Any number of educational committees, commissions, professionals who have been advocating for achieving or enhancing quality in education will have to acknowledge the importance of the role of teacher in bringing about the expected change. More than thirteen decades have passed since the Hunter Commission (First Indian Education Commission) has made its recommendation for having trained teachers followed by a variety of recommendations by various committees. We have also not stopped at recommendations but have made certain major leaps in our endeavor of bringing about quality in teacher education. The NPE, 86 has provided the greatest momentum in bringing about revolution in teacher education. It has resulted in the establishment of a statutory body of teacher education, the NCTE, the DIETs, the CTEs and the IASEs. Teacher Education is also included under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes. But we still find that somewhere the gap is still continuing reflecting on the present system of education. Who can offer an explanation to this? The answer lies in the observations of the University Education Commission that ‘Teaching’ in this country is not recognized as a profession and that of the Kothari Commission that teacher training is conducted in ‘isolation’.Breaking this isolation and making teacher and teaching dynamic in its true sense is not an easy task because
- The role of the teacher was previously confined to teaching and to be more precise to completion of prescribed syllabus but now it is multifaceted as a facilitator, care taker, community leader, guidance counselor, researcher, etc.
- In our attempt to achieve the various goals relating to education a number of policies are evolving and teacher education has to align itself to these various compulsions.
- Over the past 100 years from when teacher preparation is viewed as one of the essential features of education system a lot of changes took place in Science & Technology, Society, Social living, Study of human and child development etc. and all these have to be addressed by teacher education system.
- Education system has witnessed tremendous change in orientation styles from being subject centered to teacher centered to child centered.
- Teaching profession unlike others is an all inclusive profession. For eg. a doctor confines to the medical field, a lawyer to legal field, an engineer to technical field, a psychologist to behavioural field but a teacher though not a specialist should have the knowledge of all these and other varied disciplines.
At this backdrop the core group on teacher education has made certain observations to evolve a position paper on teacher education for the state curriculum framework of Andhra Pradesh.
Vision
The group has agreed to adopt the vision of Teacher Education as given by the NCF, 2005 document as that of preparing teachers for the dual role of
- Encouraging, supportive and humane facilitator in teaching-learning situations who enables learners to discover their talents, to realize their physical and intellectual potentialities to the fullest, to develop character and desirable social and human values to function as responsible citizens and
- An active member of the group of persons who make conscious effort to contribute towards the process of renewal of school curriculum to maintain its relevance to the changing societal needs and personal needs of learners, keeping in view the experience gained in the past and the concerns and imperatives that have emerged in the light of changing national development goals and educational priorities.
Objectives
Built on the vision stated above the objectives of Teacher Education are expressed as;
To develop teachers
- Who are sensitive to the needs of children and community.
- With an understanding nature who build an emotional binding with the child.
- As persons of concern who support the child in discovering himself and strive for their all round development
- Of patience who encourage and nurture the inquisitiveness and creativity in the child and promote learning.
- As facilitators for helping the child construct his own knowledge.
- As community leaders who feel the responsibility towards the society and make all attempts for the good of the society and the nation
- As patriots who respect our country and constitution and work to inculcate patriotism and the values enshrined in our constitution among children
- As conservers of our culture who preserve and transmit the cultural heritage of the country to the next generations.
- As researchers who attempt to be scientific in all the tasks they take up.
- As good analysers who constantly evaluate contemporary issues and reason their impact on the education system and the society.
- As good subject experts and pedagogues providing exact and relevant information in perfect ways to build a strong knowledge base among the students
- As inspiring persons who model to the children of being humane, considerate and at the same time achievement oriented
- As perfect professionals who take good lead in all areas like curriculum development, transactional innovations, public relations etc.
- As all rounders who can handle non-academic areas along with academic issues
- As good guidance and counseling experts who can guide the students and parents in dealing with all kinds of personal, educational and vocational problems.
- As good motivators who keep up the interest of the children in remaining active in learning and keep growing constantly
- As persons with good communication skills with outstanding proficiency in language
- As life long learners updating their knowledge and skills to evolve as best professionals.
- As good evaluators who can assess the progress of both their students and their self showing the path for future development .
Teacher Education – Systemic Reforms
Systemic reforms in teacher education can be put in the form of Structural reforms, Curricular & transactional reforms and Administrative reforms.
