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THE PRIMARY TEACHER

VOLUME XXXVI NUMBER 3 AND 4

JULY AND OCTOBER, 2011

Editorial 3

ARTICLES AND PAPERSEARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION

1. SCHOOL READINESS AND SCHOOL SUCCESS PADMA YADAV 52. FANTASY PLAY AND EMOTIONAL COMPETENCE P.D. SUBHASH 17

OF PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN ANU G.S.SULEKHA RAM

3. NEED FOR INTEGRATING PRE-SCHOOL TO RAM PAL SINGH 27ELEMENTARY EDUCATION

ELEMENTARY EDUCATION4. IN-SERVICE TRAINING AND ITS EFFECTS ON R.B.L. SONI 33

CLASSROOM PROCESSES : PERCEPTIONS

OF SCHEDULED CASTE TEACHERS IN PALI AND

NAGAUR DISTRICTS (RAJASTHAN)5. EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND TEACHING GAURANG TIWARI 47

BEHAVIOUR:ROLE OF EMOTIONAL ASHA PANDEY

INTELLIGENCE IN THE SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL CLIMATE

OF THE CLASSES OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS

6. ENGLISH AND THE TIBETAN TONGUE VARADA M. NIKALJE 607. PREPARING TEACHERS FOR MULTICULTURAL RASHMI DIWAN 65

CLASSROOMS–IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHER

PREPARATION AND PROFESSIONAL PROGRAMMES

8. INTEGRATION OF VALUES WITH CONTENT TEACHING NIRMAL BAGGA 729. UNDERSTANDING CCE IN THE CONTEXT OF RTE-2009 MANJU JAIN 76

DID YOU KNOW10. CHILD PARTICIPATION 87

RESOURCE MATERIAL FOR TEACHERS11. STORY : RINNIE THE RABBIT KRISHNA SAHGAL 9012. POEMS : HARMONY SUNIL RANJAN 93

CONTENTS

EDITORIAL

In the present issue of The Primary Teacher, articles and papers related to theareas of pre-primary education, primary and elementary education coveringteacher training, pupil assessment and classroom processes have been included.Under the section ‘Did you know’, the information is provided on Child Rights.We provided in our earlier issues the details about the child’s ‘right to survival’,‘right to development’ and ‘right to protection’. In this issue ‘child’s participation’related rights are given, as per the National Plan of Action for Children–2005.With a view to give teachers some ideas to make teaching-learning interestingto children a new section ‘Resource Material for Teachers’ has been added.Under this section a story and few poems have been given. The purpose is tostimulate teachers’ thinking to use story and poetry for enhancing children’sinterest in learning.

Under the section ‘Articles and Papers’, there are two research papers andone article in the area of Early Childhood Care and Education. The researchpapers are on ‘School Readiness and School Success’ and ‘Fantasy Play andEmotional Competence of Children’. In the first paper, the author has studiedthe school readiness of children and its relation with school success measuredin terms of learning of children in Class I. The study has reinforced and re-established the need for every child’s school readiness for school success. Inother research paper ‘Fantasy Play and Emotional Competence of Pre-schoolChildren’ the relation between fantasy play and emotional competence of pre-school children has been analysed adopting a non-experimental design.Children who expressed preference for fantasy play and who did not, weremeasured in regard to their emotional competence. The study concluded thatchildren like fantasy play and providing fantasy play helps them in developingtheir emotional competence. The article included in the area of ECCE focuseson the ‘Need for Integrating Pre-school to Elementary Education’. It highlightshow important pre-school education is for improving the quality of elementaryeducation and provides justification why integration is important? The articlesuggests universal free and compulsory pre-school education as integral partof primary and elementary schooling.

In the area of Elementary Education, there are three research-based papersand three articles on diverse areas. The first paper is on ‘In-service Trainingand its Effect on Classroom Processes: Perceptions of Schedule Caste Teachersin Pali and Nagaur districts (Rajasthan)’. The paper has focused on how muchS.C. teachers found the in-service training useful for them and how much of it

got translated into classroom practices. Suggestions for improving the in-service training were also gathered from the teachers. The findings reveal thatin-service trainings need improvement. The second paper is on ‘EmotionalIntelligence and Teaching Behavior: Role of Emotional Intelligence in the Socio-emotional Climate of the Classes of the Primary School Teachers’. The paperhighlights how teacher behaviour in the classroom shapes the socio-emotionalclimate and how teacher behaviour is shaped by emotional intelligence of teacherusing Flanders’ Interaction Analysis Categories. It revealed that EmotionalIntelligence of teachers tended to decide the learning environment of children.The third paper analyses English Language Teaching in Central Tibetan Schoolsat primary stage where medium of instruction is Tibetan language and Englishis taught as second language. The paper highlights the unique situationchildren get in these schools where they are competent to speak Hindi outsideschool, learn English as second language and have Tibetan as mother tongue.The advantages of multi-lingual education are reinforced in this paper. Thenext three articles included are ‘Preparing Teachers for MulticulturalClassroom’, ‘Integration of Values with Content Teaching’ and ‘UnderstandingContinuous and Comprehensive Evaluation in the context of RTE 2009’. Thefirst article ‘Preparing Teachers for Multicultural Classroom’ focuses on peace,harmony through understanding of other cultures and religions and preparingteachers to integrate values of peace, harmony and tolerance of all culturesinto the teaching-learning process. The next article on ‘Integration of Valueswith Content Teaching’ highlights on human values and provides exampleshow to inculcate these values among children while teaching any topic. Thirdarticle on ‘Understanding of CCE in the Context of R TE’ attempts to provideunderstanding of the concept of CCE, purpose and process of its implementation.‘Did you Know’ is our regular section under which we provide some usefulinformation related to policies and programmes. We have been providing theinformation about Child Rights as per Plan of Action for Children-2005 and inthis volume rights related to ‘Child Participation’ are provided.

We received some useful material from practising teachers which we haveprovided under ‘Resource Material for Teachers’ a new section added in thisissue. There is a story and a compilation of poems as resource material. Thisis given with a view that teacher will be able to create new material and useexisting material available with them to make teaching-learning interesting forchildren.

Editorial TeamG. C. UPADHYAY, KAVITA SHARMA, KIRTI KAPUR

PADMA YADAV, KIRAN DEVENDRA

EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION

School Readiness and School SuccessSchool Readiness and School SuccessSchool Readiness and School SuccessSchool Readiness and School SuccessSchool Readiness and School Success

Padma Yadav*

11111

* Assistant Professor, Department of Elementary Education, NCERT, New Delhi

Abstract

The study highlights the relationship between school readiness and schoolsuccess. Factors influencing school readiness and school success have alsobeen analysed. School success here means academic achievement/attainmentof children in Class I. The study was both exploratory and descriptive in nature.The sample of the study consisted of14 schools. Total 505 children of Class Iand their performance using teacher made tests were observed throughout theyear. Interaction was made with Heads of the selected school, Class I teachersand parents. Focus group discussions were held with children of Class I togauge the factors influencing school success. It was found that parentaleducation and parental income had emerged as important factors. Children withpre-school experience showed better performance. Experiences of ECE attainedthrough various models of pre-schooling were found significant in predictingschool success. Achievement in reading and numeracy was relatively lower inchildren up to 5½ years than those of above 6 years. Male children performedbetter than female children on reading and numeracy. Female children performedbetter on developmental activities.

Introduction

The first 6-8 years of a child’s life,known as the early childhood years, areglobally acknowledged to be the mostcritical years for lifelong development,as the pace of development during theseyears is extremely rapid, determiningthe cognitive and physical growth andlaying the foundation for shaping thesocial and personal habits and values.

There is a growing body of researchevidence to prove that the synopticconnections in the brain that are criticalfor the full development of the brain’spotential take place during the earlyphase of childhood. Research has alsoindicated that if these early years arenot supported by, or embedded in, astimulating and enriching physical andpsycho-social environment, the chances

6 The Primary Teacher : July and October, 2011

of the child’s brain developing to its fullpotential are considerably, and oftenirreversibly, reduced. This findingimmediately places a very largepercentage of children in the developingworld in poverty contexts ‘at risk’, interms of their life chances1 and whatfollows logically is the crucialimportance of investing in these earlyyears to ensure an enablingenvironment for every child. A soundfoundation for life, which is not only theright of every child but also hasimmense bearing, in long-term, on thequality of human capital available to acountry.

Early Childhood Care andEducation (ECCE) and SchoolReadiness

Early Childhood Care and Education(ECCE) has, in recent years, beenreceiving a great deal of attention ofresearchers and policy makers. It hasglobally been recognised as a criticalinput for human resource development.It includes two integrated aspects ofcare and education. Care is acomprehensive term that includesproper nutrition, medical attention,particularly in regard to immunization,security and safety and emotionalsupport. The ‘education’ componentincludes stimulation activities for underthree children and pre-school educationprogrammes aimed at 3-6 year olds andextends to Class I and II to coverchildren up to the age of 8 years.

The experiences of early childhoodhave lifelong implications for our health,well-being and development, includingour ability to become productive andsocially-adjusted contributors of thesociety. There is clear evidence thatgaps in children’s development andlearning at early childhood stage dueto various reasons become detrimentalby the time they reach school. As aresult, children enter school withmarked differences in the cognitivedevelopment, social skills andemotional maturity needed for successin the school environment. Thesedifferences are predictive of lateracademic and occupational success.Children who enter school withoutreadiness to school tend to do less wellin school and are more likely to engagein mundane activities. Ultimately, thesechildren tend to have lower educationallevels on leaving school. Children fromlow-income families are more likely tostart school with limited languageskills, health problems, and social andemotional problems that interfere withlearning. The larger the gap at schoolentry, the harder it is to bridge at laterstage. It becomes increasingly difficultand costly to change children’sdevelopmental trajectories as they getolder, and is increasingly difficult tocompensate early cognitive and non-cognitive deficits as they grow.

One of the reasons why this is amatter of great concern is that it is awell- known fact that investments in the

1 Position paper National Focus Group Report on ECCE, NCERT, 2006

7School Readiness and School Success

early years are cost effective, yieldinglong-term social and economic benefitsand yet large number of children in ourcountry start school with poorlydeveloped learning, emotional andsocial skills. With the increasingcomplexity of present-day living,children need to acquire active learningcapacity for school success and fordeveloping active learning capacityschool readiness is one of the importantcomponents.

Redefining School Readiness

There is a significant shift in theconceptualisation of school readinessin the recent years. Previously, schoolreadiness was understood on the basisof chronological age. Children wereadmitted into school when they reachedthe designated age. Now it has beenconceptualised in terms of specific skillsand competencies that could bemeasured and assessed againstestablished norms and standards. Wesee in both the cases the focus was onthe individual child and on the‘readiness’ of the child for school.Children needed to demonstrate their‘readiness’ and were accepted intoschool when they met these age or skillscriteria. For example, they had to recitepoem, narrate story, tell the names offruits, vegetables, etc., in front of agroup of people interviewing the child.More recently, the conceptualisation ofwhat constitutes school readiness hasbroadened. It is no longer seen asapplying only to the child, but now it is

looked as a shared responsibility.Children will not be able to enter schoolor ready to learn unless parents,schools and society provide theenvironment and experiences thatsupport the physical, social, emotional,language and cognitive development ofinfants, toddlers and pre-schoolchildren.

This rethinking of what constitutesschool readiness has occurred inthe context of our increasingunderstanding of the importance of theearly years of childhood. This includesresearch on brain development, theinfluence of risk and protective factors,and the nature of the environmental orecological factors that contribute toparents, schools and society functioningfor all round development of child.

Domains of School Readiness

Good, C.V. (1973) in the Dictionary ofEducation describes readiness as“willingness, desire and ability toengage in a given activity, dependingon the learner’s level of maturity,previous experience and mental andemotional set.” School readiness is alsodefined as “the preparedness of a childfor beginning formal schooling”. It isdefined as “the child’s attainment toenable him/her to fulfill schoolrequirements and to assimilatecurriculum content and it is also theability of the child to perform certaindevelopmental tasks in accordance withhis/her chronological age” in thedevelopmental domains as given below.


The child:

• is able to participate in basicphysical exercises, such as ballgames, running and climbing;

• can follow directions and workindependently;

• is not disruptive in class;

• is sensitive to other children’sfeelings;

• enjoys playing with other children;• likes to learn new things and can

participate in group activities,suchas story reading and role-play;

• is able to verbally express hisneeds, wants and thoughts; and

• is able to appreciate beauty, takesinterest in creating something ofhis/her choice;

School readiness, therefore, is theresult of physical-motor, socio-emotional, cognitive and languagedevelopment and manifested in terms

of the developmental milestoneschildren should be able to achieve beforethey enter school. School readiness isnot restricted to cognitive developmentbut is multidimensional, involvingphysical, social and emotionaldevelopment as well as generalapproaches to learning.

Factors Associated with Children’sReadiness for Success in School

As mentioned above, an attempt wasmade to gauge the influence of SchoolReadiness on school success. Schoolsuccess here means academicachievement.

Children with pre-school educationbackground had performed well onschool readiness than children withoutpre-school education at the beginningof Class I.

There is significant differencebetween children with pre-schooleducation and children without pre-

Pre-school N Mean S.D t value Significant/Non Significant

Experience

With 362 32.141 5.759 6.635* Significant

Without 143 28.486 5.026

* Significant at 0.05 level

Table 1: Readiness levels of children with pre-schooling andwithout pre-schooling


education in their readiness to school.

Pupils with and without pre-schoolexperience were compared at the endof terminal tests conducted by theteacher. It was found that pupils withpre-school education had performedbetter in all the three terms than thepupils without pre-school experience asshown in the figure above.

Pre-school exposure could be oneof the factors or the major factor playingimportant role in achievement of pupilsin curricular or co-curricular activities.

Gender and School Readiness

The readiness level of boys and girlswere compared to see if any differenceexists in their readiness to schooling.

Table 2: Gender diffference in school readiness

Figure 1: Termwise Achievement of pupils with and without pre-schoolbackground in curricular and co-curricular areas

Gender Mean S.D. t-value

Male 31.233 5.932

Female 30.919 5.738 0.64


Agewise Mean S.D. F-value

5-5½ years (Group I) 30.148 5.222

5½-6 years (Group II) 30.830 6.117 3.666

Above 6 years (Group III) 31.897 5.832

Table 3: Age and School Readiness of Children

Figure 2 : Showing term-wise performance of boys and girls in Class I

It was found that male childrenperformed better than female childrenon school readiness.

Gender and Achievement Levels

It was found that achievement level offemale pupils was better than males.

Age and School Readiness

An attempt was made to study the

readiness level of pupils belonging todifferent age groups. Table below showscomparison between the means andanalysis was done using One WayANOVA.

F value is 3.666 at df 2, 505 whichis greater than table value. Hence thereis a significant difference in the schoolreadiness of children between differentage groups. Average level of readiness


for children up to 5½ years was foundrelatively lower than those of above 6years.

Age and Achievement Levels

An attempt was also made to study theperformance of pupils of different agegroups. Group 1 comprised pupilsbetween 5 and 5½ years, Group IIcomprised pupils between 5½ and 6years and Group III had pupils above6 years.

Table 4 indicates the percentage ofmarks attained by pupils in differentage groups. Achievement of pupilsbetween 5-5½ years was relativelylower than those of above 6 years. Itwas found that the school readiness andachievement level of lower age group

Agewise No. of I Term II Term III Term

Children

5-5½ years (Group I) 121 59.85 60.87 57.58

5½-6 years (Group II) 189 61.54 60.96 58.97

Above 6 years (Group III) 195 62.79 63.70 60.70

Table 4: Age and Termwise Achievement of children

Parents’ Education Mean S.D. F-value

Single educated parent 30.340 5.256

Uneducated parents 28.344 4.980 36.747

Both parents educated 33.552 5.929

Table 5: Parents’ Education and School Readiness of Children

children was lower. It may be advisablefor the children to start pre-schoolingat the age of 4+ (2 years of pre-schooling) before the start of formalschooling at the age of 6 years.

Parents’ Education and SchoolReadiness

School readiness of those childrenwhose both parents were educated wasfound better than those having singleparent educated or both parentsuneducated.

Parents’ Education and SchoolSuccess

School readiness and school success ofchildren of regular income parents werefound better than daily wages parents.


Parents’ Education N Achievement scores

Single educated Mean S.D. F-valueparents 191 252.605 62.0116 31.056

Uneducated 122 231.321 51.877parents

Both parents 192 303.178 65.695educated

Table 6: Parents’ Education and Achievement of Children

Parents’ Income and SchoolReadiness of Children

Children of parents having regularincome were having higher scores onschool readiness as compared tochildren of parents having daily wages.

Parents’ Income and Achievementof Children

Achievement of children having regular

Parents Achievement ScoresIncome N Mean S.D. t-valueRegular 213 316.922 60.504 17.482*income

Daily 253 228.851 48.209waging

Table 8: Parents’ Income andAchievement of Children

N=39 (no information/unemployed)* t-value significant at 0.05 level ofsignificance, degree of freedom (464)

parental income was higher ascompared to children having parentalincome on daily basis.

Pre-school Setting and SchoolReadiness

Pre-school setting may be one of theimportant variables for schoolreadiness. The different four settingstaken into consideration in the studywere: (i) pre-school education inanganwadis, (ii) pre-school educationin private schools, (iii) pre-schooleducation in government MCD schoolsand (iv) children coming to schooldirectly from home.

Table 9: ECCE Programme Modelsand School Readiness of Children

Parents Mean S.D. t-valueIncome

Regular 49.447 12.158 10.788income

Daily 46.746 15.404waging

Table 7: Parents’ Education andSchool Readiness of Children

School Readiness

Models No. Mean S.D.

of of

Pre- children

school

MCD 100 29.550 53.0 5.250

Angan- 77 28.818 70.1 4.394wadis

Private 185 34.924 54.6 5.120

Direct 143 28.486 63.8 5.026


It was found, as evident from Table9, that children coming from privatepre-school setup were having highestmean score on school readiness,followed by MCD, Anganwadi andchildren directly coming from home.

Table 10 : Pre-school Setting andTerm-wise Achievement

I Term II Term III Term

MCD Mean 53.25 54.09 52.120

S.D 14.474 14.517 18.193

Angan- Mean 52.324 52.662 49.882

wadi S.D 15.340 14.681 17.626

Private Mean 73.367 74.243 52.12

S.D 14.350 14.690 18.192

Direct Mean 57.021 56.796 52.239

S.D 16.909 17.183 22.833

Pre-school Setting andAchievement of Children

The achievement of children comingfrom private schools was highest in firstand second term but becomes more orless at par with MCD and direct entrychildren. The direct entry children werefound better in achievement score thanMCD and anganwadi children in all thethree terms.

School Readiness and SchoolSuccess

It was found that children with lowschool readiness attained low scores inachievement test conducted incurricular areas like Language,Mathematics and Arts. Children withmoderate school readiness attainedmedium achievement scores andchildren with high school readiness incomparison to others scored high inClass I.

It can be visualised from the abovedata that school readiness is playing animportant role in the achievement atearly primary grades especially in ClassI. Hence, in early childhood educationprogrammes, school readinesscomponent should be strengthened.Making children ready for schooling isimportant for school success.

Factors Influencing SchoolSuccess

Data was subjected to multipleregression analysis to see the relativecontribution of difference between thepredictors such as pre-schoolexperience, parents’ educational level,gender, age, education, income, familysupport, teacher behaviour, attendance

N School N Mean of Mean

Readiness School of

Level Readiness Achievement

High 184 37.850 363.252

505 Medium 155 31.272 261.324

Low 166 24.730 161.253

Table 11: Relating School Readiness with School Success


in pre-school were considered forpredicting school success.

The result shown in Table 13suggested that the F value obtained(52.202) is significant at .05 level for (10,503) degrees of freedom. This indicatedthat the model is significant inpredicting school success.

Pre-school/ECE experiences,attendance, parents’ income andteacher behaviour were found highlysignificant in predicting school success.Gender and age of the child was found

Predictors Unstandardised Standardised t Sig.

CoefficientsCoefficients

B Std. Error Beta(Constant) -87.257 27.834 -3.135 .002

Gender -23.493 6.059 -.123 -3.877 .000

Age -10.762 3.942 -.088 -2.730 .007

With Pre-school 21.605 8.948 .102 2.415 .016

Attendance 3.083 .330 .306 9.333 .000

Parents’ -1.036 4.546 -.008 -.228 .820

Education

Parents’ Income 26.259 5.901 .169 4.450 .000

Family Support 3.189 2.864 .039 1.113 .266

Teacher 16.619 1.825 .399 9.108 .000

Behaviour

Table 12 : Regression Analysis of factors influencing School Success

R R Square Adjusted F Sig.

