Preparing Teachers for different Contexts of school education: Structural and Substantive Arrangements in Teacher Education Programme by Garima Tandon

Preparing Teachers for different Contexts of school education: Structural and Substantive Arrangements in Teacher Education Programme by Garima Tandon

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  By, Garima Tandon B.SC., B.Ed.,M.Ed. Banaras Hindu University Preparing Teachers for different Contexts of school education: Structural and Substantive Arrangements in Teacher Education Programme The Changing School Context and its Demands- A teacher functions within the broad 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. A teacher needs to be prepared in relation to the needs and demands arising in the school context, to engage with questions of school knowledge, the learner and the learning process. 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. Regional, social, and gender disparities continue to pose new challenges. This reality increases the challenge of implementing the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act and, in particular, the role and place of the school teacher. Teacher should be empathetic and sensitized for that and it should be inculcated by curriculum of Teacher Education Programme. The teacher must be equipped not only to teach but also to understand the students and the community of parents so that children are regular in schools and learn. The Act mandates that the teacher should refrain from inflicting corporal
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  punishment, complete theentire curriculum within the given time, assess students, hold parent’s meetings and apprise them and as part of the school management committee, organize the overall running of the school. Is B.Ed. Curriculum do this? The Act, vide section 29 (2), emphasizes the following areas while laying down the curriculum and evaluation procedures:  Conformity with the values enshrined in the Constitution.  All round development of the child.  Building up child’s knowledge, potentiality and talent.  Development of physical and mental abilities to the fullest extent.  Learning through activities, discovery and exploration in a child friendly and child-centered manner.  Medium of instruction shall, as far as practicable, be in child’s mother tongue.  Making the child free of fear, trauma and anxiety and helping the child to express views freely.  Comprehensive and continuous evaluation of child’s understanding of knowledge and his or her ability to apply the same. NCF requires a teacher to be a facilitator of children’s learning in a manner that helps children to construct knowledge and meaning. It also opens out possibilities for the teacher to participate in the construction of syllabi, textbooks and teaching-learning materials.
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  The launch ofthe massive Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in 2002 and the financial commitment and education cess to augment the UEE mission have underscored the need to prepare the teachers adequately 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 years. The continued decline in quality of the state school system and the proliferation of sub-standard unregulated private schools pose several challenges to the national declaration of catering to the basic learning needs. Present Teacher Education Scenario The training of teachers is a major area of concern at present as both pre-service and in-service training of school teachers are extremely inadequate and poorly managed in most states. Pre-service training needs to be improved and differently regulated both in public and private institutions, while systems for in-service training require expansion and major reform that allow for greater flexibility. In terms of alternative schools, government and private schools places its own demands and will also need to be addressed. Diversity also exists in terms of the set of agencies that conduct teacher education programmes. These include state institutions, university-based institutions and private institutions that have grown enormously in number in the recent past, contributing to the commercialization of the process of teacher education. 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?’
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  Reform of teachereducation has been one of the abiding concerns in the reports of major Education Commissions and Committees on education. The Education Commission (1964-66) discussed at length 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 (1990) and the National Advisory Committee on Learning without Burden (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 been taken cognisanze of while preparing the present draft of the National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education. Urgency of Reforming Teacher Education Teacher education as a whole needs urgent and comprehensive reform. There is 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.
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  1. Elementary TeacherEducation- Initial training of elementary teachers continues to suffer from isolation, low profile and poor visibility in view of it being a non-degree programme. There is a grave need to upgrade initial teacher education by enhancing the entry qualification and duration of training making it equivalent to a degree programme and locating the management and control of elementary teacher education within Universities. 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 and a professional approach to teacher education processes. Another instance of neglect of elementary teacher education is the non-recognition of the need for specially qualified teacher educators in elementary education. The difficulty is exacerbated by the absence of degree and post-degree programmes in primary/elementary teacher education. 2. Secondary Teacher Education- There is also a dire need to critically review the secondary teacher education system. Secondary teacher education institutes continue to exist as insular organizations even within the university system where many are located. This precludes the larger academic debates on equity, gender and community to enter the day-to-day discourse of teacher educators. Institutes of teacher education have become breeding grounds of academic stagnation and resistance to change. The training of teachers happens in insular, intellectually impoverished environments that are severed from ground realities as well as the aims of education they espouse. Such an intellectual isolation actively discourages
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  educational theorization andthe growth of disciplinary and interdisciplinary enquiry.