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PART - I
GENERIC ISSUES
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Development
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Team
Dr. Anjali Khirwadkar, Professor, Department of Education, Faculty of
Education and Psychology, M.S. University, Baroda.
Dr. Anjum Sibia, Professor, DEPFE, NCERT, New Delhi.
Dr. Anupam Ahuja, Associate Professor, DEGSN, NCERT, New Delhi.
Dr. A.P. Behera, Associate Professor, CIET, NCERT, New Delhi.
Dr. Jyoti Sharma, Assistant Professor, Shyama Prasad College
(Delhi University) Punjabi Bagh, New Delhi.
Dr. Jyotsna Tiwari, Associate Professor, DEAA, NCERT, New Delhi.
Dr. Kalyani, Assistant Professor, Lady Shri Ram College for Women
(Delhi University) Lajpat Nagar, New Delhi.
Dr. Mona Yadav, Associate Professor, DWS, NCERT, New Delhi.
Dr. Ranjana Arora, Associate Professor, RMSA Project Cell, NCERT, New
Delhi.
Dr. Vinay Kumar Singh, Associate Professor, DEGSN, NCERT, New Delhi.
Review Team
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Dr. Alka Mehrotra, Associate Professor, DESM, NCERT, New Delhi.
Dr. Anjali Khirwadkar, Professor, Department of Education, Faculty of
Education and Psychology, M.S. University, Baroda.
Prof. Anjum Sibia, DEPFE, NCERT, New Delhi.
Dr. A.P. Behera, Associate Professor, CIET, NCERT, New Delhi.
Dr. Jyoti Sharma, Assistant Professor, Shyama Prasad Mukherji College
(Delhi University), Punjabi Bagh, New Delhi.
Jyotsna Tiwari, Associate Professor, DEAA, NCERT, New Delhi.
Dr. Kalyani, Assistant Professor, Lady Shri Ram College for Women
(Delhi University) Lajpat Nagar, New Delhi.
Dr. Mona Yadav, Associate Professor, DWS, NCERT, New Delhi.
9.
Shri Rakesh Kumar, Assistant Professor, Maharashi Valmiki College of
Education, (Delhi University) Geeta Colony, Delhi.
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Dr. Ranjana Arora, Associate Professor, RMSA Project Cell, NCERT, New
Delhi.
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Dr. Rajrani, Professor, DTE, NCERT, New Delhi.
Dr. Roohi Fatima, Assistant Professor, JASE, Faculty of Education, Jamia
Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
Dr. Sharad Sinha, Associate Professor, RMSA, Project Cell, NCERT, New
Delhi.
Dr. Veer Pal Singh, Associate Professor, ESD, NCERT, New Delhi.
Shri Vinod Kumar Kanvaria, Assistant Professor, Department of Educaton,
Delhi University, Delhi.
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16.
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Dr. Vijayan K., Assistant Professor, DTE, NCERT, New Delhi.
Dr. Vinay Kumar Singh, Associate Professor, DGESN, NCERT, New Delhi.
Editing Team
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Dr. Bharti, Assistant Professor , DGESN, NCERT, New Delhi.
Dr. Shashi Prabha, Assistant Professor, DESM, NCERT
Dr. Kalyani, Assistant Professor, Lady Shri Ram College for Women
(Delhi University) Lajpat Nagar, New Delhi.
Dr. Vinay Kumar Singh, Associate Professor, DGESN, NCERT, New Delhi.
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1. UNDERSTANDING AND DEALING WITH
ADOLESCENTLEARNERS
A BOUT
THE
M ODULE
This module has been developed to help teachers understand the
characteristics of their learners and their learning environment. It will
motivate teachers to reflect on their own experiences at adolescent age
and link them with current situations. This module is expected to provide
space for teachers to be more caring, sharing
motivating and
communicating and develop empathy in their interaction with adolescents.
GROUP A CTIVITY
Before reading this module, teachers may be divided in groups and asked
to discuss about their adolescence years in schools and note down the
discussion points with anecdotes. The focus during the discussion may
be on –
1 . their past feelings about their school life , peers, teachers, society,
parents, community, curriculum, course and assessment system
etc.
2 . the difficulties they had faced in their adolescent age.
3 . person who had counseled and helped them progress further in
their study.
4 . how their teachers used to handle them?
5 . the most cherished moments of their adolescence.
6 . the approach they use at present to handle their students, whether
it is same as the approach which their teacher used?
Now ask the teachers to read the module and reflect upon the changes
they have noticed during these years.
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I NTRODUCTION
Secondary Stage of school education covers the age group of 13-14,
followed by the Higher Secondary stage, which covers the age group of
15-18. These are usually called the years of adolescence and late
adolescence respectively. These are the years of transition from childhood
to maturity, which include, a period of rapid physical, cognitive, and social
development and profound biological changes. During this period,
adolescent struggles to accept one’s physical self/maturity and develops
a realistic image of one’s physical appearance. Physical changes occur
during this period along with a number of psychological changes.
Adolescents tend to express a new awareness of sexual feelings and show
increased interest in members of opposite sex and in sexual matters. The
development of a sexual identity defines the sexual orientation and guides
sexual behaviour. This is an important concern of adolescent stage, as
physical changes are also accompanied by cognitive and social
developmental changes.
Adolescents move towards development of more abstract, logical and
idealistic thinking. They develop the ability to examine their own views
and others’ views and the ability to reason. This may help them in
developing a new level of cognitive and social awareness. Many of them
try to make sure that they are the centre of attention, while many others
may prefer aloofness. Adolescents may need guidance and awareness
about making personal choices which may impact their lives.
They become concerned about questions such as “Who am I?”, “ How do
I fit into the world?”, “What is life all about?, etc.” In the process of achieving
an identity, the adolescent some times experiences conflicts with others
or within her/his own ideas. During this time adolescent may also feel
the anxiety of what one wants to do with one’s life and goes through a
period of identity-versus role-confusion. Adolescents on one hand, may
desire independence but may also be afraid of it and show a great deal of
dependence on their parents. Rapid fluctuations between self-confidence
and insecurity are also seen in many adolescents during this stage. In
the process of search for personal identity, the adolescent tends to distance
herself/himself from adults/parents for taking decisions and the peer
group becomes increasingly influential. The demand of dealing with these
concerns comes at a time when major physical changes are taking place
and change in what the society expects of them. The result of this is that
adolescents find this period difficult to cope with. Supportive adults can
help the adolescent in dealing with conflict with others and within own
self by discussing the issues and processes related with conflicts and
pe a c e.
The formation of identity during adolescence is influenced by several
factors. The cultural background, family and social values, ethnic
background, socioeconomic status, etc., prevail upon the adolescents’
search for a place in society at large and in the lives of significant others
in particular. In brief, adolescence is the stage ofa . intense physical change and formation of identity;
b . emergence of abstract reasoning and logical thinking;
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UNDERSTANDING
AND
DEALING
WITH
ADOLESCENT LEARNERS
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c. intense vibrancy and energy;
d . emotional transformation and maturity that swings between selfconfidence and insecurity; and
e. stage of transition to work independently.
Following activities can be performed in order to help students to
understand, accept and resolve conflicts about what they are:
Activity I
Select a play and ask boys to perform the role of girls and ask girls to
perform the role of boys in the play. Then ask them to reflect on their
experience and ask other students’ about their reaction to the behaviour
of performer. Discuss difficulties faced while performing the role of other
gender.
U NDERSTANDING AND DEALING
A DOLESCENT L EARNERS
WITH
Activity II: Celebrating own distinct qualities
P u r p o s e : To appreciate that all of us are unique and distinct in ourselves
and have qualities that are different from others including
physical qualities. This activity promotes to develop an
acceptance that there are qualities that we can change and there
are some that we cannot change.
Delivery Format Recommended: Group Discussion
Groups may be formed in the classroom in such a manner that all the
learners are engaged.
Discussion Focus:
• Ways in which people are distinct, unique and similar.
• How do we celebrate this uniqueness?
• What are the peculiar characteristics of growth and development
of boys and girls.
A part of the debriefing exercises for teachers:
Teacher is expected to bring forward the issues like rapid physical changes
in height, weight distribution, age and stage of maturation, ideal media
image of body and real body image, healthy diet, regular and enjoyable
physical activity, acceptance of others as ‘who they are’ and not as ‘how
they look’, etc. Then, in conclusion teacher may develop an understanding
that there are many of these changes/issues that are beyond our control.
We need to deal with these changes and challenges with a more positive
dis positi on.
During adolescent phase both boys and girls pass through crises of
identity. It is sometimes difficult for adolescents to express positive things
about their body, behaviour, expectation, actions and thoughts. During
this period their self perceptions may be influenced by negative body
image. Teacher can help them analyse themselves and provide them
examples which can help them overcome these.
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Teacher needs to emphasise that nobody is perfect as we all have certain
positive and negative qualities or features. There are a few things which
we cannot change, therefore, we must concentrate on the things which
we can change and accept what we cannot change. She needs to
emphasise
that physical appearance of a person should not be
disrespected in any case and every boy or girl has a right to personal
boundaries or space.
Thus a teacher should acknowledge the different perceptions capabilities
and backgrounds of children. Gender and social exclusion concerns
should be an integral part of pre-service and in-service training. It is very
important for a teacher to understand the learner she is dealing with in
the classroom.
Activity III
It is a group activity. The students can be divided into groups and may
be asked to discuss, whether it was the physical self, social self or inner
self of great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Rani Lakshmi Bai, Mother
Teressa and Stephen Hawkins etc. which made them great. Teacher can
emphasize on the concept of body image and the importance of our
internal qualities which make us more human and the successful person.
U NDERSTANDING S TUDENT ’ S E MOTIONS
AND T HEIR R OLE IN L EARNING
Adolescents have varied experiences in school, related to learning,
classroom teaching, instructions, success or failure, interaction with
teacher, principal and other students etc., which have immense impact
throughout their lives. Students’ interaction with teachers, and peers in
school, provides them with opportunities to examine their feelings in
relation to their ownselves and others. These are important in the context
of student’s learning.
The beginning of school years marks the development of social-emotional
feelings such as pride and confidence, insecurity and humility, jealousy
and envy. It is also the time when success develops feelings of self worth
in the child and failure develops self-defeating attitudes. Secondary stage
or early adolescence is a crucial time for emotional and social development
because of the marked biological changes and cognitive development
changes. For many this period is marked by identity crisis, increased
sensitivity towards relationships, peer pressure, value conflicts and
concern for future course of study and career, etc. Also past experiences
related to learning, such as grades, successes, failures all have major
impact on emotions related to competence, self-assurance, fear, frustration
and so forth. This influences learning. We should therefore recognize the
learners who come to our classrooms with emotions and a predisposition
which affects their learning.
A s s i g n me nt
Read paper cutting regarding the news of an incident (accident) in the
class. Ask the students to think and write their feeling about the incident.
Ask the students, what they could do if they were present in that particular
s i t ua t i on?
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UNDERSTANDING
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It is important for a teacher understand students’ emotions since emotional
problems in children usually get manifested as behavioral concerns. Some
children tend to express their emotions and feelings and show behaviours
like being impulsive or aggressive. Others may not express their feelings
and may feel scared, unhappy, anxious or sad. These behaviors interfere
with learning and may lead to poor scores which in turn may further lead
to feelings of anxiety, sadness and low self-esteem. Emotions guide
students’ attention, interest and motivation to learn. Feelings of anger,
fear, sadness, shame, guilt, jealousy affect learning processes. These affect
memory, problem solving skills, creative thinking, school performance
and the like. Positive emotions like happiness, joy, excitement, etc.,
enhance motivation and facilitate learning and performance. On the other
hand negative emotions, e.g., anger, sadness, guilt, rage, insecurity and
related feelings like fear of punishment, ridicule, stigma labels, etc.,
interfere with learning and even motivation to learn. The emotion of fear,
feelings of anxiety has long been known to have negative effects on
children’s learning. In addition, researches also show that people who
manage their own feelings well and deal effectively with others are more
likely to be content in their lives, and are, therefore, more likely to retain
information and learn much more effectively. Understanding of the
students’ emotional problems enables teacher to predict children’s social
competence. Children who are able to understand other’s feelings are
better able to regulate their interactions with others. Emotional factors
are therefore, as important as the intellectual ones in the learning process.
Researchers have supported that when children face frustration, worry,
sadness, shame, etc., they focus more on avoiding behaviors or coping
with these instead of participating in the learning process.
Therefore, fostering a positive classroom climate is essential for students
to feel safe and accepted. When teachers display positive attitude, they
show that they have personal interest and care about students’ learning.
Students are then likely to learn same attitudes.
R OLE
OF
C ARING
IN
T EACHING
Caring involves establishing meaningful relationships, the ability to sustain
connections and commitment to respond to others with sensitivity and
flexibility. Caring means a concern for others. It is a feeling of warm
affection and is viewed in terms of nurturance, warmth and empathy. To
care for others means nurturing each individual’s growth and self
actualization. Caring is demonstrated by willingness to listen, making
rapport with the students and easy accessibility. Research has shown
that caring relationships with student is a big source of professional
satisfaction for teachers.
Caring in classroom teaching means loving the student as a learner. In
classroom teaching, caring takes the shape of encouraging dialogue,
exhibiting sensitivity to student’s needs and interests, and providing
engaging, rich and meaningful materials and activities. An atmosphere of
trust is built in the classroom; that enables students to take risks and to
develop their self esteem.
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Do You Have Something to Share!
When teacher asked a question, the girl was trying to answer, but because
of her stammering problem she was not getting success. Teacher did not
stop her. She went to her and gave a chalk, she said, “ I understand you
know answer of this question.” Can you write it on the board?
The girl was overwhelmed with these caring words. She jumped and wrote
the answer. The whole class clapped.
Capacity of teachers to display a certain emotion in their work is not only
a personal disposition but it also influences culture. Stage at which teacher
teaches, influences teacher’s display of emotion at work for example in a
elementary classroom the culture of care, love, affection, concern and
emotional display towards children is premised, whereas in higher classes
their role is perceived more in terms of transmission of knowledge and
other pedagogical activities. The need to focus on care at secondary stage
becomes pertinent.
In the Indian context students perceptions on the kind of teacher they
would like to have demonstrate caring concerns. Their expressions largely
focus on personal characteristics (understanding, friendly, care for
students feelings, kind hearted, should not lose temper, can relate with
students in the class approachable) besides having good knowledge of
the subject.
In the Voices of Students
“ The kind of teacher I would like the most is the teacher that understands
the feelings of a student and knows each and every student”
“ I like the teacher who is caring, loving, understanding and who pays
equal attention to all the students”
How can teachers display care for students? The ways in which teachers
can enact caring in the classroom is by: encouraging cooperation in
classroom, helping in doing assignments, exhibiting capacity to listen,
emphasizing on group activities, developing human relations, seeking
opportunities for shared efforts, rewarding and encouraging acts and
feelings of caring and creating a conducive environment in which students
can learn and flourish.
Care!
She was not happy with Class X Mathematics score. She was confused
whether she should opt for Mathematics at the higher secondary stage.
After seeing result her English teacher said, “ Do take Mathematics in Class
.
XI. Your scores are very good, if not excellent”. These words gave her
courage, she pursued Mathematics even in college.
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UNDERSTANDING
AND
DEALING
WITH
ADOLESCENT LEARNERS
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U NDERSTANDING LEARNERS ’ S OCIO - ECONOMIC B ACKGROUND (F IRST
GENERATION L EARNER / C HILDREN OF M ARGINALIZED G ROUP S )
The aim of Rashtriya Madhyamik Siksha Abhiyan is to provide equal
opportunity to all children studying at secondary stage by bridging gender
and social gaps. There are a number of children, particularly children
from disadvantaged groups and weaker sections who drop out of school
before completing secondary education. Major reasons for such drop
out are lack of the interest in studies, poor teaching, non comprehension,
difficulties in coping with subjects and sometimes hostile environment.
Among rural girls, these factors account for major percentage of drop
out. In classrooms where learning does not happen, the curricular burden
creates stress especially in the case of first generation learners who have
no help at home. Parents go to private tutors to help children learn. High
value of tuition fee adds to the cost of school education. Parents retain
boys in school as they are perceived as the income generator. Girls are
perceived as home makers and with the domestic responsibility, the cost
of education is not borne for girls and they are pushed out of the education
system. Among these girls the most vulnerable are the girls belonging to
SC/ST groups and marginalized sections, the forces of class, caste, and
region combine to the disadvantage of girls. A matter of serious concern
is the persistence of stereotypes regarding children from marginalised
groups, including SC and ST, who traditionally have not had access to
schooling or learning. Some learners have been historically viewed as
uneducable, less educable, slow to learn, and even scared of learning.
There is a similar stereotype regarding girls, which encourages the belief
that they are not interested in playing games, or learning in mathematics
and science. Yet another set of stereotypes is applied to children with
disabilities, perpetuating the notion that they cannot be taught along
with other children. These perceptions are grounded in the notion that
inferiority and inequality are inherent in gender, caste and physical and
intellectual disability. There are a few success stories, but much larger
are the numbers of learners who fail and thus internalise a sense of
inadequacy. Realising the constitutional values of equality is possible
only if we prepare teachers to treat all children equally. We need to train
teachers to help them cultivate an understanding of the cultural and socioeconomic diversity that children bring with them to school.
Many of our schools now have large numbers of first generation school
goers. Pedagogy must be reoriented when the child’s home provides any
direct support to formal schooling. There are groups which are not only
the most deprived and exploited but also neglected. These are the deprived
urban children, child laborers, particularly bonded child laborers and
domestic workers, children of very poor slum community, children of
families of scavengers and other stigmatized professions, children of
seasonal laborers who are mobile for example construction workers and
road workers.
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Education of Muslim children continues to be neglected; as a result their
educational attainments are even below those of schedule caste in most
areas as mentioned in the Sachhar Committee report. The reasons
attributed are cultural and religious domination. Male child is withdrawn
from the school to apprentice with artisans, mechanics etc. for employment.
Girl child is withdrawn earlier than boys in order to get a groom more
qualified than the girl. Unfriendly school and classroom environment and
lack of Urdu language teachers hinders them from continuing education.
Teachers need to be sensitive to issues of cultural and religious diversity
in relation to Muslims.
Thus curriculum and pedagogy require attention for making education
meaningful for all these children.
D IFFERENTLY A BLED L EARNER
A very important group is that of children with special needs. Inclusive
education is supposed to provide education to all children with special
needs in general schools. This is possible only if teachers are given special
training on effective management of classroom, where children with special
needs also study. Teachers should know about the special support services
needed for them. The number of girls with special needs is substantial
and they face still more discrimination in terms of gender and disability.
They face multiple discriminations if they also belong to socially
disadvantaged sections of society.
( Note: Refer to specific module on Inclusive Education in this package)
L EARNER ’ S L ANGUAGE
Educational researches show that the mother tongue is the best medium
of instruction. For keeping tribal children in the educational stream, the
educational material should be developed in local languages using
resources available within the community. Teacher will have to be sensitive
to tribal cultures and practices and be able to incorporate local knowledge
in curriculum and textbooks. She should be able to create spaces for
cultural mingling within schools so as to recognize tribal cultures and
practices and remove the feelings of inferiority and alienation among tribal
children. In India, language changes at every few kilometers. The diversity
of language is often reflected in classrooms. We as a teacher need to
celebrate this diversity and accept the multitude of pronunciations and
grammatical variations before forcing punity of language in the classroom.
First-generation school goers, for example, would be completely dependent
on the school for inculcating reading and writing skills and fostering an
interest for reading, and for familiarising them with the language and
culture of the school, especially when the home language is different from
the language of school. Indeed they need all the assistance they can get.
Many such children are also vulnerable to conditions prevailing at home,
which might make them prone to lack of punctuality and inattentiveness
in the classroom. Mobilising intersectoral support for freeing children from
such constraints, and for designing a curriculum sensitive to these
circumstances, therefore, is essential.
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UNDERSTANDING
AND
DEALING
WITH
ADOLESCENT LEARNERS
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L EARNER ’ S E XPERIENCE
Children have their own experiences and they reflect and share these
experiences differently. This difference should not be marked by the status
of children but by diversity. Teacher should provide space for individual
child to express themselves freely in the classroom without fear of being
judged or stereotyped. Children need to be aware that their experiences
and perceptions are important and need to be encouraged to think and
reason independently; especially so for children from underprivileged
backgrounds, especially girls, as the worlds they inhabit and their realities
are under presented. Teachers should dispel traditional perceptions
regarding gender or caste roles; then only they can help girls and children
from disadvantaged groups to pursue education of equitable quality.
What Biology Do Students Know?
“These students don’t understand science. They come from a deprived
background!” We frequently hear such opinions expressed about children from
rural or tribal backgrounds. Yet consider what these children know from
everyday experience.
Janabai lives in a small hamlet in the Sahyadri hills. She helps her parents
in their seasonal work of rice and tuar farming. She sometimes accompanies
her brother in taking the goats to graze in the bush. She has helped in bringing
up her younger sister. Now-a-days she walks 8 km. every day to attend the
nearest secondary school.
Janabai maintains intimate links with her natural environment. She has used
different plants as sources of food, medicine, fuelwood, dyes and building
materials; she has observed parts of different plants used for household
purposes, in religious rituals and in celebrating festivals. She recognises
minute differences between trees, and notices seasonal changes based on
shape, size, distribution of leaves and flowers, smells and textures. She can
identify about a hundred different types of plants around her — many times
more than her Biology teacher can — the same teacher who believes Janabai
is a poor student.
Can we help Janabai translate her rich understanding into formal concepts
of Biology? Can we convince her that school Biology is not about some abstract
world coded in long texts and difficult language. Rather it is about the farm
she works on, the animals she knows and takes care of, the woods that she
walks through every day. Only then will she truly learn science.