R Square

0.717 0.514 0.504 52.202 0.000

Table 13 : Dependent Variable School Success

significant in predicting school success.It indicated that girls performed betterthan boys in Class I but they showedlower school readiness in comparisonto boys at the beginning of Class I.Smaller age group children performedbetter than older age group indevelopment activities but in academicactivities smaller age group performedlower than older age group. Teacherbehaviour in classroom is alsosignificant in predicting school success.Regular attendance in class had


emerged as an important factor indeveloping school success. The indexof predictability is 0.717 andpercentage variance accounted forvariables is 51.4 (R square × 100). Thissuggested that 51.4% of the variancein the dependent variable is attainableto the variation of the variable/predictors.

CONCLUSION

The results of the study along withliterature review provide evidence thatthe intervention of attending ECE hasbenefits for children. The Right toEducation Act, 2009 is also reinforcing,ensuring, and expecting that allstudents regardless of their ethnicity oreconomic status receive qualityeducation they need in order to besuccessful students and productivecitizens of the country. Schools need toprovide students the necessary skills,so they can perform and exhibit positiveresults in beginning when they are inearly primary grades and continuingthrough elementary education andmoving towards higher education.

For creating an environment ofactive learning right from the beginningof the schooling, it is essential thatlearning experiences of children arebuilt upon the already acquired levelsof school readiness.

Effective investment in the early

years reaps lifelong gains. Studyhighlights that the young children’sneural connections remain open toenvironmental influences during theirpre-school years and, perhaps as aresult, early childhood programmes aremuch more effective in overcomingsocio-economic disadvantages than theinterventions made in later years.Therefore, investment in programmesand services in early childhood bringsthe most powerful, most enduring andmost cost-effective results. Schoolreadiness ensures children start schoolon the best possible trajectory for laterlife. Considerable investment isrequired in the strategies, services andprogrammes that support schoolreadiness. The environmental factorshave shown great relevance toreadiness levels of children. Parentaleducation and parental income haveemerged as important factors.Preparation of educational plans tocompensate for this disadvantagedpopulation of children is a challenge forpersonnel engaged in ECE.

Acknowledgement

This paper is an outcome of theResearch Study entitled “A Study ofSchool Readiness in Early ChildhoodYears and Its Influence on SchoolSuccess” conducted for Ph.D degreefrom Jamia Millia Islamia University,New Delhi.


REFERENCES

CRNIC, K AND LAMBERTY, G. 1994. ‘Reconsidering school readiness: conceptual and appliedperspectives’. Early Education and Development, 5 (2), 91-105.

DR ESTELLE, et.al. 2000. School Readiness. Centre for Community Child Health forAustralian Research Alliance for Children and Youth.

GOOD, C.V. 1973. Dictionary of Education. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York.

KALAVATHI, B. K. 2007. Reading Readiness of Children. Anmol Publication Pvt. Ltd., NewDelhi

KAUL, V. AND Soni, R. 2000. School Readiness. NCERT, New Delhi

NCERT, 2005. National Curriculum Framework, New Delhi.

NCERT, 2006. Position Paper, National Focus Group on Early Childhood Education.NCERT, New Delhi.

UPADHYAY, G.C. et al. 1996. Identifying Numeracy and Reading Readiness Levels ofEntrants to Class I: A Synthesis Report. NCERT, New Delhi.

YADAV, PADMA. 2012. A Study of School Readiness in Early Childhood Years and its Influenceon School Success. Ph.D. Research Work, Jamia Millia Islamia University, NewDelhi.

FFFFFantasy Play and Emotional Competence ofantasy Play and Emotional Competence ofantasy Play and Emotional Competence ofantasy Play and Emotional Competence ofantasy Play and Emotional Competence ofPre-school ChildrenPre-school ChildrenPre-school ChildrenPre-school ChildrenPre-school Children

Dr P. D. Subhash*Dr Anu G. S.**Dr Sulekha Ram***

22222

Abstract

The paper analyses the relation between fantasy play and emotional competenceof pre-school children with a non-experimental research. The study concludesthat the pre-school children give first preference to fantasy play during theirnursery outdoor play. The study also proves that the children who spent moretime in fantasy play possess high emotional competence.

Introduction

Early childhood years are consideredas the golden years of play, especiallyfantasy play. Children act out everydayimaginary activities in fantasy play.During fantasy play, a child transformsan object into other objects and actstoward them accordingly. This type ofplay peaks when the child reaches 4 or5 years old and helps the developmentof child’s imagination, language skillsand social skills. Recent advances inresearch have drawn attention to thefundamental role of emotionalcompetence in children’s development.Acquiring an ability to regulate

emotions and to understand theirmeaning are key skills that contributeto adaptive social interactions andinfluence the behaviour of a child. Thesehallmarks of positive social andbehavioural functioning can be seen inchildren at an early age, and mayprovide some of the more reliableindicators of those who will becomesuccessful and happy adults.Conversely, deficits in emotionalcompetence are frequently seen inchildren with social and behaviouraldifficulties.

Goleman (1998) concludes thatpersonal competencies determine how

* Assistant Professor, PMD, NCERT, New Delhi

** Post Doctoral Fellow, School of Pedagogical Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam,Kerala

*** Assistant Professor, VDIT, Kishan Vihar, New Delhi


we manage ourselves and socialcompetencies determine our ability tomanage with others. The two types ofcompetencies determine the level ofemotional competence of how wemanage ourselves and others.

West and Albrecht (2007) definedemotional competency as a developedability and skill in the areas of self-awareness, self-regulation, socialawareness and relationshipmanagement. They further argued thatthese skills are nurtured, developedand practised until they becomecompetencies and serve as a resourcewhen a tragic event occurs. Earlychildhood play, especially fantasy playmay be one of the key factors fordeveloping the emotional competenceof children.

Keeping in view, a non-experimentalresearch was conducted withnaturalistic observation to study therelation between fantasy play andpersonal and social competencies.

Objectives of the Study

The following are the major objectivesof the study:

• To study the free play preferencesof pre-school children in thenursery outdoor play.

• To study the emotionalcompetence of pre-school children.

• To establish the relation betweenfantasy play and emotionalcompetence of pre-school children.

Methodology

The researchers used non-experimentalmethod with naturalistic observationfor collecting the research data. Theresearcher’s video recorded the nurseryoutdoor free play activities of the 30children, (12 boys and 18 girls) betweenthe age group of 4 and 5. The childrenfor the study selected from the nurseryclasses of Government HigherSecondary School, Kanjiramkulum,Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

Tools Used

The following tools were used in thepresent study:

• Video camera used for recodingthe free play sessions

• Time sampling schedule• A checklist of behavioural

categories employed in theanalysis of free play (adapted fromHutt, et al. (1989) and expandedby Suresh and Subhash)

• Emotional competence inventorydeveloped by Pereira and Anu(2010)

Administration of the Tools

A video camera was used for recordingthe ongoing free play behaviour ofchildren with the help of a skilledtechnician. Altogether, the researchersrecorded 30 free play episodes of these30 children. Each episode lasted for 3minutes duration. The researcher usedtime sampling schedule to find out theplay preferences of the pre-school

19Fantasy Play and Emotional Competence of Pre-school Children

children in the outdoor free playsessions. Time sampling technique isused to convert the play preferencesinto percentages. Nicholson andShipstead (1994) ascertained thatsampling can yield quantitative dataabout the group as a whole (e.g., theincidence of types of play in a pre-school classroom). The researchersselected five types of play to study thefree play preference. They are physicalplay, material play, fantasy play, lookand watch play and walk and run.Nicholson and Shipstead pointed outthat if the interval of the time samplingis reduced to a minimum of 10 seconds,it would yield a better comprehensivepicture of the behaviour pattern of thechild. Hence, in the present research, a10 second time sampling interval isfollowed to find out the play preferenceswhich are already recorded in thevideotape. They also stated that if theobserver is interested in the frequencyof behaviours, it is worthwhile to recordtallies. Hence, tallies were used forrecording the presence of each type offree play in the time sampling. Thesethree minutes of continuous free playwere divided into time intervals of 10seconds. The total frequencies of freeplay preferences were converted intopercentages.

Emotional Competence Inventory(ECI) was developed for assessing theemotional competence of children. Theage level of the test varies from 4 to 10years. The emotional competenceconsists of both personal competencelike self-awareness, self-regulation and

motivation and social competence likeempathy and social skills. Both of thesecompetences constitute emotionalcompetence. The unique nature of theECI was all the items of the test arerelated with the daily life experiences ofthe children corresponding to their agelevel and for the pre-school level withthe help of a facilitator the exactemotional competence imbibed in eachlife statement can be explored. The ECIwas administered with an instructionthat “there is no right or wrongresponse in each statement what thestudents feel will be the correct one”.The response obtained from thestudents were ranked, scored andtabulated for finding the EmotionalCompetence. The test was developed,pilot-tested, validated and standardisedby Dr Celine Pereira and Dr Anu G. S.(2010). The level of emotionalcompetence was assessed on the basisof high, average and low category.

Analysis and Interpretation ofData

• Free play preference of pre-schoolchildren

Types o Free Play Percentage

Physical Play 27.7Material Play 13.3

Fantasy Play 31.1Look and Watch 14.3

Walk and Run 13.6

Table 1: Free Play Preference of Pre-school Children in the Nursery

Outdoor


Table 1 indicates free playpreferences of pre-school children in thenursery outdoor play. They givepriority to fantasy play (31.1%).physical play (27.7%) is seen as theirsecond choice. Other choices are

material play (13.3%), look and watch(14.3), and walk and run (13.6%).Thisshows that most of the pre-schoolchildren prefer fantasy play than othertypes of play in the nursery outdoorplay.

Figure 1 : Free play preferences of pre-school children in the nursery outdoor

Figure 2: Personal emotional competence of pre-school children


The scores of personal competenceof pre-school students show that 50%of students have average personalcompetence level, 16.7 % of pre-schoolstudents have low personal competencelevel and 33.3% pre-school studentshave high personal competence level.

The scores of social competence ofpre-school children reveals that 63.3%,23.3% and 13.3% of students comesunder average, low and high levels ofsocial competence.

The scores of total emotionalcompetence of pre-school children

Figure 3: Social emotional competence of pre-school children

Figure 4: Emotional competence of pre-school children


shows that 56.7% of children comeunder high total emotional competencegroup, 30% of pre-school children comeunder average total emotionalcompetence group and 13.3% pre-school children come under low totalemotional competence group.

Relation between Fantasy Playand Emotional Competence of Pre-school Children

• Relation between fantasy play andpersonal emotional competence

Figure 5: Personal emotional competence of children who preferred more fantasyplay in nursery outdoor play

Figure 6: Personal emotional competence of children who preferred less fantasyplay in nursery outdoor play


Figure 7: Social emotional competence of children who preferred more fantasyplay in nursery outdoor play

Figure 5 shows the relation betweenfantasy play and personal emotionalcompetence of children. The children(88.2%) who highly preferred fantasyplay in nursery outdoor play possesshigh personal emotional competence.11.8% of children have averagepersonal emotional competence.

As far as the personal emotionalcompetence of the children (Figure 6)who have least preference towards

Figure 8: Social emotional competence of children who preferred less fantasy

play in nursery outdoor play

fantasy play in the nursery outdoorplay are concerned, 61.5 % of childrenbelong to the average group, 38.5 % ofchildren belong to low group and thereis no children in high category.

Relation between Fantasy Playand Social Emotional Competenceof Children

Figure 7 reveals that 100% childrenpreferred more fantasy play in nursery


outdoor play and possess socialemotional competence.

Figure 8 depicts results justopposite to the earlier finding that53.8% of children who have leastpreference towards fantasy play in

nursery outdoor play came in thegroup of low social emotionalcompetence whereas 30.8% of childrencame in the average group and 15.4 %children came in the group of high socialemotional competence.

Figure 9: Total emotional competence of children who preferred more fantasy playin nursery outdoor play

Figure 10: Total emotional competence of children who preferred less fantasy playin nursery outdoor play


Relation between Fantasy Playand Total Emotional Competenceof Children

Figure 9 clearly proves that 100% ofchildren who highly preferred fantasyplay in nursery outdoor play possesshigh total emotional competence.

Figure 10 gives a different pictureregarding total emotional competenceof children who gave less preference tofantasy play in nursery outdoor play.69.2% of children came in the averagegroup when the scores regarding thetotal emotional competence is takeninto consideration. 30.8% of childrencame in the low group and there are nochildren in the high group.

Conclusions and SuggestionsThe research concludes that the pre-school children give first preference tofantasy play than other types of freeplay, such as physical play, materialplay, look and watch, and walk and runin the nursery outdoor play. In the caseof personal and social competence,most of the pre-school children comein the average group. But in the caseof total emotional competence, justabove fifty per cent are in the highgroup.

The research clearly proves that

there is a strong relation betweenfantasy play and emotional competenceof pre-school children. The childrenwho spent more time in fantasy playpossess high emotional competence.The children who preferred morefantasy play in the nursery outdoorplay have high level of personalemotional competence and totalemotional competence. But in the caseof children who preferred more fantasyplay in the nursery outdoor play haveaverage level of social emotionalcompetence. On the contrary, the pre-school children who preferred lessfantasy play in the nursery outdoorplay have average level of personalemotional competence and totalemotional competence. Additionally,majority of the children who preferredless fantasy play in the nurseryoutdoor play have low social emotionalcompetence.

Children’s social and emotionalcompetence is critical for thedevelopment of sound relationshipswith family members and their peergroups. Opportunities to play fantasyplay activities in the pre-schoolenvironment and at home, can play animportant role in developing emotionalcompetence among children.

REFERENCES

WEST, N. T. AND ALBRECHT, K. 2007. ‘Building emotional competence: A strategy fordisaster preparation and recovery.’ Exchange: The Early Childhood Leaders’Magazine Since 1978, 175, 20-25. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EJ763 220).


PAREEK, S., et al. 2005. ‘Enhancing emotional intelligence and enriching meaning inlife: An intervention study.’ Psycho-lingua, 35(2), 97-105.

KREMENITZER, J. P. 2005. ‘The emotionally intelligent early childhood educator: Self-reflective journaling.’ Early Childhood Education Journal , 33(1), 3-9. (ERICDocument Reproduction Service No. EJ 757 703).

TiWARI, P.S.N. AND SRIVASTAVA, N. 2004., Schooling and development of emotionalintelligence, Psychological Studies, 49(2&3),151-154.

NELSON, D. AND LOW, G. 2003. Emotional Intelligence: Achieving Academic and CareerExcellence. Prentice Hall., New Jersey.

CHERNISS, C. AND GOLEMAN, D. 2001. The Emotional Intelligent Workplace. Jossey-Bass.San Francisco.

COBB, C. D. AND MAYER, J. D. 2000. ‘Emotional intelligence: What the research says.’Educational Leadership, 58, 14 – 18.

GoLEMAN, D. 1998. Working with Emotional Intelligence. Bloomsbury, London.

GOLEMAN, D. 1995. Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter more than I.Q., BantamBooks, New York.

BAR-ON, R. 1997. The Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i): A Test of EmotionalIntelligence, Multi-Health Systems, Toronto, Canada.

ELIAS, M. J., et al. 1997. Promoting Social and Emotional Learning: Guidelines forEducators. VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.,Alexandria.

MAYER, J. D. AND GEHER, G. 1996. ‘Emotional intelligence and the identification of emotion.’Intelligence, 22, 89-113.

NICHOLSON, SHERIL L. AND SUSAN, SHIPSTEAD, G. 1994. Through the Looking GlassObservations in the Early Childhood Classroom. McMillan Publishing Company,USA.

HUTT, et., al. 1989. Play, Exploration and Learning: A Natural History of the Pre-school.Routledge, London.

Need for Integrating Pre-school to ElementarNeed for Integrating Pre-school to ElementarNeed for Integrating Pre-school to ElementarNeed for Integrating Pre-school to ElementarNeed for Integrating Pre-school to Elementary Educationy Educationy Educationy Educationy Education

Dr Ram Pal Singh *

33333

Abstract

Learning starts from birth. Children learn through interactions with social,physical and cultural environment provided to them. Early childhood experiencesare, therefore, important from the point of view of helping them to learn betterduring primary stage and beyond. The present article highlights the need forgood quality pre-school education for all children and integrating it withelementary education in order to improve the quality of education.

Challenges of Quality PrimaryEducation in India

The quality of education, particularlyprimary education is low. This is quiteevident from the fact that millions ofyoung children in lower income groups,especially rural and girl children,comprising nearly 30% of the first gradeentrants never complete primaryeducation. Even among those who do,many of them lack even rudimentaryreading and writing skills. The lowquality of education often imparts littleor no real learning. This is primarily dueto many factors – poor quality of pre-service and in-service education ofteachers, lack of proper infrastructurefacilities in schools such as drinking

water, toilets particularly separatetoilets for girls, inadequacy of teachingwork force, rooms for instruction andteaching materials, high teacher-pupilratio, the last but not the leastoutmoded teaching methods beingused by teachers for transacting thecurriculum. Students are hardly givenany freedom and encouragement tolearn as a natural outcome of theirinnate curiosity, playfulness andeagerness to experiment. Besides, theeducation system in India hardly laysemphasis on fostering the naturalprocess of spontaneous, self-motivated,self-education in which children learnjust as a play and as a form of play outof their innate curiosity and urge to

* President, All India Primary Teacher’s Federation, Shikshak Bhawan, 41-Institutional Area,

D-Block, Janakpuri, New Delhi-110058


acquire knowledge of the environment.

There is a need to improve thequality of primary education. Thequality basic education is the onlymeans of fighting poverty at all stagesand in different contexts. It reduces thevulnerability of under-privilegedpopulation to poverty by providingthem with a set of production andlivelihood skills. Education can thus,be a lever to start making a differencein the lives of the poorest of the poor.The quality basic education is a rightof every individual.

Quality primary education wouldeliminate the phenomenon of dropoutat the primary stage. It would furtherdevelop among learners requisiteknowledge and competencies. Forimproving the quality of primaryeducation, there is a need to addressfactors mentioned above which affectsadversely the quality. Besidesaddressing the said factorsappropriately, there is a researchevidence that if children are providedopportunities for quality earlychildhood education, their learning atthe primary stage becomes better. Thusto improve the quality of primaryeducation, there is a need to providechildren appropriate quality earlychildhood education.

Development of Brain Cells andThinking SkillsThere is a need to stimulate thedevelopment of brain cells during earlyyear and foster a spontaneous curiosityand natural love for learning in

children. Teaching content of differentschool subjects is not the end ofschooling. There is a need to developthinking skills among pupils. Thecontent is just a vehicle to developthinking skills such as to thinkcreatively and think critically. Thesuccessful instruction is that whichdevelops thinking skills among pupilswhile teaching subject matter. Thinkingand subject matter content are neitherseparate from nor in opposition to eachother. Teachers need to design richtasks which involves thinking,innovations, experimentation, decisionmaking and drawing conclusion, etc.If the task is not sufficiently challenging,the students will revert to reproducingknowledge.

Objectives of Early ChildhoodEducation

As recently as fifty years ago, it waswidely believed that the major objectivesfor children during the pre-school yearswere those of socialisation—be able tobear the anxiety of separation fromhome, learning how to interact withpeers and unfamiliar adults, andexperiencing new materials in a novelenvironment to be able to make themschool ready. Today it is widelyrecognised that the first five years is theperiod of enormous growth of linguistic,conceptual and social competenceamong children. Right from birth,healthy infants with their developingabilities explore and even control theirenvironment. Scholars-Bloom (1964)and others report that half of the adult

29Need for Integrating Pre-school to Elementary Education

intelligence is developed by the age offive. Therefore, early childhoodeducation influences intellectualdevelopment besides fostering socialand emotional development. There isalso research evidence that high qualityearly childhood education has longterm positive effect on children’slearning and subsequent schoolsuccess. Early childhood educationproduces meaningful gains in cognitive,social and emotional developmentduring the pre-school years. Further itbetter prepares children to meet thecomplex demands of formal schooling.

Pedagogy of Early ChildhoodEducation

What and how children should learn atan early age are primarily guided bycultural values of the society in whichthey live? There are two sciences –science of teaching of adults andscience of teaching of children. Theformer is known as andragogy and thelatter pedagogy. Malcolm Knowles hasundertaken a great deal of research. Onthe basis of his research, he mentionsthat there is a difference in the learningbehaviour of children and adults.Children process information in adifferent way than adults. As aconsequence, different instructionalstrategies are suitable for teachingadults and children.

Instructional strategies which aresuitable for teaching children atsecondary and primary stages are notsuitable for early childhood education.

This is primarily because the objectivesof early childhood education aredifferent from those of primary andelementary education. Further theinformation processing capabilities ofpre-school children are different fromthose of pupils at the primary/secondary stage.

