We have to leave the teacher in the classroom, isn't it?

Parimal Patel, a CRC coordinator from Gujarat, faced the following difficulty. To which there are no easy answers, but here's an attempt. Feel free to add your views!

Parimal Patel

Two days ago, I had a discussion in my cluster to make school history and to make school bio-data (which was made by me for my school by spending extra time in the school). Teachers liked  my idea but said that that in which time they would make it? They have had a lot of work since June. I'm asking this question because this is only one example – but there are so many policy-makers and the worker is only one. If we want quality we have to leave teacher in the classroom, isn't it? Please think about it – this is a more difficult question in primary education than any other.

Subir's response

Parimal (and many other friends struggling with the same problem) - you are right that the worker is one and policy makers are many, and all of them are trying to get the worker to do something or the other! So what can be done? Here are a few points for you all to consider:

• The curriculum development process is one very important way to create a framework and common understanding so that the different decision-makers and policy-makers can think in a coordinated way. In the next few months this will be shared across the state and a process to coordinate accordingly will start. In the beginning, though, you can expect a lot of struggle, since everyone will not agree on what the SRG has developed! Be prepared for different ideas all trying to occupy the same place. 

• When we work in the field, we do have to keep in mind specific actions. At the same time, don't worry if the teacher does not do what you are asking for - AS LONG AS HE/SHE IS WORKING TOWARDS THE SAME OBJECTIVE. The problem arises when the objectives themselves are different (as will happen this year in the Gunotsav). 

• The need to leave the teacher to work in the classroom is really important. We have opposite views about what is happening: some claim the teacher has got too many non-teaching tasks, and some say that the teacher is simply not spending the time in the class. Which view is the correct one? I think both are. People like me will keep on working with policy makers to ensure that non-teaching tasks are reduced, and other colleagues at field level will have to keep on working to ensure that teachers do spend the time available in the classroom. 

• I like the idea of the school bio-data. Maybe it does not have to be done in one go. How about putting up a chart or board, and letting teachers, children, even community members add things to it when they have the time. Then, perhaps after a month, in the morning assembly this can be shared (it is not necessary to keep doing the same things in morning assembly every day!). Different classes could be given the tasks in different subjects, related to the school bio-data (in language - do the writing work; in maths - make maps, tables with data; in social studies - trace the history; in drawing - make pictures of different aspects of the school, etc.). So making it a project, spreading it over time, and connecting it with ongoing processes might help. This has to do with how we imagine different things being done. 

• Finally, pl also read the post on 'How Teachers Change', and also 'How Teachers Learn' in my blog.

Your response?

Five Ideas for Teachers' Day

Teachers' Day is round the corner. Once again, we'll have the same old speeches, boring comments and everyone showing so-called 'respect' for teachers for one day - then it will all be forgotten till the next year comes around again! 

For those of us who feel we need to go beyond the usual platitudes, here are a few straightforward suggestions. As always, your responses and further suggestions would be very welcome indeed!

1. Prepare a 'Teacher Strength Chart'

On a chart, put a photo of the teacher (could even be children's drawing) and write down 5 things that you like about the teacher or 5 good qualities the teacher has. (Every teacher has these, just that some of them may not know they have them.) Who should do this? Students / SMC or parents / CRCC or fellow teachers. Keep the chart up for as long as you want.

2. Invite the teachers' families and honour them

Host a function where teachers' parents / spouses / children are invited and honour them along with the teacher. Why? Firstly because if a teacher teaches well, gives a lot of time, and lives up to professional standards, the family has to support the teacher and sometimes even make sacrifices. On the other hand if a teacher doesn't live up to professional standards, the family will... you get the picture! The SMC or the CRCC would obviously have to take the lead in organizing this, with students' help.

3. A special 'sports' session for teachers

Teachers have to be so responsible that they sometimes forget what it is to be a teacher. So how about something that helps them recall the time when they themselves were young. So you could organise a kabaddi or cricket match for teachers, or even races. Other possibilities include a Talent Show (whether teachers get to display their skills such as singing or mimicry) or even a picnic. Once again, the SMC with the students' help and the CRCC's support can easily organize this.