(NCF-2005)
C URRICULUM
P EDAGOGY
AND
T RAINING P ACKAGE RMSA
By the time children reach the secondary stage of education, they have
acquired a sufficient knowledge base, experience, language abilities and
maturity to engage with different forms of knowledge: concepts, structure
of body of knowledge, investigation methods and validation procedures.
Therefore, the subjects could be more closely linked with the basic forms
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and the disciplines as they are recognized in higher education and the
curriculum at this stage should be, as far as framed on the basis of these
abilities and interests.
The Animal School
Once upon a time animals decided they must do something decisive to meet
the increasing complexity of their society. They held a meeting and finally
decided to organise a school. The curriculum consisted of running, climbing,
swimming and flying, since these were the basic behaviors of most animals,
they decided that all the students should take all the subjects. The duck proved
to be an excellent swimmer, better in fact, than his teacher. He also did well in
flying. But he proved to be very poor in running. Since he was poor in this
subject, he was made to stay after school to practice it and even had to drop
swimming in order to get more time in which to practice running. He was kept
at this poorest subject until his webbed feet were so badly damaged that he
became only average at swimming. But average was acceptable in the school,
so nobody worried about that-except the duck. The rabbit started at the top of
her class in running, but finally had a nervous breakdown because of so much
make-up time in swimming - a subject she hated. The squirrel was excellent
at climbing until he developed a psychological block in flying class, when the
teacher insisted he started from the ground instead of from the tops of trees.
He was kept at attempting to fly until he became muscle-bound-and received
a C in climbing and a D in running. The eagle was the school’s worst discipline
problem; in climbing class, she beat all of the others to the top of the tree used
for examination purposes in this subject, but she insisted on using her own
method of getting there. The gophers, of course, stayed out of school and fought
the tax levied for education because digging was not included in the curriculum.
They apprenticed their children to the badger and later joined the groundhogs
and eventually started a private school offering alternative education.
(NFG on Teacher Education, NCERT, 2006)
Moreover, the learners at this stage must be motivated for engagement
with both understanding and generating knowledge beyond here and
now and also opportunity for developing a critical understanding of the
self in relation to society. Such engagements and their access to
laboratories and libraries will help them discover their own interests and
aptitudes and begin to form ideas on what courses of study and related
work they might like to pursue later. For a large number of children, this
is also a terminal stage, when they leave school and begin acquiring
productive work skills. Those for whom this stage becomes terminal on
account of socio-economic circumstances need opportunities for learning
creative and productive work skills while the system as a whole moves
towards universalizing secondary education. The curriculum should
provide them work related education not necessarily be narrowly
vocational but with a definite work component. This will help in developing
their practical aptitude in the preparation for definite vocational work
later. For example, a young student who shows signs of mechanical
aptitude and is interested in mechanical things, may take a technical
course with not to become an engineer but to get a general introduction
to the field of engineering, which he/she may like to choose as his/her
vocation after further training.
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UNDERSTANDING
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Therefore the secondary stage learners need a curriculum mix of knowledge
and work components, which will provide him/her:
a . Deep engagement
knowl edge .
with
both
understanding
and
generating
b . Opportunities for learning creative and productive skills.
c. Adequate exposure of other areas such as arts and crafts.
d . Career guidance and Counseling.
(Note: Content-specific modules in this package address the above
c om pone n ts)
U NDERSTANDING S TUDENTS ’
L EARNING S TYLES
As teachers you may have seen that students approach learning situations
and materials in different ways and styles. These differences or preferences
in the ways of learning are learning styles. Learning styles are approaches
or consistent ways of learning .They involve using ways of learning that
make the most of a student’s learning outcomes. It is commonly believed
that most students prefer a particular method to learn. The preference
for learning in a particular manner explains the idea of “learning styles”.
Teachers need to know the learning styles of their students, as this would
help them adopt methods of teaching in the classroom to match their
student’s learning styles. If teaching is planned according to the learning
style of the learners it would help each child to learn and succeed in
school material. Some action research may be taken up by the teachers
to understand the learning styles of their learners.
Preferred learning styles have been categorized in several ways: (i) visual
(spatial), (ii) auditory (aural), and (iii) kinesthetic/tactile, (iv) verbal
(linguistic), (v) logical (mathematical) (vi) social (interpersonal) and (vii)
solitary (intrapersonal). Visual learners learn with pictures, overhead
slides, diagrams, and handouts that is they have a preference for learning
by seeing. Auditory learners have a preference for hearing; they learn
better through listening to lectures, discussions, or audiotapes.
Kinesthetic/Tactile learners learn better through exploring the
environment, touching various objects, and doing science projects or
experiments that is they have a preference for learning by doing and
touching. Verbal learning style involves both written and spoken word.
These learners prefer to learn through assertions and scripting, rhythms,
mnemonics, read content loud. Logical prefer recognizing patterns,
making connections and linkages, perform complex calculations, systems
thinking. Social learner prefer communicating well with people both
verbally and non-verbally, understand other’s views, form study group,
mind makes and scripts. Solitary tend to be more private, independent
and introspective and prefer to learn by aligning with personal beliefs
and values, creating personal interest, keeping a log and journal, modeling
etc. Teachers can use this knowledge about children’s specific preferences
for learning in their classroom teaching and the student too can gain by
knowing his/her learning style.
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Cognitive styles are similar to learning styles and explain how students
process information. Like learning style, cognitive styles also involve the
way learning is approached and highlight preference of the learner. Field
dependent style and field independent style are two well known cognitive
styles. Children who use field dependent style, process information in a
global or holistic manner. Students using this cognitive style generally to
do well in subjects related to humanities and social sciences, such as
literature, history, social sciences, etc. Children who use field independent
style process information in an analytical manner and are known to do
well in subjects such as physics, chemistry, drawing and painting.
Another type of cognitive style that influences learning is ReflectiveImpulsive. Reflective children are patient, take time to answer questions
where as impulsive children have no patience, are in a hurry and quick
to respond.
Teachers must realize that learners are different with respect to their
learning style and therefore they must organise teaching-learning in a
manner to benefit all learners. Teachers also need to know that children’s
learning or cognitive styles are not fixed and that these can be modified
by providing appropriate training in the use of a particular learning or
cognitive style.Teachers need to reflect on how to organize learning
situations in the classroom?
Let Us Reflect
1 . What is my learning style?
2 . What is my cognitive style?
3 . Have I ever tried to identify learning styles of students in my class? If yes,
how did it affect learning of my student?
4 . How to see adolescence – as a phase of conflict and trauma or a phase of
transition and maturity? What are the basic assumptions in my view?
5 . How do I deal with adolescence? How can attitude of care, concern, support
and scaffolding assist adolescents in their pursuits?
6 . What is the impact of socio-economic background on a learner’s dispositions
on classroom learning?
C ONCLUSION
A secondary school teacher should know the abilities, and interests of
his/her students. He/she should be well aquainted with the socio-cultural
background of the learners. This would enable the teacher to organize.
Learning experiences catering to the learning needs of the students. It is
expected that by making use of variety of approaches, methods of
transaction and media, teachers will be able to provide meaningful
learning experiences to students.
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UNDERSTANDING
AND
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ADOLESCENT LEARNERS
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2. TEACHING SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS TO
ALL CHILDREN AT THE SECONDARYLEVEL
(INCLUSIVE EDUCATION)
A BOUT
THE
M ODULE
Inclusive education has emerged as one of the most considerate global
issues in education. A succinct definition of inclusive education was
provided by Lipsky and Garther (1996, 1999). They described it as full
membership to the students with disabilities in age appropriate classes
in their neighborhood schools, with appropriate supplementary aid and
support services. In recent years, the concept of inclusive education had
been broadened to include not only students with disabilities, but also
all students who may be disadvantaged. This broadened concept of
inclusive education was articulated in the meeting at forty-eight session
of the UNESCO International Conference on Education, held in Geneva in
November 2008. It was acknowledged that, ‘inclusive education is an
ongoing process aimed at offering quality education for all while respecting
diversity, different needs, abilities, characteristics and learning
expectations of the students and communities eliminating all forms of
discrimination (UNESCO, 2009, p126). Thus inclusive education extends
beyond special needs arising from disabilities and includes consideration
of other sources of disadvantages and marginalization, such as – gender,
poverty, ethnicity, language and geographic isolation. It also focuses on
complex inter-relationship that exists among these factors and their
interactions with disability. This means brining support service to the
child rather than moving the child to a segregated setting to receive special
services.
This module will help in strengthening teachers’ understanding related
to teaching science and mathematics with appropriate pedagogy which
will meet all students’ educational needs.
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I NTRODUCTION
Children with special needs are often seen as a very separate group of
children who need specialized care. There are separated provisions for
these children believing that they can study only in separate schools.
Children with disabilities are looked at only from the point of view of what
they cannot do. Their capabilities are ignored. Child with disability is
always seen as a hinderence to the system and there are beliefs, such as
– a child can not be educated because he/she can not walk to the school
or he/she finds difficulty in reading from the books in a manner other
children can do, etc. Teachers do not know how to communicate with
these children. As a result, these children are left deprived of their basic
rights, entitlements and provisions made for other children under various
laws, schemes and programmes.
Segregated, Integrated and Inclusive Education
When special schools are created for the education of students with
disabilities or they are taught in completely separate classrooms, it is
referred to as segregated education. Segregated education pinpoints
the child as a problem in the system and the impediment to learning. As
a result these students often receive a completely different curriculum
and different methods of testing, rather than receiving the same curriculum
as their other peers.
Integrated education is similar to inclusive education, but without any
ideological commitment to equity. It places student in a mainstream
classroom with some adaptations and resources. Students are expected
to fit in with pre-existing structures, attitudes and unaltered environment.
Integration is often mistaken for inclusion because students are placed
in a mainstream classroom. However, if these students are not perceived
as equals, if curriculum is not taught for understanding of all instead of
some, then students are integrated not included in school.
Inclusive education is the process of strengthening the capacity of the
education system to reach out to all learners. Inclusive education means
that all children, regardless of their ability level, are included in mainstream
school, in the most appropriate or least restrictive environment, such that
students of all ability levels are taught as equals. Teachers adopt the
curriculum and methodologies in a manner that benefits all students.
According to many Western and Indian literature on inclusive education,
children in special schools are geographically and socially segregated from
their peers. This separation in school often creates separation within other
areas of life as well. Therefore, instead of locationally integrating these
students in mainstream schools, whole school should be encouraged to
become more adaptable and inclusive in day-to-day educational practices
for all students.
Educational researches have shown that inclusion of children with special
educational needs in mainstream is more desirable than segregated
instructions for such students. This is true regardless of ethnicity, gender,
race, social class or some type of disability. All children benefit from
services provided in inclusive settings. They show gains in specific
competencies as well as social and interactive skills (Guralnik & Groom,
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1988; Jenkins, Odem, and Speltz, 1989; Lamorey & Bricker, 1993; Notari
& Cole, 1993; Wolery & Wilburs, 1994). Regular schools with Inclusive
education can be most effective means of combating discriminatory
attitudes, building an inclusive society and achieving education for all.
They can provide effective education to the majority of children and improve
the efficiency and the cost effectiveness of the entire education system.
Simply integrating children does not ensure positive outcomes. Benefits
depend on planned efforts. Carefully constructed intervention plans and
strategies are required to achieve desired outcomes in inclusive
pr ogr a mmi n g.
Many academics in the field of inclusive education point that teacher
education is a key for the implementation of inclusive education in
classroom. A teacher should have wider understanding of the meaning of
inclusive education for all learners. In the general teacher education
diplomas and degrees available nationwide, there is an optional ‘special
needs’ paper to train and ‘prepare’ teachers to identify and diagnose
disability. It is not integral part of the training therefore it does not train
teachers to deal with diversity and they complain that they need more
time and specialized training to deal with these children.
In fact, effective teaching for exceptional students does not require
a unique set of skills. It is a combination of good teaching practices
and sensitivity towards all students. To learn academic material,
exceptional students should have full participation in the day-to-day life
of the classroom. To accomplish the goal of academic learning, according
to Lerrivee (1985) effective teachers often do the following:
(i) Ask questions at the right level of difficulty.
(ii) Give supportive feedback to students and help them figure out
right answer if they are on the right track but have given wrong
a nswer.
(iii) Use time efficiently by having smooth management ruteins, avoiding
discipline problems, and planning carefully.
To include students with disabilities in the day-to-day life of the classroom,
Ferguson and Bogdon (1987) give the following guidelines:
1 . Do not segregate the students with special needs into separate
groups. Mix these students in the groups of students who do not
have special needs.
2 . It should be made sure that the language and behavior of the
teacher towards students with special needs is a good model for
every one.
3 . Teacher should try to keep similar schedules and activity patterns
for all students.
4 . Students should work together in cooperative groups on special
projects such as role plays, planning, helping, demonstrating,
performing etc.
5 . Instead of sending students with disabilities out for special services
such as – speech therapy, remedial reading or individualized
instruction, the teacher should try to integrate the special help
into the class setting, during a time when the other students are
working independently in the same setting.
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6 . Students should be made familiar with aids such as hearing aids,
sign language, communication boards, and so on, which are used
by individuals with disabilities.
7 . Students with disabilities should be given many different ways to
show their abilities. For example- writing, talking, drawing,
organizing, planning, demonstrating, helping or performing etc.
Disabilities Recognised in “The Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995”
The Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995 categorizes disabilities as Blindness, Lowvision, Hearing Impairment, Leprosy cured, Locomotor Disability, Mental Retardation,
and Mental illness. This PD Act, 1995 is in the process of replacement with the new
law “Right of Persons with Disability”, which is at present is in Bill form. As per the
new Bill, Disability results from the interaction between persons with impairments
and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinder their full and effective participation
in society on an equal basis with others and persons with disabilities are persons
with any developmental, intellectual, mental, physical or sensory impairments
(including the 20-categories of disabilities), which are not of a temporary nature,
and which in interaction with various barriers may hinder full and effective
participation in society on an equal basis with others. The different 20-types of
disabilities are Autism Spectrum Conditions, Blindness, Cerebral Palsy, Chronic
neurological conditions, Deaf-blindness, Dwarfism, Hemophilia, Hearing Impairment,
Hard of Hearing, Intellectual Disability, Leprosy cured, Locomotor Disability, Low-vision,
Mental illness, Multiple disabilities, Muscular Dystrophy, Multiple Sclerosis, Specific
Learning Disabilities, Speech impairment and Thalassemia.
In 1980s a research was carried out in India under the Project “Integrated
Education for Disabled”. Researchers tried to find out what kind of teacher
training was required to teach children with “ mild”, “ moderate” and
“severe” disabilities. Researches found that about 45% of disabled children
who suffer from mild disabilities can be taught in a mainstream classroom
by teachers with one week of training about inclusion. Children who have
“ mild to moderate” disabilities (30% of disabled children) can be taught
in mainstream classroom by teachers trained in inclusion for 1-2 weeks
along with periodic counseling or outside services. For teaching children
with “moderate to severe” disabilities (15% of disabled children), resource
assistance including corrective aids and periodicals in different formats
are required and the teacher should be trained for about three months.
We, teachers should have concern that school be a place where all children
feel safe, acquire knowledge, skills, positive attitude and a sense of self.
They learn to communicate, be part of community and be prepared in
the changing world for the many transitions of life. Our goal as Science
teacher is to offer opportunities for all students to gain sufficient schooling
in science, so that they become better problem solvers, critical thinkers
and inquiring human beings.
Mathematics and science classes provide special- need students with
opportunities to learn together which they may not get anywhere else.
Subjects, like mathematics and science do not require much verbal mode
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Teachers working with diverse learners
in inclusive settings should:
•
believe that all students
potential to learn.
have
•
commit to the learning and
intellectual growth of all learners.
•
believe that
one
can
teach
effectively and that effective
teaching and learning leads to
positive learning outcomes for all
chi l dren .
•
respect and accept the unique
characteristics and perceptions of
individual learners.
•
reflect on and consider learners’
prior knowledge and interests when
selecting
and
using
specific
teaching strategies and techniques.
•
create a challenging but nonthreatening learning environment.
•
view all children as capable and
independent learners.
of communication as in language and related
subjects, which facilitates inclusion of those with
communication problems. It also helps the students
whose mother tongue is different from the language
generally used in classroom teaching-learning
process. The benefits of concrete, real-world
experiences, opportunities to work effectively in
group situations, direct application of classroom
learning in real life situations, the excitement of
scientific observations and experimentations, and
alternative methods of evaluation are some of the
reasons due to which mathematics and science
classes provide ideal inclusive situations. Multisensorial science experiences enhance not only
logical thinking and manipulation skills of the
students with special needs but also their
communication ability and self-esteem is boosted.
Among nondisabled students, the development of
increased empathy towards needs of special
students’, understanding of their education related
problems, and leadership potential to advocate for
them takes place to support their inclusion in
mathematics and science classrooms.
In the following pages we will discuss some of the
differentiated instruction tasks that can be used for
students with physical and learning disabilities.
H ANDLING S TRATEGIES FOR S TUDENTS WITH
P ARTICULAR D ISABILITY IN I NCLUSIVE S ET U P
Following general strategies may be useful for teaching science to the
students with any type of disability:
(i) Teacher should obtain feed-back from the students having
disabilities to know about the difficulties faced by them during
learning process and the tasks which they enjoy.
(ii) Students with disabilities may be allowed more time to complete
the task at hand, if they require so.
(iii) Teachers should explore technologies, computer software, science
tools and materials which may help students complete scientific
ta sks.
Some suggestions are given below for teaching students with some
particular kind of disability.
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Students with Visual Impairments
People with ‘low vision’ or ‘blindness’ are characterized as visually
impaired. Following strategy may be applied for such students.A student
with low vision may require optical aids like magnifiers. Provision should
be made to magnify learning material for these students. Fig.1 shows
magnification of learning material using CCTV. For Students with
blindness, science and mathematics books can be Brailled (Fig.2 and
Fig.3) in the same manner as other text books are Brailled.
Fig.1: Magnified Text Materials using CCTV
Fig.2: Science Braille Book
The diagrams can be translated into
tactually (embossed) perceivable form
(Fig.4 and Fig.5) or description can be
s u b s t i t ut e d.
Fig.4: Teacher Made Embossed TeachingAids
(Tactual) with Braille Notation for
Biology Class
Fig.3: Reading Brailled Book
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The scientific apparatus should be adapted or
modified (Fig.6) as per the needs of the students
in tactual or auditory out puts. For example
talking calculator (Fig.7) talking clock (Fig.8) and
talking thermometer help all students including
those with sensory deficits. Projection scopes can
be used for students with visual impairments.
Adapted equipments and materials can be
purchased or made. Instruments that normally
have visual output can be modified to have audio
out put .
Fig.5: Geometry Set for Children with
Visual Impairment
For example, three dimensional raised leaf plastic
charts, rigid printed PVC sheet and models on
Human Physiology and Human body system like
human skeleton, circulatory system, nervous
system, a section of brain, muscles, digestive system, the ear, the nose
and the eye etc, are easily available which can be used in inclusive science
classroom for all students including students with special needs.
Fig.6: The Braille and Large Print Celsius Thermometer (left) and
the Thermometer in Use (right)
Fig.7: Talking Calculator
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Students with Motor/Orthopedic Disabilities
A large number of impairments involving functional or structural aspects
of one or more body systems come under motor/orthopedic disabilities.
Examples include cerebral palsy, polio, muscular dystrophy, multiple
sclerosis and spinal cord disorders. Teacher should examine the class
room environment and make sure that student has appropriate access
to other students. If necessary, furniture and other objects in the
classroom may be arranged according to the movement patterns and need
of the students. Teacher should look for the adaptive computer software
and other special equipment.
Microscopes which do not require small motor skills for fine adjustment
can be purchased,
Students with Hearing Impairments
Hard of hearing people and those who are deaf come under this category.
Hard of hearing individuals still have some degree of hearing, which may
or may not be sufficient for them and they may not be able to use auditory
information received by them in communication. Deaf persons have
profound hearing loss. For such students seating arrangement should
be such that the students can see the face, eyes and lip movement of the
teacher (Fig.9). These students require sound amplification devices such
as hearing aid and Loop induction
system etc. along with visual aids like
texts with pictorials, flash cards mirror
etc. Teaching through Indian Sign
System (ISS) is also beneficial for them.
Also, from the student’s point of view
background should have sufficient
contrast. Activity cards in big font size,
which the students can read easily
from a distance, are helpful for such
students. These students may be
provided peer assistance during games
and construction activities. Students
and their peers may be allowed to
continue with science activities at home
Fig.9: Resource Teacher Teaching Students with
Hearing Impairment
or after the school hours.
For students with hearing difficulties, lab equipments with sound signals
can be wired to include a light or other visible signal.
Students with Learning Disabilities
Significantly diminished capability of using and understanding language
in written or spoken form is considered to be learning disability. This
disability creates a gap between the inherent ability and actual
performance. People with learning disability may be suffering from one
or more diverse conditions. These may range from dyslexia and attention
deficiencies to identifiable brain injuries. Background noise and other
distracters must be removed as far as possible. Reviewing directions of a
lesson or assignment with the students in advance is useful. While
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interacting with the students with learning disability, undivided attention
should be paid to him/her and whatever student says should be listened
carefully. These students should have noncompetitive participation in
the classroom. Help may be provided for reading when necessary.
Availability of visual materials must be maximized and such students
should be engaged in design and construction activities. Direct
manipulation of materials should be allowed when appropriate. Students
with learning disabilities may require more organized information with
lesson content given in smaller increments. For example, for a dyslexic
(reading disability) student, a chapter may be divided into 5 to 6 smaller
segments and that small part/activity may be taught at a time.
