A study of effect of ICT programme on learners' teaching

performance.

Introduction:
From the year 2003 we are implementing new SNDT University syllabus for
B.Ed. course. This course is designed in response to new understanding about how people
learn; about the potential of information and communication technologies; about radical
changes in patterns of life and work as a result of globalization, liberalization and
privatization; increasing need for economical, gender and social equality within nations
and between nations. (The course is updated in the year 2008-9.)

The emerging multi-layered knowledge economy demands persons to have a

conceptual knowledge of different subjects along with creativity, flexibility, an urge for
collaboration and practical skills of the entrepreneur. These higher order skills are more
effectively learned and developed in the rich, collaborative, problem-solving, but
uncertain world of apprentice-type learning than ever they can be in the formal classroom
with its inevitable emphasis on abstract tasks and predictable results. Learning has to be
about more than schooling. In a world of change successful individuals will be those who
can direct, manage and monitor their own learning in response to new opportunities. In a
vibrant democratic society it is essential to give young people such a mastery of their
own learning so, as they grow older, they are weaned of their earlier dependence on
teachers and institutions and become evermore self-motivated and responsible for their
own progression. Along with there is a constant need for creating knowledge for
sustainable development. Every member of the community is expected to participate in
solving problems related to different aspects of development in a constructive way. For
this to happen one should empower oneself to be a life long learner. The desire to be a
life-long learner has its origins in the nursery school and it is critical that such skills are
incrementally and progressively developed by the conclusion of secondary school. In
this respect every teacher has to play a crucial role.

In order to empower teachers -learning assistants, partners, mentors, educational

consultants, instructional designers- with capabilities needed to design and evolve
productive learning environment, course activities are designed. But it did not appear to
change attitude of the concerned persons toward subject teaching and classroom
practices. For example our method theory question papers are still loaded with questions
like merits and demerits of different methods, qualities of good teacher and teaching,
effective teaching, importance of learning different subjects etc. Student teachers get
distinction grade without correct and scientific information. Prospective student teachers
write every thing under the Sun that they read from the ideal question answer guides and
secure distinction in the examination. This leaves no scope for learning and testing of
new understanding of different teaching learning approaches. For many teacher educators
as well as institutions, teaching is restricted to preparing ideal answers for these types of
questions and selling or distributing copies to the student teachers. These institute boast
that they prepare student teachers for writing final examination papers right from the first
week of the commencement of course. Many teacher educators get inspiration from this
and start dictating ideal answers to enthusiastic student teacher. This creates adverse
effect on professional development.
To overcome this constraint there is a need to change implementation of practical
program. It should be in accordance with new knowledge base of learning and teaching.
Traditionally people think about teaching first and then about learning. Now learning is
not only important but has to be mass customized if we are expecting to develop
knowledge-based society. If learning is the priority then we must think about why, when
and how each one us and other people learn. Learner should be empowered to question
his or her actions and experiences constantly and learn from them.
As per university syllabus student teachers are expected to learn 'Information and
Communication Technology in Education' as a compulsory subject. (Now it is redesigned
as current concerns.) It includes topics like, 'systems approach', 'content analysis', 'task
analysis', 'instruction designing' etc along with acquisition of computer literacy. All
subject teachers are expected to assist student teachers to use these approaches for
designing instructions. Student teachers are provided with sufficient time for designing
instructions but concepts like 'one shot planning', 'one shot lesson guidance', and 'ideal
lesson plan' are still dominant. Similarly our lesson observation schedule leaves no scope
for evaluating various activities that are organized by student teachers with respect to
planning and execution of various learning experiences. This situation forced us to
rethink about our approach to evaluate instruction designing, instruction execution and
evaluation of learning environment and study its impact on student-teachers performance.
Title of the study:
A study of an effect of ICT programme (SNDT B.Ed. syllabus) on the
performance of student teachers with respect to content analysis, task analysis and
teaching behavior.

Rationale:
As Laurillard (2002) suggests in terms of beyond learning as mere content or
skills transmission, teacher education needs to rethink teaching in a 'knowledge society'-
that is, in terms of the need to integrate new modes of learning and assessment as well as
ICTs.
The 'activity-reflection portfolio' model represents an exemplary focus for
discussing a convergent 'hub' for connecting, implementing and developing the various
constructivist or student-centered implications of new learning technologies (Jonassen et
al, 1999). The activity-reflection portfolio thus represents a strategy for teaching and
learning which is consistent with both Laurillard's dialogical framework for the use of
educational technology in teaching and Schon's (1987) model of reflective practice in
professional training and educational design. In place of traditional dichotomies of theory
and practice, and also typical delineations of either skill or information acquisition in
relation to applied knowledge, it advocates a view of applied knowledge grounded in
both initial familiarization or practice and also critical reflection. (Cameron Richards)
As a general strategy this activity-reflection portfolio model of a learning and
assessment strategy integrates tools and processes of ICTs and encourages, reflects and
gauges students' progressive learning, self-evaluation and reflective practice. It is hoped
that this will motivate student teachers to connect practical activities with theoretical,
procedural and other conceptual modes of reflective learning. Similarly we hope to create
a knowledge base for enhancing quality of student teachers' professional development
program.

