BES-123

Learning and Teaching

Indira Gandhi
National Open University
School of Education

Block

4
TEACHER AS A PROFESSIONAL
UNIT 13
Teacher in Diverse Role 5
UNIT 14
Teacher as Innovator and Action Researcher 24
UNIT 15
Teacher as a Reflective Practitioner 46
UNIT 16
Professional Development of Teachers 61

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EXPERT COMMITTEE
Prof. I. K. Bansal (Chairperson) Prof. Anju Sehgal Gupta
Former Head, Department of Elementary School of Humanities
Education, NCERT, New Delhi IGNOU, New Delhi
Prof. Shridhar Vashistha Prof. N. K. Dash (Director)
Former Vice-Chancellor School of Education
Lal Bahadur Shastri Sanskrit IGNOU, New Delhi
Vidhyapeeth, New Delhi
Prof. M. C. Sharma (Programme
Prof. Parvin Sinclair Coordinator- B.Ed.)
Former Director, NCERT School of Education
School of Sciences IGNOU, New Delhi
IGNOU, New Delhi
Dr. Gaurav Singh (Programme
Prof. Aejaz Mashih Co-coordinator-B.Ed.)
Faculty of Education School of Education
Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi IGNOU, New Delhi
Prof. Pratyush Kumar Mandal
DESSH, NCERT, New Delhi
SPECIAL INVITEES (FACULTY OF SCHOOL OF EDUCATION)
Prof. D. Venkateswarlu Dr. Bharti Dogra
Prof. Amitav Mishra Dr. Vandana Singh
Ms. Poonam Bhushan Dr. Elizabeth Kuruvilla
Dr. Eisha Kannadi Dr. Niradhar Dey
Dr. M. V. Lakshmi Reddy

COURSE COORDINATOR: DR. GAURAV SINGH

COURSE TEAM
Course Contribution CONTENT EDITING
Unit 13
Adopted from ES-335 Prof. Saroj Pandey
Professor, School of Education
Unit 14 IGNOU, New Delhi
Prof. Saroj Pandey
Dr. Gaurav Singh LANGUAGE EDITING
School of Education Dr. Sunita Sundriyal
IGNOU, New Delhi Assistant Professor, HLYBDC
University of Lucknow
Unit 15
Prof. Saroj Pandey FORMAT EDITING
School of Education Dr. Gaurav Singh
IGNOU, New Delhi SOE, IGNOU, New Delhi

Unit 16 PROOF READING

Dr. Gaurav Singh Mr. Ajithkumar C.
Assistant Professor, School of Education Assistant Professor
IGNOU, New Delhi SOE, IGNOU, New Delhi

Material Production
Prof. N.K. Dash Mr. S.S. Venkatachalam
Director, SOE, IGNOU A.R. (Publication), SOE, IGNOU

June, 2016
 Indira Gandhi National Open University, 2016
ISBN-
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COURSE: BES-123 Learning and Teaching
BLOCK 1: LEARNING: PERSPECTIVES AND APPROACHES
Unit 1: Understanding Learning
Unit 2: Approaches to Learning
Unit 3: Learning for Construction of Knowledge
Unit 4: Learning in Various Contexts

BLOCK 2: UNDERSTANDING THE LEARNER

Unit 5: Learner in Socio-cultural Context
Unit 6: Learner as an Individual-I
Unit 7: Learner as an Individual-II

BLOCK 3: TEACHING-LEARNING PROCESS

Unit 8: Understanding Teaching
Unit 9: Planning Teaching-Learning
Unit 10: Organizing Teaching-Learning
Unit 11: Teaching-Learning Resources
Unit 12: Managing Classroom Teaching-Learning

BLOCK 4: TEACHER AS A PROFESSIONAL

Unit 13: Teacher in Diverse Role
Unit 14: Teacher as Innovator and Action Researcher
Unit 15: Teacher as a Reflective Practitioner
Unit 16: Professional Development of Teachers
Teacher as a Professional
BLOCK 4 TEACHER AS A PROFESSIONAL
Introduction to the Block
We have discussed about basics of learning, learner and various dimensions of
teaching-learning process in previous three blocks. But any discussion on teaching-
learning is incomplete without considering teacher as its important counterpart. This
last block of the course is focusing on various roles of a teacher. In present context,
teacher is not merely the disseminator of knowledge, s/he is more than that. This
block will help you to understand the role of teachers in different contexts. This
block has four units.

Unit 13: Teacher in Diverse Role will talk about the place of a teacher as a
human being. Unit will discuss how teacher’s belief, behaviour and practices affect
the teaching learning process. Discussion on role of the teacher as planner, manager,
content provider, facilitator, leader, co-creator, etc. will help you to understand the
role of teacher in diverse perspective. We have already discussed about behaviorist,
cognitivist and constructivist perspective of learning, same is applied on teachers
also.

In Unit 14: Teacher as Innovator and Action Researcher, discussion will start
with innovation. What do we mean by innovation in teaching-learning process? and
what different types of innovations a teacher can bring, will also be discussed in the
unit. Unit will discuss role of a teacher in bringing innovation and supporting it with
the help of action research. Unit will also discuss various forms of action research,
role of teacher in doing action research and reporting it.

Unit 15: Teacher as a Reflective Practitioner is going to highlight the role of a

teacher as reflective practitioner. Discussion on reflection and need for reflection
among teachers will help you to realize the importance of reflection. Unit will also
suggest strategies/methods for reflection, which you can practice to become a reflective
practitioner.

Discussions in Unit 16: Professional Development of Teachers concentrate on

need and facilities available for continuous professional development of teachers.
Unit will critically analyze various schemes and programmes linked with continuous
professional development and explains the ways and means for it. Unit will also
discuss ICT mediated professional development opportunities available with teacher,
which they can utilize to grow as a life-long learner.

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 Teacher in Diverse Role
UNIT 13 TEACHER IN DIVERSE ROLE*

Structure
13.1 Introduction
13.2 Objectives
13.3 Teacher as a Person
13.3.1 Teacher in a Classroom
13.3.2 Teacher as a Colleague
13.3.3 Teacher in the Community
13.3.4 Teacher as a Citizen
13.4 Teacher’s Personal Characteristics
13.5 Teacher as a Transmitter of Knowledge
13.6 Teacher as a Planner
13.7 Teacher as a Facilitator
13.8 Teacher as a Co-creator
13.9 Teacher as a Leader
13.10 Teacher as a Manager
13.10.1 Role of the Teacher in the Pre-teaching Phase
13.10.2 Role of the Teacher in the Teaching Phase
13.10.3 Role of the Teacher in the Post-teaching Phase
13.11 Teacher as a Counsellor
13.12 Let Us Sum Up
13.13 Unit End Excercises
13.14 Answers to Check Your Progress
13.15 Suggested Readings and References

13.1 INTRODUCTION
“What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches.”- Karl A. Menninger
This very famous quote reflects the importance of being a teacher. Teacher is a pillar
in the teaching learning process. In present context, a teacher is not merely a
disseminator of knowledge, rather plays a variety of roles. Due to the paradigm shift
in teaching-learning process, teacher’s role has become more challenging due to
increasing expectations. To match those expectations, teacher has to play diverse
roles like a planner, facilitator, co-creator of knowledge, leader in classroom and
outside classroom, manager, counsellor and apart from that, a true human being.
Present unit will discuss various roles of a teacher and their importance in teaching-
learning process. Unit will also discuss about teacher’s personal attributes, like
beliefs, behavior, and practices, etc. which affect the teaching learning process.

13.2 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you will be able to:
• examine the teachers’ role at various places;

* A few sections and subsections of this Unit have been taken from Unit 5 & 6 of ES-335,
Teacher and School, SOE, IGNOU 5
Teacher as a Professional • establish a link between teachers’ personal characteristics and teaching-learning;
• explain role of teacher as a transmitter of knowledge as well as a planner;
• examine the role of a teacher as a facilitator and co-creator of knowledge;
• understand the role of a teacher as manager; and
• reflect the importance of teacher as a counsellor.

13.3 TEACHER AS A PERSON

First, we have to understand the role of a teacher at various situations. We know
that a teacher has to fulfill the expectations of the family, school, society as well as
nation. In this section, we shall learn about the expectations from a teacher ranging
from their role in classroom to their role as a citizen of the country.

13.3.1 Teacher in a Classroom

The main responsibility of a teacher in the classroom is to ensure that goals of
education are attained. These can be specified as learning in terms of predetermined
knowledge, skills, and attitudes in specific subjects. It is through these subjects that
a teacher strives to achieve school goals as well as all-round development of learners,
which is the broader goal of education. In order to achieve this, a teacher creates
an artificial environment in the classroom for facilitating learning of learners. S/he
provides instruction to the learners, motivates them for learning, helps them to rectify
their mistakes, guides them in different situations and evaluates their performance. In
other words, teacher uses content as a medium or tool not only to enable learners
acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes but also to help them in the all-round
development of their personality, which is what education stands for. We will discuss
in detail the various roles of a teacher in the classroom in coming sections.

13.3.2 Teacher as a Colleague

When we think about the role of a teacher as a colleague, their role as a ‘team-
player’ comes to our mind. There are many activities in the classroom as well as in
school which a teacher can accomplish only with the help of colleagues.
Activity 1
Enlist few tasks or activities, where you need help of your colleagues to complete
those activities/tasks. Also mention the expected role of your colleagues in that
activity/task.

Above activity will help you to diagnose the importance of your colleagues in your
success.
For being a good colleague, a teacher needs to have the following characteristics:
• First of all, you should be receptive to others ideas.
• You should know the areas where you need support from others and also the
areas where you can support other teachers for the benefit of learners.
• Your humility and ability to reach out to other colleagues without any prejudice
and bias is more important for forming good relationships but keep in mind that
your over involvement in matters of your colleagues can cause problems for
you. You are the best judge of the extent of your involvement.
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The constant interaction and working closely helps teachers not only in understanding Teacher in Diverse Role
their learners and their problems better but also facilitate their personal growth as
teachers. Indirectly, it also leads to the development of the attitude of “openness”
among learners.

13.3.3 Teacher in the Community

Before asking, “what is the role of the teacher in the community?”, one should think,
“ What are the social expectations that the community has from a teacher?” A
teacher has a very dynamic role in the community. The various aspects of this role
include:
i) One of the major roles is to promote the importance of education among
parents particularly those in rural areas so that they enroll their children in
schools.
ii) Many of our rural folks need awareness programmes regarding vaccination,
birth control measures, woman health during pregnancy and child birth, cleanliness
in and outside home, contagious diseases, personal hygiene, etc. Teacher, being
a responsible member of community, should either directly inform people or
lead them to proper sources of information, like a doctor.
iii) Community members especially, parents expect a teacher to be a role model
for their children as they are themselves. They want a teacher to avoid any
behavior which might be bad for children to imitate.
iv) In a rural community where a majority of the adult population is likely to be
illiterate, a teacher has to play the role of a guide, philosopher and a counselor.
Generally, people would approach a teacher for seeking solution to their
problems.
It is evident that the expectations of the community from a teacher, especially in a
rural area are manifold. The teacher’s role, therefore, is multi-dimensional.

13.3.4 Teacher as a Citizen

As an educated person and a person who educates others, a teacher provides a
model for future citizens. A teacher enables the functioning of democracy by
participating in the democratic processes, acts as an unbiased objective critic of the
society, is sensitive to events in the country like corruption, scandals, riots, exploitation
etc. which hamper the growth and development of a nation and mobilizes resources
to check anti-social and anti-national activities.
Over and above these, a teacher has to be a Friend, Philosopher and Guide of
learners. S/he has to inspire learners to achieve this best and serve the nation.
Check Your Progress
Notes: a) Write your answers in the space given below.
b) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the unit.
1) In what type of activities of the community, can a teacher be of great help?
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Teacher as a Professional A teacher is expected to fit into all such roles. Whatever role a teacher is performing,
his/her personal characteristics, beliefs, and behavior have a definite impact. Next
section will help you to identify the personality attributes of the teacher, which should
be known for you.

13.4 TEACHER’S PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS

We have already seen that the present day teacher needs systematic training to be
effective. S/he is increasingly expected to be a kind of omnibus at a time when all
other professions are becoming more specialized in their operation. For example,
some professions like those of lawyers, doctors and engineers have a distinct and
limited role while a teacher is expected to indulge in diverse activities as part of his/
her profession. A teacher is concerned not only with the intellectual development of
learners but also with their moral, emotional, civic, aesthetic and even career
development. Thus, a teacher’s task has become a challenging one.
An ideal teacher (of course, if such a one could exist) should have the character of
a ‘Sanyasi’, the knowledge and skills of an expert, and the ability to apply them with
the sensitivity and feeling of an artist.
All these shows that a teacher, to be effective, should develop several personal
qualities and professional competencies. In this part of the unit, let us discuss some
aspects of the issues concerning personal and professional development of teachers.

Personal Qualities
We have already discussed that to be effective and efficient, a teacher requires a
number of personal as well as professional qualities. Let us have a look at some of
the personal qualities that go towards the making of an effective teacher.

Values like honesty, truthfulness, loyalty, punctuality, cleanliness, dedication, affection,

etc. are imbibed, often through observation of others’ behaviours rather than taught.
This means that a teacher has to stand as a model for his pupil so as to provide a
lasting and inspiring example if they are to have in them these qualities of personality
and character.

Everyone expects a teacher to have a sound value system. If a teacher is lazy and
lacks enthusiasm and the will to do hard-work, s/he cannot be expected to inculcate
these values in pupils. Pupils are keen observers. They are intelligent enough to
observe discrepancies between what a teacher preaches and how s/he actually
behaves. If a teacher smokes, s/he has no right to advise their pupils to avoid
smoking. Similarly, if s/he is dishonest and avoids his duties, s/he has no right to
advise his/her pupils to be honest and sincere.

Activity 2
We have already noted that teachers, in general, need certain values or positive
character traits to be effective. Since you as an individual have had several
years of schooling in the past, you may be able to recollect some of your
teachers who impressed you. Recall and write down in the space provided
below some of these personal qualities and values they exhibited.
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Your list of traits or values, among others, will probably include such qualities as Teacher in Diverse Role
affection, kindness, love, concern, understanding, sincerity, cooperation, dedication,
humour, etc.

Affection
Affection, as you know, is one of the basic traits that a teacher needs to have. We
do not expect every teacher to be as knowledgeable as Einstein nor do we expect
him or her the dedication that we find in Florence Nightingale. However, each one
of us expects a certain amount of affection in every teacher. In fact, there is no
human being on earth who does not crave for affection from those around, especially
from parents and teachers. Just as a mother pours forth her affection on her child,
a teacher should show love and concern for his pupils. In the absence of affection
we ,as teachers, cannot make our pupils feel wanted and accepted. If they feel that
they are unwanted and not accepted fully their minds would be clouded with sad
thoughts which will prompt them to be indifferent to activities going on in the classroom.
Non-participation leads to poor performance and poor performance to withdrawal
from the system.

Empathy
Empathy is another great virtue that you as a teacher need to possess. This quality
will enable you to feel concerned for your pupils’ problems and the efforts they
make to cope with them. This quality, would enable you to understand your pupils
better both emotionally as well as intellectually. To see the world through a child’s
eye, you need a lot of emotional flexibility. Empathy will enable you to be judicious,
impartial and objective. It will engender in you the requisite understanding to avoid
stereotypes and prejudices and treat all pupils with equanimity, irrespective of the
background from which they come. In addition, empathy will create in you a better
awareness of the functioning of a child’s mind which in turn would permit you to
avoid the use of words that insult and actions that hurt.

Concern and Commitment

Genuine concern and commitment are other two general qualities that we expect in
teachers. You should be dedicated and concerned about the development of your
pupils as their parents generally are and then try to do all within your ability to see
that they are given an opportunity for their growth and development. You should
remember that improvement seldom occurs spontaneously. More often it is attained
through deliberate effort. To reach a child’s mind, you must capture their heart. Only
when a child feels right, can s/he think right. Therefore, if you want to improve your
relations with children, you need to keep away your habitual language of rejection
and acquire a new language of acceptance. The way you talk to a child reveals how
you feel about him/her. If spoken without thinking, your statements can affect his
self-esteem and self-worth. If you are genuinely dedicated and concerned about the
growth of your pupil, you will try to eradicate the inconsistencies in your talk that
tells a child to distrust his/her perception, prevents him/her to discuss his feelings and
creates doubt in him/her. As far as possible, you should avoid blaming and shaming,
ordering and bossing, and ridiculing and belittling your pupils. Only with genuine
concern and commitment to their welfare, you can achieve this.

Again, if you are genuinely interested in the well being of your pupils, you need to
be authentic, genuine and sincere. You have no right to preach patience, when you
are impatient. You do not have to demonstrate hypocrisy by acting nice, when you
feel nasty. If you are enlightened, if you have proper awareness about yourself and 9
Teacher as a Professional your pupils, you do not have to be afraid of your anger or impatience provided that
you have learnt to express them without doing damage. What you need to master
here is the art of expressing anger without being insulting. You should not offend
either them or their family. You should not come out with gloomy warnings and
predictions about their failure. It would be damaging to children to predict where
they would end up. Therefore, as a teacher, you need to pick up the secret as to
how to be authentic and genuine even when you feel differently.

Humour
An element of humour is a good trait in a teacher. When we combine elements in
a way that is different, unexpected and incongruous, we wind up with humour. You,
as a teacher, should develop the ability to play spontaneously with ideas, concepts
and relationships. Similarly, you should have the ability to juggle elements into
impossible juxtapositions and express the ridiculous. All these can bring in an
atmosphere of humour in the classroom. A joke here or a witty utterance there can
make your pupils feel happy and dispel the monotony. It can arouse laughter or a
smile on their lips, which could make their mind lighter. Humour, thus, can turn out
to be a good tool in the hands of an enlightened teacher. With it, s/he can make a
classroom alive and create a relaxed atmosphere in it. However, care should be
taken to see that humour in not at the expense of any individual student. Don’t hurt
children inadvertently. Avoid sarcasm. There is no place for disparaging remarks in
teacher pupil communication. Bear in mind that a teacher’s role is to heal, not to
injure. You should shun any comments that hamper a child’s self-esteem.

Other Characteristics
To be effective, a teacher needs a certain amount of personal values like cleanliness,
punctuality, honesty etc. This does not mean that we expect teacher to be as pious
and honest as Buddha or Mahavir. However, the presence of such values in a
teacher would enable him/her to transmit them to his/her pupils, just like a lamp that
lights another lamp into equal brightness. Hence, you need to have these traits so
that you can inspire your pupils to be honest, punctual, truthful, etc. Mercy can be
taught only mercifully. Aesthetics cannot be taught unaesthetically. Similarly, kindness,
honesty, truthfulness, etc. are learnt from people who reflect these virtues in their
interactions. You cannot teach virtues through lecturing just as swimming and peddling
a bicycle cannot be taught through it. These are learnt through experiences. It takes
a virtuous teacher to inspire his/her pupils to these values.

In this section of the unit, we have noted that several personal qualities like affection,
empathy, concern, dedication, humour, etc. are needed in a teacher to be effective.
We have also seen that most of these traits or qualities are not taught but developed.
The truth being so, every teacher including those in the process of becoming teachers
make a conscious effort to acquire more and more of these traits so that they would
continue to be more efficient and effective.

Check Your Progress

Notes: a) Write your answers in the space given below.
b) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the unit.
2) Some of the personal qualities required in a teacher to be effective are:
i) ii)
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 Teacher in Diverse Role
iii) iv)
v) vi)
vii) viii)
ix) x)

13.5 TEACHER AS A TRANSMITTER OF

KNOWLEDGE
In order to understand the role of a teacher as a transmitter, we should examine his/
her role in traditional educational setup, where followings are expected from a
teacher:
i) A teacher introduces a lesson.
ii) A teacher explains a concept.
iii) A teacher clarifies doubts of students with suitable illustration.
iv) A teacher draws a diagram while explaining.
v) A teacher asks questions to learners.
In all the above situations, a teacher is a participant in the teaching-learning process,
a part of the stimuli provided to learners to bring about learning. The other inputs
are the content that gets transacted across learners, mode of transaction used by a
teacher and other audio-visual aids used by the teacher to promote effective learning.