Students with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Attention of students with this disorder is easily diverted from the task
and they find it difficult to concentrate on a task for any length of time.
Some are restless and make excessive aimless movements. Some are quite
underactive and their problem may go unnoticed. Visual media and
models help in keeping these students busy, for such students activity
sequence should be decided in advance. Pace of activities should be slowed
down and adequate time should be allowed to such students for
participation in the activities i.e. teacher should patiently wait for adequate
time for the participation of such students in the activities. Seating
arrangement of the student in the class should be at such a position that
teacher can monitor his/her movements and can control them when
needed. Teacher may settle a contract with the student specifying the
expected behavior. Teacher should be straight forward and direct with
the students.
L ABORATORY A RRANGEMENTS
F OR I NCLUSIVE C LASS
In science classes, laboratory instruction may need to be significantly
modified for students who have special needs. Teacher should review work
areas for appropriate height and accessibility of supplies. Students with
visual disabilities, cerebral palsy, autism and multiple disabilities, on the
other hand, often require modified equipment or procedures in order to
complete laboratory exercises. In science laboratory, “lab buddy” is usually
paired with the student with special needs, who understands the student’s
limitations, and can work within that framework to do the lab activities
“ with” the student with special needs rather than “ for” him or her. For
example, for a student with cerebral palsy, microscope and the materials
to be observed may be placed by a ‘lab buddy’ and the student herself
may do focal adjustment with physical assistance to view the particular
object.
No student in science class should be exempted from lab safety
rules, so teachers may need to frequently model appropriate safety
b e h a v i o u r.
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HANDLING I NCLUSIVE C LASS R OOM
Some general tips for a teacher to handle inclusive classrooms:
• Learn about the needs and characteristics of your student, but do
not automatically assume they will behave the same way today as
they did yesterday.
• Be explicit about what you want a student to do. Sequence topics
so that new material is related to that previously learned.
• While communicating, try to face the learner. If not facing the
learner, gently touch him/ her on the shoulder or on the arm to
indicate that you want to talk to him/her. Facial expressions,
gestures, and other body language will help convey your message.
When teaching ask where he/she would like to sit, in order to
communicate in an optimal manner.
• Chalkboard work should be simple, clear and legible. Write new
vocabulary words on the chalk board before a lesson or laboratory
activity.
• Use written notes to communicate. Write all homework
assignments, class instructions, and procedural changes on the
chalkboard. Use written announcements (assignments, due dates,
exam dates, changes in the class schedule, special event dates,
etc.).
• Provide an outline in advance of the lesson/activity to give to the
student in advance, also list your expectations.
• Avoid vibrations and excessive noise. Eliminate background noise.
Sounds taken for granted and normally ignored by hearing
individuals, are amplified by a hearing aid and interfere with the
communication of the person who has difficulties in hearing.
• Maximize the use of multi-sensorial aids, multi-media and
demonstrations with the student, if possible. Begin explanations
with concrete examples, working from the concrete to the abstract.
• Provide concise, step-by-step dillection prior to the laboratory
activity and preview it. Examine states of equipment.
• While engaging children with laboratory work, consider
alternative
activities/
exercises
that
can
be
utilized
with less difficulty for the student, but has the same
or
similar
learning
objectives.
Label
equipment
and
materials. Provide indicator lights or audio signals for
the
on/off.
• When a partner is needed, the teacher should assist in
finding an understanding lab partner for a student with
special
needs.
• As you demonstrate a procedure or technique, deliberately
alternate between speaking and manipulating the materials. If the
student does not understand, try repeating; if the student still does
not understand, rephrase a thought or use a different word-order.
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Ensure that the student receives information about any changes
in experimental procedure by writing on the board or paper.
• Obtain feedback at every opportunity as an indicator of the
student’s level of understanding. If ambiguities or difficulties arise
in the home concerning assignments or lessons, have the parents
make a note of these difficulties. Follow-up in written detail.
R ESOURCE R OOM
A resource room is a class set-up in a general school that provides
assistance to students with special needs in those areas in which she/he
faces difficulties in learning. Some additional supportive educational
services can be provided in resource room (Fig.10). The resource room
Fig.10: Learning Mathematics in Resource Room
has a trained resource teacher for educating such children with the help
of specialized teaching strategies and materials. She is professionally
qualified to assess and prepare educational programmes for such children.
She often coordinates with the general teacher in educating these children.
T ECHNIQUES OF T EACHING -L EARNING
USED IN I NCLUSIVE C LASSROOM
A number of specific teaching–learning techniques may be used in
mathematics as well as in science classes such as differentiated teaching–
learning, activity based and experiential learning, peer tutoring and
collaborative learning. Each one of them has been field tested and validated
to demonstrate their effectiveness.
Differentiated Teaching– Learning Technique
Differentiated teaching learning technique is an educational approach that
allows the regular classroom teacher to plan for all students within one
lesson. This approach decreases the need for separate programs for
children with special needs; rather it facilitates the teacher to plan individual
goals into classroom content and instructional strategies. This technique
requires the teachers to teach one main lesson for all students with
variations for each individual student’s needs. Thus, a diverse group of
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learners share a teaching learning activity in which individually
appropriate learning outcomes occur within the same curriculum area.
E xa mp l e
In biology class, while teaching ‘digestive system’, if teacher is planning
that all children will draw the diagram of human digestive system and
explain the process of digestion then, for a child with visual impairment,
the individual teaching goal may be that- the child will explain the digestion
process verbally on the given model or embossed diagram of digestive
system (Fig 11).Similarly, individual goal for a child with hearing
Fig.11: Embossed Braille coded diagram of digestive system
impairment attending the same class may be to draw the diagram of
human digestive system, explain the process in written form (if she/he
cannot communicate verbally), whereas a child with intellectual disability
will tell the function of at least 5-parts of the digestive system, when
indicated on the model or diagram of digestive system.
Activity-Based and Experiential Teaching– Learning Technique
With the use of activity-based and experiential learning, students become
engaged in discovery, movement, interaction with the environment and
manipulation of materials. Also, since such learning uses real-life activities
and materials, skill generalization and transfer are facilitated.
Example 1
While teaching the parts of the plant, all the children may be asked to
bring a small plant in the class and the teacher facilitates the exploration
of various parts of the plants.
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Example 2
In the magnetism chapter of physics, the students with blindness may
investigate the force of attarction between two magnets, using the modified
balance(Fig.12). The balance is set up on a special stand so that a magnet
Fig.12: Modified Balance being used to Determine the Force of Attraction
between Two Magnets
glued to the bottom of one of the cups (cup A) is positioned to come into
contact with a second magnet that is secured to the stand. The two
magnets stick togerther, but when enough weight is added to the second
cup, this weight will break the force of attraction between two magnets.
Students with blindness then go on to note and measure the force of
attraction when “ spacers” of varying thickness are placed between the
two magnets.
Peer Tutoring
Peer tutoring is a teaching-learning strategy that consists of student
partnerships. In peer tutoring, high achieving students are generally paired
with low achieving students or those with comparable achievement are
paired for structured study sessions.
E xa mp l e
A child with dyscalculia can be paired with a child, who is good in
mathematics for peer tutoring. Similarly, for chemistry practical activities,
another child with visual impairment may be paired in the chemistry
laboratory with a sighted child.
Cooperative Learning
Cooperative learning encourages students to work together to complete
tasks and solve problems. In this approach, teachers are required to specify
each student’s role for the task, clarify the sequence of activities and
monitor and evaluate the interactions of group members.
Individualized Education
Individualized education is an educational approach that recognizes,
anticipates and programmes for variation according to the student’s
background knowledge, characteristics, and individual’s needs, learning
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styles, motivation and personal interest. Individualization or creating an
educational program that is tailored to the unique needs of a child with
special needs is the hallmark of special education. However a fusion of
this approach in regular education is needed to serve all students in their
classrooms including those with exceptionality.
Individualized Education programmes (IEPs) are generally planned/
written by a team of professionals and parents to facilitate learning of
activities in motor, personal, communication, social areas etc. It is required
that IEPs should be developed in other areas like science, mathematics,
social sciences etc. also. Prior to teaching a particular concept, the
prerequisite skills required to teach that concept should be identified in
the students with special needs and then accordingly IEP should be
prepared with procedural details, adapted methodologies, special or
modified materials & equipments, adapted activities, place where to teach,
safety measures and evaluation procedures etc. On the basis of individual
needs of children, particular lessons, labs or assessment options may
have to be modified to enable all students to reach their full potential.
Teaching strategies may be adopted by taking assistance from a special
education teacher or parent. A science or mathematics teacher may involve
a student’s classmates in devising ways to adapt lessons to individual
student needs. An illustration of IEP for two students with two different
disabilities is given below:
S t u d e n t s P rerequ isit e
s k il l s
Geet im a
(A student
with
C ere bral
Palsy)
26
She is aware of
gram seeds,
water, and soil
etc. She can
hold beads in
pincer grasp,
hold glass with
both hands.
She can pour
water from one
container to
other with
p h ysi ca l
assistan ce.
She is unable
to walk, crawl
etc. She can
com m u n icate
with other at
one word level.
O bject ives
Aft er
exploring the
th in gs
required for
g er m i n a t i on ,
w hen ever
asked, she
will indicate
the required
things (air,
w at er,
sunlight) on
comm unicat ion
board with
80% accuracy
after 3 days of
t ea c h in g
period of 30
minu tes.
M at er i al s
req u ired
Gram
se ed s,
w at er,
Hard
t ra n spar en t
P l as t i c
unbreakable
glass with
its holder,
jug,
w o od en
stick(6")
cello tape
T EACHING S CIENCE
AND
In clu sive
t ea c h in g
st ra t e gi es
Assistive
a da pt iv e
devices /
su ppo rt i ve
Glass holder,
Peer
m odel in g, communication
peerTutoring b o a r d .
and group
w o rk
M ATHEMATICS
TO
ALL C HILDREN
Personnel
involved
Sc ien ce
t e ac h e r,
pe er
gr ou p
AT
E valu ation
pro cedu res
E valu ation
will be done
th rou gh
ob se rv at io n
of the
activity and
askin g
q u estion
from the
studen t.
t HE SECONDARY LEVEL
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Continued from page 14
R a vi
(student
with
bl in dn es s)
In day to day
activity, he
uses water,
gram seeds etc.
He can
com m u n icate
well. He can
feel and
differen t iat e
hot and cold.
He can transfer
water from one
container to
o t h e r.
After exploring
the things
required for
g er m i n a t i on ,
whenever asked,
he will name the
things required
for germination
(air, water,
sunlight) with
80% accuracy
after 3 days of
teaching period
of 30 minutes.
No
a da pt at io n
required in
the materials.
Braille text
book is
req u i red.
Braille note
pad may be
used to record
the
ob se rv at io n
aids
Adaptive Teaching Learning
Fig.13: Algebra in Braille Scripted Form
Fig.14: Modified 50ml Syringe with a Close-up
of the 5ml “Step’ in the Plunger
T RAINING P ACKAGE RMSA
Adaptation in teaching learning is a process of
choosing and applying an appropriate teaching
action
following
an
assessment-based
determination that previous lesson for a student
was unsuccessful. These adaptations, therefore,
require teachers to implement alternative
teaching actions (Fig.13) such as modifying
materials (Fig.14 and 15), assignments, testing
procedures, grading criteria and varying
presentation styles in order to enhance the
success of students with disabilities in regular
education classrooms.
Fig.15: A Graduated Cylinder with a
Teacher–designed Floating Scale Floa
27
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Fig.13. Shows equations of algebra written in Braille script. It may be
used for assessment or instructions. Fig.14 shows modified 50ml syringe
which is used in the Acid Test activity, the syringe is used to measure
5ml of liquid and also to measure the amount of CO 2 that evolves during
an acid/backing soda reaction. In this case there is no stop. Instead,
notches (half circles made with a paper-hole punch) at ¼, ½, and ¾
capacity were cut on the plunger. A 5ml “step” (v-notch) was also cut into
the plunger. When the plunger is pulled out so that the step is even with
the end of the syringe barrel, 5ml of liquid has been drawn into the
syringe.Fig.15 shows graduated cylinder which can be modified with a
tactile floating scale. The cylinder is used to measure small volumes of
liquid. To use the modified cylinder, water is poured into the cylinder.
The scale is then dropped into the cylinder so that the measuring stick
points up. By pinching the scale out of the cylinder, and counting down
from the top notch (0-mark) to the pinch spot, the volume of water can be
determined to the nearest 2 ml.
C ATERING THE N EED OF
D ISADVANTAGED C HILDREN
Students from tribal community may require classroom transaction in
their own mother tongue and other socially disadvantaged groups may
require illustrations from their immediate environments to understand
the particular concepts. Similarly, pedagogical approaches such as
cooperative learning, co-teaching and peer mediated learning etc., if used
effectively in the classroom, will not only facilitate learning to those with
special needs, but to all students. So, these students should not be
restricted, but must be facilitated to enjoy learning different subjects
including mathematics and science through changing our attitude, using
innovative pedagogy, adaptive and assistive devices, technology etc. in
barrier free learning environments.
C ONCLUSION
To deal with the diversity among learners the classroom teachers ought
to possess a variety of skills that must include accommodating the
physical environment, modifying instructional materials, altering the
modes of presentation, adjusting assessment strategies, and providing
encouragement to students with special needs. However no teacher can
be expected to know everything about every disability or do everything
necessary to meet the academic and social needs of all children. For
creating a suitable learning environment an interdisciplinary collaborative
approach among all those working with children is required. You may
wonder how this can be achieved. First and foremost, it is important to
keep in mind that you are not alone.
Ways need to be devised for collectively thinking about how to reach out
to seek and support children on a continuous basis. These can include
seeking help from special educators, teachers in whose class children
with disabilities and/or children from socially disadvantaged groups have
studied and inviting community guest speakers to help bring awareness
and demonstrate practical approaches to beginning classroom teachers.
28
T EACHING S CIENCE
AND
M ATHEMATICS
TO
ALL C HILDREN
AT
t HE SECONDARY LEVEL
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Employing strategies that emulate the principles of inclusive education
such as constructive learning, cooperative learning, use of technology in
the classroom, peer mediated instruction are found to be useful. What
we do also know about science teaching and creating learning friendly
environments is that researchers have argued the merits of activity
oriented science for all children including those with disabilities.
R EF E RE N CE S
Angela Kohama/ “Inclusive Education in India : A Country in Transition.
An Undergraduate Honors thesis Presented to the Department of
International Studies at University of Oregon, June 2012.
Booth, T., Ainscow, M., Black-Hawkins, K., Vaughan, M. & Shaw, L. (2000)
Index for Inclusion: Developing learning and participation in schools (Bristol,
CSIE).
Government of India MHRD: National Policy on Education and its Program
of Action 1992.
Jangira,N.K., Ahuja,A. et al (1990) Functional Assessment
Guide, PIED
Resource Centre, NCERT
Maanum, J.L. (2009). The General Educator’s Guide to Special Education
(3 rd Edition). Corwin A Sage Company, California.
Masih, A. (1998) New Trends in Science Curriculum Manak , New Delhi.
Mohan, S. (2000). Effective Concept learning in Science Education: A
Theoretical instructional mode. NCERT, Fifth Survey of Education
Research, Vol. II , NCERT , page 1252
Mohanty, S. (2000). An Appraisal of teaching science in the high schools of
Cuttack city, NCERT, Fifth Survey of Education Research, Vol. II,
N C E RT, P. 1 25 3
NCERT (1985). Curriculum load at the School level: A quick appraisal.
N C ERT.
NCERT (1990). Science Teaching Guidelines for Educational Functionaries
of states, NCERT, New Delhi.
NCERT (1991). Minimum level of learning of primary stage-Report of the
committees set up by the HRD ministry (Department Education)
Government of India. NCERT.
NCERT: National Curriculum Framework for School Education 2000.
NCERT: National Curriculum Framework for School Education 2005.
NIMH (2003). Educating Children with Learning Problems in Primary
Schools. National Institute for the Mentally Handicapped, Secunderabad.
NIMH (year not mentioned). Curriculum and Teaching. National Institute
for the Mentally Handicapped, Secunderabad.
Pijl, S.J., Meijer, C.J.W., & Hegarty, S.(Eds.)(1997) Inclusive Education: A
Global Agenda(London: Routledge).
Srivastava, K. (2000). Impact of Science teaching on the child’s concept of
physical causality: An experimental study. Fifth survey of Educational
Research .Vol.II, NCERT,P.1266
UNESCO (1993) Teacher Education Resource Pack: Special Needs in the
Classroom (Paris, UNESCO).
UNESCO (1994) Final Report: World conference on special needs education:
Access and quality (Paris, UNESCO).
T RAINING P ACKAGE RMSA
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UNESCO (2003) Open File on Inclusive Education – Support materials for
managers and administrators.
UNESCO(2003) Overcoming exclusion through inclusive approaches in
education – A challenge and a vision Conceptual Paper.
UNESCO-Bangkok (2006). Embracing Diversity: Toolkit for creating Inclusive
Learning Friendly Environments – Specialized booklet: Practical Tips for
Teaching Large classes, A Teacher’s Guide”.
Vaid A,N. (1996). Science teaching for the 21 st century, Deep & Deep Ltd.
New Delhi.
Sharma, Umesh and Deppeler, Joanne, “Integrated Education in India:
Challenges and Prospects,” Disability Studies Quarterly, 25.1(2005),
Society for Disability Studies, Web.13 February, 2012, http://dsq-sds.org/
arti cle/vi e/524/ 701
A PPENDIX
Name of some national institutions and their regional centres for different
disabilities are given below, which may be contacted for further assistance:
1 . National Institute for the Mentally Handicapped, Manovikas Nagar,
Secunderabad-50009.
Ph-091-4027751741-45,
Fax-091-4027750198,
w w w . n im hin dia .org
2 . NIMH Regional Centre, Kasturba Niketan, Lajpat Nagar - II,New Delhi110 024 Ph-011-29818712
3 . NIMH MSEC,Kasturba Niketan, Lajpat Nagar - II, New Delhi- 110
024. Ph-011-29818067
4 . NIMH Regional Centre, Bonhoogly, B.T. Road, Kolkata- 700 090. Ph033-25314222
5 . Maruthi Mount View, Next to Apna Bazar, Sector 8-B, Artists Village,
CBD Belapur, Navi Mumbai- 400 614. 022-27564727
6 . National Institute for
dehradun -248001
Visually
Handicapped,
116,
Rajpur
Road,
7 . NIVH (Regional Centre) 522 Trunk Road, Poonamalle, Chennai –
600056 Telefax: 044-26274478, 26272505, e-mail: nivhrc@mail.com
8 . NIVH (Regional Chapter) B.T. Road, Bonhooghly, Kolkata 700090
Ph.033-25311292,
e-mail:
chaudhuri_baby@radiffmail.com
9 . NIVH (Regional Chapter) Manovikas Nagar Secunderabad (A.P.) Ph.
No.: 040 – 27751838, e-mail:milandass@yahoo.com
1 0 . Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for the Hearing Handicapped, K.C.
Marg, Bandra (W) Reclamation, Mumbai -40005, Phone : 02226400215/26409176/26400263, www. ayjnihh.nic.in. Fax : 02226404170, E-mail : ayjnihhmum@gmail.com
1 1 . Southern Regional Center (SRC) of AYJNIHH, Manovikas Nagar,
Secunderabad – 500009. Phone : 040- 27753385/27750827, Fax:
040-27758500, E-mail : adnihhsrc@gmail.com
1 2 . Northern Regional Center (NRC) of AYJNIHH, Kasturba Niketan,
Lajpat Nagar – II, New Delhi - 110 024. Phone : 011-29817919 Fax :
011-29815093, E-mail : ayjnihh_nrc@indiatimes.com
1 3 . Eastern Regional Center (ERC) of AYJNIHH, B. T. Road, Bonhooghly,
Kolkata - 700 090. Telefax : 033-25311427, E-mail : ercnihh@sify.com
1 4 . Training Centre for Teachers of the Deaf, AYJNIHH - State Collaborated
30
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AND
M ATHEMATICS
TO
ALL C HILDREN
AT
t HE SECONDARY LEVEL
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Centre, At. Ogalapada, PO. Janla, Dist. Khurda, Orissa – 752054,
Telefax : 0674-2460641. E-mail : tctdbbsr@yahoo.com
1 5 . National Institute for the Orthopaedically Handicapped, B.T. Road,
Bon-Hoogly Kolkata - 700 090. Ph-033-2531-0279 / 0789 / 0610,
Fax-033-2531-8379, E-Mail: mail@nioh.in, Website: www.nioh.in
1 6 . Pt. Deendayal Upadhyaya Institute for the Physically Handicapped,
4, Vishnu Digamber Marg, New Delhi 110002.
1 7 . National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple
Disabilities (NIEPMD), East Coast Road, Muttukadu, Kovalam Post
Chennai - 603112,Tamil Nadu, India. Tel: 044- 27472113, 27472046,
Fax:
04427472389,
Email:
niepmd@gmail.com,
Website:
w w w . n i ep md .t n. ni c. in
Composite Regional Centres for Persons with Disabilities
1 . CRC, Bhopal (under administrative control of AYJNIHH), Composite
Regional Center, Punarvas Bhavan, Khajuri Kalan Road, Post – Piplani,
Bhopal - 462 021, Phone : 0755-2685950/51 Fax : 0755-2685949. Email : crcbhopal12k@gmail.com
2 . CRC, Ahmedabad (under administrative control of AYJNIHH),
Composite Regional Center, Bhikshuk Gruh Campus, G.I.D.C., Odhav,
Ahmedabad - 382 415. Phone : 079-22870544. E-mail :
cr ca b a d @ gm a i l. com
3 . Composite Regional Centre for Persons with Disabilities
Guwahati Medical College Hospital Campus, Guwahati
Assam - 781032
4 . Composite Regional Centre for Persons with Disabilities
Behind Maha Maya Mandhir, Dist. Mandi
Sunder Nagar, Himachal Pradesh 174401
5 . Composite Regional Centre for Persons with Disabilities
Near Government Women Polytechnic, Bypass Bemina,
Post Office Bemina Chowk, Srinagar
Jammu & Kashmir 190 018.
