Report

Report: Day 2 (24 Feb. 2009)

Pre-service session (Curriculum and practices)

	There are diverse routes into teaching; teacher training needs to reflect this
	Teacher training curriculum needs to be diverse and flexible (to respond to the changing needs of applicants, teachers and schools)
	Self learning mechanism for teachers needs to be developed
	Need to improve identity and status of teachers
	Need for teacher preparation to make education inclusive
	Teachers can not be motivated through a change of material incentives. They need to feel that they can make a difference in the education of children
	Curriculum development offers the space for larger dialogues in society
	Curriculum should support diversity of thoughts and ideas; students and teachers
	In-service and pre-service curriculum needs to be aligned in its content and pedagogy
	Teacher training centers need to model, learner centered, activity based program for teacher trainees, so they can in turn apply these methods in their classrooms
	Quality of learning outcomes at any level will only be as good as the learning process which is driven by teacher effectiveness
	India’s “demographic dividend” won’t become a reality unless teacher education improves
	The 4 year Bachelors degree in elementary believes effective teachers can be created through pre-service provided student-teachers develop confidence and intellectual resources to participate and contribute to this sector
	Only certain attributes of effective teachers are observable but many others are not
	Should only develop assessment tools that “trigger reflection” and contribute towards teacher development
	Need to create an environment of “high support” and “high challenge
	Need for human beings who can be good professionals in education and sustain enthusiasm, conviction and persistence
	Pre and in-service training alone cannot guarantee good quality teachers. Increase demand and expectations on everyone in the system, this will help deliver quality
	Re-define and distribute school leadership; Need a succession plan
	School based training is the future direction

Teacher management and Recruitment

	India on a cusp of revolution in education - Legal framework and operational environment to bring about reforms in the role and functions of teacher education institutions
	Reorienting DIETs as the fulcrum of planning on teacher education in a distric – providing flexibility, need based funding and involvement of all stakeholders in decision making
	Korean Case Study: Entry barriers, starting salary and advancement linked to performance are characteristics to attract and retain high quality talent additionally, incentives for working in remote are as equalized performance across the country-teachers regarded as status of national public servants
	South Africa Case Study: transformation of the system from pre-apartheid to post apartheid involved linking teacher education to higher education - restructuring funding pattern to match new roles and functions of teacher education institutions- improving teacher training- not possible through just policy interventions but it requires pedagogical change
	Teacher educator as a specific professional expert and not in a transferable job
	Need for a shared understanding and philosophy of teacher development that links NCERT, SCERT, DIET, BRC, CRC, school : While building the DIET as an autonomous institution
	There is a gap between theory and practice of teacher education. Need for theory not really understood
	There should be an urgency in need and a patience in waiting for results.
	Institutes for teacher training not functioning in an accountable fashion as per the stated requirements

Recruitment and management of teachers

System improvement needs partnership with the parents and community must
include work-force reform

De-centralization leads to responsibility and accountability. Will improve administration and response to local needs

	Diversity in schools in India (management- private, public, grant-in-aid; schools run on commercial interests, run by NGOs; grant in aid schools: much more control over these schools by the government;
	Diversity based on infrastructure, salaries, types of service conditions
	Administration of teachers also determined by the different management of schools and accordingly different concerns of teachers: fear of transfers (government schools); lack of motivation- perhaps could be addressed by the sixth pay commission, lack of autonomy
	Rajasthan experiment: 1966 Education Commission- first state to introduce autonomy at the school level for some schools (free to conduct own exams, free to have own curriculum, certification of this school considered valid) then withdrawn
	Status of teachers changing: the cultural expectations and definitions of the teacher in the Indian context- however no attention to the needs of the teachers paid by community
	The need for the community to be more sensitive to and support the needs of the teachers
	Concerns about improving schooling access, large inefficiencies in service delivery of education, teacher absenteeism
	Incentives accelerated student learning; no evidence of any negative effects; focus on mathematics and language did not detract from performance in science and social studies
	The change in teacher behavior not in the absence of other inputs but additional bonus on improved student performance is effective in improving learning outcomes. Performance pay program had a much larger effect for the same spending.
	The teacher absenteeism did not change by incentives
	Based on the mistrust of teachers and cynicism about the system, can we improve the system? What are the reasons for teacher absenteeism?
	The more important question is about motivation; not just about incentives ® the need to look at leadership etc. and that monetary conditions alone may not yield results;
	In terms of performance management® there might be merit in looking at better working conditions or other parameters as incentives
	Assessment testing: how do we assume that the assessment tests automatically become a litmus for quality?
	The starting point of understanding and valuing the essential good in human beings - developing a culture respects that as well as flexibility and mutual respect
	The value of a system that responds, recognizes and values the work of teachers

The need to develop locally customized performance standards for teachers, trainers and support institutions as a ‘ready reckoner’ 􀃆 standards developed collaboratively for a sense of ownership as a long term process (Identification of standards, draft tools and design for peer assessment through consultations)

Underlying key concepts: competence, performance ( competence + enabling
conditions), effectiveness (performance + supportive conditions)

Understanding the school as a set of relationships, processes and supported by components (textbooks, curriculum etc.)

Better results demonstrated by community managed schools: children moving
to community schools, increased accountability through social audit;
stakeholder participation in decision making; good recruitment

	In Bihar teacher recruitment is happening and is moving towards decentralisation and greater transparency by publishing these lists in local newspapers
	Systems learning versus Thinking in terms of people: we need to think about the potency of the metaphor of the system learning 􀃆 when a considerable aggregate of people have learned: then we can say that the system has learned. Permanent learning of the system dependent on learning of the people; not the despotic benevolence of a government officer
	Do we know if the community is equipped to make informed decisions about education and recruitment of teachers?