Visualization of activity-reflection cycle:

There is a need to develop link between content and process, thinking and doing and
between theory, practice and reality. Thus the stages of learning will be as follows,
)Initial familiarization (novice activity phase): Activity focus is structured as a
competency checklist of skills or knowledge. At this stage student teachers will be
expected to justify their teaching activities in terms of learning. They will be supported to
experiment with different approaches and strategies.
)Procedural and/or Theoretical Explanation (critical reflective phase): At this stage
student- teachers will be expected to inquire and think critically about their assumption
related to the teaching learning process.
)Specific application (dialogical /transformative phase): At this stage they are
expected to evolve their own strategies of teaching practice and are ready to justify its
pedagogical soundness.
All these stages demand teacher educators and learners to engage themselves in
an informed decision-making process. The quality of the programme will be maintained
by using following strategies.

• support good practice by:

o setting high expectations
o having clear objectives
o using a variety of teaching methods and strategies
o modeling effective behaviours
o providing authentic experiences
o supporting collaboration and attitude of competition is avoided
o provide need based guidance
• manage learning by:
o using ICT -electronic as well as non electronic- tools in learning
management tasks
o using a range of assessment methods
o providing feedback to students and conduct conferences on their
comments
o planning effectively
o managing time and pace well
o focus on process rather than product
• create effective learning environments by:
o considering both the physical and virtual environments
o extending learning beyond the classroom
o team working and relating to others
o celebrating success on the bases of academic criteria

It is also decided to make use of productive pedagogies that are listed as

follows.
 Supportive Recognition of
Intellectual Quality Relevance / connectedness
environment difference
Cultural
Higher order thinking Knowledge integration Student direction
knowledges
self initiated inquiry Background beliefs Social Support Inclusivity
Problem-based, case-based, resource Academic
Deep understanding Group identities
based learning activities engagement
Substantive conversation Connectedness beyond classroom Explicit Criteria Active citizenship
Collaborative meaning Student self-
Systems approach Writing narratives
making & negotiation evaluation

Objectives of the study:

To redesign the microteaching programme in order to make student teacher
sensitive to present day needs of the learner and society. At the same time care will be
taken to create opportunities for student teachers to act, reflect, question, debate and
prepare relevant documents and portfolios.
To redesign practice of instruction designing and execution so as to assist student
teachers bridge gap between theory and practice. Opportunities will be created for student
teachers to engage in the academic dialogue, apply conceptual knowledge in making
decisions related to instruction designing and its execution.
To evaluate student-teachers' development with respect to their understanding of
concept of learning and teaching, concept of content knowledge, concept of content and
task analysis.
Emphasis will be on motivating student teachers to evaluate their own progress
and its quality and present it in the form of critical reflection report. It is a semi-formal
written response (usually 400-500 words) to relevant focus questions in terms of either
practical processes of learning or topics which similarly serve to ground processes of
knowledge inquiry (i.e. conceptual probes), self-evaluation, and various kinds of critical
analysis in reflective practice. In short, ideas discussed should relate to practical
experience and, where also appropriate, be supported by appropriate references and well-
informed arguments. In this way, critical reflections represent an applied mode of
thinking grounded in practical or ideational 'doing' which goes beyond the learning of
mere information or skills. As for individual performance, critical reflections may
provide the basis for a social construction of knowledge in terms of subsequent dialogue
and discussion.
To evaluate quality of student teachers' performance with respect to instruction
designing and execution.

Hypotheses:
There will be a desired conceptual change in performance of student teachers with
respect to understanding of concept of learning and teaching, concept of content
knowledge, concept of content and task analysis.
There will be a qualitative enhancement in the performance of student teachers
with respect to instruction designing and execution.
Design of the study:
 Different practice teaching programs will be redesigned in accordance with the
learning age needs and new syllabus. For example,
Present lesson observation schedule emphasizes rituals like asking questioning,
explaining, using teaching aid, writing on the board etc. Student teachers as well as
teacher educators do not bother themselves about relevance or need of different teaching
activities. Similarly this deterred student teachers from organizing small group activities
or using models of teaching or any different approach. For example, teacher educator did
not give marks for a lesson based on synectics model, as she was not familiar with the
model though it was included in the educational psychology syllabus. The remark given
was," you will not get marks as you did not teach at all." Many teacher educators deduct
marks for not stating clearly the aim of the lesson if lesson is based on problem. If
introductory sentence is, "Let us learn to think inductively" then also marks are deducted,
as learning to think is not treated as learning or teaching as per tradition.
To avoid this kind of illogical behavior of student teacher as well as teacher
educators it was decided to observe instructional design using following points.