Structural reforms
At present in Andhra Pradesh we have separate courses for elementary and secondary levels. Elementary level course is a two year diploma course after Intermediate while secondary teacher training is a one year bachelor degree course after Graduation. Apart from these there are separate courses for Language Pandit training and Physical Education, M.Ed is a P.G. level course in education. Of these the major courses of concern are D.Ed and B.Ed. In this connection the following reforms are suggested:
- The duration of both D.Ed and B.Ed courses is not sufficient to make the teacher competent for all the roles expected from them. Hence it has to be enhanced. The best option would be to have four year integrated courses leading to B.El.Ed and B.S.Ed after Intermediate. Similarly, along with elementary and secondary four year course should be conducted for pre-primary level. Studies have shown that teachers who have the qualification of four year integrated course conducted by NCERT are more effective, professional and successful. This also helps in attracting students who are really interested and have the aptitude in teaching in this profession eliminating the financial reason for selection of teacher job.
- Another option is to have a common course for elementary and secondary levels where the trainees will be prepared to handle both in a four year course.
- Till all the existing courses are upgraded to four years the present B.Ed may be reformed to have only single methodology as more intensive training can be possible.
- Language Pandit Courses should be done away with as languages are also included as methodology papers along with the other school subjects.
- Like the regular universities and the IGNOU, the teacher education institutions should conduct various short term courses in which the teachers can join and build their capacities as per their interest like ICT, ET, Inclusive Education, Evaluation Techniques, Vocational Education, Guidance Counseling , Planning etc. for teachers. These courses can be used as Refresher courses for Career Advancement of Teachers.
- There should be a separate University for teacher education in the state to enhance the standards of all the courses.
Curricular and Transactional Reforms:
- Comprehensive changes need to be made in the curriculum of teacher education. It should be aligned to the present needs and emerging changes. It should not miss even minute aspects. It should be all inclusive reflecting ICT, diversities among children and society, experiential learning, Life skills, Vocational training etc. Teacher education curriculum should also incorporate non-academic components like yoga, art, craft, music, sports etc. Only then can it come out of the isolation it is said to be caught in.
- The curriculum of teacher education should help in achieving the goal of teacher education in preparing teacher as a perfect professional who is a facilitator, communicator, content and language expert, child psychologist, sociologist community leader, researcher etc.
- The curriculum designed should be the result of research and experimental findings.
- The curriculum should include important policies acts relating to child and education.
- The practicum aspect should form the major part of the curriculum. Enough time should be allotted to translate the knowledge gained through theory into practice. Experiential learning helps in fine tuning the skills of the trainee.
- Teacher trainee should be given an opportunity to conduct research and have first hand information of the present position of the component under study be it the child, the curriculum, the text book, the methodology, the school, the community etc.
- Teaching profession is facing the allegations of degraded value system. Teacher education curriculum should aim to eliminate this allegation.
- Teacher Education institutions should also function with commitment to achieve the aim of teacher preparation in its totality thereby fulfilling the needs of education system and achieve progress.
- In service teacher education programmes should also be related to contemporary issues. They should be need based.
- All teaching skills should be practiced through micro teaching. Teacher educators should also guide and equip the teacher trainees with all teaching skills through demonstration lessons in training institutions and also by observing the lessons given by trainees in schools. Senior Teachers in schools should also observe the classes of trainees and guide them.
Administrative reforms
- Teacher and Teacher Education courses should be given professional status.
- Selection of teachers needs procedural changes. The entrance and recruitment tests instead of testing the content knowledge should test the teacher’s perspective, interests and attitudes towards teaching profession.
- All teacher education institutions should mandatorily have model schools.
- In Andhra Pradesh the schools are delinked from local Bodies and are brought under control of District Educational Officer diluting the monitoring on the functioning of teachers. Monitoring by Local Bodies will have good impact on quality of teacher service. Therefore there is a need to again bring these schools under the administrative control of local bodies.
- Teacher Educators should be made to work for at least one hour in a school so that the experience gained from working with children will be utilized in guiding the trainees.
- All teacher education institutions should be strengthened to enable them to handle four year integrated courses.
- In-service refresher courses should be made mandatory for all teachers and their career advancement should be linked to such courses. The system should allow teachers to pursue courses of their choice that help in their professional development
Fresh outlook of teacher preparation
Teacher preparation is a dynamic activity which operates in a self learning environment through participatory mode in the context of changing learner and social needs. It should emphasize experiential and constructivist approach in learning. It should cater to the development of teacher for the multifaceted role ranging from a class room manager to that of a community leader. The curriculum and methodology cannot be patterned i.e. to say that as a liquid takes the shape of the container teacher education should take the shape of the current needs. However, it has to function within the broader outline of the objectives of education.
