Under the mentorship model unthrea-tened by audit-style evaluation teachers are likely to experiment, innovate and improve classroom management and lessons planning and delivery, Prachi Bhardwaj
Upgrading the quality of teaching-learning in India’s 17,000 teacher training colleges is one of the most important prerequisites of introducing academic rigour and improving students’ learning outcomes. This is acknowledged in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Under the new policy, every school teacher is obliged to undergo professional development training for at least 50 hours per year. This necessity is also recognised by the country’s 9-million-strong educators’ community.
According to Union education ministry data, 1.72 million principals and teachers have already signed up for continuous professional development programmes and 2.3 million educators have enrolled in online programmes. Yet there is no clarity about who is accountable for the quality and sustained implementation of these programmes. In the circumstances, there’s a urgent need to examine the quality of teacher development programmes and the methodology of assessing teachers’ learning outcomes.
In their book Continuous Professional Development (2003), David Megginson and Vivian Whitaker describe continuous professional development as “a process by which individuals take control of their own learning and development, by engaging in an ongoing process of reflection and action. This process is empowering and exciting and can stimulate people to achieve their aspirations and move towards their dreams”. It’s important to note the key words “ongoing process of reflection”.
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Currently in India’s schools and higher education institutions, there is a fixed rubric of evaluating teachers’ capabilities. In teacher training colleges, the evaluation methodology is pre-dictated and must be followed. Therefore, the room for action driven by reflection is minimal. This is only possible in an environment of trust where teachers are free to experiment and draw from a pool of pedagogies. Reform and upgradation is dependent upon teachers being encouraged to learn through innovation and being given sufficient resources and time to implement new pedagogies. This is not possible in schools and colleges where there is an audit-like institutional culture.
There are several models for teacher training and development. Yet the common factor should be mentorship which invests teachers with the necessary agency and autonomy to develop best teaching practices. According to John Baumber, professor at the International Centre for Educational Enhancement at Bolton University, UK, modern day teachers need to be empowered in an environment of trust and belief rather assessed by a bureaucratic judgement and evaluation system.
Under the current system prevalent in teacher education, teachers are drilled and skilled in selected pedagogies which deprive them of opportunities for reflection, innovation and personalisation of their lessons. On the other hand, under the mentorship model unthreatened by audit-style evaluation and assessment, and supported by trusted peers, teachers are likely to experiment, innovate and improve classroom management and lessons planning and delivery. Moreover under the mentorship model, principals and senior teachers shed their leadership roles and contribute their expertise and experience to a pool of innovative pedagogies and best practices enabling teachers to implement them through reflection, modeling and scaffolding.
An additional benefit of the mentorship teacher training model is that it enables innovative teachers to transform into mentors. Possibility of upward mobility makes the mentorship model superior to existing hierarchical school structures. Moreover in innovative learning environments, teachers enhance students’ learning by inviting their active participation in sharp contrast to lecture-based teaching. Schools that have adopted the mentorship system of continuous professional development report higher teacher retention and improved learning outcomes.
Unsurprisingly, the mentorship professional development model is increasingly being adopted by teacher education institutions abroad. There is rising and overdue awareness that a teacher is not a sage on stage in modern classrooms, but an enabler who stimulates her students’ mindfulness, creativity and analytical thinking skills. To discharge their roles in this complex technologies-driven new age, teachers need to be empowered by provision of enabling environments based on trust. A radical re-evaluation of the existing teacher training and development model is urgently required.
Prachi Bhardwaj is head of the English department at Kunskapsskolan School, Gurgaon
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