The research on early childhoodlearning reveals that young children arecapable of understating and buildingknowledge. They are highly inclined todo so. The pre-school teachers should,therefore, design rich tasks for thesechildren to provide them opportunitiesfor learning and building knowledge.Further they learn better when they areprovided opportunities for experientiallearning and guided exposure tocomplex thinking than when theyreceive no such support. Theenvironment exerts a large influence onboth cognitive and emotionaldevelopment. Pre-school teachersshould provide early childhood learnerswith a rich environment. Education andcare in the early years are two sides ofthe same coin. Furthermore research onearly childhood pedagogy manifeststhat cognitive, social-emotional (mentalhealth) and physical development arecomplementary, mutually supportiveareas of growth, all requiring activeattention in the pre-school years. Forinstance, social skills and physicalexercise influence cognitivedevelopment. On the other side,cognition plays an important role inchildren’s social understanding and


psycho-motor competencies. Furtherthe research reveals that the responsiveinterpersonal relationship between theteacher and the pre-school learnernurture young children’s disposition tolearn and their emerging abilities.Therefore, pre-school teachers’relationship with the pre-schoollearners should be very open. The pre-school teacher should be approachable.The learners should have liberty toapproach the teacher without anyhesitation and fear. The research furtherindicates that quality pre-schooleducation better prepares student forformal schooling. Learning at the earlychildhood level should be in the formof play. Children learn spontaneouslywhen their interest and curiosity areawakened. Story telling needs to beused to make learning a fun.

Responsibility of Early ChildhoodEducation

In India early childhood education ispresently in the hands of Anganwadiworkers. An Anganwadi worker isbasically a health worker chosen fromthe community and given some trainingin health, nutrition and child-care.They are required to provide care fornewborn babies as well as ensure thatall children below the age of 6 areimmunized. They are also expected toprovide antenatal care to pregnantwomen and ensuring that they areimmunized against tetanus, etc. Theyare also providing necessarysupplementary nutrition to children.Besides their duties include inter-alia

to provide pre-school education tochildren who are between 3 to 5 yearsof age. Most of the anganwadi workerspossess 10+2 certificate. From theiracademic qualification and the trainingwhich is provided to them, it is clear thatthey do not possess any certificate ordiploma in early childhood education.They do not have any grounding in thepedagogy of early childhood education.Hence, they do not possess requisitecompetencies to provide quality earlychildhood education.

Need for Improving Quality ofEducation

The Right of Children to Free andCompulsory Education Act-2009covers children from Classes I to VIII.This Act is a landmark legislation in thehistory of India to realise theConstitutional provision of qualityeducation for all. After theimplementation of the Act from 1st April2010, there is a hope that the countrywill achieve ‘education for all’ in nearfuture.

Though the emphasis on universalschooling is fine, but the discoursemust now shift to quality. This isbecause despite a welcome highenrolment rate – around 96.7% at theprimary levels, the quality of schoollearning is simply not up to the mark.Most government schools lack basicinfrastructure such as blackboardsand textbooks. Teaching standards arepoor on account of many factors. It is alittle wonder that only 48.2% of ClassV students surveyed under Annual

31Need for Integrating Pre-school to Elementary Education

Status of Education Report (ASER) wereable to read Class II level texts, amongother depressing statistics. Unlessschool education is rescued from thisquagmire of mediocrity, all talk aboutdeveloping a skilled human resourcepool and realising the country’sdemographic dividend will be withoutsubstance. The human resourceministry at the Centre and state levelas well as education department ofstates cannot duck their responsibilityof improving quality of education.

There is an excessive reliance on rotelearning in our schools. There is hardlyany emphasis on developing thinkingskills among people. The Pratham’sAnnual Status of Education Report(ASER) 2011 assessing schools in ruralIndia found declining attendance, over-reliance on private tuitions anddeclining reading and mathematicalabilities among children in the 6 to 14years age category.

Need for Free and Compulsory Pre-school Education

One of the significant interventionswhich could improve the quality ofeducation particularly at primary/elementary stage is that there shouldbe universal pre-school education.Every child in the country in the agerange 3 to 5 years should have anaccess to quality pre-school education.Studies have demonstrated that thequality pre-school education preparechildren better for learning at theprimary/elementary stage. Presentlythe pre-school education is under

Anganwadi system. Very limitedpercentage of children in their earlychildhood is being covered by theAnganwadi system. The quality of earlychildhood education under this systemis abysmally poor. The quality ofeducation can only be improved if it istaken over by the government. Thegovernment owns the responsibility ofproviding quality pre-school educationto each child in the country. The Rightof Children to Free and CompulsoryEducation Act-2009 needs to beamended suitability to include pre-school education under its ambit.

Quality Pre-service and In-serviceEducation of Pre-school Teachers

In order to improve the quality of pre-service education, there is a need tohave quality pre-service education andtraining of pre-school teachers. Earlychildhood teachers should have abachelor’s degree with specialisededucation related to early childhoodeducation with focus on developmentalpsychology, pedagogy of earlychildhood education. Pre-serviceteacher education programmes forstudent-teachers should provide themwith a stronger and more specificfoundational knowledge of thedevelopment of children’s social andaffective behaviour, thinking andlanguage. Similarly, programme forprofessional development of pre-schoolteachers should be need-based andpractical in nature rather than meretheoretical.

The state governments should


initiate programmes of research anddevelopment aimed at learning moreabout effective preparation of earlychildhood teachers. The curriculum for

pre-school teachers needs to berevisited periodically in the light of

findings of research studies. Thereshould be quality training of earlychildhood teacher educators.

They should be provided withsuitable experiences with regard toandragogy —science of teaching adults.

In-serIn-serIn-serIn-serIn-service Tvice Tvice Tvice Tvice Training and its Effects on Classroom Processes:raining and its Effects on Classroom Processes:raining and its Effects on Classroom Processes:raining and its Effects on Classroom Processes:raining and its Effects on Classroom Processes:PPPPPerceptions of Scheduled Caste Terceptions of Scheduled Caste Terceptions of Scheduled Caste Terceptions of Scheduled Caste Terceptions of Scheduled Caste Teachers in Peachers in Peachers in Peachers in Peachers in Pali and Nagaurali and Nagaurali and Nagaurali and Nagaurali and NagaurDistricts, RajasthanDistricts, RajasthanDistricts, RajasthanDistricts, RajasthanDistricts, Rajasthan

Dr. R .B.L. Soni *

44444

Abstract

The perceptions of Scheduled Caste (SC) teachers towards in-service trainingprogramme and its effects on classroom processes were studied in Pali andNagaur districts of Rajasthan. The samples comprising 26 SC teachers from 14schools in Pali district and 17 SC teachers from 15 schools in Nagaur districtwere selected through purposive sampling. Interview and observation scheduleswere developed for collection of data. The results of the study indicated that in-service training programmes need drastic improvement in terms of contents,selection of resource persons and delivery mechanism if quality of classroomprocesses is to be improved.

Professionalism in any field of workis a necessary condition for success.Professional growth not only enhancesknowledge of an individual, but alsocontributes towards the overalldevelopment of the individual as wellas of the society. Therefore, it isessential that opportunities forprofessional development of allteachers, including the Scheduled Caste(SC), must be provided to ensurequality elementary education to allchildren. Arora and Singh (1997) assertthat professional development of

teachers is the most significantintervention to improve the quality ofschool education. Baselineachievement studies of NCERT andNUEPA, however, have pointed out theinadequacy of training of pre-serviceand in-service teachers. Concerns havebeen expressed towards the quality ofelementary education and varioussteps have been taken to improve it, butthe existing conditions in the field andclassroom processes demand drasticchange. Efforts are needed for overallimprovements in terms of

* Professor, Department of Elementary Education, NCERT, New Delhi-110016

ELEMENTARY EDUCATION


infrastructure facilities, in-servicetraining of teachers, monitoring of useof skills acquired during the in-servicetraining, community involvement andchange of attitudes among theadministrators and teachers towardsimprovement of education. Althoughin-service trainings to teachers,including the SC teachers, areorganised from time to time, theirperceptions towards these trainings areessential for improvement. Theperceptions of teachers towards in-service training are also important forimprovement of classroom processes toensure quality education. This studytried to find out perceptions of SCteachers towards in-service trainingprogramme and its relationship withclassroom processes.

National Curriculum Framework(NCF) 2005 stressed that teachereducation must become more sensitiveto the emerging demands from theschool system and it must prepare theteacher for various roles andresponsibilities. The teacher mustencourage and support learners todiscover their talents, realise theirphysical and intellectual potentialitiesto the fullest. She/he shouldunderstand the way learning occursand create plausible situationsconducive to learning. The teachershould view knowledge as personalexperiences constructed in the sharedcontext of teaching-learning, ratherthan embedded in the external realityof textbooks. In the context of changeperspective, it is imperative to pursue

an integrated model of teachereducation for strengthening theprofessional skills of teachers, such asaddressing the learning needs of allchildren, including those who aremarginalised and disabled. It furtheremphasises the need for enablingenvironment in the school for allchildren where interactions betweenteacher and children take place.

Qualified and trained teachersassume a significant role in providingquality education at primary stage.However, in many states, as theresearcher observed, a large number ofteachers had received shor -termtraining, some of them were untrained,and yet they were working as teachers.

If this practice continues, it willcontradict the commitment for qualityelementary education. Experience andreports indicate that a large number ofchildren leave schools beforecompleting primary education. One ofthe reasons for this dropout of studentscould be uninteresting classroomprocesses due to untrained or under-trained teachers or inappropriate in-service training programmes beingoffered to teachers. The Programme ofAction (1992) and SSA Framework forImplementation contend that qualityissues in elementary education aremainly dependent upon the quality ofinfrastructure, support services,opportunity time, teachercharacteristics and teacher motivation,pre-service and in-service education ofteachers, curriculum and teaching-learning materials, classroom

35In-service Training and its Effects on Classroom Processes

processes, pupil evaluation, monitoringand supervision, etc. The Programmeof Action (1992) recommends initialand recurrent orientation of teachers,improve the quality of existing pre-service teacher education, organisequality in-service teacher education toall teachers on a periodical basis andwith a followup mechanism, creatingand sustaining teacher motivation andrevitalise supervision system for qualityelementary education. The in-servicetrainings should be designed throughthe assessment of difficulties encounterby the teachers in day-to-day teachingand they should be provided with newideas to improve teaching-learningprocesses in the classrooms.The purpose of this study was to:

• study the perceptions of ScheduledCaste teachers towards in-servicetraining programme in Rajasthan;

• find out its relationship withclassroom processes at primarystage; and

• suggest steps to ensure qualityeducation to the learner.

Based on the objectives of thestudy, the following research questionswere framed:

• What are the perceptions of SCteachers towards in-servicetraining programmes that theyreceived?

• What kinds of teaching-learningmethods are used in the classroomby SC teachers after receiving in-service training?

• Is there any relationship betweenin-service training programmesand classroom processes beingused by SC teachers?

• What steps (both long term andshort term) need to be taken toimprove teaching skills of SCteachers?

Method

The study was conducted usingnormative survey method. Two districtswith predominance of SC population(Pali and Nagaur) in Rajasthan, and aminimum of two blocks from eachdistrict were selected using purposivesampling. However, rural and urbanschools from two districts were selectedrandomly from amongst the schools thathad SC teachers. The sample schoolsand respondents have been showndistrict-wise in the following table.

Table 1: District-wise Sample ofSchools and Respondents

District School Respondents

Pali 14 26

Nagpur 15 17

29 43

There were 26 respondents from 14schools in Pali district and 17respondents from 15 schools in Nagaurdistrict. To collect reliable and validdata, two tools were developed andpresented to the experts in a workshopfor finalisation. These tools were:

1. The Interview Schedule forTeachers


2. An Observation Schedule

The semi-structured interviewschedule for teachers had threesections. Section-A had school profilewhere name and address of the school,total number of teachers, schoolinfrastructure (facilities), and theinformation about SC teachers weresought. Section-B collected informationabout SC teachers, such as name,gender, age, designation, academic andprofessional qualifications, teachingexperience in years, and monthlyemoluments. Section-C contained 21items, out of which fourteen were inclosed format and seven were open-ended. Out of 14 closed format items,five sought detailed answers in additionto ‘yes’ and ‘no’ responses. Open-endeditems were primarily included to elicitdetailed information from therespondents. Seven items related to theperceptions of SC teachers towards in-service training programmes andfourteen items were concerned withclassroom processes.

Observation techniques were alsoused to study classroom processesbecause certain types of informationcould best be obtained through directobservation. The purpose ofobservation schedule was to verifyphysical and educational facilities,classroom processes and steps takenby the teacher to promote cooperationbetween students. The observationschedule contained 11 items, whichwere designed to observe variousphysical and educational facilities,

classroom processes, availableteaching-learning aids and their use inthe classroom, teacher’s regularity andpunctuality and discipline in theclassroom. Except items 4 and 6, allother items had three options—‘often’,‘sometimes’ and ‘never’. While item 4was an open-ended, item 6 had fiveoptions.

These tools were tried out on fourSC teachers in four government schoolsof Gurgaon and on two SC teachers ofone Kendriya Vidyalaya of New Delhias a part of establishing reliability andvalidity of the instruments. The try-outof tools helped in understanding thedifficulty level of items and the timeneeded to complete the tools. Duringtry-out of tools, three additions in theinterview schedule for SC teachers weremade. Items 8, 14 and 15 were suitablymodified as per requirements. Theseadditions were Item 8 (d{kk ijh{k.k), Item14 (bdkbZ ijh{k.k), and Item 15 (vfrfjDrd{kk,a ysdj). In the observation schedule,only the name was added in itemnumber 5.

Procedure

As a part of the planning, the Stateauthorities were contacted on telephoneto explain the purpose of the study. Aletter explaining the importance andpurpose of the study along with anaction plan was sent to the State ProjectDirector, SSA to seek permission andnecessary support for the study. Afterthe consent of state authorities, Pali andNagaur districts of Rajasthan were


selected for the study. The stateauthorities directed concerned officialsof the districts and blocks to providefacilities for conducting the study. Theinvestigator went to initiate the work ofthe study personally and discuss withauthorities about the selection of blocksand the schools. This discussion helpeda great deal in finalising the blocks andschools. The investigator ensuredproper administration of tools (theinterview schedule and the observationschedule) and collected the data. Thishelped the investigator also tounderstand and have first-handexperience of the actual situation anddifficulties faced by officials,headmasters and teachers. It also gavehim an opportunity to see the classroomprocesses and interact with teacherspersonally.

Results and Discussion

The data were analysed using simpledescriptive statistics, such as mean, SDand percentage. The results of thisstudy have been discussed under thefollowing three heads:

1. Perceptions of Scheduled CasteTeachers towards In-serviceTrainings

2. Effects of In-service Training onClassroom Processes at PrimaryStage

3. Observation Results of ClassroomProcesses in Schools of Pali andNagaur Districts.

1. Perceptions of Scheduled CasteTeachers towards In-serviceTrainings

Perceptions of teachers towards in-service trainings play a significant rolenot only in improving theseprogrammes, but also in classroomprocesses to ensure retention ofchildren. Therefore, perceptions of SCteachers towards in-service trainingprogrammes were studied. In total,seven items in the interview schedulerelated directly to the in-servicetraining. These seven items–2, 3, 4, 5,19, 20 and 21—have been discussedin detail below.

Item 2 inquired if SC teachers hadreceived in-service training in the lasttwo years. All respondents in Pali andNagaur districts respondedaffirmatively. On average, every teacherhad received two to three in-servicetrainings in the last two years.

Item 3 inquired about thecontribution of in-service training to theimprovement of teaching skills. In Palidistrict, 26.92% teachers told that thein-service trainings were fully usefuland 69.23% said these trainingscontributed partially in thedevelopment of their teaching skills.When the perceptions of rural andurban teachers were analysed, 18.19%rural teachers felt that the in-servicetrainings fully contributed to thedevelopment of their teaching skills and81.81% said that they were partiallybenefited from these trainings. On theother hand, 33.33% urban teachers


maintained that they were fullybenefited, 60% partially benefited and3.84% said that benefits were little. InNagaur district, 76.47% teachers feltthat the in-service trainings were fullyuseful, 11.76% felt they were partiallyuseful and 11.76% said very littleuseful. When these teachers wereclassified into rural and urban groups,84.62% rural teachers said fully useful,5.88% said partially useful and 5.88%said little useful. On the contrary, 50%urban teachers said fully useful, 5.88%said partially useful and 5.88% saidlittle useful.

Item 4 tried to find out differentteaching-learning methods thatteachers learned during the in-servicetrainings. In Pali district, 30.76%reported of learning play-way methodand 46.15% informed of learningquestion-answer method. Theremaining 23.07% teachers did notknow about teaching-learningmethods; they reported of learning theuse of different teaching-learning aids.In Nagaur district, 47.05% teacherssaid they learnt play-way methods,whereas 58.82% said they learntquestion-answer method. This clearlydemonstrates that the in-servicetraining provided to these teachers didnot include component of variousteaching-learning methods that havebeen researched in the last 3 decades.As far as the teaching-learningmethods, such as play-way method andquestion-answer method areconcerned, these are taught during the

regular pre-service training.

Item 5 inquired if the teachers wereusing the methods in the classroomthat they had learnt during the in-service training. In Pali district, 96.15%SC teachers reported of using themethods in the classrooms learntduring the in-service training. Amongthe respondents, 26.92% claimed thatthey were using these methods fullyand 69.23% said they were usingpartially. It is necessary to point outhere that majority of these teachers didnot know the difference betweenteaching-learning methods andteaching-learning aids. This suggeststhat in-service trainings needimprovements both in terms of thecontents and selection of resourcepersons. In Nagaur district, hundredper cent reported of using variousteaching-learning methods in theclassrooms that they had learnt duringthe in-service training. Among therespondents, 70.59% said that they usevarious teaching-learning methods inthe classrooms fully, 17.65%maintained they were using partiallyand 11.76% reported of using thesemethods rarely.

Item 19 intended to find out SCteachers’ perception about the in-service training. Teachers were askedto state three striking features of in-service training that they hadundergone. In Pali district, 7.69%respondents informed of receivingtraining in different subjects, 57.69%learning new methods of teaching,


34.61% reported of getting informationabout the new syllabus and 15.38%receiving the training in the use ofteaching-learning materials. In Nagaurdistrict, 35.29% respondents reportedreceiving training in different subjects,70.59% learning new methods ofteaching and 23.52% receivinginformation about the new syllabus. Itis obvious that teachers did not learnany new methods during the in-servicetraining, even though they claimed so.The methods, as told by teachers, wereplay-way and question-answermethods.

Item 20 tried to find outshortcomings of the in-service training.In Pali district, 30.76% told that thearrangements during the training, suchas availability of learning materials,proper food, arrangements of toilets forladies, were not satisfactory; while halfof the respondents (50%) maintainedthat selection of resource persons wasnot appropriate. Among the remainingrespondents, 11.54% reported of notransport facilities to the place oftraining and 3.84% said that thetraining was provided in the samesubject repeatedly. In Nagaur district,58.82% respondents told that thearrangements were not satisfactory and47.05% complained of improperselection of resource persons.

In response to item 21, whichsought suggestions of SC teacherstowards improvement of in-servicetraining, 53.85% respondents in Palidistrict suggested that actual experts

should be selected to impart in-servicetraining, 15.38% proposed that thetraining should be conducted in JanShiksha Kendra Block ResourceCentre (BRC), 19.23% wanted disciplineto be enforced both for the organisersof the training and teachers for properconduct and regular attendance,42.30% respondents were not in favourof conducting these trainingprogrammes during the vacations and30.76% responses were irrelevant. InNagaur district too, 50.82%respondents stressed the need forappropriate selection of experts toimpart in-service training, while 5.88%said that the training should beconducted in BRC. Quite a fewrespondents (23.52%) suggested thatteachers must be serious towards in-service training and steps should betaken to ensure that they takeadvantage of such trainingprogrammes. A large number ofrespondents (41.18%) suggested thatin-service training programmes shouldnot be conducted during the vacations.The remaining 35.29% responses wereirrelevant.

2. Effects of In-service Training onClassroom Processes at PrimaryStage

The purpose of in-service trainingprogrammes is to improve knowledgeand skills of teachers in order toimprove classroom processes andachievement levels of all students. Thepurpose of such trainings is also toimprove overall quality of primary


education. Therefore, this study triedto see if in-service training programmeshave helped to improve classroomprocesses at primary stage and if thereis any relationship between in-servicetraining and classroom processes.Eleven items in the interview schedulefrom 8 to 18 were related to classroomprocesses. Table 2 shows the Mean andStandard Deviation scores for the itemsrelating to classroom processes in theinterview schedules.

While comparing the mean score ofclassroom processes in rural and urbanschools of Pali district, it is clear thatthe difference in the classroomprocesses of rural and urban schoolswas little. Based on the responses ofSC teachers, it could be concluded thatthe classroom processes in urbanschools were slightly better than therural schools. The trend was differentin Nagaur district where rural schoolsperformed slightly better than theurban schools in terms of classroomprocesses.

The comparison of mean scores ofmale and female SC teachers in Palidistrict showed negligible difference interms of classroom processes, while thedifference in Nagaur district (male 5.25,female 4.80) was found. When the twodistricts were compared, the differenceof mean scores between Pali andNagaur was slight, which could be dueto the difference in sample size (26 inPali and 17 in Nagaur). Similarly, thedifferences between the mean scores ofmale and female teachers in Pali andNagaur districts could be due to thedifferences in sample size.