4. Stock the school library with books bought especially for teachers

Ask the teachers what they would like to read - and buy as many of those books for your school library as the budget permits. The CRCC would need to take active lead in this, with guidance from BRC and DIETs/

5. Launch a year-long 'Search for Greatness'

This is a difficult idea, so read carefully! Every teacher and every school can improve and reach a level far better than what it is today. In honour of teachers on Teachers' Day, the SMC and students as well as the CRCC can get together, promise their support and work out how they will improve the school in the year ahead. Together they will discuss what it means for their school to be 'great' (and will not focus on infrastructure but learning processes), identify concrete steps to attain this greatness (see suggestions separately in my blog), and work out a phased implementation plan (see ADEPTS). Teachers will naturally be part of this discussion.

You can build on the School Development Plan and dedicate the effort to teachers (of course, they too would take active part in implementing the plan). Inform the teachers that the successes will be because of them, and shortcomings because they would not have got enough support from us (that is our Teachers' Day gift to teachers). So this would be a year long effort to show our respect to teachers while also working with them to bring about actual improvement. Neat, no?

With some days to go, you can still plan and implement some of these ideas. In the meantime, let me have more suggestions please!

What's your favourite advice to facilitators/trainers of teachers?

Over the years, you've taken part in workshops, training programmes, meeting, on-site coaching - either as participant or as facilitator or trainer. Maybe you have even trained trainers or prepared them in different ways. So what's your favourite advice to anyone involved with training and facilitation? 


Let us know in the comments section below!

Celebrity Inexpert Commentators on Education - a link

Here's a piece I found really interesting and solid. Quite amazing that though the US and India would seem poles apart in terms of their education system, there are so many common issues!

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Ironic-Lessons-in-Educatio-by-Paul-Thomas-110301-979.html

And while I would ask whether we would listen to a billionaire's views if he had no money (we wouldn't), I would also go out of my way to talk to those who don't have any money to start with - the poorest of the poor who are just beginning to send their children to school.

Let me have your views.

Work Smart, Not Hard!

Whenever teachers are being trained, they are bombarded with the same tired old phrases. 'You are the future of the country,' they are told. 'There's a great responsibility on your shoulders; you must work very hard to fulfil this responsibility.' This is what we hear every time, isn't it? And aren't you fed up of listening to this over the years?
     The problem is that this is such a naive notion. As if working hard makes everything OK. No, you have to use your head! Even those whose work is seen as involving nothing but hard work, they too can do their work well only if they use their head. For instance, the labourers who unload a truck, the farmer working in the field, those who dig pits or carry head loads of debris... If they do their work without thinking and being alert, they can get hurt, face a loss, be shouted at or even fired. In the case of a teacher, therefore, this is bound to be even more crucial!
     A thinking teacher - i.e. a smart teacher - is one who greatly increases children's role in the classroom. And not just in keeping things clean and organized, but in the in the learning process itself. For instance, the class 4 teacher said to the children: 'You know, in this story, when the lion woke up one morning, he found that he had no hair on his head! His mane - totally gone! So guess what he did in order to get it back? Well, read the story and find out!'
     When children started to read the story, the teacher went and sat with those who were in danger of falling behind others. After a little while she said: 'If there are any words you're not able to understand, circle them with your pencil. Then ask the children around you if they know.' When everyone had finished this, she asked groups of children to look at each other's circled words and see if they could find out the meaning. 'If there are still some words that you don't know, I'll tell you the meaning,' she said.
     You can guess what this smart teacher did next. For the entire duration that she was in her class, each child was engaged in work, was learning and helping others learn too. All this while she herself was totally relaxed!


So what are the ways in which we too can be a little more lazy, and a little smarter?

7 Ways to Retain Optimism (Even If You Work In Improving Elementary Education!)

Got you, didn't it! Sooner or later, you hit a wall. There's a feeling that nothing works. That the system is so overwhelming that hardly anything can be done. Eventually, if you're someone trying to improve elementary education – whether as a teacher or resource person or administrator – you find yourself unwillingly accepting that the poor quality of education will continue to prevail in hundreds of thousands of classrooms.

