RECENT CHANGES IN SCIENCE CLASSROOMS
DPEP AND SCIENCE PEDAGOGY
It was the National Education Policy of 1986, its Programme of Action (1992), the Minimum Learning Level programme and the Operation Blackboard scheme that first introduced concepts like learner centred education, activity orientation, and environmental based and life related education. These programmes failed to achieve fully the desired results because of various reasons: lack of proper monitoring, absence of local participation in implementing the programme, lack of continuing training and on-site support and the evaluation system remaining the same. DPEP developed a child centered pedagogy as an experiment in the primary classes.
Activity based Classroom‘ is one of the main concepts practiced.Discussions between parents and teachers about the curriculum and textbooks and the way these need to be changed in order to ensure better learning were conducted at the panchayat level. Thousands of resource teachers worked tirelessly in each district to orient their colleagues towards changing their teaching practices for the better.‖ Though the debates about the programme were heated and continued for a long time, it had succeeded in making an impact in the state, which changed the scenario for ever.
SSA
The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) focusses on promoting scientific spirit among school children.
Students should get hands-on experience in lab experiments – learning by doing
Sasthrolsavam , other co-curricular science activities.
NCF 2005
1. Connecting knowledge to life outside the school
2. Ensuring that learning shifts away from rote methods
3. Enriching the curriculum so that it goes beyond textbooks
4. Making examinations more flexible and integrating them with classroom life
5. Nurturing and overriding identity informed by caring concerns within the democratic polity of the country
Features of Science Curriculum in NCF 2005
1. Activity based teaching
2. Emphasis of creative expression of students
3. Avoid content dominated curriculum
4. Encourage practical/technological components of the curriculum through non-formal channels
5. Introduce some carefully designed experiment or technology based questions in the theoretical proof itself
6. ICT should be integrated in science education
7. Co-curricular or extracurricular activities should be given importance.
KCF 2007
Kerala Curriculum Framework
Learning the treasure within: 4 pillars of education by UNESCO
Learning to know
learning to do
learning to live together
learning to be.
SOCIAL-CONSTRUCTIVISM
The state eventually decided to adopt the constructivist pedagogy—social constructivism, to be precise. This was extended to all classes up to 10. This ensured that the child is no longer a passive listener to the teachers‘ lectures. The child became an active participant in the teaching/learning process by doing projects, organising seminars and quizzes and so on. Children are not always confined to the classrooms. And the teacher‘s role changed from that of transferring knowledge to that of a guide.
CRITICAL PEDAGOGY
Classrooms as a workshop for fostering critical consciousness and social efficacy of learners.
ISSUE BASED CURRICULUM
Bringing social issues in the brains of learners to reflect
An innovative aspect of the KCF is its issue based approach for the preparation of syllabi and text books. The issues are identified for the preparation of text books are as follows:-
• Absence of a vision of universal humanism.
• Lack of human resource development
• Lack of understanding of the specificities of cultural identity and its need to develop freely.
• Inability to see agriculture as a part of culture.
• Lack of scientific approach to health and public health.
• Lack of due consideration towards marginalised groups.
• Lack of scientific management of land and water.
• Lack of eco-friendly industrialisation and urbanisation
COMPREHENSIVE AND CONTINUOUS EVALUATION
A scheme for Comprehensive and Continuous Evaluation, which includes evaluation by self, by peers and by teachers, has been adopted. This evaluates not just what the student has memorised, but also her communication skills, leadership qualities and other abilities. When the pedagogy changed, the examination also went through a change. The type of questions asked in the examination changed from direct questions that required rote learning and verbatim reproduction of answers taught in the class to indirect and even open ended questions which could be answered by the child in own words. Though the changes initially made the children and parents apprehensive, the children were seen to be very happy when they came out from their examination halls. They realised that they need not memorise answers—in fact, there was no point in memorising because the questions were very different. In fact, the questions were refreshingly different, and many children actually enjoyed answering the open-ended questions. The Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation scheme also helped the children to relax. The final examination was not the deciding factor. All activities of the
child are recorded and go through a process of self-evaluation, peer-evaluation and teacher-evaluation.
MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCE
Fruitful utilization of diverse abilities of learner. Every individual is unique in his character. Identifying the strength of the child.
IT@School
Another move that was started in the education sector was the IT@School Project. The objective of the project was to introduce Information Technology to children.
ICT implementations in School education in Kerala
An MMP such as this can be used to transfuse ideas from advanced states to all states. For example, Gunotsav in Gujarat is something that can be learnt from. As part of Gunotsav, government officials from the state visit government schools, interact directly with students and teachers and get firsthand information on statusquo. On an average, every school is visited once in three years. Over the past 12 years, Kerala has moved closer to the vision set out by the task force in 2000. IT@School, which began as a project in 2001 to improve computer literacy, is now a nodal agency in the state for every aspect of ICT in School Education. IT@School manages almost all projects including e-Governance and IT enabled learning taken up by the State.