Some of the items sought detailedresponses from the respondents aboutclassroom processes. Item 8 wasconcerned with insuring classroomlearning by each child. This item hadthree options: (a) by asking questionsin the classroom, (b) through class test,and (c) by giving homework. In Palidistrict, all the 26 respondents (100%)told that they ensure learning of eachchild by asking questions in theclassroom, whereas 69.23%maintained that they do so by givingclass test. A large number of SCteachers (88.46%) claimed that theygive homework to ensure classroomlearning of each child. This means thatasking questions in the classroom waswidely practised in almost all theschools, whereas homework was notgiven by all the teachers. In Nagaurdistrict, out of 17 respondents, 100%SC teachers said that they ensurelearning of each child by asking

Table 2: Mean and Standard DeviationScores for Classroom Processes in Paliand Nagaur Districts

Pali Nagpur

N Mean SD N Mean SD

Rural 11 4.45 1.04 13 5.38 0.65

Urban 15 4.60 1.06 4 4.25 1.50Male 23 4.48 1.08 12 5.25 0.97

Female 3 5.00 0.00 5 4.80 1.10

DistrictTotal 26 4.54 1.03 17 5.12 0.99


questions in the classrooms, while70.59% told that they use weekly/monthly class test for this purpose. Thehomework to children was reported by100% SC teachers to ensure learningby each child.

Item 9 inquired how teachersencourage participation of all studentsin the classroom. In Pali district,53.85% respondents revealed thatteaching is made interesting by tellingstories, by using simple techniques andby using TLM, whereas 38.46%respondents disclosed the use ofreinforcements. Other responses(42.30%) were concerned with askingquestions in the classroom toencourage participation of students. InNagaur district, 47.05% respondentsrevealed that teaching was madeinteresting by telling stories, by usingsimple techniques and by using TLM,whereas 23.53% respondents indicatedthe use of reinforcements. Otherrespondents (41.18%) were concernedwith asking questions in the classroomto encourage participation of students.

Item 10 was concerned with usingvarious teaching-learning approachesfor different learning ability groups. InPali district, out of 26 respondents,53.85% told that they teach weakchildren separately, which in no waycould be considered justified. Teachingthese children in a separate groupmakes them feel inferior to otherchildren. Among the respondents,11.54% informed that they form mixability groups to help weak children.

The remaining respondents(approximately 34%) gave irrelevantresponses. In Nagaur district, 64.71%reported of teaching weak children inseparate groups, whereas 11.76% toldthat they form mix ability groups to helpthese children. The remainingrespondents, (approximately 24%)gave other responses that were notrelated to the item.

Item 11 inquired if teachers useteaching-learning aids in theclassrooms, and if yes, they wererequired to name them. In Pali andNagaur districts, the responses werecategorised as under:

Table 3 : Use of teaching-learningaids by teachers in Pali and Nagaur

districts

Teaching Pali Nagpur

learningaids

Charts 76.92% 100.00%

Models 30.76% 47.05%

Maps 30.76% 17.64%

Globe 42.30% 11.76%

Item 12 tried to find out ifdiscussions take place overimprovements of teaching-learningprocesses in the staff meetings. In Palidistrict, 46.15% reported that problemsrelating to teaching-learning were notdiscussed in the staff meetings, ratherresponsibilities of children wereassigned to teachers. Otherrespondents (34.62%) said that the


problems of children having learningdifficulties were discussed. Otherresponses were not relevant. In Nagaurdistrict, 35.29% reported that problemsrelated to teaching-learning were notdiscussed in the staff meetings, ratherresponsibilities of children wereassigned to teachers. Otherrespondents (17.64%) said that theproblems of children having learningdifficulties were discussed. Otherresponses were not relevant.

Item 13 was concerned withevaluation procedures used by theteachers to assess the learning ofchildren. In Pali district, 38.46% saidthey give assignment to students,88.46% told that they give class test tostudents and 100% reported of half-yearly examination to assess thelearning of children. In Nagaur district,41.18% informed of giving assignments,100 % said that they give class test and100% reported of half-yearlyexamination to evaluate the learning ofstudents.

Item 14 was concerned with theassessment of the progress of eachchild. In Pali district, 92.31%respondents reported of assessing theprogress of each child by givinghomework, 84.62% respondentsinformed of using class test, 32.62%unit test and 100% informed of halfyearly and annual examinations. InNagaur district, 94.12% respondentsinformed of homework, 82.35% classtest, 23.52% unit test and 100%informed of half yearly and annual

examinations.

Item 15 inquired about the use ofevaluation results as the basis forremedial teaching to enhance learningof slow learners. In Pali district,19.23% responses informed ofpreparing learning materials, 23.07%preparing teaching aids, 7.69% usingaudio-visual materials, 23.07% takingextra classes and 57.69% not takingany step. In Nagaur district, 47.06%respondents claimed of preparinglearning materials, 35.29% preparingteaching aids, 29.41% reported oftaking extra classes and 29.41%informed of taking no steps.

Item 16 was concerned withteachers taking various steps to resolvetheir classroom related difficulties. InPali district, responses in differentcategories varied. For instance, 84.62%responses related to consultation withcolleagues, 69.23% responses revealeddiscussion of such issues in the staffmeetings and 11.54% responsesreported of consulting various sources,such as print material, audio-visualmaterial and the Internet. In Nagaurdistrict, 100% responses related toconsultation with colleagues, 70.59%responses revealed discussion of suchproblems in the staff meetings, and23.52% responses reported ofconsulting various sources, such asprint material, Internet and audio-visual material.

Item 17 inquired as to how in-service training helped the teachers inensuring retention of children in the


school. In Pali district, 53.85% teachersreported of contacting the parents ofdropout children, 19.23% by keepingstudents busy, 11.54% by peersinfluence and 19.23% informed ofreceiving no information about it duringthe training. In Nagaur district, 58.82%

teachers indicated by contacting theparents of dropout child, 17.65% bykeeping students busy, 11.76% bypeers’ influence, 23.53% reportedreceiving no information during the in-service training.

Item 18 tried to find out howTable 4: Observation Results of Classroom Processes in Schools

of Pali and Nagaur Districts

(Pali N = 26) (Nagpur N = 17)

Pali Nagpur

Question Often Some- Never Often Some- Never

times times

Motivates 20 4 2 14 2 1students (76.92%) (15.38%) (7.69%) (93.33%) (13.33%) (6.66%)by askingquestionsEncourages 12 10 4 8 7 2students to (46.15%) (38.46%) (15.38%) (47.05%) (41.17%) (11.76%)ask questionsUse of TLM 2 2 22 0 2 15in classroom (7.69%) (7.69%) (84.61%) (0.0%) (11.76%) (88.23%)

Use of audio- 0 0 26 0 0 17visual material (0.0%) (0.0%) (100.0%) (0.0%) (0.0%) (100.0%)Use of 4 3 19 0 4 13reinfor- (15.38%) (11.53%) (73.07%) (0.0%) (23.52%) (76.47%)cementsTeacher 4 19 3 1 14 2gives home- (15.38%) (73.07%) (11.53%) (5.88%) (82.35%) (11.76%)work andchecks itTeacher 22 3 1 14 3 0maintains (84.61%) (11.53%) (3.84%) (82.35%) (17.64%) (0.0%)discipline

Teacher 10 15 1 6 11 0teaches (38.46%) (57.69%) (3.84%) (35.29%) (64.71%) (0.0%)classregularly


parent-teacher association meetingshelped in solving student problems. InPali district, 53.85% teachers informedof discussions in the meetings withparents help overcome educationalproblems of students, 19.23% receivinghelp from parents in solving theproblem of absenteeism and 42.31%reported of no help from the parents.In Nagaur district, 35.29% teachersclaimed that these meetings had helpedsolving educational problems ofchildren, 29.41% claimed that thesemeetings were good platform for solvingthe problem of absenteeism, and41.18% felt that these meetings werenot useful at all.

3. Observation Results ofClassroom Processes in Schools ofPali and Nagaur Districts

The observation results and theinformation provided by teachers in theschools of Pali and Nagaur districts didnot differ. Table 4 presents observationresults of classroom processes in Paliand Nagaur districts.

From Table 4, it appears that thenumber of SC teachers who oftenmotivated students by asking questionswas more in Nagaur districts than inPali district. Regarding encouraging thestudents to often ask questions in theclassroom the percentage of SC teachersdoing so in Pali district was slightly lessthan the percentage of SC teachers inNagaur district.

The SC teachers never usingteaching-learning aids were more

(88.23%) in Nagaur than in Pali district(84.61%). No teacher was found inNagaur using teaching learning aidsoften. A small proportion of teachers useteaching-learning aids in both thedistricts.

Classroom processes could be mademore effective if participation of childrenis enhanced by using reinforcements.Therefore, the observation scheduleincluded an item to find out the use ofreinforcements by the SC teachers in theclassrooms. The percentage of teachersusing reinforcements both in Pali andNagaur districts was negligible. As faras giving homework and checking it bythe teachers was concerned, the resultswere interesting. Majority of teachersboth in Pali and Nagaur districts gaveand checked the home work‘sometimes’, whereas the percentage ofteachers giving homework ‘never’ bothin Pali and Nagaur districts was11.53% and 11.76%, respectively.

Discipline in the classrooms wasmaintained reasonably well both in Paliand Nagaur districts. The teachers werereported taking classes regularly bothin Pali and Nagaur districts.

Summary of Findings

In-service training programmes needimprovements both in terms of thecontent and selection of resourcepersons. Teachers did not learn anynew methods in the trainingprogramme, even though they claimedso. Although the respondents hadreceived two-three in-service trainings,


majority of them could not make adifference between teaching-learningmethods and teaching aids. Therespondents of Pali district claimed thatin-service training programmes helpedimproving their teaching skills partiallyand the respondents of Nagaur districtmaintained that the in-service trainingshelped improving classroom processesfully; however, it was not evident inpractice. Only 16% of the SC teachersin Pali district and 12% of the SCteachers in Nagaur district were foundusing teaching-learning materials in theclassrooms. The respondents in boththe districts strongly felt that theorganisers of in-service training shouldselect resource persons who haveexpertise in their areas. They alsomaintained that strong disciplineshould be enforced for in-serviceteachers to benefit from it.

As far as classroom processes wereconcerned, urban schools of Palidistrict were found performing betterthan the schools in rural areas andrural schools of Nagaur district werefound performing better than theschools in urban areas. No observabledifferences were found between maleand female teachers. The respondentsclaimed that they give homework,conduct class test and ask questionsin the classroom to ensure learning ofall students; but observation resultsrevealed that teachers asked questionsin the classroom to ensure learning ofstudents, but homework and class testswere rare. Although the respondents

told that they make mix ability groupsof students to ensure learning of weakchildren and they also give extra timeto weak students, but the observationsrevealed that teacher’s concentrationwas mainly on intelligent students andmix ability groups were not formedanywhere for educational purposes.The respondents also claimed that theyprepared special TLM to teach weakchildren; but special TLM and specialteaching to these children were notavailable at the time of this study. Themajority of the respondents admittedthat children’s problems were notdiscussed in the staff meetings. Parent-Teacher Association meetings were heldrarely and there was no cooperation ofthe parents in such meetings.

Suggestions

Based on the discussions of thefindings, the following suggestions maybe useful for improvements of in-servicetraining of the teachers and consequentimprovements in the classroomprocesses:

• Identification of in-service trainingneeds of teachers may be carriedout before organising suchtrainings. Identification of suchneeds will help organisers of thetraining to provide appropriateinputs.

• Selection of resource personsshould be made in accordance withthe expertise in the concerned topicso that teachers could benefit fromtheir experiences.


• The training in various teaching-learning methods should bearranged in order to improveclassroom processes.

• Strict discipline should beenforced for teachers andorganisers of the training, assuggested by some teachers, tomake in-service training eaningful

and fruitful.• The resource persons may give

demonstration of teaching methodsin order to develop appropriateteaching skills.

• Training in action research mayequip teachers to identify learningproblems of the students and takeremedial measures.

REFERENCES

ARORA, G.L. AND SINGH, A. 1997. In-service training of primary teachers: Some examples.The Primary Teacher, XXII, 3, 14-20.

National Curriculum Framework. 2005. NCERT, New Delhi.

National Policy on Education 1986. Programme of Action. 1992. Government of India,MHRD, Department of Education, New Delhi.

SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN, A Programme for Universal Elementary Education. MHRD,Department of Elementary Education and Literacy, New Delhi.

Emotional Intelligence and TEmotional Intelligence and TEmotional Intelligence and TEmotional Intelligence and TEmotional Intelligence and Teaching Behaviour: eaching Behaviour: eaching Behaviour: eaching Behaviour: eaching Behaviour: RRRRRole of Emotionalole of Emotionalole of Emotionalole of Emotionalole of EmotionalIntelligence in the Social-emotional Climate of the Classes ofIntelligence in the Social-emotional Climate of the Classes ofIntelligence in the Social-emotional Climate of the Classes ofIntelligence in the Social-emotional Climate of the Classes ofIntelligence in the Social-emotional Climate of the Classes ofthe Primarthe Primarthe Primarthe Primarthe Primary School Ty School Ty School Ty School Ty School Teacherseacherseacherseacherseachers

Gaurang Tiwari *Asha Pandey **

55555

* NTS-Doctoral Fellow and Research Scholar

** Professor and Ex-Head and Dean

Faculty of Education (K), Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi-221005

Abstract

The teaching-learning phenomenon occurs in the context of a social situationand hence what superficially appears to be a cognitive enterprise acquires adimension of human relations in its operational stage. The social-emotionalclimate in a classroom mainly depends upon the teacher’s behaviour. It is theteacher who steers and guides the proceedings. The classroom climate is thusconditioned by the type of behaviour is exhibited by the teacher in the classroom.Personal and social competencies associated with emotional intelligence ofteacher are found to shape the inter-personal relationship, which in turn, shapethe teaching behaviour and ultimately social-emotional climate. For finding outthe probable association between the emotional intelligence and teachingbehaviour, sampled teachers were observed using Flander’s Interaction AnalysisCategories (FIACs) and on the basis of the performance on the emotionalintelligence test. It was observed that level of emotional intelligence tended todecide the learning environment and socio-emotional climate of a classroom.

Key words: Emotional intelligence, i/d ratio, I/D ratio, pupil initiation ratio,social-emotional climate.

Introduction

The dynamics of teaching is a crucialfactor in students’ learning. Teachersestablish the pattern of general conduct

during a lesson, while on their partstudents establish certain types ofbehaviour to coincide with this pattern.Consequently the students participate


to varying degrees in different classesand react differently to differentteachers. This combined instructionalpattern and student participation leadto specific classroom environmentcharacterised by specific interactionpatterns. The instructional theory of‘social-emotional climate’ hypothesisesthat this environment has a direct effecton both student attitude andachievement. Climate is considered torepresent the emotional tone which isconcomitant to interpersonalinteraction. It is general emotional factorwhich appears to be present ininteractions occurring betweenindividuals in face to face group.

What Constitutes the Social-Emotional Climate in theClassrooms?

It is the interaction pattern, broughtabout by teacher, which shapes theemotional climate of the classroom.Interaction pattern refers the wayteacher interacts with the students andstudents’ reciprocation (in consequentto teacher’s activities). An importantelement of the effective interactionpattern in the classroom is‘connectednesses’. It may be defined asmutuality, sensitivity to and respect forothers’ views; and permeability,openness to others’ views whichultimately lead to the creation of caringteacher-student relationship (Griffin,1998; Shafii and Shafii, 2001;Santrock, 2003). Characteristics ofpositive teacher-student relationshipsare high expectation, networking,

practice, appropriate self-disclosureand using rituals and traditions withinthe classroom. High expectations mightbe defined as such belief on the part ofthe teacher about the learner that thelearner can learn. High expectations arean optimistic belief that whoever youteach or whatever you do will result insuccess or achievement. Teachers needto recognise students’ achievements,positively reinforce theiraccomplishments, and celebratestudents’ academic and personalsuccess by recognising them publicly.Recognising students’ achievementshows students that someone caresabout their accomplishments.Networking is another characteristic ofpositive teacher-student relationships.Networking implies degree of‘connectednesses between the teacherand student which strengthen thepositive teacher-student relationships’(Deiro, 2005; Shafii and Shafii, 2001;Roher and Weir, 2004; Wong and Wong,2001).

Another important element ofpositive teacher-student relationship isdialogue or communicating withstudents. When teachers and studentsspend time together in caring dialogue,a positive connection will result .Communicating with students isimportant in order to create positiveteacher-student relationships . Self-disclosure is an importantcharacteristic in positive teacher-student relationships. Self-disclosureis the act of sharing or disclosing theteacher’s own feelings, attitudes and

49Emotional Intelligence and Teaching Behaviour

experiences with students in ways thatare helpful to the students and enhancetheir learning process (Cayanus, 2002;Stern and Repa, 2001; Deiro, 2005;Griffin, 1998).

Teacher has an enormous influenceon their students, an influence thatshould be positive and encouraging. Itis the teacher who has more power thanthe student in teacher-studentrelationship, because, teacher-studentrelationship is an example of influentialrelationship in which the distributionof power between the participants isasymmetrical. With this power comesresponsibility, the teacher is expectedto give, know, and understand morethan the student. The main concern ofthe teacher is to bring a change in thestudent’s situation, behaviour orattitude (Deiro, 2005; Spitalli, 2005).It is incumbent on the teacher to besensitive toward social inter aliaemotional needs, since teacher assumesthe vital and pivotal position in theclassroom and sets into chain suchevents that decide the nature of climatein the classroom, so, climate of theclassroom is around the teachers’capabilities to make himself/herselfattuned towards the students’ needs(safety needs, need for belonging andlove, need for importance, respect, self-esteem, and independence over andabove the need for understanding) asper the Maslow’s hierarchy of the needs(1979).

Ingredients of the Social-motionalClimate of the Classroom on theBasis of the Interaction AnalysesCategories Systems

All the tools which measure teachingbehaviour employing the interactionanalysis category system like FlanderInteraction Analysis Category System(FIACs) and other tools developed onthe line of FIACs, namely, VerbalInteraction Category System(VICS)developed by Amidon and Hunter,Reciprocal Category System developedby Richard Ober (1971) capture theactivities of the teachers which areidentified as ingredients of the social-emotional climate are –

• Teacher accepts and clarifies anattitude or the feeling (eitherpositive or negative) of a pupil in anon-threatening and friendlymanner.

• Teacher encourages or praises theview point, action, behaviour, ideasand contribution of the students.

• Teacher makes the classroomclimate humorous by cutting jokesbut not at the expense of the otheror hurting the dignity of otherstudent.

• Criticizing or justifying authority itimplies the statements (on the partof the teachers) intended to changepupil behaviour from non-acceptable to acceptable patternand use of extreme self-reference.

• When teacher ignores, discourages


or rejects pupil expression offeelings.

• When teacher criticizes, ignores ordiscourages pupils’ ideas.

• Teacher’s showing of positiveemotions towards children andtheir managing of children’sbehavior.

• Responding in a way whichcommands or encourages pupilbehaviour.

Above mentioned activities,associated with the teacher, give themodus operandi of handling theinterpersonal relationship which arisein the teaching-learning situation. Theresearches on teacher effectivenesssuggest that when teachers sustainemotionally positive classroom climatesand effectively manage children’sbehaviour, children demonstrate highengagement in learning . Indeed,teacher -child relationshipscharacterised by more warmth andresponsiveness, and by less anger andharshness, are linked to children’sgreater academic achievement andsocial comptence (Gettinger andStoiber, 1998; Burchinal, Peisner -Feinberg, Pianta, and Howes, 2000;Decker, Dona, and Christenson, 2007;Hamre and Pianta, 2005).

Social-emotional Climate andTeacher’s Emotional Intelligence

The teaching-learning phenomenonoccurs in the context of a social situationand hence what superficially appearsto be a cognitive enterprise acquires a

dimension of human relations in itsoperational stage. The degree of successor failure of the enterprise woulddepend upon the extent to which theleader of the group, the teacher, takesinto account the emerging social-emotional climate in the classroom andacts accordingly. The social-emotionalclimate mainly depends upon theteacher-behaviour, since in a classroomsituation, it is a teacher who steers andguides the proceedings. The former is,thus, crucially conditioned by the typeof teacher behaviour exhibited in theclassroom. Handling the interpersonalrelationship and consequently bringingabout such social-emotional climate inthe classroom as will facilitate theteaching-learning activities as intended,are embedded in the personality of theteacher. Array of emotional intelligenceabilities enable the teacher to bringabout healthy learning environmentswhich are critical to the harmoniousdevelopment of cognitive, affective andpsychomotor domain (Goad, 2005;Justice, 2005). Emotional intelligenceis a confluence of abilities to: (1) knowand value self, (2) build and maintaina variety of strong, productive andhealthy relationships, (3) get along andwork well with others in achievingpositive results; and (4) effectively dealswith the pressures and demands ofdaily life and work (Nelson and Low,2005).

