Empowering Student Teachers

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Empowering professionals (learners) to maintain their status as “to be learners”

[I find that most people are in a hurry to get academic degrees without investing any time

and with superficial or no efforts. They enjoy collecting certificates of qualifications and want

to get employed with decent pay pockets. I am not envying these ‘smart and successful

persons’ who start getting good salaries and guaranty of lifelong financially security with

least responsibilities. Such person working with this perception of learning activity, in the

field of education hampers the quality of various processes related to educational processes.

When I started working as a teacher in school and then in secondary teachers

training college, I decided that I will do my best to assist students to be lifelong learners so

that they will become efficient and effective contributors of knowledge society. It was a

difficult task to work among adult learners, as majority of these wanted to put less work and

use shortcuts to get professional degree for becoming (actually getting employed as)

teachers. By designing learner centered and situated learning environment I tried to help

teacher trainees to experience realities of classroom learning. Though I am a retired person

for six years now (2014) and not involved in any educational activity, I feel that I could have

helped learners to develop on their own and supported their efforts without wasting their

precious time and energies in commuting to distance places. Today all persons with access

to technologies can learn and develop on their own by doing role demanded by them by the

course at work place and practice teaching in real-life situations. I have discussed here my

experiences of face to face mode teaching process and perception of distance mode

professional development program for teaching practitioners.]

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Introduction

Our education system is criticized for producing persons without having employable

skills. When I did my teacher education course I did attend college during 1976-77 regularly

and made efforts to understand intricacies of learning process and got my degrees without

much confidence for taking responsibilities of teaching. But in the beginning of my carrier, I

had to work as a special mathematics teacher for students who thought that they are not

good in mathematics. I had to take up this work as there was no other option but to support

myself financially as a single parent.

This work gave me opportunities to experiment with my understanding of learning-

teaching processes with respect to mathematics. My education college allowed me to

access the library and this helped me lot to develop my understanding of complicated

process of learning, teaching and evaluation processes using primitive “trial and error”

learning method. My lack of confidence motivated me to learn more about learning and

teaching of mathematics while engaged in job and helped me to develop professionally.

When I joined teaching college, I found that except one or two, all trainees were very

confident about their teaching skills and abilities. They were happy as all “trouble of learning”

was over for them and most of them were under impression that teaching has nothing to do

with learning. They had developed this perception of teaching by watching their teachers in

the schools and classes that they have attended. They were of the opinion that it is not

necessary to learn for teaching and teaching requires one to narrate information given in the

text books and help learners to practice writing answers to stereotype questions using

guides available in the market. This belief was supported by some teacher educators as they

were telling them that whatever you learn in education colleges is of little or no use in real

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teaching situation. This attitude of persons working in the field of education disturbed me as

these persons were deliberately making importance of learning of teaching process

obsolete.

Thus my task of helping learners to have ‘intrinsic need of learning for teaching” was

difficult. I designed many situation for helping preservice teachers to experience different

processes related to teaching, ‘see’ and understand the difference between our perceptions

of teaching, learning and evaluating development of learners. This process of assisting them

to change their perception or rather construct their own realistic perception of education was

very slow in the beginning but it did make impact on their learning process in long run.

An example of learning scenario designed for self-learning

I am giving here one of the scenario of the series of scenarios that were developed

for inviting learner to engage in developing as a teaching practitioner. I am using the term

learning as defined by Susan Engelkemeyer and Scott Brown. It describes learning as,

“Learning is fundamentally about making and maintaining connections: biologically through

neural networks, mentally among concepts, ideas and meanings; and experientially through

interaction between the mind and the environment, self and other, generality and context,

deliberation and action.” If we expect school learners to engage in this kind of learning, it is

necessary for pre service and in-service teachers to engage in interactions that help them to

understand what, why, how, when of teaching learning processes. I will illustrate this with

example of situated learning environment.

Scenario 1

Preparing to develop as a techno-pedagogue

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Expected outcome

Acquire and use information about knowledges required for facilitating learning.

