National Curriculum Framework
for Teacher Education
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PREFACE
Teacher education and school education have a symbiotic relationship. Developments in both these sectors
mutually reinforce the concerns necessary for the qualitative improvement of the entire spectrum of education. It was against this backdrop that the NCTE undertook a major exercise of developing a new National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education which is both contextual and in tune with the emerging concerns and imperatives of the fast changing canvas of education both nationally and globally.
While undertaking this exercise, the NCTE had the benefit of reviewing similar exercises attempted in this area before, namely, the curriculum framework developed by the non-statutory NCTE in 1978, a revised version of this framework developed by the NCERT in 1988, the first curriculum framework for quality teacher education by the statutory NCTE in 1998, an independent exercise in evolving a teacher education curriculum framework by the NCERT in 2005 and a joint curriculum framework brought out by NCTE and NCERT in 2006.Keeping in view the outcomes reflected in the documents arising out of the above efforts at curriculum renovation,the NCTE set up an expert committee consisting of Prof. C.L. Anand (Chairman), Prof. S.V.S. Chaudhary, Prof. C.Seshadri, Prof. R.S. Khan, Prof. Raja Ganeshan, Prof. V.K. Sabharwal and Prof. L.C. Singh to make a new curriculum framework in consonance with the changes that have taken place in different spheres of knowledge.This Committee produced a draft framework which was discussed with the concerned stake holders in two regional consultative meets held at Udaipur and Hyderabad in which the Vice-Chancellors of various Universities, Deans of the Faculties of Education of some Universities,Directors of State Councils of Educational Research and Training (SCERTs), Principals of District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs), faculty of Regional Institutes of
Education (RIEs) of the NCERT, teachers, teacher educators, senior staff from the State Governments and other experts participated.The NCTE has been conscious of the fact that such a document has important futuristic implications for teacher education. It was therefore thought necessary that this document was subjected to further elaborate discussion on the nature of issues which inform teacher education. In particular, the National Curriculum Framework, 2005 brought out by the NCERT as well as implications of the Right to Education Act, 2009 passed by the Parliament dominated the thinking in the NCERT towards revisiting teacher education. To achieve this objective the NCTE constituted another group of experts involving Prof. C. Seshadri (Chairman),Prof. A.K. Sharma, Prof. Shyam B. Menon, Prof. Poonam Batra and Ms. Anjali Nornha as its members. The present draft has eloquently brought out a new vision of teacher education which will receive the attention of the experts in the field and will motivate them to give their comments for its further enrichment.In totality, therefore, the exercise of evolving a new draft National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education incorporates the work and long standing experience of well-known educationists and experts in teacher education whose names I am very happy to put on record in this Preface.
This draft is for discussion and is being uploaded on the website of the NCTE (www.ncte-india.org) with the hope that all concerned will spare their valuable time in going through this document and hopefully they would enrich the NCTE with their inputs so that a final version of the framework is evolved for a wider national debate on teacher education. The comments may be sent to the NCTE by the last week of September, 2009, may be electronically on the NCTE email (cp@ncte-india.org).
Prof. Mohd. Akhtar Siddiqui
Chairperson
31st August, 2009
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CONTENTS
Chapter Title Page No.
1. Context, Concerns and Vision of Teacher Education 4-17
2. Curricular Areas of Initial Teacher Education 18-35
3. Sample Redesigned Schemas of Current Teacher Education
Programmes36-39
4. Evaluating The Developing Teacher 40-42
5. In-Service Education and Continuous
Professional Development 43-51
6. Preparing Teacher Educators 52-61
Chapter 1
CONTEXT, CONCERNS AND VISION OF TEACHER EDUCATION
1.1 Introduction
India has made considerable progress in school education since independence with
reference to overall literacy, infrastructure and universal access and enrolment in schools.
Two major developments in the recent years form the background to the present reform in
teacher education - the political recognition of Universalization of Elementary Education
(UEE) as a legitimate demand and the state commitment towards UEE in the form of 86th
Amendment, 2002 which has led to the Right to Education Bill, 2008 and the National
Curriculum Framework (NCF) for School Education, 2005. The Bill has since been passed
by the Parliament and the Right to Education Act has come into being making it
mandatory for the state to provide free and compulsory education to almost 20 crore
children in the 6-14 age group till class 8. The Right to Education Act mandates a schedule
for the functioning of schools which includes a teacher: student ratio of 1:30 till a student
population of 200 students at the Primary Stage. This would increase the demand for
qualified elementary school teachers many times. The country has to address the need of
supplying well qualified and professionally trained teachers in larger numbers in the
coming years.
The NCF 2005 places different demands and expectations on the teacher, which need to be
addressed by both initial and continuing teacher education. The importance of competent
teachers to the nation’s school system can in no way be overemphasized. It is well known
that the quality and extent of learner achievement are determined primarily by teacher
competence, sensitivity and teacher motivation. It is common knowledge that the
academic and professional standards of teachers constitute a critical component of the
essential learning conditions for achieving the educational goals. The length of academic
preparation, the level and quality of subject matter knowledge, the repertoire of
pedagogical skills teachers possess to meet the needs of diverse learning situations, the
degree of commitment to the profession, sensitivity to contemporary issues and problems
and the level of motivation critically influence the quality of curriculum transaction in
classrooms and thereby pupil learning and the larger social transformation.
Teacher quality is a function of several factors: teacher’s status, remuneration and
conditions of work, teacher’s academic and professional education. The teacher education
system through its initial and continuing professional development programmes is
expected to ensure adequate supply of professionally competent teachers to run the
nation’s schools. Initial teacher education, especially, has a major part to play in the
making of a teacher. It marks the initiation of the novice entrant to the calling and as such
has tremendous potential to imbue the would-be teacher with proper motivation,
knowledge, skills and attitudes. One may say, the bottom line of teacher education is the
quality of teacher performance in terms of its impact on the learner and indirectly on larger
social transformation as already stated.
1.2 The Changing School Context and its Demands
A teacher functions within the broader framework of the school education system – its
goals, curricula, materials, methods and expectations from the teacher. A teacher
education curriculum framework needs to be in consonance with the curriculum
framework for school education, and a teacher needs to be prepared in relation to the
needs and demands arising in the school context. As such, it needs to engage with the
questions of the learner, the learning process and the content and pedagogy of educating
teachers. The expectations of the school system from a teacher change from time to time,
responding to the broader social, economic and political changes taking place in the
society. The issue of teacher education accordingly has to be discussed in the much wider
and changing context and demands of school education.
School education has seen significant development over the decades since independence.
According to Government estimates (Selected Educational Statistics – 2004-2005 -
Ministry of Human Resource Development(MHRD), New Delhi) while 82% of the 20
crore children of the 5-14 age group were in school as per enrolment figures, it is equally
true that nearly 50% of these children are dropping out before completing class 8 (MHRD
Annual Report, 2007-08). One finds the situation on the ground still ridden with
difficulties. Regional, social, and gender disparities continue to pose new challenges. This
reality increases the challenge that the prospective teacher will face in implementing the
Right to Education Act.
The teacher must now be equipped not only to teach but also to understand her student and
the community of parents so that children are regular in schools and learn. The Act
mandates that the teacher would be responsible for enrolling all children seeking
admission, reframing from inflicting corporal punishment, complete the given curriculum
in the given time, assess students, hold parent meetings and orient them and as part of the
school management committee, organise the overall running of the school.
In addition, the NCF 2005, requires a teacher to be a facilitator of children’s learning in a
manner that the child is helped to construct her knowledge. It also opens out possibilities
for the teacher to participate in the construction of syllabus, textbooks and teaching
learning materials. Such roles demand that teachers be equipped with a better
understanding of curriculum, subject content and pedagogy on the one hand and
community and school structures and management on the other.
The launch of the massive Serva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in 2002 and the recent financial
commitment and education cess to augment the UEE mission have underscored the need
to adequately prepare teachers to address the growing demand for quality education. A
similar demand may arise in the context of the impending universalization of secondary
education in the coming 5 to 10 years
The continued fragmentation of the school system poses, by far, the severest challenge to
the national declaration of catering to the basic learning needs of all children in the 6-14
age group through the elementary education system in an inclusive setting. However
increasing privatisation and differentiation of the schooling system have vitiated
drastically the right to quality education for all children. In addition, the pressures of
globalisation leading to commercialisation in all sectors including education and
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increasing competition are forcing children into unprecedented situations that they have to
cope with.
There is now public acknowledgement that the current system of schooling imposes a
tremendous burden on children and they must be freed from it. The recommendations of
the NCF 2005 on school curriculum are built on this plank. Educationists are of the view
that the burden arises from treating knowledge as a ‘given’, an external reality existing
outside the learner and embedded in textbooks. Knowledge is essentially a human
construct, a continuously evolving process of reflective learning.
This view of education points to the need to take a fresh look at teacher preparation.
Education is not a mechanical activity of information transmission and teachers are not
information dispensers. Teachers need to be looked at as crucial mediating agents through
whom curriculum is transacted. Textbooks by themselves do not help in developing
knowledge and understanding. Learning is not confined to the four walls of the classroom.
We need to connect knowledge to life outside the school and enrich the curriculum by
making it less textbook-oriented.
1.3 Present Teacher Education Scenario
Unprecedented expansion of teacher education institutions and programmes during the
past few years characterizes the teacher education scenario of today. With increasing
school enrolments and the launch of pan-Indian primary education development
programmes like Operation Blackboard (OB), (DPEP) and District Primary Education
Programme. SSA to achieve UEE, there was a natural increase in demand for teachers.
Added to this, the backlog of untrained teachers in the system and the essential
requirement of pre-service teacher certification for appointment as a teacher led to
mounting pressure on existing institutional capacity. The demand far exceeding supply,
market forces have taken over causing unprecedented rise in the number of teacher
education institutions in most parts of the country. The escalating demand for trained
teachers and the belief that a training certificate acts as collateral against future
unemployment has made teacher education a lucrative business proposition. It has also led
to large scale mushrooming of substandard teacher education institutions.
From 3489 courses in 3199 institutions and an intake of 2,74,072 in 2004, the number’s in
December, 2008 swelled to a whopping 14,523 courses in 12,266 institutions with an
intake of 10,73,661 at different levels, that is, pre-primary, elementary, secondary (face-toface
and distance modes), M.Ed (face-to-face and distance modes), M.Ed (part-time),
C.P.Ed, B.P.Ed and M.P.Ed. This expansion has, naturally, taken a heavy toll on quality
parameters like infrastructure, faculty learning resources and student profile.
Till January 2007, 31 Institute of Advanced Studies in Education (IASEs) and 104
Colleges of Teacher Education (CTEs) were sanctioned and all of these were functional.
So far as the District Institute of Education and Training (DIETs) are concerned, for 599
districts in the country, 556 DIETs were sanctioned and of these 466 were functional.
Thus as many as 90 DIETs were yet to become functional (Working Group Report on
Elementary Education and Literacy, XI Five Year Plan, Jan 2007, 187-190). The main
problem facing DIETs is non-availability of qualified faculty, presently the faculty
appointed do not possess qualifications/experience in elementary teacher education. A
good number of CTEs face faculty shortage, they spend more time on initial teacher
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education, and research, development and innovative activities are yet to take concrete
shape and library facilities appear weak. The same is the case with IASEs. The capacity of
both CTEs and IASEs in performing their mandated roles has come under serious
questioning.
The larger reality of school teaching not being a preferred option among students and the
dilution of emphasis on public investment in initial teacher education since the 1990s has
led to large scale recruitment of unqualified and under-qualified persons as para teachers
in the formal school system. Para teachers pose a far more serious challenge to the
institution of the professional teacher. An attitude of resignation towards initial teacher
education and piecemeal in-service training courses have become an integral part of state
provisioning for elementary education. This has led to further degradation of the status of
school teachers and diluted the identity of teacher as a professional. Major initiatives
during the mid-1990s were focused on in-service training of teachers and this has
accentuated the divide between pre-service and in-service teacher education. School
teachers continue to be isolated from centres of higher learning and their professional
development needs remain unaddressed.
On the positive side, with a view to achieving coordinated development of teacher
education, the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) took up a number of
initiatives during the last decade. It joined hands with the National Assessment and
Accreditation Council (NAAC) to foster quality assurance and sustenance and with
Distance Education Council (DEC) to ensure integrated development of in-service teacher
education under the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) mode. It also entered into
collaboration with the Rehabilitation Council of India in 2002 and later, in 2005, to
develop curriculum on inclusive education and make it a part of general teacher education
programmes.
The National Knowledge Commission (NKC) has observed that teachers are the single
most important element of the school system, and the country is already facing a severe
shortage of qualified and motivated school teachers at different levels. It is urgent to
restore the dignity of school teaching as a profession and provide more incentives for
qualified and committed teachers. Non-teaching official duties such as election-related
responsibilities should not be allowed to interfere with the teaching process. Forums that
allow and encourage teachers to exchange ideas, information and experiences including a
web-based portal should be developed. At the same time, there should be transparent
systems for ensuring accountability of school teachers. As far as possible, teachers should
be recruited to particular schools. The training of teachers is a major area of concern at
present, since both pre-service and in-service training of school teachers is extremely
inadequate and also poorly managed in most states. Pre-service training needs to be
improved and differently regulated in both public and private institutions, while systems
for in-service training require expansion and major reform that allows for greater
flexibility.
1.4 Teacher Education Reform: Perspectives – Past and Present
At the heart of teacher education is the question ‘What value does teacher education add to
the prospective teacher’s ability to face challenges of facilitating the development of
critical and creative students and subsequently adults?’ Reform of teacher education has
been one of the abiding concerns in the reports of major Education Commissions and
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Committees on education. The Education Commission (1964-66) dwelt at length on
various issues related to teacher education. It recommended professionalization of teacher
education, development of integrated programmes, comprehensive colleges of education
and internship. The National Commission on Teachers (1983-85) recommended five-year
integrated courses and internship. The National Policy on Education (NPE) (1986)
recommended the overhaul of teacher education to impart it a professional orientation and
referred to the same concerns voiced by the earlier Committees. Its recommendations led
to the launch of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Teacher Education incorporating the
establishment of DIETs, CTEs and IASEs. The NPE Review Committee (1992) and the
National Advisory Committee on Curriculum Load (1993) have also drawn attention to
the need for qualitative reform of teacher education and suggested various measures. The
Review Committee recommended adoption of the internship model for teacher education
involving a brief theoretical orientation followed by a 3 to 5 year period of supervised
teaching in a school under mentor teachers. The Advisory Committee in its report
Learning without burden drew attention to the need for the involvement of teachers in
curriculum and textbook preparation and training teachers in fostering learning through
activity, discovery, observation and understanding. These policy recommendations have
led to actions resulting in the development of National Curriculum Frameworks on
Teacher Education and production of resource materials.
1.5 Urgency of Reforming Teacher Education
Teacher education as a whole needs urgent and comprehensive reform. There is a need to
bring greater convergence between professional preparation and continuing professional
development of teachers at all stages of schooling in terms of level, duration and structure.
Considering the complexity and significance of teaching as a professional practice, it is
imperative that the entire enterprise of teacher education should be raised to a university
level and that the duration and rigour of programmes should be appropriately enhanced.
Both at the elementary and the secondary levels, the initial teacher preparation is fraught
with a number of problems, some of them common and some specific to the stage.
1.5.1 Elementary Teacher Education
Initial training of elementary teachers continues to suffer from isolation, low
profile and poor visibility in view of its being a non-degree programme
administered by a government department as one among its other concerns. In
professional discussions teacher education is viewed as a unitary undifferentiated
category with B.Ed and D.Ed. providing the frame of reference. The special
significance of initial primary teacher education (elementary education being a
fundamental human right and its crucial significance to individual and national
development) is overlooked and its concerns are subsumed under more general
problems. The Curriculum Frameworks thus far developed provide guidelines that
are too general and do not address the stage specific training needs of elementary
teachers. The Curriculum Framework (1998) was indeed a welcome exception. It
may be the first to have provided stage–specific guidelines. The Curriculum
Framework for Quality Teacher Education (1998) and Approach Paper for
Elementary Teacher Education Curriculum Renewal in 2003 by the NCTE address
these issues in greater detail. The establishment of DIETs has been the most
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important development in bringing the issue of elementary teacher education to the
national stage.
There is a grave need to upgrade initial teacher education by enhancing the entry
qualification and duration of training and make it equivalent to a degree
programme and vest the management and control of elementary teacher education
in a professional body of university faculty status. This is necessary as the plus 2
entry level does not even equip prospective teachers with the basic knowledge of
subjects to teach at the elementary level, particularly classes 3 to 8. Neither does
the short duration of the course equip them with the necessary pedagogic
knowledge for facilitating the learning of children, understanding their psycho
social and learning needs. There are available a number of degree programs for the
preparation of elementary teachers both within and outside the country which need
to be looked at and adapted to Indian needs keeping the rigour of these programs
intact. The Bachelor of Elementary Education (B.El.Ed.) program of the University
of Delhi is a case in point.
Upgrading elementary teacher education calls for participatory curriculum
planning involving all stakeholders, modular organization of curriculum in terms
of critically engaging with theory and bringing practice within its perspective,
greater curriculum time for skill learning and practice, a professional approach to
training strategies and development of materials, and application of relevant
alternatives, technological, curricular and organizational, in teacher education
processes. For accomplishing all this, there is a need for a longer duration of time
for the programme, either a four-year integrated model at the Bachelor’s degree
level or a two-year second Bachelor’s degree model. A transition to the new
models will need to be done within a definite time frame – say five years – keeping
in mind the time required for preparation of teacher educators as well.. However,
the present two year D.Ed. model after twelve years of schooling may continue in
the interim attempting to intensify the programme with the elements mentioned
above and making it as meaningful and relevant as possible.
Another instance of neglect of elementary teacher education is the non-recognition
of the need for specially qualified teacher educators in elementary education. It has
been taken for granted that the existing arrangements for teacher preparation at
different stages would do as well for teacher educators too, B.Ed for elementary
teacher educator and M.Ed for secondary teacher educator. The logic that seems to
operate here is that one’s higher position in the educational hierarchy would entitle
one to train others working at the lower levels irrespective of whether one
possessed the relevant skills. Other than the activity of teaching children in
elementary school, all other functions related to this sector of education are
attended to by people who have been trained for and taught only at secondary level
due to lack of appropriately trained personnel in elementary education. The
difficulty is exacerbated by the absence of degree and post degree programmes in
primary / elementary teacher education. At present, elementary teacher educators
in their bid to upgrade their professional qualifications pursue M.Ed. The IASE
brief includes the training of elementary teacher educators which they do by
running the M.Ed programme of the concerned university. But the present M.Ed
cannot meet the requirements of elementary teacher training as it is based on only
secondary education requirements.
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Education as an area of interdisciplinary knowledge is not merely an application of
a few core disciplines, but a praxis and a context where theories and practical
wisdom are generated continuously. It is important to facilitate development of a
discourse in education through more purposive and deliberate focus in creating
explanatory terms and vocabulary. And this process has to inform and be informed
by teacher education. Since traditionally, it was secondary teacher education
institutions that developed into university departments of education, elementary
education and early childhood education have been neglected as distinct areas of
knowledge with their own distinct concerns, concepts and methodological
perspectives. It is important to strengthen all areas within education as distinct but
integrated discourses through research as well as through documenting praxis in
school settings as well as in field-level educational initiatives. This scattered
corpus of experience and knowledge needs to be brought together to evolve a
coherent vocabulary, researched and documented knowledge base and informed
perspectives for all areas of education as well as education in its entirety.
1.5.2 Secondary Teacher Education
There is also a need to critically review the secondary teacher education system.
The one year second Bachelor’s degree (B.Ed.) model seems to have outlived its
relevance. With the proliferation of B.Ed. colleges, particularly with privatization
and commercialization, B.Ed. programmes have become weak in both theory and
practice. Even the few institutions which keep struggling to make this programme
meaningful find it difficult to overcome the structural constraints that the short
duration of the programme puts up. While a second Bachelor’s degree model may
still be relevant, it is imperative that this needs strengthening in terms of both
intensity, rigour and duration. It is desirable within a finite time frame that the
existing one-year second Bachelor’s (B.Ed.) degree programme is structurally
transformed to a two-year one, with deeper and more protracted engagement with
school-based experience and reflective and critical engagement with theory. In the
transitory phase, however, the existing one year programmes can work towards
better utilization of the time available, greater emphasis on a school-based
internship and emphasis on reflective practice based on perspectives on child,
contemporary society, basic concepts of education and curricular and pedagogic
alternatives.
1.6 Systemic Concerns in Teacher Education
Even more serious than proliferation of sub-standard institutions is the current state
of teacher education programmes. The programmes have come under severe
criticism for not addressing the needs of contemporary Indian schools and not
preparing teachers who can impart quality education in schools. Their design and
practice is based on certain assumptions which impede the progress of ideas and
professional and personal growth of the teacher. They train teachers to adjust to a
system in which education is seen as transmission of information. They take the
school curriculum and text books as a ‘given’ and train teachers to adjust to the
needs of the existing school system through fastidious planning of lessons in
standardized formats and fulfilling the ritual of delivering the required number of
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lessons. The NCF 2005 has described the current concerns of teacher education as
follows:
§ Experiences in the practice of teacher education indicate that knowledge is treated
as ‘given’, embedded in the curriculum and accepted without question; there is no
engagement with the curriculum. Curriculum, syllabi and textbooks are never
critically examined by the student teacher or the regular teacher
§ Language proficiency of the teacher needs to be enhanced, but existing
programmes do not recognize the centrality of language in the curriculum
§ Teacher education programmes provide little scope for student teachers to reflect
on their experiences.
§ Disciplinary knowledge is viewed as independent of professional training in
pedagogy
§ Repeated ‘practice’ in the teaching of a specified number of isolated lessons is
considered a sufficient condition for professional development
§ It is assumed that links between learning theories and models and teaching
methods are automatically formed in the understanding developed by student
teachers
§ There is no opportunity for teachers to examine their own biases and beliefs and
reflect on their own experiences as part of classroom discourse and enquiry
§ Theory courses have no clear articulation with practical work and ground realities
§ The evaluation system followed in teacher education programmes is too
information-oriented, excessively quantitative and lacks comprehensiveness. Apart
from conceptual and pedagogical aspects the programme needs to develop certain
attitudes, dispositions, habits and interests in a teacher. The present evaluation
protocol has no place for evaluating them.
The above observations provide distinct pointers for addressing issues on the different
aspects of teacher education curriculum reform.
1.7 Contemporary Context and Concerns that need to Inform Teacher Education
Reform:
1.7.1 Inclusive Education
We have seen two kinds of exclusion prevalent in schools because of the
inadequate competence and sensitivity of the teacher in these areas. One is the
exclusion of the child with disabilities of different kinds – the teacher does not
understand their needs nor what s/he can do to make learning possible for them.
The second and stronger exclusion is the social exclusion of children who come
from socially and economically deprived backgrounds Scheduled Castes (SCs),
Scheduled Tribes (STs) and from minority communities. There is a dire need to
equip teachers to overcome their biases in these regards and positively handle these
challenges.
Inclusive education refers to a philosophical position as well as an arrangement of
institutional facilities and processes to ensure the compositeness of learning
communities which includes in terms of access to and conditions of success in
education for everybody including those in the margins, either with learning
difficulties because of physical or mental disabilities or because of their social
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position. This is to create an integrated school setting providing equal
opportunities to children with special abilities, varied social backgrounds and
diverse learning needs. The emphasis is on providing equal opportunities to all
children. It is necessary that teachers who teach and manage the classroom are
sensitized and made aware of the philosophy of inclusive education and oriented to
the different kinds of adjustments that schools have to make in terms of
infrastructure, curriculum, teaching methods and other school practices to relate
teaching to the special needs of all learners.
The Persons with Disabilities (PWD) Act of 2005 provides for free and
compulsory education up to the age of 18 years for all children with disabilities.
The education of socially and economically disadvantaged groups, especially the
SCs, STs, and minorities has remained a primary national concern of education for
several years. Though the literacy percentage among the SCs and STs has
increased manifold, it is still much lower than the general category students.
Teachers will have to be particularly equipped if the social deprivation has to be
overcome through education.
The enrolment and retention of girls and therefore their participation has also
remained behind those of boys. Special efforts are being made to improve this
situation. Teachers need to be quipped to sensitively bring and include girls in the
classroom transaction.
1.7.2 Perspectives for Equitable and Sustainable Development
In order to develop future citizens who promote equitable and sustainable
development for all sections of society and respect for all, it is necessary that they
be educated through perspectives of gender equity, perspectives that develop
values for peace, respect the rights of all, and that respect and value work. In the
present ecological crisis promoted by extremely commercialised and competitive
lifestyles, children need to be educated to change their consumption patterns and
the way they look at natural resources.
There is also a increasing violence and polarisation both within children and
between them, that is being caused by increasing stress in society. Education has a
crucial role to play in promoting values of peace based on equal respect of self and
others. The NCF 2005 and subsequent development of syllabi and materials is
attempting to do this as well.
