JOIN US In reaction to the recent discussion on the 'Revised DEd syllabus' organised by Padi-Valored and other organizations at DIET, Mangalore, involving a few experts in the field of education, Ravinarayan Chakrakodi, a Member of the DEd curriculum renewal committee, constituted by the Govt of Karnataka and the Directorate of State Educational Research and Training (DSERT), said that the outcome of the discussion is misleading.
Stating that the organisers and the members present in the programme seem to have only looked at the syllabus and not at the other documents related to the new DEd curriculum, he said that the new curriculum called ‘Karnataka Elementary Teacher Education Curriculum (KETEC) 2012’ is based on the guidelines laid down in the NCF 2005 and National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education 2010.
“Many of the members of the D Ed curriculum renewal committee such as Prof C G Venkateshmurthy from NCERT, Dr Mythili Ramchand, etc. also had the experience of working in NCF 2005 and NCFTE 2010,” he said.
The new curriculum was designed in consultation with DIET and CTE teacher educators, principals, DEd student-teachers, officials and the public. There were discussions, workshops, classroom observations and other studies done before and during the curriculum preparation process.
Initially, the committee constituted for the revision of the syllabus prepared position papers on 15 different themes, which in turn influenced the curriculum revision process. Based on these position papers, different courses for both first and second year of DEd programme were developed.
Some of the guiding sources of the influence of the present documents include the National Curriculum Framework 2005, the National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education, 2009, the Right to Education Act 2009, and the evaluation of the earlier curriculum and the changes that are taking place in the state.
In the new syllabus, emphasis is placed on integrating theory with relevant practical activities, intensive classroom discussions, reflections and formative assessment practices. There has been a shift in focus from teaching to facilitating learning.
Topics such as ‘Reflective Practices’, ‘Information and Communication Technology’, ‘Inclusive Education’, ‘Arts and Aesthetics’ are suitably brought in different papers and are integrated across all the disciplines.
Elementary Education initiatives such as RTE 2009, UEE, DPEP and SSA have been discussed in a paper titled ‘Contemporary Issues of Elementary Education’. 'Communication skills in English' is a compulsory module in the first year as student-teachers need to equip themselves with good command over the English language in the present context.
A ‘Teacher Educator Handbook‘ has also been prepared to enable teacher educators teaching DEd students to transact the content in meaningful and effective ways. Various approaches, methods and techniques as well as assessment tasks and activities for transacting the new syllabus have been suggested in the Handbook.
A ‘Source Book’ for the DEd student-teachers is being prepared on each module in a self-instructional module and will be supplied to them in the beginning of the academic year. There will not be any textbooks in the traditional sense of the term.
In addition, in the first phase, a 6-day orientation for teacher educators is going on and will conclude on April 6 in Bangalore where experts from NCERT and state Resource Persons will familiarise the DEd trainers with the new curriculum and syllabus.
Terming the outcome of the meeting as unfortunate, Ravinarayan said the organisers of the programme have made adverse remarks on the revised DEd syllabus without understanding the finer aspects. “It would be better if these experts try out the new syllabus with a group of DEd student-teachers, elicit their opinions, gather data on the effectiveness of the syllabus and do such study to enrich the quality of education in the state,” he said.