Anu is a post graduate in history and aspires to start her own coaching class for

different subjects. She wants to be a “good teacher” without completing formal professional

education as many of her family members who are in teaching profession, tell her that

training course is of no use and it is just a requirement for getting teaching job in aided and

non-aided schools. She also feels that teaching is simply telling things given in the

prescribed text books (her teachers used guides and work books) effectively and helping

learners to prepare and remember ideal answers for the purpose of writing examinations.

These are given in the guides that are available in market. This feeling is based on her own

school and coaching class experiences. According to her, job of a teacher is to prepare

learners to remember most likely questions and answers to reproduce these in examination.

These answers should impress examiners. The coaching classes that she attended did use

lecture-videos for teaching various topics of mathematics and science where lecturers

showed ideal (rigid) methods of writing answers. This was followed by sample or model

examination paper writing practice. The learning did not demand cognitive process but

demanded memorization. So she is planning to use internet material for teaching learners as

cheaper versions of tabs are available in the market and her students can afford these. She

thinks that she can teach any subject using technology without hiring teachers of other

subjects as coaches.

Anu decided to talk to her friend Minu, who has completed B. Ed. Course after

graduation, and who also wants to be a “real good teacher”. Minu is working as assistant

teacher in unaided school. Minu told her that she did not get much help from the training

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college to learn competencies that are necessary for teaching. Her school management

expects many more things from her for which she is not prepared. For example, her school

is for using technologies for assisting learners to develop as independent in learners. Her

school works on the basis of democratic values, humanist philosophies and teachers are not

allowed to punish students, motivate learners by creating competitive environment. The

school gives importance to the process of learning and Minu is skilled for conducting lessons

when learners are passive. She used to get higher grades during her practice teaching

sessions for maintaining pin drop silence in her class. Minu thinks that she should learn

many essential skills on her own. Minu asked Anu whether she would like to join her in

learning skills necessary for becoming a teacher who uses e-technologies skillfully for

assisting learners to be self-reliant. She also assured Anu that her senior colleague with

twenty years of experience, Ms. Suma is ready to assist them in their venture to be

“responsible teacher”.

Anu and Minu requested Ms. Suma to help them in acquiring skills required to be

responsible teacher. Ms. Suma, being passionate about helping junior teachers, is very

happy to help them as they want to develop as responsible professionals. She also told them

that in the knowledge age economy everyone needs to be ready to learn new skills

constantly, it expects learners to construct their own understanding, and perform using that

understanding. She asked them, “Shall we work together for designing a tentative list of

sequences of activities that aims at evolving an e-learning environment related to different

subjects in which each one of us is specialized? As we engage us in the process of

designing sequence of activities that demand use of higher level thinking and available

electronic facilities, we will try to get information about all relevant and essential concepts

using the internet. Similarly we together will construct knowledge required for the purpose

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preparing for evolving e-learning environment. I feel that I am very lucky to get a chance to

work with young colleagues like you and rejuvenate me as the information-age teaching

professional.”

“My experience tells me that we can work effectively by reflecting on our experiences

as school and college learners. Let us ponder on some questions and try to answer these

before we begin our work.” She continued and started writing in her diary questions like,

“why I want to teach, what I want to teach, when I want to teach, how I want to teach, what I

mean by learning and teaching, what policy makers expect from us, what my teachers were

doing to make me learn, what I was doing as a learner, what other students were doing

when our teacher was teaching, was I interested in the activities that I was doing to learn

something, what I mean by using technology for learning and teaching, why it important and

many more that come to our mind…” As she was saying this she spread the books of

national curriculum frame work, syllabus, text books and teacher handbooks before them,

the rerated material is available on the internet and asked them to pick any book for reading

while writing answers to these questions for deciding their personal goal of development as

a techno-pedagogue.

Your Role

You are Tanu. You help children residing nearby your residence to complete their

homework as you work for one NGO. You are graduate but not confident about your

knowledge of any subject or teaching of that subject. You want to develop yourself as a

good and responsible teacher by joining this group to form a small learning community and

work together to write a sequence of activities that aim to evolve e-learning environment.