From above discussion of the social-emotional climate of the classroomfavourable to efficient teaching-learningactivities, it appears that emotionally


intelligent teacher is best equipped tohandle the interpersonal relationshipswith students. This is the reason whythe study entitled ‘A Study of EmotionalIntelligence and Teaching Behaviour ofPrimary School Teachers’ was executedto compare the teaching pattern of theprimary school teachers with regard totheir level of emotional intelligence.

Objectives of the Study

The objectives of the study may bespecifically stated as under:

• To identify salient features of theclassroom behaviour patterns ofthe primary school teachersobserved during the study andhaving different levels of emotionalintelligence: Extremely HighEmotional Intelligence (EHE), HighEmotional Intelligence (HE),Moderate Emotional Intelligence(ME) and Low EmotionalIntelligence (LE).

• To compare the verbalclassroom behaviour patternsidentified with the norms given byFlanders.

Operational Definition of theTerms Used

• Teaching behaviour: Teachingbehaviour as it is analysed byFIACs (Flanders InteractionAnalysis Category System). FIACsanalyses teaching phenomenon interms of the 10 categories that arebroadly subsumed under teachertalk, pupil talk and silence ( as cited

in Flanders 1970, p.34)

• Emotional intelligence:Emotional intelligence is the abilityof an individual to appropriatelyand successfully respond to a vastvariety of stimuli being elicited fromthe inner self and immediateenvironment. Emotionalintelligence constitutes threepsychological dimensions—emotional sensitivity, emotionalmaturity and emotionalcompetency—which motivate anindividual to recognise truthfullyinterpret honestly and handletactfully the dynamics of humanbehaviour.

(a) Extremely High EmotionalIntelligence (EHE): Teachers whohave scored 285 on ‘Emotionalintelligence test’ and above areclassified as extremely highemotional intelligent teachers.

(b) High Emotional Intelligence (HE):Teachers who have scored in therange of 250-284 on ‘Emotionalintelligence test’ are classified ashigh emotional intelligent teachers.

(c) Moderate EmotionalIntelligence (ME) : Teacherswho have scored in the range of200-249 on ‘Emotionalintelligence test’ are classified asmoderate emotional intelligentteachers.

(d) Low Emotional Intelligence (LE):Teachers who have scored in therange of 150-199 on ‘Emotionalintelligence test’ are classified aslow emotional intelligent teachers.


Design and Methodology

The methodology used in this studywas the descriptive survey researchmethod. All the primary school teachersof government, government aided andprivate schools constituted thepopulation of the study. ‘Multi-stagesystematic sampling technique’ wasemployed for selection of sample. Ninetyone primary school teachers wererandomly drawn for this study.

Tools Used

1. F0landers interaction analysiscategory system (1970) was usedto observe the classes.

2. The EQ Test (developed by Prof. N.K. Chadha and Dr. Dalip Singh)was adapted in Hindi by theinvestigator for the measurementof emotional intelligence of primaryschool teachers.

Data Collection

First of all, the investigator took trainingin observations. The co-efficient of inter-observer reliability was calculated bythe Scott’s coefficient which was. 0.85.Each of the teachers was observed for35 minutes. Observation wasaccompanied by the administration ofthe ‘Emotional intelligence test’.

Computation of ClassroomInteraction Variables

The interaction variables like, I/D ratio,i/d ratio and Pupil Initiation Ratio (PIR)were computed separately for teachersclassified into four groups, namely,

teachers having extremely highemotional intelligence (EHE), teachershaving high emotional intelligence (HI),teachers having moderate emotionalintelligence (ME), and teaches havinglow emotional intelligence (LE), basedon the performance on ‘Emotionalintelligence test.’ For computation of theforegoing interaction variables 10×10master interaction matrices for each ofthe four groups were compiled andfollowing formulas were used:

1. Pupil Initiation Ratio (PIR): Thisconcept indicates what proportionof pupil talk was judged by theobserver to be an act of initiation.The PIR is estimated bymultiplying the frequency incategory 9 by 100 and dividing bythe sum of all pupil talk, i.e.frequencies in category 8 and 9.Category 9 denotes the ‘Pupil talkinitiation’, which refers thesituation when student expressesown ideas, initiates a new topic,likes asking thoughtful questions,enjoys freedom to develop opinionsand a line of thought and gobeyond the existing structure. Onthe contrary to it, category 8 refers‘Pupil talk response’, it means talkby students in response to teacher,here, teacher structures the answerof the students; over and abovestudents enjoy less freedom toexpress own ideas.

2. Indirectness (i/d or I/D ratio):There are two methods ofestimating indirectness in a


teaching behaviour encoded byFIAC. The first is denoted by smalland is indicated as i/d. It iscalculated by adding up categoryfrequencies in columns 1, 2 and 3i.e. (1+2+3) and dividing the sameby category frequencies in columns6 and 7 i.e., (6+7). The second isdenoted by capital ‘I’ and isindicated I/D. It is calculated byadding up the category frequenciesin columns 1, 2, 3 and 4, i.e.(1+2+3+4) and dividing the sameby category frequencies in columns5, 6 and 7, i.e. (5+6+7).

Indirectness implies those teacher’sbehaviours that expands students’freedom of action in the classroom. Inthe context of Flander’s InteractionAnalysis Category System (FIACS), it isrepresented by teacher statementsaccepting or using student’s ideas oropinion, praising or encouragingstudents’ ideas or behaviours, clarifyingand accepting feelings of the pupils.

Directness refers those teacher’sbehaviours that restrict students’freedom of action in the classroom.These teacher behaviours arerepresented in FIACS by lecturing,giving directions or commands andcriticizing students’ ideas orbehaviours.

Data Analysis and Discussion

I/D and i/d ratios of teachers havingdifferent level of emotional

intelligence

Table 1 and Figure 1 depict theindirect-to-direct ratios of the teachersbelonging to categories EHE, HE, MEand LE. This depiction indicates thetrend of increment in the performanceof teachers on these interactionvariables accompanying theenhancement in the level of theemotional intelligence. So, it can bededuced that performance of teacherson these interaction variables is likely

Levels Extremely High Moderate Low Norms Norms for

high Emotional Emotional Emotional for American

Emotional Intelligence Intelligence Intelligence Indian classroomsInteraction Intelligence (HE) (ME) (LE) Class-Variables (EHE) rooms

I/D Ratio 0.36 0.29 0.12 0.066 NA NA

i/d Ratio 1.00 0.69 0.25 0.15 NA NA

Pupil 20.26 15.15 6.54 5.95 11 34

initiation

ratio

Table 1: Display of performance of teachers on different interaction variables

with regard to their level of emotional intelligence


to improve as the level of emotionalintelligence increases. Teachers withhighest emotional intelligence tend tohave highest I/D,I/d and P/R ratiosand teachers with lowest emotionalintelligence show lowest value of theseratios in their classroom interactionswith pupils.

As per FIACs categories 1, 2, 3 and4 termed as indicators of “indirectteacher influence” and categories 5, 6,and 7 as indicators of “direct teacherinfluence”, categories 1, 2 and 3(accepting or using student’s ideas oropinion, praising or encouragingstudents’ ideas or behaviours, clarifyingand accepting feelings of the pupils) arepotent components of the “indirectteacher influence” and categories 6 and7 (giving directions or commands and

criticizing students’ ideas orbehaviours) are potent components ofthe “direct teacher influence”.Occurrences of categories 1, 2 and 3tend to stimulate the students’initiation. On the contrary, extremeoccurrences of categories 6 and 7 tendto strangulate the students’ initiation(Flanders, 1970, p.104). Indirectteacher influence implies, thoughindirectly, the abilities of the teacher tobe sensitive and caring to the feelingsof the students, to praise andappreciate the perspectives andviewpoints of the students and to buildon the ideas expressed by the students.All these abilities, mentioned in thepreceding line, are traced to be deep-rooted in the emotional intelligence(Bhattacharya and Sengupta, 2007;Mayer and Salovey, 1990).

Figure 1: Display of performance of teachers on interaction variables ‘I/D andi/d ratios’ having different levels of emotional intelligence.

Per

cen

tage


Sensitivity to the feelings of thestudents implies that teacher is capablein perceiving, appraising, under -standing and analysing the emotionsof the students. This sensitivity enablesthe teacher to address the social-emotional needs (physiological needs,safety needs; belonging and love needs,need for importance, respect, self-esteem and independence, need forinformation, need for understanding;need for beauty, need for self-actualisation) of the students. Whenteacher verbally or non-verballycommunicates this sensitivity beforestudents, this is called the empathy ofthe teachers towards students and thisleads to cultivate and foster caringteacher-student relationship. Whenteacher praises and appreciates thebehaviour (verbal or non-verbal) of thestudents, this might be theconsequence of abilities of teachers toappreciate the perspectives andviewpoints of the students andconsequently positively impact,persuade and influence students.When teacher tries to build on thestudents’ ideas, it implies on the partof the teacher to develop the thinkinghorizon of the students, ability todevelop and bolster the abilities of thestudents. All foregoing abilities comeunder the empathy and social-skillssub-components of the socialcompetency dimension of the emotionalintelligence (Griffin, 1998; Low andNelson, 2005; Bhattacharya andSengupta, 2007). Therefore, it appears

that emotional intelligence of theteacher is associated with the abovediscussed interaction variables,teachers who possess considerablygood emotional intelligence tend to begood performers on these interactionvariables and teachers whose emotionalintelligence measured low, are foundpoor performers on the sameinteraction variables than that of theircounterparts.

Foregoing emotional intelligenceabilities enable the teacher to payattention to their students, to encouragetheir students, to support the aspirationof their students, and to recognise thestudents’ achievements, theseattributes, in turn, bear positive effecton the students’ learning. Teachers withhigh indirect-to-direct ratio are foundsignificantly better than with lowindirect-to-direct ratio in their influenceupon pupils regarding motivation andclassroom organisation and in thedevelopment of favourable attitudetowards themselves (teachers). Whenthe teacher praises or encourages thepupil, it carries the value judgement ofapproval. There is warmth andfriendliness along with the approval insuch teacher statements. When theteacher accepts, clarifies or usesconstructively pupils’ ideas, they areencouraged to participate further.Teachers with such abilities can oftenstimulate positive feelings of motivationand control negative feelings ofmotivation that might otherwise get out


of hand. This type of atmosphere andattitudes does motivate pupils moreand more to learn and thus indirectinfluence (categories 1 to 4) encouragespupil participation. On the contrary,direct influence hinders pupilparticipation leading to decreasing ofmotivation among pupils (Patel, 1975as cited in M.B. Buch, 1975; p.87).

Pupil Initiation Ratio (PIR) in theClasses of Teachers having DifferentLevels of Emotional Intelligence

As per Table 1, it is depicted thatteachers having different levels(extremely high, high, moderate andlow) could not excel the norm set by theFlander for this interaction variable viz‘PIR’. But teachers belonging tocategories either ‘EHE’ or ‘HE’ excelledthe norm set for Indian classrooms forthis interaction variable. Contrary to it,teacher belonging to either of categories‘ME’ or ‘LE’ could not cross the normset for the Indian classrooms. So far asfailure of teachers belonging to eithercategories of ‘EHE’ or ‘HE’ in notcrossing the norm set by Flanders isconcerned, it might be attributed to thetaking lower classes in this study, wherematurity of students appear to play avital role in the initiation, apart fromthis, another coherent reason might bethe context of societies. Performance ofthe teachers belonging to the categoriesof ‘ME’ or ‘LE’ on this paramountimportant interaction variable is amatter of concern, because, failure ofteacher in eliciting the pupil initiation

might be attributed to the inabilities ofthe teacher to praise, accept or use thestudent’s ideas with a view to motivatethe students (as cited in M. B. Buch,1975, p.20). Moreover, other causesmight be associated with the socio-emotional ethos of the classroom.Teachers’ insensitive attitude tends tojeopardize the safety needs of thestudents. Rejection of the students andunfriendly way of teachers tends tohamper the satisfaction of need forbelonging and love and need forimportance, respect, self-esteem andindependence, in consequent to it,students develop the feeling ofinsecurity and isolation in theclassroom (Maslow, 1979).

Performance of the teachers havingextremely high emotional intelligenceand high emotional intelligence isvirtually commendable. Indeed,dynamic interchange between the mindof the teacher and individual learner iskernel and sine qua non of effectivepedagogy. If teacher succeeds inbringing about dynamic interchange,it might be attributed to personality ofthe teacher, in general, and emotionalintelligence, in particular. Because,social-emotional ethos is contingent onthe sensitivity of the teacher to thestudents’ needs (Maslow’s hierarchy ofneeds, particularly, safety needs; needfor belonging and love; need forimportance, respect, self-esteem andindependence; need for information;need for understanding)—(Maslow,1979). This sensitivity constitutes the


initial stage of the empathy (a sub-component of the social skillsdimension of the emotionalintelligence) , when teachercommunicates his/her sensitivity eitherverbally or non-verbally, the process ofempathy gains its wholeness(Bhattacharya and Sengupta, 2007).

A sensitive and empathic teacherlistens to students patiently, praisestudents’ initiation, and tries his/herbest to increase the level of students’participation by asking the divergentand open-ended questions (Pandey,1981; pp 170-71). Therefore, ensuringpupil initiation of above desired level (byextremely high and high emotionallyintelligent teacher than that of theircounterparts) might be attributed totheir abilities to reinforce positively,asking open-ended questions andsensitivity to the emotional needs of thestudents.

Another factor which might restrictthe students’ initiation is the motivationof the students. Positive teacher-student relationships bear positive andsalutary effects on students’ increasedmotivation to learn. Teacher will beeffective motivator if he has ability tobuild rapport but, it must be precededby the ability to empathise with the

emotional needs of the students; abilityto build rapport comes under the socialskill dimension of the emotionalintelligence. Extremely high and highemotionally intelligent teachers buildrapport with the students easily andtend to be good motivator because oftheir sensibility and ability to anticipatestudents’ expectation, mind set andbehaviour (Epp, 1995; Bhattacharyaand Sengupta, 2007).

ConclusionIn a nutshell, on the basis of foregoingdiscussion, it can be concluded thatlevel of emotional intelligence plays avital role in creation of social-emotionalclimate of the classroom. A conducivesocial-emotional climate which may becharacterised as the dynamicinterchange between the minds of theteachers and students (a hallmark ofeffective pedagogy); students’ feeling ofsecurity and dignity and caringteacher-student relationship are foundto have salutary and benign effects onthe learning of the students.The findings of the study recommendthat training of emotional intelligencemust be incorporated in the curriculummeant for the preparation of prospectiveteachers, in general and for the primaryschool teachers in particular.


REFERENCES

BHATTACHARYA, M. S. AND SENGUPTA N. 2007, Emotional Intelligence: Myth or Reality , ExcelBooks. New Delhi

BROWN, D.F. 2005. The significance of congruent communication in effective classroommanagement. The Clearing House, 79(1), 12-15

BUCH, M.B. 1975. Research in teacher behaviour in India—retrospect and prospect.In M.B. Buch (Ed.). Studies in Teaching and Teacher Behavior (pp.8-27). Centreof Advanced Study in Education, Baroda.

EPP, M.G. 1999. High school teacher and student perception of caring teachers:Consideration for defining and intervening in school setting. Psychology in theSchools, 41 (8), 887-897.

GOAD, D. 2005. “Emotional intelligence and teacher retention”. Unpublished rawdata presented at the 2005 Institute on Emotional Intelligence, Texas A&MUniversity, Kingville,TX.

GORDON, D.G. 2001. Classroom management. Music Educators Journal, 88(2), 1-12.

GRIFFIN, A.M.B. 1998. ‘Locating caring teacher-student relationships in the middleschool classroom,’ Unpublished master’s thesis, Pacific Lutheran University,Parkland, Washington.

ELIAS, M.J., Zins, J.E., Weissberg, R.P., Frey, K.S., Greenberg, M.T., Haynes, N.M.,Kessler, R., Schwab-Stone, M.E., and Shiver, T.P. 1997. ‘Promoting social andemotional learning: Guidelines for educators’ Association for Supervision andCurriculum Development. Alexandria, VA.

FLANDERS, Ned A. 1970. Analyzing Teaching Behavior, Addison-Wesley PublishingCompany, California.

GOLEMAN, D. 1995. Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ, BantamBooks, New York.

JUSTICE, M. 2005. “Emotional intelligence in teacher education and practice”.Unpublished raw data presented at the 2005 Institute on Emotional Intelligence,Texas A &M University Kingville,TX.

LANTIERI, L. 2001. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of metal detectors.Reclaiming Children and Youth, 10 (1), 33-38.

NELSON, D. and Low, G. 2005. The Emotionally Intelligent Teacher: A TransformativeLearning Model. Prentice-Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ.

PANDEY, A. 1981, ‘Teaching Style and Concept Attainment in Science’. UnpublishedDoctoral Thesis, B.H.U., Varanasi.

PIANTA, R.C. 1999, ‘Enhancing relationships between children and teachers’. InMurray, C. (2002), Supportive teacher-student relationships: Promoting thesocial and emotional health of early adolescents with high incidence disabilities.Childhood Education, Mid-Summer v78 i5 p 285(6). Article A88570977.


PIANTA, R.C., HOWES, C., BURCHINAL, M., BRYANT, D., CLIFFORD, R., EARLY, D. (2005). Featuresof pre-kindergarten programs, classrooms, and teachers: Do they predict observedclassroom quality and child-teacher interaction? Applied Developmental Science,9, 144-159.

SHAFII, M. AND SHAFII, S.L. 2001. School Violence: Assessment, Management, Prevention,American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc. Washington, DC.

SPITALLI, S.J. 2005, ‘The don’ts of student discipline.’ The Education Digest, 70 (5), 28-31.

STERN, R., AND REPA, J.T. 2001. ‘Columbine’s challenge: A call to pay attention to ourstudents.’ Reclaimimg Children and Youth 10 (1), 39-40

WONG, H.K., AND WONG, R.T. 2001. The First Days of School . Harry K. Wong Publications.

Mountain View, CA.

SINGH, D. 2003. Emotional Intelligence at Work: A Professional Guide. Sage Publications.New Delhi.

STUHLMAN, W. M. AND PIANTA, C.R. 2002. ‘Teachers’ narratives about their relation withchildren:Association with behavior in classrooms.’ School Psychology Review,31,148.

VANDER, A., JOCHM, T., KOOMEN AND HELMA, M.Y. 2008. ‘Teacher-child relationship andpedagogical practices: Considering the teacher’s perspective.’ School PsychologyReview, 37(2), 244.

English and the Tibetan TEnglish and the Tibetan TEnglish and the Tibetan TEnglish and the Tibetan TEnglish and the Tibetan Tongueongueongueongueongue

Varada M. Nikalje*

66666

* Assistant Professor, Department of Education in Languages, NCERT, New Delhi

Abstract

The linguistic landscape of India is remarkable in the richness of its variety. Aminuscule part of the linguistic mosaic of India is formed by the Tibetans, whoarrived in India as refugees and settled in various parts of India. The Tibetanchildren studying in primary classes have the Tibetan medium of instruction.English is taught as a second language in these classes. This paper attempts toaddress English language teaching within this unusual combination of diversityin India’s linguistic landscape.

The linguistic landscape of India isremarkable in the richness of its variety.India is unique not only in that a largenumber of languages are spoken herebut also in terms of the variety oflanguage families that are representedin those languages. There is no othercountry in the world in whichlanguages from five different languagefamilies can be found, namely, Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic,Tibeto-Burman and Andamanese. Thenumber of languages spoken/writtenin India is more than 1600.1

A minuscule part of the linguisticmosaic of India is formed by theTibetans, who arrived in India asrefugees and settled in various parts of

India. As the number of refugees grew,so did the size of the settlements. Oneof the issues the refugees faced was theeducation of their children. Followinga dialogue between His Holiness theDalai Lama, and the then PrimeMinister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, theCentral Tibetan School Administration(CTSA) was established under theMinistry of Human ResourceDevelopment. The CTSA works for theeducation of Tibetan children living inIndia.2 In the CTSA schools, theprimary classes (Classes I-V) have theTibetan medium of instruction, andgive admission only to Tibetan children.English is taught as a subject in theseclasses. This paper attempts to address

61English and the Tibetan Tongue

English language teaching within thisunusual combination of diversity inIndia’s linguistic landscape.

In 1961, the National Council ofEducational Research and Training(NCERT) was established by theGovernment of India, as an apexorganisation to assist and advise theCentral and State governments, withthe objective of working on qualitativeimprovement in school education. Asone of the objectives of NCERT, severalprogrammes are organised throughoutthe country, especially in rural andinterior areas, to reach out to teachersand learners. Since its inception, NCERThas also brought out curriculumframeworks and syllabi for schooleducation as well as textbooks in allschool subjects from Classes I-XII. Itwas felt that, post-textbookdevelopment, their actual use in theteaching-learning process needs to bestudied: in other words howcurriculum, syllabi and textbooksdeveloped at the macro-level percolateto schools at micro-level. One way toachieve this goal was by makingprovision in academic planning forcontinuous visit, study and interactionwith schools across the country,particularly in rural and semi-urbanareas. NCERT faculty were, therefore,deputed to various schools for threemonths in different time-slots. I wasassociated with the Central School forTibetans at Chhota Shimla, HimachalPradesh from 1 July to 30 September2012.

