INTRODUCTION TO MICRO-TEACHING

Introduction
You know that the economic prosperity and good quality of any nation depends upon the development of human resources of that nation. The significant fact in the development of manpower resource refers to the competencies and the level on which these competencies are imparted. You also know that it largely depends on those who develop these competencies. Therefore, for this purpose we need highly competent teachers for imparting these competencies. It is essential that teachers imparting these competencies should have the capability to perform their task efficiently. For this, they need to acquire requisite competencies themselves.
In the present Unit we will attempt to understand as to what competencies are essential for becoming better teacher and how these competencies can be imparted.
Teaching : Definition
"Teaching means many different things, that teaching act varies from person to person and from situation to situation. " (Bar, 1961)

"The behaviour or activities of persons as they go about doing whatever is required of teachers, particularly those activities which are concerned with the guidance or direction of learning of others." (Ryan, 1965)
"Teaching is the arrangement of contingencies of reinforcement under which students learn. They learn without teaching in their natural environment, but teachers arrange special contingencies which expedite learning and hastening the appearance of behaviour which would otherwise be acquired slowly or making scene of the appearance of behaviour which might otherwise never occur." (B.F. Skinner. 1968)
"Teaching as an act of interpersonal influence aimed at changing the ways in which other persons can or will behave." (N.L. Gage, 1963)
What is a teaching skill ?
Definition of teaching skill might be one of the following :
* A teaching skill is that behaviour of the teacher which facilitates pupils’ learning directly or indirectly.
* A teaching skill includes all arts and behaviour of the teacher which maximizes pupils’ learning.
*A teaching skill is that art of the teacher which makes communication between the teacher and pupils sufficiently.

Attempts have been made to list teaching skills. Allen and Ryan listed the following teaching skills at Stanford University in the U.S.A.
1. Stimulus Variation
2. Set induction
3. Closure
4. Teacher silence and non-verbal cues
5. Reinforcing pupil participation
6. Fluency in questioning
7. Probing questioning
8. Use of higher questions
9. Divergent questions
10. Recognizing and attending behaviour
11. Illustrating and use of examples
12. Lecturing
13. Planned repetition
14. Completeness of communication

B.K. Passi has given the following list of Teaching Skills in his book “Becoming Better Teacher; Micro-teaching Approach” :
1. Writing instructional objectives
2. Introducing a lesson
3. Fluency in questioning
4. Probing questioning
5. Explaining
6. Illustrating with examples
7. Stimulus variation
8. Silence and non-verbal cues
9. Reinforcement
10. Increasing pupil participation
11. Using black board
12. Achieving Closure
13. Recognizing attending behavior

NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) in its publication Core Teaching Skills (1982) has laid stress on the following teaching skills…
• writing instructional objectives
• Organizing the content
• Creating set for introducing the lesson
• introducing a lesson
• Structuring classroom questions
• Question delivery and its distribution
• Response management
• explaining
• illustrating with examples
• Using teaching aids
• Stimulus variation
• Pacing of the lesson
• Promoting pupil participation
• Use of blackboard
• Achieving closure of the lesson
• Giving assignments
• Evaluating the pupil’s progress
• Diagnosing pupil learning difficulties and taking remedial measures
• Management of the class
Core Teaching Skills
It is not possible to train all the pupil teachers in all these skills in any training programme because of the constraints of time and funds. Therefore a set of teaching skills which cuts across the subject areas has been identified. They have been found very useful for every teacher. The set of these skills are known as CORE TEACHING SKILLSCore Teaching Skills are:
1. Skill of Probing Questions
2. Skill of Explaining
3. Skill of Illustrating With Examples
4. Skill of Stimulus Variation
5. Skill of Reinforcement
6. Skill of Classroom Management
7. Skill of Using Blackboard
8. Skill of Introducing a lesson
Core Teaching Skills and their Components
1. Probing Questions
Components : Prompting, seeking further information, redirection, focusing, increasing critical awareness.2. Explaining
Components : Clarity, continuity, relevance to content using beginning and concluding statements, covering essential points.3. Illustrating with examples
Components : Simple, relevant and interesting examples appropriate media, use of inducts, deductive approach.4. Stimulus variation
Components : Body movements, gestures, change in speech pattern, change in interaction style, pausing, focusing, oral-visual switching.5. Reinforcement
Components : Use of praise words and statements, accepting and using pupils’ idea, repeating and rephrasing, extra vertical cues, use of pleasant and approving gestures and expressions, writing pupils’ answer on the black board.6. Classroom Management
Components : Call pupils bynames, Makenorms of classroom behaviour, attending behaviour reinforced, clarity of direction, check non-attending behaviour, keep pupils in Eye Span, check inappropriate behaviour immediately.7. Use of blackboard
Components : Legible, neat and adequate with reference to content covered.
Concept of Micro-teaching
Micro-teaching is a teacher training technique which helps the teacher trainee to master the teaching skills. It requires the teacher trainee
1. to teach a single concept of content
2. using a specified teaching skill
3. for a short time
4. to a very small member of pupils