Ok, so that's stated a little too strongly. But there is grain of truth there! Which is why, in the interest of millions of children, we need to look at how to retain the enthusiasm and optimism we started out with. So here are some ways to preserve your cheer, mental health and youthful looks despite the years you've put in.

1. Think 'how', not 'should'

Much too often we find ourselves talking about what 'should' be happening. Slowly the discussion slides into a list of things we are dissatisfied with – teachers not working, infrastructure remaining poor, lack of leadership, absence of commitment…. You can hear the pitch rising, can't you? Keep the pitch raised and you're bound to have a stressed heart!

To retain your desire to make things better (and keep your heart healthy), it would be so much better to talk of the how. What ordinary things can a teacher do? E.g. smile at children, read the textbook before the class, solve a puzzle herself to find out how much fun it is, read aloud a book to children once in a while – nothing that requires an 'order' or funding or special mandate or skill or training. Similarly, what can a head teacher do, burdened as she is with administrative tasks made difficult by lack of support? Share and delegate (e.g. make it fun for other teachers to participate and work as a group), discuss some of the records maintained in the school (e.g. connect children's attendance rates and test performance), and so on.

As you can see, you would have something doable to share. Chances are, some of the ideas might actually get picked up – in which case don't forget to really appreciate the person implementing them.

2. Focus on outcomes, not inputs

This is much more if you're a planner, administrator, supervisor, programme leader. Very often we're so focused on the inputs flowing from our side that we ignore what these are for. Thus it seems important to see whether material is supplied or not, the number of days of in-service training covered, physical targets fulfilled – and then one day it suddenly turns out that all this has not had much impact. We're left feeling that all our effort didn't amount to much, and a sinking feeling starts to grow. Of course we don't tell anyone else about it but we're aware it's there, isn't it?

How to overcome this situation? After all, inputs have to be provided. Sure they have – but for a purpose. It might be more useful to take a look at what all this is meant to bring about. For instance, the issue is not whether material is supplied or not but whether it is used as intended by children. This suddenly makes us see that we need to focus on training, incorporate this into the monitoring and academic support, share examples with teachers, encourage children and parents to lose inhibitions and start using material in school and at home… All of which, if done even on a small scale and only partially successful, has the wonderful effect of making you feel giddy with success. Pessimism – gone!

3. Be incremental

This point is so commonsensical and obvious that it gets ignored. Don't try to do everything or too much in one go (especially if you are at the district / sub-district level). For instance, for any teacher to make a real change in the classroom processes, some 40 different practices are likely to change. Try doing a full 'training' and expect all these changes – there's only chaos. Teachers do try but fail – no one's sure what to start with, the sequence in which to implement these changes, the steps to be taken. All it takes is one or two failures for teachers and schools to feel that nothing much can be done, that it's all too difficult, and doesn't work and is therefore not worth the effort. Soon, you begin to feel the same and are a pale shadow of the enthusiastic person who set out on a journey of change.

To get back on track on this journey, scale things down a little. Expect only a few changes at a time. E.g.

• Give teachers a list of 6-8 possible changes (ranging from calling each child by the name, to making use of activities given in the textbooks to encouraging children to ask questions).
• Ask them to select only 3-4 from this list (making a choice generates ownership and commitment); discuss the steps they need to take in order to bring about these changes.
• Encourage them to make a 2-3 month implementation plan around these steps and help them monitor themselves and each other to see if the changes are actually happening.
• Extend this cycle at the end of each 2-3 month period. Over a year or two, a dramatic change would occur – only it would have been less noticed as it happened, more successful, and breeding optimism rather than pessimism.

For those in the know, this is precisely what ADEPTS is all about and has made a positive change happen in over 22,000 (that's right, 22 thousand) schools in Gujarat.

