WELCOME TO ALL OF YOU AFTER MY

THREE MONTHS’ RESIDENCY AT THE ASU, USA

FOR INDIA SUPPORT FOR TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAM(IN-STEP)

OF

THE UNITED STATES AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT(USAID)

ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY OF THE USA:

FOUR UNIQUE CAMPUSES OF THE UNIVERSITY-

Tempe CampusEast CampusWest CampusDowntown Phoenix Campus

TOP RANKED INSTITUTIONS: W.P. CAREY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS MARY LOU FULTON TEACHERS COLLEGE SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING SCHOOL OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

INDIAN STUDENTS AND FACULTY MEMBERS: Out of 72000, 6000 Indian Students and Dr Sarup Rani Mathur, only professor in Education and Ajay Vinze,in the School of Business.

SUCCESS IN THE US CLASSROOM:

Student-centred Education in the U S – i. Contribute to the existing body of knowledge by challenging and exploring it,

ii. Be critical thinkers,

iii. Choose your own topics for papers and projects,

iv. Offer personal response, criticism analysis of expert texts,

v. Decide what courses you take and how you relate them to your professional goal,

vi. Dream big, work hard and control your own destiny.

PILLARS OF EDUCATIONAL SUCCESS:

- Learning to know,

- Learning to do,

- Learning to work together,

- Learning to live together.

EXPOSURE AT THE ASU:

1. Professor Christopher Clark, ASU, USA( engages our core classes) on ‘A Social Constructivist Model,

2. Co-teaching by Dr Suzanne Painter and Prof Christopher Clark,

3. ‘Sustainability Science for Teachers’ by Annie Warren,

4. Classroom Observations of elementary schools and Teacher Education of Arizona,

5. Classes on ‘Classroom Instruction that Works (CITW) by Bj Stone,

6. Classes on ‘Implementing Change’ by Kay Coleman,

7. Evaluation Training for implementing evaluation processes by Dennis Dotterer, Executive Director, South Carolina TAP System,

8. Classes on ‘Leadership’ by Dr Sarup Rani Mathur and many more things in terms of team work and deliberations.

9. Technology classes. 10. Exposure Visits to important places( Tucson, Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, Washington D C and New York).

EXPOSURE AT THE ASU:

PROFESSIONAL OATH: We swear to fulfill our professional objectives to the best of our knowledge and belief:

1. That we will be learning to know, to do, to work together and to live together.

2. That we will be believing in diligence, doing right and ingenuity.

3. That we will be striving for the fulfilment of equitable and humane expectations of society based on scientific foundations with commitment and deep sense of responsibility.

4. That we will respect the participation and efforts of others and share our knowledge with colleagues for the empowerment of our students.

5. That we will always remember that we are indebted to society and to the future of the country.

6. That we will never sell freedom, dignity and self for transitory happiness compromising with injustice.

7. That we will preserve our faith in learner-centered and learner-inspired education experiencing the joy of healing those who seek our help.

8. That we will not be ashamed of not knowing the things, rather we will share the things with our colleagues. 

MOST FASCINATING POINTS OF LEARNING:

= Time is everything.

= Change is a process, not an event.

=STEPS TO SUCCESS-

x. Just keep trying,

ix. Try to determine what is working,

viii. Try to determine what is not working,

vii. Try to find someone who has done it,

vi. Try and ask for help,

v. Try it again tomorrow,

iv. Try it a little differently,

iii. Try once more,

ii. Try again,

i. Try.

MOST FASCINATING POINTS OF LEARNING:

= CLASSROOM NORMS: i. Support one another,

ii. Respect each other and their ideas,

iii. Build our community,

iv. Be Responsive and responsible,

v. Be organized,

vi. Listen and listen well,

vii. Act and construct,

viii. Question, analyze, experiment and act,

ix. Set high goals, trust and be trustworthy.

INTERNALIZING AND APPLYING THE PRACTICES

AND

METHODOLOGIES LEARNED AT THE ASU:

A Reform proposal to enhance the capabilities of our current and

future teachers replete with the theory of change underlying the

approach to world class, customized teacher.

Education equipped with and motivated to unprecedented level of Professional performance.

The topic of my reform project is

‘Establishment of teacher learning/resource Centre’

My long term goal is to promote student-centred,

student-inspired inclusive

and democratic teaching practices and to provide a

bridge between the DIET and schools.