In this way the teacher trainee practices the teaching skill in terms of definable, observable, measurable and controllable form with repeated cycles till he attains mastery in the use of skill.
Meaning and Definition of Micro-Teaching
Meaning
Micro teaching is a procedure in which a student teacher practices teaching with a reduce number of pupils in a reduced period of time with emphasis on a narrow and specific teaching skill.Definition
• “Microteaching is a scaled down teaching encounter in class size and time
- D.W.Allen(1966)

• “Microteaching is defined as a system of controlled practice that makes it possible to concentrate on specified teaching behaviour and to practice teaching under controlled conditions.”
- D.W. Allen & A.W.Eve (1968)

• “Microteaching is a scaled down teaching encounter in which a teacher teaches a small unit to a group of five pupils for a small period of 5 to 20 minutes”
- L.C. Singh (1977)
Objectives of Microteaching
• To enable teacher trainees to learn and assimilate new teaching skills under controlled conditions.
• To enable teacher trainees to master a number of teaching skills.
• To enable teacher trainees to gain confidence in teaching.
Characteristic of Microteaching
• Microteaching is a highly individualized training device
• Microteaching is an experiment in the field of teacher education which has been incorporated in the practice teaching schedule
• It is a student teaching skill training technique and not a teaching technique or method
• Microteaching is micro in the sense that it scale down the complexities of real teaching
• Practicing one skill at a time
• Reducing the class size to 5 – 10 pupil
• Reducing the duration of lesson to 5 – 10 minutes
• Limiting the content to a single concept
• immediate feedback helps in improving, fixing and motivating learning
• The student are providing immediate feedback in terms of peer group feedback, tape recorded/CCTV
• Microteaching advocates the choice and practice of one skill at a time
Steps of Micro-teaching
The Micro-teaching programme involves the following steps:Step I Particular skill to be practiced is explained to the teacher trainees in terms of the purpose and components of the skill with suitable examples.Step II The teacher trainer gives the demonstration of the skill in Micro-teaching in simulated conditions to the teacher trainees.Step III The teacher trainee plans a short lesson plan on the basis of the demonstrated skill for his/her practice.Step IV The teacher trainee teaches the lesson to a small group of pupils. His lesson is supervised by the supervisor and peers.Step V On the basis of the observation of a lesson, the supervisor gives feedback to the teacher trainee. The supervisor reinforces the instances of effective use of the skill and draws attention of the teacher trainee to the points where he could not do well.Step VI In the light of the feed-back given by the supervisor, the teacher trainee replans the lesson plan in order to use the skill in more effective manner in the second trial.Step VII The revised lesson is taught to another comparable group of pupils.Step VIII The supervisor observes the re-teach lesson and gives re-feed back to the teacher trainee with convincing arguments and reasons.Step IX The ‘teach – re-teach’ cycle may be repeated several times till adequate mastery level is achieved.
Micro-teaching Cycle
The six steps generally involved in micro-teaching cycle are Plan , Teach , Feedback
Replan , Reteach , Refeedback. There can be variations as per requirement of the objective of practice session. These steps are diagrammatically represented in the following figure :Diagramatic representation of a Micro-teaching Cycle

