OPEN AND DISTANCE LEARNING FOR IN-SERVICE TEACHER EDUCATION

Abstract:

Teachers and their training are repeatedly affirmed as key elements in the provision of good quality education. Learning to teach is a process which occurs unevenly over time and requires ongoing support and resources to meet a range of needs. The professional development support can come from three different areas for an in-service teacher. The first support is the development of professional ability to teach at different levels. The distance based programmes such as B.Ed., M.Ed. etc. offer these sort of trainings. The second support is in the form of content enrichment programmes such as B.Sc., M.Sc. etc. which is offered in distance mode by various universities and institutes. The third pattern or support is in the form of short-time programmes such as 2-3 days or 1-2 week programmes to upgrade the teachers with modern requirements. The present paper looks teacher education from these perspectives in the contemporary world. The paper also tries to look into various technological equipments being used for training of in-service teachers.

Keywords: Open and Distance Learning, In-service Teacher Education

Introduction

Distance Education is widely being utilised for educating the masses. The ‘Technology Vision- 2020’ of Dr. Abdul Kalam, (in Wings of fire, 1998) hopes India to be a developed nation by 2020 and role of youths has been seen as crucial. Teachers have a decisive role to play in this process of reaching the goal of a developed nation. Teachers’ education occupies prime importance for the better education of children, which inturn will give learned society. Teachers can not leave their responsibility of teaching and come out of school only to learn how to teach. In this situation the teachers’ can be given recurrent education and training by retaining them at their work place. Open and Distance Learning Institutes play crucial role in this context. These institutes offer two types of programme which are beneficial to teachers i.e. one programme through which the teachers can enrich their content knowledge and another type of the programme which provide better methodology training. The graduation and post-graduation programmes in arts, science, commerce and other streams give the content knowledge of first sort. The D.Ed., B.Ed. and M.Ed. programmes provide the better methodology inputs for handling day-today situations of teachers in the classroom. In all the in-service teacher education programmes must be well organised and structured for developing professional competencies, commitment and motivation in working teachers. As mentioned earlier training of teachers in content and teaching areas is one part and another part of training is constant up-gradation of skills and knowledge through distance mode programmes such as DEP-SSA. E.g. Teachers have been trained during introduction of new syllabus/curriculum of different subjects like English at Primary stage in various states for shorter duration.

ODL Teacher Education institutes:

The teachers in our country can be categorised based on the levels at which they are teaching. In addition to this the teachers can also be classified based on the their background as untrained teachers, para-teachers, new entrants’ teachers and serving teachers. These teachers need different types of inputs for handling day-today class situation. Hence, the universities, institutes working in the field of education have designed various programmes. The list of NCTE recognised programmes on offer in distance mode have been analysed in the following table.

Table showing number of ODL teacher education institutes

Sl. No.	State	Pre-Primary	D.Ed.	B.Ed.	M.Ed.
1.	ANDHRA PRADESH	-	-	6	1
2.	BIHAR	-	-	1	-
3.	CHANDIGARH	-	-	1	1
4.	DELHI	-	1	2	-
5.	HARYANA	-	-	1	-
6.	HIMACHAL PRADESH	-	-	1	1
7.	KARNATAKA	-	-	1	1
8.	MADHYA PRADESH	-	-	1	1
9.	PUNJAB	-	-	1	1
10.	RAJASTHAN	-	-	1	-
11.	TAMILNADU	-	-	5	3
12.	TRIPURA	-	-	1	-
13.	UTTAR PRADESH	-	-	1	-
Total		-	1	23	9

The website of NCTE listing various programmes offered in teacher education in India is referred. There are 3 categories of teacher education programme on offer in distance mode. The popular among these is teacher education at secondary stage and which is followed by the M.Ed. programme. There is slightest effort to start the programmes to train primary level in-service teachers. There is no effort by any of the state to train pre-primary teachers. It is also found that the NCTE does not give complete idea of all teacher education institutes as B.Ed. (DM) programme offered by Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU), Hyderabad and M.Ed. offered by IGNOU is not indicated on the website. In general the intake strength of each of the university is 500 for B.Ed. and 150 for M.Ed. programmes. Thus, the total number of trained teachers produced each year is too low.