For this teachers need to be equipped to understand these issues and incorporate
them in their teaching. The new teacher education curriculum framework will need
to integrate these perspectives in its formulation.
1.7.3 Role of Community Knowledge in education
It is important for the development of concepts in children as well as the
application of school knowledge in real life that the formal knowledge is linked
with community knowledge. This increases the relevance of education as well as
the quality of learning. In addition, the perspective that informs the NCF 2005
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promotes the inclusion of locally relevant content in the curriculum as well as
pedagogy. This puts an added responsibility on the teacher for which s/he needs to
be equipped, that is, selecting and organising learning content experiences from the
community for the classroom.
We need to develop the capacity of teachers in identifying entry points in the
curriculum and textual materials which call for contextualization and developing
appropriate teaching-learning sequences and episodes based on identified local
specifics. These specifics may include community knowledge and technology,
local occupations both farm and non-farm, local folk culture including songs,
festivals, fairs, games, etc. As the teachers will be developing the curriculum and
materials informed by the perspectives enunciated above (gender, peace,
sustainable development, etc., they will also be learning through actual
participation the skills of identifying and processing the specifics for purposes of
meaningful curriculum transaction.
1.7.4 ICT in Schools and e learning
With the onset and proliferation of ((Information and Communication Technology)
(ICT), there is a growing demand that it be included in school education. It has
become more of a fashion statement to have computers or multimedia in schools,
the result being that in spite of its potential to make learning liberative, its
implementation is often not more than cosmetic. It is often also touted as a panacea
for shortage of teachers. These are detrimental to the learning of the child. Teacher
education needs to orient and sensitize the teacher to distinguish between
developmentally appropriate and detrimental uses of ICT. It needs to also equip
teachers with competence to use ICT for their own professional development.
1.8 The Present Document
The NCTE and the NCERT over the past few decades have addressed the review of
teacher education curriculum in the light of changing educational scenario and brought out
a series of frameworks. These frameworks provide guidelines on development of teacher
education programmes incorporating current concerns as well as national and global
developments. The pioneering effort of designing a curriculum framework for teacher
education was made by the non-statutory NCTE, way back in 1978. This Teacher
Education Curriculum-A Framework (1978) responded to the implications of the national
educational policy and priorities as a result of the implementation of the Report of
Education Commission (1964-66) and made recommendations for the restructuring of
teacher education programmes and their content. This was reviewed in 1988.
Subsequently, it was followed by the development of a model curriculum by the
University Grants Commission (UGC) curriculum development centre in 1990. After the
NCTE became a statutory body in 1995, it brought out Curriculum Framework for Quality
Teacher Education in 1998. Another framework, Teacher Education for Future was
brought out by the NCERT to support the NCF for school education (2000). Two attempts
were made by the NCTE to develop draft curriculum framework (the first in 2005 and the
second in 2006). The latter incorporated the substantial inputs provided by the NCERT in
the context of the adoption of the NCF (2005) for school education. Two more draft
frameworks, one in 2007 and the other in 2008 have since been added. For various
reasons, related action on the ground in respect of these documents did not take place. The
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present document represents a continuation of these curriculum renewal efforts. It has
given due consideration to the earlier frameworks, particularly to the 2006 document, tried
to consolidate the work that has been accomplished thus far and presents by and large an
updated and upgraded version of a new National Curriculum Framework for teacher
education (NCFTE).
1.9 Vision of Teacher and Teacher Education
As we engage in the act of envisioning the role of the teacher and the shape of teacher
education unfolding in the coming years, it would do us well to take note of the movement
of ideas, globally, that have led to current thinking on teacher education. While the search
for a philosophy of teacher education that satisfies the needs of our times continues, we
seem to be converging on certain broad principles that should inform the enterprise. First,
our thinking on teacher education is integrative and eclectic. It is free from the hold of
‘schools’ of philosophy and psychology. We also do not think of teacher education as a
prescriptive endeavour; we want it to be open and flexible. Our emphasis is on changing
contexts and our aim to empower the teacher to relate himself/herself to them. Second
modern teacher education functions under a global canvas created by the master concepts
of ‘learning society’, ‘learning to learn’ and ‘inclusive education’. The concern is to make
teacher education liberal, humanistic and responsive to the demands of inclusive
education. The emphasis in teaching is not on didactic communication but on non-didactic
explorations. Third, modern pedagogy derives its inspiration more from sociological and
anthropological insights on education. There is increasing recognition of the worth and
potential of indigenous culture as a source for rejuvenating teaching and learning. Multicultural
education and culture-specific pedagogy is the current trend. Fourth, we
acknowledge the existence of a diversity of learning spaces and curriculum sites (farm,
workplace, home, community, and media) apart from the classroom. We also appreciate
the diversity of learning styles that children exhibit and learning contexts in which
teachers have to function – oversized classes, language, ethnic diversities, children
suffering disadvantages of different kinds. Lastly, we have realized the tentative nature of
the so-called knowledge base of teacher education and made reflective practice the central
aim of teacher education. Pedagogical knowledge has to constantly undergo adaptation to
meet the needs of diverse contexts through critical reflection by the teacher on his/her
practices– teaching, evaluating and so on. Teacher education has to build the ability in the
teacher to evolve one’s own knowledge to deal with different contexts based on
understanding and analysis of experience.
Against this backdrop and keeping in view the vision of teacher education as articulated
above, the following set of concluding statements relating to perception of teachers’ role,
and philosophy, purpose and practice of teacher education can be made:
Ø Teachers should be prepared to care for children and love to be with them, love
knowledge and be constantly learning, own responsibility towards society and
work to build a better world, develop sensitivity to the problems of the learners,
commitment to justice and zeal for social reconstruction;
Ø Teachers should change their perception of child as a receiver of knowledge and
encourage its capacity to construct knowledge; they should ensure that learning
shifts away from rote methods. Learning is to be viewed as a search for meaning
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out of personal experiences and knowledge generation as a continuously evolving
process of reflective learning;
Ø Teacher education should engage with theory along with field experiences to help
trainees to view knowledge not as external to the learner but as something that is
actively constructed during learning. Teacher education should integrate academic
knowledge and professional learning into a meaningful whole;
Ø Teachers need to be trained in organizing learner-centred, activity based,
participatory learning experiences – play, projects, discussion, dialogue,
observation, visits, integrating academic learning with productive work;
Ø Teacher education should engage teachers with the curriculum, syllabi and
textbooks to critically examine them rather than taking them as ‘given’ and
accepted without question;
Ø Teacher education should provide opportunity to trainees for reflection and
independent study without packing the training schedule with teacher-directed
activities only;
Ø The programme should engage teachers with children in real contexts than teach
them about children through theories. It should help them understand the psychosocial
attributes and needs of learners, their special abilities and characteristics,
their preferred mode of cognition, motivation and learning resulting from home
and community socialization;
Ø The programme should help teachers or potential teachers to develop social
sensitivity and consciousness and finer human sensibilities.
Ø We need to broaden the curriculum (both school and teacher education) to include
different traditions of knowledge; train and educate teachers to connect school
knowledge with community knowledge and life outside the school, and thereby
enrich the curriculum so that it goes beyond the textbooks and contextualizes
educational experiences
Ø We need to appreciate the potential of productive work and hands-on experience as
a pedagogic medium both inside and outside the classroom; work is integral to the
process of education;
Ø We need to re-conceptualize citizenship training in terms of human rights and
approaches of critical pedagogy; emphasize environment and its protection, living
in harmony within oneself and with natural and social environment; promote
peace, democratic way of life, constitutional values of equality, justice, liberty,
fraternity, secularism and caring values; and
Ø In view of the many sided objectives of teacher education the evaluation protocol
should be comprehensive and provide due place for evaluation of attitudes, values,
dispositions, habits and hobbies (in addition to the conceptual and pedagogical
aspects) through appropriate quantitative as well as qualitative techniques.
1.10 Professionalization of Teacher Education
Teaching is a profession and teacher education is a process of professional preparation of
teachers. Preparing one for a profession is an arduous task and it involves action from
multiple fronts and perspectives. A profession is characterized by a sufficiently long
period of academic training, an organized body of knowledge on which the undertaking is
based, an appropriate duration of formal and rigorous professional training in tandem with
practical experience in the field and a code of professional ethics that binds its members
into a fraternity
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When the profession concerned is teaching these dimensions acquire critical importance in
view of several factors. There is, first of all, the traditional idealism, esteem, and
importance attached to the role of the teacher and the very high societal expectations from
the teacher. Teaching, essentially, is also a moral undertaking although information
transmission dominates the teacher’s work. Teachers are concerned in an important way
with the total development of human beings – physical, intellectual, social, moral and
spiritual. While the dimensions of teaching other than the informational and cognitive may
have suffered neglect in modern times due to a variety of factors, one cannot deny that
they constitute an integral part of the teacher’s role and functions. The implication of this
for teacher education programmes and institutions is that due emphasis should be given to
developing in the teacher proper attitudes, values, and outlook apart from training one as a
skilled crafts person. This aspect of the making of a teacher is acknowledged as a very
important quality dimension of teacher education.
1.11 Preparing Teacher Educators
Teacher education, it may be seen, is a reflective undertaking that also issues forth in
pedagogical prescriptions for carrying out teaching at the ground level. Being a metaactivity,
it deals in showing how things are done at school and classroom levels,
explaining the ‘reason why’ of things and the basic theory and principles behind classroom
practices. These call for skills and understanding of a different kind in addition to the
skills required for actual school teaching. The NCF-2005 position paper on teacher
education has elaborated this point and has referred to androgogy (principles of adult
learning) as the appropriate pedagogy for teacher education. The weakest aspect, perhaps,
of teacher education is the absence of professional preparation of teacher educators and the
issues related to this concern are discussed in Chapter 6.
1.12 Research and Innovation
There is a need to increase research that documents practices reflectively and analytically
– whether it is of programs or of individual classrooms – so that it can be included in the
body of knowledge available for study to student teachers. University departments and
research institutions need to undertake such research.
In addition there is a need to innovate with different models of teacher education.
Institutional capacity and capability to innovate and create are a pre-requisite for the
pursuit of excellence. These are facilitated when the inputs to the institution are of high
quality. In teacher education, the reality on the ground rarely reflects this. Curriculum
innovation at the institutional level gets restricted to its transaction within the institution.
At the state level, there is the trend of applying standard solutions and common strategies
to the many problems of teacher education. The central admission procedure, common
curriculum, centralized examination and evaluation system have stifled institutional
initiatives in admission, curriculum design and evaluation and very little space is left for
institutional self-expression. There is a need to facilitate a space for such innovations to
take place so that policy can draw from them.
In spite of these constraining conditions, there have been and are a number of initiatives
that can be drawn from. A case in point is the four-year integrated B.El.Ed programme for
the preparation of elementary teachers offered by the Delhi University and NCERT’s
experiments with the four-year integrated programme leading to the degree of B.Sc.Ed,
17
two-year B.Ed programme and integrated M.Sc.Ed. programme Similar innovations are
also being tried out in other institutions across the country.
Initiatives for continuing professional development include the University School
Resource Network, (a multidisciplinary project involving multilevel institutions envisages
forging academic connectivity between higher education and elementary education
systems, which networks Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University, Institute of
Home Economics, Gargi College, DIET, Motibagh, Mirambika, Ankur and participating
schools), Vidyankura a district level project in Karnataka, housed in National Institute of
Advanced Studies, collaborative inservice and foundation programs by organisations like
Eklavya, Digantar and Vidya Bhavan Society, Rishi Valley, Banasthali and Sri Aurobindo
Education Centres, along with many others.
At the post graduate level, too, there is an attempt in elementary education leading to M.A
(Elementary Education) launched by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. This is
a first of its kind, pan-Indian programme intervention in elementary education at the postgraduate
stage. It is interdisciplinary, collaborative (the other organizations involved are:
Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Eklavya, Digantar and the Vidya Bhavan
Society) and dual mode operation design (on-line learning and contact) makes it a bold
and novel venture. Its twin objectives are to provide a firm disciplinary base to elementary
education and train a range of professionals with different specializations - teachers,
teacher educators, curriculum and textbook developers, educational planners,
administrators and researchers.
1.13 Open and Distance Learning (ODL) in Teacher Education
Open Education as a concept, coupled with modalities associated with Distance Education
does not stand as an exclusive transactional modality. There are several aspects of ODL
which will get meaningfully translated only if the boundaries between direct human
engagement and ODL tend to get diffused to the extent possible and perhaps desirable. A
modular approach to the development of teacher education curriculum along with a focus
on independent study and on-line offering involving interactive modes of learning and the
consequent modification in the approaches to assessment and evaluation has indeed a
potential to make education reach the unreached.
It is recognized that ODL can be strategically employed in continuing professional
development of teachers particularly with a view to overcoming the barriers of distance
and the immensity of the system, especially making use of independent study material, online
support and two-way audio communication. As far as the initial teacher preparation is
concerned, ODL has the potential to be used in a blended model or a mixed model in
combination with direct human interaction. Of particular relevance are those elements of
ODL which involve independent study. However, the primacy of direct human
engagement and actual social interaction among student teachers as the core process of
initial teacher preparation needs to be emphasized.
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Chapter 2
CURRICULAR AREAS OF INITIAL TEACHER EDUCATION
2.1 Introduction
The kind of teacher and teacher education we have envisioned calls upon us to look at
teacher education as a holistic enterprise involving actions of different kinds and from
multiple fronts aimed at the development of the total teacher – knowledge and
understanding, skills, attitudes, habits and values. To recall, we need teachers who:
o care for children and love to be with them, understand children within social,
cultural and political contexts, develop sensitivity to their problems, treat all
children equally
o do not treat knowledge as a ‘given’, embedded in the curriculum and accepted
without question,
o perceive children not as passive receivers of knowledge, develop their capacity
to construct knowledge, discourage rote learning, make learning a joyful,
participatory and meaningful activity
o critically examine curriculum and textbooks, contextualize curriculum to suit
local needs,
o organize learner-centred, activity based, participatory learning experiences –
play, projects, discussion, dialogue, observation, visits and learn to reflect on
their own practice
o integrate academic learning with social and personal realities of learners,
responding to diversities in the classroom and with productive work
o promote values of peace, democratic way of life, equality, justice, liberty,
fraternity, secularism and the zeal for social reconstruction
We believe that teacher education should provide appropriate opportunities to the wouldbe
teacher for:
• observing and engaging with children, communicating with and relating to
children.
• understanding the self and others (one’s beliefs, assumptions, emotions and
aspirations); developing the ability for self-analysis, self-evaluation, adaptability,
flexibility, creativity and innovation;
• self-learning, reflection, assimilation and articulation of new ideas; developing
capacities for self-directed learning and the ability to think, be self-critical and to
work collaboratively in groups.
• content enrichment to generate understanding and knowledge, examine
disciplinary knowledge and social realities, relate subject matter with the social
milieu and develop critical thinking.
• developing professional skills in pedagogy, observation, documentation, analysis
and interpretation, drama, craft, story-telling and reflective inquiry.
In this chapter a broad vista of a teacher education curriculum that aims at the preparation
of such teachers is sketched. The layout of this curriculum can be conceived as comprising
three broad curricular areas – (A) Foundations of Education which include courses under
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three broad rubrics, namely, Child Studies, Contemporary Studies and Educational Studies
(understanding oneself as a person and as a teacher and of theories related to child
development and learning and the social and cultural context of education); (B)
Curriculum and Pedagogical Theory which include courses under two broad rubrics,
namely, Curriculum Studies and Pedagogic Studies (understanding of the nature of subject
disciplines in the social context of learning and ways of transacting knowledge with
children in formal contexts); and (C) School Internship leading to the development of a
broad repertoire of perspective, professional capacities and skills. Together, these areas
constitute the common core curriculum for teacher education programmes across stages –
pre-school, elementary, secondary and higher secondary. The nature and form which these
core components may take and the quantum, intensity, their relative importance, quality of
learning experiences to be provided under them and their relative importance may,
however, vary with reference to the stage of teacher preparation, the school and learner
context and other factors. It is important that they should not be looked upon as
independent and separate curricular areas but as interconnected, feeding each other
towards the total development of the teacher.
The concern of the present envisioning exercise is to organize the entire teacher education
curriculum as an organic, integrated whole. The contours of each of these curricular areas
are set out in broad outline showing the kind of learning experiences they cover and the
kind of opportunities they provide for the beginning teacher to acquire the needed
professional knowledge and skills. These are described in generic terms; they are not to be
treated as prescriptive syllabi or course titles. They constitute the basic ideas / themes on
which the curricula and courses are to be built to suit particular contexts (stage for which
teacher is being prepared, the nature and duration of the training programme, the school
and children). One would expect a variety of context-specific curriculum and course
designs to emerge from the framework without compromising on the basic principles
contained in the vision of teacher and teacher education.
2.2 Area I: FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATION
1. Child Studies
(a) Childhood, Child development and Learning
Rationale: Understanding the learning and growing child is the basic foundation
on which a programme of teacher education needs to be built. Beginning teachers
need to understand children by interacting with them and observing them in
diverse social, economic and cultural contexts rather than through an exclusive
focus on psychological theories of child development. Foundational learning in
this area involves establishing links between developmental constructs and
principles in psychological theory and the larger socio-political realities in which
children grow and develop.
Specific assignments could be evolved to help student teachers to understand
children’s questions and their observations of natural and social phenomena, to
enquire into children’s thinking and learning and to learn to listen to children with
attention and empathy. It is also important for teachers to understand that learning
is not a linear process. It is a divergent process, essentially spiral in nature and
takes place in a variety of situations including everyday contexts. Pre-service
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teacher education programmes at all levels (including higher secondary) should be
designed to include the observation and study of young children in order to
appreciate the developmental process as a continuum. An adequate opportunity for
this can be provided through courses designed around key concepts and research
from the disciplines of Psychology, Philosophy as well as Sociology. Equally
important for the teacher is to understand the construct of childhood, the various
socio-cultural and political dimensions associated with its positioning and
development in society.
Every child needs to be made aware of the importance of healthy living and
preventing disease. There is an urgent need therefore to generate health awareness
and cultivate habits conducive to healthy living. It is suggested that
comprehensive, systematic and scientific approaches to health education and health
awareness be included in teacher education curricula. The contents proposed
include: nutrition, personal and environmental hygiene, family health, disease
prevention and control including HIV/AIDS, mental health, prevention of
accidents, health information and use of health services. Likewise, physical
education and sports made a regular feature of teacher education curricula.
Curricular provision
Course work: two to three courses designed around key concepts and research from
psychology, philosophy, and sociology to engage learners with theoretical concepts and
frameworks.
In-built, field-based units of study leading to projects and assignments on child’s
observations, conceptions and learning of natural and social phenomena.
Through workshops, seminars and assignments, student teachers to be given
opportunities to:
o observe and study children at play and at work in diverse socio-economic,
cultural, linguistic and regional contexts
o observe and analyze learning and thinking processes of children
o understand children’s questions and their observations of natural and social
phenomena in order to appreciate the developmental process as a
continuum
Child contact practicum to provide hands-on experience with children learners, to learn to
listen to children with attention and empathy, to enable back and forth movement between
theory and the field. Student-teachers are given the opportunity at the beginning of the
progamme, to be with children, interact with them, organize creative activities for them,
with the aim to learn to communicate and relate with them. While engaging with
developmental theories of children, many of the experiences they have had with children
during the child-contact practicum are consciously brought into the classroom discourse to
draw interconnections, verify and evolve theory and help them articulate new ideas.
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2. Contemporary Studies
(a) Teacher and Learner in Society
Rationale: There is need to shift the focus from overwhelming emphasis on
psychological characteristics of the individual learner to his/her social, cultural,
economic, political and humanitarian context. Therefore a rigorous engagement with
issues of contemporary India must necessarily be examined through an engagement
with concepts drawn from a diverse set of disciplines, including sociology, history,
philosophy, political science and economics. Teacher education should provide space
for engagement with issues and concerns of India’s pluralistic nature; issues of
identity, gender, equity, poverty and diversity. This would enable teachers to
contextualize education and evolve a deeper understanding of its purpose and its
relationship with society and humanity. It is also important to understand the
classroom as a social context, as it provides a setting for interaction, generation of
dialogue and the opportunity to appreciate diverse perspectives on a given issue.
Student teachers can undertake projects such as tracing the process by which a
consumer product (such as tea) is made available from its raw form to a finished
product and studying the various factors of geography, economics, politics, history and
sociology that may have influenced it in one way or another. Such engagement can
help teachers to examine their own conceptions of knowledge, to construct knowledge
through interactive processes, the exchange of views, beliefs and reflection on new
ideas and break free from the overwhelming need to protect their individual views on
education and learning.
(b) Other critical social issues: human and child rights, environment and
development, reservation
Rationale: Awareness of human rights and the commitment to use this awareness as a
means to inspire the young generation are necessary ingredients of any good teacher
education programme. Respect for human rights cannot be seen in isolation from an
analytical awareness of the contexts, in which human rights are to be observed, starting
from the institutional context, extending to the social, national and global contexts.
Teachers also need to be fully aware of children’s rights, rights for gender equality and
the implications these rights have for social change. Courses can be designed to
generate awareness and construction of critical perspectives through contextualized
presentations. The critical importance of environmental education at all levels has been
duly recognized and efforts have been made to treat it as an inseparable part of school
curriculum and teacher education curriculum at all stages.
Curricular provision
Course work: one or two courses to engage learners with theoretical concepts and issues
such as: Classroom as a social context: Learning is greatly influenced by social
environment/context from which learners and teachers come. It is also affected by the
social climate of the school and the classroom. It provides a setting for interaction,
generation of dialogue and the opportunity to appreciate diverse perspectives on given
issues; Issues and concerns of contemporary Indian society: pluralistic culture, identity,
22
gender, equity, poverty and diversity; Ideas of educational thinkers: Gandhi, Tagore,
Dewey and others to be examined in their socio-historical contexts in which they
developed.
In-built field-based units of study: Student-teachers are engaged in studying the major
characteristics of India’s pluralistic make-up with the help of projects based on locally
done field work or conduct field interviews while studying the issue of reservation as an
egalitarian policy, to collate people’s experiences of such a provision and examine policy
and theory. Through such a pedagogic process, the onus of drawing connections between
experience and theory is not left to the student-teacher alone. Learning spaces are
structurally provided in the design of teacher-education programmes for drawing such
connections. Because the learner is central to such a process, learning becomes a search
for meaning and the developing teacher learns to articulate the connections he/she draws.
Projects: Student teachers undertake projects such as tracing the process by which a
consumer product is made available from its raw form to a finished product and studying
the various factors of geography, economics, politics, history and sociology that may have
influenced it in one way or another. Such engagement can help teachers to examine their
own conceptions of knowledge, to construct knowledge through interactive processes, the
exchange of views, beliefs and reflection on new ideas and break free from the
overwhelming need to protect their individual views. Projects can be complemented with
workshops, seminars, assignments around issues and concepts studies in theory.
3. Educational Studies
(a) Aims of education, Knowledge and Values
Rationale: Among the many questions that contemporary educational discourse
excludes are substantive philosophical questions about the fundamental aims and
values that should provide the intellectual basis of contemporary education policy and
practice. It is therefore, crucial to provide prospective teachers with opportunities to
engage with philosophical issues and concerns related to aims and values of education.
Student-teachers and teacher practitioners need to engage with issues in a manner that
makes them sensitive to the fact that educational debate is never neutral; it always
tends to promote certain educational values while marginalizing others.
Curricular provision
Course work: one or more courses focused on philosophical thinkers in education,
theoretical constructs that help to question and debate issues around aims of education and
questions of epistemology.
Lecture cum discussion sessions, Self-study units, and Seminars on themes such as:
Education as a continuous process of self-discovery, reflection about oneself and the
world around us; Education as liberation: The process of education must free itself from
the shackles of all kinds of exploitation and injustice (i.e., poverty, gender discrimination,
caste and communal bias), which prevent our children and adult learners from being part
of the process). Education as reconstruction of experience: Education should aim at
making learners capable of becoming active, responsible, productive, and caring members
of society. Ideally, education is supposed to encourage students to analyze and evaluate
23
their experiences, to doubt, to question, to investigate and to think independently;
Intelligence, Knowledge and Rationality: There are different kinds of knowledge as well
as different ways of knowing. The idea that objectivity, which is a necessary constituent of
knowledge, can be achieved only if knowledge is free from emotions (care, concern, and
love) must be abandoned. One implication of this for education is that literacy and artistic
creativity is as much part of a civilization’s epistemic enterprise as is seeking knowledge
through laboratory experiments or deductive reasoning. The quest for certainty, taken to
its extreme, tends to become a demand for a monistic and absolute criterion which leads to
the drawing of sharp lines between the rational and the irrational, knowledge and the lack
of it. Teacher education courses have the responsibility to pro-actively counter such
tendencies and to bring to the surface several contradictions that distort our perceptions
and hence develop the ability to relate and communicate with children and with each
other.