My brief was to teach a few chaptersof the English Core course in ClassesXI and XII, and to interact withstudents, teachers and parents.However I decided to take classes at theprimary, upper primary and secondarystages as well, in order to understandthe students better.

Two aspects of the classroomsituation at the Central School forTibetans deserve attention—the socialand the linguistic. As mentioned earlier,the primary classes comprise Tibetanchildren and use the Tibetan language.It may be mentioned here that thegeneral perception about the Tibetanchildren in the primary classes is thatthey know little or no English. Almostall of them live in the residential hostelsin the campus itself. Some of thechildren are orphans, some haveparents staying as far away asArunachal Pradesh, some have foreignnationals sponsoring them, and somehave relatives living in the nearbysettlements. Most of them are firstgeneration learners. All this means thatthey get little support in doing theirhomework, especially that of English.

The linguistic aspect was rathermore complex. The students speakTibetan with their compatriots, seniorsand teachers. Since they are notpermitted to go outside the campus asa rule, they are hardly exposed toHindi/local language. They are veryhesitant to use English. My mothertongue was Kannada, theirs wasTibetan; I planned to tell them a story


in English. My intention was not to‘teach’ them language, but ratherexpose them to some meaningfullinguistic input in English. I pointed outto things and asked what they werecalled in English. The answers ‘fan’,‘light bulb’, ‘window’, ‘door’, ‘chair’ etc.,were written on the blackboard. Imotivated the children by saying thatthese are English words, and so alreadythey know a lot of English. Although Iwas told that the students can followsome Hindi, I did not want to bring inHindi, which in this context, in myopinion, would have been an additionalunnecessary burden. It was in thisbackground that I tried the experimentof telling Class III a story, almost whollyin English. I learnt the Tibetanequivalent of six key words, and tookprintouts of computer animatedpictures of the same key words, givenbelow:

The story selected was a simple one,about a tiny mouse who sees a girlwearing a beautiful red cap. He toowants to have a cap. He takes his tinywallet and goes first to a cloth shop,then to a shop that sells sequins, andfinally to a tailor to get a cloth cap withsequins stitched on it. While waiting forthe cap to be stitched, he wanders intothe king’s palace and falls asleep on asofa. The king becomes terrified onseeing the mouse and so on. I narratedthe story in simple English along withgestures and pictures. To my greatsatisfaction, the kids understood thestory. My joy increased when thechildren of Class IV demanded that theybe told the story too.

Since the linguistic aspect of thisparticular classroom situation wasrather intriguing. I tried to examinewhich particular theory it would fit into.The situation here was not that of

Girl Mouse Beads/Sequins

King Tailor Maid

63English and the Tibetan Tongue

mutual intelligibility. Mutualintelligibility is a relationship betweenlanguages in which speakers ofdifferent but related languages canreadily understand each other withoutintentional study or special effort. Incases where the persons canunderstand two languages, therelationship may be asymmetric, withspeakers of one understanding more ofthe other than speakers of the otherunderstand of the first. When it isrelatively symmetric, it is characterisedas mutual. Mutual intelligibility existsin different degrees among manyrelated or geographically proximatelanguages of the world, often in thecontext of a dialect continuum. In thiscase, it is not even mutual intelligibility.English and Tibetan do not belong tothe same group of languages, andconsequently, wide differences ingrammar and pronunciation.

The Tibetan children could be calledreceptive bilinguals, which refer to thosewho have the ability to understand asecond language, but do not speak it.Receptive bilinguals may rapidlyachieve oral fluency when placed insituations where they are provided“exposure to meaningful linguisticinput in the second language. Knownas language immersion, it is a methodof teaching a second language, in whichthe learners’ second language (L2) is themedium of classroom instruction. Thisplays an important role in thedevelopment of language in immigrantchildren.”

Through this method, learners

study school subjects, such asmathematics and science in their L2.The main purpose of this method is tofoster bilingualism, in other words, todevelop learners’ communicativecompetence or language proficiency.This theory of course, did not fit thisparticular situation, becauseimmersion for the Tibetan students wasnot ‘total’.

Immersion programmes vary fromone region/country to another becauseof language conflict, historicalantecedents, language policy or publicopinion. Moreover, immersionprogrammes take on different formsbased on class time spent in L2,participation by native speaking L1students, learner age, school subjectstaught in L2, and even the L2 itself asan additional and separate subject. Forthe Tibetan students at the primarystage, Tibetan and English were the twolanguages taught as subjects at theprimary level, with English being as L2.Even here, however, the “immersion”was limited: theoretically the teacherswere supposed to use only English inthese classes, but it was observed thatthey frequently took recourse to Hindi.(Instructions such as ‘sit down’, ‘openthe book’, ‘start writing’ and so on weregiven in Hindi; the meanings of somewords in the English textbook wereexplained using Hindi). Further, it isreiterated that Hindi was not the mothertongue of the learners. They are literatein their first language (Tibetan) but theyalso needed continuous support tomaintain that literacy. Obviously,


Tibetan was not used outside theschool campus, so the support was inthe form of Tibetan folk lore, songs anddances, etc. after school hours.

Thus, one can distinguish betweentwo kinds of receptive bilingual in termsof nature of exposure to the secondlanguage. One, where he/sheexperiences total immersion, as in thecase of immigrants, who are usuallyliving in a country where the targetlanguage is the exclusive languagespoken. Where the uninterrupted,immediate and exclusive practice of thenew language reinforces and deepensthe attained knowledge. The secondtype of receptive bilingual is one whochooses to study a second language atschool or some other educationalinstitution. If the learner faced anydifficulty in understanding certainwords or concepts, the teacher (afterexhausting other possibilities) woulduse the something that is familiar toboth the teacher and the taught. In thepresent case, without the possibility toactively translate, due to a complete lackof any first language opportunity, thenew language is almost independentlylearned — with direct concept-to-language usage that can become morenatural than word structures learnedas a subject.

Much has been written about thecognitive advantages to bilingualism

and multi-lingualism. Multi-lingualismis the act of using multiple languages,either by an individual speaker or by acommunity of speakers. Multi-lingualism is becoming a socialphenomenon governed by the needs ofglobalisation and cultural openness.People who are highly proficient in twoor more languages are reported to haveenhanced executive function and arebetter at some aspects of languageslearning compared to monolinguals.The Tibetan children exhibited a highlevel of confidence in speaking Hindiwhile buying sweets and cold drinks,talking to the Indian children andteachers, and in using a Hindi wordwhen they could not immediately thinkof the English one.

Being in the mainstream, one tendsto forget the tributaries and littlerivulets. The primary classroom of asmall school in a mofussil town suchas the CTS in Chhota Shimla maypresent a situation that may be quitedifferent from the general perception ofa classroom in mainstream India. Thelinguistic theories discussed in thispaper are not exhaustive, and there maybe a theory that covers the peculiarnature of the linguistic aspectspresented here. Nevertheless, itprovides fresh insights into how culturalcontext and personal experiencemediate meaning.

Footnotes

1. National Curriculum Framework-2005, p.36. NCERT. New Delhi.2. The other group of schools established for the Tibetan refugees is the Tibetan Children’s Villages (TCVs). This, however, does not come under MHRD.

Preparing TPreparing TPreparing TPreparing TPreparing Teachers for Multicultural Classrooms —eachers for Multicultural Classrooms —eachers for Multicultural Classrooms —eachers for Multicultural Classrooms —eachers for Multicultural Classrooms —Implications for TImplications for TImplications for TImplications for TImplications for Teacher Preparation andeacher Preparation andeacher Preparation andeacher Preparation andeacher Preparation andProfessional ProgrammesProfessional ProgrammesProfessional ProgrammesProfessional ProgrammesProfessional ProgrammesRashmi Diwan *

77777

* Associate Professor, National University of Educational Planning and Administration, 17-B,Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi-110016

Abstract

The world aspires peace and harmony for our generations to come. There is lotof unrest and turmoil in the world mainly due to intolerance for other culturesand religions. But this will not take any country far since narrow perceptionsand attitudes impede progress and prosperity of any country of the world. Indiais no exception. The present times calls for expanded horizons for a prosperousfuture of a nation. The onus lies with a teacher to nurture and sustain climateconducive for a child to accommodate in a multicultural classroom. The task ofthe teacher is not confined to curriculum transaction within the four walls of aschool but also has to shoulder a larger social responsibility of reaching out toparents and families as well as cultural, ethnic, and religious groups. A schoolteacher plays a vital role in dispelling misconceptions about culture and culturalignorance. At the same time, this does not mean that they should be loadedwith another curriculum on peace and value education; rather they need to beguided through ways of integrating academic subject teaching with an inbuiltmethodology of nurturing values and ethics for peace and harmony. This canbe supported by a well thought out teacher preparation and teacher educationprogramme that provides direction in several ways for integrating teaching ofdifferent subjects with values and ethics among children for tolerance of allcultures and religions. The paper emphasises on the importance of peaceeducation not as separate subject but as an integral part of day-to-day schoolactivities.

Introduction

In a multicultural and multi-religioussociety in every nation, people have to

learn to live in harmony and peace. Indiarepresents a highly diverse multi-cultural society where great


responsibility in nurturing the spirit ofhumanity, mankind and unity lies withteachers. Equally important is the roleof school administrators, parents,families and the community. Transitionin society begins from the recognitionthat school is the basic unit of changeand the teacher is the kingpin to drivechanges in the thinking, attitudes,opinions and perceptions from smallchildren in a multi-cultural classroomto society at large. The centrality of thepaper lies in the message ‘Trust on ateacher as a prime change agent’.

Understanding Multiculturalism

In the most generic terms, multi-cultural society involves and consistsof people of different cultures. It is asituation in which different people fromdifferent races, religions, cultures,political affiliations, etc. live together asa society. India has rich tradition inmulticulturalism with people fromdiverse cultures and religions. AndrewHeywood explains two forms of multi-culturalism. The term ‘multi-culturalism’ has been used in bothdescriptive and normative ways. “As adescriptive term, it has been taken torefer to cultural diversity … As anormative term, multiculturalismimplies a positive endorsement, evencelebration of communal diversity,typically-based on either the right ofdifferent groups to respect andrecognition, or to the alleged benefitsto the larger society of moral andcultural diversity.”

Multicultural Education

Today India is a country of micro-cultures. Since ancient times, thehistory of education system in Indiahad been more focussed on the needsof elitists of all cultures. While educationfor Brahmin boys was tailored more toread and write by Brahmin teachers,education of Hindus was greatlyinfluenced by geography, socialsciences, family custom, social position,social preference, etc. Similarly Muslimeducation had also been elitist in thesame manner. But mainly primaryschools were shifted to mosques andeducation for Muslim boys was morepreferred and all teachings were mainlybased on the teachings of holy Quran.Muslim colleges provided opportunitiesto Muslim boys to study Arabiclanguage, Islamic theology, literature,law, history, science, etc. Other culturesare also prominent in the country.Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism grewfrom indigenous populations. Nospecial multicultural educationrequirements are made in the teachereducation programmes in the country.

Multicultural education is“comprehensive school reform thatchallenges all forms of discrimination,permeates instruction andinterpersonal relations in the classroomand advances the democratic principlesof social justice” (Nieto, 1992). Theimpetus towards this move came fromthe Ministry of Human ResourcesDevelopment, the erstwhile Ministry ofEducation and Culture that promoted

67Preparing Teachers for Multicultural Classrooms

cultural pluralism in the schoolcurriculum in the country. In additionto English and Hindi as language ofinstruction in primary and secondaryschools, regional languages are alsopromoted for teaching in these schools.While separate schools are provided forchildren who wish to be taught in theirnative language, there has been nohistory of forced racial segregation inthe education of this country. In theschool curriculum, the history ofindigenous people is stressed so thatstudents can learn to appreciate thevast ethnic and cultural differences inthe country. In India, curriculummaterials and textbooks are evaluatedto ensure racist-free content.

Education in India is directedtowards unity in diversity. In Indiancontext, one can say for sure today thattransition from Education of Elite toEducation for All (Sarva Shiksha) andEducation for Equality is itselfindicating a move to multiculturaleducation. Serious efforts are directedtowards making education inclusive bybringing gender parity, promotingeducation of women, disabled and SC/ST children from all cultures under oneroof and teaching them all tolerance,harmony and acceptance of allcultures. Similarly, in the attempt forUniversalisation of ElementaryEducation, the Government of India ismoving towards policies, programmesand strategies for each child to haveaccess to quality education withrecently implemented Right toEducation Act–2009. The concerns of

the government also get articulated inthe National Focus Group, PositionPaper on Education for Peace (NCERT,2005). In addition to these concerns,Planning Commission took one stepahead by bringing out a perspective onpeace education through Vision ofPeace in 2020 in India. This shows thatthe whole philosophy of schooleducation in India is guided byprotection of core values and nationalinterest. The beginning towards thismove largely depends on the strongfoundations a teacher has laid to shapedestiny of this nation. It is, therefore, ofutmost importance that a teacher isempowered to take decisions at herown level to create an inclusiveclassroom nurturing love, harmony andpeace among children from all socialgroups. She need not wait for policydirectives from the Government but herreal test begins from the mannerattitudinal changes among children arebrought about in a diversified multi-cultural classroom right from theirchildhood.

The Role of Classroom Teacher inFostering Pluralism

Schools are one of the few places whereyoung minds of diverse backgroundscome together day after day, and ifschools fail to help to harmonise thesociety, what will be the consequences?In augmenting this spirit, the teacherin a school is one driving force forigniting minds of our youngergeneration towards cultural harmonythrough peace and value education. A


teacher carries a big responsibility inher classroom in bringing children ofdiverse cultures, religions andlanguages together. Everything theteacher says will have an impact on thestudents. The teacher can bringpositivity in thoughts, attitudes andactions. Language is one such mediumof instruction that acts as a means ofestablishing rapport with one anotherin the class. It helps to develop thoughtsthat need to be presented with integrityand compactness. “Communication isnot passing of information, but involvesconceptualisation of concepts andexperiences, of identification andclassification, of argumentation andassertion through correct language”(Pattanayak, D.P.1987)

The messages of a teacher spreadsfast among children, are deep-rootedand more contagious. Teachers are, infact, more responsible for the socialbehaviour in the classroom andthrough this can nurture and facilitateyoung minds in overcoming bothmisconceptions about culture anddispel cultural ignorance throughseveral ways:

• Handle biases: Small children mayget influenced by biased statementsof parents and other family membersabout racial, ethnic and genderdifferences in the home environmentbut these may not yet be deep-seatedprejudices and can easily be handledby the teacher as the child grows inthe school, year after year.

• Recognise similarities as more

basic than differences: Schools areonly one of the few places wherechildren from diverse cultures andreligions come together for years. Ifthey are nurtured right from thebeginning to harmonise the society,appreciate cultures of each other, asea change can be brought by theteacher by breaking the shackles ofnarrow understanding and hatredlargely produced in the society dueto cultural ignorance today. Aschildren grow, they will graduallycome to realise that regardingcultures as superior or inferior canlead to hurt feelings, frustration, andeventually to major conflicts.

• Infuse respect and appreciation ofdifferent cultures: Teachers can alsogo an extra mile to expose childrento the fine, beautiful aspects of thecultures of humanity. Help childrenunderstand the most beneficialaspects of the cultures of their societyincluding the universal humanvalues and moral values they uphold.Another way is to link these issueswhile teaching school subjects suchas mathematics, computer classes,art, crafts, drama, home economics,music, languages and history.

• Promote the spirit of secularsociety: Right from childhood ifstrong bondages of humanity andfoundations of common religiousbeliefs are instilled among children,a new world gets created.

• Address heterogeneity throughcooperative learning: A healthy


cooperative learning withheterogeneous groups helpsstudents to understand viewpointsdifferent from their own andappreciate the cultures of the groupmembers when solving problems.The peaceful classroom extends itsoutreach to peaceful communitiesand further to society. Solidaritywithin a school does not require anypolicy directive or outsideintervention but can be made anintegral part of a school life.

• Encourage interactive sessions:Where on one hand, teachers checktheir own prejudices against certaingroups in the society, on the othercan place positive impact throughbook reading, clubs and encouragereading of books with charactersfrom various ethnic groups. Studieshave revealed that peer groups placegreater influence than parents indeveloping shared understanding ofeach others point of views.

Expanding Horizons: SomePropositions for TeacherEducation ProgrammesDespite best intentions of a teacher topromote a climate conducive for multi-cultural education, she would requirea direction. A well thought out pre-service and in-service teachereducation programmes can equip herwith specific skills of bringing changeand managing multiculturalism in herclassroom. The programmes designedfor the elementary classroom canexpose teachers to the roots of conflict

and violence among children and offersuggested activities, exercises andgames to help build self-esteem,cooperative behaviour and conflictresolution skills. Such programmes willhelp the teacher to understand the needfor removing prejudices anddiscriminations from society. The in-service programmes needs toincorporate such activities forelementary school teachers that guidethem to plan activities for children tohelp them learn how to communicate,cooperate and prevent or solve conflictsthrough creative thinking. The teacherhere would be expected to sustaincooperative environment in theclassrooms and schools. This wouldrequire imparting of certain practicaltips and techniques to teachers to helpthem implement class activities to createsuch an environment. One way of doingthis is to create fun games for childrenand group activities like drama, games,role play, etc. in the classrooms tostrengthen interpersonal relations.Listening games necessary fordeveloping good communication skillscan be taught through telephonegames. Children can also be made tosolve problems through skits, puppetshows, etc. The teachers would requiretraining on how group activities can beused with other categories of childrenlike children with mental impairment,emotionally disturbed children orothers placed in difficult circumstanceslike those belonging to broken homesor those coming from families of victimsof racial riots or militancy or terrorist


attacks, etc. Teachers would also needtraining on evaluation techniques.

Within a bigger programme, oneshort duration course or workshopencouraging cooperative learning andcooperative games that engagesteachers in exploring and implementingwhat methodology works best in theirsituation seems to be a meaningfulproposition. They need to be given a feelof freedom to decide and plan ways oflinking teaching of different subjectswith peace education. The teachersneed to be oriented to recognise thatthey have a unique potential to developand spread peace education by helpingthem to internalise values related togenerosity, forgiveness, helpfulness,etc. Similarly such activities whichfacilitate a teacher to feel confidentenough to link peace education withsubjects and as a general practice toreduce prejudices towards anybodymay be important part of teachers’orientation. Training for administratorsto view themselves in a redefined role,more supportive, geared towardsempowering teachers to takeclassroom-based decisions would beimportant to achieve better results.

Looking at massive number ofteachers in the country and schoolsunder different managements, it maynot be possible to reach out to everyteacher. The most feasible and workableproposition needs to be worked out.Convergence among different

professional institutes at national, state,district, block and cluster levels canwork in India through well articulatedroles and responsibilities of eachtraining institute and professionalstherein. Special workshops can beconducted for involving teachers toprepare manuals, guidance material,modules for including value and peaceeducation in their teachings. A cascadeapproach substantiated with modulepreparation with the help of teachersin different training workshop sessionsand also chalking out school-basedmodalities may be expected to work inIndia.

Concluding Statement

In a school, teachers are the key playersfor generating an environment of peaceand harmony in its multiculturalclassrooms. The sustenance of thisclimate, of course largely rests on fourstrong pillars—satisfaction, peace,happiness and enthusiasm. When thesepillars are strong, the relationshipsamong teachers, head teachers andcommunity members will become moreenduring. When each member in schooland community is satisfied, happy,enthusiastic and at peace, the returnsto children and to society will be greater.Therefore, teachers have a substantialrole to play in shaping classroomenvironment for bringing harmony,peace, happiness and satisfactionamong children.


REFERENCES

ADAMS, HETTY. 1954. Peace in the Classroom: Practical Lessons in Living for ElementaryAge Children. Peguin Publishers, Winnipeg, Canada.

ALLPORT, GORDON, W. 1954. The Nature of Prejudice. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company,Inc. Reading, Massachusetts.

BALASOORIYA, A. S. 2001. ‘Learning the Way of Peace: A Teachers’ Guide to PeaceEducation.’ United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization,New Delhi.

HARRIS, IAN, M. AND MARY LEE MORRISON. 2003. Peace Education. Second Edition. Jefferson,McFarland and Company, Inc., Publishers. North Carolina.

HEYWOOD. 2007. Political Ideologies, Palgrave Macmillan. p.313

HUDSON, DALE L. 1992. New Tools for International Understanding: A Peace EducationCurriculum for Elementary School Students. Spark M. Matsunaga Institute forPeace, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Hawaii.

LANTIERI, LiNDA AND JANET PATTI. 1996. Waging Peace in Our Schools. Beacon Press, Boston

NAIR, P. K. G AND MOLLY FERNANDES. 2001. Peace Education and Conflict Resolution inSchools. St. John’s Peace Forum, Mumbai, India.