INPUT LEARNER OUTPUT

Content-transacted Learner
through teacher, emerges with
LEARNER
learning experiences, certain changes
different methods, and in learning
different audio-visual
aids

The process in which

learners interacts with
these inputs

Fig. 13.1: Teaching – An Interactive Function

The Fig. 13.1 makes it clear that there is a face-to-face interaction between learners
and the teacher. In fact, this is what is commonly understood as teaching – an
interactive function.
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Teacher as a Professional
Check Your Progress
Notes: a) Write your answers in the space given below.
b) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the unit.
3) What is the role played by a teacher when he/she takes his/her learners for a
study tour?
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4) Explain the role of a teacher as an instructional input in 5-8 sentences.
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13.6 TEACHER AS A PLANNER

Role of teacher as a planner is quite visible as compared to other roles. You will
agree that a teacher plans many things for teaching learning. As a teacher, you must
have planned many things for your learners, for your subject or for your school. In
every such planning, you are working as a planner. Have you ever reflected on basic
steps of planning, which you have done for teaching-learning, or assessment or any
activity (curricular or co-curricular), event, etc.?

In this section, let us try to identify some core steps, which are involved in every
kind of planning in teaching-learning process.

• Objective: Every planning has some objective. It may be explaining any concept,
reflection on any practice, observation of any event or development of life
skills, etc.

• For whom: Learner is the center of every planning in teaching-learning. Learners

abilities, strengths, weakness, etc. are to be kept in mind while planning anything
for them.

• When: Whether it is a lesson planning, assessment planning or any event

planning, as a planner you should keep in mind the time. When will it take
place?
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• Where: The place of event i.e. the classroom or the school premises or outside Teacher in Diverse Role
of the school should be kept in mind, when you are planning the place and
space.

• How: Appropriate strategy for execution is also an important component of

planning. As a planner, you have to plan the method, media, process, sequence,
etc. which will help to execute your plan in desired manner.

• Outcome: A good planner always have the plans about expected outcomes.
However in constructivist perspective, learning is more important than outcomes.
Being a teacher, you should also plan the desired learning, which helps in
executing the plan in right track to facilitate learners.

For better understanding, the role of a teacher in planning, let us do the following
exercise.
Activity 3
Compare planning of a lesson, a unit test and a debate competition to be
organized by you. You have to write the activity/step you follow in planning of
each of these in the following grid:
Step Lesson Plan Unit Test Debate Competition

Objective

When

Where

How

Outcome

13.7 TEACHER AS A FACILITATOR

To facilitate means to promote, to help forward, or to make easy. Therefore, in the
context of instruction, a teacher’s role would be to promote learning, to help learners
to develop more and more by learning by providing them a conducive environment
to interact within order to bring about learning and further development. In this role
as a facilitator of learning, learner’s role of interacting and moving forward is
emphasized, and the teacher’s role is in the background as a guide and a facilitator
different from what we have already seen in section 13.5, i.e. as a transmitter of
knowledge.

To explain further, when a teacher is part of the environment in which learners are
learning, or is participating in the process of instruction, s/he is a transmitter of
knowledge, but when s/he is providing certain guidance in order to bring about
learning of students by way of their interaction with relevant instructional components,
s/he is a facilitator of learning. Look at the following pair of situations.

i) Teacher gives a lecture on importance of keeping the surroundings of our home

clean.

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Teacher as a Professional ii) Teacher shows paper cuttings/slides/video films exposing dirty surroundings and
their negative impact on human life and initiates a discussion on learners
observations-finally leading to importance of keeping the surroundings of home
clean.
and
i) Teacher lectures on the phenomenon of change of colour in a flower induced
by difference in intensity of sunlight.

ii) Teacher guides learners to do a project work on the phenomenon of colour

change in a rose, induced by difference in intensity of sunlight. Teacher does
not tell them about the change of colour, but instructs regarding what is to be
observed in the plant in its natural settings at different times of the day and night
and the way their observations have to be recorded. She later holds discussion
on their observations, finally arriving at the phenomenon of influence of sunlight
on the colour of the flower.

The roles of teachers are distinctly different in the two situations. In situation No.
1, of both pairs, learning is based on what the teacher explains, or it is a teacher-
centered method, where learners role is minimum. In other words, teacher’s role is
that of an instructional input. But in situation No. 2, of both the pairs, learning is by
means of learner’s interaction with specially designed environment of visuals and
discussion (as in the first case) or in natural situation – observation and recording
followed by discussions (as in situation No. 2 of the second pair). The sequences
organized are learner centered, where the focus is on what learners observe,
understand, record or discuss, with teacher guiding at required stages, to FACILITATE
learning involved in the process.

There are different methods of promoting learning. Some are learner-centered – like
library work, project work, experimentation, home assignment, etc. where major
focus is on how learners organize their steps of learning by interacting with different
environmental components like printed matter, natural realities etc. In all such methods,
teacher guides learners as to how to go about learning sequences, thus facilitating
their learning. In other words in all learner- centered methods teacher is a facilitator
and not a participant. Here are more examples:

i) After a brief initiation into the philosophy of John Dewey, the teacher gives a
list of references available in school library, and asks learners to write an essay
on the topic.

As their work is in progress, learners meet the teacher and receive guidance
to move forward in the task assigned to them.

ii) Learners are asked to collect samples of leaf formation, preserve, draw them
and discuss in the class, with teacher’s guidance.

iii) Learners are asked to sow seeds in a pot, and observe in different light situations,
ranging from absence of light to full sunlight to artificial lighting, with reporting
the development of different at stages and discussions with the teacher.

So far, we have seen the roles of a teacher as an instructional input, a manager, and
a facilitator. There are many more roles which a teacher performs. These we will
discuss in the next sections.
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 Teacher in Diverse Role
Check Your Progress
Notes: a) Write your answers in the space given below.
b) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the unit.
5) Explain the role of a teacher as a facilitator of learning as different from that
of an instructional input.
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6) What is the role of the teacher when:
a) S/he guides learners during their project work?
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b) S/he corrects a write-up developed by a learner for a debating
competition?
........................................................................................................
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........................................................................................................
........................................................................................................

13.8 TEACHER AS A CO-CREATOR

National Curriculum Framework-2005 visualized teachers as co-creator of
knowledge. Sometimes teachers are referred as “knowledge partners of learners’.
Let us analyze few characteristics of teacher and teaching learning process, where
a teacher needs to be a co-creator of knowledge. Teachers are co-creator if they:
• motivate learners to frame their own question about various observations,
• ask learners to interpret a situation in their own way and identify the probable
solution of a problem with scaffolding by teachers,
• encourage learners to work in group and also become active member of the
group,
• keep learners active and motivate them to observe, react and reflect continuously,
• help learners in evolving new knowledge using their previous knowledge through
discussions, debates, inquiry or experimentation. 15
Teacher as a Professional
Activity 4
Identify a topic/theme from the subject you are teaching at secondary level.
How will you work as co-creator of knowledge for that topic? Devise a
strategy and act on it. Record your observations during the process.

13.9 TEACHER AS A LEADER

When the notion of ‘Leader’ is suffixed with the teacher, it is often viewed as
Leadership in Teachers’ Association. In teaching-learning, it is not so microscopic
view. By definition, “leadership is the ability to lead a group, motivate to complete
the given task and share the responsibility and accountability of the task”.
When you apply this in the context of teacher, you can say, “Teacher as a leader
lead the learners in the class or group of teachers for better teaching-learning
through assigning a task, motivating them to complete it and sharing
responsibilities, success as well as failure.(………….)” It means a teacher has to
perform various leadership roles, which could be classified in two ways:
a) leadership in the classroom
b) leadership roles in school
When we talk about leadership in the classroom, it means a teacher has to lead the
class either to complete a task or sometimes to develop and maintain positive and
effective relationship among class. Whereas when we think of teachers’ leadership
roles in school, we generally count his/her role in various school committees,
responsibilities to organize various events, co-curricular activities as well as professional
development activities for fellow teachers. In this role, it is expected from a teacher
that his/her professional aim should be in sync with school’s vision and mission.
Teacher should share various responsibilities in the school, or with the management
for the success and betterment of the school.
Activity 5
You must have noticed few teachers in your school who are always ready to
share school’s responsibilities or play a role of a catalyst in organizing various
events. Indentify a teacher and observe his/her behavior before the event,
during the event and after the event and enlist the qualities or characteristics of
his personality, which are making him/her a leader.

Your list may have few of the following skills, which are common among teacher
leaders.

Trust Building: A teacher-leader always believes in having trust in others as well

as develops an environment where people can trust him/her. For leading a group,
one needs to develop a rapport among those with whom the task is to be performed.
This is an essential skill for a leader without which sharing of responsibilities is not
possible.

Diagnosing Institutional Conditions: A good teacher-leader is also well aware of

the institutional conditions. It includes working environment, freedom of work and
willingness of management of the school/institution for experimentation. S/he diagnoses
the situation before planning or suggesting for any event or activity as well as analyze
scope for his/her role.
16
Dealing with Processes: You must have observed that while organizing any activity, Teacher in Diverse Role
the leader has to deal with certain processes. Sometimes, these may be internal like
approval from discipline group or management committee or finance committee.
Sometimes, there may be various processes involved with outside agencies or
government bodies. A teacher-leader always identifies such processes and ready to
deal with all such processes.

Work Management: Leadership involves mobilization of various persons associated

with you, which may be your learners or colleagues. A good teacher-leader always
know how to share work, how to motivate all for achieving a common target and
how to build a team.

There may be other skills or characteristics in your list which you have identified.
Elaborating more on those will help you to transform yourself as a teacher-leader
in and outside of classroom.
Check Your Progress
Notes: a) Write your answer in the space given below.
b) Compare your answer with those given at the end of the unit.
7) Enlist the leadership roles of a teacher in school.
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13.10 TEACHER AS A MANAGER

A manager is basically at the helm of any organization. S/he has to take decisions,
control the situation, be spontaneous and resourceful to change decisions for better
functioning of the organization if situation demands, etc. We all are familiar with
managers of a company, of a school or a college, etc. Let us apply our knowledge
of managerial competencies in the case of instruction, and see how a teacher performs
the role of a manager.

Teachers, like executives in other setting, are expected to provide leadership to

students and to coordinate a variety of activities as they and learners work
interdependently to accomplish academic and social goals of schooling. Teacher’s
role as a manager is concerned with all the three phases of teaching namely, pre-
teaching, teaching and post-teaching.

13.10.1 Role of the Teacher in the Pre-teaching Phase

Pre-teaching phase essentially comprises the activity of planning teaching-learning
process. Planning is actually a simplification of a complex process. The following are
the specific activities involved in the pre-teaching phase:
i) Analyzing the content.
17
Teacher as a Professional ii) Deciding on the portion of the content to be selected for instruction.
iii) Deciding on instructional objectives for the chosen content on the basis of the
knowledge about:
a) Level of learners
b) Their socio-cultural context
c) Time available.
iv) Examining different learning experiences that are suitable for achieving the set
objectives.
v) Deciding on the best alternative from a repertoire of learning experiences and
deciding the best sequencing of these to bring about pre-specified learning. For
example, a lecture followed by a discussion, followed by showing some visual
aids and again followed by a discussion, etc.

vi) Deciding the method of evaluating learning, (a written test, oral test, a performance
test etc.) and the specific item of evaluation (question in case of oral and written
tests, aspects to be observed and assessed in case of performance test).

In above activities, the teacher is not participating in the instructional process. S/he
is an outsider and a decision maker, and a designer of the way. The process of
instruction has to be organized. In all these situations, the teacher’s role is strictly
speaking that of manager, and not of an input, although management is an important
input in effective implementation of different activities.

13.10.2 Role of the Teacher in the Teaching Phase

In the earlier section, we have seen how the teacher becomes a part of the teaching-
learning process, and is identified as an instructional input. In the following paragraph,
you will see how a teacher plays the role of a manager during the instructional/
teaching-learning process. Examine the following situations:
i) Sensing that learners are bored, a teacher decides to stop teaching
ii) Realizing that a learner has not understood a point fully, a teacher decides to
simplify the explanation with more examples.
iii) In order to make a lesson more interesting, a teacher decides to narrate a
related story.
iv) As learners start making too much noise and can not be managed by a teacher,
she decides to let them go out and play.
v) As the prepared plan does not prove effective to make learners understand the
point, a teacher decides to deviate from the plan and tries out another sequencing
of learning experiences.
In all these situations, a teacher is part of the instructional system, but is NOT
PARTICIPATING or is NOT AN INSTRUCTIONAL INPUT. S/he is, however,
making quick decisions in between the process, with the objective of being effective.
In other words, in order to bring about meaningful learning, a teacher, with his/her
resourcefulness and spontaneity is deciding to change the mode of operation, to suit
to the needs of learners. In these situations, a teacher is functioning as a designer/
manager/decision maker. In fact he/she is at a transitional stage or shifting from the
role of a participant/as instructional input to a different mode as a decision maker.
18 This shift can be understood clearly from the Fig. 13.2.
 Teacher in Diverse Role
Learners– passive Teacher senses that
Teacher explains the explanation does
listeners – get
Gandhiji’s philosophy not appeal to
bored.
of non-violence in learners and that
Class. learners are not
interested.

Teacher-as a
participant-as an Teacher quickly
Teacher narrates the decides to narrate an
instructional input story. Learners listen episode from Gandhiji’s
attentively and ask life to illustrate his
questions in between. philosophy.

Transitional stage of shift

from one method
(expla-nation) to another
(story-telling) decision-
making stage. Role of the
teacher as a manager.

Fig.13.2: Teacher as a Disciplinarian

You all must be familiar with such comments people make: “she can manage the
class very well” or “learners are well disciplined in his class”. In such situations it
is obvious that a teacher is effectively managing learners with alternative solutions to
problems as and when they emerge or enter in the class. These alternative solutions
depends on many factors like, age group of learners, physical fitness of the group
(if they are not interested in a class after a physically tiring PT period), general
climate of the school (if annual day is approaching, or fun fair is due, and learners
are in a fun-making mode) etc. An effective teacher would succeed in maintaining
discipline and managing learners well without losing his/her control and at the same
time the confidence of learners. A lot of knowledge of the psychology of child/
adolescent is required for the teacher for being an effective manager in such situations.
A teacher has to be empathetic, tactful, patient and tolerant.

13.10.3 Role of the Teacher in the Post-teaching Phase

Post-teaching phase, as described in the introduction of this section, is the one that
involves teacher’s activities such as analyzing results of evaluation to determine
learners’ learning, especially their problems in understanding specific areas, to reflect
on one’s own teaching and to decide on the necessary changes to be brought in the
next instructional period. Examine the following activities of a teacher:
i) Teacher analyses the written performance of learners ( of class VII) and realizes
that 80% (Class VII) have not been able to do single digit multiplication correctly.
ii) Teacher goes through the plan of the lesson on multiplication and realizes that
learner’s knowledge of addition was presumed, but not revised.
iii) Realizing that multiplication is based on thorough mastery of addition the teacher
decides to start all over again with addition. 19
Teacher as a Professional In these three situations, the teacher is a designer in the post-teaching phase-designer
of the next instructional system.

We can summarize by saying that in the post-teaching phase, a teacher analyses

results, reflects on self and modifies the teaching-learning process, all with purpose
of being an effective as a teacher.

In order to see the roles of a teacher as a manager at different stages the flow
diagram (Fig. 13.3) would help:

Pre-teaching Teaching Post-teaching

Decision-making Analysis of results,

Planning the reflection on self,
to shift from one
instructional analysis of learner’s
mode to another.
system. problem, decisions to
make necessary
changes.

To the pre-teaching
phase of the next
instructional period.

Fig. 13.3: Teacher as a Manager at Different Phases of Teaching

Check Your Progress

Notes: a) Write your answers in the space given below.
b) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the unit.
8) What is the role of a teacher:
a) When s/he draws a diagram on the blackboard to clarify a doubt.
........................................................................................................
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b) When s/he sets question papers.
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c) When s/he decides to repeat a lesson in a different way to make it more
interesting to his/her learners.
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20
 Teacher in Diverse Role
13.11 TEACHER AS A COUNSELLOR
The role of the teacher as a counsellor is quite different from other roles described
so far. To counsel is to give advice, according to dictionary, although it is more than
mere advising.

In the context of a school, the teacher is the counsellor and the learner either
approached the teacher when s/he has a problem, which cannot be solved by self,
or the teacher senses the problem and offers help to the learner to solve the
problem.

Teacher, as a counsellor, addresses not only problems related to school, studies etc.
but also those related to friends, family, health, etc.
The most important attribute of a teacher to be an effective counsellor is his/her
sensitivity in identifying learners with problems. This is because, in a school set
up, learners seldom approach teachers with their problems to get any help, as they
are apprehensive about disclosing the intimate nature of their problems. It is only
with serious effort that a sensitive teacher after identifying a learner with some
problem can establish rapport with him/her and make him/her come out with the
problem that he/she is confronted with. After having understood the nature of the
problem, the role of the teacher is to help a learner realize his/her potential to
solve it. Counselling works on the principle that every individual, if guided properly,
can realize the strengths of self to solve problems of self. Hence, a teacher does not
have always to give solutions. What he can do is to make clear the different paths
to solving the problem and in the process makes a learner move forward in solving
the problem. Examine the following situations:

a) A sensitive teacher observes that a learner is inattentive and very sad in most
classes. She calls the learner alone and opens a dialogue. After two or three
sessions, problem comes out, the learner’s grandmother to whom she was
attached, has passed away and this had made a great difference in her life. The
teacher empathizes with her and talks about life and death in a very objective
way and then suggest the different ways that she (the learner) could engage
herself while at home. The teacher also helps her to think about the hard reality
of absence of someone dear and to come out of the it, though it is very painful.
With many such sessions, the learner emerges as a reconciled person, overcoming
her sadness, and starts to be attentive and alert in the class.

b) A student Sheela, who according to the teacher is a bright and hard working,
is not doing well in tests. The teacher senses that there is some problem and
opens an intimate dialogue with her. After spending some time the teacher
understands the problem of Sheela becoming over anxious about tests, doesn’t
sleep well before tests commence, therefore is unable to do well in tests. The
teacher starts with importance of mental health for doing will in general, and in
tests especially, indicating how sufficient hours of sleep are indispensable for
performance. Then she goes on to indicate the different ways of relaxing during
days of test, which is essential for doing well in tests. Apart from all these, the
teacher boosts Sheela’s morale by pointing out her inherent capabilities by
using which she can emerge as a very successful person.

It is apparent that in the above situations there are certain attributes in the teacher,
which make him or her an effective counsellor.
21
Teacher as a Professional They are:
• being a keen observant
• being sensitive
• being empathetic (being able to see the problem from the learner’s perspective)
• being objective
And apart from all these, being loving and friendly to win the confidence of learners
so that they would open up is also an attribute in a teacher.

13.12 LET US SUM UP

Unit discussed about teacher as a person, where the focus was on place of teacher
in classroom, community, his/her role as a colleague as well as a citizen of the
country. Teacher is a friend, philosopher and guide of learners, this has been
established. Teachers’ personal qualities like affection, empathy, concern for learners
and profession as well as commitment are very important for his/her success as a
teacher. Unit explained role of teacher as a transmitter of knowledge as well as a
planner. Constructivism has proposed role of teacher as a facilitator and co-creator
of knowledge; these dimensions were also discussed in the unit. As a leader, teacher
requires trust building, diagnosing institutional conditions, dealing with processes and
work management skills. Teacher’s role as a manager in every phase i.e. pre-
teaching, during-teaching and post-teaching phase is very important. Unit has
highlighted that teachers also have to play a role of counsellor to resolve many day-
to-day problems of their learners.

13.13 UNIT END EXCERCISES

1) How the role of teacher as a community member affects his/her teaching-
learning? Explain.
2) Organize a discussion at your school with parents and identify the personality
characteristics of teachers which are affecting learners in the opinion of parents.
3) Discuss the role of a teacher as planner in planning for a field-trip for learners.
4) Do you think, constructivism has affected the role of teacher? Discuss in details.

