Rama Mathew Delhi University Delhi Presentation Part 1 Policy perspective Part 2What is happening around the world in TD Part 3What is happening in India Part 4 W here we need to go ID: 243194
Download Presentation The PPT/PDF document "Teacher Development as the Future of Tea..." is the property of its rightful owner. Permission is granted to download and print the materials on this web site for personal, non-commercial use only, and to display it on your personal computer provided you do not modify the materials and that you retain all copyright notices contained in the materials. By downloading content from our website, you accept the terms of this agreement.
Slide1
Teacher Development as the Future of Teacher Education
Rama Mathew
Delhi University, DelhiSlide2
Presentation
Part 1:
Policy perspectivePart 2:What is happening around the world in TDPart 3:What is happening in India Part 4: Where we need to go
2Slide3
TT, TD and TE
Training:
familiarising student teachers with techniques and skills to apply in the
classroomEducation involves teachers in developing theories of teaching, understanding the nature of teacher decision making and strategies for self-awareness and self-evaluation...
3Slide4
TT, TE and TD
TD is seen to be a voluntary process, on-going, bottom-up since the starting point is the teachers
’
own experience where new information is sought, shared, reflected on, tried out, processed in terms of personal experience and finally ‘owned’ by the teachers
CPD refers to continuing professional development
4Slide5
Policy perspective: an overview
5Slide6
University Education Commission
‘
It is extraordinary that our school teachers learn whatever subject they teach before reaching 24 or 25 and that their further education is left to experience, which in most cases, is another name for stagnation. We must realize that experience needs to be supplemented by experiment before reaching its fullness and that for a teacher to keep alive and fresh he/she should become a learner
from time to time.
’
6Slide7
Kothari Commission (1964-66)
Concerns
Quality of teacher training institutions (TEIs) is mediocre or poor
TEIs are isolated from the mainstream academic life of universities and from schoolsFacilities for training are inadequate
Provision for CPD of all teachers is inadequate
7Slide8
Recommendations
Comprehensive internship of student teachers with systematic collaboration between TEIs and schools
Opportunities for new teachers to learn from their experiences and through
consultations and discussions with experienced teachers in the school. Principal and senior teachers to organize staff study circles
and discussion groups, supported by Education Departments, TEIs and teacher organisations
8Slide9
Recommendations
CPD to be informed by research in
education: Results
of research to flow down to the classroom and classroom problems to climb up to research institutions for effective and practical solutionsFor Teachers in Higher Education
Newly appointed teachers to be encouraged to attend the lectures of senior colleagues, study their methods of teaching and after the lecture, both could discuss the methods and techniques
9Slide10
Other Committees
Organising
on-site programmes within the school for their own identified needs
, calling experts from outside and sharing successful practices as well as ineffective methodologies with a view to developing solutions to teachers’ problems (National Commission on Teachers 1983-85)
Enabling trainees to acquire the ability for
self-learning and independent thinking
(Yashpal Committee 1993)
10Slide11
National Policy on Education (1986/92)
Providing on-site, continuous, need-based opportunities to the teacher through courses/seminars to enable teachers to experiment and to share their experience with colleagues to achieve
self-learning and independent thinking.
11Slide12
National Council for Teacher Education(1998)
One of the objectives of in-service programmes is making teachers
reflective
; it also visualizes a continuum with programmes that are wholly non-school based at one end and wholly school-based at the other, and contends that programmes in India fall mostly at the left end of the continuum, with a few of the recent ones falling a little toward the mid-point.
12Slide13
National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education (2000)
Continuing education of in-service teachers needs attention because all their initial education and training may not remain relevant and effective because of the present rate of change in content and pedagogy in the national and world scenario.
Offering in-service education in a
sustained manner, for which a cascade model of training is recommended
13Slide14
National Curriculum Framework (2005)
Focus Group on Teacher Education
not only sees CPD as the most prominent measure for bridging the gap between pre-service and in-service education of teachers through
well designed pre-service programmes and on-site support to teachers, but also the
school-TEI collaboration
in this enterprise as crucial.
14Slide15
National
Knowledge Commission (2008)
A
context that fosters an attitude of life-long learning and greater freedom for teachers to choose courses that they would like to do, to increase their personal initiative and absorption of
training
Incentivise short
courses
, by making attendance
and
completion of
courses
pre-requisites to professional
advancement
Peer
feedback
as a
support
for TD
15Slide16
National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education(2009
)
Aim of CPD programmes: Teacher to
‘break out of intellectual isolation and share experiences and insights with others in the field, both teachers and academics ….’. Principles to be followed in designing these programmes: the principle of ‘creating spaces for sharing of experiences of communities of teachers among themselves
’
is stressed.
16Slide17
Recommendations
To establish Teacher
Learning Centres (
TLCs) for teachers, teacher educators and trainees to come together within TEIs and share experiences, access resources and discuss and plan classroom-based action research
Stronger
links between schools and the various institutions and bodies responsible for CPD and in-service and pre-service teacher
training
17Slide18
Summary: Coming to terms with ‘
terms
’
‘Training’ and ‘Development’ in the documents are interchangeably used.