Execution of instructional design:

set induction and sustain it
using and managing method/approach relevant techniques
opportunities for learners to use cognitive/ affective/ physical/ interpersonal skills
sufficient time is provided
learning teaching material relevant to the selected approach
challenging /inviting learners to do higher level cognitive and metacognitive
activities
class managing style
content clarity
total impact
All eighty student teachers of the class will be assisted to make use of and create
'science of learning' for designing instructions at different levels of practice. They will be
helped to develop portfolios and create documents of their learning at various stages of
teaching practice. They will be motivated to evaluate their performance at the various
stages of professional and personal development.
Their performance will be evaluated using qualitative as well as quantitative
methods.
All student teacher will have to develop an electronic multimedia-self learning
package for school students.

Multimedia Project Developmental Process Reflections

1. Concept map 1. Stages and elements of multimedia project

development
2. Flow chart
2. The development of a workable design idea
3. Storyboard
4. Project final product 3. The process of interface design construction

4. Evaluation Phase-Gauging and refining

effectiveness of project

5. Seminar presentation, discussion and report

The reading/discussion material and document pro forma that are being developed
for PVDT college student-teachers will be used by three hundred students of colleges
(Mumbai College of Education for Women, Wadala, Mumbai. and Barrister Nath Pai
College of Education for Women, Kudal, Sindhudurga.) affiliated to SNDT University.
The qualitative data related to the student teachers will also be collected if possible.
Data will be in the form of portfolios developed by student teachers and
documentation done by teacher educators. Similarly using open-information written
examination will test student-teachers conceptual knowledge. In this test student teachers
will be allowed to use self-developed documents like reflection reports of various
learning activities, journals, logbooks etc. Student teachers as well as student teachers
will be interviewed for the impact of the program.

Data analysis:
Qualitative analysis will be done using available data. For this purpose portfolios
written by student teachers, non-evaluative remarks written by teacher educators will be
collected and will be analyzed to understand general pattern of the expected change.

Significance and importance of the study:

Being teaching practitioners of professional college we need to initiate integration
of theories into practice. There is a need for giving momentum to the process of change
in all aspects of education programme. This study will be helpful in determining
relevance of integrating ICT with content cum methodologies course.

Description of the programme:

Available opportunities: For many years we have "knowledge age" timetables.
This provides one time slots of 100 to 200 (some times one can conduct a full day
workshop) hundred minutes for every learning group. This gives opportunities to plan
demonstrations, simulated learning sessions, brainstorming sessions and organize
learning activities based on models of teaching.
We have movable chairs even in main lecture hall and it makes easier for one to
organize small group activities as per the need of the situation. This year we were
expected to conduct college during Diwali vacation and as only two lecturers were ready
to occupy learners for two days, I took this opportunity to conduct a six days workshop
on "instruction designing".
Our library is well equipped. Over the years I have developed needed reading
material in Marathi and many copies are available for students. These are used to develop
reading skills. There are many M.Ed. and Ph. D. research dissertations along with other
reference material. There are CDs that are loaned to learners as per the need. Learners are
systematically oriented for using this library and computer laboratory. Since our college
is situated in the university campus teacher educators and learners are able to use
university library.
Over the years I experienced that some students join teaching profession with
dedication. I am conducting this type of reflective learning activities for many years using
age-old pro forma and getting encouraging results. Student teachers are ready to spend
time and energy, ready to sit for longer duration for working collaboratively. These
student teachers don't bother themselves about marks or remarks as they use their own
judgment and evaluate their performance. These learners help in creating learning group
and learning culture.
Conducting workshop sessions on six thinking hats, SWOT analysis, JOHARI
window, stress management helps student teacher to prepare them for critical thinking.

