KV in-service

For the first spell of Inservice Course for Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) Post Graduate Teachers (PGTs) of Computer Science and TGTs of Science and Mathematics – teachers from across the country came to the IITGN campus for a 12 day workshop. The facilitation was done by faculty from various departments of IIT Gandhinagar and members of CCL.

During the course of 12 days, the focus was to present the curriculum in way which deeply engages the students and makes learning a joyous process. For example, the teachers learned how to divide starting from right and made an equilateral triangle from A4 sheet (not trivial!). When we really make something using the concept we have learnt in the books, the learning gets contextualized and is meaningful.

The teachers got an opportunity to update their knowledge and upgrade their tutorial skills. Mathematics as a subject has acquired a dreadful image in the minds of most students. The overarching idea of the workshop was to introduce the teachers to math pedagogy that can be

engaging and joyous. There were few lectures but most of the workshop was experiential, in form of lots of exercises, activities, models that teachers made, stories and playing games! The teachers gave encouraging feedback to conduct such programs in future also.

With the goal of capacity building of KV Science and Math teachers, we have worked with all the 500 master trainers of KV across India conducting 2- day workshops with them at all the 5 ZIET( Zonal Institute of Educational Training). The feedback from these workshops has been really overwhelming. All the master trainers who attended these workshops rated them better than any of their current trainings. They also wanted to attend longer duration workshops.

As a result of this feedback, KVS decided to conduct in-service course (mandatory training for all KVS teachers which happens every five years of service) for teachers at IIT Gandhinagar. The first spell of the course is scheduled in summer 2018. TGT (6th to 10th class) teachers of Science, Math and PGT (11th, 12th) teachers of Computer Science would attend the course.

At the end of the course teachers commented the such a pedagogy is not only essential but is the only way we can improve India’s rank in PISA* test which will happen the second time in 2021. Our children learn the definitions well, but fail when it comes to actually apply that knowledge.

This course done by CCL is a small step in the direction of improving the conceptual understanding of children so that they are able to use the knowledge gained in classes in their daily lives.