Terms/notions such as CPD, sharing of practice, need-based programmes, self-learning and independent thinking, reflective practice, action research are used.
‘
Training
’
,
‘
reorientation of teachers
’
,
‘
equipping
’
(as opposed to
‘
enabling
’
, see Prabhu 1987), focus on content enrichment as opposed to pedagogical content knowledge (Shulman 1987) are
also
used.
18Slide19
Summary/Critique
Earlier recommendations saw a need for CPD but did not articulate its ramifications clearly enough for implementation.
The more recent ones spell out more details that render CPD achievable in more concrete terms in school as well as TEI context.
19Slide20
Summary: Making CPD achievable
Creating a space for teachers to share experience with peers, with the locale of this activity being the school rather than the TEI, and with increased school-TEI partnership and collaboration
What is not suggested is how this space can be created in the teacher
’s otherwise busy schedulePolicy statements do not find a corresponding provision in actual practice in schools Schools and regulatory bodies do not mutually ensure that the policy provision is realised in actual practice
20Slide21
Status of CPD in
Schools: What do teachers say?
N= 30, 2-20 years’ experience, primary to higher secondary, govt and private schools in Delhi (open ended questionnaires and interviews)Work they do: teaching, organizing and participating in a large number CCAs and endless correction work; it has now increased with the introduction of CCE
In Govt. Schools: non-academic duties such as census work, election duty, which they cannot refuse
21Slide22
Their work over the years
About half of them found their work interesting and challenging in the first year but with the passing of time it had become boring and monotonous. Others find it a
‘
routine’ and just ‘tolerate’ it.Others: ‘Enthusiasm of students makes my work 100% interesting
’
22Slide23
Pressure of syllabus
Many of the things learnt during B.Ed. are not useful/helpful, as
‘
one would take years to finish the volume of syllabus assigned for each class’.What I do not like about my teaching is when I am forced to resort to the lecture method to be able to ‘finish’ the syllabus
23Slide24
Keeping themselves ‘uptodate
’
Feel the need to replenish/update themselves
Long for a forum and an outlet where they could express and share their experience with each otherSeminars and in-service workshops especially those conducted in the summer vacation by the Directorate of Education are monotonous and of little help: Only 10 % of the workshops have something new to offer; others are repetitive
’
24Slide25
Teacher development?
Haven
’
t heard of that But have learnt to survive on their own in different ways
25Slide26
26
Some success stories Slide27
TE 21
TE 21 (NIE
,
Singapore)A framework which provides for a well-rounded professional: skills, knowledge and values along with a Teacher Growth Model (TGM) TGM provides for six domain developmental areas:
27Slide28Slide29Slide30
The Teacher Growth Model
Want to power up?
Popeye has his spinach: We have TGM. How can it help us stay strong till the finish?
TGM power-up flavours: Ethical educator
Competent professional
Collaborative learner
Transformational leader
Community builder
30Slide31
Professional Standards for Teachers (2007)
Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education, Children
’
s Services and Skills)Qualified Teacher StatusCorePost ThresholdExcellent TeacherAdvanced Skills Teacher
31Slide32
32
The standards have been designed to set out a basic framework within which all teachers should operate from the point of initial qualification.
Appropriate self evaluation, reflection and professional development activity is critical to improving teachers
’
practice at all career stages.
The standards set out clearly the key areas in which a teacher should be able to assess his or her own practice, and receive feedback from colleagues. As their careers progress, teachers will be expected to extend the depth and breadth of knowledge, skill and understanding that they demonstrate in meeting the standards, as is judged to be appropriate to the role they are fulfilling and the context in which they are working. Slide33
Stages
in Professional Development (British Council)
Starting
Newly QualifiedDevelopingProficientAdvanced
Specialist
33Slide34
Teacher Growth
Multidimensional
Based
on prior learningInvolves different forms of learningImplies cognitive and affective
changes
Occurs
in a range of
contexts
(
Elliott and
Calderhead
1995)
34Slide35
Cline of Experimentation
Safe experimentation
Autonomy in P D (reflection on experience) (sustainability of research attitude)
[minimum risk involved] [maximum risk involved]
35Slide36
What is happening in India: Examples
36Slide37
CBSE-ELT Curriculum Implementation Study (1993-1998)
Many teachers involved in monitoring the implementation of the English curriculum in a research-based way
Conducted need-based workshops to strengthen the curriculum
Teachers took on different roles: teacher as researcher, as resource person, materials writer, assessor, mentor
37Slide38
Philosophy underlying the project
The Project was based on the premise that it is only when teachers confront commonly held beliefs and attitudes in actual teaching-learning contexts that they will change in ways that provide a basis for continued growth, that is,
“
self-sustaining, generative change” (Franke et al. 1998). According to these authors (p. 67):
In order for change to become self-sustaining, teachers must begin to engage in practices that have built-in support for the changes they have made; otherwise, the changes are likely to erode over time…for change to become generative, teachers must engage in practices that serve as a basis for their continued learning.