Impact of emphasis on critical reflection:

Over the years different level teaching practice programs are organized just for
completing practical work. No questions are asked about the purpose of developing skills
like questioning, writing on board, reading, using teaching aids, roll-up board etc. These
skills are considered so important that learning of teaching ends with practicing these
skills during school teaching practices. Interestingly these skills are practiced by student
teachers only and not by regular teachers. For example, while practicing questioning skill
teachers are supposed to assist pupils to practice higher level thinking. But student
teachers end up practicing questions that demand repetition of textbook sentences. This
happens because they don't reflect on the practice. It is a fact that when a question is
raised in a class of fifteen to ninety pupils, few of them volunteer to answer it. If a group
of student teachers reflect on this situation a list of causes can be developed.
For example, how did you respond as a school learner to the questions that your
teacher asked? Many student teachers say that their teachers did not ask questions. Other
reasons are as follows. "I did not answer, as I did not attend it". "I was sitting on the back
bench that is why I did not feel the need to attend it." "I was not interested in answering
that simple question." "Some students are interested in answering it and get a pat from
teacher. Let them do that. I am not interested." "I know all answers and questions and
don't feel the need to attend it." "Why bother oneself with these things as one can pass
exams easily." When learners go for school teaching practice they don't get any response
from pupils. This means that their experience as learners and as teachers is similar.
Student teachers were helped to search for the research base for this problem. For
example, Cazden reports a study where teacher were teaching pupils of Navajo
community and did not get response from children. To study this problem counselors
visited their homes. They found that these children jump in adult conversation anytime
without any formalities. The classroom situation was not familiar to them where pupils
are required to raise hand and seek permission to participate only when teacher provides
platform to do so. These teachers were then helped to design environment conducive for
pupils' participation. As a teacher educator I think that these facts should be considered
while organizing micro teaching practices. It is the case with other skills also. No teacher
or teacher educator uses the skills during regular teaching practice, which they learn
during teacher education program.
To change this situation, a person aiming to practice teaching should be in a
position to take informed decisions. She should learn to practice teaching as "a
knowledge worker". This means she should reflect critically before taking any learning or
teaching action, during action and after action. It was expected that this reflection would
help her to develop her own teaching learning theories.
To assist learners to learn about teaching, latest version of Blooms Taxonomy
(Anderson and others-2001) was introduced by asking them to analyze different
simulated learning teaching situations and interaction transcripts of different instructional
designs. They were helped to understand four categories of knowledge, namely factual,
conceptual, procedural and metacognitive. They were also familiarized with six stages of
cognitive tasks, namely recognition and recall, understanding, application, analytical
thinking, evaluating and creating. This was accompanied by discussion about the
concept of systems approach with respect to four pillars of education, Panchasheel of
education, core elements and values, purpose of designing micro level, integrated,
simulated and school instructions, content analysis, designing instructional and learning
moves to achieve specific learning objectives with knowledge and cognitive process
dimension. Copies of reading material were provided to each learner along with
redesigned work sheets and self-learning material. This was accompanied by self-
learning material developed by Dr. Chitra Sohoni that was based on introductory topics
of ICT subject. This helped me to conduct small group and large group discussion
sessions with different objectives.
Process of content and task analysis was emphasized while designing learning
events or moves. Students-teachers were helped to understand process of identifying and
analyzing key themes, key concepts and key procedures. Student teachers are expected to
design learning activities based on core curriculum. Thus there is need to organize
learning activities around themes. Designing instructions focusing on themes allows
learners to practice different skills with interest and they are able to experience worth of
that learning. Learners in this situation are able to revisit different concept repeatedly
with different contexts and thus get multiple opportunities to use different learning skills