Plan : This involves the selection of the topic and related content of such a nature in which the use of components of the skill under practice may be made easily and conveniently. The topic is analyzed into different activities of the teacher and the pupils. The activities are planned in such a logical sequence where maximum application of the components of a skill is possible.
Teach : This involves the attempts of the teacher trainee to use the components of the skill in suitable situations coming up in the process of teaching-learning as per his/her planning of activitieó. If the situation is different and not as visualized(in the planning of tTe activities, the teacher should modify his/her behaviour ás per the demand of the situation in the Wlass. He should have the courage and confidence to handle the situation arising in the class effectively.
Feedback : This term refers to giving information to the teacher trainee about his performance. The information includes the points of strength as well as weakness relating to his/her performance. This helps the teacher trainee to improve upon his/her performance in the desired direction.
Re-plan : The teacher trainee replans his lesson incorporating the points of strength and removing the points not skillfully handled during teaching in the previous attempt either on the same topic or on another topic suiting to the teacher trainee for improvement.
Re-teach : This involves teaching to the same group of pupils if the topic is changed or to a different group of pupils if the topic is the same. This is done to remove boredom or monotony of the pupil. The teacher trainee teaches the class with renewed courage and confidence to perform better than the previous attempt.
Re-feedback : This is the most important component of Micro-teaching for behaviour modification of teacher trainee in the desired direction in each and every skill practice.Time duration for the microteaching is;
o Teach : 6 Minutes.
o Feedback : 6 Minutes.
o Re-Plan :12 Minutes.
o Re-Teach : 6 Minutes.
o Re-Feedback : 6 Minutes.
Phases of Micro-teaching
There are three phases of the Micro-teaching procedure which you have studied in the previous section of this Unit. They are :
1. Knowledge Acquisition Phase.
2. Skill Acquisition Phase.
3. Transfer Phase of Micro-teaching.
1. Knowledge Acquisition Phase (Pre-Active Phase)
It includes the activities such as;
Ø Provide knowledge about teaching skills.
Ø Observe the demonstration of teaching skill.
Ø Analyze and discuss the demonstration of the teaching skill.
2. Skill Acquisition Phase (Inter-active Phase)
It includes the activities such as;
Ø Planning and preparation of micro lesson for a skill.
Ø Practicing the skill.
Ø Evaluation of the practiced skill (Feedback).
Ø Re-plan , Re-teach and re-feedback till the desired level of skill is achieved.
3. Transfer Phase (Post –Active Phase)
Ø Giving opportunity to use the mastered skill in normal class room teaching.
Ø Integrate the different skill practiced
Link Practice (Integration of Teaching Skills)
When mastery has been attained in various skills ,the teacher trainee is allowed to teach the skills together. This separate training programme to integrate various isolated skills is known as ‘Link Practice’
ü It helps the trainee to transfer effectively all the skills learnt in the micro teaching sessions.
ü It helps to bridge the gap between training in isolated teaching skills and the real teaching situation faced by a student teacher.
ü Desirable Number of Pupils :15-20
ü Preferable Duration :20minutes.
ü Desirable Number of Skills :3-4 Skills
• Link practice or integration of skills can be done in two ways;Integration in parts
3 or 4 teaching skills are integrated and transferred them into a lesson of 15-20 minutes duration. And again 3 or 4 skills are integrated and are transferred all the skills to one lesson.Integration as a whole
Student teacher integrates all the individual teaching skills by taking them as a whole and transferred them into a real teaching situation.
Merits of Microteaching
• It helps to develop and master important teaching skills.
• It helps to accomplish specific teacher competencies.
• It caters the need of individual differences in the teacher training.
• It is more effective in modifying teacher behaviour.
• It is an individualized training technique.
• It employs real teaching situation for developing skills.
• It reduces the complexity of teaching process as it is a scaled down teaching.
• It helps to get deeper knowledge regarding the art of teaching.
Limitations of Microteaching
• It is skill oriented; Content not emphasized.
• A large number of trainees cannot be given the opportunity for re-teaching and re-planning.
• It is very time consuming technique.
• It requires special classroom setting.
• It covers only a few specific skills.
• It deviates from normal classroom teaching.
• It may raise administrative problem while arranging micro lessons
Microteaching Vs Traditional Classroom teaching
Microteaching teaching Traditional Class room
· Teaching is Relatively Simple * Teaching is Complex Activity
· Carried out in controlled situation * Carried out in uncontrolled Situation
· The Class Consist of a small of * Classroom consist of less than
Students group of students 35 to 40 students
· takes up one skill at a time * Teacher practices several skill at a time
· Teaching time is 5 to 10 mts. * Teaching time is 40 to 50 mts
· Student teacher provided immediate feedback * No immediate feedback
· Provision for reteaching * No provision for reteaching
· Students gains confidence in teaching * Students usually tensed and before
actual scared
Origin and Development of Micro-teaching
The idea of micro-teaching originated for the first time at Stanford University in USA, when an Experimental Project on the identification of teaching skills was in progress under the guidance and supervision of the faculty members (Bush, Allen, McDonald Acheson and many others). This project was aided by Ford Foundation and Kettering Foundation. The team of experts was assigned the development of testing and evaluation tools to measure the attainment of teaching skills. At this juncture Keath Acheson, a research worker was investigating the utility of video tape recorder in the development of technical teaching skills. This instrument could be used for recording the class interaction and the behaviours of the trainee vividly and accurately. This lead to the development of a systematic and accurate method of giving feedback to the teacher trainee. All the steps of micro-teaching technique :
Teach → Feedback → Replan → Reteach → Refeedback were formulated. Thus the name of micro-teaching was coined for this method of developing teaching skills in 1963. Since then this technique of teacher training has been widely used in almost all Colleges and Universities of Europe and Asia. In India, it is being used with great emphasis in all the teacher training programmes of developing teaching skills and competencies among teacher trainees.Microteaching in India
• The department of Teacher education in the NCERT designed a project to study the effectiveness of Microteaching in 1975 in collaboration with the Centre of Advanced Study in Education (CASE) Baroda.
• Research and training programmes for teacher educators were also initiated in collaboration with the department of Education, University of Indore.
• Passi, Singh and Jangira developed instructional materials which were used to train teacher educators.
REFERENCES/FURTHER READINGS
1. ALLEN, D.W. et.al. Micro-teaching – A Description. Stanford University Press, 1969.
2. ALLEN, D.W , RYAN, K.A. Micro-teaching Reading Mass.: Addison Wesley, 1969.
3. GREWAL, J.S., R. P. SINGH. “A Comparative Study of the Effects of Standard MT With Varied Set of Skills Upon General Teaching Competence and Attitudes of Pre-service Secondary School Teachers.” In R.C. DAS, et.al. Differential Effectiveness of MT Components, New Delhi, NCERT, 1979.
4. PASSI, B.K., Becoming Better Teachers. Baroda : Centre for Advanced Study in Education, M. S. University of Baroda, 1976.
5. SINGH, L. C. et.al. Micro-teaching – Theory and Practice, Agra : Psychological Corporation, 1987.
6. SHAH, G. B. Micro-teaching – Without Television, Nutan Shikshan, 1970.
7. SHARMA, N. L., Micro-teaching : Integration of Teahing Skills in Sahitya Paricharya, Vinod Pustak Mandir, Agra, 1984.
8. VAIDYA, N. Micro-teaching : An Experiment in Teacher Training. The Polytechnic Teacher, Technical Teacher, Technical Training Institute, Chandigarh, 1970.