You know that you will need to put more efforts for working with them. You have completed a

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role course related to networking. You are expected to take initiative in forming network of

experienced school teachers (retired or working), graduates who are interested in

developing learning-teaching skills, persons interested in assisting their children to develop

as democratic and responsible teacher and persons who have completed their pre-service

teaching course (employed or unemployed). Along with this you are expected to be active

listener, reader and make a point to reflect on your day to day experiences of learning

deeply.

Learning Activities

Learning Activity 1:

You have attended schools and colleges and observed your teachers’ teaching you

and must have gained lot of experience about teaching process. List the action verbs that

are/ were involved in teaching process and how these motivate learners to change and

develop them. Illustrate how these teaching actions impacted you with your personal

examples, with respect to change and development. What new actions will you add to this

list and what traditional actions will you not consider given in this list keeping in mind

requirements of knowledge age, knowledge age economy and ITC? (Develop a document

of about 300 words.)

Learning activity 2

Develop a document of your personal path of developmental journey, action plan, and

personal quality criteria to keep track of your development and monitoring it.

Learning Activity 3

Visit sites listed below to get information about knowledges required for teacher

facilitators. Write an account of change in your perspective of teaching learning process

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initiated by learning of these articles. (A Power point presentation of about 15-20 multimedia

slides to communicate your plan of development for working as a techno-facilitator)

Learning Activity 4

Since you will have to design e-learning environments using available learning

material a list of material is suggested here. Please spend some time to visit appropriate

sites to get familiar with material. What is your impression about this material? How can you

utilize this kind of material for designing fruitful learning activity in various learning set ups?

Develop 3-4 activities that will assist learners to engage in deeper learning of a particular

concept or process. (Answer these questions with illustrations and create a document of

about 250 words.)

Rationale of designing learning environment for distance mode trainees

It is expected that distance mode learners (or face to face learners) are intrinsically

motivated persons who want to be efficient and effective professional. But reality is quite

different. With few exceptions majority of learners are seeking degrees through distance

mode and are not interested in personal or professional development but expect to get

certificates with good grades to get increments or higher posts at work place without putting

needed efforts. In my opinion the quality of practitioner of any professional work depends on

the efforts that persons put into performing part of the expected role by understanding

various concepts that involved in the processes. Let me explain the why I decided to design

above scenario or situation for assisting persons who want to develop as a teaching

practitioner or learning facilitators.

What is scenario?

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Scenario is a multidisciplinary problematic situation and learner is invited to play

various roles, individually or collaboratively using suggested learning material or by

accessing needed information through different sources and constructing needed

understanding and skills for fulfilling demand of that role. The problem is integrated within

the situation; it is ill-structured and complex problem (involves big idea) and therefore leaves

lot of scope for students to construct his or her personal meaning and using that meaning

and apply it with the help of necessary skills. This helps persons to design solutions to the

problems in different time and space dependent situations. While solving problem learners

are demanded to use higher level thinking skills and exhibit it through various performances

that provides observers or evaluators with the evidence of capability of practicing concerned

understanding. In scenario based e-learning environment all members of learning

community participate in the process of constructing knowledge through inquiry and

negotiation. Thus any single scenario is integrated part of entire course and is not aiming at

completion of any module or chapter. Scenario can be presented as word description or

transcription of discourse or video clip or creating a face to face situation for learners to

participate, experience different roles and then reflect on it with different frames of thought

system or principles or goals of the activity.

What is theoretical principles of scenario based approach to evolve learning environment?

The scenario based learning environment employs principles of situated learning

theory put forward by Lave and Wenger in 1991. They argue that learning best takes place

in the context in which it is going to be used. They talk about situated cognition, the idea that

knowledge is best acquired and more fully understood when situated within the context.

When community of learners, with members having various levels of experiences works

together for development, they are in a position to create “work contexts” as per the need of

group. Similarly these theorists also talk about distributed cognition that means knowledge is

constructed collectively and collaboratively when persons are engaged in completion of task.