like reading, discussing, writing, role playing etc. and get empowered with respect to
these skills. This also makes learning meaningful, as it is possible to construct real life
situations on themes. Theme based content organization helps teacher in promoting
automaticity, intrinsic motivation, and communicative competence. For example, student
teachers were motivated to think about mathematical concept "profit and loss" with
respect to different occupations like farming, shop keeping, retailing, wholesaling,
fishing, trading different products, practicing medicine, practicing law, consumer
movement, ethics of profit making, sale and discount, marketing of perishable
commodities, getting cheaper apples from China and costly fruits of Himachal Pradesh,
poverty of Indian farmers etc.
Many demonstrations/-simulated sessions were conducted using different
approaches of curriculum transactions and their psychological bases (meaningful
learning, constructive learning, discovery and guided discovery, concept formation and
attainment, problem based learning, inquiry etc.) were discussed. While narrating my
reflective thinking (before action, during action and after action) I related it to different
decisions taken while designing instruction. I helped them to focus on theoretical bases of
teaching and learning. Student teachers were encouraged to participate in the discussion
with open mind and learning age needs. This helped them to create knowledge
representations using different formats like concept map, concept script, concept web,
content charts, content structure etc. This changed their perceptions toward content
analysis and knowledge. This in turn changed their way of designing questions, work
sheets, reading material and other learning activities like designing a story board for
developing electronic self learning material, developing black board work, classroom
management. Student teachers were helped to understand the process of task analysis
simultaneously.
Workshops were conducted for student teachers to help them to observe execution
of instructional design using designer approach. Since student teachers were familiar with
psychological bases of different approaches, models and methods of teaching they were
assisted to write observation notes using following nine points (Borich Gary 1994):
Learning environment
Class management
Work clarity and or readiness to learn
Instructional variation
Engagement of learners in learning process
Cognitive and or affective satisfaction gained through completion of task or
acquisition
of skill
Experiencing knowledge construction, knowledge acquisition and or concept
enrich
ment
Engagement of teacher in teaching process
Determination of teacher's philosophical position based on how she treats pupils-
as active or passive, how she treats subject- structured or amorphous, personality
development- cognitive or affective, thinking process- divergent or convergent was made
necessary.
Demonstrations were given in designing a storyboard and power point slides.
Data analysis:
Some facts:
Any teacher educator provided no written document on repeated request. During
in-house teaching practices (microteaching, integrated teaching, simulated teaching) they
did not able to engage learners in academic discussion. Though a period of 200 to 250
minute was made available, most of the groups (twelve students and a teacher educator)
used to complete the work within 100-150 minutes. They did not use observation
schedules rigorously and resorted to give evaluative remarks like good, excellent without
critical or reflective note. During school practice sessions they observed two to three
lessons at a time. Many teacher educators expected student to resort to age old teaching
practices like not allowing pupils to open textbooks (It is clearly stated in the preface that
books are to be used by pupils as a self learning material.) and forcing them to listen to
teachers' meaningless 'explanations' (lifeless recitation of textbook statements) and
respond to other teaching gimmicks like looking at a map hanged at a distant position.
For example a student teacher wanted to assist pupils of ninth standard to revisit concept
"profit and loss". She designed a worksheet for pupils to work on and classify economic
transactions listed on the work sheet. Her purpose was to engage learners in working
collaboratively to recall and apply critical attributes of concept in question. For achieving
this she included non-examples that is examples of the concept like discount,
commission, brokerage etc. But the teacher educator asked her to stop and resort to
telling about "profit and loss". Many teacher educators allotted distinction grades for poor
performance of student teacher. This deterred student teachers from practicing knowledge
based and learning age teaching learning processes.
This forced me to rely on my observation notes, instructional designs developed
by students, student teachers reflection and observation notes, and interviews with
student and insight gained by talking with teacher educators for the data of this study.