Phone/Fax
0194-2493105
6 . Composite Regional Centre for Persons with Disabilitis
Mohan Road, Near G.B. Pant Polytechnic
Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh 226 017
Ph. No. - 0522-5545389
7 . Composite Regional Centre for Persons with Disabilities
Red Cross Bhawan, North Gandhi Maidan,
Patna, Bihar - 800001.
Ph. No. - 0612-2219333
e-mail:
crcpatna@rediffmail.com
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3. LEARNING RESOURCES IN SCIENCE
AND MATHEMATICS
A BOUT
THE
M ODULE
Resource based learning is an essential component of curriculum
actualization. It is a planned educational opportunity that actively
involves students in meaningful tasks. Learning resources can include a
wide range of materials like dictionaries, question banks of multiple choice
items, images, tools of learning and other resources which aid or support
the textbooks and enhance learning and may be drawn upon when
needed. Learning resources may assist in understanding, strengthening
or extending the subject content. Besides textbooks, handbooks,
supplementary books, audio, visual and audio-visual material; sites
physically located outside the school premises are also important learning
resources. For example, local monuments and museums, natural sites
such as rivers and hills, and every day places such as market place can
serve as learning resources. Content created by students or teachers
during learning process is also included in learning resources. Teacher’s
ability to plan the school schedule in a manner that permits use of such
resources may enhance the quality of education that students receive at
school. Use of learning resources in teaching-learning process leads
towards holistic approach to the design of effective learning experiences.
This module highlights the need of learning resources in science and
mathematics. It will help teachers to identify various learning resources
in science and mathematics available in the school and outside school
premises. It discusses the organization and importance of field trips and
explains the meaningful use of community resources in learning process.
It also discusses the improvisation of apparatus in science and importance
of laboratory in science and mathematics. Further, keeping in view the
importance of practical work in science and mathematics education, this
module explains the importance and development of science and
mathematics kits.
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I NTRODUCTION
It is a general belief that learning is orderly, effective and enjoyable when
learners are actively involved in interesting and purposeful tasks. Many
research studies have been conducted in the past to know the utility and
benefits of resources in enhancing learning (Liebeck 1984; Skemp 1989;
Dienuer). It has been well researched and broader theories on nature of
learning ( Brunei, 1964; Vygotsky, 1974; Spooner, 2000) promote the
idea that learning is mediated by appropriate use of resources. Therefore,
a teacher must select and organize situations based on his/her own
experiences in the classroom, laboratory and also beyond classroom and
school; so that optimum learning can occur. Resources are either used
as an aid or support in teaching or for keeping the learner engaged.
Teacher should access the materials that students can be engaged with
minimum scaffolding from the teacher and allow them to work on their
own or with other students. It should be remembered that resource does
not evoke any sense beyond the teachers and pupils who use it. There is
no learning idea in a resource. The learning sense is brought to the
resources by those who interact with it. Therefore, before selecting/using
the resource it becomes important for a teacher to ask some key questions
to himself/herself before going to the class. For example:
1 . What do my students already know?
2 . What shall I do for my students to help them understand a science/
mathematics concept?
3 . What resources are available to strengthen and extend their
under sta nding?
4 . What the learners will gain from the use of the resource chosen?
5 . What are the significant differences between the various resources
which may be used?
6 . What significant differences are there when a resource is used to
demonstrate and when it is given to students to manipulate?
7 . How shall I best evaluate what my students have learnt?
L EARNING R ESOURCES
Such questions help the teachers in the selection of appropriate resource.
In the following pages, we will discuss what type of learning resources
can be used for making the teaching - learning effective. Before that, let
us try to understand what do we mean by learning resources.
Learning resources refer to anything which may assist in understanding,
strengthening or extending the subject content. These may be natural
resources, man made resources or human resources. Various types of
resources which can be used in the teaching- learning of mathematics
and science are given in the flow chart on next page.
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•
T each er
• Museum
•
Student
• Sc ien c e/
•
M en t o r
•
E x pe rt s/ P r of es si on al
• Library
•
C om m u n ity
• Mon umen ts
(Local residents)
• Virtual resource e.g.,
•
Art i st s
•
Senior
Mathematics
•
Local Sites
•
Ponds, Lakes, river etc
•
Fo r e s t
•
H ills
corner
m u ltim edia
Citizens
• Lab orat ory
• Teaching
materials
• S pe ci m en s
• Gardens and Parks
• Community
based
o r ga n i s a t i o n s
• Cultural
institutions
• Banks
• Police
• Day care centre
• Higher
Education
Institutes
Incorporating resources in teaching-learning process requires systematic
and organized approach. It is a cyclic process which starts from planning
and continues till reflection. Fig. 1 represents the process of resource
based learning.
Fig.1: Process of Resource Based Learning.
34
L EARNING R ESOURCES
IN
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AND
M ATHEMATICS
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Points given below highlight the importance of using learning resources
in teaching-learning process.
• Learning resources contribute significantly in meaningful learning.
• Visible and tangible resources help learners to draw connection
more easily and make learning experiences more memorable by
relating different sensory experiences
• Encourage learners to make connections with abstract concepts.
• Help learners to make sense of everyday experiences.
• Bring life and excitement in classroom discourses by breaking
mo no t o ny .
L EARNING R ESOURCES
IN S CIENCE
One of the objectives of teaching science is that the child can explore and
discover the facts of physical and biological world himself or herself. Thus,
science teaching means creating situations where activities are aimed at
stimulating investigative ability, inventiveness and creativity. It does not
mean transmitting knowledge which is not assimilated and cannot be
reproduced in other similar situations.
Irrespective of the syllabus followed by the teacher, observation of
specimen/objects /process must form a basic part of science teaching.
Moreover, considerable teaching time should be given to the experimental
approach of teaching. Experiments may be performed by individual
student or these may involve a team or the class as a whole. Resource
based teaching can be of great help in this direction. Very often examples
given in a classroom seem alien and far fetched because these are not
related to the student’s daily life experiences. In such a situation, if local
resources are used in teaching-learning process, the teaching becomes
more interesting and meaningful to students. Also, resources available
in local surroundings are easily available for use. It may not be possible
to make exhaustive list of all possible resources available in the community
or a rural area because it will be endless and no two regions would have
and identify same learning resources available. Therefore, a teacher should
himself or herself discover and identify the resource available at hand.
It should be clear that the resources used for teaching science should
serve following purposes:
(i) It should supplement classroom instructions and help learners to
get definite information about the concepts taught.
(ii) It should help children to verify their previous information which
may be through experimentation or by initiation of discussion to
arrive at right conclusions.
(iii) It should give a first hand sensory experience like feeling, smelling,
seeing or hearing, to learners.
(iv) It should inspire students for making observations and asking
questions. It should create interest in the objects and phenomenon
observed around.
(v) It should serve as a source for finding the answers to the queries.
(vi) It should make the science concepts more real and thus help in
understanding these concepts.
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(I) Community Resources
These are the resources which can be drawn from the community. Human
resources and man made resources both come under community
resources. Man made resources are full of immense, exciting possibilities
and opportunities. Some examples of these resources as given in the
previous flowchart. Some other examples are: school garden, hospital,
water supply system, water purification plant, garbage dumping
ground, paper recycling plant or water cycling plant, farms, etc. A
wise and alert teacher can add more to the list by including the less obvious
s our c e s .
Local residents are important human resource. Through regular and
repeated visits to the community and involving community members in
the school activities benefits both. By visiting community regularly, relation
between school and the community can be strengthened. Children become
more aware about environmental and social issues and contribute more
towards these issues.
Local ponds, lakes, rivers, etc. are natural resources. By visiting these
places students are exposed to first hand experience of the scientific
phenomena and things in the natural settings. They learn to make notes
and inquire on the spot in the right manner. Their ability to gather scientific
data objectively along with sensitivity to communication and social skills
develops.
Use of local learning resources becomes very important when information
is purely local in nature or for any reasons not accessible in school sources
and it can be obtained from the community. This leads to the blending of
school life with the outside world, putting students in direct touch with
things, persons, movements, relationships, surroundings and actions.
This enables them to see the real world of work in which they will enter
sooner or later.
Resources can be used in the following ways –
(a) By bringing the resources in the classroom.
(b) By requesting resource persons (experts) to deliver a talk or even
take the entire class to visit their places of work.
(c) By organizing field trips to the places of scientific interest. The plan
of field trip should create interest in research, survey and
documentation of data.
(d) By interacting with community on some issues like environment
and social concerns.
In the following sections, we will discuss some resources that can be easily
used in teaching-learning process.
(i) Human Resources
People in the Community:
Many people feel pleasure in interacting with school children and take
interest in their problems. The practice of using the services of experienced/
elderly people of the community for help in school may be a beneficial
practice to all concerned. People from the community can provide help as
resource persons in many ways. For example:
36
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• Experts in poultry or dairy farming or farmers, can share their
experiences.
• Many people travel extensively and can share their knowledge, and
experiences.
• Electrician, mechanic or plumber can share their knowledge.
• Local NGOs or social workers, working on environmental issues,
can interact with students.
• Local scientists, especially women scientists, can be called to schools
to interact with students in order to remove the myth that only
males can become scientists.
(ii) Man Made Resources
Following are some examples of man made local resources which may be
used for science teaching:
1 . Garden/Field: A garden/field near or inside the school campus
may be used for:
• Learning about different types of vegetation for example , trees,
shrubs, herbs, climbers, flowering and non flowering plants.
• finding out where animals live and how do they behave.
• finding out how physical factors such as moisture, temperature
and amount of sunlight affect living things.
• finding examples of useful and harmful animals and plants.
• studying the method of preparation of compost.
• noting various adaptations which plants make to their
environment such as leaf arrangement, leaf texture and root
le ngth.
• observing movement and activities of various kinds of insects
and birds, to note how they are useful or harmful.
• observing how the plants are cared; for noting the difference in
requirement of amount of water in different kind of vegetation.
• discussion with experts the problems of weeds and insects and
their control.
• observing the steps involved in farming, for example–sowing,
weeding, transplantation, irrigation, manuring and harvesting.
• highlighting the role of women and other marginalized groups
in farming.
• highlighting the importance of organic farming.
• observing effect of seasonal changes on trees.
• observing different types of leaf arrangement.
• making observation on bud formation and growth.
• kinds of birds which come for resting on trees.
• highlighting importance of planting more trees for preventing
air pollution, green house effect and other environmental issues.
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2 . Poultry: A poultry farm may be used for observations and noting
a b ou t –
• egg laying frequency of birds.
• caring for poultry birds.
• protection from diseases.
• feeding habits of birds.
• breeding of birds.
• access to veterinary services.
3 . Saw Mill: A visit to saw mill can be used for–
• learning how trees are selected for cutting?
• finding out how young timber is protected?
• learning about kinds of trees that are considered most valuable
for timber and the reason for it.
• observing the types of machines and their uses.
• learning how timber is made and cured?
• discussing the changes in animal and plant life when tree in an
area are cut over.
• highlighting Chipko Movement and other specific local
movements lead by women to save trees.
4 . Kitchen: A kitchen can also be used for the following activities–
• Observing germination of seeds and growth of seedlings.
• Observations like raising dough after adding yeast, formation
of curd, conditions for fungal growth etc.
• Finding the reasons for spoilage to food and its prevention.
• Importance of purification of drinking water.
• Observing the action of blunt and sharp knife (learning about
forces).
• Finding foods rich in carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins,
mi ner a l s.
• Highlighting the role of women as a scientist using different
chemicals for preservation of food.
5 . Visit to Zoo:
Zoos are living landscape, living institutions and living classrooms,
which provide a good opportunity for teaching and learning about
wildlife. With a little creativity and innovativeness, teachers can
make the outcome of a zoo visit memorable and long lasting. Visit
provides opportunity to know about• natural habitat of animals.
• natural behaviour of animals.
• food habits of animals.
• uniqueness of each animal and its relationship to its
s ur r o un d i ng s .
• biodiversity
• role of zoos in conservation breeding and research.
• endangered animals, which can be bred in captivity.
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Zoos also offer the opportunity for scientific study of animals. It is very
difficult to study the behaviour, feeding habits etc. in the wild. Also, it is
difficult to transport and setup the equipment needed for scientific
investigation in the wild. Many such investigations are done in zoos. The
most important educational experience, zoos provide is love and fascination
for animals, which can simulate the students to become aware of the
wonders of nature, relationships and balance of living world. Zoos help
the universities, colleges and non-governmental organizations to educate
students about the benefits of supporting nature conservation
pr og r a mme s .
Zoos around the country have taken several initiatives to use zoos as a
medium of education. The Arignas, Anna Zoological Park, Vandalur,
Chennai has initiated the “Teachers for Tigers (TFT)” programme in
collaboration with Zoo Outreach Organisation to educate biologists,
teachers, NGOs and educators about different educational methods and
activities using tiger as an example. The programme also aims to train
and develop creativity in teachers by making them prepare resource
materials and mini dramas.
The Madras Crocodile Bank Trust in Mamallapurum is involved in
research and conservation. It is also a centre to create public awareness
regarding the reptiles, which are most misunderstood group of animals.
It also runs some programmes for children of different age groups. For
ex a mpl e:
• ‘Young Explorers’ for children between 5-7 years age. The focus of
the progamme is on habitat and adaptations.
• ‘Young Discoverers’ is the programme for children of age group
8-10 years. Workshop activities are based on adaptations,
identification and behaviour of different species.
• ‘Amateur Naturalist’ programme is for children of age group
12-16. Topics include classification, field research skills and
conserva tion.
The Rajeev Gandhi Zoological Park and Wildlife Research Centre, Pune,
organises workshops to disseminate information on the importance of
trees and forests and need to save them. It runs informative sessions on
myths and facts about snakes.
The Delhi zoo also organizes several programmes for increasing an
awareness among visitors. On first September 2012, it organised the
International Vulture Awareness Day, to which students from various
schools were invited. The world Tourism Day was celebrated on
27 th September 2012 to raise awareness about the role of ecotourism in
conservation of wildlife. Thus, zoo is a perfect place to teach concepts,
change attitudes, give information and create love for natural world. Any
thing from art and science to geography can be taught in zoos. These
offer unique combination of resources that are not available in classroom.
The educational outcome may be memorable and long lasting.
6 . Virtual Resources: Multimedia as an educational tool and
resources in science.
Multimedia can be described as “ the combination of various digital
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media types, such as text, images, sound and video, into an
integrated multisensory interactive application or presentation to
convey a message or information to an audience”. It has the
potential to extend the amount and type of information available
to learners. Well-designed multimedia helps learners build more
accurate and effective mental models than they do form text alone.
Multimedia is made up of following communication channels. Each
of these has its own advantages and disadvantages. These are –
(i) Video: One of the greatest benefits of this channels is that it has
ability to take the students beyond the classroom. It can manipulate
time and space through time-lapse, slow motion, microscopic, or
telescopic views. When these tools are used properly a video
presentation becomes more attractive than direct observation.
(ii) Animation: Objects on the screen can be changed or made to
move. It is an important channel because it can hold the viewers
a t tention.
(iii) Narration: A spoken narrative can be very effective in attaining
attention when illustrated animations and accompanied by an
outline key points.
(iv) Sound: The use of sound goes beyond narration with the ability
to enrich the multimedia environment. Sound effects can contribute
validity to animated objects or they can lighten the mood of too
serious presentation. Sounds can make mnemonic morphs more
me mora b l e .
In their studies, some researches suggest that the use of technology in
classroom can enhance student learning. Researches in past 20 years
show that multimedia enhances learning by 30% in 40% less time and
30% lower cost. When multimedia presentation is used in instruction,
retention is raised to 80% in contrast to discussion methods or 20% with
the traditional lecture approach using visual aids (White and Kuhn, 1997).
Study of Butler and Mautz (1996) indicates that multimedia leads to
more positive attitudes towards the presenter and presentation style
associate with multimedia. One of the advantages of using various forms
of multimedia is that complicated topics can be explained and understood
better with the aid of pictures, graphs, simulations and animations.
Multimedia can provide option to present complex concepts in small,
chronological steps and improves students’ ability to comprehend
information in a meaningful way. With newly developed presentation
software, educators can place their lectures on to the multimedia
presentation, along with new graphics and sound to create an engaging
classroom presentation.
A good multimedia enables the user to interact with material and influence
the course of representation. Multimedia can be delivered in three ways:
1. Through website on internet, 2. CD ROM and 3. Blended delivery
strategy. When multimedia is delivered through website on internet,
interaction takes place on website only. For such type of delivery
mechanism, Institute and learner should have compatible computer
system with internet connection. CD ROM based multimedia package is
provided in the form of CD-ROM, floppy, external drive etc. Learners can
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Directorate of Education, Government of National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi
along with Earnest Young Foundation (EYF) launched a project CALtoonz2006 for
preparing multimedia for school students. CALtoonz2006 looks at it as follows:
Multimedia
can
(i) animate the static
(ii) simulate the hazardous or costly experiment
(iii) capture
reality
(iv) add movement to static concepts
(v) add dimension to abstract concepts
(vi) add an element of fun in sometimes boring situations
(vii) include
audio/video
clips
of
the
original
person/event,
such
the speech of eminent mathematicians, educationists and scientist.
as
It gave a sequence of steps for multimedia content development as follows:
(i) Defining the learning objectives
(ii) Gathering
information
(iii) Preparing information for steps of preparation
Preparation of material for guided and independent practice which includes:
(a) Database
of questions
(b) G a m e s
(c) Art work and animation
(d) Voice over
(e) Editing and Review
(f)
Field test
These above mentioned steps can be used to design a good multimedia.
view the material as per their time and place. Internet is not required but
computer compatible with CD ROM is needed. In blended delivery
strategy, multimedia is delivered in the form of printed material along
with CD. Interaction takes place face to face through website or internet.
Some of the applications of multimedia in science are given below.
Application of Multimedia in Science: Multimedia can be used in science
to demonstrate and teach complex Phenomenon like human systems,
structure of atom, chemical bonding, concepts in the topic ‘Light’ etc. The
list is endless. It is also possible to perform virtual experiments using
advanced multimedia programs. Many multimedia programs can be
developed, according to the developmental stages and needs of the
learners. Learners can understand the functioning of digestive system,
circulatory system etc. better than models or charts. In the interactive
multimedia, students can also do activities such as tracing the journey of
food items from mouth to rectum, tracing the path of electricity in a circuit,
formation of chemical bonds etc. Multimedia can also be used in virtual
classroom mode, in which many science concepts can be taught followed
by tutorial sessions. The criteria of selection and designing multimedia
are discussed in detail in mathematics section of this module. Web links
to explain particular topics and concepts are mentioned in NCERT
textbooks. Movie screenings and documentaries can be used to create
awareness about many science related issue like organic farming, water
conservation, pollution etc.
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The science teacher has to use the learning resources beyond classroom
to make science learning context based and stimulating. The extent to
which learning resources would be used will depend upon their potential
usefulness in achieving the major goals of science instruction.
II. Natural Resources
1 . Pond/Stream/River: A pond, lake or a small water body may be
used for • observing kinds of plant life and the adaptations of stems, roots,
leaves, flowers and fruits to aquatic environment.
• learning how animals are adapted for life in or near water and
contrasting this with land animals.
• observing the changes in animal and plants with season.
• highlighting the use of water bodies for rain water harvesting.
• highlighting pollution of water bodies by throwing waste in or
near them.
• highlighting importance of check dams over big dams–
construction of dams on rivers and their effect on villages.
• discussion on water pollution( for example: pollution of river
water like Ganga and Yamuna).
2 . Hills: May be used for study of different types of rocks
3 . Forests: May be used for learning about food web, biodiversity,
etc.
D EVELOP ING / A DDITIONAL
R ESOURCES FOR T EACHING
OF S CIENCE
Students can learn science better if their skills of observation and
experimentation are developed. Here are some suggestive resources for
making science learning interesting.
1. Science corner in the classroom:
Some schools especially in small towns or rural areas are still not equipped
with science laboratory. In such schools, science is taught in classroom
generally ignoring the importance of activity/experimental aspect. But
science as we know is not learnt effectively by children unless they
experience it. Children must observe and experiment if their science
learning is to be strengthened. In such schools, therefore, it is suggested
that a ‘science corner’ to be developed in the classroom itself. One or
two tables may be reserved in the classroom for conducting experiments
and display. Underneath the tables shelves can be made for storage of
materials, equipment etc, students can be encouraged to bring in materials
to display in the science corner. Every week students may vote and chose
the science item of the week. Importance should be given to creativity by
encouraging students to make models/projects by using local resources.
Science corner helps the students and teachers to design activities on
their own.
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2. A science bulletin board
The science bulletin board provides a place to display clippings from
newspapers or magazines; drawings and other things prepared in science
classes. It can be a very good resource for generating awareness about
social and environmental issues like pollution, depletion of resources,
recycling, foeticide, etc. It can be put up in the class near the science
corner.
3. Resources for learning about growth of plants
Small flower pots or used tea mugs placed along a window-sill in the
class-room or at home where there is plenty of light may provide ample
space for germinating seeds and growing small plants. If more space is
desired for making observations on growth of plants, shallow wood boxes
may be obtained or made from old wooden packing of fruits.