Situated learning also emphasizes the need for concrete experience as described in

“learning cycle” proposed by Kolb. Experience becomes concrete only when the context is

realistic and authentic. This draws on apprenticeship model where students learn on the job

along with colleagues and under the guidance of experienced mentor or a team of mentors.

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If necessary mentor models various skills and performance that are required for practicing

profession, mathematician, scientist along with narration (loud thinking) of cognitive and

metacognitive processes employed, emotional struggles that one is facing while taking

decision for handling unexpected situations, and answers queries of participants or guides

them to access information related to their queries. Mentor in this learning situation

motivates learners to share their various experiences and helps group members to construct

flexible learning context for them to work with and continue to learn by managing and making

use of available affordances.

Thus this learning involves what is known as “cognitive apprenticeship” with respect to

taking learned decisions related to work involved. This learning is an outcome of interaction

with and observation of participation of other team members. Opportunities to interact

verbally with others in a virtual or face to face social environment are crucial for cognitive

development (Vygotsky). While learners are engaged in cognitive dialogue they get

opportunities to experience importance language skills. Through brain storming session

learner are encouraged to take responsibilities related to the completion of hands on tasks.

Learning in this situation is not one shot process and takes place over a longer period during

which learners are completing various learning tasks. Thus each learner of the community is

the owner of the constructed knowledge, processes and products. Some of the activities are

to be done individually and some collaboratively. This helps each member of learning

community to learn from each other by sharing experiences through detailed narratives

about the work done, participation and contribution in group work, and reflective journals.

How to evaluate the development of the learner in scenario based learning approach?

Evaluation of this kind of learning is inevitably ongoing process and personalized. For this

reason learners are invited to or assisted to develop criteria for deciding quality of processes

involved and employed, performances and products developed, academic participation and

contribution in knowledge construction and designing solutions during long term learning

period. Learners are expected to and are helped to develop a plan of their own development

and keep on doing self-evaluation to keep the track of their development. Learners evaluate

their collaborative performance and also performance of their colleagues without any

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competitive attitude. This situation motivates all members of “learning community” to learn

proactively, to learn from each other, unlearn many things to develop as an empathetic

person, they experience the differences and similarities among individuals, they learn to face

situations individually and collectively, they co-create innovative socially useful products and

processes etc. This learning environment assists learners to experience their strengths,

weaknesses, through opportunities available to them, and find out innovative ways to tackle

threats. Learner gets opportunity to identify his or her interests, strengths, and opportunities

and keep working with it in future.

As evaluation is continuous and comprehensive, it assists learners to gets chance to reflect

and plan for achieving goals that are needed for becoming passionate learned practitioner in

all walks of life. Important aspect of this type learning environment is that it is not tied to any

single pieces of information (many people call it content or knowledge) but tied to the

profound understanding needed for taking various decisions and ability apply it responsibly

and fruitfully. Though understanding information assists person to take “learned decision” it

is not necessary that all persons of learning team should work with the same piece of

information for academic learning. Internet facility is there to get needed authentic

information for various sources and using various methods, if person is flexible about using

key words and phrases used for describing the scenario.

Role for facilitators

Facilitators designs scaffolds for assisting learners to cross the personal zone of proximal

development using various cognitive (mind) tools successfully.

Facilitator should take into account the following fact related to higher mental functions.

“Higher mental functions are not built up as a second story over elementary processes, but

are new psychological systems that include merging of elementary functions that will be

included in the new system, and themselves begin to act according to new laws; each higher

mental function is, thus, a unit of a higher order determined basically by a unique

combination of a series of more elementary functions in the new whole (Vygotsky, 1997, p.

43).”

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Encourage learners to focus on exploring all aspects of situation through multiple sources

and iterations, through multiple perspectives and through multiple ways and means of

collaboration. (Discourage learners to jump on immediate solutions on the bases of previous

understanding only.)

