachers and untrained teachers. In
many cases it was found that there was hardly little difference in their
teaching techniques and learning among children. The event of children enjoying
classes, interacting with teachers and peers, working together, etc. were rarely
seen. Ultimately the problem was same – ‘The teaching techniques suggested
during training is not applicable at our situation.’ This revealed that the
teacher education institutes of the State have tried its level best to bring
shift in teaching learning process by suggesting the ideas and strategies to
make the classroom joyful and child friendly.
The educationists and pedagogues are
seen endorsing the focus shifting in teaching learning
process since last three decades i.e. post ‘NPE 1986’ period. They have made a
table of focus shifting from ‘Earlier Classroom’ to ‘Today’s Classroom’ which
has become so famous and might have reached to every personnel working in the
field of education. The same table is given below for the reference:
|
Earlier Classroom
|
Today’s Classroom
|
|
· Teacher
dominated
|
· Child-centered
|
|
· Chalk-Talk-Test
|
· Activity-based
|
|
· Passing of
information and knowledge
|
· Development of
competencies, desire to learn
|
|
· TLM,
Textbooks, blackboard
|
· Varieties of
materials
|
|
· Uninteresting
class environment
|
· Stimulating –
Child friendly
|
|
· Fixed, rigid
time-table (scholastic focused)
|
· Flexible –
variety of activities
|
|
· School boring
– child afraid
|
· Interesting –
enjoyable and secure
|
Teaching is a highly technical job and
teachers are technical professionals. The teaching job involves high range of
pedagogical skills and the technicality involved in it is not easier as the learners’
learning mood and learning styles (which are not under the control of the
teacher) decide the types of teaching techniques to be adopted in the
classroom. Because of this, the pre-set plans and pre-designed strategies never
become final until the teacher enters the class and observes the moods of the
learners.
Teacher
Support Activities
Considering the volume of the paper, I
am taking two major Teacher Support Activities which play the key role in
shifting the paradigm of teaching learning processes at school level allowing
the entry of active learning inside classrooms. The strategies and activities
suggested in the paper relating to above two areas will target the situations
mentioned in the background above. These two activities are Training of Teacher
and School Monitoring. The trainings mention here are not pre-service
trainings which have structured syllabi prescribed by the national apex body of
teacher education. My targets here are only the in-service teacher trainings.
1.
Training of Teacher:
Teacher Training
is an integral part of teaching-learning process and it cannot be separated
from this. It is only an effective way to eradicate teachers’ pedagogical
inadequacies and update them as per the requirements of effective teaching
learning for the targeted learners. However, while providing trainings to
teachers, we very often miss to relate the teaching environments of teachers
and learning style of learners for which the teachers are being trained. This
makes them confuse and the training outcome results to null. Moreover, the shift
in classroom activities is a chain process for which the first shift should
occur in curriculum, then training process and ultimately in classroom teachings. To make the training effective, the following
activities are must:
Before Training:
a) Training Plan: The first
activity before training is the preparation of training plan. While planning
for training on pedagogy, a training institute has to have a thorough
observation of the teaching situations of the teachers. The assessment of the
teaching capacity of the target group teachers for whom the training is being
planned is also equally important.
b) Identification
of target groups:
If the planning is for need-based training on active learning, the
identification of target group is very important on the basis of nature and
degree of requirements. Within this targeted group also we may have the
teachers of varying capacity which need different sets of training strategies.
Hence to ensure the effectiveness of the training it is pertinent to avoid ‘fit
to one solution’.
c) Fixing of Desired
Outcomes: Normally
during the formulation of training plan we use to draw its objectives and it is
very good practice also. However, sometimes these objectives would be more hypothetical
than practical. Hence, fixing of desired
outcomes for the training being planned with appropriate and verifiable
indicators will make the training an outcome oriented. These indicators can be
employed while assessing the impact of training in the later stage. Some of the
examples of desired outcomes for training on active learning can be as follows:
·
Participant
learns to convert/design the text/content/chapter of the textbook into
activities tuning with learners’ environment, daily experiences and
observations;
·
Participant
learns to conduct designed activities in more stimulating manner making the
learners to work together in groups or individual; learners working together,
cooperating and talking/asking questions/ answering questions without being
afraid;
·
Participant
learns to bridge the cognitive variations of learners and learning takes place
collaborating entire class – idea of inclusive activity;
·
Participant
learns to insulate learners and make them engross in activities in such a way that
they hardly bother the happenings outside classroom; the buzz of the activity
overrules the whole environment even if the class is being held outside the
classroom – increase in learner’s engagement time and teaching load reduction;
·
Participant
learns to harmonize curriculum, syllabus, textbooks and TLMs during pedagogical
processes;
·
Participant
learns to develop study skills in learners and make them self-reliant learner;
·
Participant
learns to develop better mathematical thinking/skills in learners and make them
perform measurably better;
·
Participant
learns to conduct assessment during activities (ability to remember, understand
and apply knowledge) without revealing the assessee that they are being
assessed and support those who are falling behind;
·
Participant
also learns to assess the learners on their social skills and life skills and
tries to inculcate the values like helping others, respecting other’s
views/opinion, ask helps if required, etc.