13.14 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

1) Enlist the activities as per your experience or based on discussion with colleagues.
2) Answer based or reading of section 13.4.
3) Teacher has to play role of planner, manager, facilitator and guide.
4) Explain in your own words.
5) Explain in your own words.
6) Explain in your own words.
7) A teacher has to play leadership roles for trust building among colleagues and
management, in analyzing institutional condition and future predictions, in dealing
with various processes official/social/constitutional, etc. and in managing the
workforce and workload.
22 8) Answer questions based on reading of section 13.10.
 Teacher in Diverse Role
13.15 SUGGESTED READINGS AND REFERENCES
• Achuonye, K. A., and Ajoku, L.I. (2003). Foundations of curriculum:
Development and Implementation. Port Harcourt: Pearl Publishers.
• Awotua-Efebo, E. B. (1999). Effective Teaching: Principles and Practice.
Paragraghics
• Brookfield, S. (1990). The skillful teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• IGNOU. (2012). Personality of a teacher, (Unit 5) in the Teacher-Role and
Development (Block 2), ES-335: Teacher and School, School of Education
• IGNOU. (2012). Roles of a teacher, (Unit 6) in The Teacher-Role and
Development (Block 2), ES-335: Teacher and School, School of Education
• Johnson, D.W. & Johnson, R.T. (1991). Learning together and alone.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ:Prentice-Hall.
• Lumsden, L. (2009). Student motivation to learn. ERIC Digest, Number 92.
S. Retrieved on 2nd January 2016
• Porter, A. (1986). Teacher collaboration: New partnership to attract old
problems. Phi Delta Kappan, 69(2), 147-152.

23
Teacher as a Professional
UNIT 14 TEACHER AS INNOVATOR AND
ACTION RESEARCHER

Structure
14.1 Introduction
14.2 Objectives
14.3 Innovation: Need and Concept
14.3.1 What is innovation?
14.3.2 Types of Innovation
14.3.3 Process of Innovation
14.4 Teacher as an Action Researcher
14.4.1 What is Action Research?
14.4.2 Approaches to Action Research
14.5 Pre-conditions for Taking Up Action Research
14.6 Quality Issues in Action Research
14.7 Steps Involved in Action Research
14.8 Format for Documenting Your Action Research
14.9 Let Us Sum Up
14.10 Unit End Exercises
14.11 Answers to Check Your Progress
14.12 Suggested Readings and References

14.1 INTRODUCTION
The former president of India Dr. A.P.J.Abdul Kalam in his book ‘Indomitable
Spirit’fondly remembers his first teacher, Sri Siv Subramania Iyer because of the
novel methods he used for teaching and specifically the way he taught how birds fly.
Sri Iyer had taught this on the seashore of Rameshwaram, through demonstrations
of flying birds. This changed the life of a small boy of a village significantly.
Dr. Kalam writes, “For me, it was not merely an understanding of how a bird
flies. The lesson of the bird’s flight created a special feeling in me and I thought
to myself that my future course of study would have to be with reference to
flying and flight systems. Sri Iyer’s teaching and the event I witnessed helped
me to decide my future career”(Indomitable Spirit, p26). Sri Iyer sowed the
seeds of a future scientist in a small child, who later became popular as the “Missile
man of India”. He did this by adopting an innovative strategy of teaching that led
to a big change in the life of his pupil.

What is innovation? Is it necessary that something new has to be created, for it to

be considered as an innovation? You know that teachers need to function as change
agents, innovators and researchers. Are these roles related? These questions are
important in the emerging educational scenario where teachers are expected to be
the facilitators of learning and situate the teaching learning process in the social
context and real life experiences of learners. You will find the answers to these
questions as you read this unit. In this unit we will focus on the role of a teacher
as an innovator as well as an action researcher.
24
 Teacher as Innovator and
14.2 OBJECTIVES Action Researcher

After going through this unit, you will be able to:

• explain the concept of innovation and its need in education;
• elaborate the role of teacher as an action researcher;
• explain the steps involved in action research; and
• design and carryout an action research to facilitate learners.

14.3 INNOVATION: NEED AND CONCEPT*

Change is the law of nature.Throughout the course of human evolution we find that
old order makes room for a new one. Old culture, thoughts, ideas and technologies
are replaced by new ones. Systems and organizations that do not change or do not
feel the need to change stagnate, decay and ultimately perish. Periodic alternations
take place in the goals, structure and the processes of a system. This is also true
for educational systems.
While some changes are unplanned, brought about unconsciously and may occur
over a long period of time, some changes are planned and brought about consciously.
Such changes may happen over a shorter time span. The latter type of change is
built around the theories and approaches put forward by thinkers, planners,
administrators and practitioners. These are based on the felt need for change, required
for the betterment of a system. The felt need may arise because of socio-economic
and political conditions or because of changes in theories and paradigms of learning.
You have been witnessing such a change in the paradigm of teaching-learning in
school education since the implementation of NCF, 2005 and the RTE Act, 2009
which uphold the constructivist approach and child centered teaching learning process.
Change is often brought about through the process of innovation. The National
Policy of Education (NPE, 1986) recognized the need for innovation and
experimentation by teachers and recommended that teachers should have the
freedom to innovate, devise appropriate methods of communication and
activities relevant to the needs of and capabilities of and concerns of the
community. At the individual level the motivation to find new solutions to the older
problems or new ways to teaching the content may lead to innovations. Again, one
can take a leaf from other nations, societies, institutions and organizations and adopt/
adapt successfully tried out practices as per the requirements of one’s own conditions
and circumstances (Sabharwal & Pandey, 1998). Such innovations, where solutions
are imported from outside the system are introduced deliberately and not accidentally.
One of the preconditions to promote innovation is the dissatisfaction with the
present condition. This dissatisfaction may be due to stagnation or ineffective
functioning of the existing educational structures and methods. Uncertainties faced,
as well as a desire to fulfill one’s own aspirations, and others’ expectations can lead
individuals to innovate and experiment. In addition, the population of learners keeps
on changing every year and learners come from various socio- cultural backgrounds,
with differences in prior experiences and exposures. Sustained efforts and creative
strategies are needed by teachers to deal with them effectively. Such efforts lead to
innovation and research by teachers. It is pertinent to note that some innovations
* Section 14.3 ‘Innovation: Need and Concept’ has been adapted from Unit 7 of BES-053,
CPPDPT Programme, SOE, IGNOU 25
Teacher as a Professional influence the system in such a way that they get accepted and absorbed in the
system,while others, not so well accepted by the system wither away over a period
of time.

14.3.1 What is Innovation?

There are numerous definitions of innovation and the term has been differently used,
interpreted and understood by different thinkers and researchers. The word
‘innovation’ is derived from the Latin word ‘novus’ which means new, novice,
novelty or renovation. New refers to things which have come into existence only
recently, are freshly made, and were not in existence or experienced previously. In
simple words, it changes the unfamiliar to familiar, and grafts ‘new’ on the ‘old’. The
Dictionary of Education, (1977) defines innovation as promotion of new ideas or
practices. Innovation therefore means a new idea or further development of an
existing product, process or method that is applied in a specific context with the
intention to create a value added product (Kirkland &Sutch, 2009).
Innovation involves either radical changes, or incremental adaptation of well-known
practices. Pedagogical practices have to be innovative because you can facilitate
active learning only when you are able to sustain the motivation and interest of
students in activities by introducing innovative practices.
Kostoff (2003) suggests that innovation reflects the metamorphosis from present
practice to some new, hopefully better practice. Innovation, therefore, involves
deliberate application of information, imagination and initiative in deriving greater or
different value from resources and encompasses all processes by which the ideas
are generated. Most of the literature in education however, defines innovation as the
implementation of not only new ideas but also of improved ideas, knowledge and
practices (Mitchell 2003).
None the less, newness is a relative and context specific term. What is new for one
person or a context may not be new for another. So what should be treated as
innovative? An innovation is not something new to the education system as a whole
but if it is perceived new in a particular context; it is considered innovation for only
that context. According to Rogers, as cited in Kirkland and Dan (2005, p. 11)
‘If the idea seems new to the individual, it is an innovation’. The extent to which
something is new according to a given social context, it is crucial in identifying
innovation. So the concept of ‘smart class’ may be innovative for one social context
whereas it may not be considered as an innovation in a very advanced society where
advanced technologies are already in use.
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) organized a
national seminar on ‘Innovations in Education’ in 1977, where some of the significant
innovations were discussed and included in a report published for wider dissemination.
According to this report an innovation should be:
• new to the system or environment as perceived by an individual;
• better than what is already in existence;
• a deliberate, planned and not haphazard effort;
• contextual to local system or environment or conditions;
• instrumental in bringing change in the behavior, learning or attitude of an individual
or group of individuals;
• conducive for making unfamiliar as familiar;
26 • suitable for achieving results of the predetermined goals;
• be positive in nature; and Teacher as Innovator and
Action Researcher
• something, which results in the improvement of a system.
14.3.2 Types of Innovation
Innovations have generally been classified into four types that are as follows:
Product innovation,which involves development of new products such as new
models of cars, television, fridge, food items,educational kits such as science and
mathematics kits, for instance those developed by the NCERT, educational toys and
so on. A number of school teachers have also been experimenting and producing
innovative educational materials.
Process innovation: It involves development and implementation of new and
improved delivery mechanisms/ methods that may include significant changes in
techniques, equipment, software etc. During your pre- service teacher training
programme you must have read about micro teaching, models of teaching, programmed
instructions and the like which are popular examples of process innovation that have
been widely accepted throughout the world.
During the last few decades a number of innovative methods of integrating technology
in education have been developed and used. The Indira Gandhi Open University
(IGNOU) and the NCERT have successfully used teleconferencing and video
conferencing techniques for pre-service and in-service teacher education programmes.
These are all examples of process innovation. Few years back you were using chalk
and talk as the only method of teaching. However, today Information and
Communication Technology(ICT) plays a major role in teaching learning process
and this has been possible due to process innovation in the field of education.
Therefore, while computer is an example of product innovation, computer assisted
teaching learning is an instance of process innovation.
KVS teachers making a difference
Ms. Harminder Kaur Suri has applied ICT for teaching science. She has
been able to create a joyous and participatory learning environment which
raises the level of performance of children. A website on ‘Flying Jewels’,is
a collection of information on butterflies which is a documentation of the
work undertaken by her learners and showcases her achievements.
Realizing the limitation of the conventional classroom and the need to
enhance its scope, Ms. Lata Ramchandran, has experimented by bringing
in a variety of resources. She has been creating visual directories, collecting
and organizing students’ collections and training them to take up systematic
study in small groups and share their learning with others. She herself has
been using ICT and has also been encouraging her learners to use a
variety of ICT tools and has thus been able to inspire her students to
undertake tasks well beyond their class level.
Ms. Jainus Jacob has integrated a variety of exploratory techniques to
develop in her learners a keen interest in the natural environment. Her
learners’ exploration of birds is a good example of how young children
can work beyond the level and confines of a conventional classroom. She
has helped learners make presentations, search and download relevant
information, shoot pictures and host a website as a part of their routin
elearning.
Source: National ICT award for school teachers (2010-2011), MHRD
27
Teacher as a Professional Paradigm innovation involves changes resulting from major shift in thinking. For
instance, the shift from behaviourist to constructivist approach to learning has brought
changes in the teaching learning process in schools over the years. You are observing
such a paradigm shift since the implementation of NCF 2005. Open book examination
system, making board examination optional in Class X, are examples of paradigm
innovation.

The fourth type of innovation relates to positioning innovation which suggests

that the product was originally innovated for a different purpose but later on
repositioned for another purpose. A very popular example of positioning innovations
is medicinal drink called ‘Lucozade’ which was originally used to be a medical drink
but was repositioned as a sports drink.

Increasingly it is being recognized that to promote greater flexibility and creativity in

teaching and learning, for contextualizing learning and to ensure more personalized
and participatory teaching learning process, there is need for teachers to be innovative.

But are teachers willing to experiment and innovate? Let us read some general
reactions of teachers whenever there is any discussion on the need for teacher to
be innovator, change agent or researcher.

"I have to finish my syllabus in

time, where is the time for any "This strategy cannot
experiments?" work with more than 50
learners in my class"

"The present system is quite "We don't have adequate

OK, why should we change?" facilities for innovation and
research."

"I have to produce good result

not waste time over innovation
and research."

These common reactions of teachers are indicative of their resistance to change the
traditional practices and try new or innovative methods. But are all the teachers like
this? If Sri Iyer had not taken the initiative to explain how birds fly through his
innovative strategy of teaching, the impact it made on A.P.J. Abdul Kalam may not
have been there. There are many teachers like Sri Iyer who go beyond the textbooks
and the four walls of classroom to make teaching learning effective for children.
Some examples of your colleagues involved in carrying out innovation have been
mentioned. It is therefore clear that innovation does not always necessitate investing
considerable amount of money and using expensive gadgets to produce a new
28 object or method. Instead with little imagination and creativity you may develop a
Teaching Learning Material (TLM), or a teaching strategy that can make your Teacher as Innovator and
Action Researcher
classroom process interesting and effective. Some examples of teachers of rural
Gujrat who worked imaginatively and innovatively to facilitate learning are as
follows:

Shankarbhai Sendhav works as a teacher in the Krushi Adarsh Anupam

Prathmikshala, Tuwad of Sami, Patan, Gujarat. Over the years Shankarbhai
has been involved in various experiments to improve academic performance.
For instance, to improve the reading and writing skills of children, he has
grouped the letters of the alphabet according to their shapes. He introduced
another experiment to retain children in school. This experiment had two
objectives; one was to achieve retention and the other to give children
knowledge of real life and practical learning along with subject knowledge.
He started a movement called‘Garden Library’ and appointed five learners
of Class 7 as implementers.These learners would place some children’s
books in the garden under some tree. When the teacher was not there or
during the recess, the children would go there and sit and read these books.
Taking children who had never been outside their village on a visit to Nal
Sarover, a bird sanctuary was yet another initiative that helped create in
children a fondness for schooling.

Swinging library
The school where Prajapati worked was a single teacher school.
Hence,keeping learners engaged when he was occupied with administrative
work or during recess hours was a problem. He formed a ‘swinging library’.
He took a long wire and strung it up. On that wire he hung some story
books with the help of clips. The learners of the higher classes had to take
the books during the recess and the children of the lower classes would sit
with them. The older learners would read out the story and the others
would listen. The books had to be replaced after this. The books were
changed every third or fourth day. With this experiment, children’s’ reading
skills improved. Also, the learners started singing songs and telling stories
during prayer time. There was no complaint related to mischief during the
recess hours. Thus the children became familiar with Panchtantra, Ramayan
and Mahabharat and began to tell these stories to their parents.

Learners’ Store of Mathematics Learning

In order to teach math through practice, Karshandbhai started a learner
store, “Vidyarthi Grahak Vastu Bhandar” in the school. The children looked
after purchases, sales and all accounts, using the arithmetic they learned
in the class. In order to keep them alert, a coordinator was appointed. The
activity was reviewed every month. The outcome was that the learners
developed the habit of keeping accounts. The children discussed the financial
management of the store and all of them participated actively in the process.
The success of this activity made them think of starting a savings scheme.
The school then formed a cooperative savings bank.

Source: Chand, et al., (2011). Learning from innovative primary school teachers of
Gujarat. A casebook for teacher development.Ahmedabad. Retrieved fromhttp:/
/teindia.nic.in)

29
Teacher as a Professional
Check Your Progress
Note: a) Write your answer in the space given below.
b) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the unit.
1) What are major types of innovations? Suggest two examples for each based
on your school experiences.
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14.3.3 Process of Innovation

Generally an innovation is the result of the use of various possible approaches to
satisfy the identified needs and interests. An important step in the process of innovation
is tryout and evaluation. Equally important is the approach of modifying the response
in the light of the feedback received. This process goes on with improved practices
and is shown in the following diagram (Figure 14.1).

Fig. 14.1: The Process of Innovation

It is clear from the diagram given above that innovation is a carefully planned activity
and research is integral to innovation. The cycle of innovation starts when you either
face some problem for which you seek its unique solution or when you want to do
something new. In all the examples given above you will observe that teachers were
30 interested in making their classroom processes more effective. Once the problem is
identified the teacher frames various alternative approaches or strategies to resolve Teacher as Innovator and
Action Researcher
the problem. In the process s/he reflects on the pros and cons of various alternatives
from different perspectives in terms of time, suitability of the alternative chosen for
the problem at hand, age and class of learners, finances if any involved in it and so
on. S/he then applies the most suitable alternative to seek solution for the problem.

But the process of innovation does not end here, because, based on the experience
of the tryout of the strategy, it is further refined/ changed or modified and the finished
product is adopted by the teacher or the system as the case may be. In the whole
process the teacher is continuously engaged in reflection in action, as well as in
reflection for action and research. The research is however, not as sophisticated as
fundamental research but is action oriented and is known as Action Research or
classroom research.

Reflective Practitioner

Change Agent
Triangular Researcher
Relationship

Innovator

Fig. 14.2: Teacher as Innovator and Researcher

You may take note of the triangular relationship (depicted in Figure 14.2) that exists
among three roles of a teacher- reflective practitioner, change agent, innovator and
researcher.

An effective teacher continuously reflects on content, context and procedures of

classroom processes, and is an innovator, who develops new strategies, techniques
and materials for teaching or changes existing ones whenever better ones are found
or when the existing strategies no longer provide substantive learning experiences.
Such a teacher is not dependent only on traditional chalk and talk method but uses
a combination of relevant strategies such as question-answer, discussion, collaborative
group works, role play, visual media, experiences of children, field trips and the like
to sustain children’s interest in learning. Classroom teachers who conduct such
research are “reflective practitioners” who make exemplary contributions to
instructional improvement (Suter, 2006). However, while research is integral to
innovation, all researches do not lead to innovation.

31
Teacher as a Professional
Activities
1) List few topics/areas in which you feel need of innovation. Suggest few
innovations in those areas and discuss with your colleagues about those.
Prepare a report of discussion for feasibility of innovations suggested by you.
2) There is discrimination against girls not only at home but also in school. As a
teacher develop an action plan for the removal of discrimination against girls
in your class.
3) Identify an instance of process innovation brought about by your colleague.
What difference did it make to students’ achievement?

Check Your Progress

Note: a) Write your answer in the space given below.
b) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the unit.
2) Reflect on the need and importance of innovation in secondary education.
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14.4 TEACHER AS AN ACTION RESEARCHER*

Teachers often see research as an additional task hampering their day to day teaching
work. As teachers we are often comfortable with external researchers who undertake
different school related issues and their findings for improving our school system of
education. Do we ask ourselves that were these issues of our concern? Finally the
findings that are shared with the school, are they appropriate for our school? Do we
find it easy to relate these findings with our school and classrooms? We must realize
that when school based research is viewed as separate from teaching, teachers do
not conceive of themselves as researchers. Teachers must become leaders of their
schools by being able to identify their problems and looking for solutions for school
improvement through their own research. As teachers how can we discuss our
experiences; how we can identify a rich variety of concerns and questions of a
contextual nature that require to be explored. Educational problems and issues are
best identified and investigated where the action is taking place, i.e. at the classroom
and school. Teachers taking up their own research after identification of their problems
will make them better researchers to address school and classroom based challenges.
This type of research taken up by educational practitioners has higher chances of
making the classrooms and schools more vibrant learning centres. This is because
it is ‘my school’, ‘my classroom’, ‘my challenges’ and the research undertaken is
‘my research’ and the solution reached is ‘my solution’. This is action research and
as teachers, to us, it is “My Research”.

* Content of Action Research has been adopted from Handbook on Action Research originally
32 written for DEP-SSA, IGNOU
14.4.1 What is Action Research? Teacher as Innovator and
Action Researcher
Action research is a process through which teachers discover and learn through
systematic investigation. As teachers we must understand that action research is a
part of classroom teaching. It helps to further build on the understanding that teaching
is influenced by personal knowledge, trial and error, reflection on practice and
conversations or dialogues with colleagues, students and other stake holders within
the school system.

Action research would be an ideal exercise for the professional development of

teachers that promotes three basic academic activities:
i) ‘collaborative inquiry’ meaning school teachers and administrators investigating
together in collaboration on school education related issues,
ii) ‘reflection’ that means a continuous thought process by teachers on
understanding their various activities and how they perform in the classrooms,
reflecting on their classroom practices and
iii) ‘dialogue’ where teachers discuss issues with other teacher colleagues and
administrators within the school system and generate a dialogue on school
based issues.
Action research is thus a process that allows collaborative action, reflection on
activities taken up in the school and generating discussion on key issues of concern
that require to be addressed. It prompts us to evaluate our own instructional practices
in the classrooms.

We must make it a point to identify how these practices impact on the comprehending
skills of the children. We can further continue to monitor student learning through
such continuous school and classroom based research. Such simple research and
their findings can be used to reach certain solutions for the existing school/classroom
based problems. Solutions to one problem may not be the end of all problems within
the school system. There could be further problems that come up in the process that
are to be addressed.