4. Apparatus- Improvised
By carrying out experiments, the students may find solutions to problems
which they encounter in the laboratory, in the class-room or elsewhere.
In addition, experiments provide a means to verify facts, laws and
generalizations. These also contribute to the students’ knowledge and
understanding of facts, principles and concepts of science, but science
laboratories are not very well equipped in majority of schools, especially
at secondary level. Therefore, a teacher may need to design very simple,
and low cost experiments using easily available materials which may help
not only to clarify the concepts but also may help to develop scientific
thinking and arouse curiosity amongst students. Improvisation of
apparatus may be required for conducting these experiments. Besides
providing guidance and directions for conducting experiments, the teacher
should pose some simple problems/questions based on the experiment.
This will help students to develop power of reasoning and imagination
apart from strengthening scientific concepts and developing practical
skills.
5. A Science Laboratory
Laboratory work is central to learning of science. Students get proper
and complete understanding of the facts, principles and concepts of
science when they work in the laboratory, make observations and get
hands-on experiences, on the basis of which they draw conclusions. As a
considerable part of time spent in learning science needs to be devoted to
experimental work, adequate laboratory facility should be provided.
For planning and designing of a laboratory, we must know the features
of a good science laboratory which may be enumerated as follows:
1 . It should be spacious so as to allow enough freedom of movement
throughout the practical work.
2 . The physical features like proper ventilation, light, temperature
and furniture would allow the students to work comfortably in
the laboratory.
3 . The plan and design of the laboratory must provide elements of
flexibility for effective demonstrations and individual and small
group work.
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4 . It must provide enough space for discussion.
5 . It should have ample storage facility for equipment and other
ma teria ls.
6 . It should be equipped with water, gas and electric supply.
Safety: In order to avoid accidents in the laboratory, it is important to
train the students in the use of safety rules. A first aid box, clearly labelled
should be kept in an accessible place in the laboratory. It should contain
material for dealing with heat, acid and caustic burns. It should contain
adequate bandages and antiseptics to treat minor cuts or to pad and
lightly bandage a wound before the patient is taken for professional
treatment. All electrical lines should have adequate fuses or circuit breakers
and teachers and students should know about?
6. Science
Kits
There has been a gradual decline in practical work and experimentation
at secondary and higher secondary level due to lack of laboratory facilities
in schools and lack of awareness among teachers that for learning science
experimentation is a fundamental requirement.
In view of the above problem production of various kits has been
undertaken by many institutions of the country including NCERT. These
kits are proper alternative and supplement to laboratories in most of the
schools in India. The attraction of putting together a set of teaching
learning aids/apparatus in portable container along with the manuals
and CDs has given boost to the development of this kits programme. Some
benefits of using kits are as follows:
• Availability of necessary pieces of apparatus/items at one place.
• Provide knowledge about multiple use of each piece of apparatus.
• Economy of time in setting up of experiments.
• Easy portability from one place to another.
• Space for teachers’ innovation.
• Low cost and use of indigenous resources.
NCERT has developed science kits for various stages of school education.
Attempts have been made to make items of the kits multipurpose, low
cost, and appropriate for working with micro scale technique. These kits
have been prepared for the following stages –
1 . Primary science kits is a complete laboratory for classes III to V. It
has basic facilities like laboratory stand, glassware, measuring
devices, thermometer, heat source etc. More than 300 activities
can be performed by using this kit.
2 . Upper primary science kit has been developed keeping in view the
activities given in new science textbooks developed by NCERT. It
offers scope for performing more than 200 activities as outlined in
the kit manual. The kit contains more than 130 scientific and
general items, chemicals, glassware etc. The kit includes hand
operated generator with AC/DC supply, laboratory stand, micro
glassware, compound microscope, kerosene burner, bell jar,
permanent slides etc.
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3 . Secondary science kit is available along with its manual. It provides
scope for various learner centered activities of the chapters of
class IX and X science textbooks. Besides these activities, laboratory
experiments can also be demonstrated. It is a complete portable
laboratory. The kit contains more than 130 scientific and general
items, chemicals, glassware etc. Some of the main items are
compound microscope, dissecting microscope, electroscope, multimeter resistance boxes, kerosene burner, electricity and magnetism
kit, optics kit, spring balance etc. The kit supplements the science
laboratory in the classroom. There is a special provision for use of
micro scale chemistry lab technique, which reduces the wastage
of chemicals, hazards and pollution.
Students should preferably perform all the activities individually or in
small groups. In view of the limited number of items provided in the kits,
sometimes the teacher may have to conduct experiment/demonstration
on some topics for the whole class. The teacher should involve the students
in understanding various steps of the activity.
S TRATEG IES FOR
U TILIZATION OF
R E S OU R C E S
Field Trips
Field trips are organized for the students to provide first hand sensory
experience with things and phenomena which cannot be brought into
the classroom. It involves taking the students to places where the themes
may be studied first hand. It is the only teaching technique which makes
it possible for students to see the materials and phenomena in their true
relationship. Models, pictures, preserved specimens, CDs and other
sensory aids should be used as substitutes for first hand experiences
only when field trips are not possible or feasible. By discussing among
themselves teachers can also plan multi/interdisciplinary field trips where
social science and arts/architecture are also integrated. For example,
discussion during the visit of science museum should not be restricted
to science concepts only. This can be extended to other areas. Concepts
such as– Symmetry and sound need to be linked with famous heritage
buildings and visit to these buildings if possible can be planned with the
visit to science museum.
A careful survey of the opportunities offered by any rural or urban
community will reveal an extensive array of materials and phenomena
which may be used by science teachers. The following situations in cities,
towns or rural areas are suggested for organising field trips –
1 . Museums, botanical gardens, zoological parks
2 . Bird sanctuaries
3 . Near by farms, gardens, vacant plots and forests
4 . Ponds, lakes, streams, bogs
5 . Green
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6 . Science centers
7 . A factory
8 . Printing press
9 . Departments of health and sanitation
1 0 . Water purification plant
1 1 . Milk pasteurization plant
1 2 . Recycling plants
1 3 . Polluted rivers and the garbage dumping grounds.
Advantages of field trips:
Organising field trip is a cooperative enterprise. The child is the active
agent; the teacher is a skillful guide. The teachers’ leadership and initiative
can make the field trips a meaningful learning activity for the students.
Some advantages of the field trips are as follows:
1 . It shows natural phenomena in their proper setting.
2 . It tends to blend the school life with the outside world, by putting
pupils in direct touch, with things, living organisms, persons,
relationship, environmental conditions, in a meaningful learning
cont ext.
3 . It stimulates interests in natural and human made things and
situations and enables pupils to know intimately about their
e nvir onme nt .
4 . It provides opportunities to develop accuracy and keenness of
observation and to experience the joy of discovery.
5 . It helps children to organise their knowledge in meaningful manner.
6 . It develops initiative and self activity making pupils active agents
rather than passive recipients.
7 . It promotes the ability of problem solving in natural and social
setti ngs.
8 . It generates awareness towards environmental and social issues.
Science Exhibitions
Science is a powerful way of investigating and understanding the world.
Therefore, teaching of science must enable children to examine and
analyse their everyday experiences. Every resource must be explored to
enable children themselves and to handle objects. They must be given all
freedom to express their own creativity and imagination. Organization of
science exhibition at different levels (school, district, state and national
level) helps to identify and nurture creative talent among students. The
main objectives of organizing science exhibition are:
• To make children understand that science is all around us and we
can gain knowledge as well as solve many problems by relating
the learning process to the physical and social environment,
• To develop critical thinking about global issues to maintain healthy
and sustainable societies in today’s environment.
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• To highlight the role of science and technology for producing good
quality and environment friendly materials for the use of society.
• To appreciate the role of science in meeting the challenges of life
such as climate change, opening new avenues in the area of
agriculture, fertilizer, food processing, biotechnology, green energy,
disaster management, information and communication technology,
astronomy, transport etc.
• To address social issues like foeticide, adverse sex ratio, crime
against women, role of women in science, negative use of technology
against woman etc.
The organisation of science exhibitions would also provide opportunities
to all participating students, teachers and visitors to get acquainted with
different kinds of equipment, device and techniques. This would enable
the students and teachers to generate scientific ideas for addressing
various problems of the society and the environment. The science
exhibitions also help to develop and display local and indigenous
apparatus and experience.
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT),
New Delhi organizes Jawahar Lal Nehru National Exhibition for Science
and Environmental Education for children of various stages, on the basis
of exhibitions organized in the previous year by the states/UTs and other
organizations at district, zonal, regional and finally at the state level.
Selected schools from all states and UTs then participate in the national
level exhibition.
Let us Do
1 . Select any chapter from the textbook you teach in science, make a plan of teaching
this chapter giving adequate space to the various resources, you have learned in
this module even those which you think are also important.
2 . If you have given the responsibility of conducting field trip for your students,
write a brief where do you want to take them (in your city/state/country) and
w h y?
L EARNING R ESOURCES
IN M ATHEMATICS
Mathematics is an exciting and dynamic discipline that offers students
the chance to use the power of their minds. Conducive to the spirit of
mathematics, NPE (1986) states, “Mathematics is a vehicle to train a child
to think, to reason and articulate logically.” Principles and standards for
School Mathematics (2000) suggest that teachers must create
opportunities that stimulate, guide and encourage students to make
connections among mathematical concepts. Construct mathematical ideas
to solve problems through reasoning and take responsibility for their own
learning. The current reforms in mathematics education suggest that
teachers should engage students in tasks that exemplify the beauty and
usefulness of mathematics in different fields.
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It is important that equal emphasis should be given to diverse ability
learners. While talking about school mathematics, Romberg (1999) says,
for learning of mathematics, two problems are required to be dealt with.
First, the content and structure of the curriculum should not operate to
indoctrinate students with past values, but should be derived from visions
for the future. All students should be taught to reason, to design models
and to create and solve problems. Second, all children must develop to
think critically to an become ‘mathematically literate’.
Unlike other subjects, mathematics is basically based on logical reasoning
and generalisation and deals with abstract concepts; thereafter their
representations through symbols etc. Further conceptual building on
these abstract concepts brings greater vigour and complexity to its
structure. So, there is a basic need to promote resource based learning in
mathematics which may help in making the subject content interesting.
It may help in removing mathematics phobia from minds of learners, and
hence, help them achieve narrow aims as well as higher aims for school
education as mentioned in Teaching of Mathematics Position Paper, NCF–
2005.
‘Mathematics for all’ has become a central goal of Mathematics Education
as placed in NCF-2005 in order, apply and extend mathematical
knowledge. This view supports the notion that one of the main goal of
mathematics teaching is to teach students how to learn mathematics.
Mathematics teaching should sustain and develop the curiosity of young
minds to understand natural world in logical way. It should seek to foster
a sense of abstraction, generalization and critical judgment to engage
students in creative problem solving.
Effect such as curiosity, creativity, enthusiasm and confidence can be
cultivated through effective use of learning resources. Resource based
learning encourage a way of learning mathematics by doing, by application
and by making connections.
In the following sections, we will look into specific examples of learning
resources used in mathematics.
Textbook and Supplementary Resources
Textbook not only introduces the content, but also builds a platform on
which the entire structure of the concepts and content knowledge stands
firmly. It also gives a framework of a particular area of a course of study.
It may be made easily available to all students irrespective of their socioeconomic background.
Mathematics textbook should be used as basic resources which allow
teacher to follow the course guidelines. Textbook should be used as a
holistic unit and every component, say, introduction, examples,
explanations, diagrams, activities and practice exercises should be
discussed in the class. Special notes for teachers given in textbooks should
be given due considerations. Teacher should add his/her own wisdom
and experience to multiply the context given in the textbooks.
Since teacher has to deal with heterogeneous group of students, textbook
alone may not be sufficient to meet the diverse learning needs of the entire
group. Reference books/supplementary books can provide variety and
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challenge to students to get enough hold of the concept and its application.
Similarly, hand book can allow students to know the theoretical structure
of the concept
These kinds of resources help teacher to use differentiation, enrichment
and extension of the content.
Apart from the textbook, there are other type of books, such as handbooks,
reference books, encyclopedia, journals, story books which may be good
resource for learning mathematics. A handbook is a complete book in
concise form on a particular task, profession, or area of study etc. A
reference book may consist of details or further explanation on a particular
topic of a textbook, extension of the topic, further examples/problems
and further suggestive texts. Such books may be used to supplement to
any resource and also to expand and strengthen the content. As an
example, the book ‘The Mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India
and Islam : A Sourcebook’ edited by Victor J Katz (2007) can be used as
a reference book to know historical development in mathematics. Along
with above resources. ‘Exemplar Problems in Mathematics’ and
‘Laboratory Manuals in Mathematics’ developed by NCERT for various
classes, may also be used as good learning resources.
C OMMUNITY AND I NSTITUTIONAL R ESOURCES
M ATHEMATICS L EARNING
FOR
Community in a generalized sense can be viewed as the society. The local
context in the immediate environment of the learner can be viewed as the
best resource for learning. Community resources provide opportunities
for inquiry based learning.
For developing and schematizing concepts through various sources of
evidence like reasoning, observation, representation, dialectic and ethical
values, community resources can play a vital and facilitating role.
Students are advised to explore more upon these sources of evidence.
At formal stage, school, block and district, as parts of community, play
significant role in shaping mathematical world of the learner. At all these
levels, various resources are there which can help in learning of
mathematics. At school level, these may be school premises and school
buildings, corridors, verandahs, classrooms and walls, mathematics
laboratory or corner, mathematics club or forum, group of mathematics
teachers or mentors and mathematics exhibitions. Group coordination
and cooperation among mathematics teachers can help better teachinglearning of mathematics and improve performance in mathematics as
revealed by Horn (2008). At block/cluster level, there may be cluster level
exhibitions, cluster level mathematics centres, a panel of all mathematics
teachers at block level, block level mathematics competitions. At district
level, there may be mathematics centres, mathematics exhibitions,
mathematics fairs, committee for mathematics activities, mathematics
laboratory at District Institute of Education and Training (DIETs). This is
how, we can create opportunities for sharing or exchanging experiences
and ideas among thinking community of mathematics practitioners and
lea rners.
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At national and international levels, mathematics centres, museum,
seminars, conferences, symposium, journals, teachers’ association can
be good resources for mathematics learning. Here, we will talk about
learning resources at:
(i) School level
(ii) Block level
(iii) District level
Let us discuss these in detail.
School Level
(i) Mathematics Laboratory and
Resource Room
In every school, a mathematics laboratory or corner can be established,
which will have various equipments, apparatus, charts, models : working
and static, etc., that can help in building the learning of abstract concepts
in mathematics by having experimentation, activities, hands on
experience, verification, etc. In mathematics laboratory electronic
calculator, graph machines, mathematical games, puzzle boards,
mathematical kit, mathematics videos and clinometers, etc. can be made
available. Mangal and Mangal (2009) has given an elaborated list of
hardware instructional aids, viz., magic lantern, epidiascope, projector,
radio, tape recorder, television, closed circuit television, video cassette
recorder, motion pictures, computers and software instructional aids, such
as., blackboard or chalkboard, bulletin board or information board, flannel
board, pictures, charts, graphs, maps, globes, diagrams, photographs,
cartoons, posters, newspapers, flash cards, models, slides, filmstrips,
transparencies, programmed learning packages, many of which can be a
part of mathematics laboratory. The need is to think how these can be
used for better learning of mathematics.
As NCF – 2005 too mentions that one of the important aims of mathematics
education is “ to develop the child’s resources to think and reason
mathematically to pursue assumptions to their logical conclusion and
handle abstractions.” Mathematics laboratory or corner can best develop
the habit of thinking, reasoning and rationalising through logical
conclusions and handling abstractions.
(ii) Mathematics Club/Forum/Society
In school, a club of mathematics students can be established under the
guidance of mathematics teacher. The attention should be more towards
ensuring membership to all, especially to them who are not thought to be
good in mathematics.
Various activities, discussion, quiz at school level, mathematics excursion
and tour, lectures by experts, workshops, competitions, etc., can be
organised and coordinated by such a club/forum. It can be in the form of
a club or forum, community or society. Various activities are mentioned
by Thomson and Hartog (1993) in ‘Activities to teach mathematics in the
context of environmental studies’ pertaining to number and number
relationship, computation and functions, algebra, statistics, probability,
geometry and measurement.
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The students, who are good at linguistics, too can be motivated to establish
a reading club and they can meet weekly to discuss the beauty, nature
and recent development in mathematical concepts and hence, it will help
in mathematics learning and developing positive disposition among
learners. Group projects can be taken at such a forum which can pave
the way for better learning of mathematics with a shift from independence
to interdependence, from structured to freedom, from disciplinary to
interdisciplinary and from product to process.
(iii) School Library
School library can be visualised as one of the prominent learning resources
for mathematics. There are various textbooks, reference books, activity
books and puzzle books that can be made available in the library. These
books can be issued to students. Various journals pertaining to
mathematics learning can be put inside the library for awareness about
mathematics learning and pedagogy of mathematics teaching.
(iv) Mentoring
Though mentoring is still a developing concept in Indian context, but it
can be effectively used as one of the learning resources in the school.
As revealed from the various sources, a mentor is an experienced person,
trusted counsellor or guide who provides information, advice, support
and encouragement to a less experienced person, often leading and
guiding by example of his/her success in an area.
Working definition of mentoring can be, “ A one to one learning
relationship between a more experienced person and a young learner
for the development of the later.”
Mentors help in strengthening academic skills in general leading to
student’s success.
Mentoring is a structured one to one relationship or partnership that
focuses on the needs of the mentee.
Daloz (1990) views effective mentorship as similar to “guiding the student
on a journey at the end of which the student is a different and more
accomplished person. In a formal learning situation, mentoring functions
can be understood as providing support, challenge and vision.”
During mentoring too, formal and group work can be given ample
emphasis. Mac Bean, Graham and Sangwin (2004) had a study on school
and university students namely ‘Group work in mathematics: A survey
of students’ experiences and attitudes’ and concluded that students show
a very positive attitude towards group work, but with utilitarian view of
its benefits.
Block Level
(1) Interschool Collaboration
There can be teaching learning collaboration among schools to provide a
place to establish a platform for mathematics. This collaboration will give
rise to opening of new opportunities for mathematics learning. This
collaboration may be at two different levels: Student’s level and Teacher’s
level. Studies have revealed that collaboration of mathematics teachers
gives rise to better understanding of learners and learner’s problems in
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mathematics. They discuss various problems pertaining to pedagogy,
methods, fundamental problems and sharing available facilities.
(2) Cluster Level Competitions or Exhibitions
Cluster level competitions are other learning resources in mathematics.
At cluster level, we can have mathematics exhibitions, mental mathematics
quiz competitions, mathematical symposiums, ability competitions, etc.
All these competitions can develop a healthy attitude towards competition,
cooperation and coordination among students. Students learn to share
exchange and extend their existing understanding.
(3) e-Learning Laboratory cum Block Resource Centre
e-learning can be understood as learning through electronic means, modes
and resources. This may be online or offline, synchronous or
asynchronous, etc., but the type, the learner uses, must be an electronic
form. In Indian context, it is not easy to have e-learning laboratories at
each school, but as an alternative, we can have e-learning laboratory at
block level. While talking about e-learning, Bhatia (2009) mentions that
e-learning should be used to supplement and not supplant traditional
forms of teaching - learning.
Main features of e-learning are:
(i) connectivity or networking
(ii) flexibility
(iii) interactivity and collaboration
(iv) virtual learning environment like texts, visuals, quizes, etc.
Various e-learning tools can be used for mathematics learning like emails, blogs, wikis, e-portfolios, animation, videos, links, specialised
softwares, etc. Noss (1988) had a study with 13 years old LOGO
experienced children, on and off the computer. Children were asked to
solve ratio and proportion problems using computer as well as paper
and pencil. He used pencil and paper for ratio test. It was found that the
performance was better in case of students solving the problems on the
computer. Alongwith these computer related facilities, other learning aids
can also be put in block resource centre. Students are suggested to go
through various packages produced/being produced by Regional
Institute of Education (NCERT), Bhubaneswar and CIET for pedagogytechnology integration discussing various e-tools and their integration in
teaching-learning process.
District Level
(i) Science Centre
At district level, there are some science centres. These centres inherit
mathematics as a science component. There are exhibitions and several
other activities at science centres pertaining to mathematics also which
may really help in learning of mathematics.
(ii) DIET
At district level, there are District Institutes of Education and Training
(DIET). These institutes have enriched mathematics laboratories which
can help prospective teachers to learn more about mathematics and
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teaching of mathematics, which in turn will help learners. Most of the
models and aids in these institutes are being prepared by studentteachers. It can be revealed from NCFTE (2009) that student teachers
learn to integrate ideas, experiences and professional skills through hands
on experience of developing learning materials.
V IRTUAL R ESOURCES : M ULTIMEDIA
M ATHEM ATICS
IN
There are various organisations and professional developing bodies which
are developing audio-visual multimedia packages or video CDs in the
field of mathematics, Central Institute of Educational Technology (NCERT),
Electronic Media Production Centre (IGNOU), and different Government
Directorates/Departments of Education are some of the Government
Departments engaged in creating and Promoting technology based
learning resources. For example, CIET has produced variety of multimedia
packages like ‘Mathematics for Secondary Classes: Locus’ and
‘Mathematics for Primary and Upper Primary Classes: Construction of
Geometrical Shapes’, etc. It has also produced many audio and video
programmes both for teachers and learners. There are some nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and private sector educational institutes
which are also contributing in developing multimedia based resources
for mathematics. It can be effectively used even in the absence of teacher,
any number of times with a freedom to manage own time schedule. This
ultimately enables learners to become independent learners.
Multimedia can be used by teachers teaching mathematics in several ways.