4. Enter with questions, leave with (people's) ideas

Trainers, facilitators and academics trying to communicate with teachers end up being frustrated very soon – 'they don't pay any attention to whatever we say' is a common complaint. To which the reply is – why should they? The days are over when someone followed your ideas / views / instructions simply because you came from a so-called 'superior' level such as a university or senior position in the hierarchy. No, people will do things differently only if they are convinced and feel like doing it from inside. Our role is to touch people's hearts and minds rather than trying to shape them or fill them with our views.

How can one do this? It's so simple that I'm almost ashamed to mention it! Don't enter a training session or a meeting with a list of things to tell. Instead, concentrate on a few key questions to ask. Questions that will generate response, reflection, and provoke people into coming out with their own views and ideas. For instance, ask questions such as:

• If material is so easy to generate, why should we supply anything? What do you think?
• Suggest ways in which you can use a library along with the textbook?
• Shouldn't we trust children and get them to mark their own attendance instead of the teacher spending time on it?
• When children don't understand decimals, exactly where do you think the problem lies?

Don't believe me, try it out and see what happens. At any rate, the tired old complaint will not be heard any more.

5. Don't see people as they are but as they're going to be…

Anyone who's responsible for helping people be different usually ends up using phrases such as 'dog's tail that can never be straightened'. But that's because they see people as they actually are rather than what they can be like. Try this out the next time you're in such a situation – 

• Look at your students / participants / team members and visualise them as being different. 
• What qualities can you visualise them as having? 
• What ways do you seem them adopting to make good use of the capabilities they already have? 
• And what do you see yourself learning from them?

Gives you a different perspective, doesn't it? Every time I've worked with a group that has been called 'difficult', this is what has helped me make good friends with the participants and support them in changing themselves. Not exactly rocket science, and works very well too. End result? You can imagine...

6. The system is people too

When you work on an impersonal, solid thing called a 'system', it's hard to see it changing. Indeed, it has an inertia of its own because it has usually arrived at some degree of stability over the years – and here you are, trying to destabilise it for reasons of your own! Why on earth would it meekly go along?

But if you look upon a system as a number of people bound in a set of relationships, you have several entry points where there didn't seem to be any in the beginning. There are bound to be persons in the system trying to make good things happen (if nothing else, just the law of averages determines that there have to be at least a few of these). Can you locate such persons? Is there a way of interacting with them, perhaps even bringing together a few of them? Can you change a few persons at a time? Is there an activity that would support or recognize their efforts, and given them the feeling that they're not alone? And when success (even small success) happens and is recognized, the circle of those willing to engage and dialogue, grows. With it grows the possibility of real change happening, thus reducing the chances of your growing old before your time out of sheer frustration and pessimism.

7. This is where I need your help

Please be so kind as to let me know the 7^th (and 8^th, and 9^th) way…

Has Anyone Asked Teachers This Yet?

Over the last two decades, as the number of teachers has grown, so too has a certain attitude towards them. This comes up in different ways in the various interactions we have – during school visits, meetings at cluster or block level, workshops and training programmes for different groups of personnel, and informal interaction at all levels. Somehow, the discussion ends up at the teacher's door. And the following statement springs forth: 'Teacher is at the heart of the matter sir; only when teacher improves can anything improve.'

This is then followed by a long list of what teachers are not good at, including examples such as (this is a mild list!):

• Teachers don't practice Quality Teaching
• Are not able to 'go according to the level of children'
• Don't make use of psychology (I assume this means something called 'child psychology')
• Application is missing – teachers are not linking concepts to practical life.
• They show a lack of Social Awareness
• Don't go for innovative activities
• Don't do voluntary service
• Don’t give examples while teaching
• Don't pin accountability for the task given (i.e. don't take responsibility themselves)
• Fail to develop or revive the interest to teach
• Are not flexible to change their mentality
• Don't give individual attention to children
• Are not patient
• Don’t make use of case study
• Don't take a friendly approach
• Are poor listeners
• Have no tolerance
• Are partial
• Reluctant
• Lazy
• Lack in adaptation, and don't update their knowledge
• Are in a hurry to get the product rather than being bothered about the process
• Expect more with little effort!

Believe it or not, this is an actual list produced by participants in a workshop (which also included teachers!) and is also typical of most parts of the country.