The Learning Path: Five Points of Mastery Model

We Believe. . .

By: Dr. Deepak Sharma

Learning is a lifelong experience that begins at birth and never ends.

• There is a direct relationship between self image and learning.

• Environments affect learning. Learning is optimized in creative, trusting environments that provide experience, exploration, risk-taking, and mastery.

• Learning is an interdependent process involving cooperation and collaboration.

• Learning involves the engagement of body, mind and spirit.

• An individual's potential for learning is unknown; without high expectations this potential may never be realized. People excel when they experience high expectations and appropriate challenge.

• Peak performance is driven by vision and a hunger for a "preferred" state.

• Learning is a multi-modal, multi-sensory, multi-intelligences experience.

• Each individual is responsible for his/her learning and for contributing to the learning of others.

• Education is not the same thing as training. To educate means "to lead forward" and thus to guide an open-ended process, characterized by self-conscious and discretionary activity. To train means "to draw or drag behind" and refers to a closed process of making things habitual or automatic. Learning requires both education and training.

• Learning happens at different rates for each individual; it can be facilitated but not forced, as it occurs when the individual is ready.

• Learning is best achieved by defining the learning process as a system and continually taking action to optimize the performance of that system.

• By establishing a system which both exemplifies and expects responsibility from each individual, and which embeds life-long learning into every segment of society, full and healthy employment will result.

The Learning Path: Five Points of Mastery Model

 

Our human Learning Path begins at birth. From infancy, the learner embarks on a course that nourishes the innate love for exploration and discovery. A community expecting life-long learning and life-long contributions from its members acts to remove whatever blocks this natural process of growth.

Just as every individual is unique, every learner's learning path is unique. We visualize these through a five part life learning model we call the "Five Points of Mastery." Each individual, formally and informally, moves in and out of these roles throughout their life, gaining a level of mastery of each, as appropriate to his or her life stage.

