Posts Tagged ‘pedagogy’


June 18th, 2009

National Curriculum Framework (2005) – who’s listening?

The National Curriculum framework (2005), a watershed document, provides a basis for radical changes in the Indian education system. The Indian Education Review (Volume 44, No.2, July 2008),the latest published edition as on date of writing this blog, makes some interesting observations, recommending some radical changes from how education is imparted in Indian classrooms. These recommendations include:

i. Linking school knowledge with the child’s out-of-school experiences;

ii. Discouraging rote learning;

iii. Broadening the scope of classroom learning so that it does beyond the prescribed textbook;

iv. Making the examination system flexible and responsive to the child’s overall development; and

v. Developing a participatory [school] identity consistent with democratic governance

Those familiar with the evolution of educational psychology, philosophy and pedagogy know that none of these recommendations are new, but have been endorsed by eminent international (Bruner, Einstein) and national (Gandhi, Tagore) educationalists. It is a pity that, in India, we have at best been paying lip service these theories that have been propounded and effectively practiced around the world since the ancient times.

However, a beginning has been made by NCERT by acknowledging the merits of child centered approach to education and the framers for the NCF 2005 should be commended for vocalising some of the problems rooted in our system. As they say in India Der Aaye Drust Aaye (better late, than never), even though, in this, case we are struggling to reach the start line, while other countries started on their journey a long while ago.

If we were to evaluate the changes that the schools have tried to bring about in their classroom practices in the past three years post the acceptance of the recommendations of NCF-2005, we would get to know the progress we are making towards creating a student centric classroom. Unfortunately, I am not aware of any statistics or research on implementation practices or know of any school that is actively and consciously seeking to implement such a classroom environment. If you have any information related to this I would love to hear from you.

In my assessment, the challenges of moving away from a “prescribed textbook, the traditional methods of teaching which encourages rote learning and the examination system which ignores individual interest and profile of [student] competencies” , cannot be overcome without paying special attention to the needs and mindset of the 3 influential stakeholders of the Indian education system.

The School - The primary consideration for schools in India is performance in 10th and 12th class examinations. The performance of schools is purely judged by how well the students have done in these examinations and the breadth of success achieved. All classroom activities and teaching methodologies are dictated by how much they contribute towards students scoring high in the “boards”. Child centric teaching practices and the development of creativity is not a consideration; nor a priority.

The Parents – The primary criterion for the selection of a school by a parent for his child is the school’s ability to prepare the students for the 10th and 12th class examinations, i.e. if the school has a good track record in producing students who score highly in these examinations; it is considered a good school. This is because these examinations are milestones in a child’s life and have an unduly high weightage on career options of the child and/or the quality of the institution for higher studies that he/she would attend. All other factors like inculcation of values, emphasis on creativity, co-curricular / extracurricular achievements, and social involvement are inconsequential in the selection of a school.

Institutions of higher learning – The majority of higher education institutions in India grant admission on the basis of board examination results and consider performance in these examinations as the summation of student’s accomplishment till date and a proxy indicator of his future potential.

As evident, the common thread between the stakeholders mentioned above is performance in board examinations, which is considered a measure of success by schools, parents, institutions of higher learning and society in general. As a society we know better, but as individuals we fail to take cognisance of the fact that there are many qualities that define a person and his ability to achieve success.

I would think that if we as a community continue to treat board examinations as the holy-grail of education, it would be extremely difficult to change the mindset of schools and parents. For any changes to occur, it is important that reforms be initiated and at the onset be implemented at the level of institutions of higher learning as well. It is crucial to make systemic changes at this level as this group has significant influence on the thought process of the other two significant stakeholders (parents and schools) and has the added advantage of being more independent in its decision making. The institutions of higher learning would also benefit by selecting a diverse-ability group of students on parameters beyond board results.

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May 12th, 2009

Electronic portfolios – a multimodal education tool

‘An e-portfolio is a purposeful aggregation of digital items – ideas, evidence, reflections, feedback etc, which “presents” a selected audience with evidence of a person’s learning and/or ability.’

Sutherland, S. and Powell, A. (2007)

The primary aim of an Electronic portfolio (EP) is to collect evidence for summative assessment, to demonstrate achievement, record progress and set targets – as in records of achievement and individual learning plans (ILPs) – or to nurture a continuing process of personal development and reflective learning. It is an important tool that can be used to support and document student learning as well as the development of educational, personal, and professional skills.  EPs support portfolio pedagogy by engaging individuals in deep reflection on their learning and provide evidence of professional and intellectual growth as well as documenting the complex processes involved in learning.

Portfolio creation and management is pedagogically a good practice for both teachers and students. Teachers, while doing their teacher training program need to build up work portfolio which some schools expect them to present at the time of interview so that it gives them an insight into the kind of teacher he/she is. Some teachers continue this practice along with helping their students develop theirs. Many educational programs (including IB and Reggio) have made it a mandatory tool of assessment and reflection. 