·
Participant
learns to prepare indicators/tools to make the assessments continuous and
comprehensive;
·
Participant
learns to prepare progressive learning ladders to make the assessment
continuous.[i]
The plan also
needs to include the list of materials that are to be suggested to use while
conducting teaching activities at classroom level. This suggestion should
include such materials which can be easily available in school and the training
should focus on using those materials in teaching activities to make the
classroom joyful and stimulating. Suppose if the training focuses on the use of
power point presentations in the classrooms, this may not be feasible in the
government schools as they do not possess this facility.
d) Preparation of
compact session plan: Compact but joyful training sessions help to insulate
the participants/trainees from going astray. These types of session plans also
make the trainees to feel the discipline and decency of training for which they
are invited.
During Training:
This
is the most crucial stage of training – the implementation level, where all the
earlier exercises are to be materialized. Since this is training on active
learning, the trainer needs to adopt such stimulating strategies which make the
class active and the trainees bound feel ‘yes this is active learning’. As such
the trainers should keep following points in their minds while preparing
instructional plans for this training:
(a)
Trainees
may feel that the training for joyful teaching learning process is not
interesting and joyful.
(b)
Trainees
may want to see the model class for joyful teaching learning process during the
training itself.
(c)
Trainees
may want to see how teaching activities tuning to the textbooks are designed
and conducted in the classroom.
(d)
Trainees
may also want to experience the extent of joyfulness and magnitudes of learning
outcomes through the teaching techniques on which they are being trained.
After Training
Pauses are
highly recommended in several researches either within the activities or in
between the activities. It is recommended that a teacher should pause within
her teaching activity to assess the learners’ attention and involvement in the
learning process. In the same way, pauses are important in between the
trainings as well. These pauses are for looking back and see how the trainings already
provided to teachers have changed the classrooms and impacted the learning among
the children. The pauses are also to assess the shortcomings and further plan
for remedy. The changes in terms of teaching learning processes and enhancement
of learning among learners should be visible and measurable.
2.
Monitoring
of Active Learning:
After the enactment of RTE Act in the country, we have seen that the
monitoring of normal functioning of schools have been shifted to community. The
monitoring mentioned here is the tracking of teachers’ skills to conduct active
learning class vis-à-vis learners’ skill development.
Monitoring of quality in education is highly technical job which requires
decent degree of expertise; mere expertise does not suffice, it needs proper
planning as well. Thus before going for a monitoring, a monitoring officer has
to prepare a plan considering all the parameters like backgrounds of the school
being monitored, school location, availability and conditions of space for
scholastic and co-scholastic activities, class size, pupil-teacher ratio, availability
of basic amenities, etc.
A teacher very often encounters with difficulties in teaching. She tries
to find out the solution of the issues within her range of supports like asking
to her head teacher, colleagues, referring available literature around and
finally she leaves that even if she could not get the solution. In many cases,
there may not be the culture of taking helps from head teacher or colleagues. Taking
helps like this may not be considered nice and this is true too because I have
the experience that a teacher who takes helps from other is considered inferior.
As such, the school monitoring plays very important role in the situation like this.
It can diagnose the issues, provides acceptable solutions and gives suggestions
for further improvements. Moreover, the active learning demands the change in social
environment of the school and the monitoring only can makes it possible.
School monitoring for quality education is vast area which, I think, I
should write another paper on the topic that include planning of School
monitoring, techniques of identification of major thrust areas and desired
outcomes, devising strategies, assessment indicators, tools, etc.
The effectiveness of monitoring depends on its specificity. More detail
and specific monitoring plan endow its effects and helps to achieve the
targets. The monitoring of active leaning demands detailed activities. Some
sample activities are given below:
Case No. 1
Situation: Manish,
a 12 years old student picked up a piece of paper lying in the assembly ground
and threw it in the dust bin lying in the corner. A teacher Ms. Malati, who was
entering from school gate, saw him doing that and called him near her and
patted on his back saying something. Manish bowed respectively to Ms. Malati
and proudly ran inside a classroom.