Some examples are given below:
Application of Multimedia in Mathematics
(i) Providing historical context for a mathematics concept: The
importance of mathematics concept or skill is difficult to
communicate in relation to other concepts or skills because
students lack the sense of mathematics as a whole. A teacher should
provide an understandable justification of why mathematics
concept or skill is necessary and meaningful. For example,
explanation of circular motion by mathematicians at different times
and construction of bends in roads can communicate the
significance of mathematics to the development of civilization.
Multimedia images of current applications of mathematics give
students a dynamic impression of mathematics.
(ii) Geometry software Cabri II Plus can easily convert measurements
taken from the image into their actual scale. Using the actual size
of the objects, one can perform calculation of actual volumes,
density etc. (for example volume of ‘Ashoka Pillar’). Animation
aspects of geometry software, such as Cabric II Plus and Cabri 3D
allow students to bring static model to life.
(iii) Multimedia can enhance students’ interaction with graphs by
allowing them to select audio for interpretation of important
components of graph. Mathematics educators need to look closely
at multimedia and aquatint themselves with the expanding
capability of multimedia.
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(iv) Properties of congruent triangles, difference between similarity and
congruency of triangles, general properties of triangles related to
medians, angle bisectors can be discussed using multimedia
softwares where students can be shown multiple examples with
varied measurements. It will help students to generalize these
properties by ignoring the irrelevant variables such as size or
position of the triangle.
C HALLENGES
IN
U TILISING R ESOURCES
While utilizing all above mentioned resources, some ethical, technical
hurdles or challenges may need to be addressed. CALtoonz2006 and
Roblyer (2008) have enlisted these various attention seeking aspects in
detail. These are –
(a) Social and ethical hurdles
As ethical
and social aspects can be put together due to their
complementary nature. Various attention seeking issues with reference
to CALtoonz2006 and Roblyer (2008) can be mentioned as:
(i) Secular nature of the content: India is a secular country as
mentioned in our Constitution. So, no resource can be utilised
and accepted which may harm secularism.
(ii) Gender Equity: Gender equity is another very important issue. Our
resource should be based on giving equal importance to both the
genders, male as well as female. For the evolution of a modern and
developed society, gender equity is important.
(iii) Democracy: Democracy is giving equal opportunity and equal rights
to all. Our resource content should provide ample instances for
reflecting democracy. If it does not reflect, it may not be accepted
by the society.
(iv) Respect for elders: The resource should inculcate value of respect
for elders. Our Indian culture is well known universally for respect
for elders.
(v) Respect for the differently abled: Our resource should show equal
opportunity to all and it should pave a way giving respect to the
differently abled.
(vii) Concern for Animals: The resources in its content and presentation
should not harm animals or violate animal rights.
(viii) Respect for environment: While we are stressing for eco-friendliness
of everything we are using or producing, how can we leave our
resource away from such an important issue. Our resource should
be eco-friendly, encourage eco-friendliness, hence, should have
respect for the environment.
(ix) Plagiarism and Cyber Cheating: Plagiarism is using and mentioning
work of some other person without acknowledging that person.
This is just like a cheating and unethical that the work of some
other person is being used or published in the name of self. So,
using any resource in such a way should be avoided.
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(x) Illegal Downloads/Software Piracy: Software and media companies
are prosecuting offenders of illegal downloading and piracy of
softwares. Hence, one should avoid illegal downloading and piracy
of softwares.
(b) Technical Hurdles
Some of the technical hurdles are:
(i) Colour: Colour used should not be glaring colours. Most of the
colours should be soft colours and user friendly. The learner
should not feel more stress while going through the content as
well as pictures and figures.
(ii) Speed: In case of multimedia resource, the speed should be
optimum enough to provide learners with ample time to go through
the content and concept. If speed is too fast, learner would not be
able to go through entire slide and if it is too slow, learner becomes
disinte rested.
(iii) Effective animation: In case of animation, it should be smooth
enough to facilitate learner for better learning. It should not create
a sense of irritation amongst the learners.
(iv) Use of screen: Entire screen should be efficiently used. It should
not be like that the entire content or picture is lying on a corner
and majority of the space of the screen is lying vacant or useless. If
only text is there, it could have its orientation beginning from centre.
In case of books and e-books too, each page can be considered as
one screen.
(v) Special Effects: Special effects, if any, should be learner centred. It
should be in consideration with the age level, mental level, previous
knowledge, attitude and aptitude level and readiness of the learner.
(vi) Music: Music, sound and voices used should be appropriate with
respect to validity, timing and relatedness. It should be soft and
user friendly. Under no circumstances, it should be harmful or
irritating to the learner.
If all these social, ethical and technical hurdles can be overcome,
then not only learners and teachers, but everybody related to the field of
education will use these resources for betterment of learning and hence,
for the betterment of the entire field of education.
Some suggestions for overcoming the hurdles could be as follows:
(i) Narration: It can be better, if the text for using at school is in the
form of narration. A narrator should always be present over there.
It means, if a text is being represented, it should be shown in such
a way that it is being narrated by some character instead of simply
writing the text in open space.
(ii) Teacher Friendliness: It should be easy for the teacher to handle
the resource. If teacher, using the resource will not feel comfortable,
he/she may not use the resource in future again.
(iii) Teacher Training and Skill Development: A teacher should be
trained and provided with ample skills to use resources in learning
of mathematics. It must be a compulsory part of a teacher training
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programme, that prospective teachers be given training for skills
to handle learning resources.
(iv) Attitude and Ease of Access: The source should be easily accessible
to all the students and teachers. Though they may not have a
positive attitude towards utilising these resources in learning and
teaching, but ease of access will surely motivate them for utilising
these resources in learning, ‘the teaching of mathematics.’
If all these social, ethical and technical hurdles can be taken care, then
not only learners and teachers, but everybody related to field of study of
mathematics and science will use these resources for betterment of
lea rning.
C ONCLUSION
Learning resources are important assets for teaching-learning process.
Their effectiveness can be maximized with appropriate use in the learning
s it ua t ions .
The process of resources based learning should be followed by reflective
analysis. The teachers must reflect on important aspect of the entire
process from selection through evaluation to make resource based
learning more resourceful and engaging. Some questions to ponder are –
1 . When has it worked well? Specify evidence
2 . When has it not worked to your satisfaction?
3 . Is there something that might have done differently or might some
other resource have worked better?
4 . Did you use the resource only for demonstration purpose? If so, is
it possible to adapt it for individual use?
5 . How did the resource helped you for demonstration, modeling or
sca ffolding?
6 . How did the resource help the learner’s engagement with the
c o nc e p t ?
• Jane Jolmston (1996): Early explorations in science. Open Univ. Press
R EF ERENCES (S CIENCE )
Buckingham,
Philadelphia
• Jean Bremner (1967) : Teaching Biology. Western Printing Services
Ltd. Bristol.
• Miller, D.F. (1962) : Methods and Materials for teaching the Biological
Science. Tata McGraw Hills, New Delhi.
• Sood, J.K. (2005): Teaching of science, Vinod Pustak Mandir, Agra.
• Sood, J.K. (2003) : Jaivik Vigyan Shikshan, Rajasthan Hindi Granth
Academy, Jaipur.
• Vaidya, N. (1971): The Impact Science Teaching, Oxford and IBH
Publishing Co.
• Vaidya, N. (2003): Science Teaching for the 21st Century, Deep &
Deep Publishing Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.
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• Heiss, E.D.; Ellsworth, S., Chartes, W.H. (1950): Modern Science
Teaching, the MacMillan Co., New York.
• Kulshrestha, S.P. (2005): Teaching of Biology, R. Lall Book Depot,
Meerut. of Unesco (1979): New Unesco Source Book for Science
Teaching University Press (P) Ltd., India.
R EFERENCES (M ATHEMATICS )
1 . 1999. Newnes Dictionary of Electronics, Oxford : Elsevier.
2 . 2005. Collins English Dictionary, Harper Collins Publishers, India.
3 . 2009. Macquarie Dictionary, MacMillan Publishers, Australia.
4 . 2009. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language,
Houghton Mifflin Company. New York.
5 . A M IN , J. A. (2010). ‘Twenty First Century Classrooms : Changing
Scenario,’ Learning Community : An International Journal of Educational
and Social Development. 1 (1).
6 . BECKMANN , C. E., THOMPSON, D. R. AND R UBENSTEIN, R. N. (2010). Teaching
and Learning High School Mathematics, John Wiley and Sons Inc. New
J e r s e y.
7 . B HATIA , R. P. (2009). ‘Features and Effectiveness of E-learning Tools,’
Perspectives in Education. 25 (3).
8 . B ISHOP , A. J. ( E D .) (2010). Mathematics Education : Major Themes in
Education (Vol I, II, III and IV), Routledge - Taylor and Francis Group,
New York.
9 . B RITTON , E., HUNTLE Y , M. A., J ACOBS , G. AND W EINB ER G, A. S. (1999).
Connecting Mathematics and Science to Workplace Contexts : A Guide to
Curriculum Materials, Corwin Press Inc, California.
1 0 . C HAMBER S , P. (2010). Teaching Mathematics : Developing as a Reflective
Secondary Teacher, SAGE. New Delhi.
1 1 . COHEN, L., M ANION, L. AND M ORRISON, K. (2005). A Guide to Teaching Practice,
Routledge-Falmer, Taylor and Francis Group, London.
1 2 . C RISAN, C., LERMAN, S. AND W INBOURNE , P. (2007). ‘Mathematics and ICT :
A Framework for Conceptualising Secondary School Mathematics
Teachers’ Classroom Practices,’ Technology, Pedagogy and Education.
16 (1).
1 3 . D ALOZ , L. A. (1990). Effective Teaching and Mentoring, Jossey-Bass,
San Francisco.
1 4 . DoE (2006). CALtoonz (2006), Department of Education, Govt of NCT
of Delhi, Delhi.
1 5 . HORN , I. S. (2008). ‘Turn Around Students in High School Mathematics
: Constructing Identities of Competence Through Mathematical
Worlds,’ Mathematical Thinking and Learning : An International Journal.
10 (3).
1 6 . KATZ , V.J. ( ED .) (2007). The Mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China,
India and Islam - A Sourcebook, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
1 7 . LAWR ENCE , S. (2006). ‘Maths is Good for You : Web based History of
Mathematics Resources for Young Mathematicians and Their
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of Mathematics. 21 (2).
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1 8 . M AC B E AN , J., GR AHAM , T. AND S ANGWIN , C. (2004). ‘Group Work in
Mathematics : A Survey of Students’ Experiences and Attitudes’,
Teaching Mathematics and Its Application. 23 (2).
1 9 . M ANGAL, S. K. AND M ANGAL, U. (2009). Essentials of Educational Technology,
PHI Learning Private Limited. New Delhi.
2 0 . NCERT. (2005). National Curriculum Framework-2005, NCERT. New
D el h i.
2 1 . NCERT. (2006). Mathematics Textbook for Class IX, National Council
of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi.
2 2 . NCERT. (2008). Mathematics Textbook for Class VIII, NCERT, New Delhi.
2 3 . NCERT. (2006). Mathematics Textbook for Class X, NCERT, New Delhi.
2 4 . NCERT. (2006). Mathematics Textbook for Class XI, NCERT, New Delhi.
2 5 . NCERT. (2006). Mathematics Textbook for Class XII, NCERT, New Delhi.
2 6 . NCERT. (2005). Position Paper National Focus Group on Teaching of
Mathematics, NCERT, New Delhi.
2 7 . NCERT. (2009). Laboratory Manual: Mathematics Secondary Stage,
NCERT, New Delhi.
2 8 . NCTE. (2009). National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education,
National Council for Teacher Education, New Delhi.
2 9 . N OSS , R. (1988). ‘The Computer as a Cultural Influence in
Mathematical Learning.’ In Bishop, A. J. ( EDS .) Mathematics Education
and Culture, London : Kluwer Academic Publishers.
3 0 . PIMM , D. AND J OHNSTON -W ILDER , S. (2005). ‘Different Teaching Approaches.’
In Johnston-Wilder, S., Johnston-Wilder, P., Pimm, D. and Westwell,
J. ( EDS .) Learning to Teach Mathematics in the Secondary School : A
Companion to School Experience, Routledge-Falmer, New York.
3 1 . QVARSELL, B. AND W ULF , C. (EDS .) (2003). Culture and Education: European
Studies in Education (Vol. 16), Waxmann, Germany.
3 2 . R OBLYER , M. D. (2008). Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching,
Pearson Education. New Delhi.
3 3 . R OMBERG, T. A. (1999). ‘School Mathematics : The Impact of International
Comparisons on National Policy.’ In Kaiser, G., Luna, E. and Huntley,
I. ( EDS .) International Comparisons in Mathematics Education, Falmer
Press. London.
3 4 . THOMSON, B. S. AND HARTOG, M. D. (1993). Activities to Teach Mathematics
in the Context of Environmental Studies, Columbus. ERIC Clearing
House for Science, Mathematics and Environmental Education.
3 5 . W ALIA, J. S. (2000). Essentials of Teaching-Learning, Paul Publishers,
Punjab.
3 6 . W ATSON, A. and W INBOURNE , P. ( EDS .) (2008). New Directions for Situated
Cognition in Mathematics Education, Springer, Melbourne.
3 7 . W ILIAM , D. (1998). ‘A Framework for Thinking About Research in
Mathematics and Science Education.’ In Malone, J. A., Atweh, B.
and Northfield, J. R. ( EDS .) Research and Supervision in Mathematics
and Science Education, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc. Publishers,
New Jersey.
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4. INTEGRATING ICT IN SCIENCE AND
MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
A BOUT
THE
M ODULE
Mathematics and Science education around the world is going through a
radical change. The concept of teaching, which was assumed to be the
process of direct transmission of knowledge, is changing. It is believed
that use of technology helps in construction of conceptual frame work.
Moreover, increasing demand of education for all cannot be fullfilled by
existing educational system. Curriculum planners all over the world are
recommending radical reforms in education to prepare all students to
meet the needs of the society. Information and Communication
Technologies, (ICT), can be of great help in this direction.
ICT is not only envisaged simply as a technical skill or as a means of
improving learning effectiveness but also as a way of transforming the
goals and processes of education. It provides a real opportunity for
teachers of all stages and subjects to rethink fundamental pedagogical
issues alongwith the approaches to learning.
The work place of the future will require people who can use technology
to understand the subject to solve practical and everyday problems. This
is an exciting and challenging time for teachers to be equipped with ICT
use in different subjects. Even though ICT can influence what is taught,
teachers need to be mindful of designing instruction and environment
that can promote the content enrichment and enhance learning framework.
This module discusses the role and potential of ICT in education.
I NTRODUCTION
Some times Information and communication technologies are associated
with expensive computer based technologies. But ICTs also include the
more conventional technologies such as radio, television and telephone
technology. According to definition provided by United Nations
Development Progamme (UNDP): ICTs are basically information–handling
tools, a varied set of goods, applications and services that are used to
produce, store, process, distribute and exchange information. Thus the
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term ICT encompasses the range of hardware (desktop and portable
computers, projection technology, calculators, data-logging, white boards,
virtual learning environment platforms and digital-recording equipment),
software application (multimedia resources, generic software) and
information systems (Internet, intranet, radio, television, telephone and
wireless technology). These different tools are now available to work
together and combine to form a ‘network world’ i.e., a massive
infrastructure of interconnected telephone services, standardized
computing hardware, internet, radio and television, which reach
everywhere on globe. Also, audiovisual aids, slides, tape, cassette,
recorders, and video cassettes etc., are included under the collective
heading of “ analogue media” along with new computer and internet based
technologies which are called “ digital media”.
Keeping in view the diverse needs of the system of Indian Education,
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can play a lead role in
imparting quality education to huge dispersed population which does
not have adequate resources to learn.
T YPES OF ICT
T ECHNOLOGY
Based on delivery system two types of technology are used in education.
1 . S y n c hr o n o u s
2 . As yn c h r o no us
Synchronous media require all participants to be together at the same
time even though in different locations. Examples of synchronous media
are –
• Audio graphics
• Radio and television broadcast
• Teleconferencing
• Telephone conferencing (Audio conferencing)
• Computer conference such as chat and internet telephony
Asynchronous ICT allows participants in the learning process to be at
different times and different places. Examples of asynchronous ICTs are –
• E -ma i l
• Virtual conferences
• Multimedia
products
• Computer file transfers
• Audio, video tapes and CDs
• Off line web based learning formats
T YPES
OF
ICT C ONTENT
Content can be categorised as –
• Educational Content which is for general awareness and
orientation. Such learning content is broad and multidimensional.
• Instructional content which is for clearly defined target and is
generated for content enrichment.
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S TRENGTH
OF
ICT
Some of the strength of ICT are as follows:
• ICTs allows each individual to relate to the medium and its content.
People learn as individuals.
• Person can go forward and backward in the content and start at
any point depending upon prior knowledge. Therefore, it is
interactive way in which a person relates to content.
• It can serve multiple teaching functions and cater to the needs of
diverse audiences (learners with different abilities) at distant places
such as hilly areas, tribal areas etc.
• There is high speed delivery and wide reach at low cost.
• Same quality content can be delivered to rich and poor, the rural
and urban equally at the same cost.
Recommendations of National Curriculum Framework on ICT
Realizing the importance of Media and Educational Technology in India, the
National Policy on Education in its modified document-1992 (Media and
Educational Technology, Para 8.10.11, Page 38) states that, “Modern
communication technologies have the potential to bypass several stages and
sequences in the process of development encountered in earlier decades. Both
the constraints of time and distance at once become manageable. In order to
avoid structural dualism, modern educational technology must reach out to
the most distant areas and deprive sections of beneficiaries simultaneously
with the area of comparative affluence and ready availability. Further it has
stated that “Educational Technology will be employed in the spread of useful
information, the training and retraining of teachers, to improve quality
education, sharpen awareness of art and culture, inculcate abiding values,
etc., both in the formal and non-formal sectors. The National Curriculum
Framework (NCF)-2005 states “judicious use of technology (Multimedia and
ICT) can increase the reach of educational programmes, facilitate management
of the system, as well as help address specific learning needs and requirements
of young learners, teachers and teacher educators.
I NFORMATION AND C OMMUNICATION
T ECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN E DUCATION
In education, ICT is used as a combination of various technologies ranging
from simple technology like print based communication to online
communication. Selection and integration of ICT with pedagogy is possible
in many ways. When ICT is used for educational purpose, it should be
very clear for what purpose the content will be used and what delivery
system will be used. Such a decision should not be based on the
technologies but on the conditions and context in which ICT is to be used.
One must ensure that there is adequate reach and access.
A teacher of mathematics and science at secondary level should integrate
ICT in his/her daily work. He/She should choose the material that will
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increase interest for learning and making learning a fun for those who
find the concepts tough; by providing innovative presentation of content.
Some of the ways teachers can engage students to learn are– use of
collaborative learning through problem solving, exploring and learning,
use of manipulative (Videos of Hands on activity) and technological
activities, etc.
Initiatives Taken by The MHRD to Spread ET and ICT in Education
India recognized the importance of ICT in education as early as 1984-85 when
the Computer Literacy and Studies in Schools (CLASS) Project was initially
introduced as a pilot with the introduction of BBC micro-computers. A total of
12,000 such computers were distributed to secondary and senior secondary
schools through State Governments. The project was subsequently adopted
as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme during the 8th Plan (1993-98). During the
8th Five Year Plan the Scheme was widened to provide financial grants to
institutions, which were given BBC Micros, and also to cover new Government
Aided Sec./Sr. Sec. Schools. Assistance included annual maintenance grant
for BBC micros and purchase as well as maintenance of equipment for new
Sch ool s.
While integrating ICT with pedagogy, internet resources can be used for
collecting and analyzing information on various themes. Teacher-teacher,
student-teacher, expert-teacher and expert-student interaction groups
can be created through different service networks e.g. Yahoo, Google etc.
Computer and LCD projectors can be used by teachers and students for
the preparation, presentation and analysis of content. Theme based
e-content generation can be done by using the software like moviemaker.
Learning materials prepared by teachers such as multimedia
presentations , notes, self learning materials, related internet resources,
etc., can be uploaded on the Yahoo group or any other network .
Participation in synchronous meetings through chat, video, audio and
computer conferencing. Creation of phone chain and use of phone and
SMS services can be done in shortest possible time. The existing EDUSAT
network of different states/UTs, Universities and National Institutes
including CIET-NCERT, EMPC-IGNOU, CEC-UGC, etc. can be used for
conventional radio and television broadcasting, interactive radio and
television broadcasting (phone-in, video on demand.), e-exchange of data,
video conferencing, audio conferencing and computer conferencing and
web based education as well. As far as evaluation is concerned,
assignments requiring internet can be planned. Problem solving and
application based question banks can be created with the help of students
and teachers and placed on the web portals/websites.
While taking NCF ideas one-step forward, not only portfolio rather
e-portfolio, projects can be developed by students, pupil teachers, teachers
and teacher educators to showcase their performance and use them as
an evaluation tool so as to make the teacher education system more
accountable and responsive for the national cause.
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HOW TO S ELECT AN ICT B ASED
L EARNING R ESOURCE ?
Whatever is the content or whatever be the media, learner is always our
main concern. So, while selecting any multimedia, the learner should be
at the central place.
There are several aspects which should be kept in mind while selecting an
appropriate multimedia and ICT based learning resources are given below:
1 . Pertaining to the learner
(i) Learner centeredness: Learner should actively participate and
take decisions during execution of content through multimedia
r es our ce .
(ii) Motivation and encouragement: Learner should get motivated
and encouraged by the multimedia learning resource to be used.
(iii) Cognitive readiness: Learner should be cognitively prepared to
learn and use multimedia learning resources.