NATIONAL CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK. 2005, Position Paper, National Focus Group onEducation for Peace, NCERT, New Delhi-110016

NIETO, S. 1992. Affirming Diversity: The Socio-political Context of Multi-cultural Education,Longman Publishing Group, New York.

PATTANAYAK, D.P. 1981. Multilingualism and Mother Tongue Education, Oxford UniversityPress.

REARDON, BETTY (ed.). 1988. Educating for Global Responsibility: Teacher DesignedCurricula for Peace Education, Teachers College Press, New York.

UNESCO. 1996. Learning: The Treasure Within, Report to UNESCO of the InternationalCommission on Education of the Twenty- first Century, UNESCO/HMSO, London.

Integration of VIntegration of VIntegration of VIntegration of VIntegration of Values with Content Talues with Content Talues with Content Talues with Content Talues with Content Teachingeachingeachingeachingeaching

Dr Nirmal Bagga*

88888

* Sr. Lecturer (CMDE), SCERT, Delhi

Dr Radhakrishnan, a greateducationist had said “Educationshould be man-making and societymaking”. Various spiritual and politicalleaders, educationists, philosophers,sociologists from time to time have alsoexpressed their thoughts thateducation should enable a humanbeing to attain the greatest harmonyboth internal and external. They alsoexpressed that human potentialitiesand capacities must be developed to thefullest. Education should also make aman capable of earning his livelihoodreasonably well to enjoy a happy lifealong with making effectivecontributions to the society and nationas a whole.

In contemporary times, we find thatthe literacy rate has increased andeducation has spread to villages andremote areas. In urban areas, more andmore educated young people are gettinghandsome salaries with more materialcomforts. The paradox is that at thesame time the newspapers are full of

stories of crime and related activities.The juvenile crime is also on the rise.Bullying in the school is notuncommon. Recently reportedincidents include slapping a teacher,murdering a class-mate over trivialissues, etc. These news and reports arevery disturbing and raise only onequestion, “what is wrong with oureducation?” Be it formal educationgiven in schools or the education(sanskaras) given by parents andelders in the family. The teachers inschools are already burdened by thesyllabi to be completed in stipulatedtime and with more and more peopleopting for nuclear family set-up havingworking parents, there is hardly anytime for parents and children to interactin a meaningful manner on week-days.Also, there is no place for moral/religious education in school syllabidue to various political and socialinterventions.

In addition to that, the present agebeing the age of information explosion,

73Integration of Values with Content Teaching

children have access to internet, variousinternational channels on T.V., whichhas brought about a total shift in thestyle of communication, mannerism andthinking of children. As a result, moreand more individuals are being driventowards substance abuse and crime.Alcoholism, drug abuse can be seen inschools also. At the same time, self-interest, greed, authoritarian attitudeis on the rise among younger -

generation.

The very pertinent question herearises “What can be done? How can ateacher help to improve the situation?”As the great philosopher Rabinder NathTagore had said “Don’t curse darkness.Light a lamp if you can.” A teacher candevise his/her own ways and methodsto impart values/value-basededucation in the classroom byintegrating it with the subject he/sheteaches.

As a teacher educator, whilesupervising the lessons of my traineesin one of the primary schools of Delhi, Iobserved that the student teacher wasteaching fractions to Class III and theywere not able to understand. I wonderedhow it can be made moreunderstandable and interesting. Laterin the day, I remembered a childhoodpoem which goes like.

pqUuw eqUuw Fks nks HkkbZ]

jlxqYys is gqbZ yM+kbZA

pqUuw cksyk eSSa [kkÅ¡xk]

eqUuw cksyk eSa [kkÅ¡xkA

>xM+k lqudj eEeh vkbZ]

nksuksa dks ,d pir yxkbZAThe one thing that came to my mind

about this poem was that what thispoem is teaching? Self-centredness,fight over petty things and what anintolerant mother who slaps withoutdoing any justice. Disgusting!!

I composed a poem which aimed atteaching fractions in the classroom andindirectly inculcated values. The poemis:

Hkw[k yxh Fkh pqUuw dksHkw[k yxh Fkh eqUuw dks?kj esa Fkh cl ,d gh jksVhXkksy&xksy vkSj eksVh&eksVhA

pqUuw cksyk ^rw [kk HkS;k*eqUuw cksyk ^rw [kk HkS;k*ek¡ cksyh rqe nksuksa [kkvksvk/h jksVh nksuksa ikvksA

rHkh ogk¡ ij vk;k lksuwlkFk esa mlds vk;k eksuwpqUuw cksyk rqe Hkh vkvkslkFk gekjs jksVh [kkvksA

vk/h dh Hkh vk/h jksVhck¡Vh mu pkjksa us jksVhpkSFkk fgLlk lcus ik;kfey&ck¡V dj izse ls [kk;kA

Next day, the poem was used toteach the topic. ‘Fractions’ were taughtby introducing the concept with therecitation of the poem. With the


recitation of the first stanza, the shapeof one roti (1) was drawn on theblackboard, with second stanza, ½ wasalso drawn on the blackboard.

Along with the recitation, the teacheralso emphasised the fact that althoughboth the brothers Chunu and Munnuwere hungry, they were ready tosacrifice for one another. This is the wayto live and care for others’ needs.Mother’s just treatment also did notfavour anyone. Then came Sonu andMonu, their neighbours. Chunnuwelcomes them and inspite of beinghungry himself with only one roti to beshared between brothers, he offers rotito Sonu and Monu. Withoutelaboration children understood theconcept of sharing and caring. At thesame time, they learnt the concept offractions ½ and ¼.

The poem had a great response andunderstanding of fractions was madeeasy and interesting for Class IIIchildren.

Further questions on fractions didnot pose any problem with the children.

Similarly, while teaching theconcept of division, another small poemwas used which taught not only divisionbut also the concept of gender equality.The poem is as under:

ukuh vkbZ] ukuh vkbZ

fMCCkk Hkj dj ykbZ feBkbZA

Hkksyw dks feys yM~Mw pkj

lkjs [kkÅ¡xk] Vidh ykj

eqfu;k cksyh esjs HkkbZ

,d cjkcj [kk,¡ feBkbZZA

After the poem was recited, thequestions put to class were: How manyladoos did Bholu get? Based on this,the concept of division was explained.At the same time, children were madeaware of the gender discrimination infamilies and society. Why Nani gaveladoos to Bholu first and why he wantedto eat all the ladoos? Does that alsohappen in your family? How shouldgirls be treated in a family? etc.

The thoughts, concepts, valueslearnt at a young age go deep into thesub-conscious and are retained. Thesevery children when they grow up andbecome responsible adults, can bringabout a change in the society.

In some higher classes atelementary level, the concept thatanything raised to the power of zero isone can be beautifully integrated withvalue of national and internationalintegration. The concept can be

75Integration of Values with Content Teaching

explained with the help of the followingdiagram drawn on the blackboard.

The children can learn the conceptby telling them that if there is no (zero)fight, jealousy, hatred among oneanother in the world, all people will beunited or they will become one. This canthus be deduced that whatevernumber—smallest or as big as the worlditself, if it is raise to the power zero, theanswer will be one in every case.

All the above mentioned exampleshave been carried out in the classroomsand the response has been tremendous.

In a society which is increasinglybecoming bereft of values and childrenare paving ways without any direction,a teacher’s sincere efforts to integratevalues while teaching his/her ownsubject area can do wonders in thereconstruction of future society.

Understanding CCE in the Context of RTE-2009Understanding CCE in the Context of RTE-2009Understanding CCE in the Context of RTE-2009Understanding CCE in the Context of RTE-2009Understanding CCE in the Context of RTE-2009

Professor Manju Jain*

99999

* Professor, Department of Elementary Education, NCERT, New Delhi-110016

Overview

The Right of Children to Free andCompulsory Education Act-2009 (RTEAct-2009), implemented since April2010, has made elementary educationa Fundamental Right to all children inthe age group of six to fourteen years.Chapter V of the Act on Curriculum andCompletion of Elementary Educationunder Section 29 (1) (h) provides forComprehensive and ContinuousEvaluation of child’s understanding ofknowledge and his or her ability toapply the same. In view of this, variousefforts have been made by states andUTs to develop CCE materials andevolve strategies for its implementation.The analysis of materials developed inthis area by states and UTs and the fieldexperiences suggested that teachers arefacing problems in the understandingand implementation of CCE inclassrooms. Different kinds ofprescriptive formats have beendeveloped for teachers to record theprogress of children. As a result of this,

teachers are engaged more in compilingthe data for CCE during the teaching-learning time. The reporting procedureshave also been found to be mechanicaland cumbersome exercise for teachers.Apart from this, there aremisconceptions related to various termssuch as a continuous, comprehensive,evaluation, assessment, formative andsummative assessment, which createdconfusion in the system andpractitioners are interpreting CCE intheir own way.

It is an admitted fact that teachingand learning must go hand in hand. Forseeking the best results, the progressof learners needs to be observedobjectively and regularly withappropriate academic support comingfrom all the stakeholders. It would bepertinent to mention that the RTEforbids any public examination untilClass VIII and ‘no detention’ policy hasto continue. It must be clear at thisjuncture that while implementing non-detention policy, it should not lead to

77Understanding CCE in the Context of RTE-2009

no teaching-learning in schools. On thecontrary, CCE can play as a powerfulinstrument in respecting the intent ofRTE on the one hand and ensuringlearning of children on the other, as the‘assessment for learning’ would providefor necessary and timely correctivemeasures. CCE focuses on child’sprogress with her/his own performanceover time. There is no need to comparethe performance of two or morechildren. This will help children growat their own pace with conceptualclarity and proper understanding.

In order to understand the CCE inright perspective, we need to know the

• Purpose of CCE

• Conceptual understanding aboutCCE

• Process of implementation of CCE

Purpose of CCE

We need to understand the primarypurpose of assessment and evaluation.The first purpose is to improve student’slearning. Information gathered throughassessment during teaching-learning,helps teachers to determine students’strengths and learning gaps in differentsubject areas. With this process, theinformation also serves to guideteachers in adapting curriculum andteaching-learning approaches/methods to suit students’ needs inassessing the overall effectiveness ofprogrammes and classroom practices.This is another major purpose ofassessment and evaluation process.Thus, assessment is the process of

gathering information from a variety ofsources (including assignments, day-to-day observations, conversations,demonstrations, projects, process offinding out as to what extent changeshave taken place in the developmentand learning among performances,tests, etc.) that accurately reflect howwell a student is achieving thecurricular expectations in a subject.Therefore, assessment needs to be usedas a means of gathering evidences tomeet the requirements of evaluation. Itdoes not speak of final judgment but aprocess through which comparisonsamong various sets of observations aremade. Normally evaluation impliedpassing on judgement on one or twoaspects and it did not cover variousdimensions of learning. It has to bebased on reliable and valid evidencesso as to arrive at precise formulations.Good evaluation is one which providesa near complete picture of one’saccomplishments and is based onmultiple sources and multiple centres.

Conceptual understanding aboutCCE

Broadly, the term ‘Continuous andComprehensive’ means that evaluationshould be treated as an integral part ofteaching-learning process rather thanas an event which follows thecompletion of teaching the syllabus.The new paradigm shift suggests thata child’s learning and developmentcannot be viewed in terms of a rigidlydefined class-structure, nor can it befitted into an annual cycle of evaluation


and promotion. The RTE Act representsthe legal approval of this thinking asthe Act prohibits stagnation of childrenand requires that a child can join theschool at any point in the year.• Continuous assessment’ is an in-

built continuous component ofteaching-learning process. The primepurpose of using assessment alongwith teaching-learning is to improvethe process of transaction. Teacheralso learns from students’ responsesthat what changes are required inteaching-learning process. This willbe done by interacting withstudents, asking questions,observing their classwork. Whenteacher is interacting or teaching-learning is going on, she/he collectsa wide range of data so that they canhelp the learner with the learningprocess. She/he preparesassessment tasks that help her/himunderstand what students know orcan do already and use the insightsthat come from the process to designthe next steps in the teaching-learning process. To do this, teacheruses multiple ways, that is,observation,worksheets, questioningin class, student-teacher interactionor whatever mechanism is likely toget data that would be useful for her/his for further planning and teaching.This data is not designed to makecomparative judgements among thestudents but to highlight students’strengths and learning gaps andprovide them with feedback that willfurther improve their learning. It

helps teachers to provide timelyfeedback to scaffold next step forlearning. The above data is aformative data (assessment forlearning) and that guide teachers tofurther improve children’s learning.This data is not for reporting purposein the report card. Such data are forteacher’s own record to further planthe teaching-learning process in thelight of this data. The examples ofvarious curricular areas given in theexemplar material would help inunderstanding how assessment forlearning can be used as an in-builtpart of teaching-learning process.

During the teaching-learningprocess, teachers should also provideregular opportunities for peerlearning, self-assessment andreflection during the process ofassessment for learning. It shouldalso provide opportunities and spaceto students to critically assess/reflectand analyse their own work duringteaching-learning process.Opportunities may be provided tostudents to assess and reflect on peerand group work. It is not expectedthat students will be able to assessthemselves accurately during earlygrades at this stage, it is importantto develop the habit of reflection andcritically reviewing one’s own work.The teachers need to be patient in thisprocess. Students may beencouraged to assess themselvesmany times during the process oflearning. After identifying theirstrengths and gaps in learning, they


can themselves plan and make effortsto look for the suitable resources toseek further knowledge in order toaddress the gaps to enhance theirlearning. Thus, in CCE, ‘continuous’refers to the fact that the teaching-learning should be continuouslyguided by the child’s response andher/his participation in classroomactivities. In other words, assessmentshould be seen as a process wherebythe teacher learns about the child inorder to be able to teach better.

• The other ‘C’ in CCE is‘Comprehensiveness’ of theassessment and evaluation processof the child’s progress.Comprehensive component is gettinga sense of ‘holistic’ development ofchild’s progress. Progress cannot bedone in a segregated manner, that is,cognitive aspects, personal socialqualities, etc. Here one mustunderstand that, during theteaching-learning process, teachercreates learning conditions such asasking/probing questions, peergroup interaction/discussions,providing enriching material,opportunities for sharing learningexperiences. With these processes,children would reflect, discuss, listento others’ responses and generateknowledge. These interactions areusually going on in the classroom,(lesson/chapter-wise) for eachsubject area. This teaching-learningepisode of one topic/chapter of asubject may take 7-8 periodsdepending on the nature of the

subject and the stage (Primary/Upper-primary). After completion of‘theme’/chapter, teacher is expectedto know the learning levels ofchildren. This could be assessed orjudged as per the nature of textualmaterial. For example, in EVS, thetopic plant’s diversity in thesurrounding, children have learntsize of plants, shapes and colours ofleaves, colour and texture of trunks.teacher now would like to knowwhether they have learnt as she/heexpected based on lesson’sexpectation. For that she/he hasbroadly identified the objectives of thelesson and spelt out learningindicators. She/he will designactivities based on expected learning.These activities will be of variednature it could be grouping of leavesby doing an activity or drawing ofleaves of various shapes, ordescription of leaves etc. Thesequestions/activities she wouldassess and that data would be onekind of summative data of a unit/lesson. Such assessment of datamust be recorded by the teacher.Likewise in one quarter, she/hewould cover 7-8 lessons/topics andin this manner she/he would havesubstantial data covering variedaspects of child behaviour. It wouldprovide data when child wasworking in group situation, doingpaper-pencil test, drawing pictures,picture reading, oral expression,composing poem/song, etc. Thesedata would give the ‘comprehensive’


picture of child’s learning anddevelopment. The assessment of thisdata, in one quarter, teacher wouldeasily make out whether a —

• child is sdoing activities/tests/oralwork as per the expectation of thatlevel/class (you can keep thesechildren as ‘A’ group);

• child is doing well but need somesupport to reach the expected level(you can keep these children as ‘B’group of learning);

• child needs lot of support (you cankeep children as ‘C’ group children)from adults and peer for the expectedlearning.

Thus, while reporting the child’sprogress in the report card, one shouldwrite the remarks, which wouldcommunicate what are the strengths ofa child. These could be given subject-wise along with other personal-socialqualities that you have observed duringone quarter in different learningsituations.

The reporting should alsocommunicate the learning gaps forfurther improving the learning. This isa ‘Comprehensive Evaluation’ of child’sprogress. We have seen that thisevaluation is based on valid and reliableassessment data. Here, we would liketo tell from this package is that thereshould not be lengthy formats forrecording the data by the teacher. Weshould give freedom to our teachers tokeep record of such data. Portfolio isone of the important sources ofcompiling such data.

Process of CCE Implementation

What is observed across all schools isthat during assessment the mostcommonly used methods are thosedeveloped by teachers themselves.Among these are paper-pencil tasks,written and oral tests, questions onpictures, simulated activities andconversations with children. Small classtests are used by most teachers as aquick and easy way of assessing thelearning progress of children. These aregenerally conducted at the end of aunit/month. No doubt these are usefulbut they need to be used carefully. Thekind of questions and items usedshould, as far as possible, not have pre-determined answers but be worded inways so that children have space togenerate and express individualthoughts and ideas in a variety of ways.Test items that promote thinking,creativity, analysis rather than onlyrecall-based questions need to beincluded. Simply, items which providethe scope for a variety of responses fromchildren should be included. In orderto follow CCE as an in-built part, thefollowing steps need to be followed bythe teachers:

Step 1: Collecting Information andEvidence through Different Sources andMethods

Step 2: Recording of Information

Step 3: Making Sense of theInformation Collected

Step 4: Reporting and CommunicatingFeedback on Assessment


Step 1: Collecting Information andEvidence through DifferentSources and Methods

We know that every child learnsdifferently and that learning does nottake place only in schools. In that casewe need to do two things whileassessing children:• firstly, to collect information from a

variety of sources

• secondly, to use different ways ofassessment in order to know andunderstand whether each child isactually learning while going througha variety of experiences, activities andlearning tasks.

Sources of Information/feedback:Since assessment is part of theteaching-learning process, childrenthemselves can and also need to playan important role in assessing theirown learning and progress. Teacherscan help children assess themselves byenabling them to develop a betterunderstanding of what is required ofthem through experiences designed toinvolve them in critically looking at theirown work and performance. Thepicture/profile of a child’s progress willbe more complete if teachers interactwith and involve other persons such as:

• parents

• child’s friends/peer group• other teachers

• community members/eldersMethods of Assessment: There is

a wide choice of methods or tools andtechniques. These could be:

observation assignments, projects,portfolios, anecdotal records, writtentests, etc. Let us now consider whydifferent methods need to be used? Thisis because:

• learning in different subject areasand aspects of development need tobe assessed;

• children need to be given anopportunity as they may respondbetter to one method as compared toanother;

• each method contributes in its ownway to the teacher’s understandingof children’s learning;

• no single assessment tool or methodis capable of providing informationabout a child’s progress and learningin different areas of development.

There could be four basic methodsof organising assessments, namely:

1. Individual assessment whichfocuses on each child while she/heis doing an individual activity or taskand on its accomplishments?

2. Group assessment which focuseson the learning and progress of agroup of children working on a tasktogether with the objective ofcompleting it? This method oforganisation is found to be moreuseful in order to assess social skills,cooperative learning and other value-related dimensions of a child’sbehaviour.

3. Peer assessment refers to childrenassessing each other. This can beconducted in pairs or in groups.


4. Self-assessment refers to the child’sown assessment of her/his learningand progress.

Step 2: Recording of Information

In schools across the country, the mostcommon form of recording is throughthe use of report cards. Most reportcards carry information either in theform of marks or grades obtained bychildren in tests/examinations onquarterly basis. The crucial questionthat arises is what can be done toimprove the process of recording. If thecentral purpose of continuousassessment is to find out the child’s levelof learning in a particular subject thenit becomes necessary to make andrecord observations of the child whileshe/he is on the task or involved in anactivity.

Classroom interaction provides awide range of opportunities to makeobservations of a child’s behaviour andlearning. As you are aware some of theobservations are made on a daily basisin an informal manner while teaching-learning is going on. Day-to-dayobservations are easily forgotten if notrecorded. Still others are plannedobservations of children on activitiesgiven to them. This type of observationis planned with a purpose and is thusmore formal in nature.

To provide a more complete pictureof the child’s learning and progress, thescope needs to be widened. Recordingneeds to include records of observationsand comments on children’s

performance on assignments, ratings ofwhat children do and how they behaveand anecdotes or incidents of children’sbehaviour towards others.

Portfolio as a Record of a Child’sWork

Portfolio is a collection of a child’s workor activities. This may include projects,assignments, exercises, activities,written and oral tests, drawings andcollection of materials, albumpreparation and other artifacts. Thismay be carried out over a period oftime. Self-assessment of the child whichinvolves reflection on the work doneplays an important role in improvingone’s own interest, involvement andperformance. The teacher also assessesthe different types of activities carriedout by the children and draws a profileof a child from the progress made bythe child over a period of time. Workdone by a child over the year can becompiled in a folder or in any suitablemanner. Teachers can make innovativeuse of the walls of their classroom. Withthe help of children, they can pastenewspapers on the walls and also makepockets on it. Every child can choose apocket and write her name on it andslip her/his work in the pocket. Thisbecomes her/his portfolio. As the schoolyear progresses, the collection in theportfolio increases. These could be:• Written work – worksheets,

samples of creative writing, tests,papers, letter written by a child,reports of out-of school activities,etc.