In the context of Universalisation of Elementary Education and pre-text of Rashtriya Madhyamic Abhiyan it is evident that the requirements of teachers will be more. The number of teacher education institutes in distance mode at all level appears to be very small. These are still small in comparison with the campus based regular teacher education programmes which are on offer in the nation. There is need to device programmes for pre-primary teacher education, as this level of teaching is being dealt by temporary untrained fresh graduates who work for small period due to lack of training. There are few graduates and post-graduates in engineering or other disciplines especially women who have started pre-primary training centres or day-care units. The professional workings at this stage are potential learners (as prospective teachers) in distance education and can be trained for award of diploma or certificate programmes in pre-primary teaching stage. There is also a need of programmes in distance mode for teachers who are working in systems like Madarsa Education and dealing with teaching and training of small children. If such teachers are aware of psychology of child and technology for improving teaching they can improve their teaching. All these will help design ways of achieving Univesalisation of Elementary Education. Thereby, it prepares for the ensuing Rashtriya Madhyamic Shiksha Abhiyan.

Characteristics Features of distance mode teacher education programmes at secondary schools:

The distance education programmes of teacher education are blended with various components. These components include achievement of various objectives given in different dimensions of Cognitive, Affective and Psychomotor Domains. The programmes attempts to not only develop interest of teachers in teaching profession, but also develop content knowledge and requisite skills of teaching and management. These programmes make use of Multiple Technology for training student teachers. The technologies like print and non-print media is an example for this. The programmes cover different geographical localities of the nation and brings access of education to the unreached sections of the society. The distance mode programme reaches remotest corners of the nation. The new policy of distance education wanted to lay guideline that the practical oriented programmes can not be offered in distance mode. It is said,

Only those programmes, which do not involve extensive practical course work, shall be permissible through the distance mode. (Draft Policy on Distance Education, 2009)

However, the training programmes of teachers have strong practical component in the form of teaching practice and prepare teachers in workshop before going to practice teaching. The teachers are being trained at different levels of learning i.e. pre-primary, primary, secondary etc. and the NCTE has laid down proper guidelines for teacher education programmes of these types.

Training of teachers in content areas:

Table showing type of distance mode programmes offered by different institutes

Sl. No.	Name and Address	Ph.D.	M. Phil	Masters	Bachelor	Advanced Diploma / PG Diploma	PG Diploma	Diploma	Certificate	Total
1.	Indira Gandhi National Open University (1985) New Delhi	9	-	19	15	5	21	9	22	100
2.	Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Open University (1982) Hyderabad	1	1	7	5	-	3	1	3	21
3.	Kota Open University (1987), Kota	1	-	3	4	-	5	5	2	20
4.	Nalanda Open University (1987) Patna	-	-	3	1	-	3	-	2	9
5.	Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (1989) Nashik	3	1	5	4	-	-	16	27	56
6.	Madhya Pradesh Bhoj (Open) University (1991), Bhopal	-	-	2	7	1	7	4	7	28
7.	Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University (1994) Ahmedabad	-	-	-	3	-	-	-	6	9
8.	Karnataka State Open University (1996) Mysore	1	1	12	3	-	3	2	1	23
9.	Netaji Subhas Open University (1997) Kolkata -700020,	-	-	-	3	-	-	-	-	3
10.	U.P.Rajarshi Tandon Open University (1999) Allahabad	-	-	-	4	-	1	8	5	18
Total		15	3	51	49	6	43	45	75	287

Source: MHRD Website (list as on 2001)