2 . Pertaining to the multimedia material
(i) Usefulness: The content of multimedia resource should be useful
for the learner.
(ii) Cost effectiveness: It should be cost effective.
(iii) Availability: It should be easily available and accessible to all.
(iv) Relevance: Multimedia should be relevant to the subject and
topic.
(v) Duration: The duration of multimedia resource should neither
be too short nor so long. It should be appropriate with respect
to need of content, topic, and learner.
3 . Pertaining to the formal and non-formal setting
(i) Physical conditions: Physical environmental conditions should
support the multimedia resources to be used.
(ii) Apparatus and equipments: Availability of apparatus and
equipments for multimedia resources should be kept in mind.
(iii) Learner friendliness: The setting in which multimedia resources
is to be used should be learner friendly.
HOW TO D ESIGN A ICT B ASED
L EARNING R ESOURCES ?
Although there are variety of multimedia and ICT resources available in
the market, it is always better if a teacher designs a ICT resource keeping
in mind the demands of the learners because meaningful interaction with
the learning situation is very important. One way to develop meaningful
interaction is to use a teacher centered lesson using a single laptop with
a data projector and an interactive whiteboard. A second possibility is to
provide students with pre-constructed sketches. Students can manipulate
the figures in such files, that appear before them.
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Such need based resources strengthen the capacity of learners. A resource
can be designed through systematic steps given below:
(i) Articulating learning objectives
(ii) Knowing the learners
(iii) P l a n ni ng
(iv) Organizing resources
(v) Planning teaching strategies
(vii) Developing evaluation process and reorganizing if required.
OP EN E DUCATIONAL R ESOURCES , W EB
R ESOURCES AND V IRTUAL C LASSROOMS
Since most of the resources on internet are paid resources, it is not possible
for all, to access and use these resources for learning. In an era in which
it is very important for everybody to learn mathematics and science, how
can we deprive a major section of the society from new technology and
resources for learning these disciplines? Open learning resources provide
solution of the problem. There are several websites which make available
web content freely available for all. A very popular open education resource
is Wikipedia. Wiki means ‘what I know is’. This is a very big project and
comprises
of
various
components.
Its
website
address
is
http://wikipedia.org. It provides text material and information on almost
every topic which can be edited. If some topic is not there, anybody can
create a page for that particular topic. The information can be seen in
almost every language, including English and Hindi. Wikipedia also hosts
a number of sister projects which are equally important. Some of these
are Commons, Wikiquote, Wikispecies, Wikinews, Wikibooks, Wikiversity,
Wiktionary, Wikisource and Meta-wiki. All these resources are open for
all everywhere and at any time, that too free of paid services. These sources
give freedom to every individual for editing and expression. There are
Google applications too as other resources.
There is another resource known as virtual classroom. In virtual
classroom, people interacting simultaneously are not face to face, but
still there is a sort of synchronous communication among all participating
groups. In such a classroom, anybody can express his/her views anytime
during the class and all others can respond to the query or views
expressed. When all this happens, people are sitting at their respective
places e.g., either at home or at some other suitable setting. So, in such a
learning situation, they are not required to assemble at all at the same
place. While talking about importance of virtual classroom, Amin (2010)
says “Teachers’ physical presence is not needed all the time. Even at higher
education level, a person from one country can exchange views with his/
her mentor or teachers from other country. This has created a greater
reach and given broad outlook to the education.” The versatility of such
resource is that learners sitting in different continents like Asia, America,
Africa and Australia, etc. can interact with each other.
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ICT@Schools Scheme Launched by Govt. of India
The Centrally Sponsored Scheme “Information and Communication Technology [ICT]
in School” was launched in December 2004, to provide opportunities to secondary
stage students to develop ICT skills and also for ICT aided learning process. The
Scheme is a major catalyst to bridge the digital divide amongst students of various
socio economic and other geographical barriers. The Scheme provides support to
States/UTs to establish computer labs on a sustainable basis. It also aims to set up
SMART schools in Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas to act as “Technology
Demonstrators” and to lead in propagating ICT skills among students of neighborhood
sch ool s.
Objectives of ICT@Schools scheme are:
• To establish an enabling environment to promote the usage of ICT especially in
Higher Secondary and Secondary Government Schools in rural areas. Critical
factors of such an enabling environment include widespread availability of
access devices, connectivity to the Internet and promotion of ICT literacy.
• To ensure the availability of quality content on-line and through access devices
both in the private sector and by SIETs.
• Enrichment of existing curriculum and pedagogy by employing ICT tools for
teaching and learning.
• To enable students to acquire skills needed for the Digital world for higher
studies and gainful employment.
• To provide an effective learning environment for children with special needs
through ICT tools.
• Promote critical thinking and analytical skills by developing self-learning. This
shall transform the classroom environment from teacher-centric to studentcentric learning.
• To promote the use of ICT tools in distance education including the employment
of audio-visual medium and satellite-based devices.
The Scheme currently is being implemented in both Government and Government
aided Secondary and Higher Schools. Support is provided for procurement of computers
and peripherals, educational software, training of teachers and internet connectivity
et c.
Since its implementation in December 2004 about 59,000 schools have been provided
such infrastructure. The Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) in Schools has been revised and a new component
on National Award for teachers for use of ICT in education has been introduced.
With the availability of Web 2.0 tools the teaching learning process has
become more learner driven and effective. The web tools are nothing but
Web-based utilities and technology tools that focus on social, collaborative,
user-driven content and applications which facilitate a more socially
connected Web. Web 2.0 technologies were created around the idea that
people who access and use the web content shouldn’t passively absorb
what ever is available; rather, they should be active contributors. The
web 2.0 tools help us in collaboration, maintaining standards. Its
interoperability provides scope for decentralization, openness, modularity,
user control, retaining identity of the user and evolving content for other
users as well. Some of the examples of web tools include: Wiki, Blog,
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Podcast / vodcast, document or multimedia sharing, Web conferencing,
e-mail/news groups, social network, social bookmarking, Web
syndication, virtual learning environment, office online, E-portfolio, forum,
social search, instant messaging, word clouds/tag clouds, collaborative
graphic aids, web-based shared calendar, collaborative story boards etc.
The 5E Approach to Constructivist Learning:
The principal Investigator of the Biological Science Curriculum Study (BSCS). Team,
Roger Bybee developed an instructional model for constructivism, called the “Five
Es”. The 5Es represent five stages of a sequence for teaching and learning process.
5Es stand for Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend (or Elaborate), and Evaluate. The
details are given below:
En ga g e
This stage should stimulate curiosity and activate prior knowledge of student. The
activity should be a problem or an event that raises questions and motivates students
to discover more about the concept. This stage helps in–
1 . making connections between past and present learning experiences
2 . anticipating activities and directing students’ thinking on the learning outcomes
of current activities. Students become mentally engaged in the concept, process,
or skill to be learned.
3 . giving an opportunity to the teacher to understand misconception of students
Ex pl o r e
Students are provided an opportunity to actively explore the concept through handson activity. During this phase, students actively explore their environment or
manipulate materials. This allows students to share ideas about the concept. This
phase of the 5 E’s provides students with a common base of experiences. They identify
and develop concepts, processes, and skills.
Ex p l a i n
This phase of the 5 E’s helps students explain the concepts they have been exploring.
They have opportunities to verbalize their conceptual understanding or to
demonstrate new skills or behaviors. Teachers lead students’ discussion through
questions on information discovered during the Explore stage. This phase provides
opportunities to the teacher to introduce formal terms, definitions, and explanations
for concepts, processes, skills, or behaviors.
El a b o r a t e
This phase of the 5 E’s extends students’ conceptual understanding and allows
them to practice skills and behaviors. Through new experiences, the learners develop
deeper and broader understanding of major concepts, obtain more information about
areas of interest, and refine their skills. Students are encouraged to apply, extend,
and enhance the new concept and related terms during interaction with the teacher
and other students.
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Ev a l u a t e
This phase of the 5 E’s encourages learners to assess their understanding and
abilities and lets teachers evaluate students’ understanding of key concepts and
level of skill development. The teacher must create a quality assessment to gauge
the learner’s understanding of the topic. The students must also be able to reflect
on their own understanding and progress.
How some of these are used for educational purposes is given below:
Blogs, Groups, Wikis are useful
programmes as participants (and if
have access to Blogs/Groups one
learning resources, store them and
during the workshops and training
one prefers ONLY own participants!)
creates. Together, people can create
use at their convenience.
Tools like “Documents” help to edit the document collaboratively in
“Real Time”.
Picasa assists to upload and share the photographs.
Portals like Curriki help to share innovative curricula (developed in
workshops, courses, programmes etc.) with other experts/researchers
and also one can join a group of his/her interest.
Exploring and using these and many such other tools is a wonderful
experience and facilitates learning process as well.
ICT A PP LICATIONS
IN
S CIENCE
Now a days ICT may be used to demonstrate and teach complex
phenomenon like human systems, structure of atom, chemical bonding,
concepts in the topic ‘Light’ etc. The list is endless. It is also possible to
perform virtual experiments using advanced multimedia programs.
Multimedia is one of the effective media to explain and reinforce
the concepts. It is the combined use of more than one media i.e.
audio, visual, audio-visual print, films, documentaries, CD-ROMS,
online and interactive programs, etc. Many multimedia programs
can be developed according to the developmental stages and needs of the
learners. Learners can understand the functioning of digestive system,
circulatory system, etc. better than models or charts. In the interactive
multimedia, students can also perform activities such as tracing the
journey of food items from mouth to rectum, tracing the path of electricity
in circuit, formation of chemical bonds, etc. Multimedia can also be used
in virtual classroom mode, in which many science concepts can be taught
followed by tutorial sessions. Web links to explain particular topics and
concepts are mentioned in NCERT textbooks. Movie screenings and
documentation can be used to create awareness about many science
related issue like organic farming, water conservation, pollution, etc.
The science teacher can use the learning resources beyond classroom to
make science learning context based and stimulating. The extent to which
learning resources would be used will depend upon their potential
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usefulness in achieving the major goals of science instruction.
Following is a list of software that can be used for development of science
pr og r a mme s .
Physic s
1 . The
molecular
toolkit
view.php?d=13&rid=4121&filter=1
http://moodle.org/mod/data/
Physics
2 . PhysicsOnLine.co.nz
3 . ht t p : / / t r a c k e r. moo de l . or g/ b r ow s e / c on t r i b / c ompo ne nt / 1 0 6 6 1
4 . h t t p: / / p hy s i c s t ub e . c o. nz /
5 . http://moodel.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=
4170
6 . h t t p : / / mo o d l e . o r g / mo d / f o r u m/ d i s u c s s . p h p ? d = 6 6 1 4 7
C he mi s tr y
1.
ACD
Sketch/Chem Freeware http://www.acdlas.com/dowload/
2.
OpenBabel http://openbabel.org/wiki/Main_Page
The following tools can also be used–
• ht t p : / / ope nb a b e l . or g / wi ki / IB a b e l
• O pe nB a b e l: ht tp: // openb a b e l .s our c e for ge . net /
• ChemSpotlight:<
• Jmol:
http://geoffhutchison.net/projects/chem/>
http://jmol.sourceforge.net/)
• J C he mP a i nt ht t p:/ / j che mpa i nt .s ourc e for ge .ne t
• AppleScript Studio mailing list < http://lists.apple.com/mailman/
list info/a pplescr ipt-studio>
• Marvin
<
http://www.chemaxon.com/>
• JME courtesy of Peter Ertl, Novartis <http://
www.moli ns pir a t ion.c om/ jme/ >
• Avogadro – Flexible, cross-platform 3D molecular editor
• ASE – Atomic Simulation Environment, a Python framework for
building simulation codes, as well as pre-and post-processing tools.
• Brabosphere – Brabosphere, a molecular visualization tool for the
quantum mechanics package BRABO
• CCPIGUI – Free, extensible molecular viewer and editor, including
GUI for GAMESS-UK
• ChemAzTech – Web/database solution. Manage your chemical
database, with product’s properties. Draw, edit molecules and
interact with common chemical software.
• Chemeo – Web search for high quality chemical properties
• Chemtool – 2D molecular drawing tool using GTK toolkit
• ChemSpotlight – Chemical indexing for Mac OS X
• Chemical Structure Project – Open Source Chemical Structure
Database
• eMolecules – World-wide chemical search
• fminer2 – Molecular subgraph mining
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• GChemPaint – 2D molecular drawing tool for GNOME environment
• Ghemical – Molecular editor for GNOME environment
• Gnome Chemistry Utils – GTK/Gnome based tools for chemistry
software development
• hBar Lab: Computer-aided Chemsitry On Demand – First web
application for performing molecular modeling calculations
including quantum chemistry calculation online.
• Kalzium – KDE Chemsitry Education project
• KMovisto – 3D molecular viewer for Linux
• KNIME – Modular data processing (pipeline) environment
• Lazar – Lazy Structure-Activity Relationships (prediction of toxicity
da ta )
• Molekel – Advanced multiplatform 3D molecular viewer
• Molesketch – 2D molecular drawing tool for Qt/KDE environment
( in development)
• MyChem – MySQL extension for chemical databases
• NanoEngineer-1-Open source 3D molecular modeler for Windows,
Mac and Linux.
• NanoHive- 1 Nanospace Simulator – Modular simulator for modling
nanometer scale physics and chemistry
• OpenMD – Open source molecular dynamics engine
• Open3DALIGN – Conformational
molecular alignment
search
and
unsupervised
• Open3DQSAR – High-throughput computation and chemometric
analysis of molecular interaction fields.
• OSRA – Optical Structure Recognition (graphics into SMILES)
• Pgchem::tigress-PostgreSQL database engine for molecules
• Pharao – Open source pharmacophore generation and aligment
• Piramid – Open source shape-based alignment using Gaussian
vo l ume s
• PyRx – Virtual Screening tool that includes Open Babel widget
(watch PyRx Screencast – Open Babel to learn more).
E xa mp l e
A Sample on Web 2.0 Integrated Constructivist Learning Plan on Water
Based on the above discussions, a sample of constructivist lesson plan
on water has been designed using the 5E model. The unit is based on the
content of NCERT science textbook for class IX. There are many technology
integrated activities suggested under each phase of the model and the
facilitator can choose and direct the learning depending upon on the
available time and resources.
The main purpose of choosing this topic is to make the learner aware of
the water as a wonderful molecule and make them realize its importance.
Learner is encouraged to explore the practices of preserving and
conserving water in different regions of the world through this plan. Also,
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it exposes learners to and the current status of water resources, (e.g.
ground water), pollution level and water harvesting in the country. This
unit is also expected to provide several solutions to the problem of water
scarcity, which is very common in today’s context. The learning
environment created through various phases of this model encourages
the learner to use varieties of web 2.0 tools. The learning environment
provides the information that learners need to understand on water and
related concepts through text documents, graphics, sound, video and
animation resources which can be accessed through the World Wide Web.
Learners are also provided with various collaborative tools such as email, chat, forum, wiki, blog etc. to form learning communities to negotiate
and co-construct meaning about the concepts through these tools.
Web 2.0 Mediated Constructivist Learning Design
Topic Water
5E Approach
Class: IX
Engaging Activities for the Topic
• View the online streaming video on water as wonderful molecule
from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ7rrHYmFiQ
and
ciet.nic.in
• Collaborative digital concept map on water–mind map- use
Freemind
(offline),
bubbl(online)http://www.bubbl.us/index/
ht t p: / / e d . fna l . g ov/ h e l p / wa t e r / c ma p. ht ml
• Questions that you want to ask about Water- online forum
(questions
like
the
following
will
emerge)
http://
www.a ll exper ts.c om/
• Take a online Webquest on
www.wa t erquest0 .tri pod. com
Exploration Activities for the topic
Water Pollution from http://
• Take the following virtual fieldtrip
• Online visit to a mineral
www.ex plora t orium.c om
water
plant/
virtual
trip http://
• Hydroelectric Projects in Orissa-Hirakud, Balimela, Kalimela,
Kolab,
Chipilima
http://sites.ext.vt.edu/virtual-hydroelctric
pr oj e c t s /
• Visit a Hydroelectric project site. Take along all types of digital
recording equipment. Audiotape sounds in the site. Videotape
project site activities. Photograph project site- people, equipment,
electricity generation process and man at work on various
ma c hi ne s .
• Different sources of water and causes of water pollution –creating
digital album – flicker/picassa
• Understanding water purifying process in different localities and
c oun t r y:
• Online collaboration through e-pal
• viewing and discussion of various streaming videos from youtube
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ht t p: // www. yout ub e . c om/ wa tc h? v= - kO k8l c n_ TQ
• ask
question
on
the
following
forum
sites:http://
apps.exploratorium.edu/cgi-bin/water
harvesting/YaBB.pl
• Ask an expert. Have your class e-mail (or live chat if available)
with an expert about question you have on water harvesting http:/
/www.allexperts.com/,
specifically
http://en.allexperts.com/q/
water- harvesting -3481/index_11.htm
• View the webcast on socio-political issues related to Water-caste,
class,
gender,
politics
http://www.exploratorium.edu/sociopolitical
issues/webcasts/index.html
Explaining Activities for the Topic
• Students collaborate and develop a Wiki on water pollution using
Wiki spaces
• E-News letter on Water conservation– Publisher or equivalent open
source software
• Discuss the difference in water pollution pattern in different
countries using discussion board/forum/groups
• After the visit to a local water harvesting site, show the world a
unique organisation/person in your area by adding your own
organisation website to the Internet.
• Compare traditional water purifying techniques with modern
practices using discussion board/forum/e-groups
• Collaborative digital concept map on Water pollution–mind mapuse freemind (offline), bubbl(online) http://www.bubbl.us/index
Elaborating Activities for the Topic
• Making art work on different sources of water/Male-Female
fetching/using water
in Patta Chitra/Worli/Madhubani/Bassoli
style of painting
• They analyse and develop a social bookmarking of websites related
Water Harvesting
• Take a Webquest on the following:
— Water
borne
w q 1 5 a . ht m
diseases
— From water to Water:water
w e b q u e s t / w q 2 3 a . ht m
—
http://www.mofb.org/webquest/
cycle
http://www.mofb.org/
Adventures on water-Water Sports
— «Big Dams projects on water bodies be Banned in India » Online
D eb a t e
— Write a review of Inter connecting/linking water bodies on any
website or in your blog
— Develop collaborative podcasts on importance of cleaning water
bodies and host it in Gcast
• Conduct a survey of Water Purifying Industries in India- internet
search and online survey
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• Explore the process of Pisiculture/Prawn cultivation in Odisha/
AP/Kerala and other places through internet and e-mail
• Searching the net and related websites making a database of water
pollution, purification, harvesting, etc.
Evaluation Activities for the Topic
• Create a digital portfolio on water – develop the portfolio using
M a ha r a . or g
— Portfolio artefacts (Artefacts Design.com)
» News letter
» Project report
» Blog posts
» ————————
• Online reflective journal.
• Performance Assessment of various tasks during the lesson.
• Peer Assessment.
• Create digital rubrics along with students for assessing the
portfolio and other activities.
• Develop digital checklist for all other activities and products they
are involved in.
• Conduct a traditional multiple choice online test.
ICT APPLICATIONS
M ATHEM ATICS
IN
There are various organisations and professional bodies which are
developing audio-visual multimedia packages or video CDs in the field of
mathematics, Central Institute of Educational Technology (NCERT),
Electronic Media Production Centre (IGNOU), and different Government
Directorates/Departments of Education are some of the Government
Departments engaged in creating and Promoting technology based
learning resources. For example, Central Institute of Educational
Technology (NCERT), has produced variety of multimedia packages like
‘Mathematics for Secondary Classes: Locus’ and ‘Mathematics for Primary
and Upper Primary Classes: Construction of Geometrical Shapes’, etc. It
has also produced many audio and video programmes both for teachers
and learners. There are some non-government organisations (NGOs) and
private sector educational institutes which are also contributing in
developing multimedia based resources for mathematics. It can be
effectively used even in the absence of teacher, any number of times with
a freedom to manage own time schedule. This ultimately enables learners
to become independent learners.
Use of technologies as a tool, such as the symbolic manipulator,
simulations, and dynamic geometry software offer opportunities for
advancements in conceptual development and higher-order thinking.
Software like Geogebra, Maple and Mathematica help to compute and
simulate; Dynamic Geometry provides tools for visualizations/illustrations
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and recognizing pattern in a problem. It develops problem solving skills
in Mathematics.
Many ICT tool are available to support and enhance teaching and learning
in Mathematics. Different software tools offer widely varied experiences
and access to different aspect of a topic. Simply to consider the range of
number of applications which users are learning to use is generally not a
good way to monitor the value of new technologies. One user who uses
only a single application may achieve far more in the same time period
than another user who uses several application. Software applications
are resources and it is more important to think about the nature of the
user’s experiences. There are two distinct ways in which use of software
can be ultilised— (i) Sometimes it may be appropriate to give the users a
ready-made document or file which has already been created and invite
them to explore it. (ii) At other times, it may be better for users to create
their own files starting from the scratch, because then they can express
themselves with contentment by means of more open application or
resource. While using GeoGebra, users give shape to their own ideas in
“ expressive mode,” as well as in pre–planned “exploratory mode”.
Geogebra applets can be pre-built for users to explore or users can build
their own applets, reflecting their particular way of looking at situation.
One may use following open source software to develop a ICT based
mathematics module.
1 . GeoGebra Applets (www.geogebratube.org):
Representations of mathematics content
2 . LATEX
system
3.