But when asked to name any strengths that teachers have, what you usually get are blank stares or a scrawny, reluctant list of maybe four points, such as:

• Covers syllabus in time
• Preparing children for getting marks.
• Good in lecturing (encouraging rote learning)
• Conducting special coaching for those falling behind

As you can see, no shortage of left-handed compliments here!

Typically, when asked if they've actually asked teachers what they're good at, or what they feel they're not good at, the people who make the above statements tend to draw a blank! However, when teachers themselves are asked what they're not good at, their statements include points such as these:

• In trying to address the average student, I'm unable to take care of those who are falling behind
• I find it difficult to make the subject interesting for some students
• If parents can't help children with their homework, I find it difficult to help the child in class

Clearly, there's a perception mismatch between teachers and those tasked with appointing, deploying, orienting, developing, mentoring and monitoring teachers. It might be a little too much to ask, but the following seem clearly required;

• There's a need to listen to teachers before coming to the kind of conclusions we have come to
• In order to go beyond impressions, systematic observation and research are required
• How about finding out the strengths teachers have and how to build on them
• Finally, what is the system doing to make some of its own dire predictions about teachers become true?

Time, it seems, to make a course correction here.

Are teachers villains or victims?

At some point or the other in their lives, almost everyone has held the view: 'If only teachers did their work better, so many problems would be solved...'  Schools would be so much better off, isn't it? Education would be great and our lives very different as a result; in fact, society itself would change, if only teachers did their work better.

People who think thus are, of course, only being 'nice'. Because there are any number of others who have less 'nice' ways of putting it. 'Bloody teachers, curse them, they don't work at all. They're never there in school, and when they're there they don't teach. And if they teach, they don't teach properly, beat children, and don't even know themselves what they're supposed to teach. All they're interested in is their salaries, and making money from the grants that flow to the school.'

In fact, this is unfortunately a very widely held view, especially among officials, supervisors, trainers and others who are in any way responsible for and towards teachers. Condemn them, point out all their flaws (exaggerate where it helps) and hold them accountable for all the ills of the education system. Teacher condemnation remains the starting point of many discussions related to improving education.

Anyone who spends time in school trying to implement what teachers are asked do on a daily basis soon finds that motivation has a way of evaporating rather rapidly. You're supposed to teach children of one class, but you find yourself teaching more than one class, of children at different ages, with huge variations among them.  Often, you don't know their language, and whatever you do, so many of them seem not to be getting it at all (partly also because they cannot attend regularly). Far from support, you get indifference (often derision) from those who are supposed to support you (head teachers, community representatives, supervisors, officials). Soon, if you happen to be from another area than your posting, you start trying to get yourself transferred.

Those 'above' them are not immune to exploiting teachers either - using their services to support their own administrative tasks, or even asking them to pay bribes for getting their travel allowance or even school grants (I came across a state where teachers used to be paid only Rs.400 as the TLM grant, with someone siphoning off Rs.100!).

But this doesn't mean teachers should absent themselves from school or beat children up, you would say. It's true, they shouldn't. It's just that it's so hard (and rare) to experience success as a teacher that it's not so surprising. Perhaps our system is victimizing teachers such that they're becoming villains? Or do you think they're only victims? Or are they really villains?

Listening Workshops - Or the Simplest Step to Educational Reform

Is 'bottom up' change really possible?
If you are an educational functionary, by now you must be  fed up of hearing how planning and change have to be 'bottom up'. By which is usually meant that those who are 'under' you must somehow begin to contribute, own and implement a range of actions. And you inwardly wonder if this is ever going to happen!

It was during a discussion on precisely such views that the idea of a listening workshop emerged. Colleagues in the Institute of Educational Development (IED) in BRAC University, Bangladesh felt that a 'listening workshop' might help them understand teachers and grassroots functionaries better.

Listening workshop - a straightforward structure
It was agreed that before forming any views, it is critical to simply listen to teachers and head teachers. Hence a straightforward meeting / interaction / workshop was designed around the following three questions that would be asked of teachers and head teachers:

• What do you really do? Exactly what does your work involve?
• What do you like doing?
• What do you find difficult or dislike doing?

