Teachers turned learners

Photos courtesy Sathya Educare Competency Trust

Photos courtesy Sathya Educare Competency Trust

A math lesson was in progress for Class 10 students. Slides displaying the gopuram of a renowned temple of South India, the Qutab Minar and an Egyptian pyramid were shown, one by one. The concepts of height, ratio, proportion and distance were discussed, eliciting answers from the children. This knowledge was then used to teach trigonometry.

The children seated in small groups experienced all aspects of the topic. If the students were enjoying the activity-based math lesson, their teacher who sat observing the class was awestruck.

The convener of this unique session, G Vijaya Kumari, helped both students and teachers see the concept in a new way. This class was a part of the process of ‘competency enhancement’ for students and teachers by the Sathya Educare Competency Trust, a Bengaluru-based non-profit organisation.

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The programmes run by the NGO emphasise that teacher empowerment and competency enhancement are key to transforming education. Educational transformation is a tall order, and for it to result in qualitative change, the onus is on all stakeholders — the management, the principal, teachers, students, parents and the community at large.

Initially, the trust had conducted several training programmes for government school teachers of primary level and pre-school level in Gubbi and Sira taluks in Tumakuru district. Support was provided to schools through teacher training and student readiness programmes for competitive exams.

With the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 recommendations coming into effect, the education sector is in a transitional phase. To keep pace with this, the ‘Education Transformation through Teacher Empowerment Leading to Learning’ was launched. The project focuses on transformation in the school community by empowering teachers and enhancing their competencies.

The NEP recommends that our education system should move towards ‘learning to learn and learning to understand’ and ‘do away with rote learning’. In order to achieve this goal, the project focuses on capacity building among teachers in innovative pedagogical approaches suitable for 21st-century education.

Teachers can easily adapt these techniques in the classroom. Children enjoy these new modes of learning and have ample opportunity to interact, share ideas with each other and find answers through activity and play.

Intervention programmes

‘Deep intervention’ programmes are being executed in two schools — one in Bengaluru Urban and the other in Bengaluru Rural district. Masterclasses for teachers are being held in 16 schools of Anekal taluk.

The sessions involve a rigorous orientation programme, conducted as a workshop. This includes demonstrations of the approaches and strategies in simulated classrooms and real classroom situations. The programmes are activity-based, collaborative in nature and followed by reflective sessions.

Saroja, a teacher from Attibele Public School, says, “These sessions have given us a lot of ideas to engage children in meaningful and cooperative learning groups.” Other teachers said that the subject-wise demonstration lessons were found to be helpful in putting theory to practice.

Sahitya Priya, principal, Sujana Vidya Mandira, says, “All of us are very excited about cooperative learning strategies and we will definitely try it in our classes.”

In the next phase of the coaching, a one-on-one interaction and discussion session is organised in respective schools. Teachers come together and discuss what they have implemented in their classrooms following the workshop.

After a brief gap, where teachers revise their lesson plans, the NGO team observes their classes and provides constructive suggestions for further improvement.

Bhargavi, a teacher from Sai Sadbhavana School, says, “We wrote the lesson plan and demonstrated it based on our understanding. Now, with feedback, we are able to modify it and do better. The demonstration and the feedback on the lesson have given us more clarity.”

The team members who observed the lessons and interacted with teachers were happy to see the transformation in teachers’ techniques, their eagerness in learning and adapting new approaches and the changes in student learning. Students showed more interest in learning, involved actively in the learning process and readily shared and communicated their thoughts.

Kalpana Ramesh, one of the team members, says, “We see an incremental change in the teaching of teachers and learning of students.”