(http://tug.org/PSTTricks/):
A
Provide
document
dynamic
preparation
PStricks (http://tug.org/PSTricks/): A set of macros that allows
the inclusion of Post Script drawings directly inside LATEX code
4 . Camstudio (http://camstudio.org): Software that can record all
screen and audio activity on your computer and create video files
(i.e., screencasts)
5 . Wink
Software
(http://www.debugmode.com/wink/):
6 . Screencast-o-matic
Screencasting software
Screencasting
(http://www.screencast-o-matic.com):
7 . UnFreez (http://www.whitsoftdev.com/unfreez/): An application
that will take any number of images, saved as separate GIF files,
and create a single animate GIF from those images.
8 . eXe (http://exelearning.org/wiki): Application for snapping
(capturing) images from selected parts of one’s computer screen
(i.e., screen capture)
9 . MWSnap (http://www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/): Screen capture
software
1 0 . Eclipse (http://www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/): Software
generates crossword puzzles from lists of words and clues
11.
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Tarsia Formulator (http://www.mmlsoft.com): Software to create
printout, save and exchange customized jigsaws, domino activities
and a variety of rectangular card sort activates
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1 2 . Graph (http://www.padowan.dk/graph/): Graph is an open
source application used to draw mathematical graphs in a
coordinate system
1 3 . Libre Office (http://www.libreoffice.org/): LibreOffice is an open
source personal productivity suited for Windows, Macintosh and
GNU/Linux, that includes 6 document production application (e.g.,
spreadsheet, word processor, presentation software)
1 4 . Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu/): Scratch is a programming
language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories,
animations, games, music, and art- and share your creation on
the web.
1 5 . DIA (http://live.gnome.org/dia/): Dia is a GTK+ based diagram
creation program for GNU/Linux, Macos X, Unix, and Windows
1 6 . Freemind (http://freeemind. sourceforge.nt): FreeMind is apremier
free mind-mapping software written in Java. Mind maps are used
to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, as an aid to
studying and organizing information, solving problems, making
decisions, and writing.
1 7 . Geonext
(http://www.tdmaths.com/en/geonext.htm):
An
interactive geometry program for making geometric constructions.
1 8 . WinPlot (http://math.exeter.edu/rparris/winplot.html): Winplot is
a general-purpose plotting utility, which can draw (and animate)
curves and surfaces presented in a variety of formats.
“Thinking
Geometrically”,
Dynamics
through
software
–
Pedagogical Implications.
The power of this software lies in the way its users interact directly with
geometric figures that they have construced (or with those which have
been-constructed for them). This interaction occurs in a continuous and
dynamic way, by means of direct control of one’s hand on the mouse. It is
also possible to ‘animate’ a construction, so that the screen images move
‘on their own’. The most striking and powerful impact comes when, in
pursuit of a mathematical question or goal, students directly explore a
geometric realm informed by hand and eye, focused by their minds. One
of the issues in trying to describe motion and its effects in text is that one
necessarily has to miss out on all of the essential ingredients. Not the
least among these is the sense of surprise and wonder that animating
mathematical diagrams and images can bring, i.e., externalizing and
setting back in motion the images that have been held static within the
pages of textbooks. For this pedagogical requirement, we need to separate
out exploratory versus expressive approaches of using technology. Some
users thrive in an open-search setting, exploring at length and at will.
Others can become somewhat overwhelmed initially by the variety of
options in the menus and by the fact that each tools does something
mathematical to the image on the screen and is related to a geometrical
concept. However, with a structured introduction to certain of the available
tools, and with perhaps some introduction to the experience of dragging
dynamic construction, users can acquire confidence and build valuable
insights. In other words, we must confront the decision of offering users
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pre-constructed files to explore versus providing students with tasks that
require the construction of their own figures and, as always, there is the
general pedagogic question that what kinds of questions and tasks can
help students to focus their attention on the mathematically important
aspects of the situations presented to them by others or generated by
them. With any software, there is a learning curve involved in acquiring a
certain facility with it. A task that look simple when demonstrated by an
informed individual might involve steps that are not so easily discovered
by a beginner. Interactive geometry software, like GeoGebra, offers teachers
and the students a wide variety of tools and facilities to explore
ma t he ma t i c s .
There are two different but related kinds of learning involved in using
software, which we call instrumental and conceptual. Instrumental
learning is about how to do things using the specific software, how to
create points or lines or circles, how to operate with menu items (like
‘rotate’ or ‘construct’ perpendicular bisector’), how to perform calculations
(like measuring lengths, areas or angles). Instrumental learning reflects
decisions made by the software designer. For example, in order to be an
effective user of the software, the student may need to find and use the
tool to construct a midpoint. Such learning is not intrinsically
mathematical and can be developed in a context in which student are not
deliberately extending their mathematical understanding. Tasks that
develop instrumental understanding may involve the creation of images
or the use of features such as reflection or animation. One striking thing
about interactive geometry software is that instrumental learning is also
frequently conceptual.
Mathematical language of the interface both provides and seeks preferred
vocabulary for subsequent mathematical discussion. An understanding
of some or many of these terms is gained in the software and the words
act both as labels for that experience as well as the commands to make
that action occur. Thus, the words can serve as both verbs and nouns.
This is a common process in mathematics, where verbs are turned into
nouns. However, effective use of the software also requires conceptual
learning. Conceptual learning develops gradually through deepening
experience with both geometry and the software, both on and off the
computer. It can be difficult at time for users to make sense of the visual
complexity of a filled, changeable computer screen. A more experienced
user learns to ‘hide’ objects used in a construction and to construct visible
line segments where they need to be visible.
The Internet and Web Support
The internet makes available a wide variety of information and resources
to support mathematics teaching. Using the internet, one can gather
information, ideas and data; gain access to resources to download; engage
directly with interactive material; and communicate mathematically with
othe rs .
Some other good web resources in mathematics are:
h t t p: / / ma t h f o r u m. o r g
htt p: // www. a l ge ba s ic s . com
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ht tp: / / www. c ut e s c ie nc e .c om
ht t p: / /ma t hwor l d. wol fr a m. c om
ht tp: / /www.i pl .or g
ht t p: / / ww w. e mi s . de
ht t p: / / w ww. ma t hmi s t a ke s . c om
ht t p: / / www . nc t m. o r g
ht t p: / / www . a w m- ma t h. o r g
ht tp:// www.e ric .ed.gov
www.e -b ook.c om.a u
www.dli.ernet.in
ht t p: / / wi ki e duc a t or. org
C ONCLUSION
Mostly teachers and students use internet to gather data and prepare
PowerPoint presentations for further learning, although, there are
hundreds of web tools which help us to:
(i) Create learning resources
(ii) Share learning resources
(iii) Use learning resources in teaching, learning and training
(iv) Create learning community of our own choice
(v) Participate in collaborative and cooperative learning process
(vi) Provide suggestions and comments in cooperative environment etc.
We need to take benefit of new developments and use the ICTs in the
teaching learning process for effective learning among students. There is
no doubt that the ICTs can help go beyond textbooks and inculcate habit
of self learning, critical thinking, creative thinking and develop problem
solving skills among students as well as teachers. The time will not be
very far for transforming our country to a knowledge society rather than
remaining information society. Let us join together to use technology to
create, collaborate, communicate and share knowledge and skills of 21 st
c e nt ur y.
Students can be suggested to consult useful website. While suggesting
website to studens they should be advised to be cautious about the
possible harms too, because some of the websites may hack their
computers, misuse their data, transfer virus to their computers. One of
the possible solutions/precaution may be that the computer should have
been installed with latest updated anti-virus. One of the free anti-virus is
‘Clam Win’, which may be downloaded from link provided on website of
UNESCO (2011). Students should be suggested to check the current
status for this anti-virus.
How effectively these resources are used in schools is a million dollar
q ue s t ion.
Emerging Web technologies mentioned above have the potential to create
an engaging constructivist learning environment as well.
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5.CONTINUOUSPROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
‘In-service education cannot be an event but rather a process which
includes knowledge, development and changes in attitudes, skills,
disposition and practice – through interactions both in workshop
settings and school’.
(NCF-2005)
A BOUT
THE
M ODULE
This module is all about the importance of continuous professional
development of a teacher. It provides knowledge about shift in teacher
education as envisaged in the NCF-2005. Emphasized in the National
Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education (NCFTE) 2009. This is
specifically for teachers who have received their pre-service training in
teaching profession and are now working as teachers in schools. It is for
in-service teachers aspiring for gaining depth in subject matter and
refining their teaching skills. The module will be useful for teacher
educators also, who are engaged in pre-service teacher preparation and
are involved in in-service teacher training courses organised for
improvement of professional skills of teachers. Teachers now have a
challenging task of teaching curricula to diverse group of students keeping
in mind the Right to Education Act and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha
Abhiya a n.
I NTRODUCTION
Continuous professional development for teachers is about reinforcing
all dimensions of good teaching throughout teacher ’s career. Major
concern for providing science and mathematics education is about making
these subjects relevant to the lives of students. For this teachers need to
learn to create a suitable instructional environment and employ strategies
that encourage active questioning. It requires identification of issues and
answers by students. Teachers need to be able to encourage students to
challange the information presented and discuss its relevance.
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Development of these abilities require carefully designed, sustained, longterm professional development opportunities that activity involve teachers
in teaching-learning process. In-service teacher education plays a
significant role in the professional growth of teachers and helps in
improving the school-related practices. Participation in in-service training
programmes helps teachers to improve their professional skills and
reaffirm their experiences.
Existing teacher education programmes in India need to accommodate
emerging ideas in content and pedagogy and address the issue of linkages
between school and society. We need to give ample space to teachers for
engagement with innovative educational experiments.
The National Curriculum Framework-2005 proposes major shift in
teacher education programme and emphasizes on giving priority to
learner. It emphasizes that learner be seen as an active participant rather
than a passive recipient in the process of learning. It further focuses on
shifting teacher’s role from being a source of knowledge to a facilitator
and supporter for enhancing learning through multiple experiences and
encouraging the learner to continuously achieve his/her educational
goa ls.
Major Shifts Emphasized by NCF - 2005
F r om
To
T HE C ONCEP T
P RO F ESSIO NAL
D EVELOP M ENT
78
Teacher centric, stable design
p r oc e s s
Learner centric flexible
Teacher guidance monitoring
e n c ou r a g e m e n t
Facilitation, support and
Passive reception
Active participation
Learning within the four walls of
the classroom
Learning in the walls of wider
social context
Knowledge as ‘given’ fixed
cr ea t e d.
Knowledge as it evolves and is
Disciplinary focus
focu s
Multidisciplinary, educational
Linear exposure
Multiple and divergent
Appraisal, short, few
Multifarious, continuous
OF
Professional development is a process by which teachers strive to improve
their work as teachers, which they give in their profession. The professional
growth is based on inquiry into own teaching, which leads to research
and action. The process requires reflection on own work. Also, a teacher
does his/her best in science teaching when he/she can model inquiry to
students. This means that in order to convey the feelings of wonder,
curiosity, exploring and thrill during experimentation, a teacher needs to
feel these things authentically inside himself/herself. A teacher should
watch the opportunities to observe, infer, predict, classify and experiment
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in daily life. We use process skills in daily life. So we can obtain many
opportunities of experimentation in many places such as kitchen of the
house, garbage, garden field, local community resources, zoo, musium,
botanical gardens, science and technological centres, bird sancturies etc.
A teacher can writeup his/her own experiences and share them with
s t u d e nt s .
In literature, continuous professional development is known by several
names e.g., is called as teacher development, in-service education and
training (INSET), staff development, career development, human resource
development, professional development, continuing education and lifelong
learning. The definitions and meanings given to these terms by different
writers are sometimes different and overlap (See box).
Day (1999, p.4) defines CPD as:
“all natural learning experiences and those conscious and planned activities
which are intended to be of direct or indirect benefit to the individual, group or
school and which contribute, through these, to the quality of education in the
classroom. It is the process by which, alone and with others, teachers review,
renew and extend their commitment as change agents to the moral purpose of
teaching and by which they acquire and develop critically the knowledge, skills
and emotional intelligence essential to good professional thinking, planning and
practice with children, young people and colleagues through each phase of their
teaching lives”.
“CPD can be taken to mean any activity that increases a teacher’s skills,
knowledge or understanding. CPD may be informal e.g. an activity that a teacher
engages in during his or her own time, such as visiting a museum, reading a
book or watching a relevant television programme, or it could be formal i.e.
attending an organised course or event. This may or may not be accredited”
(Jerry Wellington, 2006).
P ROFESSIONAL D EVELOPM ENT FOR
S ECONDARY S CHOOL T EACHERS
Secondary teachers are expected to be thorough in two sets of knowledge,
one is knowledge of their own subject, accumulated during their own
studies and perhaps degree course, e.g. in science, mathematics, history,
geography, etc., the other is Pedagogical Content Knowledge, which they
acquire during their teacher education courses or experience of teaching.
It consists of knowledge of how to teach and enable children to learn the
s ub j e ct .
Continuous professional development programmes for secondary stage
teachers provide following opportunities1 . Participation in face-to face programme where teachers’ subject
knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge are sharpened and
teachers develop –
• an appreciation for ordering and sequencing topics in their
subject so that a learner can grasp it, in the right conceptual
steps, i.e., conceptual hierachy.
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• a knowledge of how to break it down and ‘place it’ into
manageable ‘units’.
• a
knowledge about how students learn.
• understanding the use of right metaphors and analogies to
explain difficult ideas in terms of familiar ones.
• understanding and infusion of national and social concerns in
the transaction of subject-specific content.
• understanding critical pedagogy.
• gaining skill of integrating assessment within the classroom
proce ss .
• developing the skill of changing strategies of teaching to arouse
interest in learning.
• updating content with emerging curricular trend.
2 . Consulting and critically applying the evidence of educational
re sea rc h.
3 . Undertaking action research and inquiry on their own.
4 . Creating their own Teaching-learning material on identified themes
and also planning pedagogy for the transaction of material in the
cl a s sr oom.
5 . Demonstrating their own lesson before their fellow teachers.
6 . Developing network of fellow teachers and resource persons at all
levels, i.e., local, state and national for sharing their works and
seeking guidance on different aspects of content and pedagogy.
7 . Getting awareness of availability of various print material and nonprint material on general and specific themes.
8 . Becoming aware of educational sites for verifying and updating
the knowledge about content and pedagogy.
9 . Participation in teleconferencing and on-line courses.
1 0 . Pursuing, upgrading, self-monitoring, and reviewing their own
professional learning.
1 1 . Involvement in academic and research projects and learning circles.
1 2 . Involvement in conducting and facilitating training sessions.
1 3 . Reading professional Journals and writing for the Journals/
magazines/newspapers, eg., Science teacher, School science,
Mathematics teachers.
1 4 . Taking up action research in the classroom situation.
1 5 . Interaction with community and involving community in school
activities.
1 6 . Mentoring the younger teachers.
Continuous Professional Development helps teachers to become reflective
practitioner, makes them understand and practice constructivism in the
classroom and helps them continuously assess learning progress of
s t u d e nt s .
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Teacher – “The Reflective Practitioner”
Conventional
Teacher
It is a common experience that generally teachers go to the classes, transmit the
content and ask a few questions before concluding the class. Some of the teachers
demonstrate activities but do not provide students hands on experiences. In such
situations teachers are active and students are passive learners.
Such strategies
do not ensure that the students’ conceptual development is enhanced and
behavioural changes in learners take place. As a result students do not get
opportunity to either construct knowledge or contextualize their learning. This kind
of approach does not help making student an independent learner.
Reflective Teacher
Reflective teachers themselves adopt such reflective practices which help them to
ensure that meaningful learning takes place in the classroom which will be helpful
in creating interest among students for learning.
What is a reflective practice?
Reflective practices refer to critical analysis of teaching-learning process by teachers
themselves on their own conduct, behaviour, strategies and how these affect their
own professional development as well as learners’ understanding, conceptual
development and performance pertaining to what has already happened.
Students learn better when they are actively involved in the learning processes and
their prior knowledge and new learning are related to their daily life experiences.
Reflective practitioner creates classroom situation linking it with students’ day-today environment which encourages the student teacher and student-student
interactions making learning more lively and meaningful.
Accordingly, teachers
plan to develop, design and select variety of learning situations/resources suited to
students (period wise/class wise/term wise). Moreover, they encourage and facilitate
learners for discussion, debate and share their experiences amongst themselves.
They take their own decision about management of learning and assessment
according to students’ needs and learning abilities.
Besides, teachers also try to
connect familiar experience of the learners with unfamiliar situations to enhance
unders tanding.
E xa mp l e s :
1.
After demonstrating an activity related to the concept of ‘free fall’ is over, what
should a teacher do?
(a) Proceed to develop another concept.
(b) Ask a few questions to the students to be sure that they have understood
the concept of free fall.
(c) Ask the students to try the activity themselves.
(d) Help the students to perform some other related activity, if they want to do
so.
If the teacher proceeds with (b), (c) or (d) and comes to know that students have
not understood the concept of ‘free fall’, what should she do? Reflect and discuss.
2.
A student comes to a teacher and reports that weight of a body as measured by
him using a weighing balance shows 120 N which is an absurd result. Teacher
rebukes him saying he knows nothing and tells him to go back. Student in
turn comes with correct result after copying the answer from another student.
Should the teacher modify his behaviour? If so, why and how? Reflect and
dis cuss .
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Change in role of the teacher in the information and knowledge society
has made the professional development more important. Conventional,
classroom learning means acquiring and applying knowledge, and the
teacher’s work is simply considered to deliver packages of information as
a courier agent to the younger generation and prepare them for
examination and ultimately for employment in the society. Teachers learn
the basics of teaching by observing and interacting with the teacher
educators, teachers and experts in the field.
New approaches to teaching-learning pose a challenge before teachers.
These emphasize development of higher-order thinking skills,
metacognition, using new approaches or constructivist approaches to
learning and understanding, hands on and mind-on learning, cooperative
learning strategies, learning by doing, employing a wide range of
assessment
techniques,
and
using
computer-based
and
other
information technology that enables students to have access to
information independently.
They expect quality education for all children. In this role, teachers have
to make children learn to apply knowledge to unfamiliar problems, and
communicate it effectively to others, instead of simply memorizing.
Thus, professional development is strongly affected by the environment
in which the teacher practices. This is usually the classroom, which, in
turn, is strongly influenced by the wider school culture, community and
society in which the school is situated.
For reflection:
1 . What efforts do you make for sharpening your own professional
skills e.g., communication, demonstration, etc.?
2 . How do you utilize your learning experience obtained by
participating in various activities such as training programmes,
workshops, etc, to improve your classroom practices?
3 . Have you innovated any material/method which affected your
classroom teaching-learning process?
4 . Have you conducted any action research so far? How that helped
you to solve our specific classroom problem?
A s s i g n me nt
Write a brief note on what professional skills are required for a science/
mathematics teacher and how he/she can acquire it.
A CTION R ESEARCH F OR
P ROF ESSIONAL D EVELOP M ENT
Action research is a practical approach to find out the solution to a felt
problem in a particular situation. As far as teaching is concerned the
situation is nothing but the teaching-learning process. Naturally a class
room teacher can face multifaceted problems related to teaching and
learning. For example, a mathematics teacher asked the student to solve
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a problem related to the topic, Basic Proportionality Theorem. While
observing the students, the teacher found that many of them simplified
1 1 3  6 4 6 4 6 4


. After sensing this problem,
1 1 3  4 9 4 9 4 9
the teacher decided to resolve this problem by taking up an action research
to know the cause of problem and then by designing a suitable strategy
for teaching-learning process.
an operation like this
Carr and Kemmu (1986) describe action research as being about –
• the improvement of practice
• the improvement of the understanding of practice
• the improvement of the situation in which the practice takes place
In this way an action research helps a classroom teacher to
• introspect into one’s own practice
• improve the practices in the interest of learner
• restructure one’s own practice according to changing demands.
Action research can be conducted either individually or collaboratively.
For example a group of teachers facing similar type of problem can work
collaboratively to find out the solution. The research in this area shown
that the best research is collaborative in nature.
Steps in Action Research
— Sensing the problems
— Preparing a plan of action
— Implementation and collecting data
— Analysis and Interpretation of the data
— Reflecting
One important point to be remembered in an action research is that the
results obtained from a particular action research cannot be generalised
as the situation faced by the teacher is very unique.
For collecting relevant information a teacher can make use of different
tools and techniques like observation schedule, checklist, recording of
classroom practice, rating scale, interviews, field notes, sociometry.
questionnaire, tests etc. It is advised to use more than one tool to collect
data so that reliability of the result can be ensured.
Steps in Action Research
Action research starts with identifying problem in the actual educational
setting and then developing an action plan to collect, analyze and
interpret data.
The field of inquiry for action research is usually the class room and the
following data collection techniques can be used.
1 . Experienc ing
• Participant observation
• Non Participant observation
2 . E nq ui r i ng
• Informal interview
• Structured/Formal Interview
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• Q ue st ionna ir e
• Attitude Scale
• Standardized tests
3 . E x a mi ni ng
• Archival documents
• J our nals
• Artifacts
• Video and audio tapes
• Field notes
It is important for the teacher/researcher to evaluate if action research
has contributed to the reflection as a professional.
Guidelines for a teacher for continuous professional development
1 . Locate, listen and articulate your inner voice.
2 . Develop a risk taking mentality.
3 . Practice reflection, action, on action and about action.
4 . Trust processes as well as people.
5 . Appreciate a person working with others.
6 . Commit to working with colleagues.
7 . Redefine your role to extend beyond the classroom.
8 . Commit to continuous improvement and perpetual learning.
9 . Monitor and strengthen the connection between your development and
students’ development.
(Source: Fullan and Hargreaves (1991) in Change forces, Fullan, 1993, 144)
REFERENCES
Carr, W. & Kemmis, S (1986) Becoming critical: Education, knowledge
and action research. Lewis, Falmer.
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