From Encyclopaedia
Britannica to Wikipedia:
collaborative authorship of
school-based professional
development materials
Teacher Education
through School-based
Support in India
TEC14, Hyderabad
Introduction
• Tess-India: Teacher Education through School-based Support
in India
• Led by: The Open University UK, with funding from
DfID/UKaid
• Goal: to provide flexible, practical, context-appropriate
school-based teacher development at scale
• Format: as Open Educational Resources (OERs), to be
translated and localised as required
• Design: to employ a Wikipedia-based model of creating
teacher development resources that draws on the collective
wisdom of teacher educators from India and in place of the
traditional top-down Encyclopaedia Britannica approach
professional training.
The materials
•
•
•
One set of School Leadership and Management Units (LDUs) (20 units)
Seven sets of Teacher Development Units (TDUs) (15 units per set)
Elementary Language and Literacy Development
•
•
Elementary Science
Secondary Science
•
•
Elementary Maths
Secondary Maths
•
•
•
Elementary English
Secondary English
Total 125 units
•
•
All include
An introduction, learning outcomes, practical activities, case studies, reflective tasks,
images, photos, videos
Valuing different voices
• The ‘institutionalised intellectual isolation of the
school teacher’ (NCFTE, 2009)
• A host of disconnections at different levels of the
teacher education system
• Agency, capability and the pursuit of good quality
education
Our approach to teacher development
• Starts from the voices of Indian teachers and an appreciation
of their educational context
• Is supportive and speaks directly to the teacher
• Focuses on transferable classroom techniques
• Includes many practical activities
• Takes the form of a resource or tool kit, rather than a linear
course
• Stands alone, complementing other forms of training
• Suggests and inspires rather than being prescriptive and
exhaustive
• Provides the ‘seeds’ for adaptation and adoption
• Promotes reflection
Our emergent pedagogic principles
1.
2.
3.
4.
Lessons actively engage students
Teaching learning involves dialogue
There is mutual respect between teachers and students
New learning builds on students’ prior learning and
existing knowledge
5. Teaching Learning is relevant to students’ lives
6. Children’s background, skills and attitudes are valued,
as well as content, knowledge and understanding
7. Assessment is holistic, continuous and values a range of
skills and competencies
The wikipedic writing process
• Gathering a bi-national writing team
• Scoping what is needed (policy, research, experience)
• Outlining a syllabus for each subject set, focusing on
classroom techniques, as applied to selected topics
• Writing each unit as a team, peer reviewing and reworking it
to produce the first draft
• Circulating the first draft to critical readers (Indian and UK
pedagogues)
• Using their feedback to inform the writing of the second draft
• Preparing the audio visual content (photos and films from
Indian classrooms)
• Developmentally testing the materials in Indian classrooms
Production
• Standardisation and quality assurance of the set of
TDUs & LDUs
• Signing off of final drafts
• Formatting, editing and tagging of text and video
content
• Final quality check
• Publication of the units in English as ‘shells’
• Making them available in multiple formats: in print,
online, on CDs, on SD cards for mobile phones
As OERs, the online sets of units are:
• Free
• Open
• Assume adaptation and amendment by teacher
educators, in conjunction with user feedback
• To be translated
• To be localised to fit different teaching and learning
contexts
• Never finished or complete
Example content from Elementary English (1)
EE 02: English emergent literacy: songs,
rhymes and word play: Activity 5
EE 15: Everyday
English: using
the community
as a source:
Activity 1
Example content from Elementary English (2)
EE 15: Everyday English: using the community as a
source: Activity 5
EE 6: Reading English:
shared reading and
guided reading:
Resource 2
Example content from Secondary English (1)
SE 02: English in the
Classroom: Case study 1
Example content from Secondary English (2)-SE 6: Helping students
write independently:
Resource 1
SE 12: Teaching literature: Activity 5
Units
• The units represent both tools that can be employed
according to their users’ differing needs and
contexts, and vehicles for creating supplementary
units to extend what is currently available.
• As such, they place their end-users at the centre of
their creation, enhancement and deployment, in a
collaborative, needs-driven, iterative process.
“Our efforts to communicate with each other have, I
hope, helped shape our materials with a balance of
thoughtfulness and practicality.”
Professor R. Amritavalli
Hyderabad
To find out more, see our website:
• www.TESS-India.edu.in