As we grow, we face new and unfamiliar experiences which question our old ways of
thinking as these experiences are either inconsistent with or at a considerable variance
from what we had gradually learnt to take for granted. Such experiences are critical and
challenging as they involve or require reformulation of ideas, concepts, revision of
preconceived notions, and new ways of looking at and dealing with the world. It is this
unique human ability, called rationality, which is manifested in a wide variety of ways.
Teacher education courses need to offer opportunities for such reflection and selfquestioning.
Appreciating cultural diversity and individual differences: Cultural diversity is one of our
greatest gifts. To respect and do justice to others is also to respect and do justice to their
respective cultures or communities. Cultures on the so called periphery must receive as
much attention as cultures in the centre. Ways of life other than one’s own must be
imaginatively and effectively presented as deserving of as much respect as one’s own. The
school, through insightful teaching and learning experiences of various kinds, can bring to
the child the great importance of this process.
(b) Developing the self and aspirations as a Teacher
Rationale: Teacher-trainees need to be provided with learning spaces through a
focused study of issues related to self and identity, human relationships, adult-child
gaps, assumptions, beliefs and attitudes. They could explore the meaning of ethics and
values, observe and understand feelings of fear and trust and their influences in
personal and social attitude, attitudes towards competition and cooperation, analyze
and observe the impact of competition in personal and social life, observe the role of
listening, attention and empathy and the role of a teacher in establishing relationship
with children and as a communicator.
Curricular provision
Course Work: one course with focused workshops through link with theory that would
require specific inputs from professionals who have engaged with self-development,
theatre and creative drama. These often provide non-threatening and non-judgmental
learning environments that enable participants to reflect on their own positions in society.
Theoretical study with complementary workshops need to focus on issues of identity
24
development, recognising one’s own strength and limitations and developing social
sensitivity and skills of empathy.
Workshops in drama, art, music and craft: Student teachers need to engage with their
childhood experiences, personal aspirations and aspirations to become a teacher, their
views on issues of gender and identity, personal, familial and social conflict.
Recording and analysis of observations: to interpret reality within varying theoretical and
experiential frameworks.
2.3 Area 2: CURRICULUM AND PEDAGOGICAL THEORY
1. Curriculum Studies
Activities and processes in the education and professional development of teachers should
help participants to understand that knowledge evolves from experience and is constructed
through the active process of exchange of ideas, beliefs and reflection on issues in shared
and collaborative contexts.
It is important to engage prospective teachers with the conceptual knowledge they have
gained through general education. Most teacher education courses focus exclusively on the
methodology of teaching individual school subjects. It is assumed that teacher-trainees
have the subject-content knowledge, which they would draw upon when required. Hence,
teacher education curricula do not engage teacher-trainees with subject-content. However,
if we want to prepare teachers to present subject-content in developmentally appropriate
ways and with critical perspective it is essential that through simple observations and
experiments and discussions, several theoretical concepts learnt during general education
in school and college be revisited and reconstructed.
Engagement with content can be designed to be part of investigative projects. Science for
example, can involve laboratory work, library and reference, field surveys, group
discussions, seeking expert opinion to investigate into questions that children often ask
such as Why is the sky blue?, Why do stars twinkle?, How do fish survive without air?
How is electricity generated? Similarly, various mathematical concepts and operations can
be reconstructed through activities and problems using concrete materials from everyday
experiences as well as from mathematical kits, to arrive at solutions or conduct
investigations. These need to be followed by reflective discussion on the concepts,
solutions, results, and the methods used, both ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. Reconstructing
concepts helps student-teachers and teacher practitioners to appreciate the nature of
subject knowledge and to link it with appropriate pedagogic processes that communicate
meaningfully with children.
2. Pedagogic Studies
Rationale: The purpose is to understand school subjects and their pedagogic study in the
concrete context of the school and the learner by forging linkages among learner, context,
subject discipline and pedagogical approach. The key departure of pedagogical courses
from conventional teacher education would involve shifting the focus from pure
disciplinary knowledge and methodology to the learner and her context as well. For
instance, a course on language pedagogy would promote an understanding of the language
25
characteristics of learners, language usage, socio-cultural aspects of language learning,
language as a process and the functional use of language across the curriculum. This
would mean moving away from the conventional focus on language as a subject, which
emphasizes its grammatical structure rather than usage. To enable student-teachers to draw
theoretical insights, they would need to engage with projects involving listening to
children’s reading, observing and analyzing reading difficulties, observing and identifying
mismatches between school language and home language, analyzing textbooks and other
materials used in different subjects in terms of presentation, style and language used.
A pedagogy course on mathematics would focus on understanding the nature of children’s
mathematical thinking as much through theory as through direct observations of children’s
thinking and learning processes, examining the language of mathematics, engaging with
research on children’s learning in specific areas, examining errors, mathematics phobia
and the hidden curriculum.
Pedagogic study of school subjects such as environmental education, history or geography
could be based an organizing and planning for excursions, drawing upon local sources of
evidence in history, projects on oral history, collection and presentation of specimens of
rocks, leaves, stamps, flags, using reports, newspapers, documents, local maps, atlas, map
drawing and reading in the classroom. These could be followed by reflective discussion,
learning how to make observations, record them and analyse them. Such an approach
would help forge linkages between the learner and her context, disciplinary content and
the pedagogical approach.
Curricular provision
Course work: two four courses on Knowledge, Curriculum and Pedagogy: knowledge as
construction through experiences, nature of disciplines, critical understanding of school
curriculum; and pedagogy as the integration of knowledge about the learner, the discipline
and the societal context. This would include the following:
Revisiting / reconstructing concepts: It is important to engage prospective teachers with
the conceptual knowledge they have gained through general education; understanding
school curriculum: negotiating curriculum, critical examination of curriculum, analysis of
school textbooks; linking school knowledge with community life: although much learning
and teaching takes place at home, within the neighbourhood and communities of rural and
tribal India, the school introduces the child to an environment of teaching and learning that
quite by design, marks itself off from the rest of the child’s environment. Schools must
facilitate the creation of vital links between children’s experiences at home and in the
community and what the school offers them; engagement with subject content through
investigative projects, reflective discussions and linking subject knowledge with
appropriate pedagogic processes; engagement with projects relating to different aspects of
children’s learning in languages, mathematics, environmental education, history,
geography, followed by reflective discussion, records of observation, analysis. Learning to
integrate ideas, experiences and professional skills through practicum courses / projects /
in-built field based study units; structured classroom-based research projects to develop
research skills, reflective practice, analysis of school textbooks, children’s errors, learning
styles.
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Learning to assess children’s progress: An important role every teacher has to play is that
of assessing children’s progress, both in terms of their psychological development and the
criteria provided by the curriculum. Techniques of assessment and evaluation comprise a
substantial body of knowledge to which every teacher must be introduced during his or her
pre-service training. The scope of learning assessment and evaluation skills and
awareness needs to be broadened to go beyond the limited context of syllabus-based
achievement testing; the achievement scores in a subject need to be linked with the child’s
overall development; the testing should cover higher level of learning objectives and not
just information. The National Curriculum Framework, 2005 proposes school-based
evaluation as a long-term goal of examination reform. Teacher capacity is to be built for
implementing school based evaluation.
History of evaluation and current practices; place of evaluation in learning and
development of the learner, broadening the scope of assessment beyond achievement
testing to cover child’s overall development. Building capacity in school-based evaluation:
skills and competencies in conducting evaluation; parameters, techniques, tools, criteria,
understanding and interpreting test results, feedback and follow-up; developing selfesteem
and confidence to evaluate learners objectively, understanding role of evaluation in
motivating learners.
2.4 Area 3: PRACTICUM AND SCHOOL INTERNSHIP
The present context
It is common knowledge that practice teaching which constitutes the most functional part
of the teacher preparation has suffered severe neglect and erosion in quality. The common
complaint is that theory dominates the curriculum and practice teaching continues to suffer
from inadequacies of different kinds like: practices follow a mechanical routine
(observation, micro teaching, teaching practice and examination) and exhibit no variety or
original thinking, rigid lesson plan format, lack of variety and context specificity in
teaching, evaluation of student teaching in terms of number of lessons, No attempt towards
comprehensive, qualitative evaluation covering professional attitudes, values, lack of
provision for internship and total school experience, inadequate mentoring and
supervision.
The NCF-2005 points out that:
§ current practices in teacher education take the school curriculum and text
books as a ‘given’ and train teachers to adjust to the needs of the existing
school system through fastidious planning of lessons in standardized
formats, fulfilling the ritual of delivering the required number of lessons.
§ Repeated ‘practice’ in the teaching of a specified number of isolated
lessons is considered a sufficient condition for professional development
§ There is no opportunity for teachers to examine their own biases and beliefs
and reflect on their own experiences as part of classroom discourse and
enquiry
§ Theory courses have no clear articulation with practical work and ground
realities
§ The evaluation protocol is too theoretical, excessively quantitative and
lacks comprehensiveness.
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Situating the practice of teaching in the broader context of the Vision of the Role of the
Teacher
It is obvious that in imparting professional rigor to the preparation of a teacher, practice
teaching and associated rigorous theoretical study play a crucial part. It is the effectiveness
with which the multiple components of field learning: getting to know the school,
observing children, observing teaching and learning in real classroom contexts, practicing
teaching, developing capacities to think with educational theories and applying concepts in
concrete teaching learning situations, managing classroom learning, evaluating children’s
learning and providing feedback, learning to work with colleagues, reflecting on one’s
own professional practice, are transacted that make or mar the making of a professional
teacher.
At the outset, it can be seen that any attempt towards reform of current practices and
designing of innovative approaches in practice teaching should begin with an
understanding of the place of teaching practice in the overall scheme of things. The first
thing to be noted is that the teaching practice issue should not be taken as a concern that
can be discussed in isolation from the other theoretical and practical issues comprising the
teacher education enterprise. It actually constitutes the hub of the multiple and varied
activities comprising the total programme of teacher education. It is interconnected with
theoretical study, field work and practicum and a wide range of institutional experiences
involving school students, teachers, student teachers, mentor teacher educators. In a way it
acts both as the evaluation tool for effective teacher education as well as its critical quality
indicator.
Accordingly, our engagement with the act of restructuring this practical learning
component of teacher education, should involve envisioning the role of the teacher and a
guiding philosophy of teacher education. This philosophy may be described as follows:
• Teacher education is to be seen not as a prescriptive endeavour but as open and
flexible with emphasis on changing contexts and empowerment of the teacher.
• The concern is to make teacher education liberal, humanistic and responsive to the
demands of inclusive education.
• The emphasis in teaching is not to be on didactic communication but on nondidactic,
dialogic explorations between teacher and the taught.
• The principle that should inform teaching is interactivity, variety, active learner
involvement, participation and multi sensory learning.
• The existence of a diversity of learning spaces and curriculum sites, diversity of
learning styles that children exhibit, the learning contexts in which teachers have to
function: oversized classes, diverse languages, ethnic diversities, children with
disadvantages of different kinds needs to be acknowledged. Effective teaching
consists in adjusting materials and methods to the needs, interests, learning pace
and style of learners.
• Classroom teaching is essentially a matter of organizing learning activities aimed
at the achievement of the several objectives. A variety of activities can be
provided: listening, reading, writing, reciting, singing, play acting, playing with
numbers, drawing maps, pictures, observing, collecting specimens, demonstrating,
discussing, asking questions, doing experiments, project work and field visits.
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• Our aim must be to promote reflexive practice, to build capacities of teachers to
evolve knowledge, understanding and professional skills to deal with differing and
fluid learning contexts.
Curricular provision
School Internship: sustained engagement with children and school
The feature distinguishing the proposed process-based teacher education from
conventional teacher education is that of bringing the learners’ own experiences centrestage.
Engagement with theoretical concepts and frameworks takes place within the
learner’s experiential and larger social realities. The structural provision for such
opportunity is to be made in the design of the teacher education programme structure and
within each area of study. By structural provision we mean the positioning of areas of
study/inquiry in a manner that allows an easy flow of movement from experience to theory
and theory to field experiences. A back and forth movement between theory and the field
could be provided through inbuilt field-based units of study, in each theory course as well
as specially designed practicum.
Student-teachers should be given the opportunity to learn to keep observational records, to
analyse their observations and interpret reality within varying theoretical and experiential
frameworks. Such engagement through structured classroom-based research projects
develops in them several skills to function as a researcher, thus equipping them to use
mechanisms that enable reflective practice.
Pre-service teacher education programmes should provide sustained engagement with
children in school situations, experiences of teaching children and observing them and
regular teachers in classrooms. This can be staggered over the years, beginning with
practicum related activities with children, learning to relate and communicate with them,
without having the burden of ‘teaching’ them. This can be followed by field assignments
of observing children in naturalistic situations, at play, in school or in the classroom. Only
after providing easy comfort of relating to children and getting to know them, teacher
trainees are to be entrusted with the opportunity to engage with the process of teachinglearning.
While functioning as a regular teacher for a sustained period of a minimum of 12-20
weeks, the intern would get the opportunity to learn to set realistic goals in term of
children’s learning] curricula content and pedagogic practice. A sustained contact through
internship would help teachers to choose, design organize and conduct meaningful
classroom activities, critically reflect upon their own practices through observations,
record keeping and analysis and develop strategies for evaluating children’s learning for
feedback into curriculum and pedagogic practice. The school would benefit from such an
alliance in terms of witnessing possibilities of unconventional pedagogies. In this process
of internship teacher-trainees develop new materials for teaching-learning which can
become valuable resource for the regular teachers of the school. The internship needs to
be worked as a partnership model with the school rather than a continuation of the current
model of practice teaching during which the trainees merely ‘use’ the school for their own
‘formal degree requirements’.
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Practicum can include being with children, relating and communicating with them, field
observation of children in naturalistic situations, at play, in school or in classroom, engage
with teaching-learning; Choosing, designing, organizing and conduct of meaningful
classroom activities; Critical reflection on one’s own teaching, record keeping, and
analysis; Assessing children’s progress; Evaluating learning for feedback into curriculum
and pedagogic practice.
2.5 Time as a Critical Factor in Teacher Preparation
The issue of quality teacher education is closely tied up with the concern for the duration
of initial teacher preparation (pre-service) programmes. Any form of initial teacher
preparation needs to be of reasonable duration that provides enough time and opportunity
for self-study, reflection and involved engagement with children, the school, the classroom
and pedagogic activities, along with rigorous theoretical study.
An analysis of teacher education practice today would reveal that the practice of teaching
is usually of a short duration, no more than five to six weeks and that too piece-meal in
approach. Foundational and skill inputs introduced earlier are expected to be integrated
and applied during this period. It is commonly held that there isn’t sufficient time for
learning either the conceptual or the skill components of teaching for them to manifest in
the individual and his/her performance. Due to paucity of time, ‘lessons’ are planned with
virtually no reflection on the content of subject-matter and its organization. As a result,
most products of teacher education programmes are neither proficient in general
pedagogic skill nor are they adept at reflecting on the subject content of school texts.
It is perhaps high time that we pay heed to the specific suggestion of increasing the
duration of initial teacher education, recommended by the two most significant policy
Commissions of post-independence India, namely the Kothari Commission (1964-66) and
the Chattopadhaya Commission (1983-85). It would be logical to first work towards a
redesign of initial teacher education and then consider an appropriate time frame for
fulfilling its major objectives, keeping in mind the suitability of pedagogic approach and
strategies of implementation. It would no doubt be a wasted effort to provide ‘more’ of the
‘same content and approach’ that is already being critiqued heavily and has proven
dysfunctional in creating opportunities or spaces for change. Suggested and recommended
models of teacher education are presented in the following section.
2.6 Transacting the Teacher Education Curriculum
The most critical aspect of the proposed teacher education curriculum is its transaction.
Teaching is a profession and teacher education a process of professional preparation of
teachers. A profession, as we all know, is characterized by an organized body of
knowledge on which the undertaking is based (the knowledge base of teacher education), a
reasonable duration of formal and rigorous professional training in tandem with practical
experience in the field and a code of professional ethics that binds its members into a
fraternity. Preparing one for a profession thus is an arduous task and involves action from
multiple fronts and perspectives. It also calls for systematic evaluation of all facets of the
professional training – knowledge and understanding of educational theory, practical field
skills and competencies related to learning and teaching and professional attitudes and
values. These two aspects of professional training, namely, curriculum transaction and
evaluation of learning outcomes, are discussed below:
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2.7 Curriculum Transaction
The adoption of process based teacher education as outlined in the previous chapter
involves providing appropriate opportunities to the student teacher:
• for understanding the self and others (including one’s beliefs, assumptions,
emotions and aspirations); developing the ability for self-analysis, self-evaluation,
adaptability, flexibility, creativity and innovation; understanding and developing
oneself as a professional.
• to observe and engage with children, communicate with and relate to children.
• for self-learning, reflection, assimilation and articulation of new ideas; developing
capacities for self-directed learning and the ability to think, be self-critical and to
work collaboratively in groups.
• for content enrichment to generate understanding and knowledge, examine
disciplinary knowledge and social realities, relate subject matter with the social
milieu and develop critical thinking.
• to develop professional skills in pedagogy, observation, documentation, analysis,
drama, craft, story-telling and reflective inquiry.
Language competence and communication skills
Language cuts across the entire school curriculum. In the context of ‘What should
teachers know and be able to do?’ the role of language as a medium and tool of
communication assumes great importance. A teacher talks, explains, illustrates, translates,
guides, instructs, cautions, motivates, encourages, and plays various other roles. All of
these imply an appropriate and context-specific use of language. Concepts, constructs,
examples are the building blocks of knowledge and all these are language-based. This
makes the teacher’s language competency and his proficiency in communication skills a
critical factor in her/his effective performance whether inside the classroom or elsewhere.
No doubt the teacher should know her subject, it is no less important at the same time that
she should be able to communicate it in a manner that would enable her/his students to
comprehend it and analyze it.
In teacher education, irrespective of its stage specificity and the content area all teacher
education programmes must focus on and accord high priority to the development of
student teacher’s language competence and communication skills. If this is not done,
teacher effectiveness will be considerably jeopardized.
Teaching the adult learner
Teacher education programmes are concerned with adult learners. They need to be based
on an adequate understanding of how adults learn. Adult learners are autonomous and self
directed, have a vast amount of life experiences and knowledge, are pragmatic and goal
directed and respond better to problem/task-oriented learning (case studies, simulations,
role play and action research). The emphasis therefore has to be on accomplishment of
tasks, insights and competence through open-ended activities.
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Bringing the learners’ own experiences center-stage
The important feature distinguishing the proposed process-based teacher education from
conventional teacher education is that an engagement with theoretical concepts and
frameworks takes place within the learner’s experiential and larger social realities. The
structural provision for such opportunity is to be made in the design of the teacher
education programme structure and within each area of study in a manner that allows an
easy flow of movement from experience to theory and theory to field experiences.
Examples of such provisions under different areas have already been presented (for
instance, a proposed child-contact practicum; inbuilt field-based units of study in each
theory course).
Engagement with theoretical concepts and frameworks
It is important to note that an engagement with theoretical concepts and frameworks is
necessary or else there is the real danger of reducing all classroom discussions, including
project work to revolve merely around personal experiences. In such an event there is
little hope to lift the discourse from mere description of experiences to reflective analysis.
This must be cautioned against, if we want to develop the student-teachers’ capacity to
think, analyse, interpret and reflect.
As regards teaching of theory we may note that the knowledge component in teacher
education is derived from the broader area of the discipline of education as well as
foundation disciplines of philosophy, sociology, history and psychology. It needs to be
represented so. It is thus multi-disciplinary in nature within the context of education. In
other words, conceptual inputs in teacher education need to be articulated in such a manner
that they describe and explain educational phenomena – actions, tasks, efforts, processes,
concepts, events and so on. In doing so, concepts from various disciplines need to be
integrated for arriving at composite understanding of educational components. The point of
significance here is that while formulating knowledge components for teacher education
conscious efforts need to be made to represent explanations from the perspective of
education as well as of other social science disciplines. Attempts must be made to shift
from the usual ‘theory to practice’ model to understanding theory in order to develop tools
and frameworks of thinking and to theorise about field realities.
Understanding the self and others
Teacher education programmes at all stages should provide opportunities to the would-be
teacher for understanding the self and others, developing the ability of self analysis and
self evaluation and understanding and developing oneself as a professional. They should
also provide ample opportunities to observe and engage with children, communicate with
and relate to children, for self learning and working collaboratively in groups. Further,
they should provide adequate curricular space for content enrichment to generate
knowledge and critical thinking and professional skills in pedagogical observation, drama,
craft, storytelling and reflective enquiry.
Training to be a reflective practitioner
The programmes should provide spaces for student teachers to reflect on their own
experiences and assumptions as part of the course and classroom enquiry for critical
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observation and reflective analysis of the practice of teaching of teachers and teacher
educators. Availability, quality, appropriateness and sufficiency of feedback are necessary
for learning to be a reflective practitioner.
Theory –practice dialectic
Theory courses in teacher education must be so designed and transacted that they provide
greater spaces to generate a deeper understanding of linkages between theories of child
development and learning, and methods of teaching specific subjects. The most effective
way of ensuring such learning is the internship model based on the primary value of field
experience in a realistic situation. The training schedule should enable trainees to
participate as regular teachers for a sustained length of time, analyze experience as a
teacher, sustained involvement in the school’s life during training and spending long
stretches of time with children.
Meaningful internship and school experience
Pre-service teacher education programmes should provide sustained engagement with
children in school situations, experiences of teaching children and observing them and
regular teachers in classrooms. While functioning as a regular teacher, the intern would get
the opportunity to learn to set realistic goals in terms of children’s learning, curricula
content and pedagogic practice. A sustained contact through internship would help
teachers to choose, design, organize and conduct meaningful classroom activities,
critically reflect upon their own practices through observations, record keeping and
analysis and develop strategies for evaluating children’s learning for feedback into
curriculum and pedagogic practice. The school would benefit from such an alliance in
terms of witnessing possibilities of unconventional pedagogies. In this process of
internship teacher-trainees develop new materials for teaching-learning which can become
valuable resource for the regular teachers of the school.
Internship experiences need to be organized in a way that is useful in evaluating teacher’s
ability, supports socialization within the profession, stimulates development of teachinglearning
concepts, provides a protected field of experimentation, allows insights into new
perspective and enhances motivation to continue learning – reflecting upon their own
teaching practices, by reading journals, books, magazines, by observing children, by
studying a case, by observing other professionals/peers at work, understanding skill
development exercise, by working with hands.
2.8 Need for complementary structures and mechanisms
It must be noted that in order to translate this vision of transacting the teacher education
programme it is essential that the complementary structures and mechanisms are in place
to allow such a transaction. All theory courses will need to be interdisciplinary in structure
and have field-based units of study. For instance, only if a theory course on
‘Contemporary Indian Studies’ draws on a variety of critical social science disciplines
such as sociology, history, political science, economics and geography, will it create a
substantive understanding of the ‘social, cultural, political and economic context’ of
education. This will be further strengthened only if theory courses have field-based units
of study. Likewise, establishing resource centres that enable hands-on engagement with
concepts and ‘tools’ of education such as textbooks and other resources is critical to
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transacting a process-based teacher education programme. These resource centres are
viewed as mechanisms for grounding the education of pre-service students as well as inservice
teachers within immediate classroom contexts, the wider societal context and
learner diversity. The conceptual framework within which these centres will operate is
given below:
Establishing Teacher Learning Centres
TLC: A Structural Space for Hands-on Experience
A TLC would be a structural space located within a teacher education institution for
providing student-teachers with hands-on experience with learning materials, engagement
with children and opportunities for self-reflection. The perspective and design of the TLC
would enable processes that engage teacher-trainees with the world of the learner and her
context; subject-content, learning materials and the process of learning; and the trainee
herself as an aspiring professional.
TLC: A Resource for Teacher-trainees, Teacher Practitioners and Teacher Educators
A TLC would house diverse set of resources that would be required for teacher-trainees to
engage with the a diverse set of processes during their training. These would range from
learning materials developed by the trainees themselves and those collated from various
organizations that specialize in creating teaching-learning materials, activity manuals,
children’s literature, a variety of school textbooks and other alternative materials available.
Opportunities to work with a variety of learning materials would help break the ‘habit’ of
relying on the school textbook as the only source of knowledge and teaching in the
classroom.
TLC: A Forum for Interaction and Sharing
A TLC would serve as a forum for interaction among teacher-trainees and teacherpractitioners
on issues of developing materials and planning for teaching. Frequent
interaction and sharing would help trainees to articulate concerns with clarity and learn
from each other’s experiences. Interaction among trainees could be organized within
yearly, monthly and weekly schedules. The nature of these meetings could range from
planning the curriculum for the year to planning units and web-charts for a unit.
TLC: A Platform for Classroom-Based Research
A TLC would serve as a platform for undertaking short research projects that aim to
broaden teachers’ understanding of children and prompt them to enhance their knowledge
of subject-content. For instance, an investigative project on numeracy of how children
learn mathematics by focusing on the strategies they use to solve arithmetic tasks. By
increasing teachers understanding of how children develop increasingly sophisticated
ways of solving arithmetic tasks, the research based learning framework (used in such
projects) provides direction for teaching and learning. This in turn would improve
children’s learning through teacher’s professional development.
