Abstract
Approximately 2000 secondary school teachers, many for the first time, experienced participating in a technology-enabled, practice-based, blended learning teacher professional development programme. A majority of the teachers work in schools situated in rural and remote locations, teaching students from socio-economically marginalised backgrounds. Thus far, the programme has enabled university-school linkages through the formation of teacher communities of practice and through certification courses. This chapter explores the teachers’ voices, experiences and changes in beliefs and practices through participating in the continuous professional development programme implemented at scale in the Indian context to evaluate the processes and argues that the integration of academic, administrative and policy goals at every level of the intervention is vital for sustaining teacher professional development quality at scale.
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Notes
- 1.
For more detailed information about CLIx, please visit https://clix.tiss.edu/.
- 2.
Fourteen modules have been developed in communicative English, mathematics and science for secondary school students as Open Educational Resources. The modules are (1) Digital Literacy—Invitation to CLIx, (2) English Beginner, (3) English Elementary, (4) Geometric Reasoning—Part I, (5) Geometric Reasoning Part II, (6) Proportional Reasoning, (7) Linear Equations, (8) Atomic Structure, (9) Basic Astronomy, (10) Ecosystem, (11) Health and Disease, (12) Sound, (13) Understanding Motion, and (14) Reflecting on Values. Each of the modules are divided into units and further divided into lessons. The lessons have a variety of activities for students that are classroom, technology-enabled and hands-on with different levels of facilitation required by teachers. The modules are accessed in schools via the CLIx learning platform specifically designed to work offline, providing a connected learning experience through local area network.
- 3.
The CLIx programme is being implemented in four Indian states namely, Chhattisgarh (CG), Mizoram (MZ), Rajasthan (RJ), and Telangana (TS).
- 4.
Typically, teachers implemented 2 or 3 lessons in the first unit of the digital literacy, English and mathematics CLIx student modules.
- 5.
C01—Introduction to ICT in Education; S01—Communicative English Language Teaching; S02—Reflective Mathematics Teaching; S03—Interactive Science Teaching.
- 6.
Content—comments related to workshop session content and the CLIx student modules.
Pedagogy—comments related to workshop facilitation and duration, CLIx pedagogic pillars.
Implementation/technology—comments related to implementation, infrastructure, technology issues experienced in the workshop.
Systemic/career—comments related to administrative, career and systemic issues raised by teachers.
- 7.
The level of understanding of English, mathematics and science among a majority of the students does not match their grade level. The CLIx student modules have been designed to build conceptual understanding from the basics to the grade nine level.
- 8.
During field visits through the Digital Classroom Programme of the states, students were seen sitting in front of a television or projector screen and watching pre-recorded lessons by expert teachers of the state. Students looked disconnected and bored as there was minimal interaction. However, many of the teachers were excited about the programme.
- 9.
An internal study of education technology programmes conducted in 2015 to review the landscape of ed-tech programmes in India.
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Thirumalai, B., Ramanathan, A., Charania, A., Stump, G. (2019). Designing for Technology-Enabled Reflective Practice: Teachers’ Voices on Participating in a Connected Learning Practice. In: Setty, R., Iyengar, R., Witenstein, M.A., Byker, E.J., Kidwai, H. (eds) Teaching and Teacher Education. South Asian Education Policy, Research, and Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26879-4_11
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