Government spending on education- 18.6% in New Zealand

Employment: School itself does recruitment and appraisal of teachers: for appraisal: classroom observation, self appraisal, interview; system of reward and recognition Performance expectations comes from the ‘Registered Teacher Criteria’

2005: Teacher Status Research: What attracts you to the profession of teaching? What keeps you here and why do you leave? ® Teaching not a high status occupation, but high regard and a career well understood, relatively well paid but as of yet no separate pay for outstanding teachers

Can we create standards for creativity in assessment? Teaching as a profession is difficult to assess: possessors of Wisdom (Universal truths, theories, technical craft, practical wisdom)

Manifestation of teacher’s wisdom: wise use of time (why does this learning matter for these students at this time?), wise action: (to what extent tis the teacher seeking out, evaluating, discussing, implementing, and testing alternatives?) wise use of evidence (what did the students experience?) wise people: (to what extent can they promote creativity etc.)

Teachers need working conditions where they are supported and successful, where they can work collaboratively, have multiple career pathways with multiple avenues for leadership roles and they should be appropriately resourced and rewarded

Some observations of Indonesian classrooms : very limited classroom interaction between students and teachers, children more passive, not much verbal communication between students and teachers; rote learning approaches, using class time for the transaction of non subject related content; lack of guidance on doing homework etc.

Aim of the study to understand the competencies of teachers and developing a teacher score based on three parameters (understood as subject knowledge, the ability to identify mistakes and explain concepts) – regular government teachers versus para-teachers in 80 schools in Bihar and UP. Results indicate that regular teachers perform better than para-teachers and private school teachers even though they spend less time in actual teaching.

Proficiency in Mathematics and language demonstrating a positive correlation with qualification of the teacher (especially in Bihar)

The sampling issue in all these studies is whether we can consider 100 schools to be representative of a State or a Country

In-service Teacher Education and Training

	Focus of an in-service program needs to be on working on teacher education and on building networks that connect the schools, communities that encourages collaboration and resource sharing at the level of ideas and practices. Also to develop context specific response on the basis of needs assessment of the situation. Look at up-skilling of the teacher rather than initial training
	Need for a variety networks both formal and informal ranging from school based to cluster and district based and with different organizations such as the government and private institutions that support teachers at the classroom level beyond training
	Consulting teachers and school staff while designing interventions. This will also locate the school as a social organization taking into consideration the diversity of the context
	Inadequacy of teacher training in pre-service and in-service training of teachers. Distance education can take care of the training needs of large number of teachers
	Use of technology to provide multiple interactions – with experts, facilitators, other teachers etc.
	The full possible potential of the technological innovations not realized in India – need to overcome the apprehensions of people related to the use of technology
	Distinction or collaboration between leadership and management. It’s not an either/or situation but where both elements facilitate each other
	Leadership for learning at the level of students, professionals and system
	The model of the Leadership needs to be based on certain principles on working with the entire system and at different levels where both theory and practice are taken into consideration and reflection on activities becomes an important part of the process
	Energising the system is seen as the key to sustainable change
	In-service teacher training to be a process of continuous learning and change which can take different forms
	It should not be only about teaching methods but also about engaging with the philosophical, sociological and psychological underpinnings of the discipline of education
	It should be a forum for generating ideas on which the teachers reflect and act accordingly. Some important areas of dialogue pertain to the understanding of aims of education, curriculum objectives, nature of disciplines and learning about the potential of the children
	It should also be about changing the perception of the teachers about themselves in the way they are treated and can become a source for building leadership and autonomy among teachers
	There is lack of continuity with respect to the ideas and practices teachers are introduced, thus pointing towards a need to have long term planning for engaging with teachers
	What goes on in the classroom in terms of pedagogy is the most critical factor affecting student’s achievement
	To improve learning levels there is a need for comprehensive curriculum and pedagogic renewal. This would also mean a change in the evaluation technique
	The focus apart from academic achievement is also on social and emotional development of the learner. Means of evaluation also change to that of self appraisal
	To make the system work, political will is an important factor which has to be accompanied by providing a clear direction to the system in terms of what is expected from classroom processes which will feed into the teacher education program as well. It is also a demonstration that government systems can work given the right kind of direction
	Need to work from outside with the teachers in order to bridge the gap between the teachers and the community
	Need to work with the teachers on inculcating sensitivity among the teachers towards the socio-economic and political issues that confront the community and the children
	Interactions between the teachers and the community lead to teachers becoming more sensitive towards the children and the community becoming sensitive towards the problems of the teachers
	This can also be a process of instilling a sense of ownership towards the schools among the children. It can also lead the teachers working on the school governance issues and demanding more autonomy with respect to working in schools. Process towards making teachers more professional in terms of independent decision making
	Teachers providing learning guarantee to parents as parents become more willing to send their children to schools
	Teacher educators need to have time and opportunity to build capacity
	Teacher is not a mechanic but a reflective activist
	We should not have in-service program as an end in itself
	Need based training should include asking teachers but can not be limited to that. They may not be aware of what they need
	In-service program for sharing models or developing capacity to reflect? The purpose of the program needs to be on empowerment of the teacher and building her agency
	How can we create a structure that is close to the teacher and can also support her?
	There is a need to accommodate feed back on training in the next training.
	In- service training models are influenced by the understanding of what we mean by education, for what is it needed and how do we look at a teacher and then at children.

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