Action research is thus a continuous and reflective process where, we teachers

reach at various decisions in favour of our schools and classrooms. Analysis of
findings based on various school/classroom based data help to reach such decisions.
Check Your Progress
Note: a) Write your answer in the space given below.
b) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the unit.
3) Action research is ‘My Research’. Comment.
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33
Teacher as a Professional 14.4.2 Approaches to Action Research
Within the action research process, as teachers we may choose to focus our study
on one learner, a small group of learners, a class, several classes, or a whole school.
The focus and level of participation among school colleagues depends on the level
of support, needs, and interests of the teachers’ and school.

We must have knowledge on what are the various approaches to action research.
Emily Calhoun (1993), described three approaches to action research: individual
teacher action research, collaborative action research, and school-wide action
research. Even though the environments are different, the process of action research
remains the same in all the three approaches. This process uses classroom and
school based data to identify problems, develop a plan of action, collect and analyze
data, use and share the findings, and make instructional decisions to improve student
learning continuously.

Individual teacher action research focuses on studying a problem or issue within

a single classroom. In this kind of approach to research as teachers we engage in
individual research that may or may not have support from our colleagues and our
administration. They may or may not be willing to brainstorm, and discuss the topic
of action research. Although just one teacher may become directly involved in action
research, support from knowledgeable educators at the school or district level is
important for the research to be successful. For example, inability of the learners to
read, to understand certain concepts in mathematics, to comprehend what they
read, and some other issues that are specific to a particular school or classroom.

Collaborative action research focuses on studying a problem or issue within one

or more classrooms. This approach involves more collaboration and asks for teachers
and administrators to work together in studying a particular problem in many different
ways. For example co-teachers in one classroom studying a specific group of
learners (e.g. gender), a team of teachers focusing on a grade level issue (e.g.
transition rates), a teacher and district educational personnel studying a particular
instructional practice, a group of teachers in the same school studying the same
instructional concern, etc.

This collaborative action research approach promotes a joint effort involving more
than one teacher in a specific area of study. Opportunities for sharing and dialogue
are more likely to occur as the issues being researched are a common concern.

School-wide action research is taken up as a school reform initiative. Every

faculty member of the school is involved in studying a specific issue identified from
school based data. This approach requires adequate support from the administrators
and teachers, and the results can lead to school-wide change. Successful school-
wide action research is directly related to initiatives contained within the school
improvement plan. This can be of a more vast nature encompassing various issues
related to school improvement. It could also consider issues not directly related to
the school but has strong impact of related school improvement indicators.

Please refer to the following chart for examples on lead research questions in tune
with the approaches discussed above;

34
 Teacher as Innovator and
Approaches Level of Level of Example of Research Question Action Researcher
Focus Participation

Individual Single Individual 1. What happens to learner’s

classroom teacher understanding of specific arithmetical
concepts when I incorporate
exploratory exercises into the teaching
of arithmetic in my classroom?
2. How can I improve time management
skills to use my class time more
effectively?
3. What happens to learner behaviour in
classroom when I start my class with
a brief mind-relaxing activity?
4. How can I improve my organization
of cooperative group learning to
increase involvement of each
student?
5. How can I increase my instruction in
writing to increase learner’s interest?
Collaborative One or more Head teacher, 1. How can school completion rate at
classrooms Co-Teachers, primary and elementary level be
School increased?
administrators / 2. How can implementing “Peer
Teachers within Tutoring” be an effective method to
a district, etc. reach out to each learner in large
classrooms?
3. How can we construct and use
learner feedback to improve child
learning?
4. How can we improve our ability to
adapt instruction to the needs of
learners with learning disabilities?
5. How can we effectively implement a
more positive behaviour management
plan?
School-Wide School- Whole faculty 1. How can we teach our learners to
Improvement organize,analyze, and interpret what
they read?
2. How can loud model reading improve
learners’ abilities to organize,
analyze,comprehend and interpret
what they read?
3. How can implementing a school-wide
positive behavior support programme
improve learners’ safety and increase
appropriate learner behaviors within
the school?
4. How can learners’ participation be
ensured in the school assembly? Will
this have impact on school
participation?
5. How can exercises of a role play be
used to reduce gender stereotype
among children in the schools?
35
Teacher as a Professional
Activity 4
Identify specific school based issues relating to individual, collaborative and
school wide approaches of action research.

14.5 PRE CONDITIONS FOR TAKING UP ACTION

RESEARCH
Any research will call for objectivity and taking care that ongoing activities within the
unit of study (the school in our case) do not get hampered. One needs to take care
that its functioning does not come to stand still. We also need to ensure that in our
efforts for finding solutions to the existing problems we do not further add to the
existing problems. Therefore as we take up these action research projects we must
strictly maintain certain ethics. The following sections will discuss about certain pre-
conditions for taking up action research that we must follow sincerely.

Qualities for Undertaking an Action Research: There are certain qualities that
we must cultivate within ourselves as teachers when we take up action research.

Though it is regarded as small research, this effort has the ability to provide solutions
for existing school and classroom based problems. We must cultivate the art of
identifying local resources, and make use of these resources to find solution for the
identified problems. This will help in making way for developing and monitoring
changes in the existing teacher learner activities and instructional practices. As
mentioned above there are certain qualities that practitioners of action research must
possess. These include;
i) a deep understanding of the system of education,
ii) an in-depth vision and insight into the school and classroom based activities and
practices,
iii) quest for new knowledge, through seeking solution to existing concerns,
iv) a desire for improved performance in schools and classrooms,
v) self-reflective activity, that include self-criticism and self-analysis, and
vi) willingness to effect changes through constant identificationof issues that require
strengthening.
These are the basic qualities of practitioner of action research and simultaneously
have the capacity to offer other colleagues a better understanding of what happens
within our schools. These qualities of an action researcher help to set up a decision-
making cluster that guides the various levels of school planning exercises, keeping
the school context in mind. This approach then helps to have in place meaningful and
effective school improvement plan that accelerates the school improvement efforts.

Resource Support for Action Research: Identification of local resource for action
research is very important to complete a research project successfully. It is primarily
the responsibility of a school administrator to create the need for action research and
establish a desirable environment for conducting school and classroom based action
research. The administrator can in the process smartly identify potential leaders
within the school system. They could be in the form of a school inspector,a school
principal, a senior teacher or even a new teacher who has the vision to bring positive
36 change in the school system. As school principal and administrators play a major
role in identifying such leaders, they can carve out way for new vision and bring Teacher as Innovator and
Action Researcher
about change in the existing system. The role of the experienced school staff can be
vital as they have the ability to meaningfully extend support to every new initiative.
In case these teachers and staff are not in a position to take up action research
independently they can provide inputs from their past experience. At some point of
time during their experience as teachers or assistants or even general staff they have
made some improvisations or the other. They have taken up such initiatives through
trial and error methods, their efforts and findings may not have seen proper
documentation but the outcomes still remain with a few of them. All these information
could be gathered and not only form a good basis but also guide in designing further
strategies for school improvement. Therefore all experiences must be gathered and
put to use. All small information has something to reveal and throw some light on
designing new strategies. In the process everyone feels they are contributors and
own whatever change is being introduced. Such ownership is crucial for the new
practices to be sustained and further dissemination and up-scaling.

Teacher’s Preparedness for Action Research: As teachers we must realize that

our primary role in the schools is to impart quality teaching learning and we must
not compromise on this time. We must therefore ensure that in the process of taking
up action research we do not reduce the time assigned for quality teaching learning.
There is need for teachers to prepare themselves to take up this task. Let us look
into some of the conditions that we need to keep in mind before taking up any action
research. These conditions may be put down as follows;

Ø Teacher’s primary role is to teach and any additional effort to undertake an

action research must not interfere with or disrupt our commitment;

Ø The method of data collection must be a regular teacher activity so that action
research can become synonymous with teacher’s role in the classroom;

Ø Teachers must remain committed to the identified research problem under study;

Ø The methodology selected must be simple and reliable, which helps us to

formulate a hypotheses (specific questions to an issue or problem) confidently
and also answer such hypotheses;

Ø We must keep in mind certain ethical procedures when carrying out any type
of research and take necessary help from resource persons in the school or
cluster,we must not let our previous views to take over or influence our
currentresearch processes; and

Ø Findings from our research should find sustainability when all members of a
school community build and share a common vision. Therefore we need to
make efforts to generate consensus on school and classroom based issues that
we are trying to research.

It is important to keep in mind certain ethics prior to conducting any kind of

research.

The above mentioned pre-conditions are very crucial and teachers, administrators
and any other school staff interested in taking up action research must internalize
these preconditions. This will help in ensuring that there is a systematic and objective
inquiry,which is not influenced by preconceived ideas or experiences.
37
Teacher as a Professional In the above paragraphs you have understood pre-requisites required to take up
action research and qualities that an action researcher must possess to complete any
such initiative.

Check Your Progress

Note: a) Write your answer in the space given below.
b) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the unit.
4) What are the basic qualities for the practitioners of action research?
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14.6 QUALITY ISSUES IN ACTION RESEARCH

It is always advisable that before taking up any action research it is important to
understand the complete school situation. To work out a situation analysis the following
questions could be of use to the teachers.

School based issues: Take stalk of school and classroom data, what are the
gaps that need to be filled to ensure students learn and are higher achievers
in school?

For example- Does the existing school physical and human resource infrastructure
measure up to the quality infrastructure standards? What are the gaps? How can
these be addressed? Who will you approach to solve the problem? Can you document
all the processes you are following to ensure this?
Do you think you are able to identify gaps in school functioning? Can you
identify these issues and formulate a research proposal for yourself? Under the
given conditions what kind of support, motivation and incentive do you think could
be extended to the teachers to take up action research?
Learner achievement issues: What is it that we need to know, in order to
ensure that our learners achieve their learning goals? What are the specific
learning difficulties among children? How will we know that learners are
achieving their academic and behavioural goals? For example-Why are children
not learning in the classrooms? What instructional practices do not have positive
results on learning? Is there a way to change the current practices? What does
the learner related individual classroom data reflect about learning? Are the teacher’s
instructional practices yielding desired results? Is the organization of children in the
classroom leading to poor achievement among learners? Are there any home based
issues that require to be taken up by teachers? How is the child’s nutrition level
contributing to low achievement levels?, etc.
Classroom environment issues: How does the classroom environment influence
child learning? Do the size of classroom and number of children in the classroom
contribute to learning? Is there any impact of the number of teachers in the
38
classroom on classroom environment? For example -Is the classroom condition Teacher as Innovator and
Action Researcher
up to your satisfaction? Is there enough space for children to sit and do their class
work? Do children feel comfortable and safe in these rooms? Is there enough light
and ventilation in the rooms? Given the current classroom conditions what can
teacher do to make teaching learning more effective? Why do some children not
attend classes regularly? Do classrooms have proper blackboard that children can
see properly and teacher can use to instruct properly? What kind of relationship do
you have with your learners? Can you say that your classroom environment is
friendly?
Teacher training issues: Are the instructional practices in line with what were
taught during your teacher trainings (pre-service or in-service)? Do these
practices have any positive impact on learning? You could ask questions like,
Have you as a teacher gone through any professional development training? Do your
teacher training workshops have adequate activity sessions that takes care of your
classroom situation? Are you able to improvise from the training programmes at the
time of classroom transactions? Were you able to clarify your teaching-learning
difficulties at the teacher training programmes? Do you think teacher training should
include something more?, etc.
Classroom transaction issues: What instructional practices or techniques should
we investigate and research? How are we going to learn about these instructional
practices and ensure their impact on student learning? For example- How
many children attend your class? Do you think you can reach out to each of them?
Do your classroom transactions match with what you were taught at the time of your
in-service training? What will you evaluate during classroom instructions that will
increase your professional learning? Do you have resource support for this kind of
development? How frequently do you make use of TLMs? How frequently do
children use TLMs? Do you organize the class into groups to conduct certain
specific activities? Can children learn better through peer activities? Can these be
integrated with your classroom practices? Do you follow an academic calendar? Is
secondary or seniorsecondary education curriculum is available in the school and
referred by the teachers, etc.
Community based issues: How often have schools involved community members
in developing a school development plan? How can community members involve
themselves for improving schools? For example- As stakeholders can community
contribute to school development in monetary terms? Can the community members
be motivated to participate in assisting or volunteering with teachers in schools?
What will motivate SMC members to participate actively in the school development
plan? How active is the SMC in ensuring regular school attendance of children?
Does the community participate in ensuring a child friendly school environment?
How does the PTA/MTA add value to learner achievement? Can this be further
strengthened?, etc.
Combining quality issues: How will you use the gathered information to make
significant decisions regarding school improvement? Who will you discuss your
findings with? What kind of evaluation will you do with all the data collected on
school and classroom? Who will you work with to develop evaluation tools?
What kind of inference can you draw using all data from various indicators?, etc.
The above questions will enlighten the teacher and education administrators on what
to focus on or what school related issues could be of concern against the existing
situation. 39
Teacher as a Professional The above paragraphs have furnished us with information on how to focus on quality
issues relating to elementary education prior to taking up action research. You have
also learnt how to identify issues relating to your school and classroom for action
research.

Activity 5
Enlist the school based indicators to work out a ‘situation analysis’ of your
school.

14.7 STEPS INVOLVED IN ACTION RESEARCH

As your pre-research exercise, you have the school based situation analysis available
with us. With the help of this unit, it will be more convenient for you to point out
areas where the school requires strengthening. Once the pre-research stage is over,
you can move on to actually identifying school or classroom related problems and
working out their solutions. In this section of the unit, we will gather information on
the various steps involved in initiating and completing an action research project.

14.7.1. Step One: Identifying the Problem - as the first step we need to identify
an issue and begin to formulate questions for which we are looking for solutions. As
the first step to action research, we will choose something that is important to us as
a teacher: for example, we can look at some of our own teaching methods or at the
way students learn. We can begin with a simple and manageable project that can
be handled. We need to keep in mind that it is not possible to change everything
at the same time. We only need to begin somewhere so that others start thinking on
initiating their ideas to address the issue of their concern. Improvement can begin in
small measures, taking one problem at a time and finding a solution for it.

We can also start off with a question, like “Why do the learners not respond to my
mathematics class?” Think about how you can undertake such a problem.

You may ask yourself whether all the learners are not responding or a few? For
example “What happens when I am teaching a particular concept?” Identify this
concept that is bothering you and your learners are not responding on. The concept
in question will be related to which grade learners are we referring to? We have to
understand whether it is the learners who fail to respond in the entire school or only
a part of it? Thus we need to define how big or small the problem is i.e. an
understanding on the magnitude of the problem. The solution we look for will be
based on this understanding.

14.7.2. Step Two: Reference Work - once the problem has been identified it will
call for some reference work. This will be the second step of the action research.
We require finding out more about our problem and the various ways in which it has
been addressed in the past. For example we must find out the‘mathematics concept’
to which the learners have not been responding. We need to know how learners’
have responded to the same concept in other schools and classrooms. We need to
find out if there is an inherent problem in transacting such concept. We need to read,
discuss, and think over it and try to identify what will work in our context.
There is a need to involve more school teachers in the project and talk to them
about our concerns and find out their opinion on the issue. We can take their
40
suggestions and further go on to refer to books and journals, and also find out if Teacher as Innovator and
Action Researcher
there are some other studies available on our topic of concern. We must explore
with as much as we can, as this will provide us with greater clarity on our initiative.
As we move on with our reference work we must not lose focus. We must try and
bring in local resource persons who can provide inputs on where to limit ourselves.
We may have to revisit our question and make changes wherever required maintaining
alignment with our major issue of concern. If the need arises, we can change our
direction and work on something more relevant and manageable. Action research
provides a lot of flexibility and that allows us to be sure about what we are about
to do.
14.7.3. Step Three: Initiating Action - After all the reference works, discussions
and exchanging ideas it is likely that we will come up with newer ideas. On the basis
of these new ideas we will make changes and try out what seems appropriate for
our school or classroom. These ideas will generally be influenced by what we have
gathered from others experiences and other studies. We must try out these ideas in
the classroom. For example we try and teach the “mathematics concept”using a
different TLM, or using a different method. Next we need to find out if children are
engaging with this new form of teaching–learning. Have we been successful in making
learners respond to the new form of teaching? Are the learners responding?
14.7.4. Step Four: Collection of Data - At this point we will face the challenge
of how to measure the results? This is where we will make use of wide variety of
data collection methods. Depending on the kind of research we need to carefully
identify our data collection method. It could call for designing questionnaire schedules
for interviews, work out an observation format, and develop formats for recording
various focus group discussions or simple discussions and any other evaluation
methods like a case study. We need to ensure that our research must be systematic
and rigorous so that our work gains credibility.
14.7.5. Step Five: Evaluation and Analysis - once the project has taken off, at
every step we have to evaluate and reflect on the responses we start receiving on
the new ideas introduced in the classroom. We must gather all the data on some
simple formats and analyse them. With concurrent evaluation and regular reflection
we can find out if our intervention is feasible and is making the desired change or
not? We can involve resource persons like BRC/CRC coordinators,school principals
who have an understanding on our problem and their opinion will make some value
addition to our effort. Their inputs can prove a different perspective that we have
been over looking and is important for us to consider.
The more people we can take along with us will help us generate greater consensus
on the research findings and easier for us to disseminate if established. Contribution
from them on the final report will bring them together to take up further research.

14.7.6. Step Six: Drawing Findings – once we are ready with the findings that
suggest solutions to the existing problems we need to implement this as part of our
classroom practice. We need to ensure that the solution has helped to improve or
amend our previous practice. We are now able to do things differently in the
classroom. We need to question ourselves that have we learned from the project.

We need to keep in mind that action research is empowering – it allows us to

change our ways of classroom transactions. We can continue to make changes all
the time, and continue to grow as a professional.
41
Teacher as a Professional We need to ask ourselves that have the questions to our concerns been answered.
As we worked towards one concern did we come across other issues that require
our attention? Did we expect what we actually found? How are we going to share
our results with the others in the education system? We further need to consider
whether these findings are useful to the others in our school/community? We need
to present our findings to others – we can give a talk, make presentations at state
level meetings on our initiative and how it hashelped the students and teachers.

We have to convey that the changes happened because we altered the existing
practice. We must observe if we have been able to evolve as higher level professionals,
and have induced a different set of relationships within the school and classrooms,
teacher to teacher and also teacher to students.

14.7.7. Step Seven: Document our Findings – Since action research is a cyclical
process and continues from where it ends we cannot stop with drawing our
conclusions. You must also share with our colleagues what you found through your
research. We must therefore ensure that we have documented each step of our
research. We can further prepare a full-fledged study report and send to district and
the state level stakeholders to get their feedback. The report could be further
circulated for dissemination and up-scaling wherever feasible. The specific
requirements of the report will differ depending on what you’ve done; however, all
of the reports have a few things in common. Format for reporting an action research
is discussed in the next section.

Check Your Progress

Note: a) Write your answer in the space given below.
b) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the unit.
5) What is the process of identifying an action research problem?
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6) How will you draw findings from your action research and disseminate them?
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 Teacher as Innovator and
14.8 FORMAT FOR DOCUMENTING YOUR ACTION Action Researcher

RESEARCH
After completing the research, documenting all the findings is a challenging task. It
is expected that this document will be shared at different platforms. Therefore it must
be systematically and clearly documented. Following is a format that we could
follow to document the entire action research.

Introduction: this section of the report will include;

• An overview the research project that will include the research topic, the reasons
for undertaking the research, a background to the area of research,and how do
you think this will improve your classroom or school situation.
• Narrate how you identified your research question and how you involved other
school administrators, teachers and staff in framing this question.

Objectives: Mention what were the objectives of your research

Research plan: While documenting the research plan we will include,
• Elaborate on the school context, here we can bring out certain findings from the
situation analysis that helped in identifying our current area of inquiry.
• Description of what we wanted to do and why we identified it. How relevant
was it to our school context and how will it make difference in augmenting the
quality of our school.
• The research approach and model that have been used in the process of action
research. How will this approach and model facilitate our research?