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TLC: A Structural Space for Self-directed Activities
A TLC would serve as a structural space whose resources would be available for teachertrainees
to undertake self-directed activities such as analysis of school textbooks and
literacy primers. Learning teachers would undertake analysis of textbooks to assess their
suitability for children of different levels. Analysis of textbooks, using dimensions of
subject-content, presentation style, language used, treatment of concepts and issues of
gender and pedagogic approach would also facilitate trainees to think critically. The study
of alternative text material would expose them to the different ways in which texts can be
written.
Trainee teachers could be engaged with collating children’s questions about natural and
social phenomena such as the following: Why do we speak different languages? Why does
the lizard not fall from the ceiling? An analysis of these would prompt them to engage
with subject content and to appreciate the nature of children’s reasoning at different ages.
TLCs could provide opportunities for teacher-trainees to understand children’s thinking
through personal interviews and probing with individual children. Trainees could develop
profiles of children from diverse contexts to help them appreciate their unique social,
cultural and political environments.
TLC: A Platform for Developing a Repertoire of Skills
TLCs could provide a platform for organizing workshops to develop a repertoire of
professional skills such as story-telling, craft, music and drama. Trainees would learn to
use stories as a medium to facilitate expression, imagination and the creative use of
language in children; create bulletin boards, story-poem folders and organize reading
corners in classrooms. They would learn to use drama and art as a learning tool and as
strategies for classroom management. Through short research projects teacher-trainees and
teacher practitioners will develop skills of observation, documentation, analysis and
interpretation.
TLC: A Structural Space for the Personal and Psychological Development of Teachers
TLCs would focus on activities directly related to the personal and psychological
development of the teacher. Trainees would be encouraged to engage with their own
childhood experiences, aspirations to become a teacher and their views on issues of gender
and identity, personal, familial and social conflict. Through focused workshops they
would examine adult-child gaps in communication, explore their own attitudes towards
competition and cooperation, analyse and observe the impact of competition in personal
and social life. Dimensions of self can be explored through activities of drama, art, music
and craft which often provide non-judgemental and non-threatening learning
environments. Some of the self-directed learning strategies would include finding answers
to deep reflective questions; reflective reading; reflection on observations in the classroom
followed by group discussion; identification of issues for further self-study; keeping
reflective diaries/journals.
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TLC: A Structural Space for Forging Links between Pre-service and In-service Teacher
Education
TLC in a teacher education institution will provide the necessary space which could be
commonly used for both pre-service and in-service teachers. Teacher education institutes
that organize both programmes would need to coordinate with the aim to impact select
schools in a concerted manner. For instance, regular teachers of the internship/practice
teaching schools (where pre-service students are placed), could participate in the inservice
programmes, re-oriented to address the immediate classroom context and learner
diversity. A cluster of schools selected by DIETs each year to place pre-service students,
can also be the selected schools for in-service programmes. All teachers of these schools
can be involved in a concerted way through in-service programmes that are redesigned to
provide individual support and mentoring. The DIET-TLC would provide the necessary
structural space to (a) design the ‘routine’ in-service package of 20 days and provide
hands-on training, which addresses classroom concerns and teachers’ needs. (b) provide
school-based resource support to individual teachers through the school-based Learning
Centre established by interns. Concerted individual support to teachers on classroombased
concerns and issues for duration of about three years is likely to enable a process of
change and deep impact. A formal partnership with a university-based institute or an NGO
where possible can support the effort of the DIET-TLC in this direction, in particular in
the redesigning of the in-service programmes and in providing the bridge between the
teacher education institute and schools.
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Chapter 3
SAMPLE REDESIGNED SCHEMAS OF CURRENT TEACHER
EDUCATION PROGRAMMES
3.1 Introduction
It has already been stated that the broad spectrum of expected learnings in a would-be
teacher demands that initial teacher education needs to be of a fairly long duration
providing enough time and opportunity for self study, reflection and involvement,
engagement with teachers, school, classroom and pedagogic activity along with theoretical
study. Any compromise on the duration of training for whatever reason adversely affects
the quality of training.
It is therefore recommended that current models of Teacher Education at all levels of
school education be gradually replaced by Models of Teacher Education that integrate
general education with professional development along with an intensive internship with
schools. These Integrated Models should be designed using the specific features outlined
in the curricular areas and transaction process. The time-frame recommended to ensure the
institutionalization of these models would be between 4-6 years. As an interim measure,
current models of Teacher Education such as the BEd and DEd are required to redesign
their courses as well as the Programme Structure to include the specific features and
structural mechanisms proposed in the new framework in terms of curricular areas and
transaction processes.
3.2 D.Ed: Two-Year Diploma after +2; BEd One-Year Degree after graduation
Area 1: Theoretical Foundations of Education
1. Child Studies
2. Contemporary Studies
3. Educational studies
Area 2: Curriculum and Pedagogical Theory
1. Curriculum Studies
2. Pedagogical Studies
Each of the theory courses to have units of study from various disciplines. For instance,
Courses on Child Development to have units of study on constructs of childhood drawn
from sociological studies, units on children’s cognitive development and learning to draw
from psychological studies.
Each of the theory courses to include field-based units of study. For instance, courses on
Contemporary Studies to include a project on reservation, or understanding a consumer
product such as ‘glass bangles’ from its raw form to its reach in the market.
37
The Curriculum Studies Courses would necessarily include units of study that provide a
critical study of curriculum materials, syllabi, textbooks in the light of theoretical
frameworks and empirical research.
The Pedagogic Studies Courses would necessarily include units of study that provide the
critical study of content, an examination of children’s thinking and learning and pedagogic
processes in the light of theoretical frameworks and empirical research.
Each of the above theory courses to be complemented with Practicum Courses. For
instance, a course on Child Development could have a practicum on ‘Observing Children’
in naturalistic settings to study play patterns, to study their economic and societal contexts,
interviewing children to understand their thinking and learning processes.
Area 3: Practicum Courses and School Internship
1. School-contact Programme
2. Observing Children
3. Self-development
4. Story-telling and Children’s Literature
5. Theatre, Creative Drama, Craft and Music
6. Material Development and Evaluation
7. Classroom Management and Block Teaching
8. Visits to Innovative Centres of Pedagogy and Learning
9. Classroom-based research project
10. School Internship of 4 days a week over a minimum period of 6-10 weeks,
including an initial phase of observing a regular classroom.
Each of these practicum should be positioned strategically over the two years to enable a
back and forth movement between theory and the field.
The practice of teaching during school internship would include not more than 4 Unit
Plans per subject. Planning of the Units would include a critical engagement with content
from multiple sources including the school textbook, organization and presentation of
subject-matter, formulating questions specifically to: (a) assess knowledge base and
understanding of students; (b) further the process of knowledge construction and meaningmaking
in the classroom and (c) assess students’ learning to improve pedagogic practice
and further enhance learning.
Transaction of Teacher Education Programmes should follow the broad strategies
presented in the earlier chapter.
3.3 Four year integrated programme
Outlined below is a short synopsis of the vision and features of a four-year integrated
Programme of Elementary Teacher Education designed to integrate general education with
professional training
• Strong Foundations of Education located in sociological understanding of
education and philosophical thinking on education
• In-built courses to engage with subject content with the aim to revisit and
reconstruct concepts and perspectives
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• Engagement with theory of pedagogy and hands-on experience in understanding
the learner, her context and processing of thinking and learning as a base to evolve
relevant and appropriate pedagogic strategies.
• Theory courses designed to enable inter-disciplinary engagement as well as visit
theory in the light of personal experiences and social realities.
• Opportunities for developing the self through drama, craft, music, selfdevelopment
workshops along with a critical engagement with theoretical
constructs of identity development and the individual-social interface.
• Extensive and intensive practicum courses to equip teachers with a grip over
existing systemic issues in education, a developing capacity to rise to the uncertainities
of a learning environment and changing learner needs and a capacity to
feel empowered to make a difference.
• Practicum courses to develop other professional capacities such as the ability to
evolve developmentally and contextually relevant pedagogies, re-aaranging
subject-matter to communicate effectively with learners and a repertoire of skills of
relating to children, designing and choosing appropriate learning experiences,
observing and documenting, analyzing, synthesizing and interpreting.
• Sustained engagement with schools to appreciate the given constraints of a system
and to learn to strategise to think out of the box. Understand and learn to negotiate
formal learning spaces as sites of struggle, contestation and social transformation.
Recommendations for Pre-service Programmes of Teacher Education
• A four-year integrated programme of elementary teacher education in select state
universities and all Central Universities, in particular via IASEs and select DIETs
could be undertaken in the initial phase.
• XI Plan funding under the innovative education schemes should be channelised as a
priority by the UGC to Universities and select DIETs to institute four year Integrated
Elementary Teacher Education Programmes.
• As an interim measure, current models of Elementary Teacher Education offered by
the DIETs such as the DEd are required to redesign their courses as well as the
Programme Structure to include the specific features and structural mechanisms
proposed in the new framework in terms of curricular areas and transaction
processes.
• A review of the existing DEd programmes is commissioned and the process of
redesign of the curriculum in the light of the proposed process model be completed
in the next 1-2 years.
3.4 Pre-service Programmes at the Secondary Stage
• Existing BEd programmes should be reviewed to facilitate the choice between a
four-year integrated model after +2 or a two-year model after graduation, based on
state requirements and available institutional capacity.
• As an interim measure, current models of Teacher Education such as the BEd are
required to redesign their courses as well as the Programme Structure to include the
specific features and structural mechanisms proposed in the new framework in terms
of curricular areas and transaction processes.
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• A review of the existing BEd programmes is commissioned and the process of
redesign of the curriculum in the light of the proposed process model be completed
in the next 1-2 years.
3.5 Structural and Operational Issues of Teacher Education and Continuous
Professional Development
• Teacher education programmes should be redesigned to respond to the school
curriculum renewal process and in accordance with the state and regional context in
which they are situated.
• The Curricular Areas presented should form the basic framework for redesigning
teacher education programmes at the pre-primary, elementary, secondary and senior
secondary stages of education across states and districts through a proposed linkage
between SCERT/DIETs with University-based institutions.
• Teacher education programmes should ideally be of four-five years duration after the
completion of 10+2 level of school education. To begin with four year integrated
programmes could be instituted. Along with a four-year model, other models should
be encouraged, for instance two-year models with a 6 months to a year of school
internship.
• Integrated model for teacher education could comprise of core components that
would be common to all teacher education programmes (pre-primary, elementary
and secondary) followed by specialization of professional development specific to
the stage of education.
• Mechanisms need to be evolved to promote the entry of talent in teacher education
programmes.
• Vertical linkages for post-graduate studies in education, including research
programmes, for students from a variety of Science and Social Science disciplines
need to be provided.
• A study to assess the dominant entry qualification of candidates for pre-service
programmes in elementary education to design state specific strategies will need to
be undertaken.
• High-level consultative arrangements on building linkages between teacher
education and school curriculum design and its processes of renewal, including the
development of curriculum materials would need to be developed.
• A nation-wide review of teacher education curriculum in the light of the school
curriculum renewal exercise would need to be undertaken.
• Nation-wide seminars and workshops could be held to initiate discussions and
possible strategies for operationalising the institution of redesigned teacher education
and development.
40
Chapter 4
EVALUATING THE DEVELOPING TEACHER
4.1 Introduction
A glaring weakness of existing teacher education practices is the restricted scope of
evaluation of student teachers and its excessively quantitative nature. It is confined to
measurement of mainly cognitive learning through annual / terminal tests; skill
measurement is limited to a specified number of lessons. The qualitative dimensions of
teacher education, other professional capacities, attitudes and values remain outside the
purview of evaluation. Further, evaluation is not continuous as it should be; the teacher
education process is characterized by a wide range and variety of curricular inputs spread
over the entire duration of training according to the developmental sequence and these
need to be evaluated at appropriate stages and feedback given to the trainees.
4.2 The comprehensive nature of evaluation
Evaluation in teacher education needs to be objective and comprehensive to cover the
entire gamut of developing dimensions in the teacher trainees covering the conceptual,
pedagogical aspects as well as attitudes, dispositions, habits and capacities in a teacher
incorporating both the quantitative and qualitative dimension of growth. These include:
engagement with children in their contexts, school curriculum and textbooks, process of
learning and knowledge, psychological and professional development, understanding of
institutional arrangements, policy perspective, pedagogy and curriculum. Assessment
should cover: understanding of the process of child development, societal context of
education, nature of children’s thinking – mathematics, language, natural and social
phenomena, philosophical and sociological frameworks, undertaking analysis of
curriculum, grasp of the school as a system, ways in which developing teachers
demonstrate their changing dispositions, professional skills in organizing group learning
and team work.
4.3 The evaluation protocol
Qualitative indicators specific to each area of assessment need to be drawn up and initial
allotment of marks should lead eventually to grades. The bases and criteria for evaluation
may include:
Observing children for a specified duration in specific situations: number of hours of
observation, method used, detailed notes, recording formats, data coding, reports, analysis
and interpretation.
Observational records maintained by the student teacher on a set of criteria relevant to
the task and report writing: field notes, classification schemes used to make sense of
qualitative data.
School contact practicum to relate and communicate with children: preparation, choice
of activities, materials, developments that take place in the classroom, interaction with
children, reflection on issues regarding children’s learning, expressions, creativity,
discipline, influence of varying contexts.
41
Planning for the school contact: choice of theme, activities, materials, time, organization
of material, communication skills, ability to engage children, interaction, time
management.
Post contact discussions, report writing and group presentations: quality of discussions,
insights, analysis, reflections.
Psychological and professional development of the teacher: Courses, theory and
practicum on the development of the self. Personal growth can be assessed using the
criteria of the capacity of participants to question and be critical of their own assumptions,
thoughts, opinions and ideas, developing insight into one’s own self: articulating one’s
own limitations and strengths, capacity to integrate thought and action, feeling and
intellect, developing self-confidence and questioning over-confidence, open-mindedness,
ability to listen with empathy and attention, social sensitivity, ability to take initiative,
developing positive attitudes and reflecting on negative attitudes. Self-evaluation of
students would use the same criteria of personal growth.
Assessing a repertoire of skills: regularity and nature of participation in workshops; skills
of creating bulletin boards using relevant themes and stories, story folders that make a
collection of stories in terms of variety, context, social and cultural diversity and
sensitivity, adequate reference to sources and acknowledgements, classification and
retrieval system for the use of stories in classrooms and outside, capacity for evaluating
‘sound’ children’s literature with substantive reflection on the why of such a criteria, skills
of telling stories to children, selection of story according to a theme, appropriateness in
terms of the age group of the children being addressed, the use of animation, voice, pitch,
clarity, eye contact, the use of gestures, handling of a story book and the nature of
children’s involvement.
Understanding the learner, curricular and pedagogic issues: Practicum courses
complementing theory learning with curriculum studies: Observation of classroom,
teaching practices, visits to centres of innovation, curricular materials, document and text
analysis; observation records, individual and group reports, reflections, material
development, journal of reflective learning etc.
Teacher as researcher: Teacher-trainees are also given the opportunity to learn to keep
observational records, to analyze their observations and interpret reality within varying
theoretical and experiential frameworks. Such engagement through structured classroombased
research projects develops in them several skills to function as a researcher, thus
equipping them to use mechanisms that enable reflective practice. Over the year trainees
undertake several such tasks, including analysis of school textbooks and alternative
materials, analysis of children’s errors and observation of children’s learning styles and
strategies.
Internship activities on which students may be assessed: observing and reflecting on
classroom practices, regular teaching, teaching-learning resources developed, records of
planned units of study and regular daily diary / journal of reflections, evaluation of
children: design of assessment of learning, type of questions in domain areas, viewing
assessment as an aid to learning and not merely as an indicator of learning.
42
Each intern would be expected to keep a reflective journal that would help her to revisit
her experiences in the classroom over the period of internship. The journal would include
short descriptions of how the class was conducted, how children responded, followed by
analytical and reflective statements about her preparedness for the class, her responses to
children’s questions, her capacity to include children’s sharing of their experiences, her
response towards their errors, difficulties in comprehending new ideas and concepts and
issues of discipline, organization and management of the group, individual and whole
class activities. Evaluation of the journal would mean looking at how the intern has been
able to gradually move towards writing reflections rather than merely describing
classroom events and processes.
43
Chapter 5
IN-SERVICE EDUCATION AND CONTINUOUS
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
5.1 Introduction
The idea of in-service education for teachers was discussed in the Kothari Commission
(1964-66) and in the Chattopadhyay Commission (1983-85) as important in order to
enable teachers to renew their knowledge about teaching and the subjects they teach as
well as to help to break the isolation of the teacher. All initiatives in curriculum, whether
of the whole curriculum, special inputs in specific subject areas, or infusing new social
concerns, have been implemented through the renewal or up-gradation in the knowledge
and practice of teachers already in school. This includes both government initiatives as
well as small and large interventions into government schools and alternative schools by
non government agencies.
These concerns for the teacher as a professional as well as the teacher as the most
important point for transformation in curriculum renewal have in general provided the
overarching aims for the design of in-service teacher education and activities contributing
to their professional development.
The system has responded by creating structures and institutions for this purpose, and
providing increasingly more financial support for these activities. Following the Kothari
Commission’s report, in several states school clusters were created to forge inter-linkages
between primary, middle and high schools and provided a forum and structure of
interactions between teachers and receiving professional inputs. Following the NPE 1986,
in-service teacher education received support through central government funding for the
establishment of Institutes of Advanced Studies in Education (IASE) to chosen University
Departments of Education and District Institutes of Education and training (DIET) in each
district with a view to provide a space for the conduction of inservice courses for teachers
of elementary and secondary schools. The DIETs in addition had the mandate to work
towards universalizing and renewing elementary education through supporting innovations
and strengthening field activity. The District Primary Education Programme (DPEP,
1995-2003) across the country further set up the structures of the block and cluster
resource centers with the explicit mandate to provide inservice training to primary school
teachers in new, child-centred pedagogic methods and to provide school based support to
teachers. The attempt has been to shift away from the idea of subject inspectors and
inspectors of schools attached to the education administration office, towards the idea of a
resource person attached to an academic resource and support centre. The Sarva Siksha
Abhiyam (SSA, 2001) has also placed emphasis on continuous in-service teacher
education requiring each teacher to receive 20 days of training every year.
There has also been a growth in other kinds of professional activities for teachers. All
teachers are members of associations which have from time to time taken up academic
activities and organized conventions and meetings to discuss professionally important
developments. Teachers’ involvements in textbook preparation and indeed even in the
preparation of training modules etc. has grown over the years. Teacher themselves have
44
opportunities to work in the block and cluster centers as well as to contribute to trainings
as resource persons. They are also members of committees formulating policies in
education. NGO initiatives such as the Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme
(HSTP) in Madhya Pradesh, the Uttarakhand Seva Nidhi of Uttranchal, BVIER, Pune and
PRISM of the Homi Bhabha Centre in Mumbai, have developed and implemented models
of teacher professional development and support in ways that directly impact the
classroom. Furthermore, all agencies trying to reach out to children through special
packages, whether to promote AIDS awareness or introduce technology into the
classroom, heavily depend on providing related training to teachers to implement their
programmes.
There is thus a plethora of opportunities and avenues for the continued professional
development of teachers. These have varying degrees of success in terms of motivating
teachers to alter and develop their classroom practice in ways that improve children’s
learning and provide educationally rich experiences to them. Micro-stories of success
often seem to ‘fail’ when upscaled. There is very little research into the effectiveness of
training, or the status of school support activities on the ground, or detailed understanding
of even reported successes and failures. Evidence of ‘effectiveness’ of training
programmes and support activities, especially within the government system, continues to
be only anecdotal and impressionistic, and even contrary, depending on who is asking the
questions or doing the observation. The whole approach to the teachers professional needs
as a professional continue to be determined, planned, implemented and monitored
extrinsically, compromising on the concept of the teacher as a professional and with little
or no basis for the design of the interventions.
5.2 Aims of Programmes for Continuous Professional Development of Teachers
As a professional, teachers seek for avenues for their self development:
• to explore, reflect on and develop one’s own practice
• to deepen one’s knowledge of, and update oneself about one’s academic discipline
or other areas of school curriculum
• to research and reflect on children and their education
• to understand and update oneself on education and social issues
• to prepare for other roles professionally linked to education/teaching, such as
teacher education, curriculum development or counseling etc.
• to break out of ones isolation and share ones experiences and insights with others
in the field, both teachers and academics working in the area of one’s discipline, as
well as intellectuals in the immediate and wider society.
Education and curriculum planners also seek to provide avenues for the professional
development of teachers as a part of curriculum reform and strengthening:
• to enable teachers to work towards prioritized goals in education such as
universalisation and inclusion
• to influence social attitudes and generate greater commitment to constitutional
values and overcoming discrimination in the classroom
45
• to transform existing practices towards more child friendly methods and methods
suited to strengthening conceptual learning and understanding rather than rote
learning.
• to enable teachers to implement and achieve specific targeted aspects in the
curriculum, such as the use of a type of technology, or the addition of topics such
as AIDS, or adolescent education, etc.
• to prepare teachers to play enhanced roles in the education system, as resource
persons, or head teachers, etc.
• in the context where many pre-service training programmes are of poor quality
and often fails to provide teachers with sufficient understanding that could lead to
reflective practice, and where state governments have recruited untrained
personnel(para-teachers) in various kinds of non-formal centers, it becomes
necessary to include the unaddressed needs of pre-service programmes through
continued professional development.
5.3 Designing In-service Programmes : Some Principles
The design of in-service programmes would depend on the specific aims of each
programme given a vast variation in context. However, some general principles would
need to be kept in mind during the design and implementation across various programmes.
These would necessarily relate to the teacher as a professional and the content and
pedagogic approach to be followed:
5.3.1 Content and pedagogic approach
• Programmes must build on the principle of creating ‘spaces’ for sharing of
experiences of communities of teachers among themselves, to build
stronger shared professional basis of individual experiences and ideas.
Giving teachers a space to develop and hear their own voices is of utmost
importance.
• Programmes must be designed with a clear sense of their aims and how the
strategies of the programme are going to achieve these aims. This alone
can ensure that programmes remain on track and ‘alive’ rather than routine
when they are implemented. This may also require then, that every group
of trainers either directly participate in the design of the programme,
keeping in mind a specific group of teachers, or adapts a given programme
to a specific group of teachers. Programmes also need to include a plan for
post programme support and include training/orientation of support faculty
in the same.
• All programmes must find acceptance of their aims with the teachers group
concerned, regarding whether they need such a programme and why they
are to attend it. The principle of choice of programmes to attend based on
teachers own assessment of what she or he needs or is advised based on
some valid assessment of professional requirement would provide a sound
basis for in-service programmes especially those that are of a long duration
and which seek to impact practice. One size cannot fit all.
• Interactivity must not be compromised on any account. Large numbers,
and the use of electronic media in the place of human interaction,
compromises on the non-negotiable.
46
• The content of programmes must be such that teachers can relate to it from
their own experience and also find opportunities to reflect on these
experiences.
• The approach of motivating for change must not put the burden on
individual development alone, but must also recognise and respond to the
structural issues that affect teacher’s day to day practice. Equally,
structures and people in supervisory postion must be educated to support
and provide space to encourage teachers to plan and practice autonomously.
Programmes that seek to develop or alter basic practice need to be planned towards
extensive interactions over time with the same resource group.
5.3.2 Addressing teachers as learners
• Teachers are adults, and have already formed a working professional
identity and already has experiences of teaching, and associated beliefs
about learners, themselves as teachers and of the teaching-learning process.
Any in-service programme, whether it attempts to seed new ideas,
challenge existing notions and assumptions or simply provide content
knowledge, needs to acknowledge and respect this professional identity and
knowledge of the teacher and work with and from it.
• Any effort to strengthen teachers’ professional practice must equally
respect them as professionals. This includes matters of training content and
approach, how trainings are announced, and how they are implemented.
Programmes must build on and strengthen the teachers own identity as a
professional teacher and in many cases also establish and nurture the
linkage with the academic disciplines of their interest. Programmes that
compromise on the professional identity of the teacher and her autonomy
will be unsustainable in the long run, providing very little psychological
motivation for teacher to internalize what they have been told into their
practice.
• As adults and professionals, teachers are critical observers of the contents
of in-service activities and the extent to which they learn from these
trainings is a function of their assessment of its quality and the extent to
which it relates to their needs.
• The practice of a teacher cannot be developed through quick fix strategies
and activities, without the development of an accompanying
framework/theory on the process of learning and the aims of education.
• Over-training, routinised and superficial training leads to cynicism and
training fatigue.
5.4 Seeking Various Routes Towards Teachers’ Continuous Professional
Development : Types of In-service Programmes
Keeping in mind the aims of in-service programmes for professional development, there is
need to recognize the variety of types of in-service programme and experiences that can
contribute towards and sustain professional development. This is especially so in the
context in which 20-days of ‘training’ for all teachers is being mandated by government.