• Art work – drawings (favourite flower,animals’ fruit, etc.) of her/his choice,sample activities given by teacher.

• Craft work – like paper folding, papercutting, greeting cards prepared bychild.

• List of story books read by the childtitled ‘Books which I have read.’

• Collection of various things by a childsuch as leaves, pebbles, feathers,stamps, newspaper cuttings, etc.

• Diary entries by children,communicating their feelings andunderstanding in a fearless way.

• Self-assessment sheets on her/hisown observations as also remarks inwhich she/he express what problemsshe/he still face.

Portfolios should not containonly the best work but all kinds ofwork, to show the progress of a childover a entire period in respectiveclasses. Such a collection shows theteachers and parents what the childhas accomplished and variousabilities of a child. It is a very usefultool for reporting of each child. Atthe end of every term, the teachercan study each child’s portfolio andgive specific and useful feedback toparents. The portfolio often helpsparents to know more about theirchild-abilities and interests they maynot have observed at home andhelps them discuss these with theteacher.

Step 3: Making Sense of theInformation Collected

Once information has been recorded,the third important aspect or the nextstep is using the available evidence toarrive at an understanding of what hasbeen collected and recorded. What thisresults in is drawing conclusions abouthow a child is learning and progressing.This is necessary in order tounderstand ‘where the child is’ and‘what needs to be done to help thechild’. All this will help teachers toreflect on their teaching practices,classroom management, and use ofmaterials amongst other pedagogicaspects and improve on the same forthe benefit of the learner. Properinterpretation would requireidentification of indicators to facilitatethe process.

Indicators: A Frame of Reference

In order to make the analysis ofobservation subject-wise criteria needsto be evolved for this a set of indicatorshave been developed jointly by NCERTand MHRD. These need to be workedby teachers and draw substantivelyfrom the objectives of learning for thesubject area as framed in the syllabusof NCERT at the primary level based onthe NCF-2005. At the primary level,indicators have been developed forHindi, English, Maths, EVS and Healthand Physical Education, while at theupper primary stages these have beendeveloped for Science and Mathematicssubjects. These are given in the SourceBooks, developed by the NCERT.


Indicators should help in a numberof ways by:

• focusing and understandingchildren’s learning better on acontinuum.

• providing a reference point forteachers’ parents, children andothers to understand the progress ofevery child in a simple way.

• providing a framework for feedback,monitoring and reporting progressabout the child.

Step 4: Reporting andCommunicating Feedback onAssessment

Generally across all schools informationon assessment of a child’s learning andprogress is conveyed to both the childand parents through a Report Card.This is supposed to present a pictureof a child’s performance in differentsubjects in the form of marks/gradesgenerally, based on tests/examinationsconducted periodically in a school year.

There is no doubt that theassessments made by teachers and therecords they keep are done so as tohelp them understand how muchchildren have learnt, improve theirteaching-learning processes andprovide more meaningful learningopportunities/experiences to furtherenhance the learning of each child. Inorder to achieve the above, reportingneeds to become more communicative,constructive and user-friendly. Thiswould be possible if teachers reflect onwhat information they have with them

through their daily experiences and vis-à-vis the indicators in a specified areaof learning.

(i) Reflection by the Teacher

Teacher’s reflection will help inpreparing the progress map, viz. acumulative report that provides a clearpicture of a child’s progress over a givenperiod of time. Only then can theymeaningfully guide children’s learningin the future and help them to progressfrom a lower level of understanding andskill acquisition to higher and morecomplex levels of learning. It will alsohelp identify what is that the child findsdifficult and address the gaps . It isthrough this feedback that changes canbe made in the teaching-learningprocess.

Once the feedback is generated, thecritical question that needs to be

Report: Mapping the Progress ofthe child by

• assigning grades A,B,C in thesubject areas. These grades willindicate the range within which thechild’s learning and performancelies in the three performancebands or levels.

i. Progress of learning as perexpectation of that class.

ii. Child is doing well butneed support to reach theexpected level.

iii. Child needs lot of support

• using a collection of illustrationsof a child’s work to help


understand at what level oflearning she/he is.

• providing qualitative statementsabout what and how the child islearning along with grades.

• providing examples of the kind ofwork that has been done by thechild.

• highlighting the strengths andalso those aspects requiringfurther improvement.

addressed is what a report that is madeby the school-teacher should contain.It should provide a profile of the child’sprogress over a specified period of time.How can a child’s progress bedescribed? Let us consider how this canbe done and what information needs tobe included.

On preparing a report the teacherneeds to communicate and share thefeedback with the child and parents.This aspect is important and needs tobe done carefully and in a constructiveand positive manner.

(ii) Communicating Feedback onAssessment: Sharing with theChild

On a daily basis most teachers doprovide informal feedback to the childwhile she/he is involved in a task/activity. Children also correct andimprove themselves while observing theteacher or other children or whileworking in pairs or groups. The teacherneeds to

• discuss with each child her/hiswork, what has been done well, notso well and what needsimprovement.

• discuss with the child what kind ofhelp the child needs.

• encourage the child to visit/see her/his portfolio and compare it with thepresent work with what was donebefore.

• share positive constructivecomments while the child is workingor on the work already done.

• encourage children to match her/hisself-assessment with that of peersand teachers.

(iii) Sharing Child’s Progress withParents

Parents are likely to be the mostinterested in knowing how their childis ‘doing’ in school, what she/he haslearnt, how is their child performingand what is the progress of their childover a given period of time. More oftenthan not, teachers feel they havecommunicated effectively throughcomments made to parents such as ‘cando better’, ‘good’, ‘poor’, ‘needs to putin more effort’. For a parent what dothese statements mean? Do suchstatements provide any clearinformation of what their child can door has learnt, etc. As a concerned andresponsible teacher in order to enrichthe feedback being communicated, it issuggested that feedback needs to be insimple and easily understood languageon:


• What the child can do, is trying todo and finds difficult.

• What does a child like or not like to do.• Qualitative statements and with

samples of the child’s work.• How the child has learnt (processes)

and where did she/he face difficulty.

• Whether she/he could complete theactivity and his/her performancewhile doing so.

• Sharing the child’s work withparents, to help indicate areas ofsuccess and improvement.

• Talking on aspects such as co-operation, responsibility, sensitivitytowards others, interests, etc. withboth the child and parents.

• Discuss with parents (a) how theycan help, (b) what they have observedat home about the child.

CHILD PCHILD PCHILD PCHILD PCHILD PARTICIPARTICIPARTICIPARTICIPARTICIPAAAAATION*TION*TION*TION*TION*

1010101010DID YOU KNOW

1. GOALS

1. To promote within the family,community, schools and institutions,as well as in judicial and administrativeproceedings, respect for the views of allchildren, including the views of the mostmarginalised, especially girls andfacilitate their participation in allmatters affecting them in accordance totheir age and maturity.2. To make all children aware of theirrights and provide them withopportunities to develop skills to formand express their views, build self-esteem, acquire knowledge, formaspirations, build competencies indecision-making and communication,and gain confidence which will empowerthem to become actively involved intheir own development and in allmatters concerning and affecting them.

3. To empower all children as citizensby promoting their participation indecisions that affect their lives, the livesof their families and communities andthe larger society in which they live.

2. OBJECTIVES

The above goals will be achievedthrough the following objectives:

1. To ensure all families andprogramme planners, administrators inGovernment and NGOs and other civilsociety organisations are aware of childrights and respect the views of childrenand integrate opportunities forparticipation in accordance with theirage, in programmes and services beingplanned for them.

2. To ensure that all professionalsworking with children i.e. judges,lawyers, police, persons working ininstitutions and places of care,observation and detention homes forchildren, teachers, health personnel,including psychologists and socialworkers have the knowledge of childrights and the skills to make servicesand proceedings child-friendly,inclusive and participatory in nature.

3. To ensure information on childrights, laws and policies are madeavailable in a way that childrenbelonging to all classes and in differentsituations have access to them and arein a position to internalise theirimportance and understand them astheir right.

4. To ensure informed participation ofchildren in decision-making by

* Child Rights as per the National Plan of Action for Children–2005


providing access to information thataims at the promotion of their well-being, health, development, protectionand participation.

5. To ensure that all institutions andstructures created for planning, co-ordination, monitoring andsafeguarding of the rights of childrenprovide access to children and providethe space and opportunity for listeningto their views, according to their age andmaturity.

6. To develop strategic partnershipswith families and local communities,administrative and social structuresincluding school management, villagecouncils, local governance committees,etc. to address the traditionalconstraints to children’s participationand create the enabling environmentand spaces for participation in the dailylives of children.

7. To regularly review the extent towhich children’s views are taken intoconsideration, including their impacton relevant policies and programmes.

3. STRATEGIES

The above objectives will be achievedby the following strategies:

1. Advocate for child participation,especially for the girl child participation,at all levels.

2. Promote good governance in publicinstitutions and civil societyorganisations and make the provisionsand principles of child rights widelyunderstood by decision-makers.

3. Promote access to parents, families,legal guardians, care-givers to a fullrange of information and services topromote child survival, development,protection and participation.4. Use public media, print andelectronic, to disseminate informationon child rights, constitutionalcommitments and all child-relatedlegislations so that all children aremade aware of their rights andprotection available to them.

5. Strengthen the capacity of NGOsand children’s organisations towardsfacilitating child participation andproviding children with opportunitiesto advocate with adult institutions forgreater respect for their rights.6. Produce literature on policies,plans, legislations and programmes ina language and format that all childrencan understand, i.e. produce child-friendly versions, including one of theNational Plan of Action for Children-2005.7. Include information on child rightsand children’s participation in alltraining programmes and literature onparenting and for professionals dealingwith children.8. Strengthen children’s capabilitiesfor advocacy and participation bysupporting their own organisations,building networks by dissemination ofrights information and training, helpingthem access local, national and globalprocesses and policy-making forums.

9. Train children and equip them with

89Child Participation

life skills, develop their leadership skillsand skills to participate effectively in allsituations in their daily life along withadults.

10.Undertake legal and policy reformsto guarantee that children in difficultsituations, get full access to informationand to ensure that they are heard andtheir views are taken into account.

11.Ensure that children haveappropriate access to effectivecomplaints procedures in relation tofamily-life, including ill-treatment,alternative care of all kinds, schools andeducational services, health servicesand institutional services, all forms ofdetention, all aspects of the juvenilejustice system, environmental,planning, housing and transport issuesand other services affecting children.12.Encourage establishment ofchildren’s groups, councils,associations, and forums and projectsin order to create environments in whichchildren are invited to participate andfeel comfortable participating.

13.Establish a child-friendly educationsystem that enables effectivedevelopment and participation ofchildren, encourages democratic,gender-sensitive curriculum, teachingmethods, eliminates corporalpunishment and incorporates theprinciple of involving children indesigning and managing effective, safeand protective learning environments.

14.Develop capacity of media

personnel and children to produceprogrammes for and by children andestablish monitoring mechanisms toassess the impact of child-centredpublic information and media services.15.Engage with children’s forums/groups in order to regularly assess andreview children’s needs, encouragethem to speak out on issues, exposeabuse and exploitation, makecomplaints of services, ask questions,raise awareness of problems, press forchange in policy, etc.16.Undertake research to documentbest practices on child participation.Research on participation in earlychildhood and middle childhood isimportant in addition to the traditionalfocus on adolescence.

17.Undertake special measures toensure that children in difficultcircumstances, particularly insituations of conflict and naturaldisasters, have opportunities to havetheir views heard and considered inmatters affecting them.

18.Ensure that all programmes areassessed for their impact on childrenalong with indicators developed bychildren themselves and including theirviews.

19.Take measures to enableparticipation of children in themonitoring of the NPA and preparationof the CRC report by supporting local,state and national consultations withchildren and young.

StorStorStorStorStory : Rinnie the Rabbity : Rinnie the Rabbity : Rinnie the Rabbity : Rinnie the Rabbity : Rinnie the Rabbit

Mrs Krishna Sahgal *

1111111111

* 39, Kiran Enclave, Sikh Road, Secunderabad – 500009 (A.P)

RESOURCE MATERIAL FOR TEACHERS

Near the gurgling stream in the forestwas a tidy little cottage, cosy andcomfortable. In it lived Rinnie theRabbit, with her three cute littlebunnies. She cleaned and washed whilekeeping an eye on her three bunnies.“Yipee” went Jingo, the eldest followedby his brother Bingo, last to run out ofthe house was Dingo, the youngest; notto be outdone by his brothers, he went“Yipee’, Yipee” as loudly as his littlelungs could yell.

While the two elder ones, Jingo andBingo were obedient, the youngestDingo was a rebel, full of mischief. Heloved to meddle and tell tales, much tothe annoyance of their mother “RinnieMama.”

Dingo was a tiresome little brat,often getting into trouble with hisneighbourhood for meddling andcarrying tales. But it did not botherhim.

“He broke my glass,” complainedone neighbour; “He trampled on myflower beds,” said another. Rinnie

would chide him for his mischief, “whata naughty fellow you are! I have half amind to tie you up to a tree.” She wouldyell. But, Dingo would look sad for afew minutes, then dash back to histricks again.

Outside Rinnie’s quaint, ivy coveredcottage was a neat garden wherepeonies and daises grew in abundance.In the middle of the garden stood a hugetree, where “Chirpy” the sparrow hadher nest.

“Chirpy” and “Rinnie” were goodfriends. Sometimes they would discusstheir family problems also.

‘Hai’ said Rinnie. “Hai” said Chirpy.

“What did you see from the treetop?” Rinnie would ask Chirpy.

From her perch on the top branchesof the tree, she could see all around andgather the latest gossip. “Oh Rinnie, didyou know,” she would call out excitedly,“Wily the fox was on the prowlyesterday. The cunning Jackal had abig fight with his neighbour. They bothabused each other like anything.”

91Story : Rinnie the Rabbit

Chirpy would go on and on about theneighbourhood, much to the delight ofRinnie, who hardly had time to lookaround herself.

Always, before going out to get theessentials, Rinnie would tell her kids,“Jingo, Bingo, Dingo, lock the door frominside. Don’t open it for the strangersand do not go outside, until I come. Donot fight, instead play nicely with thegames of Ludo, Snakes and Laddersetc.”

Then she would call out to Chirpy,“Chirpy dear, please keep an eye on thekids.”

Chirpy loved the three little bunnies,and often agreed to “Bunnie sit” (Baby-sit) for Rinnie, when she went shopping.

Then, during her babysit, “Onceupon a Time” Chirpy would readstories of Kings and Queens to the littleones.

Although she loved all three of them,she was worried and concerned aboutDingo just like Rinnie. She wanted tohelp Rinnie to mend his ways. But hecould not be reformed and continuedto be mischievous with new pranks inmind.

At the other end of the stream livedRinnie’s brother Wisey, who was full ofwisdom and knowledge, that theanimals of the forest sought his help forall their problems. He kept a very neatlittle house with a place for everything.He meticulously placed everything inorder, in its place.

One day ‘Chirpy’ the sparrow went

out to meet her sister whose nest wason a tree, close to Wisey’s cottage. Asshe was flying, she saw Wisey givingadvice and lessons in etiquette to littleanimals under a large tree.

“Hai there, brother Wisey,” shecalled out.

“Hai chirpy dear, why don’t youstop by for a cup of coffee?” said Wisey.

“Thanks” answered Chirpy. “Yes, Iwill, on my way back.”

Whilst flying, an idea struck Chirpy.“Why not get Wisey to visit Rinnie andhelp her reform Dingo!” She knew thathe would do so willingly.

After a nice cup of coffee and smallcakes, Chirpy told Wisey about Rinnieand the trouble she had with Dingo.

“Don’t worry,” he said, “I will makethe naughty little fellow, an obedient.”

“Thanks” said Chirpy, “foreverything” as she flew away. “I will bethere tomorrow,” shouted Wisey.

Chirpy could not wait to convey thegood news to Rinnie. She flew fast, andcalled out to Rinnie breathlessly.

“Rinnie, Rinnie, I have good news foryou. Your brother Wisey will be heretomorrow to teach Dingo a lesson ortwo.”

Rinnie was beside herself with joyand happiness. She hugged Chirpy, shewent around tidying her house andbaking some goodies for her brother.

She baked two lovely pies and tocool them, left there on the window silland continued with her chores.


Dingo meanwhile, having upset hisbrothers, toppling the furniture, enteredthe kitchen. He saw these pies andnoticed that no one was lookingaround. He quietly took both of themand ran away, unaware of the fact thatthey were baked for his uncle.

Not far away from the cottage, hecame face to face with his uncle, whohad just arrived. Dingo became nervousand paled. Noticing Dingo’s pale faceand nervousness, Wisey guessedeverything. Taking both the pies fromDingo’s hands, he pretended thatDingo wanted to give him a pleasantsurprise and was bringing the pies forhim as a welcome. “Come Dingo.” Hepatted him and said, “Let’s walktogether home.”

Back home, when Rinnie turned herback, she got the shock of her life. Boththe pies had disappeared. She wasseething with anger. Seeing her flushedface, Wisey beckoned her, to keep quiet.Instead, placing both the pies on thetable and praising Dingo, he spoke,

“Sister Rinnie, see how considerate ourDingo is. He has become so loving andaffectionate.”

“Do you know why he took thesepies? He wanted to show me his warmthand affection to welcome me with thesepies.”

Rinnie’s hard expression softened abit. Uncle Wisey spoke again. “Sisterdear, Dingo is a darling. He presentedme these pies, when he met me outside.I am deeply touched. I do appreciatehis thoughtfulness.”

Rinnie’s face lightened up. Shehugged and kissed Dingo profuselywith joy. “Oh, my darling baby, I loveyou so much.”

Dingo was surprised at uncleWisey’s reaction and his wise remarks.Taking situation under control, hisuncle, with his wisdom had saved himof all the thrashing from mother Rinnie.

Dingo was feeling ashamed ofhimself. He vowed never to be naughtyagain.

PPPPPoems: Haroems: Haroems: Haroems: Haroems: Harmonymonymonymonymony

Sunil Ranjan *

1212121212

*Mohan Villa, Speaker Road, Naya Tola, Muzaffarpur-842001

Mix

When you choose to stay apart

You only feel sad

Be willing to be the part

For then you’ll feel glad.

Unity

Man-made borders across

the globe Yet we all are one

Differences, yet there is hope

To share joy and fun.

Let’s choose to be warm and nice

Wherever we are

Despite distance let’s rejoice

Let there be no bar.

Thinkathon

Think of all you wish to do

As you walk or run

Take care to be always true

Share knowledge and fun.

Manners

Be gentle, be soft and sweet

Whenever you speak

Either in classroom or street

Be humble and meek.

Culture

Take pride in your culture

Never forget your root

Always care to nurture

It is the sweetest fruit.


Creativity

Think afresh, feel free to say

What you have on your mind

Let yourself be in full play

Why at all stay behind?

Don’t ever choose to be held back

By what had been done before

Dare to get off the beaten track

You too may have something more.

Growth

Love to know, love to grow

Love to be up and high

May be fast, may be slow

Never give up but try.

Think afresh when you go wrong

Don’t ever feel let down

When you are daring and strong

You shine and win the crown.

Great Personalities

Read life of the well-known and greatTo feel happy, up, and high

Through tough times how they wrotetheir fate

They’d passion to touch the sky.

Patience

Plan afresh, be on the go

Work hard night and day

Don’t you ever lose your flow

You will find your way.

Thank you

When someone does something

for you

Say ‘Thank you’ with a smile

It’s a touch of warmth that is due

One feels glad for a while.

Sorry

Say ‘sorry’ when you go wrong

Don’t ever mind saying so

It’s human, it makes you strong

You don’t make any foe.

Punctuality

Tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock

Pick up the pace and go

Don’t get held back, follow the clock

Don’t you ever be slow.

95Poems: Harmony

Talking

If you talk and talk and talk

You’ll waste your precious time

It may come to you as shock

When you are past your prime.

Values

Love the young, respect the old

Take care to be nice

When you have a heart of gold

You always rejoice.

Human values count a lot

Don’t ever be cold

Everything comes to naught

If you lose your hold.

Human Touch

Be caring, be kind to all

No matter who they are

For then only you’ll stand tall

You will be shining star.

Choose to always love mankind

It’s healing human deed

Never let yourself go blind

Help all who are in need.

Early Rising

Birds too twitter and fly high

Up from nightlong sleep

They too cheer up in the sky

Come, wake up and leap.

Friends

Choose to always make good friends

With whom you can share

Have fun with them, they are gems

They are ones who care.

They’re with you in joy and sorrow

They get you easy

There’s promise of new tomorrow

With them you feel free.

Happiness

When you show your teeth and smile

You spread joy around

You tickle all for a while

As you take the round.

Documents

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