It was also agreed that IED colleagues initiating the discussion would only listen, and not prompt or provide leading questions or offer any comment from their side. In other words, they really had to listen rather than talk!

So why is all this worth writing about? Because around ten such listen workshops were actually conducted, and most turned out to have  a very interesting pattern, followed by an unexpected twist.

What teachers felt
The listening workshops, it transpired, tended to proceed in the following stages.

• Teachers found it really difficult to believe that anyone could come down from the capital only to listen to them! There had to be a 'hidden conspiracy' or an 'agenda' they were not aware of... It would take anywhere from 40-60 minutes to convince the participants that the intention really was to listen to them. (What do you think this tells us about the functionaries that teachers usually deal with?)
• Once teachers believed the above, their initial reaction was that of giving vent to all their frustration and anger at 'you people who sit up there and form all kinds of views about us without ever visiting the field and observing the realities for yourself.'
• Finally, teachers would pour their hearts out on the three questions given above.

The teachers' replies have of course begun to inform the work of the institute in many ways. However, it was the completely unanticipated outcome below that left everyone (cautiously) elated.

The unexpected 'reform'
In the case of a large number of teachers who participated, a few days after the listening workshop it was found that they were implementing many new pedagogical actions in their classrooms! In the entire discussion, at no point had they been asked to make any improvement in their classrooms. So it was not as if teachers did not know improved methods - a large number of in-service interactions had ensured that they had had exposure. It's just that they were not using them. But for some reason the listening workshops triggered a change process in the classrooms!

What do you think this tells us about teachers, about their motivations, and about the kind of relationships they experience? If you can bear the initial first hour, isn't holding a listening workshop the simplest way to initiate educational reform at the local level?

Using Performance Standards to Improve Teacher Effectiveness

Here are some of the key principles that emerged from the ADEPTS experience over the last few years. ADEPTS (or Advancement of Educational Performance through Teacher Support) is an approach or a way of working, based on the use of performance standards. [More details and the standards themselves can be shared with those interested! In the meantime, here are some of the insights that emerged – feedback and your views are welcome.]

  

1. The most important way to generate teacher motivation is to enable them to experience success in the classroom. Hence a set of minimum enabling conditions being in place make a huge difference. 
2. Teachers change when they experience the standards, rather than simply being told about them – towards this, the in-service courses themselves need to incorporate the standards expected of teachers. (A few of the states have begun this process of improving their own inputs to teachers.)
3. There is a sequence in which teachers learn (and indeed institutions and systems learn). It is also better to avoid overcrowding expectations. It would therefore be best to plan improvement in terms of stages of teacher development, broken down into three-month phases, each of which has a very limited number of indicators to be attained (4-8). As teachers attain one set of indicators, this motivates them as well as prepares them for the next, higher order, set. The support institutions, too, learn along with the teachers and grow phase-wise in turn.
4. Standards and indicators can tend to be vague! It is important to convert them into concrete steps that can actually be implemented by teachers. Thus, if an indicator agreed upon is ‘children ask questions freely, without fear’ there is a need to make clear exactly what the teacher needs to do for this to happen. Hence, as part of the roll out, all teams need to detail the concrete steps involved in converting the expectations into actionable steps.
5. Implementer choice and partnering with teachers is more likely to yield results than passing on a set of instructions. In sub-district meetings, teachers should get to choose the indicators they want to attain (from a given list of potential indicators for that stage, though) and identify / develop the steps needed to attain these. Their performance will be assessed against the indicators chosen by them. If possible, peer assessment will be introduced.
6. ‘Target setting’ in terms of the degree of improvement in performance can now be practiced. Teachers and their resource persons can use the standards document to fix the degree of change they seek to bring about over, say, a year or six months. They can then assess their progress against this. As this was not possible earlier, improvement efforts tended to lose their way very soon.
7. Taking a ‘low-interference’ approach helps – that is, there is no pressure on the system to change curriculum or textbooks or introduce new model of teaching. It is more a case of ‘doing the same as before, but a little differently’; this reduces systemic stress and enables rapid implementation.