Sample of organising knowledge constructing environment through scenario

Designing scenario based learning environment is not a linear process as it requires one to

take decisions keeping in mind various aspects related to demands of the curriculum,

expected level of understanding with respect to the specific subject concept, learners and

their competency status, facilities available to work collaboratively in face to face or

distances mode set up, ability of learning community to manage virtual platforms provided to

them to interact etc. Similarly for motivating learners to be proactive during completion of

various related tasks it is necessary to invite them to participate in planning and executing

various activities.

Goals of learning: Learners construct understanding of concepts and process related to

electrical energy, behaviour of target audience with respect to electrical energy

empathetically, aims and mission of production company, construct skills of collecting

information by designing appropriate tools and using techniques, practice design thinking

(human-centred, action oriented and mindful of process -Hasso Plattner Institute of Design,

2007) while co-creating prototypes by focusing on all aspects electrical energy, it’s

production and distribution, it’s consumption and efficiency of appliances and related

problems in various contexts. The process of designing material aiming to communicate

information engages learners in innovate, creating, thinking critically, solving problem, using

communication skills and collaboration skills.

Learner are expected to create human centred designs and it is important to make people

concerned the source of inspiration, the learner may be member of same community, and

get directions for creating literacy material as per the demand of the production company. At

the same time learners need to develop empathy towards others. Empathy is the intellectual

as well as affective identification with or vicarious experiencing of feelings, thoughts or

attitudes of others. Through the process of understanding needs one can develop empathy

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as one has to focus on discovering explicit and implicit needs of the people. For discovering

needs, learners need to observe people carefully and critically by living with them, talking to

them informally and by gaining insight related to their thought processes.

Evaluation skills: Developing criteria for deciding the quality of processes and products,

participation and performance.

Each learners will be assisted to plan her or his personal development, use metacognitive

skills to keep diary of development and plan for further development.

Scenario: (for secondary school learners). The scenario given below integrates academic

learning and design thinking opportunities

Bijali, the electricity producing company wants to literate its clients to become ‘energy literate

- wise users of electric energy’. They want to design a printed and electronic material (e.g.

Comic strips, series of cartoons, photo essay, animation films, poster series supported by

gingles etc.) which describes nature of electric energy, how the electricity is produced, what

care is taken to ensure prevention of environmental pollution by the company, what basic

material is used, how it is procured, how it is supplied to the customers, what are the causes

of shortage, how to use it economically, how to avoid wastage etc. Company wants this

message to be sent in a friendly and humorous tone.

(Can we take challenge of designing this material for them? If you are all ready to take up

this challenge it can be your collaborative project work for this term.)

Points for designing learning activities that can be finalised with cooperation of learners

involved in the project. Learners will be assisted to participate in brain storming sessions for

this purpose.

Collecting data related to clients, what questions will guide us to collect data

Literacy level of the clients involved: ability to understand scientific information, conceptual

understanding with respect to concepts involved, cultural background, energy consumption

patterns of different categories of clients.

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What kind of basic information about clients do we need for designing this material, how to

make material attractive, Why to collect information, how to collect information, how to help

clients to confide information related to various problem involved etc.

Collecting information about production process: visiting production site and interviewing

persons in charge of production preparing observations check list and interview schedule,

knowing the purpose designing material etc.

Understanding of concepts: energy, nature of electrical energy, how it is produced and

transported, how it is utilised etc. working of various electrical appliances, how it measured

through meters, what criteria are should we keep in mind while buying the electrical

appliances, what are LED appliances etc.

Understanding processes: production of electrical energy, various methods of production,

process of transmission of electrical energy, working of gadgets etc.

Computer skills: for designing material, accessing information and verifying authenticity,

using social platforms for discussions

Communication and designing skills: for communicating understanding and for designing

prototype.

Given below is the list of other scenarios. I did not give any site as new material gets added

every minute and learners can search for it. The narratives of community members serve

and personal experiences also serve as quality knowledge base for practicing teaching.

Scenario 2: How to design and develop… create a sequence of activities that is useful in

evolving e-learning environment? (technopedaguagical and design thinking)

Tentative Learning Outcome

Get acquainted with and be able to apply concept of “lesson study” (or any other such

collaborative effort of teaching community members to develop professionally) for designing

and developing ITC integrated lesson plans by working individually and/ or collaboratively.