38Slide39
When the project ended….
It was clear that a top-down as well as a bottom-up approach to curriculum renewal is important to bring about change in schools.
The main recommendations that had emerged from the teacher-led project were not built on.
CBSE had to attend to other priorities…Teachers had moved on…
39Slide40
Tracer Study: to evaluate its impact after 3 years
M
ain questions addressed:
(i) the nature and extent to which the communicative curriculum introduced in 1993 continued to be communicative and learner-centered, taking into account the kind of support available in school; (
ii) the nature and extent to which the teacher-research approach to on-going curriculum renewal and professional development had been sustained.
40Slide41
Findings
T
heir task as Field Researchers of visiting different schools to observe classes and talk to teachers and students gave them a broader perspective on the curriculum in different contexts. Before the project, they merely taught the
‘lesson’, did the exercises, and conducted tests and they were happy. Now their work did not end with a class. They could observe colleagues’
classes in a nonjudgmental way and that it
‘
worked wonders
’
with colleagues.
Many of these teachers managed these on-going professional activities in spite of the school
’
s (unwritten) rules and conventions.
41Slide42
Conclusion
Clearly exam boards mandate what is to be done in schools and schools/teachers do not have much say in it.
There are teachers who carry out things that they feel need to be done, in spite of school constraints (silent innovators)
There is a need to build on existing structures to support the teacher in her on-going professional development.
42Slide43
Case Study (6 teachers)
The study explored the following questions:
How does the pedagogical understanding of teachers develop and change over time?
What personal and professional influences impact teachers’ pedagogical understanding?What kind(s) of inputs are self-sustaining and generative?
How do teachers build on these inputs to become on-going learners?
43Slide44
Conclusions
F
our
important themes that shape teacher development emerged from the case study: Certain personality traits that enable the teacher to see teaching as a vocationA
propensity for reflective
thinking
T
he
need for on-going professional development activities, and
T
he
importance
of school
support.
44Slide45
Mentoring in Delhi Schools (11) (2008-2010)
Main aims:
Arrive
at a workable model of mentoring Create a community of teachers who
support each other, keep growing and help bridge
the gap between TEIs and schools.
45Slide46
What teachers did on the project
Observed each other
’
s classes using the observation schedule at least once in two weeks;Discussed their class (co-analysis of practice);Looked at colleague’s lesson plans, tests, worksheets, etc.;Wrote reflective journals on work done;
Did diary writing (general) at least once in two weeks
46Slide47
Tools used
Handbook on mentoring—
a self-instructional pack
Classroom Observation RecordQuestions to guide journal entriesReading articles/papers in the area
47Slide48
What worked, didn’t and why
About 3 schools (Type A) did the work very well, benefitted from it, and went beyond the brief of the project
About 4 schools (Type B) saw the work as
‘extra’ and did it because they had agreed to do it. 4 schools (Type C) were non-starters for various reasons.
48Slide49
What worked, didn’t and why
About 25-30 out of the 80 teachers managed to do most of the things and saw value in it
About 25 of them gave it a try with different degrees of success
The rest were non-starters: not volunteers, inadequate school support, not motivated enough
49Slide50
Diary study with teachers
Voluntary
Wrote diaries and looked at each other
’s and commented on them in a non-judgmental but a critical wayTeachers saw meaning in diary writing and saw it as a tool for professional toolPresentation in a seminar (TEC 12) and a subsequent publication was clearly a motivation
50Slide51
Stages of Reflection
Descriptive, factual writing: Not reflective
Descriptive reflection: Reflective, not only a description of events but some attempt to provide reason/justification for events but in a reportive way
Dialogic reflection: Demonstrates a 'stepping back' from the events/actions leading to a different level of mulling about, discourse with self and exploring the experience, events and actions using qualities of judgement and possible alternatives for explaining and hypothesising
51Slide52
Stages of reflection contd.
Critical reflection: Demonstrates an awareness that actions and events are not only located in, and explicable by, reference to multiple perspectives but are located in, and influenced by, multiple historical, and socio-political contexts. (Smith and Hatton 1992)
52Slide53
Conclusion
These teachers and many others wanted to do diary writing and contribute chapters to a book on teachers
’
voices and professional developmentHave started a project on involving young learners in research (in collaboration with Warwick University)
53Slide54
Some excerpts
Perhaps our government like in the ancient times (like the Maika system described in the
Immortals of Meluha
by Anish Tripathi) can start a school where children are allowed to study only what they are interested in? The quiet and silence of the class when I was invigilating made me wonder - what is the use of exam and it made me question the purpose of education and the teachers’ role in it.
54Slide55
Where do we go from here?
Theory first and practice later X
Teacher theorising from the classroom
✔Teachers as legitimate knowers, as producers of legitimate knowledge, and as capable of constructing and sustaining their own professional development over time. ✔
55Slide56
Challenges
Can we have a system of evaluation where teachers can be enabled to move from one stage to another?
Can we create the necessary cadres/support systems?
56Slide57
Thank you for your patience!
57