If it is for the development and strengthening of overall practice of the teacher, then there
47
is
for Teacher Education
200
PREFACE
Teacher education and school education have a symbiotic relationship. Developments in both these sectors
mutually reinforce the concerns necessary for the qualitative improvement of the entire spectrum of education. It was against this backdrop that the NCTE undertook a major exercise of developing a new National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education which is both contextual and in tune with the emerging concerns and imperatives of the fast changing canvas of education both nationally and globally.
While undertaking this exercise, the NCTE had the benefit of reviewing similar exercises attempted in this area before, namely, the curriculum framework developed by the non-statutory NCTE in 1978, a revised version of this framework developed by the NCERT in 1988, the first curriculum framework for quality teacher education by the statutory NCTE in 1998, an independent exercise in evolving a teacher education curriculum framework by the NCERT in 2005 and a joint curriculum framework brought out by NCTE and NCERT in 2006.Keeping in view the outcomes reflected in the documents arising out of the above efforts at curriculum renovation,the NCTE set up an expert committee consisting of Prof. C.L. Anand (Chairman), Prof. S.V.S. Chaudhary, Prof. C.Seshadri, Prof. R.S. Khan, Prof. Raja Ganeshan, Prof. V.K. Sabharwal and Prof. L.C. Singh to make a new curriculum framework in consonance with the changes that have taken place in different spheres of knowledge.This Committee produced a draft framework which was discussed with the concerned stake holders in two regional consultative meets held at Udaipur and Hyderabad in which the Vice-Chancellors of various Universities, Deans of the Faculties of Education of some Universities,Directors of State Councils of Educational Research and Training (SCERTs), Principals of District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs), faculty of Regional Institutes of
Education (RIEs) of the NCERT, teachers, teacher educators, senior staff from the State Governments and other experts participated.The NCTE has been conscious of the fact that such a document has important futuristic implications for teacher education. It was therefore thought necessary that this document was subjected to further elaborate discussion on the nature of issues which inform teacher education. In particular, the National Curriculum Framework, 2005 brought out by the NCERT as well as implications of the Right to Education Act, 2009 passed by the Parliament dominated the thinking in the NCERT towards revisiting teacher education. To achieve this objective the NCTE constituted another group of experts involving Prof. C. Seshadri (Chairman),Prof. A.K. Sharma, Prof. Shyam B. Menon, Prof. Poonam Batra and Ms. Anjali Nornha as its members. The present draft has eloquently brought out a new vision of teacher education which will receive the attention of the experts in the field and will motivate them to give their comments for its further enrichment.In totality, therefore, the exercise of evolving a new draft National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education incorporates the work and long standing experience of well-known educationists and experts in teacher education whose names I am very happy to put on record in this Preface.
This draft is for discussion and is being uploaded on the website of the NCTE (www.ncte-india.org) with the hope that all concerned will spare their valuable time in going through this document and hopefully they would enrich the NCTE with their inputs so that a final version of the framework is evolved for a wider national debate on teacher education. The comments may be sent to the NCTE by the last week of September, 2009, may be electronically on the NCTE email (cp@ncte-india.org).
Prof. Mohd. Akhtar Siddiqui
Chairperson
31st August, 2009
3
CONTENTS
Chapter Title Page No.
1. Context, Concerns and Vision of Teacher Education 4-17
2. Curricular Areas of Initial Teacher Education 18-35
3. Sample Redesigned Schemas of Current Teacher Education
Programmes36-39
4. Evaluating The Developing Teacher 40-42
5. In-Service Education and Continuous
Professional Development 43-51
6. Preparing Teacher Educators 52-61
Chapter 1
CONTEXT, CONCERNS AND VISION OF TEACHER EDUCATION
1.1 Introduction
India has made considerable progress in school education since independence with
reference to overall literacy, infrastructure and universal access and enrolment in schools.
Two major developments in the recent years form the background to the present reform in
teacher education - the political recognition of Universalization of Elementary Education
(UEE) as a legitimate demand and the state commitment towards UEE in the form of 86th
Amendment, 2002 which has led to the Right to Education Bill, 2008 and the National
Curriculum Framework (NCF) for School Education, 2005. The Bill has since been passed
by the Parliament and the Right to Education Act has come into being making it
mandatory for the state to provide free and compulsory education to almost 20 crore
children in the 6-14 age group till class 8. The Right to Education Act mandates a schedule
for the functioning of schools which includes a teacher: student ratio of 1:30 till a student
population of 200 students at the Primary Stage. This would increase the demand for
qualified elementary school teachers many times. The country has to address the need of
supplying well qualified and professionally trained teachers in larger numbers in the
coming years.
The NCF 2005 places different demands and expectations on the teacher, which need to be
addressed by both initial and continuing teacher education. The importance of competent
teachers to the nation’s school system can in no way be overemphasized. It is well known
that the quality and extent of learner achievement are determined primarily by teacher
competence, sensitivity and teacher motivation. It is common knowledge that the
academic and professional standards of teachers constitute a critical component of the
essential learning conditions for achieving the educational goals. The length of academic
preparation, the level and quality of subject matter knowledge, the repertoire of
pedagogical skills teachers possess to meet the needs of diverse learning situations, the
degree of commitment to the profession, sensitivity to contemporary issues and problems
and the level of motivation critically influence the quality of curriculum transaction in
classrooms and thereby pupil learning and the larger social transformation.
Teacher quality is a function of several factors: teacher’s status, remuneration and
conditions of work, teacher’s academic and professional education. The teacher education
system through its initial and continuing professional development programmes is
expected to ensure adequate supply of professionally competent teachers to run the
nation’s schools. Initial teacher education, especially, has a major part to play in the
making of a teacher. It marks the initiation of the novice entrant to the calling and as such
has tremendous potential to imbue the would-be teacher with proper motivation,
knowledge, skills and attitudes. One may say, the bottom line of teacher education is the
quality of teacher performance in terms of its impact on the learner and indirectly on larger
social transformation as already stated.
1.2 The Changing School Context and its Demands
A teacher functions within the broader framework of the school education system – its
goals, curricula, materials, methods and expectations from the teacher. A teacher
education curriculum framework needs to be in consonance with the curriculum
framework for school education, and a teacher needs to be prepared in relation to the
needs and demands arising in the school context. As such, it needs to engage with the
questions of the learner, the learning process and the content and pedagogy of educating
teachers. The expectations of the school system from a teacher change from time to time,
responding to the broader social, economic and political changes taking place in the
society. The issue of teacher education accordingly has to be discussed in the much wider
and changing context and demands of school education.
School education has seen significant development over the decades since independence.
According to Government estimates (Selected Educational Statistics – 2004-2005 -
Ministry of Human Resource Development(MHRD), New Delhi) while 82% of the 20
crore children of the 5-14 age group were in school as per enrolment figures, it is equally
true that nearly 50% of these children are dropping out before completing class 8 (MHRD
Annual Report, 2007-08). One finds the situation on the ground still ridden with
difficulties. Regional, social, and gender disparities continue to pose new challenges. This
reality increases the challenge that the prospective teacher will face in implementing the
Right to Education Act.
The teacher must now be equipped not only to teach but also to understand her student and
the community of parents so that children are regular in schools and learn. The Act
mandates that the teacher would be responsible for enrolling all children seeking
admission, reframing from inflicting corporal punishment, complete the given curriculum
in the given time, assess students, hold parent meetings and orient them and as part of the
school management committee, organise the overall running of the school.
In addition, the NCF 2005, requires a teacher to be a facilitator of children’s learning in a
manner that the child is helped to construct her knowledge. It also opens out possibilities
for the teacher to participate in the construction of syllabus, textbooks and teaching
learning materials. Such roles demand that teachers be equipped with a better
understanding of curriculum, subject content and pedagogy on the one hand and
community and school structures and management on the other.
The launch of the massive Serva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in 2002 and the recent financial
commitment and education cess to augment the UEE mission have underscored the need
to adequately prepare teachers to address the growing demand for quality education. A
similar demand may arise in the context of the impending universalization of secondary
education in the coming 5 to 10 years
The continued fragmentation of the school system poses, by far, the severest challenge to
the national declaration of catering to the basic learning needs of all children in the 6-14
age group through the elementary education system in an inclusive setting. However
increasing privatisation and differentiation of the schooling system have vitiated
drastically the right to quality education for all children. In addition, the pressures of
globalisation leading to commercialisation in all sectors including education and
6
increasing competition are forcing children into unprecedented situations that they have to
cope with.
There is now public acknowledgement that the current system of schooling imposes a
tremendous burden on children and they must be freed from it. The recommendations of
the NCF 2005 on school curriculum are built on this plank. Educationists are of the view
that the burden arises from treating knowledge as a ‘given’, an external reality existing
outside the learner and embedded in textbooks. Knowledge is essentially a human
construct, a continuously evolving process of reflective learning.
This view of education points to the need to take a fresh look at teacher preparation.
Education is not a mechanical activity of information transmission and teachers are not
information dispensers. Teachers need to be looked at as crucial mediating agents through
whom curriculum is transacted. Textbooks by themselves do not help in developing
knowledge and understanding. Learning is not confined to the four walls of the classroom.
We need to connect knowledge to life outside the school and enrich the curriculum by
making it less textbook-oriented.
1.3 Present Teacher Education Scenario
Unprecedented expansion of teacher education institutions and programmes during the
past few years characterizes the teacher education scenario of today. With increasing
school enrolments and the launch of pan-Indian primary education development
programmes like Operation Blackboard (OB), (DPEP) and District Primary Education
Programme. SSA to achieve UEE, there was a natural increase in demand for teachers.
Added to this, the backlog of untrained teachers in the system and the essential
requirement of pre-service teacher certification for appointment as a teacher led to
mounting pressure on existing institutional capacity. The demand far exceeding supply,
market forces have taken over causing unprecedented rise in the number of teacher
education institutions in most parts of the country. The escalating demand for trained
teachers and the belief that a training certificate acts as collateral against future
unemployment has made teacher education a lucrative business proposition. It has also led
to large scale mushrooming of substandard teacher education institutions.
From 3489 courses in 3199 institutions and an intake of 2,74,072 in 2004, the number’s in
December, 2008 swelled to a whopping 14,523 courses in 12,266 institutions with an
intake of 10,73,661 at different levels, that is, pre-primary, elementary, secondary (face-toface
and distance modes), M.Ed (face-to-face and distance modes), M.Ed (part-time),
C.P.Ed, B.P.Ed and M.P.Ed. This expansion has, naturally, taken a heavy toll on quality
parameters like infrastructure, faculty learning resources and student profile.
Till January 2007, 31 Institute of Advanced Studies in Education (IASEs) and 104
Colleges of Teacher Education (CTEs) were sanctioned and all of these were functional.
So far as the District Institute of Education and Training (DIETs) are concerned, for 599
districts in the country, 556 DIETs were sanctioned and of these 466 were functional.
Thus as many as 90 DIETs were yet to become functional (Working Group Report on
Elementary Education and Literacy, XI Five Year Plan, Jan 2007, 187-190). The main
problem facing DIETs is non-availability of qualified faculty, presently the faculty
appointed do not possess qualifications/experience in elementary teacher education. A
good number of CTEs face faculty shortage, they spend more time on initial teacher
7
education, and research, development and innovative activities are yet to take concrete
shape and library facilities appear weak. The same is the case with IASEs. The capacity of
both CTEs and IASEs in performing their mandated roles has come under serious
questioning.
The larger reality of school teaching not being a preferred option among students and the
dilution of emphasis on public investment in initial teacher education since the 1990s has
led to large scale recruitment of unqualified and under-qualified persons as para teachers
in the formal school system. Para teachers pose a far more serious challenge to the
institution of the professional teacher. An attitude of resignation towards initial teacher
education and piecemeal in-service training courses have become an integral part of state
provisioning for elementary education. This has led to further degradation of the status of
school teachers and diluted the identity of teacher as a professional. Major initiatives
during the mid-1990s were focused on in-service training of teachers and this has
accentuated the divide between pre-service and in-service teacher education. School
teachers continue to be isolated from centres of higher learning and their professional
development needs remain unaddressed.
On the positive side, with a view to achieving coordinated development of teacher
education, the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) took up a number of
initiatives during the last decade. It joined hands with the National Assessment and
Accreditation Council (NAAC) to foster quality assurance and sustenance and with
Distance Education Council (DEC) to ensure integrated development of in-service teacher
education under the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) mode. It also entered into
collaboration with the Rehabilitation Council of India in 2002 and later, in 2005, to
develop curriculum on inclusive education and make it a part of general teacher education
programmes.
The National Knowledge Commission (NKC) has observed that teachers are the single
most important element of the school system, and the country is already facing a severe
shortage of qualified and motivated school teachers at different levels. It is urgent to
restore the dignity of school teaching as a profession and provide more incentives for
qualified and committed teachers. Non-teaching official duties such as election-related
responsibilities should not be allowed to interfere with the teaching process. Forums that
allow and encourage teachers to exchange ideas, information and experiences including a
web-based portal should be developed. At the same time, there should be transparent
systems for ensuring accountability of school teachers. As far as possible, teachers should
be recruited to particular schools. The training of teachers is a major area of concern at
present, since both pre-service and in-service training of school teachers is extremely
inadequate and also poorly managed in most states. Pre-service training needs to be
improved and differently regulated in both public and private institutions, while systems
for in-service training require expansion and major reform that allows for greater
flexibility.
1.4 Teacher Education Reform: Perspectives – Past and Present
At the heart of teacher education is the question ‘What value does teacher education add to
the prospective teacher’s ability to face challenges of facilitating the development of
critical and creative students and subsequently adults?’ Reform of teacher education has
been one of the abiding concerns in the reports of major Education Commissions and
8
Committees on education. The Education Commission (1964-66) dwelt at length on
various issues related to teacher education. It recommended professionalization of teacher
education, development of integrated programmes, comprehensive colleges of education
and internship. The National Commission on Teachers (1983-85) recommended five-year
integrated courses and internship. The National Policy on Education (NPE) (1986)
recommended the overhaul of teacher education to impart it a professional orientation and
referred to the same concerns voiced by the earlier Committees. Its recommendations led
to the launch of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Teacher Education incorporating the
establishment of DIETs, CTEs and IASEs. The NPE Review Committee (1992) and the
National Advisory Committee on Curriculum Load (1993) have also drawn attention to
the need for qualitative reform of teacher education and suggested various measures. The
Review Committee recommended adoption of the internship model for teacher education
involving a brief theoretical orientation followed by a 3 to 5 year period of supervised
teaching in a school under mentor teachers. The Advisory Committee in its report
Learning without burden drew attention to the need for the involvement of teachers in
curriculum and textbook preparation and training teachers in fostering learning through
activity, discovery, observation and understanding. These policy recommendations have
led to actions resulting in the development of National Curriculum Frameworks on
Teacher Education and production of resource materials.
1.5 Urgency of Reforming Teacher Education
Teacher education as a whole needs urgent and comprehensive reform. There is a need to
bring greater convergence between professional preparation and continuing professional
development of teachers at all stages of schooling in terms of level, duration and structure.
Considering the complexity and significance of teaching as a professional practice, it is
imperative that the entire enterprise of teacher education should be raised to a university
level and that the duration and rigour of programmes should be appropriately enhanced.
Both at the elementary and the secondary levels, the initial teacher preparation is fraught
with a number of problems, some of them common and some specific to the stage.
1.5.1 Elementary Teacher Education
Initial training of elementary teachers continues to suffer from isolation, low
profile and poor visibility in view of its being a non-degree programme
administered by a government department as one among its other concerns. In
professional discussions teacher education is viewed as a unitary undifferentiated
category with B.Ed and D.Ed. providing the frame of reference. The special
significance of initial primary teacher education (elementary education being a
fundamental human right and its crucial significance to individual and national
development) is overlooked and its concerns are subsumed under more general
problems. The Curriculum Frameworks thus far developed provide guidelines that
are too general and do not address the stage specific training needs of elementary
teachers. The Curriculum Framework (1998) was indeed a welcome exception. It
may be the first to have provided stage–specific guidelines. The Curriculum
Framework for Quality Teacher Education (1998) and Approach Paper for
Elementary Teacher Education Curriculum Renewal in 2003 by the NCTE address
these issues in greater detail. The establishment of DIETs has been the most
9
important development in bringing the issue of elementary teacher education to the
national stage.
There is a grave need to upgrade initial teacher education by enhancing the entry
qualification and duration of training and make it equivalent to a degree
programme and vest the management and control of elementary teacher education
in a professional body of university faculty status. This is necessary as the plus 2
entry level does not even equip prospective teachers with the basic knowledge of
subjects to teach at the elementary level, particularly classes 3 to 8. Neither does
the short duration of the course equip them with the necessary pedagogic
knowledge for facilitating the learning of children, understanding their psycho
social and learning needs. There are available a number of degree programs for the
preparation of elementary teachers both within and outside the country which need
to be looked at and adapted to Indian needs keeping the rigour of these programs
intact. The Bachelor of Elementary Education (B.El.Ed.) program of the University
of Delhi is a case in point.
Upgrading elementary teacher education calls for participatory curriculum
planning involving all stakeholders, modular organization of curriculum in terms
of critically engaging with theory and bringing practice within its perspective,
greater curriculum time for skill learning and practice, a professional approach to
training strategies and development of materials, and application of relevant
alternatives, technological, curricular and organizational, in teacher education
processes. For accomplishing all this, there is a need for a longer duration of time
for the programme, either a four-year integrated model at the Bachelor’s degree
level or a two-year second Bachelor’s degree model. A transition to the new
models will need to be done within a definite time frame – say five years – keeping
in mind the time required for preparation of teacher educators as well.. However,
the present two year D.Ed. model after twelve years of schooling may continue in
the interim attempting to intensify the programme with the elements mentioned
above and making it as meaningful and relevant as possible.
Another instance of neglect of elementary teacher education is the non-recognition
of the need for specially qualified teacher educators in elementary education. It has
been taken for granted that the existing arrangements for teacher preparation at
different stages would do as well for teacher educators too, B.Ed for elementary
teacher educator and M.Ed for secondary teacher educator. The logic that seems to
operate here is that one’s higher position in the educational hierarchy would entitle
one to train others working at the lower levels irrespective of whether one
possessed the relevant skills. Other than the activity of teaching children in
elementary school, all other functions related to this sector of education are
attended to by people who have been trained for and taught only at secondary level
due to lack of appropriately trained personnel in elementary education. The
difficulty is exacerbated by the absence of degree and post degree programmes in
primary / elementary teacher education. At present, elementary teacher educators
in their bid to upgrade their professional qualifications pursue M.Ed. The IASE
brief includes the training of elementary teacher educators which they do by
running the M.Ed programme of the concerned university. But the present M.Ed
cannot meet the requirements of elementary teacher training as it is based on only
secondary education requirements.
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Education as an area of interdisciplinary knowledge is not merely an application of
a few core disciplines, but a praxis and a context where theories and practical
wisdom are generated continuously. It is important to facilitate development of a
discourse in education through more purposive and deliberate focus in creating
explanatory terms and vocabulary. And this process has to inform and be informed
by teacher education. Since traditionally, it was secondary teacher education
institutions that developed into university departments of education, elementary
education and early childhood education have been neglected as distinct areas of
knowledge with their own distinct concerns, concepts and methodological
perspectives. It is important to strengthen all areas within education as distinct but
integrated discourses through research as well as through documenting praxis in
school settings as well as in field-level educational initiatives. This scattered
corpus of experience and knowledge needs to be brought together to evolve a
coherent vocabulary, researched and documented knowledge base and informed
perspectives for all areas of education as well as education in its entirety.
1.5.2 Secondary Teacher Education
There is also a need to critically review the secondary teacher education system.
The one year second Bachelor’s degree (B.Ed.) model seems to have outlived its
relevance. With the proliferation of B.Ed. colleges, particularly with privatization
and commercialization, B.Ed. programmes have become weak in both theory and
practice. Even the few institutions which keep struggling to make this programme
meaningful find it difficult to overcome the structural constraints that the short
duration of the programme puts up. While a second Bachelor’s degree model may
still be relevant, it is imperative that this needs strengthening in terms of both
intensity, rigour and duration. It is desirable within a finite time frame that the
existing one-year second Bachelor’s (B.Ed.) degree programme is structurally
transformed to a two-year one, with deeper and more protracted engagement with
school-based experience and reflective and critical engagement with theory. In the
transitory phase, however, the existing one year programmes can work towards
better utilization of the time available, greater emphasis on a school-based
internship and emphasis on reflective practice based on perspectives on child,
contemporary society, basic concepts of education and curricular and pedagogic
alternatives.
1.6 Systemic Concerns in Teacher Education
Even more serious than proliferation of sub-standard institutions is the current state
of teacher education programmes. The programmes have come under severe
criticism for not addressing the needs of contemporary Indian schools and not
preparing teachers who can impart quality education in schools. Their design and
practice is based on certain assumptions which impede the progress of ideas and
professional and personal growth of the teacher. They train teachers to adjust to a
system in which education is seen as transmission of information. They take the
school curriculum and text books as a ‘given’ and train teachers to adjust to the
needs of the existing school system through fastidious planning of lessons in
standardized formats and fulfilling the ritual of delivering the required number of
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lessons. The NCF 2005 has described the current concerns of teacher education as
follows:
§ Experiences in the practice of teacher education indicate that knowledge is treated
as ‘given’, embedded in the curriculum and accepted without question; there is no
engagement with the curriculum. Curriculum, syllabi and textbooks are never
critically examined by the student teacher or the regular teacher
§ Language proficiency of the teacher needs to be enhanced, but existing
programmes do not recognize the centrality of language in the curriculum
§ Teacher education programmes provide little scope for student teachers to reflect
on their experiences.
§ Disciplinary knowledge is viewed as independent of professional training in
pedagogy
§ Repeated ‘practice’ in the teaching of a specified number of isolated lessons is
considered a sufficient condition for professional development
§ It is assumed that links between learning theories and models and teaching
methods are automatically formed in the understanding developed by student
teachers
§ There is no opportunity for teachers to examine their own biases and beliefs and
reflect on their own experiences as part of classroom discourse and enquiry
§ Theory courses have no clear articulation with practical work and ground realities
§ The evaluation system followed in teacher education programmes is too
information-oriented, excessively quantitative and lacks comprehensiveness. Apart
from conceptual and pedagogical aspects the programme needs to develop certain
attitudes, dispositions, habits and interests in a teacher. The present evaluation
protocol has no place for evaluating them.
The above observations provide distinct pointers for addressing issues on the different
aspects of teacher education curriculum reform.
1.7 Contemporary Context and Concerns that need to Inform Teacher Education
Reform:
1.7.1 Inclusive Education
We have seen two kinds of exclusion prevalent in schools because of the
inadequate competence and sensitivity of the teacher in these areas. One is the
exclusion of the child with disabilities of different kinds – the teacher does not
understand their needs nor what s/he can do to make learning possible for them.
The second and stronger exclusion is the social exclusion of children who come
from socially and economically deprived backgrounds Scheduled Castes (SCs),
Scheduled Tribes (STs) and from minority communities. There is a dire need to
equip teachers to overcome their biases in these regards and positively handle these
challenges.
Inclusive education refers to a philosophical position as well as an arrangement of
institutional facilities and processes to ensure the compositeness of learning
communities which includes in terms of access to and conditions of success in
education for everybody including those in the margins, either with learning
difficulties because of physical or mental disabilities or because of their social
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position. This is to create an integrated school setting providing equal
opportunities to children with special abilities, varied social backgrounds and
diverse learning needs. The emphasis is on providing equal opportunities to all
children. It is necessary that teachers who teach and manage the classroom are
sensitized and made aware of the philosophy of inclusive education and oriented to
the different kinds of adjustments that schools have to make in terms of
infrastructure, curriculum, teaching methods and other school practices to relate
teaching to the special needs of all learners.
The Persons with Disabilities (PWD) Act of 2005 provides for free and
compulsory education up to the age of 18 years for all children with disabilities.
The education of socially and economically disadvantaged groups, especially the
SCs, STs, and minorities has remained a primary national concern of education for
several years. Though the literacy percentage among the SCs and STs has
increased manifold, it is still much lower than the general category students.
Teachers will have to be particularly equipped if the social deprivation has to be
overcome through education.
The enrolment and retention of girls and therefore their participation has also
remained behind those of boys. Special efforts are being made to improve this
situation. Teachers need to be quipped to sensitively bring and include girls in the
classroom transaction.
1.7.2 Perspectives for Equitable and Sustainable Development
In order to develop future citizens who promote equitable and sustainable
development for all sections of society and respect for all, it is necessary that they
be educated through perspectives of gender equity, perspectives that develop
values for peace, respect the rights of all, and that respect and value work. In the
present ecological crisis promoted by extremely commercialised and competitive
lifestyles, children need to be educated to change their consumption patterns and
the way they look at natural resources.
There is also a increasing violence and polarisation both within children and
between them, that is being caused by increasing stress in society. Education has a
crucial role to play in promoting values of peace based on equal respect of self and
others. The NCF 2005 and subsequent development of syllabi and materials is
attempting to do this as well.