Sample and Methodology: Provide a simple note on the research sample (if any),
• Why this sample is of concern to you, how will focusing on this sample help
in quality improvement of your school.
• Mention the types of data collection techniques that have been used to gather
all the required information.
• The process used to take up the analysis and who are the persons involved at
the time of analysis.
Findings:
• Your key findings
• Discussion of your findings in terms of the research question
Conclusion
• Draw conclusions on the findings.
• Reflect on how our findings will contribute to a change in educational practices
for us, our colleagues and our school.
• Consider how your findings will influence the next cycle of action research.
In this section we have understood why it is important to have a systematic and
articulate documentation of each step of our action research project. We have also
understood the different heads under which we can document the entire action
research project.
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Teacher as a Professional
Activity 6
a) Identify five topics which you find suitable for action research.
b) Choose a topic for action research and give detailed account of the tasks
to be done at each step in an action research proposal.

14.9 LET US SUM UP

We have observed that innovation and action research are two activities supposed
to be executed by the teachers with common aim to improve the practice and
situation of the practice. Both resulted in observed changes. More often innovation
is brought through the process of action research. It is clear from our discussion that
innovations are sometime subjective and action research is an objective process.
Thus to make innovations valid, durable (long lasting) and goal achieving, it become
essential that innovations should be supported by researches, especially action
researches. After going through this unit it is clear to us the goal of innovation and
action research process is similar. As teachers are required to improve their practices
regularly so it is beyond any doubt that teachers by their professional requirement
are constant action researchers and innovators.

This unit will help you to plan out your action research project. We have also tried
to identify the different issues concerning quality improvement of schools and
classrooms, and have tried to understand the feasibility of conducting action research
on those issues. Findings emerging from the action research can be shared at different
platforms with feasibility for replication wherever possible.

14.10 UNIT END EXERCISES

1) What is innovation? How do you find the teachers as innovators?
2) Define the term innovation and write its characteristics. What do you observe
as innovative practices in education?
3) Why teacher should be action researcher? Write the characteristics of action
research.
4) What is action research and explain different types of action research? Describe
in detail the process of action research.

14.11 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

1) Product, Process and Paradigm (Suggest examples based on your experiences).
2) Reflect based on your understanding after reading the section on innovation.
3) Action research is a continuous and reflective process where a teacher reaches
at various decisions in favour of his/her schools and classrooms. An action
researcher is primarily a teacher who solves his/her day-to-day teaching learning
problems.
4) Following are the qualities required:
i) a deep understanding of the system of education,
ii) an in-depth vision and insight into the school and classroom based activities
and practices,
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 iii) quest for new knowledge, through seeking solution to existing concerns, Teacher as Innovator and
Action Researcher
iv) a desire for improved performance in schools and classrooms,
v) self-reflective activity, that include self-criticism and self-analysis and
vi) Willingness to effect changes through constant identification of issues that
require strengthening.
5) & 6)Answer yourself after reading section 14.7

14.12 SUGGESTED READINGS AND REFERENCES

• Kalam, A.P.J. (2010). Indomitable spirit. Rajpal and Sons : New Delhi.
• Calhoun, E.( 2002). Action research for school improvement. Educational
• DEP-SSA. (2013). Ensuring quality education through action research,
Block-3, Enhancing School Quality through Research and Innovations. New
Delhi: IGNOU
• Kirkland, K., &Sutch, Dan. (2009). Overcoming the barriers to educational
innovations: A literature review. Retrieved from www. futurelab.org.uk on 9/
11/2013.
• Kostoff, R. N.(2003). Stimulating innovation. In L.V Shavininia (ed.) The
International Handbook on Innovation. Pergamon: London pp 388-400.
Leadership. 59(60). 18-24.
• Mills,G.(2003). Action research: A guide for the teacher researcher (2nded).
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/ Prentice Hall.
• Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD, 1986): National Policy
on Education. New Delhi: Govt. of India.
• Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD, 1992): Programme of
Action. New Delhi: Govt. of India.
• Mitchell, J.M.( 2003). Emerging futures: Innovation in teaching and learning
in VET.ANTA Melbourn.
• NCERT. (2005). National curriculum framework, 2005. New Delhi: NCERT.
• Sabharwal, N., & Pandey, S. (1998). Innovation: concept and need. In self
learning material for teacher educators. Vol II.. G.L.Arora & R.K.Chopra
(Eds). New Delhi: NCERT.
• Suter, W.N. (2006). Introduction to educational research: A critical thinking
approach. Thousand Oaks, CA:Sage.

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Teacher as a Professional
UNIT 15 TEACHERS AS REFLECTIVE
PRACTITIONER

Structure
15.1 Introduction
15.2 Objectives
15.3 Concept of Reflection
15.4 Different Perspectives on Reflection
15.4.1 Dewey on Reflection
15.4.2 Reflection as Three Level Progression
15.4.3 Tri Layered Reflective Thinking Model
15.5 Approaches to Reflective Thinking
15.5.1 Cognitive Approach
15.5.2 Critical Pedagogy Approach
15.5.3 Narrative Approach
15.6 Techniques of Promoting Reflection
15.6.1 Teacher Narratives
15.6.2 Reflective Journals
15.6.3 Discussions
15.6.4 Cooperative Learning
15.6.5 Role Play
15.7 Let Us Sum Up
15.8 Unit End Exercises
15.9 Answers to Check Your Progress
15.10 Suggested Readings and References

15.1 INTRODUCTION
An important aspect of becoming a teacher involves beginning to think like teacher,
and be aware of their practices so that the knowledge developed through the
experiences of teaching and learning may be utilized to improve future practice.
Reflection is one of the crucial aspects of teaching -learning process that helps the
teachers to analyse their own practices and improve upon them. In fact reflecting on
different aspects of teaching is fairly instinctive for most of the teachers. We all try
to evaluate our teaching, especially, when faced with a dilemma related to a particular
session and try to work out on the changes required for the next session. Reflection
is gradually becoming a basic necessity in teacher education programme throughout
the world (Hatton & Smith, 1995). The year 1975 witnessed a visible shift towards
the perception of teachers from decision makers to reflective professionals who
construct meaning (Clark, 1986; Schon, 1983). Over the years that followed,
reflection was considered as generic component of good teaching. So what is
reflection and what are the methods that promote reflection among student teachers?
In this unit, we will discuss the concept, approaches and methods of reflection and
reflective techniques.

15.2 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you will be able to:
• understand the concept of reflection;
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• analyze different models of reflective thinking; Teacher as a Reflective
Practitioner
• identify the appropriate approach to reflective thinking; and
• apply various techniques for promoting reflection.

15.3 CONCEPT OF REFLECTION

Reflection is part of our day- to-day life. In scientific terms, reflection occurs when
light changes direction as a result of bouncing off a surface. We see our image in
the mirror as a result of this reflection. When this principle is applied to the thinking
process, we reflect on a range of problems and situations every day. We don’t
follow any particular formula for this, and it just happens as feelings, thoughts, and
emotions about something gradually surface. As a result of analysis of various aspects
of a problem or situation we decide our course of action. Reflection is thus a
process in which an experience is recalled, considered and evaluated in relation
to some broad purpose. It is a response to past experience and includes examination
of past experiences for evaluation and decision making in search of new meaning
and interpretation.
The terms reflection and reflective thinking, however, include a wide range of concepts
and strategies. Plato, Aristotle, Confucius, Solomon and Buddha followed reflective
practices, but, Dewey can be said to be the originator of this term in the 20th
century, though the term took very different shape later on due to unfolding of the
mystery of this term by researchers and thinkers.The earliest work in the area of
reflection undertaken by Dewey (1916) provided a foundation for many current
theories.
Reflection is defined by Boud, Keough and Walker (1985) as “those intellectual
and affective activities in which individuals engage to explore their experiences
in order to lead to new understandings and appreciations” (p.19). Reid (1993)
considered it as an active process of “reviewing an experience of practice in
order to describe, analyze, evaluate and so inform learning about practice.”
(p.3)
We may summarise that reflection is a process whereby the learner recalls and
analyses his/her own experiences to arrive at some informed decisions. It is a
process of thinking whereby we consciously think about something to clarify our
understanding about it. It includes noting the relationship between things, and analyzing
and synthesizing the relationships. In other sense reflection may be considered as a
means of developing better understanding about oneself and for others. Reflection
leads to the process of reflective thinking which may be defined as the act of thinking
rationally or critically.
Check Your Progress
Note: a) Write your answer in the space given below.
b) Compare your answer with those given at the end of the unit.
1) What do you understand by the term ‘reflection’?
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Teacher as a Professional
15.4 DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES ON
REFLECTION
Let us now have some discussion on how reflection has been perceived and defined
by various thinkers.

15.4.1 Dewey on Reflection

Dewey (1933) defined reflection as a specialized form of thinking which originates
from the need to solve a problem and involves ‘the active, persistent and careful
consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the
grounds that support it.’ He proposed five step model of problem solving which
included posing questions, hypothesizing, reasoning, testing and suggesting solutions.
He referred reflection as a process of critical inquiry that is systematic, rigorous, and
disciplined way of thinking. According to Dewey the process of reflection for teachers
begins when they experience any problem, or difficulty which cannot be immediately
resolved. This motivates teachers to analyze their experiences and seek solutions.
For Dewey reflective thinking is distinctively intellectual and is better way of thinking
because it ‘emancipates us from being merely impulsive and following routine activity’.
Reflective thinking provides foresight to direct our activities with end in view or
purpose of which we are aware. For Dewey reflection alone enables us to know
‘what we are about’ (p.14). Dewey emphasized critical reflectivity. According to him
one can think reflectively only when one is willing to ‘endure suspense and undergo
the trouble of searching’. To be critically reflective thinker one must be willing and
able to sustain and protect the state of doubt which is the stimulus to thorough
enquiry so as not to accept an idea or make positive assertion of a belief until
justifying reasons have been found.(p.19)
According to Dewey, ‘one’s character or attitude is essential feature of a truly
reflective person’ (p.20). The pre requisite attitudes that are to be cultivated among
trainee teachers and teachers for promoting reflective thinking are open mindedness,
whole- heartedness, and responsibility. The term Open mindedness suggests
willingness of individual to give attention to alternative views and be rational.
Responsibility implies the desire to actively search for truth and apply obtained
information to problematic situations. Wholeheartedness implies sincerity, and
conviction on what one believes. It ensures overcoming uncertainty, fear and critically
evaluating oneself, children, schools and society. Dewey makes an important distinction
between routine action and reflection. Reflection implies that something is believed
in or disbelieved because of some evidence, proof or grounds for that belief. It is
an active and deliberative cognitive process involving sequences of interconnected
ideas which take into account underlying beliefs and knowledge. Reflective thinking
addresses practical problems, allowing enough scope for doubts, reservations and
confusions before possible solutions are reached.
Reflective thinking may, therefore, be summarized as making informed and logical
decisions on educational matters and then assessing the consequences of those
decisions. It is a process that involves more than rational and logical problem solving
efforts. It also involves intuition, emotion and passion etc. It is performative since the
act of reflection can result in some improvement in practice (Biggs, 1999). It may
be expected that it leads to some action and change which is a presumptive feature
of reflection. Reflective practice involves an objective analysis of the evidence on
competing versions of events. Rodgers ( 2002. P 845) summarized Dewey’s four
48 criteria of reflection as follows:
• Reflection is a meaning making process that moves the learner from one Teacher as a Reflective
Practitioner
experience into the next with deeper understanding of its relationship and
connections with other experiences and ideas.
• It is systematic, rigorous and disciplined way of thinking with its roots in scientific
inquiry.
• It needs to happen in community, in interaction with others.
• Requires attitude that values personal and intellectual growth of oneself and
others.

15.4.2 Reflection as Three Level Progression

Van Manen (1977) has described the concept of reflection as ‘a progression involving
three different levels- technical, practical and critical’. The technical level concerns
with the efficiency and effectiveness of the means used to achieve the objectives,
which are not open to criticism or modification. In teaching learning situation, it
relates to effective application of skills and technical knowledge in the classroom
setting. Here reflection is confined to analyzing the effect of strategies used.

Practical reflection is concerned with the assessment of educational goals and

how they are achieved by the learners. It allows for open examination of goals,
means and assumptions upon which these are based. This stage, therefore, involves
reflection about the assumptions underlying a specific classroom practice as well as
the consequences of that practice on student learning.

Critical reflection concerns with the worth of the educational goals. It also relates
to the assessment that how well these goals are achieved and who is being benefitted
from the successful accomplishment of those goals. This stage entails questioning the
moral and ethical dimensions of decisions made. At this level of reflection teachers
make connections between situations they encounter and the broader social, political
and economic forces that influence those events.
While the thought of Dewey is of immense importance in clarifying the process and
procedure of reflective thinking, as well as the attitudes necessary for critically
reflective individuals, Max Van Manen’s levels of reflection are crucial for focusing
on the objects of reflection as a way to clarify the concept of critical reflection.
Donald Schon, in 1987, introduced the concept of ‘reflective practice’ to define
reflective thinking. According to Schon reflective practice involves thoughtfully
considering one’s own experiences in applying knowledge to practice while being
coached by professionals in a discipline. Schon’s (1987) notion of reflection
encompasses three different modes of reflection not necessarily developmental in
nature. These modes are reflection- on- action; reflection –in-action; and
reflection for action. According to Schon (1983.1987) reflective practioners reflect
in and reflect on action.
Reflection-in-action, according to Schon (1983), involves looking into professional’s
experiences, connecting with their feelings, and attending to relevant theories in use.
It refers to the process of decision making by teachers whilst actively engaged in
teaching. In other words, the teacher uses his/her accumulated experience and
knowledge to seek alternatives in the classroom in response to the needs of learners.
Instead of randomly using any approach. Schon has described three principal features
of reflection-in-action: First, Reflection-in-action is a conscious effort. The teacher
(professional) makes conscious attempts to experience the confusion in a situation
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Teacher as a Professional of learning which he/she finds uncertain or unique. Thereby he/she carries out
experiments, the outcome of which facilitate generation of new understanding of
phenomenon and a change in the teaching learning situation( Schon;1983.68). Second,
reflection-in-action has a critical function, questioning the structure of knowledge-in-
action. This promotes deeper understanding of the context and provides opportunity
for critical thinking for teachers. Reflection-in-action focuses upon the identification
and rapid solution of an immediately pressing problem.

In this context, Schon has used a number of terms such as tacit knowledge, knowledge
–in–action; and reflection-in-action. Tacit knowledge, according to Schon, is the
knowledge that we have when we are doing something automatically and intuitively.
This does not require thinking about or systematic analysis of features. For example,
once a person has acquired the skill of driving and learnt the rules of road driving,
driving becomes automatic and intuitive. He/she drives without thinking about it so
this knowledge is ‘unspoken’ or ‘tacit’.

Knowledge-in-action is derived from the idea of tacit knowledge. It refers to the

kinds of knowledge we can only reveal in the way we carry out tasks and approach
problems. This tacit knowledge is derived from research, and also from the
practitioner’s own reflections and experiences.

Reflection-in-action is, about challenging our assumptions (because Knowledge-

in-action forms the basis of our assumptions). It focuses on identification and rapid
solution of immediate problem. It is about thinking again in a new way about the
problem we have encountered. Reflection-in-action in that sense has a critical function
as it questions the structure of Knowledge-in-action, which promotes deeper
understanding of the context and critical thinking.

Reflection- on- action occurs outside of the practice which is the subject of
reflection. This is critical analysis and evaluation of the action and reflecting on what
might have happened if a different course of action had taken place. Schon introduced
the concept of reflection–on-action as a retrospective process whereby the student
or teacher looks back at an incident and analyses what he/she can learn from it.
Through this process the learner/ teacher may decide to modify an action or go
ahead with the predetermined set of action. It, therefore, refers to both cognitive and
meta cognitive thinking about the task once it has been accomplished. In teaching
learning situation teacher may carefully review their action during the instructional
process. It is more systematic process of deliberation enabling analysis, reconstruction
and reframing in order to plan for further teaching and learning. Unlike Reflection-
in-action it is not necessarily carried out in isolation from other professionals.

In Reflection-for-action context, actions are influenced by evidence based practice

and structured through the use of a personal development plan. Reflection –on-
action is reflection on one’s actions and thoughts after an action is completed; while
reflection-in-action is a spontaneous reflection in the midst of action. Reflection-for-
action, on the other hand is the desired outcome for the first two types of reflection.
It ensures responsibility and accountability for the decisions that teacher makes.

Though Schon has tried to explain reflective thinking with the help of Reflection–in-
action, Reflection–on-action, and Reflection–for-action, these are interrelated and
not isolated concepts. Schon’s contributions are significant as they contributed to the
understanding of reflection in the development of professional practice. He argued
that professionals in their day- to- day practice face unique and complex situations
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that cannot be resolved through the technical-rational model alone. Through the Teacher as a Reflective
Practitioner
process of reflection in action and reflection on action, solutions of these complex
situations can be obtained.

15.4.3 Tri-Layered Reflective Thinking Model

It is clear from the description of the concept of reflection that it is a process of
thinking whereby the individual makes informed choices. There are differences
among various scholars over the hierarchical nature of reflective thinking but some
models of reflective thinking are widely accepted which have been mentioned in the
previous section of this unit. Van Manen, Taggart and Wilson (1998) developed a
pyramid model of reflection having three levels; these include technical, contextual
and dialectic.

Dialectic

Contextual

Technical

Fig. 15.1: Pyramid Model of Reflective Thinking

Technical Reflection
This is considered to be the first level of reflective thinking by Van Manen (1977).
At this level, educational knowledge and basic curriculum principles are approached
through ‘how to’ questions. This reflection includes:
• Simple description of observations.
• Focus on behavior, content, skills from past experiences or theories derived
from readings or course work.
• Task oriented view of teaching competencies as meeting a set of objectives.
• Use of appropriate educational vocabulary.
Teachers can address curriculum, instruction, as well as diagnostic and control issues
through this mode of thinking.

Contextual Reflection
This level involves reflection regarding underlying assumptions and predisposition in
classroom practice. It deals with pedagogical issues and the non problematic level
of technical reflection. Problems at this level motivate teachers to reflect on the
contextual situation that may lead to understanding concepts, contexts, and theoretical
bases for classroom practice. This stage includes:
• Reflection on the practices that affect learning.
• Reflection on the context of the problem.
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Teacher as a Professional • Reflection on relating theory to practice.
• Reflection on various alternatives.
The contextual reflection deals with the pedagogical issues and relationship between
theory and practice. An outcome for practitioner reflecting at this level may be
context understanding with theoretical bases for classroom practices, then implementing
those practices and articulating their relevance to students’ growth.

Dialectical Reflection
This type of reflection deals with questioning of ethical and moral issues related
directly or indirectly to the teaching practice. At this stage the practitioner reflects
on the worth of knowledge and social circumstances useful to students without any
bias. It is the highest level of reflection that helps the practioner to make informed
choices and view events with open mindedness. The practitioner analyses knowledge
system and theories in context and in relation to one another; critically examines
underlying assumptions, norms and rules; practices introspection, open mindedness
and intellectual responsibility (Dewey.1933); and questions ethical and moral issues
of teaching, instructional planning and implementation. All these are components of
high level of reflection and found at dialectic level.
Dialectic reflection, therefore, includes:
• Systematically questioning practices.
• Suggest alternatives and competing theories.
• Reflect on decisions and consequences during the course of action.
• Bring moral, ethical, and socio-political issues for discussion.
Such type of reflection may be facilitated through analyzing stereotypes and biases
through narratives and storytelling, practicing affective elements of caring and concern
and reflecting on the role of school climate and society on education.

15.5 APPROACHES TO REFLECTIVE THINKING

Literature on reflective thinking describes three general approaches in the context of
teachers’ reflective thinking- Cognitive, Critical and Narrative approach. The cognitive
approach relates to teachers’ information processing and decision making; while the
critical approach has its roots in ethical and moral reasoning. Narrative approach
refers teachers telling their own stories (narratives) through problem framing, case
studies and naturalistic inquiry etc.

15.5.1 Cognitive Approach

This approach focuses on teacher knowledge and decision making process. Shulman
(1987) has identified six categories of knowledge; content, pedagogy, curriculum,
characteristics of learners, context and educational purposes, ends and aims. Later
on Shulman added a seventh category of teacher knowledge i.e. pedagogical content
knowledge which encompasses the first three categories and refers how teachers
portray important ideas specific to their content. The cognitive approach emphasizes
how knowledge base is organized into networks of related facts, concepts,
generalizations and experiences. These organized structures called ‘Schemata’,
constitute the individual’s comprehension of the world. Research findings indicate
that the development of schemata is related to the experience of teachers and
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consequently the experienced teachers have more developed schema than the novice Teacher as a Reflective
Practitioner
teachers. These schema are, therefore, constructed through experiences of teachers
with the help of the process of assimilation and accommodation.