Focal points of curriculum
- Learner
- Learning
- Teacher
- Knowledge
- Social Context
- Appraisal
Position Paper on Teacher Education
It is an accepted truth that the quality of education depends on the quality of the teacher and teacher education. More than thirteen decades have passed since the Hunter Commission has made the recommendation for having trained teachers. Even after the biggest initiatives of establishing NCTE, DIETs, CTEs & IASEs after NPE, 86, the gap is still continuing reflecting on the present system of education. Teaching is still not viewed as a profession and teacher education is still conducted in isolation
Breaking this isolation and making teaching and teacher dynamic is not an simple task because of
- the change in the role of the teacher
- the tremendous changes emerging in the various fields impacting education
- the change in the orientation styles of teaching
- the need for teacher education to align to continuously evolving policies and acts.
Vision
The group has agreed to adopt the vision of Teacher Education as given by the NCF, 2005 document as that of preparing teachers for the dual role of
- Encouraging, supportive and humane facilitator in teaching-learning situations who enables learners to discover their talents, to realize their physical and intellectual potentialities to the fullest, to develop character and desirable social and human values to function as responsible citizens and
- An active member of the group of persons who make conscious effort to contribute towards the process of renewal of school curriculum to maintain its relevance to the changing societal needs and personal needs of learners, keeping in view the experience gained in the past and the concerns and imperatives that have emerged in the light of changing national development goals and educational priorities.
Objectives
Built on the vision stated above the objectives of Teacher Education are expressed as;
To develop teachers
- Who are sensitive to the needs of children and community.
- With an understanding nature who build an emotional binding with the child.
- As persons of concern who support the child in discovering himself and strive for their all round development
- Of patience who encourage and nurture the inquisitiveness and creativity in the child and promote learning.
- As facilitators for helping the child construct his own knowledge.
- As community leaders who feel the responsibility towards the society and make all attempts for the good of the society and the nation
- As patriots who respect our country and constitution and work to inculcate patriotism and the values enshrined in our constitution among children
- As conservers of our culture who preserve and transmit the cultural heritage of the country to the next generations.
- As researchers who attempt to be scientific in all the tasks they take up.
- As good analysers who constantly evaluate contemporary issues and reason their impact on the education system and the society.
- As good subject experts and pedagogues providing exact and relevant information in perfect ways to build a strong knowledge base among the students
- As inspiring persons who model to the children of being humane, considerate and at the same time achievement oriented
- As perfect professionals who take good lead in all areas like curriculum development, transactional innovations, public relations etc.
- As all rounders who can handle non-academic areas along with academic issues
- As good guidance and counseling experts who can guide the students and parents in dealing with all kinds of personal, educational and vocational problems.
- As good motivators who keep up the interest of the children in remaining active in learning and keep growing constantly
- As persons with good communication skills with outstanding proficiency in language
- As life long learners updating their knowledge and skills to evolve as best professionals.
- As good evaluators who can assess the progress of both their students and their self showing the path for future development .
Teacher Education – Systemic Reforms
Systemic reforms in teacher education can be put in the form of Structural reforms, Curricular & transactional reforms and Administrative reforms.
Structural Reforms
- Both the elementary and secondary level teacher education courses should be made into 4 year integrated courses.
- There can be a single four year course which can prepare teachers for both elementary and secondary levels
- Till the courses are upgraded present B.Ed. to be limited to single methodology course
- Language Pandit Courses should be done away with and converted to B.Ed courses
- Teacher Education institutions should conduct short term courses in related fields like ICT, ET, Planning, Inclusive Education so that teachers can continuously build their capacities
- Separate teacher education university needs to be established
Curricular and Transactional Reforms
- Curriculum to be aligned to emerging changes
- Curriculum should be all inclusive reflecting Inclusive education, ICT, ET, life skills, etc.
- Curriculum should also include non academic inputs like yoga, art, craft, sports, etc.
- Curriculum should help in developing perfect professional
- Curriculum should be based on research
- Curriculum should include all policies and acts relating to education
- Practicum should be a major part of the curriculum
- In-service programmes should also relate to emerging changes
Administrative Reforms
- Teacher Education courses should be given professional status
- All Teacher Education Institutions should have attached model schools
- Schools and teachers should be brought back under the control of local bodies
- Teacher Education institutions should be strengthened to handle integrated courses
- Refresher courses should be made mandatory for career advancement of in-service teachers
Fresh outlook of teacher preparation
Teacher preparation is a dynamic activity which operates in a self learning environment through participatory mode in the context of changing learner and social needs. It should emphasize experiential and constructivist approach in learning. It should cater to the development of teacher for the multifaceted role ranging from a class room manager to that of a community leader. The curriculum and methodology cannot be patterned i.e. to say that as a liquid takes the shape of the container teacher education should take the shape of the current needs. However, it has to function within the broader outline of the objectives of education.
Focal points of curriculum
- Learner
- Learning
- Teacher
- Knowledge
- Social Context
- Appraisal
No comments:
Post a Comment