Analysis of instructional designs:

In the beginning student teachers did not able to write purpose of the instructional
design and objective specification. After listening to feedback discussion and reading
feedback notes many student teachers started writing "purpose statement" that is broader
purpose or essential question for evolving a situation for setting a learning task of
instruction designing. Similar is the case with writing of objective specifications of
learning. In the beginning most of them did not able to take into account knowledge and
cognitive process dimension of "instructional designing".
Similarly many students were reluctant to write detailed visualization of execution
of instructional design or task analysis. Only thirteen students were able to write
visualization with theoretical bases. This did not mean that they were not aware of the
psychological bases of learning activities but all the time they were not confident to spell
it out. Barring about 24 student all were in a position to recognize theoretical bases of
instructional design (based on the data of written test). No rigid format was provided to
the learners for writing instructional design notes. Earlier student were expected to write
content analysis (most of the time complete text), objective specification, teacher action
and student action in a rigid manner. Due to this student teachers resorted to copying
lesson plan and conducting teaching rituals accordingly. Redesigned pro forma did expect
student teachers to write any thing that will make them comfortable in the process of
executing particular design. This made a difference. Every instructional design was
exclusive and they used different methods and approaches for organizing learning
experiences.
Most (fifty six out of eighty) of the student teachers were able to analyze content
with larger perspective. Earlier only science and mathematics student used to analyze
content as per facts, concepts, procedures etc. This year with the emphasis on content
analysis student teachers were able to connect concepts within particular discipline and
they enjoyed this activity. Naturally with respect to these student teachers, school
teaching practice did not remain at the level of completion of the lifeless rituals. With
respect to meaningful verbal learning all student teachers were more conscious. This
helped them not to stick to the planned or visualized instructional moves and respond to
the situation giving due respect to pupils' contribution. Similarly same content was
treated and transacted differently with different purpose and with emphasis on different
objectives. (Two teachers educators supported this.) Most of the student teachers
succeeded in engaging learners in meaningful activities as work progressed. Information
processing, information organizing, designing knowledge representation was focused
during learning process. Student teachers were able to make use of available arrangement
for organizing small group activities. In spite of this they many were unable to
understand question, "What approaches will you select for enhancing communication
skills in language teaching classes and all first generation learners are girls?"
I observed 268 lessons and wrote a non-evaluative feedback note for each. It
included suggestions like, 'Please ask pupils to write knowledge representation along
with you.' or 'Give some time for pupils to complete a chart in there note book.' or 'be a
member of any learning group and work as a learning partner.' Similarly I did write how I
would have designed learning environment and why, how I would have responded in a
particular situation and why, what question I would have raised and why etc. For
example, " Is it necessary to make reading hobby compulsory for all eighty five pupils
that are there in the class? I would have discussed with learners a concept of 'hobby' to
begin with. I would have engaged learners writing few lines about 'a hobby'. While they
are busy writing I would have raised questions like what we mean by a word hobby, what
is personal importance of hobby, what is social importance of any hobby, can we
differentiate good and bad hobbies, can one make a career out of a hobby or can one
develop his or her hobby to earn money. I will not expect student to respond this
questions quickly or orally. I will raise them only when they stop writing. They are
prompts. My experience tells me that pupils do not write anything due to lack of ability to
think independently and confidence. These questions might help them to continue with
writing. Your purpose is to develop their writing skill. This school is having a well-
equipped computer laboratory, pupils are well versed with micro word but they are not
used to write what they think. They are forced to write a final draft in their essay
notebook. They are not used to write first draft, second draft and third draft etc. Computer
makes this job easier for them but they should think for them. I think that need for writing
should be felt from within. One should become restless and feel the need for expressing
in written form. Pupils should be motivated to think about their feelings, thoughts and
should be assured that as a teacher you are interested in reading their own thinking and
writing. Similarly at the beginning don't bother them about the mechanics of writing. Let
them feel free to write anything that comes to mind in any format and then encourage
them to write second draft with emphasis on grammar and other mechanics of writing.
Am I not thinking psychologically about assisting pupils to write an essay?"
A student teacher remarked, "After reading your feed back notes (last years note)
I thought that you are writing them without observing anything. Now I realized that you
are observing teaching learning process keenly and make notes of every point."
Some times I suggested a list of questions demanding critical thinking. For
example, "Our elders, our teachers keep on telling us what to do and what we shouldn't
do. How do we feel in this situation? As a young pupil I didn't like my mother as she
forced me to do things that I didn't like doing. I even used to call her Hitler. What about
you?" ...Now these two successful authors are praising their mothers and giving them
credit of their success. Are they different from us? Didn't they curse their mothers when
they were of your age? ...Their mothers held very high values and lived those values
without any compromise...Did not they force their children live a virtuous but miserable
life? What about those pupils who do not get guidance from their elders? ... etc."
 It was interesting to find that many student teachers used to make use of these
feed back notes for designing instructions. When inquired about this, student teachers
said, "When you come for observation we are in much demand as experts. We get
inquiries from many of our colleagues about the feedback. We discus on telephone or on
mobile, notes written by you. When we meet we exchange photocopies of these notes."
This was a real surprise to me. As per my earlier experience student teachers used to care
for organizing learner centered experiences only if I am observing and evaluating their
school lessons. This was not the case this year. Many student teachers told me that in
spite of discouragement from teacher educators and schoolteachers they tried their best to
design learner-centered environment, as this is a need of the learning age. It should be
noted that though most of the student teachers tried to design learner-centered activities
all of them did not succeed in designing or executing them.
About sixty students did attempt to write reflection notes but few (23) student
teachers (I was not able to read notes written by all student teachers.) could demonstrate
deep thinking. Their writing is an indication of fact that they were thinking about Lee
Schulman's all categories of knowledge required by a teacher. Many student teachers
were able to narrate their experiences orally in detail and it indicated that they too are
thinking deeply but their notes did not mention these experiences. Many student teachers
do not have competency to write their experiences, feelings and thought process. For
example they did write that their way thinking about teaching learning changed a lot but
they did not describe the contexts that made this difference.

Some samples of student teachers written and oral narratives are given
below:
"My purpose was to help them acquire writing skill. That is why I wanted them to
write an essay on the topic 'reading as my hobby'. I did not realize that they would be able
to write fluently on the hobby that they have and this would able to boost their confidence
in writing. This is the basic requirement for developing writing skill. Every
communication skill is based on ability to think.".....A

"Deciding the purpose of organizing learning was a difficult task in the beginning
but after designing few instructions I started enjoying that work. For example a teacher
asked to take four periods spread over a week. She also allowed me to choose the topic. I
designed an advanced organizer based on the content of two biographies written by
Kishori Amonker and Prabodhankar Thakare of their mothers. This made it possible for
me to ask probing -higher level- questions"...M

