In-service Teacher Professional Development for Elementary Education
Working Paper on In-Service Teacher Professional Development for Elementary Education
Submitted to the Ministry of Human Resources and Development, Government of India, on November 14, 2011 ; Updated: 30 November 2011
I. Overview
This paper outlines HBCSE's approach to developing a model for in-service teacher professional development (TPD) for elementary education in India. The focus is on achieving competence and academic autonomy of teachers. The approach is derived from recent research and policy documents, with HBCSE's specific contributions to be in science and mathematics education. The proposed program would involve about 100 teacher educators / teachers in two States over the course of one year in the first instance. Resource enhancements in terms of internet-based video links (subject to budget) and library and laboratory facilities would be recommended. Collaborations will be fostered with other organisations and with National and State agencies involved in TPD. The outcomes would be in the form of ideas, materials and methods that contribute towards building an effective model of TPD, resulting in enhanced quality of school education.
II. A National consensus
The National Curriculum Framework 2005 (NCF, 2005) followed by the Right to Education (RTE, 2009) have created a new environment for school education. The vision of education is substantially different from the traditional one, entailing changes in curricular goals, pedagogy and assessment.
These changes reflect a renewed commitment to universal education, to a democratic ethos and to a constructivist pedagogy based on a better understanding of how children learn.
The teacher is the key agent in the transition to this vision of education. The National Knowledge Commission (NKC, 2007) has observed that the teacher is the single most important element of the school system and has stressed the need to substantially enhance teachers' professional capabilities, standing and commitment to education.
In recognition of this need, the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) has formulated a National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education (NCFTE, 2010).
The challenge is to translate this new National consensus from the policy level into practice.
III. Existing structures and model for TPD
The Kothari commission was the first policy document to stress the need for continuous professional development of the teacher and in-service support and training. The National Policy on Education (NPE, 1986) sought to strengthen institutional structures for both pre and in-service teacher education through strengthening of State Councils of Educational Research and Training (SCERTs) and creation of large numbers of District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs), Colleges of Teacher Education (CTEs) and Institutes of Advanced Studies in Education (IASEs). In the 1990s the District Primary Education Program (DPEP) initiative created further local structure through the development of Block Resource Centres (BRCs) and Cluster Resource Centres (CRCs).
Currently, it is mandatory for teachers to attend periodic in-service training programs, which are delivered largely through the above institutions.
In-service programs are often tied to specific reform initiatives in curriculum, pedagogy or assessment. In-service training becomes the vehicle for carrying the message and the detailed recommendations of these initiatives and it is typically implemented in the 'cascade' mode.
IV. Limitations of the existing structures and models for TPD
The structures created for pre and in-service teacher education at the level of DIETs have largely limited their scope to pre-service teacher education which often carries on in well-worn, traditional ways. In many states, the lower level structures such as BRCs and CRCs have seen attrition or have been diverted to administrative rather than academic functions.
Even where regular in-service programs are held, there is no unified vision of the continuous professional development of teachers, and in-service training is reduced to being the mode for mechanically dispersing disparate and often inadequately worked-out reform initiatives into the system.
This role for in-service teacher training has created a top-down 'transmission' model of training with a limited contribution from teachers and no feedback that can be used to design the training. The existing institutional framework, overlain with this top-down design, forces a cascade model with two or more tiers of training, with a dilution at each tier.
Teachers in India are already down at the bottom of a rigid, hierarchical administrative structure. This lack of administrative empowerment (acknowledged and addressed to some extent by the RTE) is exacerbated by the lack of academic autonomy.
The cascade model as of now is neither efficient nor effective. Besides the fact that there is little backward flow of information or tuning of courses to the needs of the recipients based on research, there are also no mechanisms for building up of engagement before and after the contact periods, to ensure that the learning continues, and finally reaches the schools and students.
There is a deeper structural limitation that affects both pre and in-service teacher education for elementary (D. Ed.) as well as secondary (B. Ed.) levels. Teacher education has been hived off as a professional stream outside mainstream university courses and disconnected from other knowledge intensive professional courses. This has led to an absurd view of 'teaching' as an activity divorced from what is being taught.
Further, teacher education, which was designed to draw on disciplines like psychology, sociology, history and philosophy, has got de-linked from the developments in these disciplines, as also from their dynamical interplay with the Indian socio-political cultural milieu.
The separation of pedagogy from content on the one hand, and from the social sciences on the other, has had far-reaching consequences. It has resulted in the near irrelevance of teacher education to the practice of teaching, and to a diminished status of the teacher in the academic community.
V. The new vision of education
In the new vision of education articulated by NCF 2005, curricular goals integrate content with process and affective outcomes and aim for the development of autonomous, confident and capable individuals. The NCF 2005 emphasizes the principles of constructivist teaching and learning, which include active participation of children in the classroom in guiding and in achieving learning; reasoning as opposed to authority as a basis for learning, using children's prior knowledge, thinking, reasoning, communication and problem solving abilities as starting points for teaching and learning, creating a space in the classroom for children's expression in all forms (speech, writing, action) and promoting a culture of listening and discourse.
The NCFTE (2010) advocates teacher education to be open and flexible, emphasising dialogical exploration rather than didactic communication, diversity of social contexts and learning spaces as sources of inspiration, and teacher education based on reflective practice rather than on a fixed knowledge base (NCFTE 2010, p. 19).
VI. Changed view of teacher professional development
The new vision embodied in the curricular frameworks for school education and teacher education envisages not only that teachers achieve a high level of expertise and involvement, but also that they take initiative in their own professional development. Thus TPD programs must seek to build autonomous teacher communities that continuously improve their own expertise and the effectiveness of their teaching.
One of the key components of change is enhanced professional knowledge of teaching. A large body of research in science and mathematics education shows the importance of specialized knowledge required for teaching curricular subjects even at the elementary level, which includes an integration of pedagogy and content. Based on this research, the contours of such specialized knowledge for teaching are available. This knowledge, which is closely tied to the practice of teaching, must be acquired and refined by the teaching community and dispersed among themselves.
Currently the opportunity to acquire such specialized knowledge is limited - pre-service education is too short for this to happen and school teaching practice is too individualized and lacks a collective, reflective dimension. Hence teachers have to often fall back on their own learning in school, which can be very inadequate.
Mechanisms and structures need to be found to strengthen the process of acquiring specialized knowledge for teaching. The practice of lesson study, which evolved in Japan and is rapidly being adapted in many countries, is an example of such a mechanism.
Besides the demands made in terms of knowledge for teaching, the new vision of education also entails changes in beliefs and attitudes that are currently widely held among the teaching community. Beliefs and attitudes change at the level of a community rather than at the level of an individual teacher. Such changes can happen when the community of teachers internalise a new vision of education as a real possibility that can be achieved in their own classrooms.
Many shared examples of teaching practice in accordance with the new vision need to be created before teachers as a community start to invest their beliefs and hopes in the new vision.
In the decades since independence, due to a variety of systemic factors, the status of a teacher in society has lowered. This is especially true of teachers in government schools. Yet, in recent years, there is a small but noticeable trickle of well-qualified young people venturing into education at all levels.
As the new vis