OBJECTIVES OF THE REFORM PROPOSAL:

The DIET will be able to develop a framework and site where teachers can choose and plan exercises that they think children should have.

Both the faculty members and the teacher candidates will be able to develop, practice and experience the innovative classroom practices.

The teacher candidates along with the faculty members will be able to bridge the gap between classroom transactions in the DIET and the expectations from them when they teach in lab schools.

All the members of the DIET will be able to work with a new approach. SCOPE

SCOPE OF THE PROJECT:

The reform project will be conducted in the DIET, Begusarai. During the initial phase

(Jan 14-June 14)the project will be implemented in the classroom of the D. El Ed course.

The project activities will be confined mostly to the classes of faculty members and the

student teachers team with the active participation of the principal.

STRAND DESCRIPTION:

There are five main strands of the reform proposal:

Reluctance of teacher educators to model the approaches they lecture about,

Issues of lack of relevance of what is taught in pre-service to ground realities in resulting low expectations of its making any difference,

Elementary teachers being viewed more as technicians rather than work towards their potential as creative practitioners,

Validity of issues of transferring what is learnt during pre-service training into multi-cultural

classrooms,Student teachers are constrained to teach in the traditional ways than employing

innovative and inclusive ways of teaching.

ACTIONS:

Based on multi-dimensional activities-

DIET a place of interactions,

ideas,

innovations,

change,

patterns,

principles,

reflections

and solutions.

To begin with reform proposal, I propose the following changes in the functioning of the DIET:

Step 1. - Grouping of teacher candidates (01 mentor teacher educator for a group

of 6-7 teacher candidates), Orientation of faculty members for proposing a

change in classroom practices,

Step 2. - Orientation of faculty members for creating an atmosphere for change, the

contents for the change will be prepared by the faculty members for a discourse

about the key issues for change discussed in the first orientation and video clips

will be shown before reaching to a consensus for a change in classroom practices and experiences of the ASU, USA will be shared,

Step 3.

-Modeling on the selected new classroom practices/innovative classroom practices for the teacher

educators along with the teacher candidates by the principal, (innovative approach means the approach to learner-

centred classroom practice where there is a scope or free space for teacher candidates to evolve their own plans to try

out. Co-teaching, peer teaching, co-operative teaching and some group teaching-learning modules are very popular in

the US system. They can be tried out in Indian contexts also),

Step 4.

-Classroom practices with classroom transactional plan by the teacher

educators, providing real time feedback on practices observed and model

practices in real world situations. - Co-teaching in the DIET and co-teaching by the teacher candidates in

schools during school practice.

Step 5.

- Providing teacher candidates with hands-on experience with learning

materials , engagement with learners and opportunities for self-reflection.

This will be done by organizing an orientation of teacher educators for

common agreements on specific issues and four workshops will be organized.

Step 6.

-Developing learning materials by teacher candidates themselves,

Some identified teachers who have the practice of innovative

teaching along with the teacher educators will help the teacher

candidates in developing learning materials. Very carefully

resource persons were selected and made to work from time to time.

Since long they have been implementing change being unnoticed

and now they have been associated with the DIET but the number

is very limited. In future they can help in choosing the bonafide

resource persons

Step 7.

Assessment/ evaluation of the program,

Step 8.

Some changes in the DIET’s daily schedule for

academic purposes will be made,

Step 9.

- A forum of teachers and teacher candidates,

Step 10.

Library period for teacher candidates for self-development and reflection,

Step 11.

School practice by the teacher candidates,

Step 12.

Preparation of need-based learning materials by the teacher

candidates with help of teacher educators for math and language

of grade I-III,

Step 13.

Evaluation of the classroom practices of the DIET and the lab schools,

Forging links between pre-service and in-service teacher education.

POTENTIAL BENEFITS:

Given the circumstances, if all goes well as I hope the same, we will learn a great deal

about the practical challenges of organizing non-conventional and non-stereotype

activities inside and outside classroom. Besides, we will learn how hands-on experience,

a forum for interaction and sharing, classroom-based research, linkage between

pre-service and in-service teacher education and co-teaching in the DIET turns into

a viable and lead teacher learning resource Centre.

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