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Use available e-resources or design and/ or develop resources as per your needs and

compile or create e-learning environment to support your learners working in different modes

(f2f, distance, synchronous-asynchronous, individual-collaborative).

Develop quality criteria to evaluate your visualization e-learning environment.

Minu and Anu were busy with preparing for developing them as techno-facilitators. Though

Minu was familiar with curriculum, syllabus and textbooks, she was struggling to make

meaning of material along with Anu who was totally new to this type of learning. On many

occasions Anu expressed feeling that she was confident about her teaching skills and she

did not think that she has to learn many things for teaching. But both were enjoying their

newfound role as a learner, sharing their experiences and perceptions with each other and

Ms. Suma through social media. All the time they were thinking about material they were

reading, make personal meanings, negotiate these meaning with others. They were trying to

relate many everyday experiences and how these are changing them constantly, some way

or other. Ms. Suma talked about how they are reading books and internet material and

helped them to understand that each one has constructed her own skill to read fast and

critically. They were very happy to know that they have constructed their own way of

reading, articulating understanding in their own language and writing it to document their

learning. Both were eager to design and develop a sequence of activities. Ms. Suma told

them that for this purpose all of them should get information about “lesson study”. They all

decided to design and develop a sequence of activities to evolve e-learning environment.

Your Role: You are Tanu and you are working with this trio. You will study the process of

“lesson study” and develop an e-lesson plan on the topic of your choice in the subject you

are specialized.

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Learning Activities

Learning activity 1

Read articles related to concept “lesson study” and develop a document of your

understanding of “lesson study” with illustration in 500 words. Mention changes in your

perception of learning and teaching as a result of your process of understanding reading

material.

Learning activity 2

Select any lesson developed through lesson study or any lesson developed through any

other process and identify opportunities to integrate technologies that can be integrated into

it to make learning possible through distance mode (Synchronous, Asynchronous, Individual,

and collaborative). This process will need modification of specific learning objectives as

some skills related to technologies are needed by learners. (Take care of copyright issues)

Learning Activity 3

Design and develop a lesson (study) plan (sequence of e-activities) using tools available on

suggested site. Join the network to get needed support required for lesson study. Lesson

study is done in a group but if it is not possible to form group work individually. (Take care of

copyright issues)

Learning activity 4

Develop a list of criteria for selecting or evaluating quality learning material that invites

learner to develop skills required for learning critical thinking skills collaboratively.

Discuss this list on forum (network) with members of your learning community and improve it

for assessing quality of any material.

Scenario 3: How to tackle the problems that occur in real e-learning environment?

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Learning outcome

Practice / implement plans/ learning environments that are (designed) developed by you to

evolve e-learning environments. Write a vignette and self-study report.

Ms. Suma, Minu and Anu are now ready with their lesson plans. Ms. Suma thanked these

young teachers for asking relevant and useful questions. These questions helped her to

rethink about many of her teaching practices. For example, till now she was using CDs

(learning packages available in the library) purchased by her. Many of these CDs were full of

information in various forms but it did not useful in assisting learners in developing higher

mental skills. Therefore till now she did not think of using CDs very often. But now together

they planned to use Web quest as mode creating e-environment for self-learning and group

learning using a web maker. They decided to use Web quest approach to learning using f2f

mode as all of her learners were not having access to internet facility. Similarly, many

students though have access to technological facilities are not familiar with e-learning mode.

Using web maker each of them constructed their own Web quest related to subject of

specialization. With permission of school management Ms. Suma and Minu allowed Anu to

observe their lessons. All of them discussed together their plan of actions in detail before

implementation and wrote narratives related to experience of implementation. Each one also

wrote vignettes of the lesson development process.

Your Role: You are Tanu. Design e-learning activities using Web quest related to your

subject of specialization. Request any NGO administration or (concerned administration) to

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make computers available, with internet facility for implementing the design. Write vignette

and self-study report.