For this teachers need to be equipped to understand these issues and incorporate
them in their teaching. The new teacher education curriculum framework will need
to integrate these perspectives in its formulation.
1.7.3 Role of Community Knowledge in education
It is important for the development of concepts in children as well as the
application of school knowledge in real life that the formal knowledge is linked
with community knowledge. This increases the relevance of education as well as
the quality of learning. In addition, the perspective that informs the NCF 2005
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promotes the inclusion of locally relevant content in the curriculum as well as
pedagogy. This puts an added responsibility on the teacher for which s/he needs to
be equipped, that is, selecting and organising learning content experiences from the
community for the classroom.
We need to develop the capacity of teachers in identifying entry points in the
curriculum and textual materials which call for contextualization and developing
appropriate teaching-learning sequences and episodes based on identified local
specifics. These specifics may include community knowledge and technology,
local occupations both farm and non-farm, local folk culture including songs,
festivals, fairs, games, etc. As the teachers will be developing the curriculum and
materials informed by the perspectives enunciated above (gender, peace,
sustainable development, etc., they will also be learning through actual
participation the skills of identifying and processing the specifics for purposes of
meaningful curriculum transaction.
1.7.4 ICT in Schools and e learning
With the onset and proliferation of ((Information and Communication Technology)
(ICT), there is a growing demand that it be included in school education. It has
become more of a fashion statement to have computers or multimedia in schools,
the result being that in spite of its potential to make learning liberative, its
implementation is often not more than cosmetic. It is often also touted as a panacea
for shortage of teachers. These are detrimental to the learning of the child. Teacher
education needs to orient and sensitize the teacher to distinguish between
developmentally appropriate and detrimental uses of ICT. It needs to also equip
teachers with competence to use ICT for their own professional development.
1.8 The Present Document
The NCTE and the NCERT over the past few decades have addressed the review of
teacher education curriculum in the light of changing educational scenario and brought out
a series of frameworks. These frameworks provide guidelines on development of teacher
education programmes incorporating current concerns as well as national and global
developments. The pioneering effort of designing a curriculum framework for teacher
education was made by the non-statutory NCTE, way back in 1978. This Teacher
Education Curriculum-A Framework (1978) responded to the implications of the national
educational policy and priorities as a result of the implementation of the Report of
Education Commission (1964-66) and made recommendations for the restructuring of
teacher education programmes and their content. This was reviewed in 1988.
Subsequently, it was followed by the development of a model curriculum by the
University Grants Commission (UGC) curriculum development centre in 1990. After the
NCTE became a statutory body in 1995, it brought out Curriculum Framework for Quality
Teacher Education in 1998. Another framework, Teacher Education for Future was
brought out by the NCERT to support the NCF for school education (2000). Two attempts
were made by the NCTE to develop draft curriculum framework (the first in 2005 and the
second in 2006). The latter incorporated the substantial inputs provided by the NCERT in
the context of the adoption of the NCF (2005) for school education. Two more draft
frameworks, one in 2007 and the other in 2008 have since been added. For various
reasons, related action on the ground in respect of these documents did not take place. The
14
present document represents a continuation of these curriculum renewal efforts. It has
given due consideration to the earlier frameworks, particularly to the 2006 document, tried
to consolidate the work that has been accomplished thus far and presents by and large an
updated and upgraded version of a new National Curriculum Framework for teacher
education (NCFTE).
1.9 Vision of Teacher and Teacher Education
As we engage in the act of envisioning the role of the teacher and the shape of teacher
education unfolding in the coming years, it would do us well to take note of the movement
of ideas, globally, that have led to current thinking on teacher education. While the search
for a philosophy of teacher education that satisfies the needs of our times continues, we
seem to be converging on certain broad principles that should inform the enterprise. First,
our thinking on teacher education is integrative and eclectic. It is free from the hold of
‘schools’ of philosophy and psychology. We also do not think of teacher education as a
prescriptive endeavour; we want it to be open and flexible. Our emphasis is on changing
contexts and our aim to empower the teacher to relate himself/herself to them. Second
modern teacher education functions under a global canvas created by the master concepts
of ‘learning society’, ‘learning to learn’ and ‘inclusive education’. The concern is to make
teacher education liberal, humanistic and responsive to the demands of inclusive
education. The emphasis in teaching is not on didactic communication but on non-didactic
explorations. Third, modern pedagogy derives its inspiration more from sociological and
anthropological insights on education. There is increasing recognition of the worth and
potential of indigenous culture as a source for rejuvenating teaching and learning. Multicultural
education and culture-specific pedagogy is the current trend. Fourth, we
acknowledge the existence of a diversity of learning spaces and curriculum sites (farm,
workplace, home, community, and media) apart from the classroom. We also appreciate
the diversity of learning styles that children exhibit and learning contexts in which
teachers have to function – oversized classes, language, ethnic diversities, children
suffering disadvantages of different kinds. Lastly, we have realized the tentative nature of
the so-called knowledge base of teacher education and made reflective practice the central
aim of teacher education. Pedagogical knowledge has to constantly undergo adaptation to
meet the needs of diverse contexts through critical reflection by the teacher on his/her
practices– teaching, evaluating and so on. Teacher education has to build the ability in the
teacher to evolve one’s own knowledge to deal with different contexts based on
understanding and analysis of experience.
Against this backdrop and keeping in view the vision of teacher education as articulated
above, the following set of concluding statements relating to perception of teachers’ role,
and philosophy, purpose and practice of teacher education can be made:
Ø Teachers should be prepared to care for children and love to be with them, love
knowledge and be constantly learning, own responsibility towards society and
work to build a better world, develop sensitivity to the problems of the learners,
commitment to justice and zeal for social reconstruction;
Ø Teachers should change their perception of child as a receiver of knowledge and
encourage its capacity to construct knowledge; they should ensure that learning
shifts away from rote methods. Learning is to be viewed as a search for meaning
15
out of personal experiences and knowledge generation as a continuously evolving
process of reflective learning;
Ø Teacher education should engage with theory along with field experiences to help
trainees to view knowledge not as external to the learner but as something that is
actively constructed during learning. Teacher education should integrate academic
knowledge and professional learning into a meaningful whole;
Ø Teachers need to be trained in organizing learner-centred, activity based,
participatory learning experiences – play, projects, discussion, dialogue,
observation, visits, integrating academic learning with productive work;
Ø Teacher education should engage teachers with the curriculum, syllabi and
textbooks to critically examine them rather than taking them as ‘given’ and
accepted without question;
Ø Teacher education should provide opportunity to trainees for reflection and
independent study without packing the training schedule with teacher-directed
activities only;
Ø The programme should engage teachers with children in real contexts than teach
them about children through theories. It should help them understand the psychosocial
attributes and needs of learners, their special abilities and characteristics,
their preferred mode of cognition, motivation and learning resulting from home
and community socialization;
Ø The programme should help teachers or potential teachers to develop social
sensitivity and consciousness and finer human sensibilities.
Ø We need to broaden the curriculum (both school and teacher education) to include
different traditions of knowledge; train and educate teachers to connect school
knowledge with community knowledge and life outside the school, and thereby
enrich the curriculum so that it goes beyond the textbooks and contextualizes
educational experiences
Ø We need to appreciate the potential of productive work and hands-on experience as
a pedagogic medium both inside and outside the classroom; work is integral to the
process of education;
Ø We need to re-conceptualize citizenship training in terms of human rights and
approaches of critical pedagogy; emphasize environment and its protection, living
in harmony within oneself and with natural and social environment; promote
peace, democratic way of life, constitutional values of equality, justice, liberty,
fraternity, secularism and caring values; and
Ø In view of the many sided objectives of teacher education the evaluation protocol
should be comprehensive and provide due place for evaluation of attitudes, values,
dispositions, habits and hobbies (in addition to the conceptual and pedagogical
aspects) through appropriate quantitative as well as qualitative techniques.
1.10 Professionalization of Teacher Education
Teaching is a profession and teacher education is a process of professional preparation of
teachers. Preparing one for a profession is an arduous task and it involves action from
multiple fronts and perspectives. A profession is characterized by a sufficiently long
period of academic training, an organized body of knowledge on which the undertaking is
based, an appropriate duration of formal and rigorous professional training in tandem with
practical experience in the field and a code of professional ethics that binds its members
into a fraternity
16
When the profession concerned is teaching these dimensions acquire critical importance in
view of several factors. There is, first of all, the traditional idealism, esteem, and
importance attached to the role of the teacher and the very high societal expectations from
the teacher. Teaching, essentially, is also a moral undertaking although information
transmission dominates the teacher’s work. Teachers are concerned in an important way
with the total development of human beings – physical, intellectual, social, moral and
spiritual. While the dimensions of teaching other than the informational and cognitive may
have suffered neglect in modern times due to a variety of factors, one cannot deny that
they constitute an integral part of the teacher’s role and functions. The implication of this
for teacher education programmes and institutions is that due emphasis should be given to
developing in the teacher proper attitudes, values, and outlook apart from training one as a
skilled crafts person. This aspect of the making of a teacher is acknowledged as a very
important quality dimension of teacher education.
1.11 Preparing Teacher Educators
Teacher education, it may be seen, is a reflective undertaking that also issues forth in
pedagogical prescriptions for carrying out teaching at the ground level. Being a metaactivity,
it deals in showing how things are done at school and classroom levels,
explaining the ‘reason why’ of things and the basic theory and principles behind classroom
practices. These call for skills and understanding of a different kind in addition to the
skills required for actual school teaching. The NCF-2005 position paper on teacher
education has elaborated this point and has referred to androgogy (principles of adult
learning) as the appropriate pedagogy for teacher education. The weakest aspect, perhaps,
of teacher education is the absence of professional preparation of teacher educators and the
issues related to this concern are discussed in Chapter 6.
1.12 Research and Innovation
There is a need to increase research that documents practices reflectively and analytically
– whether it is of programs or of individual classrooms – so that it can be included in the
body of knowledge available for study to student teachers. University departments and
research institutions need to undertake such research.
In addition there is a need to innovate with different models of teacher education.
Institutional capacity and capability to innovate and create are a pre-requisite for the
pursuit of excellence. These are facilitated when the inputs to the institution are of high
quality. In teacher education, the reality on the ground rarely reflects this. Curriculum
innovation at the institutional level gets restricted to its transaction within the institution.
At the state level, there is the trend of applying standard solutions and common strategies
to the many problems of teacher education. The central admission procedure, common
curriculum, centralized examination and evaluation system have stifled institutional
initiatives in admission, curriculum design and evaluation and very little space is left for
institutional self-expression. There is a need to facilitate a space for such innovations to
take place so that policy can draw from them.
In spite of these constraining conditions, there have been and are a number of initiatives
that can be drawn from. A case in point is the four-year integrated B.El.Ed programme for
the preparation of elementary teachers offered by the Delhi University and NCERT’s
experiments with the four-year integrated programme leading to the degree of B.Sc.Ed,
17
two-year B.Ed programme and integrated M.Sc.Ed. programme Similar innovations are
also being tried out in other institutions across the country.
Initiatives for continuing professional development include the University School
Resource Network, (a multidisciplinary project involving multilevel institutions envisages
forging academic connectivity between higher education and elementary education
systems, which networks Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University, Institute of
Home Economics, Gargi College, DIET, Motibagh, Mirambika, Ankur and participating
schools), Vidyankura a district level project in Karnataka, housed in National Institute of
Advanced Studies, collaborative inservice and foundation programs by organisations like
Eklavya, Digantar and Vidya Bhavan Society, Rishi Valley, Banasthali and Sri Aurobindo
Education Centres, along with many others.
At the post graduate level, too, there is an attempt in elementary education leading to M.A
(Elementary Education) launched by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. This is
a first of its kind, pan-Indian programme intervention in elementary education at the postgraduate
stage. It is interdisciplinary, collaborative (the other organizations involved are:
Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Eklavya, Digantar and the Vidya Bhavan
Society) and dual mode operation design (on-line learning and contact) makes it a bold
and novel venture. Its twin objectives are to provide a firm disciplinary base to elementary
education and train a range of professionals with different specializations - teachers,
teacher educators, curriculum and textbook developers, educational planners,
administrators and researchers.
1.13 Open and Distance Learning (ODL) in Teacher Education
Open Education as a concept, coupled with modalities associated with Distance Education
does not stand as an exclusive transactional modality. There are several aspects of ODL
which will get meaningfully translated only if the boundaries between direct human
engagement and ODL tend to get diffused to the extent possible and perhaps desirable. A
modular approach to the development of teacher education curriculum along with a focus
on independent study and on-line offering involving interactive modes of learning and the
consequent modification in the approaches to assessment and evaluation has indeed a
potential to make education reach the unreached.
It is recognized that ODL can be strategically employed in continuing professional
development of teachers particularly with a view to overcoming the barriers of distance
and the immensity of the system, especially making use of independent study material, online
support and two-way audio communication. As far as the initial teacher preparation is
concerned, ODL has the potential to be used in a blended model or a mixed model in
combination with direct human interaction. Of particular relevance are those elements of
ODL which involve independent study. However, the primacy of direct human
engagement and actual social interaction among student teachers as the core process of
initial teacher preparation needs to be emphasized.
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Chapter 2
CURRICULAR AREAS OF INITIAL TEACHER EDUCATION
2.1 Introduction
The kind of teacher and teacher education we have envisioned calls upon us to look at
teacher education as a holistic enterprise involving actions of different kinds and from
multiple fronts aimed at the development of the total teacher – knowledge and
understanding, skills, attitudes, habits and values. To recall, we need teachers who:
o care for children and love to be with them, understand children within social,
cultural and political contexts, develop sensitivity to their problems, treat all
children equally
o do not treat knowledge as a ‘given’, embedded in the curriculum and accepted
without question,
o perceive children not as passive receivers of knowledge, develop their capacity
to construct knowledge, discourage rote learning, make learning a joyful,
participatory and meaningful activity
o critically examine curriculum and textbooks, contextualize curriculum to suit
local needs,
o organize learner-centred, activity based, participatory learning experiences –
play, projects, discussion, dialogue, observation, visits and learn to reflect on
their own practice
o integrate academic learning with social and personal realities of learners,
responding to diversities in the classroom and with productive work
o promote values of peace, democratic way of life, equality, justice, liberty,
fraternity, secularism and the zeal for social reconstruction
We believe that teacher education should provide appropriate opportunities to the wouldbe
teacher for:
• observing and engaging with children, communicating with and relating to
children.
• understanding the self and others (one’s beliefs, assumptions, emotions and
aspirations); developing the ability for self-analysis, self-evaluation, adaptability,
flexibility, creativity and innovation;
• self-learning, reflection, assimilation and articulation of new ideas; developing
capacities for self-directed learning and the ability to think, be self-critical and to
work collaboratively in groups.
• content enrichment to generate understanding and knowledge, examine
disciplinary knowledge and social realities, relate subject matter with the social
milieu and develop critical thinking.
• developing professional skills in pedagogy, observation, documentation, analysis
and interpretation, drama, craft, story-telling and reflective inquiry.
In this chapter a broad vista of a teacher education curriculum that aims at the preparation
of such teachers is sketched. The layout of this curriculum can be conceived as comprising
three broad curricular areas – (A) Foundations of Education which include courses under
19
three broad rubrics, namely, Child Studies, Contemporary Studies and Educational Studies
(understanding oneself as a person and as a teacher and of theories related to child
development and learning and the social and cultural context of education); (B)
Curriculum and Pedagogical Theory which include courses under two broad rubrics,
namely, Curriculum Studies and Pedagogic Studies (understanding of the nature of subject
disciplines in the social context of learning and ways of transacting knowledge with
children in formal contexts); and (C) School Internship leading to the development of a
broad repertoire of perspective, professional capacities and skills. Together, these areas
constitute the common core curriculum for teacher education programmes across stages –
pre-school, elementary, secondary and higher secondary. The nature and form which these
core components may take and the quantum, intensity, their relative importance, quality of
learning experiences to be provided under them and their relative importance may,
however, vary with reference to the stage of teacher preparation, the school and learner
context and other factors. It is important that they should not be looked upon as
independent and separate curricular areas but as interconnected, feeding each other
towards the total development of the teacher.
The concern of the present envisioning exercise is to organize the entire teacher education
curriculum as an organic, integrated whole. The contours of each of these curricular areas
are set out in broad outline showing the kind of learning experiences they cover and the
kind of opportunities they provide for the beginning teacher to acquire the needed
professional knowledge and skills. These are described in generic terms; they are not to be
treated as prescriptive syllabi or course titles. They constitute the basic ideas / themes on
which the curricula and courses are to be built to suit particular contexts (stage for which
teacher is being prepared, the nature and duration of the training programme, the school
and children). One would expect a variety of context-specific curriculum and course
designs to emerge from the framework without compromising on the basic principles
contained in the vision of teacher and teacher education.
2.2 Area I: FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATION
1. Child Studies
(a) Childhood, Child development and Learning
Rationale: Understanding the learning and growing child is the basic foundation
on which a programme of teacher education needs to be built. Beginning teachers
need to understand children by interacting with them and observing them in
diverse social, economic and cultural contexts rather than through an exclusive
focus on psychological theories of child development. Foundational learning in
this area involves establishing links between developmental constructs and
principles in psychological theory and the larger socio-political realities in which
children grow and develop.
Specific assignments could be evolved to help student teachers to understand
children’s questions and their observations of natural and social phenomena, to
enquire into children’s thinking and learning and to learn to listen to children with
attention and empathy. It is also important for teachers to understand that learning
is not a linear process. It is a divergent process, essentially spiral in nature and
takes place in a variety of situations including everyday contexts. Pre-service
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teacher education programmes at all levels (including higher secondary) should be
designed to include the observation and study of young children in order to
appreciate the developmental process as a continuum. An adequate opportunity for
this can be provided through courses designed around key concepts and research
from the disciplines of Psychology, Philosophy as well as Sociology. Equally
important for the teacher is to understand the construct of childhood, the various
socio-cultural and political dimensions associated with its positioning and
development in society.
Every child needs to be made aware of the importance of healthy living and
preventing disease. There is an urgent need therefore to generate health awareness
and cultivate habits conducive to healthy living. It is suggested that
comprehensive, systematic and scientific approaches to health education and health
awareness be included in teacher education curricula. The contents proposed
include: nutrition, personal and environmental hygiene, family health, disease
prevention and control including HIV/AIDS, mental health, prevention of
accidents, health information and use of health services. Likewise, physical
education and sports made a regular feature of teacher education curricula.
Curricular provision
Course work: two to three courses designed around key concepts and research from
psychology, philosophy, and sociology to engage learners with theoretical concepts and
frameworks.
In-built, field-based units of study leading to projects and assignments on child’s
observations, conceptions and learning of natural and social phenomena.
Through workshops, seminars and assignments, student teachers to be given
opportunities to:
o observe and study children at play and at work in diverse socio-economic,
cultural, linguistic and regional contexts
o observe and analyze learning and thinking processes of children
o understand children’s questions and their observations of natural and social
phenomena in order to appreciate the developmental process as a
continuum
Child contact practicum to provide hands-on experience with children learners, to learn to
listen to children with attention and empathy, to enable back and forth movement between
theory and the field. Student-teachers are given the opportunity at the beginning of the
progamme, to be with children, interact with them, organize creative activities for them,
with the aim to learn to communicate and relate with them. While engaging with
developmental theories of children, many of the experiences they have had with children
during the child-contact practicum are consciously brought into the classroom discourse to
draw interconnections, verify and evolve theory and help them articulate new ideas.
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2. Contemporary Studies
(a) Teacher and Learner in Society
Rationale: There is need to shift the focus from overwhelming emphasis on
psychological characteristics of the individual learner to his/her social, cultural,
economic, political and humanitarian context. Therefore a rigorous engagement with
issues of contemporary India must necessarily be examined through an engagement
with concepts drawn from a diverse set of disciplines, including sociology, history,
philosophy, political science and economics. Teacher education should provide space
for engagement with issues and concerns of India’s pluralistic nature; issues of
identity, gender, equity, poverty and diversity. This would enable teachers to
contextualize education and evolve a deeper understanding of its purpose and its
relationship with society and humanity. It is also important to understand the
classroom as a social context, as it provides a setting for interaction, generation of
dialogue and the opportunity to appreciate diverse perspectives on a given issue.
Student teachers can undertake projects such as tracing the process by which a
consumer product (such as tea) is made available from its raw form to a finished
product and studying the various factors of geography, economics, politics, history and
sociology that may have influenced it in one way or another. Such engagement can
help teachers to examine their own conceptions of knowledge, to construct knowledge
through interactive processes, the exchange of views, beliefs and reflection on new
ideas and break free from the overwhelming need to protect their individual views on
education and learning.
(b) Other critical social issues: human and child rights, environment and
development, reservation
Rationale: Awareness of human rights and the commitment to use this awareness as a
means to inspire the young generation are necessary ingredients of any good teacher
education programme. Respect for human rights cannot be seen in isolation from an
analytical awareness of the contexts, in which human rights are to be observed, starting
from the institutional context, extending to the social, national and global contexts.
Teachers also need to be fully aware of children’s rights, rights for gender equality and
the implications these rights have for social change. Courses can be designed to
generate awareness and construction of critical perspectives through contextualized
presentations. The critical importance of environmental education at all levels has been
duly recognized and efforts have been made to treat it as an inseparable part of school
curriculum and teacher education curriculum at all stages.
Curricular provision
Course work: one or two courses to engage learners with theoretical concepts and issues
such as: Classroom as a social context: Learning is greatly influenced by social
environment/context from which learners and teachers come. It is also affected by the
social climate of the school and the classroom. It provides a setting for interaction,
generation of dialogue and the opportunity to appreciate diverse perspectives on given
issues; Issues and concerns of contemporary Indian society: pluralistic culture, identity,
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gender, equity, poverty and diversity; Ideas of educational thinkers: Gandhi, Tagore,
Dewey and others to be examined in their socio-historical contexts in which they
developed.
In-built field-based units of study: Student-teachers are engaged in studying the major
characteristics of India’s pluralistic make-up with the help of projects based on locally
done field work or conduct field interviews while studying the issue of reservation as an
egalitarian policy, to collate people’s experiences of such a provision and examine policy
and theory. Through such a pedagogic process, the onus of drawing connections between
experience and theory is not left to the student-teacher alone. Learning spaces are
structurally provided in the design of teacher-education programmes for drawing such
connections. Because the learner is central to such a process, learning becomes a search
for meaning and the developing teacher learns to articulate the connections he/she draws.
Projects: Student teachers undertake projects such as tracing the process by which a
consumer product is made available from its raw form to a finished product and studying
the various factors of geography, economics, politics, history and sociology that may have
influenced it in one way or another. Such engagement can help teachers to examine their
own conceptions of knowledge, to construct knowledge through interactive processes, the
exchange of views, beliefs and reflection on new ideas and break free from the
overwhelming need to protect their individual views. Projects can be complemented with
workshops, seminars, assignments around issues and concepts studies in theory.
3. Educational Studies
(a) Aims of education, Knowledge and Values
Rationale: Among the many questions that contemporary educational discourse
excludes are substantive philosophical questions about the fundamental aims and
values that should provide the intellectual basis of contemporary education policy and
practice. It is therefore, crucial to provide prospective teachers with opportunities to
engage with philosophical issues and concerns related to aims and values of education.
Student-teachers and teacher practitioners need to engage with issues in a manner that
makes them sensitive to the fact that educational debate is never neutral; it always
tends to promote certain educational values while marginalizing others.
Curricular provision
Course work: one or more courses focused on philosophical thinkers in education,
theoretical constructs that help to question and debate issues around aims of education and
questions of epistemology.
Lecture cum discussion sessions, Self-study units, and Seminars on themes such as:
Education as a continuous process of self-discovery, reflection about oneself and the
world around us; Education as liberation: The process of education must free itself from
the shackles of all kinds of exploitation and injustice (i.e., poverty, gender discrimination,
caste and communal bias), which prevent our children and adult learners from being part
of the process). Education as reconstruction of experience: Education should aim at
making learners capable of becoming active, responsible, productive, and caring members
of society. Ideally, education is supposed to encourage students to analyze and evaluate
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their experiences, to doubt, to question, to investigate and to think independently;
Intelligence, Knowledge and Rationality: There are different kinds of knowledge as well
as different ways of knowing. The idea that objectivity, which is a necessary constituent of
knowledge, can be achieved only if knowledge is free from emotions (care, concern, and
love) must be abandoned. One implication of this for education is that literacy and artistic
creativity is as much part of a civilization’s epistemic enterprise as is seeking knowledge
through laboratory experiments or deductive reasoning. The quest for certainty, taken to
its extreme, tends to become a demand for a monistic and absolute criterion which leads to
the drawing of sharp lines between the rational and the irrational, knowledge and the lack
of it. Teacher education courses have the responsibility to pro-actively counter such
tendencies and to bring to the surface several contradictions that distort our perceptions
and hence develop the ability to relate and communicate with children and with each
other.