The salient features of the implementation of IT in education in Kerala are:
1. IT infrastructure has been set up in Schools for all (4071 nos.) schools in Secondary and Higher secondary education. Rollout across Upper primary schools (8000 nos.) is ongoing a. Computer ratio stands at 1 per 15 students b. Broadband connectivity (of 2 Mbps) is also provided via a tie-up with BSNL
2. Given Kerala government‘s push on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), the entire platform, including the operating system and the applications for IT education and IT-enabled education, have been developed in-house by IT@School.
The project is considered as: ―Single largest simultaneous deployment of FOSS based ICT education in the world.
To create Information Technology skills in students passing out from schools in Kerala
To improve the intellectual ability of the teacher and comprehension ability of the students (learner) through ICT.
To develop content for various subjects using ICT tools to enable faster and effective learning within the national curriculum framework.
To complement the course delivery in various subjects and laboratory experiments through ICT based simulation and other tools.
To explore and exploit satellite technology to create a synergic environment of edutainment in schools under the project. IT@School Project has introduced another unique initiative ‗Hi School Kuttikootam' to boost the activities and interests of students in ICT enabled learning. Students who are part of the IT Clubs in schools, would be given specific training in five areas via Animation and Multimedia, Hardware, Electronics, Language computing and Internet and Cyber Safety.
Content development in IT
In order to implement an effective ICT enabled educational system, it is essential that the right content is developed and made in use. The Project understood the importance of Free Software and trained a group of subject experts to create ICT content for the school curriculum. IT@School successfully developed its own Operating System - IT@School GNU/Linux- which is now being used in all the schools in the state. Apart from this, several educational software like Dr. Geo, Rasmol, K-Tech lab, Geogebra, Chemtool, Kalcium etc. are being extensively customized by the Project in developing teacher friendly applications for facilitating complete ICT enabled education in the state. Dr. Geo and Geogebra are being used for teaching Mathematics, whereas Rasmol, Chemtool and Calcium are used for teaching Chemistry. Geogebra K-tech lab and PhET on the other hand is used to teach Physics. PhET is a collection of physics experiments and simulations developed by a group of scientists headed by Carl Edwin Wieman, the Nobel Prize Winner. As part of the project interactive multimedia CDs and handbooks, training modules for ICT etc. are prepared. Content developed by the project is strictly as per the new curriculum approach based on the National Curriculum Framework 2005.
VICTERS education channel.
Live classroom education channel providing 17 hours of daily broadcast through EduSat.
Studio present in IT@School office; all content created internall
EDUBUNTU
Ubuntu operating system for education. Several educational software like Dr. Geo, Rasmol, K-Tech lab, Geogebra, Chemtool, Kalcium etc. are being extensively customized by the Project in developing teacher friendly applications for facilitating complete ICT enabled education in the state.
School Wiki by IT @ School for Gen. Education Dept
Envisioned outcomes
Create online community of schools to enable better sharing of information between schools.
Decentralize the data updation process to school level
Features
1. Each school is given wiki page to update their information
History of school
Location (on Google maps widget)
Student Strength & Staff strength
Contact details
2. They can add any details including photos and videos etc.
3. Work done by students and achievements of the school can be showcased.
4. Vision is to make it into a Facebook for school
GENERAL EDUCATION PROTECTION MISSION
General Education Protection Mission (Pothuvidyabhyasa Samrakshana Yajnam) project aims to make Kerala a fully digitalised state in education sector. The state government would facilitate necessary physical, academic and digital contents which are required for implementing this programme.
SMART CLASS – SAMGRA PORTAL
'Samagra' eResource Portal is an online learning platform developed by KITE and SCERT under the Public Education Rejuvenation Mission [General Education Protection Mission] of the State Govt. This is to enrich the Hi-Tech school project with the right content along with ICT equipments and trained teachers. Samagra is a repository of digital resources of all subjects from Class 1 to 12 covering syllabus based teaching resources. The scope of SAMAGRA is not limited to being a resource portal, instead as a complete online learning management system beneficial for students, teachers, public and academicians. Understanding the need of the hour, SAMAGRA is positioned as a one-stop permanent source for digital contents for all students which ease the learning process in classrooms. SAMAGRA has the digital resources for all subjects from Std 1 to 12, in the form of videos, animations, audios, stimulations, interactive contents, pictures etc. It also enables the unit plan of every chapter in addition to micro planning. Multiple levels of log-ins are integrated in SAMAGRA for the Teachers, Public and Administrators. All e-Resources available in SAMAGRA can be downloaded from anywhere. The portal also features specific Forums for discussions, in which teachers can clarify the doubts irrespective of location constraints. SAMAGRA also has eTextbooks of all subjects in four medium viz Malayalam, English, Tamil and Kannada.
No comments:
Post a Comment