15.5.2 Critical Pedagogy Approach

This approach considers knowledge as socially constructed. This knowledge is
influenced and determined by the local culture, context and customs (NCF, 2005).
While the cognitive approach emphasizes how teachers make decisions, the critical
approach stresses ‘what’ of those decisions by examining the experiences, values
and goals of teachers in terms of their sociopolitical implications. Critical approach
is often considered in terms of critical pedagogy. Mc Laren (1989) stated that “
critical pedagogy attempts to provide teachers and researchers with a better means
of understanding the role that schools actually play within a race, class and gender
divided society”(p163). NCF 2005 has explained it as “ a pedagogy that is sensitive
to gender, class, caste and global inequalities is one that is not merely affirm different
individual and collective experiences but also locate these within larger structure of
power and raises questions such as , who is allowed to speak for whom? Whose
knowledge is most valued? This requires different strategies for different learners.
For example, encouraging speaking up in class may be important for some children,
while for others it may be learning to listen to others” (p 24). Teachers therefore
need to visualize teaching as a process of inquiry and think about the long term effect
of the techniques adopted for teaching on students’ values and perceptions.

15.5.3 Narrative Approach

According to Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1990) “what is missing from the knowledge
base of teaching….. are the voices of teachers themselves, the questions teachers
ask, the way teachers use writing and intentional talk in their work life and interpretative
frames teachers use to understand and improve their own classroom practices”
(p.2). This approach emphasizes teachers’ own descriptions of the personal
circumstances under which they make decisions. Teachers create their own
pedagogical principles as they describe, analyze, and make inferences about classroom
events. The information gained from this experience is often tacit and difficult to
analyze.
Check Your Progress
Note: a) Write your answer in the space given below.
b) Compare your answer with those given at the end of the unit.
2) What is the difference between reflection- in – action and reflection-on-action?
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3) Describe the steps of tri-layer reflective thinking model.
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Teacher as a Professional
15.6 TECHNIQUES OF PROMOTING REFLECTION
Developing reflection among prospective teachers call for developing a disposition,
whereby, they are motivated for a change within. Pollard et.al (2005) have described
that ‘ reflective teaching implies an active concern with aims and consequences as
well as means and technical competence’(2005:15). The central objective of reflective
teacher education is to develop reasoning among student teachers on why a particular
teaching method should be employed and how they can improve their teaching to
have positive impact on learners. This process of change can be encouraged and
facilitated by teacher educators through various means. In order to promote reflection
the teacher educator should:
1) Help student teacher to become aware of his/her learning needs.
2) Offer student teachers multiple perspectives of issue under consideration;
3) Facilitate student teachers in finding useful experiences;
4) Help student teachers to reflect on these experiences in detail.
By reflecting on their past experiences the trainee teachers may become conscious
of their learning needs, and by formulating learning needs they often become aware
of necessary learning situations. In our school experience programmes we have the
provision of supervisor’s feedback and post teaching discussion which is usually
utilized as a routine affair providing little opportunity to trainee teachers for reflection
and further improvement or either not utilized at all. Discussions with mentor or
supervisor after practice teaching may be crucial source to enable trainee teachers
reflect on their own experiences. Here technology could play important role and
audio or video recording of at least few lessons of trainee teachers may serve as
mirror of reflection for them. Such recording offers an opportunity to replay certain
important events of classroom practice and facilitate trainee teacher to analyze
problems and achievements of his/her classroom practice.

Now the question arises how can the teacher educator promote reflection when
working with large group of trainee teachers? Reflective thinking may be promoted
among teachers in many different ways, such as teacher narratives, maintaining
reflective journals, thinking aloud, discussions, collaborative group works, action
research, role play, brainstorming, buzz groups, and questioning etc. Amongst these
techniques, questioning is perhaps one of the oldest techniques that facilitates learners
and teachers to meaningfully reflect on various aspects of issues under discussion
which is otherwise ignored, assists learners in identification of issues, helps in value
clarification and facilitates in development of deep insight into the problem etc.

15.6.1 Teacher Narratives

The narrative reflection is directed to understanding human action and focuses on
particular and special characteristics of each action. Narrative has been considered
as a mode of thinking (Bruner, 1996), and particularly valuable for presenting the
richness of human experience. Through narratives human being play an active role
in their knowledge construction. Teachers’ own narratives (or autobiographies) on
their experiences in the classroom are significant in developing reflection. Ershler
(2001) accepts that one of the important learning models is to reflect on one’s own
experiences. One way of collecting ‘data’ about one’s own experiences is by writing
about daily experiences in the classroom. However this reflection is not in a
disorganized manner; Ershler has described the methodology of narrative reflection.
54
To begin with the trainee teacher may be asked to describe different events or Teacher as a Reflective
Practitioner
instances of his/her teaching practice. These experiences are shared with their peers
who are part of learning group. In the next step, these narratives are discussed with
the group members at length. Usually the teacher focuses on specific event that is
being narrated and then effort is made to establish connections and observe the
isolated event within a larger context. By listening to the experiences of others, the
trainee teachers can live some experiences ,while the narrators get an opportunity
to ‘step outside’ of their own personal experiences and analyze themselves as any
other teacher in a particular teaching learning situation. It helps them to see clearly
their own strengths and weaknesses more objectively and improve accordingly.
Narratives, by nature are social and rational and cannot be separated from the
socio- cultural context in which they emerge. According to Syrjala and Estola (1999),
narratives help pre-service teachers to connect their past, present and future selves
with the hope of nurturing and strengthening their teaching voices (p8).

15.6.2 Reflective Journals

In the context of reflective teaching the concept of reflective journal writing has
acquired a prominent place. So what is journal/ reflective journal? It is a means of
communication and conversation with oneself and the material, tutors, and peers,
and helps to develop critical thinking, provides feedback and a platform to synthesis
one’s ideas and knowledge. Reflective journal, like the diary records experiences
and events over a period of time. It provides a opportunity for trainee teachers to
reflect on their own classroom behavior as well as other minor incidents of their
School Experience Programme( SEP). Reflective journals are important tools for
helping trainee teachers to better understand their pedagogical reasoning in relation
to teaching and learning experiences. Journal writing helps them to:
• reflect on and develop insight into the purpose of school experiences
programmes.
• highlight critical issues that may not have been considered by them at the time
of the class;
• Reflect on one’s own strengths and weaknesses.
Reflective journal, therefore, is simply not the summary of the course material,
instead it is focused more on the reaction and introspection of trainee teachers on
what they have learnt, seen, observed and experienced. It helps trainee teachers to
become aware of the gaps in their knowledge and skills, and provides feedback, as
well as future directions based of one’s experiences. There is no single way of
writing a journal and that can be evolved in numerous ways and the entries in the
reflective journal may include:
• Brief summary of lecture, practice teaching, lab activity, group discussion, or
reading material etc.
• Reflect upon these activities record your own thoughts, ideas, responses, and
reactions to these.
• Make note of the concepts, and questions and confusions which are coming in
your mind.
• Important events of school experience/internship;
• Explore possible solution to problems being raised in the classroom.
• Record new insights and problem solving strategies in a creative and innovative
way. 55
Teacher as a Professional • Some thoughts that are not fully conceptualized and need further clarification.
Learning can be augmented when trainee teachers are encouraged to reflect on
learning event and use their own judgment about the content and process of learning.
It reinforces reflection- in- action as the trainee teachers develop better understanding
of integration between theory and practice. It also develops self awareness or meta
cognition, orientation towards open-mindedness, and willingness to accept
responsibility for self-directed learning besides developing a keen sense of observation,
critical thinking, and reasoned analysis. Some of the useful phrases of reflective
writing include I think…I felt…I was aware…I now think…I was uncomfortable
about… and looking back, etc.

Activity 1
Being a trainee-teacher you will go for internship in a secondary/senior secondary
school during first year of B.Ed. Programme. You should prepare a reflective
journal during the internship and submit it during workshop at your programme
Study center.

15.6.3 Discussions
Discussion is the basic teaching tool where the teacher tries to create understanding
by providing opportunity to student teachers for exchanging information, opinions,
or experiences while working towards a common goal. The facilitator (teacher
educator) observes and encourages group discussion without being directly involved.
One of the approaches in discussion that is useful in developing reflective thinking
among learners is Brainstorming which helps the trainee teachers to freely share
their views and encourage uninhabited participation of learners.

15.6.4 Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning is a set of teaching strategies used to help learners achieve
specific learning and interpersonal goals in structured groups (Kauchak & Eggen,
1998). Cooperative learning can improve individual’s achievement more than the
traditional approaches of instruction, if implemented effectively, which also ensures
high learner motivation, active involvement and more time on various tasks. However,
in order to be effective it has to be well planned and systematically executed by the
teacher. We can not ensure learning just by dividing learners in various groups and
assigning them some tasks to accomplish. There are very specific methods to ensure
the success of group work. In cooperative group every learner has a specific task
and every one is involved in learning. The essential components of cooperation are
positive interdependence, face-to-face interaction, individual and group accountability,
interpersonal and small group skills and group processing (Johnson, Johnson,
&Holubec,1993). Therefore it is essential to judiciously structure these elements in
cooperative group work to ensure learning. To be effective cooperative learning
must include group goals, individual accountability, and equal opportunity for success.
Cooperative learning technique has following advantages:
• It promotes learning and academic achievement among learners.
• It increases learner retention
• It enhances learner satisfaction with their learning experience
• It helps learners develop skills in oral communication
56
• It develops learners’ social skills Teacher as a Reflective
Practitioner
• It promotes learners’ self-esteem
• It helps to promote positive relations

15.6.5 Role Play

The use of Role play as an educational or training technique is part of reflective
teaching. The idea of role play in its simplest form is that of asking someone to
imagine that they are either themselves or another person in a particular situation.
They are then asked to behave exactly as they feel that persons would. As a result
of doing this they, and rest of the participants learn something about the person or
situation. Situations for role play may be simple or elaborate, familiar or strange.
They may be described in detail or left to the imagination of the role player. Participants
in role play can be made to relive a particular work situation, so that they can get
the real feel of the roles they are called upon to play. The experience enhances their
knowledge and helps them understand the behaviour of others as well as their own
emotions and feelings. Role play is:
• Helpful for trainee-teachers as it gives an opportunity to participants to have an
exposure of real life situation
• Develops confidence among participants.
• Helps them work independently.
• Strengthens the communication and human interaction skills
In order to organise role play you will have to select a suitable topic first, then brief
the participants the role to be played, and the manner in which it has to be played.
A discussion after role play on what happened, why did it happen in a particular
way, and what variation would have brought a better or worst result may help in
developing better vision among the student teachers.
Check Your Progress
Note: a) Write your answer in the space given below.
b) Compare your answer with those given at the end of the unit.
4) What are various techniques for promoting reflection among teachers? Which
activity you find most suitable and why?
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15.7 LET US SUM UP

Teacher Education is undergoing a period of change as a result of the paradigm shift
visualized by the National Curriculum Framework (2005) and vision of teacher
education reflected in the National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education
(2009). Reflection is part of our life and we reflect on day to day situations and
seek solutions after carefully examining various alternatives that can lead to the 57
Teacher as a Professional solution. Reflective thinking promotes the attitude of open mindedness,
wholeheartedness, and intellectual responsibility. Reflection makes tacit knowledge
explicit. Promoting reflection among teachers and trainee teachers is considered
crucial so as to bring about the changes envisioned in NCF 2005 and National
Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education (2009) into reality. This module has
discussed in detail the concept and meaning of reflective thinking, process of reflective
thinking and techniques of promoting it among trainee teachers. The reflective approach
to teaching involves change in our perception of teaching and our role in the process
of teaching. Reflective teaching indicates that experience coupled with reflection can
be a powerful tool of teacher development.

15.8 UNIT END EXERCISES

• Why is reflective thinking important for teacher preparation programme? How
can reflective journal contribute in reflective thinking? Discuss.

15.9 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

1) Reflection is a process whereby the learner recalls and analyses his/her own
experiences to arrive at some informed decisions.

2) Reflection-in-action refers to the process of decision making by teachers whilst

actively engaged in teaching. Reflection-on-action is critical analysis and evaluation
of the action and reflecting on what might have happened if a different course
of action had taken place.

3) Steps of tri layered process of reflective thinking are technical, contextual and
dialectic.

15.10 SUGGESTED READINGS AND REFERENCES

• Biggs, J. ( 1999): Teaching for quality learning at university. Buckingham:
Open University Press.
• Boud, D., Keough, R., and walker, D.( 1985): Reflection : Turning experience
into learning. London: Kogan Page..
• Bullough,R.(1989): Teacher education and teacher reflectivity. Journal of
Teacher Education.42(1), 43-51.
• Bruner, J.(1996): The narrative construal of reality. Bostan: Harvard University
Press.
• Clark, C.M.(1986): Ten years of conceptual development of on teacher
thinking. In M.Ben-Peretz, r.Bromme, & R.Halkes (Eds). Advances of research
on teacher thinking .Liss:Swet& Zeitlinger.
• Claderhead, J., and Gates, P.( 1993): Conceptualising reflection in teacher
development. London: Falmer Press.
• Drikx,J.M. (1989). Self reflection in the clinical practice: Using group
processes to improve practioner-client relationships. Paper presented in the
American Educational Research Association, San Francisco.

58
• Dewey, J.(1916). Democracy and education: An Introduction to philosophy Teacher as a Reflective
Practitioner
of education. New York: Macmillan.
• Dewey, J. (1933). How we think: A Restatement of the relation of reflective
thinking to educative process. Chicago: Henry Regnery.
• Ershler, A.R. (2001). The narrative as an experience test: Writing themselves
back in. In: Lieberman, A.:Miller,L.(Eds), Teachers caught in action: professional
development that matters. New York: Teacher College Press.
• Hatton, N., & Smith,D.( 1995): Reflection in teacher education –towards
definition and implementation. Teaching and Teacher Education, 11(1),
33-49.
• Hopkins, C.D., & Antes, R.L.(1990). Educational research: A structure for
inquiry. 3rd Ed.Itasca,IL.F.E.Peacock.
• Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T., & Holubec, E. J. (1993). Cooperation in the
Classroom (6th ed.). Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company.
• Kauchak, Donald, P., & Paul, D. E. ( 1998) : Learning and teaching. Allyn
and Bacon: Bostan.
• Mishra, S., & Panda,S.(2007): Designing reflective activities for distance learning
materials. Indian Journal of Open Learning, 16(1), 7-23.
• Mc Laren, P. (1989) : Life in schools. New York: Longman.
• NCERT. (2005). National Curriculum Framework. New Delhi: NCERT.
• NCTE. (2009). National Curriculum Framework for Quality Teacher
Education, New Delhi: NCTE.
• Panda, S., and Juwah, C. (2006). Professional development of online
facilitators in enhancing interactions and engagement: a framework. In
Juwah,C.(Ed), Interactions in online Education: Implications for theory and
practice. London: Routledge.
• Pollard,A.,Collins,J.,Simco,N.,Swaffield,S.,and Warwick,P.(2005): Reflective
Teaching. Second Ed. London: Continuum.
• Rodgers, C. (2002): Defining reflection: Another look at John Dewey and
reflective thinking. Teachers College Record. 04(4),842-866.
• Reid, B. (1993). “But we’re doing it already”. Exploring a response to the
concept of reflective practice in order to improve its facilitation. Nurse Education
Today. 13:305-309.
• Schon, D.A.( 1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in
action. New York :Basic Books.
• Schön, D. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner: Towards a new
design for teaching and learning in the professions. Jossey-Bass: San
Francisco.
• Slavin, R.(1995): Cooperative learning (2nd.ed). Needham Heights, M.A:
Allyn & Bacon.
• Smith,A., and Jack,K. (2005): Reflective practice: A meaningful task for
students. Nursing standards,19(26),33-37.
59
Teacher as a Professional • Syrjala, L., and Estola, E. (1999). Telling and retelling stories as a way to
construct teacher’ identities and to understand teaching. Paper presented
at the European Conference on Educational Research, Lahti, Finland, 22-25
September 1999.
• Shulman,L.(1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundation of New Reform,.
Harvard Educational Review,57,1-22.
• Taggart, G.L., and Wilson, A.P. (1998): Promoting reflective thinking in
teachers: 44 action strategies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
• Van, M. (1977). Linking ways of knowledge with ways of being
practical.Curriculum inquiry, 6, 205-208.

60
 Teacher as a Reflective
UNIT 16 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Practitioner

OF TEACHERS

Structure
16.1 Introduction
16.2 Objectives
16.3 Teaching as a Profession
16.3.1 What is a Profession?
16.3.2 Characteristics of a Profession
16.3.3 Characteristics of Teaching Profession
16.4 Need and Importance of Professional Development
16.5 In-service Teacher Training as Professional Development
16.6 Continuous Professional Development (CPD)
16.6.1 Updating Knowledge
16.6.2 Improving Classroom Practices
16.6.3 Dealing with Emerging Challenges
16.6.4 Professional Networking
16.7 CPD through ICT
16.7.1 ICT for Access to Resources
16.7.2 ICTs for Interaction and Collaboration
16.7.3 Social Networking
16.7.4 E-conferences and Webinars
16.8 Let Us Sum Up
16.9 Unit End Exercises
16.10 Answers to Check Your Progress
16.11 Suggested Readings and References

16.1 INTRODUCTION
In previous units of this block, we have analyzed various roles of teacher as innovator,
action researcher as well as a reflective practitioner. All these roles summarize the
role of teacher as a professional. For a professional teacher, continuous improvement
and enrichment are key requirements for growing to achieve the ever changing goals
of teaching-learning. Why is professional development important for you? What can
a teacher do for professional development? What are the means of professional
development for teachers, especially at secondary and senior secondary level? Present
unit deals with these questions. The unit analyzes the present system of professional
development for teachers and suggests new emerging ways to improve and upgrade
our professional skills and competencies.

16.2 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you will able to:
• understand teaching as a profession;
• realize the importance of professional development for teachers; 61
Teacher as a Professional • critically analyze present provisions for professional development of teachers;
• identify various ways and means for professional development;
• examine the potential of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) system in continuous
professional development of teachers; and
• appreciate the role of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in
continuous professional development of teachers.

16.3 TEACHING AS A PROFESSION

In order to understand teaching as a profession, let us first understand what is meant
by a profession.

16.3.1 What is a Profession?

A profession can be defined as an occupation which requires some specialized study
and training, and the purpose of which is generally to provide skilled services and
guidance in lieu of a definite fee or remuneration. However, some professionals may
provide services without asking for payment.

A profession is a calling and it implies acquisition of a fund of knowledge, range of

skills and their application for the service of humanity. The service rendered by a
professional may be direct as in the case of teachers and doctors or indirect as it
is in the case of teacher educators i.e. teachers of teacher trainees. Further, this
service may be rendered to a limited segment of the population, for a limited period
of time or phase of life. This service is not rendered to the entire learner population
undergoing graduation or post-graduation courses, but, it is rendered to those who
have aptitude for the profession. It is rendered for a limited period of time in the
sense that an individual is expected to go through training before taking up the
profession and then, is expected to update his/her knowledge and skills after a
regular interval of time.

There is another way of looking at the same situation. Any professional person
provides professional service for a limited period of time when his/her clientele are
in an institution or within the institutional framework; for example, a teacher who is
a professional person renders his/her service for a period of time when students
(clientele) are in educational institutions and within the institutional framework; of a
school, college or university. A profession can be practiced independently or within
an institution or both. This means if teaching is accepted as a profession, a teacher
can teach either independently to students or within a school along with a team of
teachers.

So far, we have learnt that a profession is based upon specialized study and training,
it provides skilled service and guidance for a definite purpose to a limited section
of the population for a limited period of time and can be practiced independently
or within an institution.