The data given in the above table indicates that there were 15, Ph.D., 3, M. Phil, 51, Masters, 49, Bachelor, 6, Advanced Diploma / PG Diploma, 43, PG Diploma, 45, Diploma, 73, Certificate programmes, which were on offer from different universities institutes. Some of these programmes are of common grounding is arts, science and commerce disciplines and being offered by almost all universities. Apart from these the data also includes programmes in education like B.Ed., M.Ed. etc. All of these programmes are not suitable to all the teachers. Each of the teachers has to decide about the programme based on his background, knowledge requirement, professional competence and promotional avenues. It is a sort of cafeteria approach for the learner to take a decision regarding what to eat and how much to eat. Each of the University mentioned above has specific jurisdiction to offer and more so in the context of new policy on distance education. It is more evident when we look at the number of programmes being offered by IGNOU (a national university) in comparison with rest of the state universities. After 2001, it has been found that the number of conventional universities who have ventured in the field of higher education has increased. There is an increase in the number of Directorates of Distance Education and Correspondence Institutes recognised by DEC. There are wide range of programmes approved by DEC from different disciplines like Humanities, Social Sciences, Sciences, Management, Technology and Medicine etc. Urdu medium teachers who are in minority were supposed to undergo in English or regional medium programmes like other students. However, now the Directorate of Distance Education (DDE), MANUU has also commenced various graduation and post-graduation programmes including B.Ed. in Urdu Medium only. This has improved the avenue for teachers to study in their mother tongue and teaching competency and skills are thus improved.

These programmes use audio, video and A-V lesson. The notices and development can be notified through the website and newspapers. The discussion about content can be held in face to face manner or in radio-phone conferences and teleconferences. The website is utilised for uploading content, assignments, results, notices etc.

Short Term Training Programmes for teachers through Distance Mode:

The short term training programmes for teachers generally include 2-3 days face to face training for important content areas. Training is also provided when new curriculum is brought in or new scheme is brought in. Through distance mode the teachers are trained at a larger geographical distances. These trainings do not fetch degrees or diplomas to teachers but upgrade and abreast them with latest developments. These are updated in their confidential records and useful in day-today teaching. This training is given in the form of Teleconferences, radio programmes, Self Learning Materials and Web based programmes (DEP-DPEP, IGNOU 2003).

Teleconferece: The national level teleconference is arranged for specific regions, where the in-service teachers assemble for interaction and learning at specified centres (learning ends). In these programmes participants interact with the presenters either in two-way audio, one-way video or both the way audio-video based on the available technology. Fax and phone are the additional equipments which are used in addition to Direct Reception System and Television at Learning end and Studio at the teaching end. These are economical in cost, time and ensure teaching from horse mouth (experts in related fields).

Radio: Radio is the cheapest mode of communication, which can be heard by any individual. This can be made use for specific purpose like training of teachers in radio listening and obtaining feedback. Phone, sms, fax can be added to this for increasing interactivity of learning and teachers and studio based experts.

Self-Instructional Material: Teachers can interact with content by reading the self-instructional material. These are self learning in nature, which can be read at readers speed. If supplied in advance the doubts in content can be discussed in face to face interaction.

Web-based Technologies: Internet is hub of networks and it brings multiple media infornt of the learner. The text is given in colourful manner with different font sizes. Animations can be brought in and audio, video can be clubbed with the WebPages. The experts or teacher educators can include dialogue with learner (i.e. teacher in this case) in the form of chatting or email. Latest content can be delivered as and when it is updated. The in-service teachers can gain lot of insight in the content and methodology. The teachers can be given information through web based free sms-providers.

Conclusion:

Open and distance learning programmes are suggested as the best programmes which are suitable for in-service teachers. The teachers can be retained at the work place and their skill and capacities can be upgraded. The government has to take initiatives for starting of large number of such programmes at different levels. The latest technology can be inbuilt into these programmes so that the effectiveness can be enhanced.

References:

1. http:// www.ncte-india.org/ last retrieved on 10.08.2009

2. http://www.education.nic.in/dist_inst.asp#Distance last retrieved on 10.08.2009

3. MHRD, Draft; policy on Distance Learning in Higher Education, 28^th Aug 2009 Author, New Delhi

4. DEP-DPEP (2003), Distance Education Initiatives in District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) Karnataka, Author, New Delhi