"I always resorted to rote learning. But when we learned to develop concept map
or knowledge representations I was able to learn with understanding. I also learned to
think logically and relieved from the fear of forgetting. For example I wanted to teach the
concept 'democracy'. Instead focusing on textbook definition we together-myself and
pupils- developed a concept map listing critical attributes. I did not tell anything to them
as a teacher and student did everything. There I realized meaning and importance of
learner-centered approach. Pupils were very happy during the class as they felt that they
can learn without using book.".....B
 "I was waiting for pupils to ask me about the way I was writing or rather
developing concept map on the black board. Pupils are not familiar with this type of
board work. I was egger to tell them the merits of this way of writing which appears
untidy but I decided to keep quite. During my fourth teaching practice period they asked
me about it. We then discussed this way of written communication. I told them about the
concepts maps given in their English textbook. I enjoyed developing knowledge
representations along with pupils. After classes are over many pupils told me that they
enjoyed this type of work as it gives them freedom to participate.".... C

"Deciding about key concept with respect to any content was a exciting activity.
Being a graduate of Marathi language I did not take into account importance of a poem or
a story in ones life or its cultural importance. Your demonstration helped us to study
content from varied angles and point of views. This helped us to give freedom to pupils
to make meanings and negotiate meanings. Though some schoolteachers, teacher
educator objected I continued to organize learning activities based on constructivist
approach. Pupils are smarter than we think. They have capacities... potentials... but the
way teacher teach leaves no scope for learner to develop and express."...D

"Your queries regarding content analysis, task analysis motivated us to do

reference work. I and my colleagues used to have a very critical and hot discussion on
content analysis and designing learning teaching moves we felt the need for
"understanding more". For example when you asked the need for having separate topics
like "proportion" and "variation" nobody among us was able to understand the difference.
We really wonder how did we get good marks without understanding any concept
thoroughly. We read the textbook information repeatedly but failed to understand the
difference. When you conducted a session on "guided discovery instructional design"
based on the content "proportion and variation" many of us realized need for more
information about mathematics and also about teaching this." ...L

"I observed two different instructional designs continuously in the same class.
The first teacher (A) was trying to teach first (Marathi) language. 9-10 pupils sitting on
the last benches were fighting during the period. I became restless and but teacher A
continued. I blamed pupils and teacher equally. I think that many microteaching practice
groups did not engage themselves in a "serious work" and failed to acquire essential
skills. The teacher was not using any skill or approaches or method that you
demonstrated to us. It was a sheer waste of time and energy but she got a good grade.
Next instructional design was based on the content, "single variable linear equation". This
content was discussed many times in our group in different contexts. I did not understand
a word of it. But my colleague from our group designed instructions based on our
discussions about guided discovery approach, not only I was able to understand the
content being discussed but pupils were also engaged in a serious learning. Here I was
able to understand meaning of what you were telling us repeatedly, "design authentic
learning tasks using psychological base, execute it and there won't be any problem of
classroom discipline." This instance helped me to understand the fact that a teacher can
make a lot of difference. It motivated me to design instructions to engage pupils
meaningfully.
 I realized the need to access more information. After completing every teaching
practice session all members of our group used to run for getting books from library. My
impression about teaching changed a lot due to this. I used to think that one could teach
by reading textbooks before we enter the class. As we are not allowed to borrow
reference books we used to come early morning to do reference work. We did spend
many hours at cyber café to get information and discuss different concepts from learners'
point of view. To motivate learners to participate in activity we designed meaningful
activity using low cost handling material. I experienced this when I designed learning
moves for teaching concept refraction. I was happy that I used empty electric bulbs to
organize individualized learning activity. I am fully confident now that I can design
quality science concept instructions by using available material."...E
"Best part of this work was to think before action, during action and after action.
Many times I did not able to sleep for the whole night but I did not get tiered. I enjoyed
being a thinker. This thinking helped me to teach without stress."...G

"Learning with six thinking hats was very useful for me. We used to discuss our
instructional designs on that line. Our discussion during microteaching session helped me
to innovate different mathematics and science experiment using simple material. I could
help pupils to think scientifically without using elaborate and sophisticated laboratory
facilities. These sessions helped me to learn many skills from my colleagues. For
example my portfolios were very vague. I did not support any claim with concrete
evidence. After reading their portfolios I was able to write about my development using
evidence.
In the beginning I used to get bored with lengthy discussion sessions. I felt that
we are wasting time. As we progressed I realized that my way of understanding the event,
concept is improving." ...SH

"I liked sitting arrangement of the class. All of us were able to observe each other
in small groups as well as in a group of eighty. We could observe how other students
think and argue, how they lead the group, how they argue and assert their point of view
etc. This encouraged many of us to speak out or ask questions. Workshop sessions helped
us to learn many things from each other. Your insistence on writing discussion points
helped us to improve our thinking"...X