16.3.2 Characteristics of a Profession

A profession indicates certain specific characteristics. They are:
i) A profession demands possession of a body of specialized knowledge and
extended practical training.
ii) A profession renders an essential social service.
62
iii) A profession demands continuous in-service training of its members. Professional Development of
Teachers
iv) A profession has a clearly defined membership of a particular group, with a
view to safe-guarding the interests of the profession.
v) A profession involves a code of ethics.
vi) A profession assures its members a professional career.
As stated above, a typical profession exhibits a complex of characteristics. Let us
try to understand them with the following clarifications.
The creation of a professional organization, developing a code of ethics, offering a
life career to its members, or even granting of action are all shared by trade
associations or guides. Then what is the difference? There are two criterias that are
basic to a profession. A profession “professes” to do two things: one is to serve and
the other is to serve with conscious understanding and efficiency. While all other
vocations serve, the profession not only serves but also makes service its prime
motive. Even when there is a conflict between the interests of the client and that of
the society, selfish interest retreats in favour of the professional interest. The profession
and other vocations differ in the sense that a profession is well grounded in its sound
knowledge and expertise. It has good qualities like altruism and longing for authentic
knowledge on the part of the members which differentiates a profession from a
trade.

16.3.3 Characteristics of Teaching Profession

We shall try to elicit the characteristics of a teaching profession to understand why
teaching is called a profession. The following are the characteristics of a teaching
profession:
i) It essentially involves an intellectual operation
Teaching, it has been said, is not mere talking. This is so because teaching
requires conscious organization of learning activities, deliberate creation of a
conducive and supportive learning environment. While providing learning
experiences a teacher has to constantly analyze and evaluate classroom climate
and evolve a suitable plan of action to achieve the pre-specified desirable
change in the behaviour of a group of learners who are constantly varying with
respect to their interest and pace of learning. All such operations, which are to
be carried out by a teacher, are intellectual operations.
ii) It draws material from science
Teaching is not only an art but also a science. On the basis of this assumption,
a teacher can be trained. The moment it is accepted as a science, it has definite
steps which are followed in training a teacher.
iii) It transforms raw material into a practical and definite end
In teaching profession, the learners constitute the raw material. These learners
are prepared to teach in a continuously evolving society which has varied
expectations. Learners are trained into a practical and definite end by means
of providing practical training in teaching and other pedagogical activities.
iv) It possesses an educationally communicable technique
As teaching is a science, teaching techniques are systematic and have definite
steps to be followed. It is easily communicable.
63
Teacher as a Professional v) It tends towards self-organization
It is self-organized in the sense that the personnels who are engaged in teaching
profession are sensitive towards growth and development. They evolve a definite
mechanism to sustain and promote the standards of teaching profession.

vi) It essentially performs a social service

Teaching is a social service. It has generally been accepted that education is
potent tool to bring about changes in any nation. The obvious evidences of such
a statement are the developed nations like U.S.A., Russia etc. These and other
nations have been able to constantly develop because of high rates of literacy.
It is through teaching that a society develops.

vii) It has a lengthy period of study and training

Teaching cannot be learnt in a year or so. A person willing to take up this
profession has to study for a number of years and acquire a mastery over the
contents of the subject matter. After this he/she has to undergo training in
teaching.

viii) It has a high degree of autonomy

In our earlier discussion, we mentioned that definite steps have to be followed
in teaching as it is a science. However, there is a high degree of autonomy in
teaching profession right from curriculum development, planning activities of a
year, identifying instructional objectives, deciding upon the method of teaching,
deciding upon the use of media, identifying evaluation criteria, using appropriate
evaluation techniques to deciding upon the admission and promotion rules, and
autonomy in planning and execution of co-curricular activities. Ultimately, all
these activities are planned keeping in mind the goals of education which are
to be achieved in a limited period of time.

ix) It is based upon a systematic body of knowledge

Teaching profession is based upon a systematic body of knowledge which has
been derived from social, psychological, historical, political and economic
spheres of life. It is also influenced by the religious and spiritual beliefs of a
society.

x) It has a common code of ethics

All over the globe, teaching profession has a common code of ethics.

xi) It generates in-service growth

In teaching profession, the teacher is learning at all the stages of teaching. This
leads to growth of a teacher while in-service.
Apart from these, education is a dynamic discipline. New knowledge is continuously
being generated with regard to teaching methods and other foundation courses of
teaching. A professionally trained in-service teacher, needs to get revamped with
new knowledge and update the already acquired knowledge and skills of teaching.This
in-service training will ultimately lead to performance of the expected tasks by a
teacher in an effective way.
From the preceding discussion, it is clear that the teaching profession has certain
characteristics for it to be termed a profession. It is a complex profession in the
64
sense that it has to take into consideration needs and expectations of an ever Professional Development of
Teachers
changing society. It is affected by both the political ideology and economy of the
nation. It learns from the history of not only a nation but other nations too. Students,
who are the clientele, vary with respect to such variables as interests, ability, socio-
economic background etc. With all such and many other complexities, teaching is
a noble profession with the prime motive of rendering service to society.

Check Your Progress

Notes: a) Write your answer in the space given below.
b) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the unit.
1) List the distinct characteristics of a profession that distinguish it from a vocation
or a trade.
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2) “Teaching is a complex activity.” Discuss.
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16.4 NEED AND IMPORTANCE OF PROFESSIONAL

DEVELOPMENT
“Professional development of teachers is not an event, rather it is a
continuous process”, this is a common statement written in most of the documents
dealing with professional development of teachers. There is no doubt that teaching
is a profession and has certain professional obligations. Sometimes these obligations
are written in terms of code of conduct or many times these are mere conventions.
Teaching profession has changed a lot. In India, NCF-2005 has brought radical
changes in teaching-learning process. This has influenced role of teachers also.
Many such policy changes have influenced teachers’ role. Can you identify few such
changes in first 15 years of 21st century, which have influenced the role of teachers
in an elementary or secondary school?

Activity 1
Analyze the major policy changes/documents/schemes which have influenced
teaching-learning system during 2000-2015. How these have influenced the
role of a teacher in an elementary or secondary school?
65
Teacher as a Professional Above activity will facilitate you to understand the need and importance of professional
development for teachers. You must have noticed that every policy/documents or
scheme has demanded something new in teaching learning process. In many cases,
teachers teaching since long in the system were not prepared to cope up with these
changes due to various reasons.

To understand these reasons in more realistic way, let us read the following case and
try to analyze, what will be the solution.

In a Government secondary school, there were fourteen teachers. Out of

which, six were appointed in late 80s whereas four were appointed in 1995.
Rests were appointed in 2005. State government has announced for adopting
the NCERT textbooks in all its school after NCF-2005. Continuous
Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) Scheme was also adopted by state in
2009. After implementation of RTE-2009, Schools were bound to follow the
recommendations of RTE-Act also. School Principal issued circular time to
time in this regard and asked teachers to prepare themselves accordingly.
Teachers discussed within themselves and tried their level best to adopt all
changes. In 2014, a Survey conducted by an independent researcher, it was
found that most of the teachers are not using diverse techniques of
assessment. Many of them were not aware of assessment indicators and
how these indicators should be used in assessment. In the same survey,
many teachers have reported that they did not find NCERT textbooks
much useful as they are merely activity books with very less content. So
they are forced to read other reference books and provide notes to students.
They also reported that due to implementation of no detention policy,
learners’ attendance is decreasing and they are not responding seriously in
unit tests and summated examinations. It was also reported that in that
school, around 1200 learners are enrolled from class six to tenth. Teachers
were of the view that due to increased workload and ever-changing policy,
their performance is decreasing and are not satisfied with what they are
doing.

If you analyze this case and identify the reasons, you will find that few of them are:
• implementation of policies
• lack of awareness among teachers,
• difference between assumptions and ground realities
But you should also think that before implementing these changes, if teachers were
inducted and oriented properly about all these changes and their importance in
teaching-learning, they may not have raised such issues. This is a demand to reflect
on requirement of continuous training or orientation opportunity for teachers, which
can facilitate teachers in implementing various policies or changes in teaching learning
system. Answer to this problem is Continuous Professional Development (CPD) of
teachers.

Professional development of teachers does not include giving them only an opportunity
to learn a new concept or adopt a new teaching learning methodology, rather it also
focus on developing their competencies to deal with changing scenario of teaching
learning process and adopt the best for the benefit of learners. Professional
development brings changes in teacher’s approach, attitude, understanding and practice
to enhance level of learning.
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A definition of Professional Development for teachers is given below: Professional Development of
Teachers
“The process by which … teachers review, renew and extend their commitment
as change agents … and by which they acquire and develop critically the
knowledge, skills, planning and practice… through each phase of their teaching
lives” (Day, 1999: 4)
Teacher’s Professional Development “is the body of systematic activities to
prepare teachers for their job, including initial training, induction courses,
in-service training and continuous professional development within school
settings.” (OECD, 2010)
Need of professional development for teachers can be summarized under following
points:
• Expanding knowledge domain of subjects
• Due to changing pedagogy
• Increasing involvement of media
• Focus of use of ICT
• Enactment of policies and schemes
• Meeting demands of society and nation
You can increase as well as modify this list based on your experiences. In India, we
have witnessed the efforts of professional development due to two main reasons: it
is initiated either as a plan or policy implementation or teachers are doing this due
to its linkage with their promotion and other monitory benefits.
Check Your Progress
Notes: a) Write your answer in the space given below.
b) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the unit.
3) Define professional development in your words.
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4) What are major reasons to initiate professional development activities in
teacher education?
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Many times, in-service teacher training programmes are considered as programmes

for professional development but it is not true in Indian context. In next section, we
will examine various models of in-service teacher education programmes and their
role in professional development of teachers. 67
Teacher as a Professional
16.5 IN-SERVICE TEACHER TRAINING AS
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
In India, teacher training programmes are generally categorized as pre-service and
in-service teacher training programme. In broader sense, in-service teacher training
programmes are considered as programmes for professional development of teachers.
Many policy documents highlighted this dimension of in-service teacher education.

Role of in-service teacher training was highlighted by Secondary Education

Commission (1952-53) under the chairmanship of Dr. A. Lakshman Swami Mudaliar
which advocated:

“However excellent the programme of teacher-training may be, it

does not by itself produce an excellent teacher. It can only engender
the knowledge skills and attitudes which will enable the teacher to
begin his task with a reasonable degree of confidence and with the
minimum amount of experience. Increased efficiency will come through
experience critically analyzed and through individual and group efforts
at improvement. The teacher training institution should accept its
responsibility for assisting in this in-service stage of teacher-training.
Among the activities which the training college should provide or in
which it should collaborate are: (1) refresher courses, (2) short intensive
courses in special subjects, (3) practical training in workshop, (4)
seminars and professional conferences. It should also allow its staff
where possible to serve as consultants to a school or group of schools
conducting some programme of improvement. (p. 139)”
The Education Commission (1964-66) also recommended that “school complexes”
with a nodal school shouldering the responsibility for the continuous professional
development of all teachers working in the schools, should be established. State
Institutes of Education (SIEs) have come up in various states as outcome of these
recommendations.
Report of the National Commission of Teachers-I (1983-85) titled “Teacher
and Society”, also recommended that every teacher must attend in-service training
of 3 weeks’ duration once in a block of five years and it should be linked with
career promotion.
The National Policy of Education (NPE 1986/92) mentioned categorically that
“teacher education is a continuous process, and its pre-service and in-service
components are inseparable.”
In 1987, a crash programme on a massive scale orientation of five lakh teachers,
every year was launched in the name of “Programme of Mass Orientation of School
Teachers” (PMOST). Subsequently it was replaced by another crash course in the
name of “Special Orientation Programme for Primary Teachers” (SOPT). Both
these programme were short term measures and were able to create only awareness
among teachers.
Clarifying the role of in-service teacher education as professional development activity,
The Acharya Ramamurthi Review Committee (1990) explicitly advocated that
“in-service and refresher courses should be related to the specific needs of the
teachers. In-service education should take due care of the future needs of teacher
68 growth; evaluation and follow up should be part of the scheme.”
Many review reports and documents on teacher education have critically examined Professional Development of
Teachers
the role of in-service teacher education in India. Highlighting the critical condition
of in-service teacher education in India, National Knowledge Commission (NKC)
(2006-09) commented that:
“In-service training shows problems of inadequate quantity, uneven
quality, outdated syllabi, and poor management. A very large
proportion of school teachers in the country have received no in-
service training at all. In any case, many DIETs are currently
understaffed, demoralized, and incapable of giving good quality
training to teachers. In part, this is because teacher training positions
are often occupied by those who have not themselves been school
teachers.”(p.53)
In terms of remedy, it suggested that “The teacher training course
should not be seen in terms of a finite period of time, but as a
process by which the quality of teaching and learning in the
classroom can be regularly improved, in acontext that fosters an
attitude of lifelong learning.Therefore, there should be a mechanism
for feedbackand subsequent interaction between teachers and the
training institutes, especially for pedagogical techniques that are
new or require more continuous innovation from the teacher”. NKC
further “suggests the provision of short term in-service courses (in
both contact and distance mode) that teachers can choose from.
These could include courses developed outside the DIET/SCERT
structure, subject to a thorough review of quality. In addition to
being made more flexible, in-service teaching courses need to be
incentivized, possibly by making attendance and completion of such
courses prerequisites to professional advancement.”(p. 54).
NKC also suggested that if a web-based teachers’ portal could be developed, it will
be a nice platform to interact, share experiences and ideas for teachers. It should
be part of in-service teacher training programmes.
The Report by NCERT (August, 2009) on “Comprehensive Evaluation of the
Centrally Sponsored Scheme on Teacher Education” has set out the immediate
tasks which form agenda as under:
1) To enhance the institutional capacity available at present for ensuring the adequate
supply of trained teachers for all levels of school education;
2) To utilize all possible kinds of institutions, including university departments of
education and teacher training institutions in the private sector, for in-service
training of the existing cadre at all levels, in addition to State institutions, including
CTEs;
3) To recognize teacher education (for all levels of school education, from pre-
school to senior secondary) as a sector of higher education and to facilitate co-
operation and collaboration between institutes of teacher training and colleges
of general education or universities with a view to enabling interaction between
different departments of a local college (or university) (e.g. sciences, languages,
social sciences) and the institute of teacher training.
4) To envision a comprehensive model of teacher education, utilizing the
Chattopadhyaya Commission Report and updating its perspective, and ensuring
that progress towards a new, comprehensive model is paralleled by necessary 69
Teacher as a Professional modifications in policies of teacher recruitment, deployment and service
conditions, including emoluments;
5) To prepare a curriculum policy and framework for teacher education which is
consistent with the vision of the NCF, 2005, and to translate it into imaginative
syllabi and textbooks for pre-service courses and sets of in-service training
material suited to diverse conditions and needs; and
6) To bring about synergy between institutional structures operating at different
levels, e.g. NCERT and NCTE at national level, SCERTs and boards of
education at State level, DIETs and under graduate colleges at the district level
and so on.
The Report states that “Block and Cluster Resource Centers were established
during DPEP in some selected districts after which these centres were expanded
across the country aspart of the SSA programme, for improving the quality of
elementary education. Thus, the staff duties and responsibilities are presently
based on the SSA Framework of Implementation and its objectives. But due
to successful implementation of SSA programme the enrolment at secondary
stage has increased. Besides this, universalisation of secondary education is
also under active consideration. Keeping this in view, there is an urgent need
to change the role and functions of BRCs and convert these into Block Level
Institutions of Teacher Education (BITEs).”
National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education (NCFTE)-2009,
proposed many initiatives to strengthen in-service teacher education as a mean of
professional development. Chapter 4 of NCFTE deliberates in detail about continuous
professional development and support for in-service teacher education.
Activity 2
Go through the principles to design in-service teacher education programme, as
suggested by National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education, 2009,
pages 66-67. Analyze any one in-service teacher education programme in the
light of these principles and prepare the report.
NCFTE is available on http://ncte-india.org/ncte_new/pdf/NCFTE_2010.pdf

It also suggested that various agencies can play a vital role in providing in-service
professional development for teacher. Teachers could also be provided short-term
fellowships and funding support (based on proposals) to either come to the DIET,
CTE, IASE and University Department or carry out specific activities for the school
children and teachers in their own district.
• University and college faculties of sciences, humanities and social sciences could
include extension services for school teachers, opening up their labs and libraries
to teachers and sharing with them advances and new ideas.
• Colleges of pre-service teacher education could include extension activities
which would also enable their learners and faculty to keep in touch with active
teachers. Teacher Learning Centres (TLCs) in teacher education institutes can
act as the hub of both pre-service education as well as continued professional
development for teachers in service. They could also provide special services
to their alumni, continuing to mentor and keep track of their developments.

• Schools, under the leadership of interested principals and able to support additional
adjunct faculty, could themselves develop into resource centres for neighbouring
70
 schools. These could also include schools run by NGOs and other private Professional Development of
Teachers
agencies interested in contributing to the development of all schools in the
neighbourhood, both government and private, and affiliated to any board.

• IASEs, CTEs, DIETs, BRCs and CRCs could also research and develop
training aimed at overall school improvement or to target the needs of special
schools or groups of children in the district. They could also focus on providing
school based support to teachers, by working closely with the school heads.
The Revised Implementation Framework of SSA (2011) has recommended
strengthening of the BRCs, Urban Resource Centres (URCs) and CRCs for providing
academic support to teachers. BRCs/URCs and CRCs are the most critical units for
providing training and on-site support to schools and teachers. Given the significance
of these structures SSA,will strengthen faculty and infrastructure support to BRC/
URC and CRCs. States must focus on improved selection criteria for the coordinators
and faculty of BRC/URC and CRCs. The selection criteria should take into
consideration experience, qualifications and aptitude for training and research. States
must provide facilities for continous skill enhancement of BRC/URC andCRC
coordinators and faculty. Functional linkages between BRCs/URCs and CRCs and
DIETs and district level resource groups should be strengthened. The norms governing
the support under SSA for BRC/URC and CRC have been specified in the
Framework.
Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource
Development, Government of India has come up with guidelines for implementation
for Restructuring and Reorganization of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme on Teacher
Education, in June, 2012. In the guidelines it has been suggested that,
“The in-service teacher education programmes would work for the development
of Master Resource Persons (especially for training at the block level) as well as
direct work with teachers with a view to continuously enhance understanding of
and better quality of planning and implementation of all parts of the curriculum.
DIETs are also expected to organize specially designed courses for Head Masters,
Officers of the Education Department upto Block level, members of VECs,
SMCs, Community Leaders, Heads of PRIs, BRC/CRC coordinators.” (p. 32)
In these guidelines, a shift was advocated as follows:
Table 16.1: Shifts Required in Teacher Education
To Enact a Shift in Perspectives and Practices
From To
Teacher directed, fixed designs Learner-centric, flexible processes
Learner receptivity Learner agency, participation in learning
Knowledge as “given”, fixed Knowledge as constructed, evolving
Learning as an individual act Learning as a collaborative, social process
Disciplinary focus Multidisciplinary, educational focus
Assessment judgmental, mainly Assessment for Learning, self assessment
through competitive tests for to enhance motivation, through continuous
ranking, through narrow measures non-threatening processes, to record
of achievement, leading to trauma progress over time
and anxiety
Source: Guidelines for Implementation for Restructuring and Reorganization of the Centrally
Sponsored Scheme on Teacher Education, pp. 32-33 71
Teacher as a Professional Report of the High-Powered Commission on Teacher Education constituted by
Hon’ble Supreme Court of India (2012), titled “Vision of Teacher Education in
India: Quality and Regulatory Perspective”, commonly known as Justice Verma
Commission, suggested to set up a model INSET policy, which should focus on
following issues:
– The in-service teacher education as a strategy for continuing professional
development must address all categories of educational personnel in the school
system i.e., teachers at all levels, school heads, supervisors, library staff, etc.
It also advocates that teachers working in private unaided schools are out of
domain in various centrally sponsored schemes for professional development.
New INSET policy must make provisions for inclusion of teachers of private
schools also for in-service education.
– It should be obligatory for every teacher to participate in the in-service education
programmes, at a time of his/her choice and convenience.
– The parameters of successful completion of a training module in a training cycle
need to be defined and should be linked with some incentives in the form of
advancement in career or in terms of financial gains.
– Separate training modules have to be developed for elementary stage (primary
and upper primary), secondary and senior secondary teachers, heads of schools,
supervisors and library staff, etc.
– There is need to develop a national as well as state action plans to implement
INSET policy in desired manner.
– Institutions imparting in-service teacher education need to be strengthened in
several ways- learning resources, academic support from universities and other
institutions, qualified resource persons, etc.
– There is shortage of institutions for imparting training to teachers at secondary
and senior secondary levels. Hence, existing CTEs should be strengthened and
new training centers can be established.
– A training center cum resource center should be established in ODL as a
resource center for continuous professional development of teachers.
– The institutions of educational technology along with ODL institutions shall have
to undertake programmes for development and production of audio-visual
programmes.
– The success of in-service education depends on the strength of each of its four
pillars: content of training, overall ethos of the training venue, resourcefulness
and ingenuity of trainers and receptivity and involvement of the trainees.