As we grow, we face new and unfamiliar experiences which question our old ways of
thinking as these experiences are either inconsistent with or at a considerable variance
from what we had gradually learnt to take for granted. Such experiences are critical and
challenging as they involve or require reformulation of ideas, concepts, revision of
preconceived notions, and new ways of looking at and dealing with the world. It is this
unique human ability, called rationality, which is manifested in a wide variety of ways.
Teacher education courses need to offer opportunities for such reflection and selfquestioning.
Appreciating cultural diversity and individual differences: Cultural diversity is one of our
greatest gifts. To respect and do justice to others is also to respect and do justice to their
respective cultures or communities. Cultures on the so called periphery must receive as
much attention as cultures in the centre. Ways of life other than one’s own must be
imaginatively and effectively presented as deserving of as much respect as one’s own. The
school, through insightful teaching and learning experiences of various kinds, can bring to
the child the great importance of this process.
(b) Developing the self and aspirations as a Teacher
Rationale: Teacher-trainees need to be provided with learning spaces through a
focused study of issues related to self and identity, human relationships, adult-child
gaps, assumptions, beliefs and attitudes. They could explore the meaning of ethics and
values, observe and understand feelings of fear and trust and their influences in
personal and social attitude, attitudes towards competition and cooperation, analyze
and observe the impact of competition in personal and social life, observe the role of
listening, attention and empathy and the role of a teacher in establishing relationship
with children and as a communicator.
Curricular provision
Course Work: one course with focused workshops through link with theory that would
require specific inputs from professionals who have engaged with self-development,
theatre and creative drama. These often provide non-threatening and non-judgmental
learning environments that enable participants to reflect on their own positions in society.
Theoretical study with complementary workshops need to focus on issues of identity
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development, recognising one’s own strength and limitations and developing social
sensitivity and skills of empathy.
Workshops in drama, art, music and craft: Student teachers need to engage with their
childhood experiences, personal aspirations and aspirations to become a teacher, their
views on issues of gender and identity, personal, familial and social conflict.
Recording and analysis of observations: to interpret reality within varying theoretical and
experiential frameworks.
2.3 Area 2: CURRICULUM AND PEDAGOGICAL THEORY
1. Curriculum Studies
Activities and processes in the education and professional development of teachers should
help participants to understand that knowledge evolves from experience and is constructed
through the active process of exchange of ideas, beliefs and reflection on issues in shared
and collaborative contexts.
It is important to engage prospective teachers with the conceptual knowledge they have
gained through general education. Most teacher education courses focus exclusively on the
methodology of teaching individual school subjects. It is assumed that teacher-trainees
have the subject-content knowledge, which they would draw upon when required. Hence,
teacher education curricula do not engage teacher-trainees with subject-content. However,
if we want to prepare teachers to present subject-content in developmentally appropriate
ways and with critical perspective it is essential that through simple observations and
experiments and discussions, several theoretical concepts learnt during general education
in school and college be revisited and reconstructed.
Engagement with content can be designed to be part of investigative projects. Science for
example, can involve laboratory work, library and reference, field surveys, group
discussions, seeking expert opinion to investigate into questions that children often ask
such as Why is the sky blue?, Why do stars twinkle?, How do fish survive without air?
How is electricity generated? Similarly, various mathematical concepts and operations can
be reconstructed through activities and problems using concrete materials from everyday
experiences as well as from mathematical kits, to arrive at solutions or conduct
investigations. These need to be followed by reflective discussion on the concepts,
solutions, results, and the methods used, both ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. Reconstructing
concepts helps student-teachers and teacher practitioners to appreciate the nature of
subject knowledge and to link it with appropriate pedagogic processes that communicate
meaningfully with children.
2. Pedagogic Studies
Rationale: The purpose is to understand school subjects and their pedagogic study in the
concrete context of the school and the learner by forging linkages among learner, context,
subject discipline and pedagogical approach. The key departure of pedagogical courses
from conventional teacher education would involve shifting the focus from pure
disciplinary knowledge and methodology to the learner and her context as well. For
instance, a course on language pedagogy would promote an understanding of the language
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characteristics of learners, language usage, socio-cultural aspects of language learning,
language as a process and the functional use of language across the curriculum. This
would mean moving away from the conventional focus on language as a subject, which
emphasizes its grammatical structure rather than usage. To enable student-teachers to draw
theoretical insights, they would need to engage with projects involving listening to
children’s reading, observing and analyzing reading difficulties, observing and identifying
mismatches between school language and home language, analyzing textbooks and other
materials used in different subjects in terms of presentation, style and language used.
A pedagogy course on mathematics would focus on understanding the nature of children’s
mathematical thinking as much through theory as through direct observations of children’s
thinking and learning processes, examining the language of mathematics, engaging with
research on children’s learning in specific areas, examining errors, mathematics phobia
and the hidden curriculum.
Pedagogic study of school subjects such as environmental education, history or geography
could be based an organizing and planning for excursions, drawing upon local sources of
evidence in history, projects on oral history, collection and presentation of specimens of
rocks, leaves, stamps, flags, using reports, newspapers, documents, local maps, atlas, map
drawing and reading in the classroom. These could be followed by reflective discussion,
learning how to make observations, record them and analyse them. Such an approach
would help forge linkages between the learner and her context, disciplinary content and
the pedagogical approach.
Curricular provision
Course work: two four courses on Knowledge, Curriculum and Pedagogy: knowledge as
construction through experiences, nature of disciplines, critical understanding of school
curriculum; and pedagogy as the integration of knowledge about the learner, the discipline
and the societal context. This would include the following:
Revisiting / reconstructing concepts: It is important to engage prospective teachers with
the conceptual knowledge they have gained through general education; understanding
school curriculum: negotiating curriculum, critical examination of curriculum, analysis of
school textbooks; linking school knowledge with community life: although much learning
and teaching takes place at home, within the neighbourhood and communities of rural and
tribal India, the school introduces the child to an environment of teaching and learning that
quite by design, marks itself off from the rest of the child’s environment. Schools must
facilitate the creation of vital links between children’s experiences at home and in the
community and what the school offers them; engagement with subject content through
investigative projects, reflective discussions and linking subject knowledge with
appropriate pedagogic processes; engagement with projects relating to different aspects of
children’s learning in languages, mathematics, environmental education, history,
geography, followed by reflective discussion, records of observation, analysis. Learning to
integrate ideas, experiences and professional skills through practicum courses / projects /
in-built field based study units; structured classroom-based research projects to develop
research skills, reflective practice, analysis of school textbooks, children’s errors, learning
styles.
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Learning to assess children’s progress: An important role every teacher has to play is that
of assessing children’s progress, both in terms of their psychological development and the
criteria provided by the curriculum. Techniques of assessment and evaluation comprise a
substantial body of knowledge to which every teacher must be introduced during his or her
pre-service training. The scope of learning assessment and evaluation skills and
awareness needs to be broadened to go beyond the limited context of syllabus-based
achievement testing; the achievement scores in a subject need to be linked with the child’s
overall development; the testing should cover higher level of learning objectives and not
just information. The National Curriculum Framework, 2005 proposes school-based
evaluation as a long-term goal of examination reform. Teacher capacity is to be built for
implementing school based evaluation.
History of evaluation and current practices; place of evaluation in learning and
development of the learner, broadening the scope of assessment beyond achievement
testing to cover child’s overall development. Building capacity in school-based evaluation:
skills and competencies in conducting evaluation; parameters, techniques, tools, criteria,
understanding and interpreting test results, feedback and follow-up; developing selfesteem
and confidence to evaluate learners objectively, understanding role of evaluation in
motivating learners.
2.4 Area 3: PRACTICUM AND SCHOOL INTERNSHIP
The present context
It is common knowledge that practice teaching which constitutes the most functional part
of the teacher preparation has suffered severe neglect and erosion in quality. The common
complaint is that theory dominates the curriculum and practice teaching continues to suffer
from inadequacies of different kinds like: practices follow a mechanical routine
(observation, micro teaching, teaching practice and examination) and exhibit no variety or
original thinking, rigid lesson plan format, lack of variety and context specificity in
teaching, evaluation of student teaching in terms of number of lessons, No attempt towards
comprehensive, qualitative evaluation covering professional attitudes, values, lack of
provision for internship and total school experience, inadequate mentoring and
supervision.
The NCF-2005 points out that:
§ current practices in teacher education take the school curriculum and text
books as a ‘given’ and train teachers to adjust to the needs of the existing
school system through fastidious planning of lessons in standardized
formats, fulfilling the ritual of delivering the required number of lessons.
§ Repeated ‘practice’ in the teaching of a specified number of isolated
lessons is considered a sufficient condition for professional development
§ There is no opportunity for teachers to examine their own biases and beliefs
and reflect on their own experiences as part of classroom discourse and
enquiry
§ Theory courses have no clear articulation with practical work and ground
realities
§ The evaluation protocol is too theoretical, excessively quantitative and
lacks comprehensiveness.
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Situating the practice of teaching in the broader context of the Vision of the Role of the
Teacher
It is obvious that in imparting professional rigor to the preparation of a teacher, practice
teaching and associated rigorous theoretical study play a crucial part. It is the effectiveness
with which the multiple components of field learning: getting to know the school,
observing children, observing teaching and learning in real classroom contexts, practicing
teaching, developing capacities to think with educational theories and applying concepts in
concrete teaching learning situations, managing classroom learning, evaluating children’s
learning and providing feedback, learning to work with colleagues, reflecting on one’s
own professional practice, are transacted that make or mar the making of a professional
teacher.
At the outset, it can be seen that any attempt towards reform of current practices and
designing of innovative approaches in practice teaching should begin with an
understanding of the place of teaching practice in the overall scheme of things. The first
thing to be noted is that the teaching practice issue should not be taken as a concern that
can be discussed in isolation from the other theoretical and practical issues comprising the
teacher education enterprise. It actually constitutes the hub of the multiple and varied
activities comprising the total programme of teacher education. It is interconnected with
theoretical study, field work and practicum and a wide range of institutional experiences
involving school students, teachers, student teachers, mentor teacher educators. In a way it
acts both as the evaluation tool for effective teacher education as well as its critical quality
indicator.
Accordingly, our engagement with the act of restructuring this practical learning
component of teacher education, should involve envisioning the role of the teacher and a
guiding philosophy of teacher education. This philosophy may be described as follows:
• Teacher education is to be seen not as a prescriptive endeavour but as open and
flexible with emphasis on changing contexts and empowerment of the teacher.
• The concern is to make teacher education liberal, humanistic and responsive to the
demands of inclusive education.
• The emphasis in teaching is not to be on didactic communication but on nondidactic,
dialogic explorations between teacher and the taught.
• The principle that should inform teaching is interactivity, variety, active learner
involvement, participation and multi sensory learning.
• The existence of a diversity of learning spaces and curriculum sites, diversity of
learning styles that children exhibit, the learning contexts in which teachers have to
function: oversized classes, diverse languages, ethnic diversities, children with
disadvantages of different kinds needs to be acknowledged. Effective teaching
consists in adjusting materials and methods to the needs, interests, learning pace
and style of learners.
• Classroom teaching is essentially a matter of organizing learning activities aimed
at the achievement of the several objectives. A variety of activities can be
provided: listening, reading, writing, reciting, singing, play acting, playing with
numbers, drawing maps, pictures, observing, collecting specimens, demonstrating,
discussing, asking questions, doing experiments, project work and field visits.
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• Our aim must be to promote reflexive practice, to build capacities of teachers to
evolve knowledge, understanding and professional skills to deal with differing and
fluid learning contexts.
Curricular provision
School Internship: sustained engagement with children and school
The feature distinguishing the proposed process-based teacher education from
conventional teacher education is that of bringing the learners’ own experiences centrestage.
Engagement with theoretical concepts and frameworks takes place within the
learner’s experiential and larger social realities. The structural provision for such
opportunity is to be made in the design of the teacher education programme structure and
within each area of study. By structural provision we mean the positioning of areas of
study/inquiry in a manner that allows an easy flow of movement from experience to theory
and theory to field experiences. A back and forth movement between theory and the field
could be provided through inbuilt field-based units of study, in each theory course as well
as specially designed practicum.
Student-teachers should be given the opportunity to learn to keep observational records, to
analyse their observations and interpret reality within varying theoretical and experiential
frameworks. Such engagement through structured classroom-based research projects
develops in them several skills to function as a researcher, thus equipping them to use
mechanisms that enable reflective practice.
Pre-service teacher education programmes should provide sustained engagement with
children in school situations, experiences of teaching children and observing them and
regular teachers in classrooms. This can be staggered over the years, beginning with
practicum related activities with children, learning to relate and communicate with them,
without having the burden of ‘teaching’ them. This can be followed by field assignments
of observing children in naturalistic situations, at play, in school or in the classroom. Only
after providing easy comfort of relating to children and getting to know them, teacher
trainees are to be entrusted with the opportunity to engage with the process of teachinglearning.
While functioning as a regular teacher for a sustained period of a minimum of 12-20
weeks, the intern would get the opportunity to learn to set realistic goals in term of
children’s learning] curricula content and pedagogic practice. A sustained contact through
internship would help teachers to choose, design organize and conduct meaningful
classroom activities, critically reflect upon their own practices through observations,
record keeping and analysis and develop strategies for evaluating children’s learning for
feedback into curriculum and pedagogic practice. The school would benefit from such an
alliance in terms of witnessing possibilities of unconventional pedagogies. In this process
of internship teacher-trainees develop new materials for teaching-learning which can
become valuable resource for the regular teachers of the school. The internship needs to
be worked as a partnership model with the school rather than a continuation of the current
model of practice teaching during which the trainees merely ‘use’ the school for their own
‘formal degree requirements’.
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Practicum can include being with children, relating and communicating with them, field
observation of children in naturalistic situations, at play, in school or in classroom, engage
with teaching-learning; Choosing, designing, organizing and conduct of meaningful
classroom activities; Critical reflection on one’s own teaching, record keeping, and
analysis; Assessing children’s progress; Evaluating learning for feedback into curriculum
and pedagogic practice.
2.5 Time as a Critical Factor in Teacher Preparation
The issue of quality teacher education is closely tied up with the concern for the duration
of initial teacher preparation (pre-service) programmes. Any form of initial teacher
preparation needs to be of reasonable duration that provides enough time and opportunity
for self-study, reflection and involved engagement with children, the school, the classroom
and pedagogic activities, along with rigorous theoretical study.
An analysis of teacher education practice today would reveal that the practice of teaching
is usually of a short duration, no more than five to six weeks and that too piece-meal in
approach. Foundational and skill inputs introduced earlier are expected to be integrated
and applied during this period. It is commonly held that there isn’t sufficient time for
learning either the conceptual or the skill components of teaching for them to manifest in
the individual and his/her performance. Due to paucity of time, ‘lessons’ are planned with
virtually no reflection on the content of subject-matter and its organization. As a result,
most products of teacher education programmes are neither proficient in general
pedagogic skill nor are they adept at reflecting on the subject content of school texts.
It is perhaps high time that we pay heed to the specific suggestion of increasing the
duration of initial teacher education, recommended by the two most significant policy
Commissions of post-independence India, namely the Kothari Commission (1964-66) and
the Chattopadhaya Commission (1983-85). It would be logical to first work towards a
redesign of initial teacher education and then consider an appropriate time frame for
fulfilling its major objectives, keeping in mind the suitability of pedagogic approach and
strategies of implementation. It would no doubt be a wasted effort to provide ‘more’ of the
‘same content and approach’ that is already being critiqued heavily and has proven
dysfunctional in creating opportunities or spaces for change. Suggested and recommended
models of teacher education are presented in the following section.
2.6 Transacting the Teacher Education Curriculum
The most critical aspect of the proposed teacher education curriculum is its transaction.
Teaching is a profession and teacher education a process of professional preparation of
teachers. A profession, as we all know, is characterized by an organized body of
knowledge on which the undertaking is based (the knowledge base of teacher education), a
reasonable duration of formal and rigorous professional training in tandem with practical
experience in the field and a code of professional ethics that binds its members into a
fraternity. Preparing one for a profession thus is an arduous task and involves action from
multiple fronts and perspectives. It also calls for systematic evaluation of all facets of the
professional training – knowledge and understanding of educational theory, practical field
skills and competencies related to learning and teaching and professional attitudes and
values. These two aspects of professional training, namely, curriculum transaction and
evaluation of learning outcomes, are discussed below:
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2.7 Curriculum Transaction
The adoption of process based teacher education as outlined in the previous chapter
involves providing appropriate opportunities to the student teacher:
• for understanding the self and others (including one’s beliefs, assumptions,
emotions and aspirations); developing the ability for self-analysis, self-evaluation,
adaptability, flexibility, creativity and innovation; understanding and developing
oneself as a professional.
• to observe and engage with children, communicate with and relate to children.
• for self-learning, reflection, assimilation and articulation of new ideas; developing
capacities for self-directed learning and the ability to think, be self-critical and to
work collaboratively in groups.
• for content enrichment to generate understanding and knowledge, examine
disciplinary knowledge and social realities, relate subject matter with the social
milieu and develop critical thinking.
• to develop professional skills in pedagogy, observation, documentation, analysis,
drama, craft, story-telling and reflective inquiry.
Language competence and communication skills
Language cuts across the entire school curriculum. In the context of ‘What should
teachers know and be able to do?’ the role of language as a medium and tool of
communication assumes great importance. A teacher talks, explains, illustrates, translates,
guides, instructs, cautions, motivates, encourages, and plays various other roles. All of
these imply an appropriate and context-specific use of language. Concepts, constructs,
examples are the building blocks of knowledge and all these are language-based. This
makes the teacher’s language competency and his proficiency in communication skills a
critical factor in her/his effective performance whether inside the classroom or elsewhere.
No doubt the teacher should know her subject, it is no less important at the same time that
she should be able to communicate it in a manner that would enable her/his students to
comprehend it and analyze it.
In teacher education, irrespective of its stage specificity and the content area all teacher
education programmes must focus on and accord high priority to the development of
student teacher’s language competence and communication skills. If this is not done,
teacher effectiveness will be considerably jeopardized.
Teaching the adult learner
Teacher education programmes are concerned with adult learners. They need to be based
on an adequate understanding of how adults learn. Adult learners are autonomous and self
directed, have a vast amount of life experiences and knowledge, are pragmatic and goal
directed and respond better to problem/task-oriented learning (case studies, simulations,
role play and action research). The emphasis therefore has to be on accomplishment of
tasks, insights and competence through open-ended activities.
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Bringing the learners’ own experiences center-stage
The important feature distinguishing the proposed process-based teacher education from
conventional teacher education is that an engagement with theoretical concepts and
frameworks takes place within the learner’s experiential and larger social realities. The
structural provision for such opportunity is to be made in the design of the teacher
education programme structure and within each area of study in a manner that allows an
easy flow of movement from experience to theory and theory to field experiences.
Examples of such provisions under different areas have already been presented (for
instance, a proposed child-contact practicum; inbuilt field-based units of study in each
theory course).
Engagement with theoretical concepts and frameworks
It is important to note that an engagement with theoretical concepts and frameworks is
necessary or else there is the real danger of reducing all classroom discussions, including
project work to revolve merely around personal experiences. In such an event there is
little hope to lift the discourse from mere description of experiences to reflective analysis.
This must be cautioned against, if we want to develop the student-teachers’ capacity to
think, analyse, interpret and reflect.
As regards teaching of theory we may note that the knowledge component in teacher
education is derived from the broader area of the discipline of education as well as
foundation disciplines of philosophy, sociology, history and psychology. It needs to be
represented so. It is thus multi-disciplinary in nature within the context of education. In
other words, conceptual inputs in teacher education need to be articulated in such a manner
that they describe and explain educational phenomena – actions, tasks, efforts, processes,
concepts, events and so on. In doing so, concepts from various disciplines need to be
integrated for arriving at composite understanding of educational components. The point of
significance here is that while formulating knowledge components for teacher education
conscious efforts need to be made to represent explanations from the perspective of
education as well as of other social science disciplines. Attempts must be made to shift
from the usual ‘theory to practice’ model to understanding theory in order to develop tools
and frameworks of thinking and to theorise about field realities.
Understanding the self and others
Teacher education programmes at all stages should provide opportunities to the would-be
teacher for understanding the self and others, developing the ability of self analysis and
self evaluation and understanding and developing oneself as a professional. They should
also provide ample opportunities to observe and engage with children, communicate with
and relate to children, for self learning and working collaboratively in groups. Further,
they should provide adequate curricular space for content enrichment to generate
knowledge and critical thinking and professional skills in pedagogical observation, drama,
craft, storytelling and reflective enquiry.
Training to be a reflective practitioner
The programmes should provide spaces for student teachers to reflect on their own
experiences and assumptions as part of the course and classroom enquiry for critical
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observation and reflective analysis of the practice of teaching of teachers and teacher
educators. Availability, quality, appropriateness and sufficiency of feedback are necessary
for learning to be a reflective practitioner.
Theory –practice dialectic
Theory courses in teacher education must be so designed and transacted that they provide
greater spaces to generate a deeper understanding of linkages between theories of child
development and learning, and methods of teaching specific subjects. The most effective
way of ensuring such learning is the internship model based on the primary value of field
experience in a realistic situation. The training schedule should enable trainees to
participate as regular teachers for a sustained length of time, analyze experience as a
teacher, sustained involvement in the school’s life during training and spending long
stretches of time with children.
Meaningful internship and school experience
Pre-service teacher education programmes should provide sustained engagement with
children in school situations, experiences of teaching children and observing them and
regular teachers in classrooms. While functioning as a regular teacher, the intern would get
the opportunity to learn to set realistic goals in terms of children’s learning, curricula
content and pedagogic practice. A sustained contact through internship would help
teachers to choose, design, organize and conduct meaningful classroom activities,
critically reflect upon their own practices through observations, record keeping and
analysis and develop strategies for evaluating children’s learning for feedback into
curriculum and pedagogic practice. The school would benefit from such an alliance in
terms of witnessing possibilities of unconventional pedagogies. In this process of
internship teacher-trainees develop new materials for teaching-learning which can become
valuable resource for the regular teachers of the school.
Internship experiences need to be organized in a way that is useful in evaluating teacher’s
ability, supports socialization within the profession, stimulates development of teachinglearning
concepts, provides a protected field of experimentation, allows insights into new
perspective and enhances motivation to continue learning – reflecting upon their own
teaching practices, by reading journals, books, magazines, by observing children, by
studying a case, by observing other professionals/peers at work, understanding skill
development exercise, by working with hands.
2.8 Need for complementary structures and mechanisms
It must be noted that in order to translate this vision of transacting the teacher education
programme it is essential that the complementary structures and mechanisms are in place
to allow such a transaction. All theory courses will need to be interdisciplinary in structure
and have field-based units of study. For instance, only if a theory course on
‘Contemporary Indian Studies’ draws on a variety of critical social science disciplines
such as sociology, history, political science, economics and geography, will it create a
substantive understanding of the ‘social, cultural, political and economic context’ of
education. This will be further strengthened only if theory courses have field-based units
of study. Likewise, establishing resource centres that enable hands-on engagement with
concepts and ‘tools’ of education such as textbooks and other resources is critical to
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transacting a process-based teacher education programme. These resource centres are
viewed as mechanisms for grounding the education of pre-service students as well as inservice
teachers within immediate classroom contexts, the wider societal context and
learner diversity. The conceptual framework within which these centres will operate is
given below:
Establishing Teacher Learning Centres
TLC: A Structural Space for Hands-on Experience
A TLC would be a structural space located within a teacher education institution for
providing student-teachers with hands-on experience with learning materials, engagement
with children and opportunities for self-reflection. The perspective and design of the TLC
would enable processes that engage teacher-trainees with the world of the learner and her
context; subject-content, learning materials and the process of learning; and the trainee
herself as an aspiring professional.
TLC: A Resource for Teacher-trainees, Teacher Practitioners and Teacher Educators
A TLC would house diverse set of resources that would be required for teacher-trainees to
engage with the a diverse set of processes during their training. These would range from
learning materials developed by the trainees themselves and those collated from various
organizations that specialize in creating teaching-learning materials, activity manuals,
children’s literature, a variety of school textbooks and other alternative materials available.
Opportunities to work with a variety of learning materials would help break the ‘habit’ of
relying on the school textbook as the only source of knowledge and teaching in the
classroom.
TLC: A Forum for Interaction and Sharing
A TLC would serve as a forum for interaction among teacher-trainees and teacherpractitioners
on issues of developing materials and planning for teaching. Frequent
interaction and sharing would help trainees to articulate concerns with clarity and learn
from each other’s experiences. Interaction among trainees could be organized within
yearly, monthly and weekly schedules. The nature of these meetings could range from
planning the curriculum for the year to planning units and web-charts for a unit.
TLC: A Platform for Classroom-Based Research
A TLC would serve as a platform for undertaking short research projects that aim to
broaden teachers’ understanding of children and prompt them to enhance their knowledge
of subject-content. For instance, an investigative project on numeracy of how children
learn mathematics by focusing on the strategies they use to solve arithmetic tasks. By
increasing teachers understanding of how children develop increasingly sophisticated
ways of solving arithmetic tasks, the research based learning framework (used in such
projects) provides direction for teaching and learning. This in turn would improve
children’s learning through teacher’s professional development.