Learning Activities:

Learning Activity 1

Study samples of Web quest and design and develop Web quest as per the requirement of

your learners and for developing higher order thinking skills. (Submit Web quest document)

Learning activity 2

Implement e-lesson designed by working with learners group that is ready to work with you.

Submit vignette and self- study report of implementation.

Learning Activity 3

Share and discuss problems that you faced and managed to overcome while practicing

implementation of e-learning lessons. Similarly talk and interview teachers and learners who

use e-learning and teaching environments to get more information. Develop a photo-essay

on the basis of this learning. (Document of problems, solutions and advance preparation

needed to face problems.)

Also discussion solutions that were employed for keeping learners engaged fruitfully with the

intended task as per the priorities decided by concerned teacher.

Scenario 4: How to assist learners to acquire higher order learning skills through e-learning

environment?

Learning outcome

Plan and implement a lesson study to understand impact of e-learning environment on

learners’ development that is designed individually or collaboratively. Develop a vignette and

write a self- study report.

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Collaboratively plan and implement ambitious lesson plan that involve participation of

learners in model development and modelling process using different electronic

environments.

Ms. Suma, Minu and Anu developed web quest based lesson plans and implemented them

with their learning group of students. Each of them had different experiences to share with

each other and now they are comfortable with ICT managed learning environments. They

listed dos and don’ts for next lessons. They also listed precautionary measures necessary

while organizing e-learning environment. Now they have decided to design lessons that

emphasize higher order thinking skills that supports brain development. While browsing

material related to develop scaffold for higher order learning, they came across the concept

“problem based learning” and they decided to practice with the assistance of ICT with distant

learners having access to technology.

Your Role: You are Tanu and you are working with this group. You plan and conduct a

research on “e-lesson study” on the topic of your choice in the subject you are specialization.

The lesson should aim at assisting learners to enhance their higher order thinking abilities.

Remember that lesson study is collaborative work but if you fail to form a group work alone.

Try to get a critical friend to observe your lesson.

Learning Activities

Learning activity 1

a) Study two research articles available on following site and develop a tool for

evaluating e-learning environment that claims that it aims at developing problem

solving skills. Remember that this article was published in 2006. You are preparing to

work in 2020 during pendemic and beyond therefore you need to keep in mind

technological advances that are useful.

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b) Develop a PPT (25 slides) to communicate your understanding of developing action

research lesson plan for organizing e-learning environment.

Learning activity 2

Develop “lesson study” (Integrated ITC) research proposal that allows learners to

work individually or collaboratively for developing higher order thinking skills. Select

topic and skills of your choice or as per the requirement of school with which you get

permission to work. (Prepare a research proposal document.)

Learning activity 3

a) Study the concept ‘ambitious teaching’ and elaborate its relevance to your

teaching practices with special emphasis on working with digital learning

environments.

b) Study the concept of model and modelling and its place in evolving e-learning

environment.

(At present ambitious teaching is being practiced mostly with mathematics and

science subjects. Some reading material is available that discusses practicing ambitious

teaching with other subjects. We request you to collaborate and experience ambition

teaching practice with respect to other subjects.)

Situated Assignments

A) Implement “lesson study action research” designed by you. Document it and prepare

a research report. Or write a report of collaborative ambitious teaching practice and

your experiences related to it and how did it helped learners to exploit technology for

learning (participating in the processes of modelling).

B) Document a process narrative, reflection note and self-development report based on

your personal and professional development.

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Conclusion

I have used situated learning theories in face to face learning set up and able to

assist pre-service teachers to understand their responsibilities. It is now possible to use ICT

for designing productive learning environment using situated learning theory. Learners are

provided with open ended and personalized learning opportunities and practice their roles in

various contexts to enrich their understanding and in turn performance.

References:

Bonk Curtis and Zhang Ke. Introducing R2D2 Model: On line learning for diverse learners of

this world. Distance Education. Vol. 27, No. 2, August 2006, pp 249 – 264.

Scenario based learning

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