A discussion with teacher educator supported the fact that there is a change in
student teachers' perspective about teaching and learning especially about the content
analysis. They did not restrict them to telling facts. History and language teaching was
changed and it moved toward conceptual learning. The redesigned pro forma did help
learners to design instructions flexibly. Earlier student teachers used to design
instructions rigidly and used to teach under stress. This year many student teachers were
working without much stress and tried to give freedom to pupils. They tried constructive
approaches for organizing learning activities.
Many student teachers did made a serious effort to design posters and storyboards
but no time was left for me to discuss and study the change. I was able to organize
seminar only for a group of ten students. Out of these only seven student teachers were
able to perform according to set criteria. They designed worthy posters on selected
problem or theme and presented their studies. They made good use of the posters while
presenting their studies.

Analysis of "information test": Students were tested for their content

knowledge of ICT in education. This open information test was application level test and
expected student teachers to do analytical reading and writing. Fifty four percent student
teacher showed satisfactory performance. Others fail to connect different knowledge
aspects meaningfully. This happens due to their dependence on notes available in the
market. These so called notes reduce "knowledge" into meaningless "Information" which
is many times contradictory to what they learn from the experience. For example I keep
on emphasizing need for collaboration with its philosophical and psychological bases
during demonstrations but they emphasize competition for motivating learners.

Summery
Following hypotheses were constructed for designing study.
There will be a desired conceptual change in performance of student teachers with
respect to understanding of concept of learning and teaching, concept of content
knowledge, concept of content analysis and task analysis.
There will be a qualitative enhancement in the performance of student teachers
with respect to instruction designing and execution.
Due to lack of sufficient data it is difficult to test these hypotheses.
From available data it can be said that about seventy percent learners were able to
change their perspective about teaching learning, concept of content knowledge and
content analysis. This made some difference in classroom teaching as many student
teachers tried to organize small group learning activities and conduct open discussions in
the class. They allowed pupils to make and negotiate meaning. Over the years I am
giving similar inputs but that failed to reflect in their instructional practices. I can say that
the learning material and redesigned pro forma did make the difference.
As about thirteen student teachers were able to write detailed visualization of the
design, it is difficult to claim that their performance with respect to task analysis is
changed. But on the bases of content analysis written by all student teachers for their
school teaching practice, it is clear that there is total change with respect to their
performance. All teacher educators observed this change.
Similarly there is a qualitative enhancement in the instructional designing and
execution. Two teacher educators observed this change. Many student teachers tried to
use constructive approach and organized small group activities and conducted them
successfully. Similarly student teachers exhibited high level of motivation for access to
information.

Conclusion:
Including a paper on information and communication technology is not sufficient
to design "learning age teacher education program". It is necessary that teaching practices
at all level should incorporate latest theories and theory based approaches and methods.
For this all teacher educators should be well versed with new terminologies, concepts and
should have mastery over the required skills. Many teacher educators are master trainers
(Intel) but do not feel the need of reading latest developments in the field of education.
They discourage learners from reading, thinking, probing and practicing. In this situation
reading material and redesigned pro forma can be useful at least for student teachers who
are interested in learning and want to work as an agent of social change.
Knowledge commission report, globalization, liberalization, privatization are
topics that are included in the first paper, constructivist approach is the part of
educational psychology syllabus, system approach, instructional design is included in
paper three and content-cum- methodology has nothing to do with all these theoretical
bases. In this situation teacher development programs are totally meaningless. Student
teachers get degrees without acquiring needed competencies. Then by investing a year
they become master in education and become teacher educator. For getting masters
degree they are expected to conduct research project. But all this does not assist them in
developing professionally. Then after passing state on national eligibility test they
become fully qualified teacher educators. All are quite happy with the present situation.
Thus all efforts toward changing the situation has little or negligible impact.
In this situation redesigned material based on systems approach in instructional
design did motivate some learners to search and study content with sound educational
purpose. They tried to hypertext content rather than limiting it to the textbook for
developing different concepts that are part of the syllabus. Thus student teachers are
made to realize the fact that concepts are not restricted to particular set of information but
they have capacity to accommodate large amount of information. This in turn was able to
change the concept of content analysis. This helped them to understand limitations of
different forms of evaluation and assessment. Some student teachers did dare to organize
learning activities using social constructivist approach. They also used varied methods
and modes for communication and content transaction. This inspired other student
teachers to organize learning activities based different approaches.

coordinator: Satyawati Rawool.

List of the educators involved in the programme: Rekha Talgeri, Sucharita Bhakre.

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