As a teacher, if you go through these details, you can conclude that our policies are
quite concerned about in-service teacher education as a tool for professional
development. Many efforts have been made but still there is a large gap between
demand and supply. Most of the governmental efforts are limited to teachers of
government or government aided institutions and a large number of teachers teaching
in private un-aided schools are deprived of it. The discussion also highlighted the
efforts in terms of establishment of DIETs, CTEs and IASEs and their present
situation. These institutions designed institutionalized methods for professional
development of teachers.

72
 Professional Development of
Check Your Progress Teachers
Notes: a) Write your answer in the space given below.
b) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the unit.
5) What are the shifts required in in-service education programmes?
................................................................................................................
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................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................
6) What were the major drawbacks of PMOST and SOPT programmes?
................................................................................................................
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................................................................................................................

16.6 CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL

DEVELOPMENT (CPD)
CPD is the process by which teachers acquire, develop and strengthen their skills
and know-how to become more effective. It is an ongoing process and is in response
to the professional environment, which is ever changing.
Activity 3
“CPD must be implemented in every field, specially teaching”. Do you agree
with this statement? Discuss the need for professional development in teaching.
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
You may analyze your response to the above question and check whether these
needs for professional development covers the following points:
• Updating knowledge
• Improving classroom practices
• Dealing with emerging challenges
• Professional networking
…………………..Think of more points that you may add to this list.
We shall discuss these points briefly. 73
Teacher as a Professional 16.6.1 Updating Knowledge
Continuous professional development (CPD) helps teachers as new knowledge is
being gained and used for improvement of knowledge. Not only in our subject
areas, but also in teaching methodologies and technologies, new knowledge is emerging
continuously. For example, in the recent past, we have experienced a shift in the
teaching learning process from behaviourist approach to constructivist approach.
There are many more such new trends and developments. New discoveries and
innovations are leading to increase in the corpus of knowledge base in various
subjects. Knowledge domain of subjects ranging from languages to science, arts to
social sciences is increasing day by day and a teacher has to be aware of these
developments. As teachers we cannot remain oblivious of these developments in our
subject area. A well informed feels confident and is respected by his/ her colleagues
and the students. A teacher can respond to the queries raised by learners in a better
way if s/he keeps him/herself abreast of the developments in his/her field.

16.6.2 Improving Classroom Practices

A good teacher is not only a good communicator but is also a facilitator of learning.
S/he not only teaches but also learns from classroom experiences. S/he also tries to
apply the emerging innovations, techniques and technologies to the teaching-learning
process and thus improves his/her teaching learning process. Read the following
example.

Mr. Mohit has been teaching at elementary level classes since the last 15
years. He had qualified as a trained teacher long back but is open to new
ideas. With the implementation of the National Curriculum Framework-2005
and the changes that came about in the textbooks, he felt a strong urge to
make changes in pedagogy. He accessed the internet for information on concepts
like interdisciplinary approach, constructivism, active learning and so on. At
the secondary level, he then adopted an integrated approach for teaching the
content. He linked content areas from various disciplines and also with the
daily life of children through suitable examples. He also facilitated the students
in carrying out activities but made it a point to let them discuss, narrate and
raise questions so that he could ensure that the activities had led to learning.

How did Mohit make professional development possible without attending a training
programme? What was the impact of Mohit’s attempt for professional development?

16.6.3 Dealing with Emerging Challenges

Today teachers are urged to adopt new methods of teaching and learning. They are
also urged to integrate technology into the teaching and learning process. All these
trends pose challenges to teachers. Managing the classroom without resorting to
corporal punishment as a means for maintaining discipline, carrying out formative
evaluation, teaching in inclusive classrooms and the like are also challenging.
Challenges like dealing with diversity of learners in the classroom, ensuring gender,
caste, class, ethnic, religious equity, making classroom inclusive, adopting positive
discipline instead of corporal punishment, inculcation of humane values and ensuring
social justice, are to be faced by a teacher in today’s classroom. Many teachers find
it difficult to adopt these new practices. For example, some teachers who are into
the traditional educational system for a long time do not feel comfortable with new
technology and are reluctant to shift to technology mediated teaching learning process.
On the other hand, increasing use of technology by children who are e-savvy make
74 teachers feel that they are not properly equipped to teach them.
16.6.4 Professional Networking Professional Development of
Teachers
Unlike in the past, today it is the age of collaboration rather than competition and
individual working. Team work, sharing of resources and networking enhance the
capacity of individuals rather than grappling alone with problems. CPD also implies
that teachers gain the ability and the attitude for cooperation and collaboration.
Hence the ability for technology mediated networking for sharing information, ideas,
and experiences, collaboration on projects, and so on is required. Professional
networking is needed not only for educational benefits but also for discussing and
reflecting collectively on professional issues. In such networked systems, more
experienced and knowledgeable colleagues can provide effective guidance and
facilitation. Opportunities of CPD provide us with the ability for creating technology
mediated network and using the network for benefitting professionally. Now-a-days
self-initiated efforts for professional development as life-long learning are also required.

Activity 4
Apart from the need for CPD mentioned above, there could be many more.
You may list them.

You will now agree that CPD is basically meant for equipping teachers with knowledge
and skills that are needed to keep pace with the changing world. After this introductory
discussion, we will now focus on the role of ICT specially computer and internet for
professional development. Our focus will be more on practice in place of fundamentals
and technological details.

16.7 CPD THROUGH ICT

16.7.1 ICT for Access to Resources
Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) have become an essential part of
whole teaching learning process. ICT enhances learning opportunities and as you
know provides the user the flexibility regarding time and pace of learning. In the
following sections we shall discuss the use of ICT for providing opportunities for
CPD. However, for CPD , it is required that you just do not read about the technologies
mentioned but also use at least some of them for accessing and sharing information.
Portal for Educational Purposes: SAKSHAT

75
Teacher as a Professional Ministry of Human Resource and Development, Government of India has launched
a One Stop Education Portal on October 30, 2006 to facilitate lifelong learning for
students, teachers and others in pursuit of knowledge, free of cost.
The vision of the project ‘SAKSHAT’ is to cater to the learning needs of more than
50 crore people through a proposed scheme of ‘National Mission on Education
through Information and Communication Technology (ICT)’. The scheme is to provide
connectivity to all institutions of higher learning to the world of knowledge in the cyber
space, to leverage the potential of ICT, in providing high quality knowledge modules
with right e-contents, to address to the personalized needs of learners, in order to
take care of their aspirations. These modules are to be delivered through ‘SAKSHAT’.
Major benefits of SAKSHAT are that it brings all ICT initiatives from various
government organizations at one place and provide information on new developments/
initiatives on integration of ICT in education. In order to understand its benefits, you
are suggested to undertake following the activity.

Activity 5
Visit the teachers’ corner as SAKSHAT portal and analyze the benefits of
various subsections under it for a teacher. Prepare a critical report on role of
SAKSHAT in promoting ICT-mediated/supported education in India.
MOOCs as Life-long Learning Opportunities
Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs)

MOOCs for Teachers: Coursera Offers

Online Teacher Training Program

MOOCsare one of the recent innovations in ICT based teaching learning. The
philosophy underlying MOOCs visualizes teaching and learning as a lifelong process.
MOOCs are ICT based initiatives in distance training programme, which have vide
76 scope in teacher education, which provide ample opportunities for many people
including teachers to get education. MOOCs based teacher training is in initial stage Professional Development of
Teachers
in developing countries like India and most of the initiatives are being taken by
individuals and not by organization. Most of the MOOCs teacher training programme
are of capsular in nature and focused on basic ICT skills or Content enrichment
issues but MOOCs have potential to develop as full-fledged teacher training medium
in near future.
In 2016, MHRD, Government of India has also launched its MOOCs plateform
called SWAYAM. SWAYAM stands for Study Webs of Active-learning for Young
Aspiring Minds.
MOOCs can best be utilized for continuous professional development of teachers.
Organizations can initiate such projects or teachers can participate in any such
course individually.

Activity 6
Visit following MOOCs based website, enroll yourself in a short duration curse
and based on your experiences prepare a critical report on benefits of MOOCs
on continuous professional development of teachers.

Using OER Repositories and NROER

You must have heard about Open Education Resources (OERs) and its benefits for
learners. OERs are basically the teaching and learning materials made available
freely for everyone to use. Anyone, whether he/she is a teacher, a student, an
educator, an educational administrator or a freelancer can get benefited by the
content provided as OERs. Variety of content including texts, article, lesson plans,
techniques and tools of learning and assessments, teacher made designs, laboratory
manuals, text and reference books, pictorial quizzes, and many more resources in
audio/video forms, picture, graphs, etc., are available as OERs.

The ideology of OER is in tune with collaborative and cooperative nature of teaching
and learning. OERs are providing an opportunity to assess quality content to learners
and teachers without much investment of time and money. There are many OERs
platforms in various institutions but two indigenous models of OERs are –
One is of National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) and other is the National
Repository of Open Educational Resources (NROER) being managed by NCERT,
New Delhi. These OERs can be used by teachers for various purposes. 77
Teacher as a Professional
Activity 7
Visit NROER and select some content/audio-video, which is related to your
subject. Use it in your classroom transaction. Make a report highlighting its
benefits for teachers and give suggestions to improve it.

16.7.2 ICTs for Interaction and Collaboration

WiKi
Wiki is very interesting and useful web application where people can add, modify,
or delete content in collaboration with others. Teachers can use a number of wiki
pages available for knowledge updating in their specific field.

Wikipedia is a commonly used source of information. But do you know that you can
also use it for creating content and that too collaboratively and also edit it and let
other group members edit it? You can thus create your own wiki page and better
still do it collaboratively and have a discussion group on wiki to share and discuss
various academic and professional issues.

The best way to experience WiKi is to create your own page and practice on it.
WiKi provides opportunity to not only share content but you can post audio, video,
pictures, graphs and you can give hyperlinks also to other WiKi pages as well as
other websites.

You can start an article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Starting_an_article

or you can attend some WiKi Tutorials. You can practice on some freely available
pages like Create your wiki now at http://www.wiki-site.com/index.php/
78 Create_your_wiki_now or at http://www.wikia.com/Special:CreateNewWiki. There
are some good tutorials for editing, formatting, links, citation, etc. available at http:/ Professional Development of
Teachers
/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Tutorial . You can read and practice after that.

Blogs and Discussion Forums

Blogs provide a great way for people including teachers to share experiences, ideas
and content like lesson plans, classroom management tactics and other helpful tips.
There are blogs on various issues related to teaching and teacher. Some of them
focus on specific issues or subjects while some are comprehensive in nature.

Now days you can find many Blogs on ideas for classroom management, sharing
of learning material, for engaging learners, etc. Subject focused blogs helps you to
keep you updated on particular topics, allowing teachers who need a refresher to
quickly glean important facts about historic events and figures.

There are many popular blogs on various aspects of education. If you visit these
blogs, you will find that teachers from all around the globe are sharing their experience,
content, methods and teaching learning experiments through these blogs with teaching
community. Make a habit to visit and follow such blogs, which are beneficial for you
not only in knowledge updating but also in sharing and experiencing new ideas and
innovations in teaching and learning.

Discussion Groups and Forums

Another use of ICT is for creating discussion groups and discussion forums. Some
discussion groups focus on a theme like problems of teachers, or that of teachers
of specific subject groups. Online discussion groups and forums are dedicated online
platforms where people post, share and discuss some issue in closed group.

People add their comments by posting a block of text to the group. Others can then
comment and respond. Discussion groups differ from chatrooms and instant messaging
because they usually deal with one topic and personal exchanges are typically
discouraged. Discussion groups are often archived. These archives may be organized
by thread, which means all the messages that reply to a starting message can be read
in some order.

These discussion groups are providing a common platform to like-minded teachers

to share, debate, discuss and enrich their knowledge and sharpen their skills. In
order to experience its benefits, you are advised to develop your own discussion
group or join any discussion group on any topic of your choice.
Activity 8
Start a discussion forum on a portal providing facility of discussion groups.
Make a group of minimum 10 members and discuss about your teaching
experiences daily. Prepare a report of your experiences after 15 days.

16.7.3 Social Networking

Social media is one of the most influential innovations of the present times.
Development of social networking sites (SNS) has boosted the tremendous growth
of internet users. On-line social networking communities such as Facebook, Twitter,
Linkedin and others have become a part of daily life of many teachers and learners
as they use these to communicate, share information and to build and maintain
relationships. One can share, communicate, read, comment, update, criticize or
suggest anything on these sites. 79
Teacher as a Professional If you visit such social networking sites, you will find many communities of teachers
from one organization or one interest area like science teachers, teachers as
researchers, action researchers, etc. are collaborating or just sharing content.

Such platforms have been playing very effective role in teachers’ professional
development. Not only in enhancing content knowledge and pedagogical expertise,
but also in sharing professional challenges, issues of classroom management, good
experiments and practices in organization of activities are key features of these sites.
Teachers can share opportunities for qualification enhancement, professional
development events like seminars, workshops, symposia or short term training
programmes with their colleagues so that most of the people in teacher community
could be benefited.

Professional issues related to teachers’ welfare, teachers’ problems and issues of

criticisms have been discussed on these forums at large. SNS provides a democratic
virtual social environment to express views with freedom of expression and promotes
healthy debates among professionals.

Knowledge Sharing Communities

Mostly teachers use text or PowerPoint presentations or Audio/video content to
communicate with learners. Many times teachers develop their own content in these
commonly used forms. There are some dedicated online communities where a teacher
can share and get useful material. For examples sharing PowerPoint Slides; Academia
to share articles/research papers/experimental outcomes/action research documents;
TeacherTube (to share audio/video developed by teachers).

At slide-share, you can share PowerPoint presentation developed by you and post
any slide of your interest.Your post can be linked with your social networking site
(like Facebook) account and you can inform all members in your list about your
presentation. The members of the community can access that content.

On a community named, Academia.edu, you can share your research, publication,

experience, article, action research report with academic community in text form. It
gives you an opportunity to upgrade yourself about new developments in your field
of study as well as to follow the researches and work of other scholars of your field.
Your account at this site can also be linked with your Google e-mail account or with
Facebook for regular updates.

To share and use audio/video related to education and specific content, mostly
teachers use Teacher-Tube, a YouTube based application dedicated to education.
Teacher-Tube is one of the largest audio/video repositories on education and many
teachers/student share their audio/video through this site with rest of the academic
world.

We have discussed about these knowledge sharing communities but to use and
interact with these communities, you have to create your account on these sites and
share the content developed by you. Many of you may be well aware of MSWord
or MS PowerPoint but to develop, edit and upload audio-video in proper format
needs more exercise.

16.7.4 E-conferences and Webinars

As a teacher we all are aware of role of seminars and conferences in our professional
80 development. Such events not only provide us opportunity to interact with other
people of our field but also provide us an opportunity to share our experiences and Professional Development of
Teachers
get benefited from experiments and experiences of our colleagues from various
institutions. With the advancement of ICTs, traditional conferences and seminars
have transformed accordingly. Now-a-days E-conferences and Webinars have been
replacing traditional ones. There are a number of web portals providing opportunity
to participate in e-conferences and webinars.
Major benefits of E-Conferences and Webinars are:
• Participant can contribute from their work place.
• No restriction on number of participant due to virtual space.
• Every participant can share his/her views with all and get immediate feedback,
comment on the post.
• The whole proceeding could be archived for future use.
• Synchronous and asynchronous communication is possible. Recorded sessions
are available for future reference.
• People can figure out the activity of their own benefit.
• Boundaries and limitations like regional, national or international are dissolved
through these events. Teachers and educationists from many countries can
contribute and share their work at one platform.

Activity 9
Identify one webinar or e-conference of your interest. Prepare an article/research
paper and participate in it. Prepare a report on your experiences and compare
the traditional approach of seminars/conferences with ICT based webinars/E-
conferences.

16.8 LET US SUM UP

Present Unit has attempted to provide an idea of opportunities of continuous
professional development (CPD). Being an in-service teacher, many times you have
to undergo various training programmes, all these programmes are under continuous
professional development but many time, due to lack of time or resources, you
missed few opportunities. Unit starts with discussion on need and importance of
CPD and explains that CPD is required not only for knowledge updating but also
for equipping ourselves to deal with emerging challenges and for professional
networking. Unit focuses on ICT applications, which are useful for you in your
professional development. Discussion on portals like SAKSHAT will help you to
explore government initiatives to promote ICT in teaching learning process. E-
conferences and webinars are another important application for professional
development and networking, which you can utilize as per your convenience and
interest. New online teacher training initiatives like MOOCs are discussed to give
you an idea about new platforms of collaborative and cooperative learning. Discussion
on open education resources and NROER will help to keep you updated about new
developments and you could search new resources for quality content to improve
learning outcomes of learners.

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Teacher as a Professional
16.9 UNIT END EXERCISES
- Organize a discussion on professionalism among teachers at your school. Observe
and record the views of other teachers and prepare a report highlighting the
major points for discussion, consensus on major issues, challenges and suggestions.
- Visit a CTE/teacher education instituions in your nearby area and critically
analyze its role in providing continuous professional development opportunities
to teachers at secondary and senior secondary level.
- Do you think, ICT mediated professional development can help you as a
teacher? discuss the modalities of using ICT for professional development of
a secondary school teacher.

16.10 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

1) Following are the distinctive characteristics of a profession.
a) A profession demands possession of a body of specialized knowledge and
extended practical training.
b) A profession renders an essential social service.
c) A profession demands continuous in service training of its members.
d) A profession has a clearly defined membership of a particular group, with
a view to safe-guarding the interests of the profession.
e) A profession involves a code of ethics.
f) A profession assures its members a professional career.
2) Teaching profession has to take into consideration needs and expectations of
an ever changing society. It is affected by the political ideology of a nation, and
is influenced by the economy of a nation. It learns from the history of not only
a nation but other nations too. learners, who are the clientele, vary with respect
to such variables as interests, ability, socio-economic background, etc.
3) Answer in your own words.
4) Expanding knowledge domain of subjects, Due to changing pedagogy, Increasing
involvement of media, Focus of use of ICT, Enactment of policies and schemes,
Meeting demands of society and nation
5) Refer to table 16.1.
6) These programmes were short term measures and were able to create only
awareness among teachers.

16.11 SUGGESTED READINGS AND REFERENCES

• BECTA. (2004). What research says about ICT and Continuous Professional
Development of Teachers, Retrieved from www.bee-it.co.uk/
Guidance%20Docs/.../Archive/04b%20wtrs_cpds.pdfhttp://www.bee-it.co.uk/
Guidance Docs/.../Archive/04b wtrs_cpds.pdf
• Day, C. (1999). Developing teachers. London: Routledge Falmer
• Hooker, M. (2009). Concept Note: The Use of ICT in Teacher Professional
Development, retrieved from www.gesci.org/old/files/docman/TPD_Workshop-
Concept_Note.docý
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• Hooker, M. (2009). Models and Best Practices in Teacher Professional Professional Development of
Teachers
Development, retrieved from http://www.gesci.org/old/files/docman/
Teacher_Professional_Development_Models.pdf.
• http://ncte-india.org/ncte_new/pdf/NCFTE_2010.pdf
• MHRD. (2012). Guidelines for Implementation for Restructuring and
Reorganization of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme on Teacher Education,
pp. 32-33
• MHRD. (2012). Sakshat: A one stop education portal, retrieved on 12/02/
2015 from mhrd.gov.in/sakshat_hindi
• OECD. (1996). The knowledge based economy, organization for economic
cooperation and development: Paris retrieved on 20/11/2013 from
www.oecd.org/ dataoecd/51/8/19/3021.pdf
• Pachler, N., & Dealy, C. (2003). Computer-mediated communication and
teachers’ professional learning, Paper presented at the British Educational
Research Association Annual Conference, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh,
retrieved from http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/00003395.htmhttp://
www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/00003395.htm
• www.nroer.in/homehttp://www.nroer.in/homehttp://www.nroer.in/home
• www.sakshat.ac.inhttp://www.sakshat.ac.in/

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