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TLC: A Structural Space for Self-directed Activities
A TLC would serve as a structural space whose resources would be available for teachertrainees
to undertake self-directed activities such as analysis of school textbooks and
literacy primers. Learning teachers would undertake analysis of textbooks to assess their
suitability for children of different levels. Analysis of textbooks, using dimensions of
subject-content, presentation style, language used, treatment of concepts and issues of
gender and pedagogic approach would also facilitate trainees to think critically. The study
of alternative text material would expose them to the different ways in which texts can be
written.
Trainee teachers could be engaged with collating children’s questions about natural and
social phenomena such as the following: Why do we speak different languages? Why does
the lizard not fall from the ceiling? An analysis of these would prompt them to engage
with subject content and to appreciate the nature of children’s reasoning at different ages.
TLCs could provide opportunities for teacher-trainees to understand children’s thinking
through personal interviews and probing with individual children. Trainees could develop
profiles of children from diverse contexts to help them appreciate their unique social,
cultural and political environments.
TLC: A Platform for Developing a Repertoire of Skills
TLCs could provide a platform for organizing workshops to develop a repertoire of
professional skills such as story-telling, craft, music and drama. Trainees would learn to
use stories as a medium to facilitate expression, imagination and the creative use of
language in children; create bulletin boards, story-poem folders and organize reading
corners in classrooms. They would learn to use drama and art as a learning tool and as
strategies for classroom management. Through short research projects teacher-trainees and
teacher practitioners will develop skills of observation, documentation, analysis and
interpretation.
TLC: A Structural Space for the Personal and Psychological Development of Teachers
TLCs would focus on activities directly related to the personal and psychological
development of the teacher. Trainees would be encouraged to engage with their own
childhood experiences, aspirations to become a teacher and their views on issues of gender
and identity, personal, familial and social conflict. Through focused workshops they
would examine adult-child gaps in communication, explore their own attitudes towards
competition and cooperation, analyse and observe the impact of competition in personal
and social life. Dimensions of self can be explored through activities of drama, art, music
and craft which often provide non-judgemental and non-threatening learning
environments. Some of the self-directed learning strategies would include finding answers
to deep reflective questions; reflective reading; reflection on observations in the classroom
followed by group discussion; identification of issues for further self-study; keeping
reflective diaries/journals.
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TLC: A Structural Space for Forging Links between Pre-service and In-service Teacher
Education
TLC in a teacher education institution will provide the necessary space which could be
commonly used for both pre-service and in-service teachers. Teacher education institutes
that organize both programmes would need to coordinate with the aim to impact select
schools in a concerted manner. For instance, regular teachers of the internship/practice
teaching schools (where pre-service students are placed), could participate in the inservice
programmes, re-oriented to address the immediate classroom context and learner
diversity. A cluster of schools selected by DIETs each year to place pre-service students,
can also be the selected schools for in-service programmes. All teachers of these schools
can be involved in a concerted way through in-service programmes that are redesigned to
provide individual support and mentoring. The DIET-TLC would provide the necessary
structural space to (a) design the ‘routine’ in-service package of 20 days and provide
hands-on training, which addresses classroom concerns and teachers’ needs. (b) provide
school-based resource support to individual teachers through the school-based Learning
Centre established by interns. Concerted individual support to teachers on classroombased
concerns and issues for duration of about three years is likely to enable a process of
change and deep impact. A formal partnership with a university-based institute or an NGO
where possible can support the effort of the DIET-TLC in this direction, in particular in
the redesigning of the in-service programmes and in providing the bridge between the
teacher education institute and schools.
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Chapter 3
SAMPLE REDESIGNED SCHEMAS OF CURRENT TEACHER
EDUCATION PROGRAMMES
3.1 Introduction
It has already been stated that the broad spectrum of expected learnings in a would-be
teacher demands that initial teacher education needs to be of a fairly long duration
providing enough time and opportunity for self study, reflection and involvement,
engagement with teachers, school, classroom and pedagogic activity along with theoretical
study. Any compromise on the duration of training for whatever reason adversely affects
the quality of training.
It is therefore recommended that current models of Teacher Education at all levels of
school education be gradually replaced by Models of Teacher Education that integrate
general education with professional development along with an intensive internship with
schools. These Integrated Models should be designed using the specific features outlined
in the curricular areas and transaction process. The time-frame recommended to ensure the
institutionalization of these models would be between 4-6 years. As an interim measure,
current models of Teacher Education such as the BEd and DEd are required to redesign
their courses as well as the Programme Structure to include the specific features and
structural mechanisms proposed in the new framework in terms of curricular areas and
transaction processes.
3.2 D.Ed: Two-Year Diploma after +2; BEd One-Year Degree after graduation
Area 1: Theoretical Foundations of Education
1. Child Studies
2. Contemporary Studies
3. Educational studies
Area 2: Curriculum and Pedagogical Theory
1. Curriculum Studies
2. Pedagogical Studies
Each of the theory courses to have units of study from various disciplines. For instance,
Courses on Child Development to have units of study on constructs of childhood drawn
from sociological studies, units on children’s cognitive development and learning to draw
from psychological studies.
Each of the theory courses to include field-based units of study. For instance, courses on
Contemporary Studies to include a project on reservation, or understanding a consumer
product such as ‘glass bangles’ from its raw form to its reach in the market.
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The Curriculum Studies Courses would necessarily include units of study that provide a
critical study of curriculum materials, syllabi, textbooks in the light of theoretical
frameworks and empirical research.
The Pedagogic Studies Courses would necessarily include units of study that provide the
critical study of content, an examination of children’s thinking and learning and pedagogic
processes in the light of theoretical frameworks and empirical research.
Each of the above theory courses to be complemented with Practicum Courses. For
instance, a course on Child Development could have a practicum on ‘Observing Children’
in naturalistic settings to study play patterns, to study their economic and societal contexts,
interviewing children to understand their thinking and learning processes.
Area 3: Practicum Courses and School Internship
1. School-contact Programme
2. Observing Children
3. Self-development
4. Story-telling and Children’s Literature
5. Theatre, Creative Drama, Craft and Music
6. Material Development and Evaluation
7. Classroom Management and Block Teaching
8. Visits to Innovative Centres of Pedagogy and Learning
9. Classroom-based research project
10. School Internship of 4 days a week over a minimum period of 6-10 weeks,
including an initial phase of observing a regular classroom.
Each of these practicum should be positioned strategically over the two years to enable a
back and forth movement between theory and the field.
The practice of teaching during school internship would include not more than 4 Unit
Plans per subject. Planning of the Units would include a critical engagement with content
from multiple sources including the school textbook, organization and presentation of
subject-matter, formulating questions specifically to: (a) assess knowledge base and
understanding of students; (b) further the process of knowledge construction and meaningmaking
in the classroom and (c) assess students’ learning to improve pedagogic practice
and further enhance learning.
Transaction of Teacher Education Programmes should follow the broad strategies
presented in the earlier chapter.
3.3 Four year integrated programme
Outlined below is a short synopsis of the vision and features of a four-year integrated
Programme of Elementary Teacher Education designed to integrate general education with
professional training
• Strong Foundations of Education located in sociological understanding of
education and philosophical thinking on education
• In-built courses to engage with subject content with the aim to revisit and
reconstruct concepts and perspectives
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• Engagement with theory of pedagogy and hands-on experience in understanding
the learner, her context and processing of thinking and learning as a base to evolve
relevant and appropriate pedagogic strategies.
• Theory courses designed to enable inter-disciplinary engagement as well as visit
theory in the light of personal experiences and social realities.
• Opportunities for developing the self through drama, craft, music, selfdevelopment
workshops along with a critical engagement with theoretical
constructs of identity development and the individual-social interface.
• Extensive and intensive practicum courses to equip teachers with a grip over
existing systemic issues in education, a developing capacity to rise to the uncertainities
of a learning environment and changing learner needs and a capacity to
feel empowered to make a difference.
• Practicum courses to develop other professional capacities such as the ability to
evolve developmentally and contextually relevant pedagogies, re-aaranging
subject-matter to communicate effectively with learners and a repertoire of skills of
relating to children, designing and choosing appropriate learning experiences,
observing and documenting, analyzing, synthesizing and interpreting.
• Sustained engagement with schools to appreciate the given constraints of a system
and to learn to strategise to think out of the box. Understand and learn to negotiate
formal learning spaces as sites of struggle, contestation and social transformation.
Recommendations for Pre-service Programmes of Teacher Education
• A four-year integrated programme of elementary teacher education in select state
universities and all Central Universities, in particular via IASEs and select DIETs
could be undertaken in the initial phase.
• XI Plan funding under the innovative education schemes should be channelised as a
priority by the UGC to Universities and select DIETs to institute four year Integrated
Elementary Teacher Education Programmes.
• As an interim measure, current models of Elementary Teacher Education offered by
the DIETs such as the DEd are required to redesign their courses as well as the
Programme Structure to include the specific features and structural mechanisms
proposed in the new framework in terms of curricular areas and transaction
processes.
• A review of the existing DEd programmes is commissioned and the process of
redesign of the curriculum in the light of the proposed process model be completed
in the next 1-2 years.
3.4 Pre-service Programmes at the Secondary Stage
• Existing BEd programmes should be reviewed to facilitate the choice between a
four-year integrated model after +2 or a two-year model after graduation, based on
state requirements and available institutional capacity.
• As an interim measure, current models of Teacher Education such as the BEd are
required to redesign their courses as well as the Programme Structure to include the
specific features and structural mechanisms proposed in the new framework in terms
of curricular areas and transaction processes.
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• A review of the existing BEd programmes is commissioned and the process of
redesign of the curriculum in the light of the proposed process model be completed
in the next 1-2 years.
3.5 Structural and Operational Issues of Teacher Education and Continuous
Professional Development
• Teacher education programmes should be redesigned to respond to the school
curriculum renewal process and in accordance with the state and regional context in
which they are situated.
• The Curricular Areas presented should form the basic framework for redesigning
teacher education programmes at the pre-primary, elementary, secondary and senior
secondary stages of education across states and districts through a proposed linkage
between SCERT/DIETs with University-based institutions.
• Teacher education programmes should ideally be of four-five years duration after the
completion of 10+2 level of school education. To begin with four year integrated
programmes could be instituted. Along with a four-year model, other models should
be encouraged, for instance two-year models with a 6 months to a year of school
internship.
• Integrated model for teacher education could comprise of core components that
would be common to all teacher education programmes (pre-primary, elementary
and secondary) followed by specialization of professional development specific to
the stage of education.
• Mechanisms need to be evolved to promote the entry of talent in teacher education
programmes.
• Vertical linkages for post-graduate studies in education, including research
programmes, for students from a variety of Science and Social Science disciplines
need to be provided.
• A study to assess the dominant entry qualification of candidates for pre-service
programmes in elementary education to design state specific strategies will need to
be undertaken.
• High-level consultative arrangements on building linkages between teacher
education and school curriculum design and its processes of renewal, including the
development of curriculum materials would need to be developed.
• A nation-wide review of teacher education curriculum in the light of the school
curriculum renewal exercise would need to be undertaken.
• Nation-wide seminars and workshops could be held to initiate discussions and
possible strategies for operationalising the institution of redesigned teacher education
and development.
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Chapter 4
EVALUATING THE DEVELOPING TEACHER
4.1 Introduction
A glaring weakness of existing teacher education practices is the restricted scope of
evaluation of student teachers and its excessively quantitative nature. It is confined to
measurement of mainly cognitive learning through annual / terminal tests; skill
measurement is limited to a specified number of lessons. The qualitative dimensions of
teacher education, other professional capacities, attitudes and values remain outside the
purview of evaluation. Further, evaluation is not continuous as it should be; the teacher
education process is characterized by a wide range and variety of curricular inputs spread
over the entire duration of training according to the developmental sequence and these
need to be evaluated at appropriate stages and feedback given to the trainees.
4.2 The comprehensive nature of evaluation
Evaluation in teacher education needs to be objective and comprehensive to cover the
entire gamut of developing dimensions in the teacher trainees covering the conceptual,
pedagogical aspects as well as attitudes, dispositions, habits and capacities in a teacher
incorporating both the quantitative and qualitative dimension of growth. These include:
engagement with children in their contexts, school curriculum and textbooks, process of
learning and knowledge, psychological and professional development, understanding of
institutional arrangements, policy perspective, pedagogy and curriculum. Assessment
should cover: understanding of the process of child development, societal context of
education, nature of children’s thinking – mathematics, language, natural and social
phenomena, philosophical and sociological frameworks, undertaking analysis of
curriculum, grasp of the school as a system, ways in which developing teachers
demonstrate their changing dispositions, professional skills in organizing group learning
and team work.
4.3 The evaluation protocol
Qualitative indicators specific to each area of assessment need to be drawn up and initial
allotment of marks should lead eventually to grades. The bases and criteria for evaluation
may include:
Observing children for a specified duration in specific situations: number of hours of
observation, method used, detailed notes, recording formats, data coding, reports, analysis
and interpretation.
Observational records maintained by the student teacher on a set of criteria relevant to
the task and report writing: field notes, classification schemes used to make sense of
qualitative data.
School contact practicum to relate and communicate with children: preparation, choice
of activities, materials, developments that take place in the classroom, interaction with
children, reflection on issues regarding children’s learning, expressions, creativity,
discipline, influence of varying contexts.
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Planning for the school contact: choice of theme, activities, materials, time, organization
of material, communication skills, ability to engage children, interaction, time
management.
Post contact discussions, report writing and group presentations: quality of discussions,
insights, analysis, reflections.
Psychological and professional development of the teacher: Courses, theory and
practicum on the development of the self. Personal growth can be assessed using the
criteria of the capacity of participants to question and be critical of their own assumptions,
thoughts, opinions and ideas, developing insight into one’s own self: articulating one’s
own limitations and strengths, capacity to integrate thought and action, feeling and
intellect, developing self-confidence and questioning over-confidence, open-mindedness,
ability to listen with empathy and attention, social sensitivity, ability to take initiative,
developing positive attitudes and reflecting on negative attitudes. Self-evaluation of
students would use the same criteria of personal growth.
Assessing a repertoire of skills: regularity and nature of participation in workshops; skills
of creating bulletin boards using relevant themes and stories, story folders that make a
collection of stories in terms of variety, context, social and cultural diversity and
sensitivity, adequate reference to sources and acknowledgements, classification and
retrieval system for the use of stories in classrooms and outside, capacity for evaluating
‘sound’ children’s literature with substantive reflection on the why of such a criteria, skills
of telling stories to children, selection of story according to a theme, appropriateness in
terms of the age group of the children being addressed, the use of animation, voice, pitch,
clarity, eye contact, the use of gestures, handling of a story book and the nature of
children’s involvement.
Understanding the learner, curricular and pedagogic issues: Practicum courses
complementing theory learning with curriculum studies: Observation of classroom,
teaching practices, visits to centres of innovation, curricular materials, document and text
analysis; observation records, individual and group reports, reflections, material
development, journal of reflective learning etc.
Teacher as researcher: Teacher-trainees are also given the opportunity to learn to keep
observational records, to analyze their observations and interpret reality within varying
theoretical and experiential frameworks. Such engagement through structured classroombased
research projects develops in them several skills to function as a researcher, thus
equipping them to use mechanisms that enable reflective practice. Over the year trainees
undertake several such tasks, including analysis of school textbooks and alternative
materials, analysis of children’s errors and observation of children’s learning styles and
strategies.
Internship activities on which students may be assessed: observing and reflecting on
classroom practices, regular teaching, teaching-learning resources developed, records of
planned units of study and regular daily diary / journal of reflections, evaluation of
children: design of assessment of learning, type of questions in domain areas, viewing
assessment as an aid to learning and not merely as an indicator of learning.
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Each intern would be expected to keep a reflective journal that would help her to revisit
her experiences in the classroom over the period of internship. The journal would include
short descriptions of how the class was conducted, how children responded, followed by
analytical and reflective statements about her preparedness for the class, her responses to
children’s questions, her capacity to include children’s sharing of their experiences, her
response towards their errors, difficulties in comprehending new ideas and concepts and
issues of discipline, organization and management of the group, individual and whole
class activities. Evaluation of the journal would mean looking at how the intern has been
able to gradually move towards writing reflections rather than merely describing
classroom events and processes.
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Chapter 5
IN-SERVICE EDUCATION AND CONTINUOUS
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
5.1 Introduction
The idea of in-service education for teachers was discussed in the Kothari Commission
(1964-66) and in the Chattopadhyay Commission (1983-85) as important in order to
enable teachers to renew their knowledge about teaching and the subjects they teach as
well as to help to break the isolation of the teacher. All initiatives in curriculum, whether
of the whole curriculum, special inputs in specific subject areas, or infusing new social
concerns, have been implemented through the renewal or up-gradation in the knowledge
and practice of teachers already in school. This includes both government initiatives as
well as small and large interventions into government schools and alternative schools by
non government agencies.
These concerns for the teacher as a professional as well as the teacher as the most
important point for transformation in curriculum renewal have in general provided the
overarching aims for the design of in-service teacher education and activities contributing
to their professional development.
The system has responded by creating structures and institutions for this purpose, and
providing increasingly more financial support for these activities. Following the Kothari
Commission’s report, in several states school clusters were created to forge inter-linkages
between primary, middle and high schools and provided a forum and structure of
interactions between teachers and receiving professional inputs. Following the NPE 1986,
in-service teacher education received support through central government funding for the
establishment of Institutes of Advanced Studies in Education (IASE) to chosen University
Departments of Education and District Institutes of Education and training (DIET) in each
district with a view to provide a space for the conduction of inservice courses for teachers
of elementary and secondary schools. The DIETs in addition had the mandate to work
towards universalizing and renewing elementary education through supporting innovations
and strengthening field activity. The District Primary Education Programme (DPEP,
1995-2003) across the country further set up the structures of the block and cluster
resource centers with the explicit mandate to provide inservice training to primary school
teachers in new, child-centred pedagogic methods and to provide school based support to
teachers. The attempt has been to shift away from the idea of subject inspectors and
inspectors of schools attached to the education administration office, towards the idea of a
resource person attached to an academic resource and support centre. The Sarva Siksha
Abhiyam (SSA, 2001) has also placed emphasis on continuous in-service teacher
education requiring each teacher to receive 20 days of training every year.
There has also been a growth in other kinds of professional activities for teachers. All
teachers are members of associations which have from time to time taken up academic
activities and organized conventions and meetings to discuss professionally important
developments. Teachers’ involvements in textbook preparation and indeed even in the
preparation of training modules etc. has grown over the years. Teacher themselves have
44
opportunities to work in the block and cluster centers as well as to contribute to trainings
as resource persons. They are also members of committees formulating policies in
education. NGO initiatives such as the Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme
(HSTP) in Madhya Pradesh, the Uttarakhand Seva Nidhi of Uttranchal, BVIER, Pune and
PRISM of the Homi Bhabha Centre in Mumbai, have developed and implemented models
of teacher professional development and support in ways that directly impact the
classroom. Furthermore, all agencies trying to reach out to children through special
packages, whether to promote AIDS awareness or introduce technology into the
classroom, heavily depend on providing related training to teachers to implement their
programmes.
There is thus a plethora of opportunities and avenues for the continued professional
development of teachers. These have varying degrees of success in terms of motivating
teachers to alter and develop their classroom practice in ways that improve children’s
learning and provide educationally rich experiences to them. Micro-stories of success
often seem to ‘fail’ when upscaled. There is very little research into the effectiveness of
training, or the status of school support activities on the ground, or detailed understanding
of even reported successes and failures. Evidence of ‘effectiveness’ of training
programmes and support activities, especially within the government system, continues to
be only anecdotal and impressionistic, and even contrary, depending on who is asking the
questions or doing the observation. The whole approach to the teachers professional needs
as a professional continue to be determined, planned, implemented and monitored
extrinsically, compromising on the concept of the teacher as a professional and with little
or no basis for the design of the interventions.
5.2 Aims of Programmes for Continuous Professional Development of Teachers
As a professional, teachers seek for avenues for their self development:
• to explore, reflect on and develop one’s own practice
• to deepen one’s knowledge of, and update oneself about one’s academic discipline
or other areas of school curriculum
• to research and reflect on children and their education
• to understand and update oneself on education and social issues
• to prepare for other roles professionally linked to education/teaching, such as
teacher education, curriculum development or counseling etc.
• to break out of ones isolation and share ones experiences and insights with others
in the field, both teachers and academics working in the area of one’s discipline, as
well as intellectuals in the immediate and wider society.
Education and curriculum planners also seek to provide avenues for the professional
development of teachers as a part of curriculum reform and strengthening:
• to enable teachers to work towards prioritized goals in education such as
universalisation and inclusion
• to influence social attitudes and generate greater commitment to constitutional
values and overcoming discrimination in the classroom
45
• to transform existing practices towards more child friendly methods and methods
suited to strengthening conceptual learning and understanding rather than rote
learning.
• to enable teachers to implement and achieve specific targeted aspects in the
curriculum, such as the use of a type of technology, or the addition of topics such
as AIDS, or adolescent education, etc.
• to prepare teachers to play enhanced roles in the education system, as resource
persons, or head teachers, etc.
• in the context where many pre-service training programmes are of poor quality
and often fails to provide teachers with sufficient understanding that could lead to
reflective practice, and where state governments have recruited untrained
personnel(para-teachers) in various kinds of non-formal centers, it becomes
necessary to include the unaddressed needs of pre-service programmes through
continued professional development.
5.3 Designing In-service Programmes : Some Principles
The design of in-service programmes would depend on the specific aims of each
programme given a vast variation in context. However, some general principles would
need to be kept in mind during the design and implementation across various programmes.
These would necessarily relate to the teacher as a professional and the content and
pedagogic approach to be followed:
5.3.1 Content and pedagogic approach
• Programmes must build on the principle of creating ‘spaces’ for sharing of
experiences of communities of teachers among themselves, to build
stronger shared professional basis of individual experiences and ideas.
Giving teachers a space to develop and hear their own voices is of utmost
importance.
• Programmes must be designed with a clear sense of their aims and how the
strategies of the programme are going to achieve these aims. This alone
can ensure that programmes remain on track and ‘alive’ rather than routine
when they are implemented. This may also require then, that every group
of trainers either directly participate in the design of the programme,
keeping in mind a specific group of teachers, or adapts a given programme
to a specific group of teachers. Programmes also need to include a plan for
post programme support and include training/orientation of support faculty
in the same.
• All programmes must find acceptance of their aims with the teachers group
concerned, regarding whether they need such a programme and why they
are to attend it. The principle of choice of programmes to attend based on
teachers own assessment of what she or he needs or is advised based on
some valid assessment of professional requirement would provide a sound
basis for in-service programmes especially those that are of a long duration
and which seek to impact practice. One size cannot fit all.
• Interactivity must not be compromised on any account. Large numbers,
and the use of electronic media in the place of human interaction,
compromises on the non-negotiable.
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• The content of programmes must be such that teachers can relate to it from
their own experience and also find opportunities to reflect on these
experiences.
• The approach of motivating for change must not put the burden on
individual development alone, but must also recognise and respond to the
structural issues that affect teacher’s day to day practice. Equally,
structures and people in supervisory postion must be educated to support
and provide space to encourage teachers to plan and practice autonomously.
Programmes that seek to develop or alter basic practice need to be planned towards
extensive interactions over time with the same resource group.
5.3.2 Addressing teachers as learners
• Teachers are adults, and have already formed a working professional
identity and already has experiences of teaching, and associated beliefs
about learners, themselves as teachers and of the teaching-learning process.
Any in-service programme, whether it attempts to seed new ideas,
challenge existing notions and assumptions or simply provide content
knowledge, needs to acknowledge and respect this professional identity and
knowledge of the teacher and work with and from it.
• Any effort to strengthen teachers’ professional practice must equally
respect them as professionals. This includes matters of training content and
approach, how trainings are announced, and how they are implemented.
Programmes must build on and strengthen the teachers own identity as a
professional teacher and in many cases also establish and nurture the
linkage with the academic disciplines of their interest. Programmes that
compromise on the professional identity of the teacher and her autonomy
will be unsustainable in the long run, providing very little psychological
motivation for teacher to internalize what they have been told into their
practice.
• As adults and professionals, teachers are critical observers of the contents
of in-service activities and the extent to which they learn from these
trainings is a function of their assessment of its quality and the extent to
which it relates to their needs.
• The practice of a teacher cannot be developed through quick fix strategies
and activities, without the development of an accompanying
framework/theory on the process of learning and the aims of education.
• Over-training, routinised and superficial training leads to cynicism and
training fatigue.
5.4 Seeking Various Routes Towards Teachers’ Continuous Professional
Development : Types of In-service Programmes
Keeping in mind the aims of in-service programmes for professional development, there is
need to recognize the variety of types of in-service programme and experiences that can
contribute towards and sustain professional development. This is especially so in the
context in which 20-days of ‘training’ for all teachers is being mandated by government.
If it is for the development and strengthening of overall practice of the teacher, then there
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is
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