School campus
and classrooms were clean and well-kept. The walls and columns are decorated
with diagrams of alphabets and content related picture, frequently used ground
level black boards.
Your
observations: What
do you think Ms. Malati said to Manish? Do you think Ms. Malati a good teacher
after observing this? Why? What is the use of diagrams and pictures?
School Culture: School has the
culture of encouraging children for the tidiness of campus and classrooms. School
concerns for the improvement of child-friendly elements in the school.
Case
No. 2
Situation: In Class III EVS
Class of 41 students, students were working on groups. There are seven groups
and drawing a diagram of ‘Water Cycle’ in chart papers. The children were
looking happy and actively participating in the activity. Mr. Ravi, the teacher
of the class, was attending every group and supervising the children’s
activity. Mr. Ravi said, ‘’Now only 2 minutes left.’’
A chart of
‘Solar System’ on which a comment written with red marker was pasted in the
children’s
activity Board. The comment was like this ‘Best
Diagram prepared by Group C’ followed by name
of children participants
of Group C.
Your
observations: What
method was Ravi using to teach ‘Water Cycle’? What good practice you see in Mr.
Ravi’s teaching style? Why? Comment why Ravi has written this sentence with red
marker - ‘Best Diagram prepared by Group C’
School Culture: School has the practice of teaching through activities and displays
children’s works on notice board to encourage them. School encourages positive
comparison among children.
Case
No. 3
Situation: Mrs. Hangma
entered into Class V. Students stood up and greeted in synchronized voice –
‘’Good morning mam!’’
She smiled and
looked towards students as if she sees everyone and said, “Very good morning my
dear children!”
She took a chalk
and said, “We have started a new chapter yesterday, who can say the name of
that chapter?” All the students raised their hands. “This shows everyone knows
the name of that chapter” she added. Again a synchronized voice, “Yes”. She
wrote on the black board – “The Miser’s Shoes” and asked’ “Is it the name of
that chapter?” Again a synchronized voice, “Yes”.
Suddenly a voice
came from the middle bench, “What is the meaning of ‘miser’ mam?” It was Shyam
who was absent yesterday.
Mrs. Hangma
asked the class, “Who can answer Shyam’s question? Raise your hand.” All the children raised their hands except
Shyam. “Ok do you have difficult words in this chapter?” she asked. Again
collective voice “Yes”.
“Ok then let’s
do an activity. We will make seven groups. From the last bench, you Tashi, you
are 1, next 2, ok you...keep on saying but don’t forget your number. Ok now
make group of 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s and 7s. Now six groups have 6 members and
one group has 5 members, isn’t it?” Mrs. Hangma was saying. Sita, a mediocre
student, raised her hand and said, “Can I go to group 3 and Lalit wants to come
to group 1 which is my group now?”
“No mam, I am ok
here in group 3, she is lying.” Lalit said. A big laughter roared in the class.
Radha from group 4 asked, “What we are
supposed to do mam?”
Your Observations: She smiled and
looked towards students as if she sees everyone and said, “Very good morning my
dear children!” Why she did this? Is it necessary for a teacher? Do you think
Mrs Hangma’s class is democratic? How? What are the risks in this kind of
teaching style? Suggest some steps to avoid the risks. Can you say something
about Sita’s style of learning?
School Culture: School provides
democratic schooling. Teacher teaches through activities to make the classroom
joyful.
Conclusion
Teachers are the base
of school education. Their creativity and their knowledge on pedagogy held high
place in quality of education. Gone the days when people used to say- ‘anyone
can teach and become a teacher. If you are not getting any job, just go for
teacher.’ Now the education has become a personal concern. Not even a
rag-picker compromises his children’s education. The search for quality in
education has resulted in opening of hi-fi private schools that follow active
learning; where the teachers are fired if the children fail to acquire
requisite level of learning in their subject. A teacher cannot write negative remarks
like ‘Failed in Mathematics, try hard’ (I have one report card of my
school days with this remarks) on the child’s report card. It is not the child
but the teacher has to try hard to make the child pass.
The pressures,
now-a-days, are same on government school teachers also. These pressures are to
be felt empathetically by whole school education system and devise more
efficient approaches to support teachers to initiate instructional change
towards active learning.
[i] Guidelines for the
preparation of Training Modules for BRC Level In-service Training of Elementary
Teachers, prepared by State Project Office, SSA-RTE, Sikkim and sent to SCERT
and DIETs.