Although paper portfolios have long been in use as valuable sources of evidence that document an individual’s growth and learning processes, the emergence of Web 2.0 tools and the increasing accessibility of digital technology has prompted many educators and professionals to shift from paper to electronic portfolios.  EPs allows for multimodal artefacts, e.g. images, videos, audio files, or programming snippets, along with more traditional rich media files such as Word documents, PowerPoints, spreadsheets etc., to be collected, managed and presented to different audiences as evidence of learning and skills development over time.  EPs are much more dynamic, interactive and flexible than their physical counterparts.

An EP, like its paper equivalent, is produced at key points in a learning journey – (when demonstrating the outcomes of learning, the next stage of learning, etc).  EPs demonstrate what is important about the individual at a particular point in time – their achievements, reflections on learning and, potentially, a rich and rounded picture of their abilities, aspirations and ambitions.

Note: Some excerpts of this blog have been sourced from a report titled Effective Practice with e-Portfolios, published by JISC  

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May 5th, 2009

Chasm between teacher training & practice

Research is an existential attitude and therefore since time immemorial there have been facts established and theories propounded about education in general and learning in particular. This enormous body of research is varied in its scope and orientation. 

Over the years, certain pedagogical theories and components of this research have become very acceptable in teacher training courses:

• theories relating to child development primarily from the works of Erik Erikson, Jean Piaget with Freud and Pavlov on the periphery

• theories relating to curriculum development ranging from integrated to concept-driven

• theories about teaching – learning elaborating on learning styles, differentiated instruction, assessment and evaluation

Educationists who learn about this research and established theories in their teacher training courses, find themselves, right at the beginning of their careers, abandoning them and many a times working in contradiction to them. For instance, there is plenty of research available to support differentiated instruction, yet when teachers enter the school where they should ideally be applying and furthering these theories, they find themselves planning and delivering instruction to a class as a whole.

This would not happen in case of other professions like medicine, law etc. Can you imagine a doctor abandoning what he learnt during his training as a doctor as soon as he begins his practice? Certainly not! But not only is it accepted but also expected for a teacher to leave all sound pedagogy that that he/she has learnt about and adopt the schools agenda which usually is narrowed down to test scores. School systems are designed to suffocate the application of these theories which slowly die a forced death by making teachers work in stark contrast with the intended outcome.

I wonder how would our students learning and teachers’ job satisfaction be affected if schools were created and organised on the basis of available research about teaching-learning and as hubs of furthering this research.

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April 18th, 2009

A case for bilingual schooling in India

There has been blasphemy – like, public outcry, largely urban-English-daily-reading public, over the Samajwadi Party election manifesto in general and the abolition of “expensive education in English” in particular.

Anything coming from a political party, especially an election manifesto, has to be seen in terms of political mileage. An election manifesto is a manifestation of the political party’s perception of the needs of its vote bank and not just about their political orientation and ideological leanings with attendant linguistic chauvinism. Though, most definitely not a supporter of the Samajwadi Party, the issue about English education needs to relooked at, with a more objective and unbiased lens. 

Today, the Indian education system, generally speaking, is tuned to the needs of the market. There has been “commodification of education… excessive emphasis on skill, employment and corporate-oriented education” at the cost of education as it evolved from the word. With globalisation becoming a reality and not just a term, the market became more of an uncertain, unpredictable and unforeseeable place. In education, there was a balance between the educare and the educere approach earlier, but in the more recent times market forces have made it lean heavily towards educare. 

This is not just an etymological issue but has larger implications like the hierarchy of disciplines and medium of instruction. In a land of linguistic diversity and inequities, like India, language of instruction can be a complex and emotive issue. While teaching in the child’s language at the primary level is pedagogically sound, it seems to be fighting a losing battle against English. That is a sad and unfortunate development in a country of linguistic wealth and tradition like India.

bilingual-model

In a nation of a billion, why have we not been able to develop a bilingual system of education? The current model of bilingual schools is dismal. Go through the catalogue of resources that a school has and it tells you the importance that the school places on languages other than that of instruction. It is restricted to half-hearted efforts being made to do the bare minimum in the second language and the lack of prestige attached to the non-English medium schools. By bilingual schools I do not mean schools that teach more than one language to students rather schools that teach in more than one language. These are schools that attach equal importance to curriculum and its delivery in any two languages within one school. For instance, students could opt for Hindi or English as the medium of instruction. This bilingualism can be drawn from one ‘universal’ language like English and other from any of the 13 dialects of the Hindi or any of the other regional languages recognised by the Indian constitution. The choice of these languages and a structuring of such schools is a matter of academic debate taking into account socio-political considerations.  

There are tremendous benefits of such schools in India. Firstly, it will make the best use of the vast pool of resources, human and material, in the Indian languages, that are largely unused or underused in a unilingual school. Secondly, it will promote a sense of identity and ownership fostering academic respect, not mere tolerance for education in Indian languages. Thirdly, it will further enrich the Indian languages and cater to the aesthetical as well as vocational aspect of education. Fourthly, it brings parents within the loop of their children’s education, making them proactive partners of the school in their child’s education.

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