These roles are: the Learner, the Facilitator-Guide, the Sponsor-Advocate-Advisor, the Steward, and the Expert.

These names were deliberately and carefully chosen to compel a re-examination of these roles, as they apply to each student, each teacher, and each member of the learning environment and community at large.

A vital task for the Facilitator-Guide is monitoring these roles, being aware when a learner moves from role to role, and guiding a learner to the role appropriate for their needs. Similarly the Facilitator-Guide is often placed in the position of Learner, Sponsor, Expert or Steward. Moving between roles, responses change, responsibilities change and opportunities for growth change. Educational plans are conceived, developed, planned and executed with these changing roles in mind.

Learner

An explorer, innovator, self-developer, model-builder and action-taker who is receptive to ideas and guidance, able to reflect and act creatively, learns how to access information and create value from it for self and others. A unique set of contacts--family, peers, facilitators, sponsors, experts, and community members--comprise the Learner's constantly evolving learning network.

Facilitator-Guide

One who helps others frame their experience, providing information, concepts and models, linking to new information and avenues of exploration, encouraging further exploration, guiding discussion among learners and removing blocks (both conceptual and material) to the creative process for an individual or team. The Facilitator crafts and delivers challenges that spark individual and team innovation and provokes Learners to break through imagined limits.

A Learner works with one or several facilitators; in each case, the learner and facilitator together create a learning contract and invent appropriate experiences and products. Learners engage in many projects simultaneously, incorporating strands from the core curriculum to weave the necessary framework of understanding and mastery. The Facilitator and the Learner, jointly responsible, manage both process and content.

Sponsor-Advocate-Advisor

The Sponsor provides the feedback and boundaries that ensure the learning path is effective and balanced, that options are clearly seen, that effort is required and rewarded, and that performance assessments--provided as feedback--are understood and interpreted correctly. The Sponsor's challenge is to optimize the performance of the individual Learner's network. The Sponsor and Learner together plan the Learner's next steps, taking into account the whole person, the individual's talents and interests, and the need to ensure breadth in the curriculum as well as depth in areas of special interest. The Sponsor provides continuity and perspective. Sponsors may change, depending upon the goals of the Learner.

Expert

The Expert develops specialized knowledge to a high degree in a given body of knowledge and is a resource to others. Everyone has expertise to share; everyone applies their expertise to create value for themselves and others, as participants in this learning environment.

Steward

The Steward applies talents and knowledge in service to others--in stewardship of the community and ultimately of the world. Stewardship means holding a vision for yourself, your community, and your world, and being committed to actualizing that vision. The only way to steward anything is to engage with what we are stewarding in a cybernetic, whole systems manner. By learning anticipatory design, we steward our future as well as our present.

Stewardship encompasses stewarding what we value, what we invent, our personal growth, the growth of others, the health of our communities and the natural environment. Stewardship arises from the philosophy that "all life is sacred" rather than "everything is a commodity."

Expansion,excellence and inclusion in Indian education system

Submitted by Prof. Deepak Sharma

Improving the Quality of Education

A quantitative expansion of the educational system will provide access to more young people, but it will not ensure that the education provided is of adequate quality to keep them enrolled or dramatically improve their capacity for social adaptation and achievement. Many of methods commonly adopted in the nation's schools are based on practices developed in the distant past that have outlived their value and utility. Simultaneous with the quantitative expansion of the educational system, there needs to be a concerted effort to experiment with new approaches to education that will increase the quality and speed of knowledge transmission. The qualitative change needed should include -

1) Shift from teaching to learning

The traditional emphasis on the teacher as the active source of knowledge and the student as the passive recipient who simply receives what is taught needs to be replaced by a pedagogical system in which the student is taught to actively seek knowledge through a variety of means from a variety of sources and the role of the teacher is as facilitator and guide for that process.

2) Shift from traditional academic to life-based curriculum

The current curriculum is a product of many different influences. Most of it was developed in countries with very different values and social conditions, some of it in earlier centuries when life was altogether different than it is today. The high drop out rates in India reflect that fact that the school curriculum is only distantly related to the knowledge and skills needed by most Indians for adaptation and achievement in life, especially in rural areas. The dawn of a new millennium is an appropriate time to begin formulation of an entirely new educational curriculum, one which will relate to the cultural, social, political and economic life of the country and the skills, attitudes and values needed for individual initiative, personal achievement and nation-building.

3) Computer education

Computer literacy is an increasingly important qualification for both for individual employment and growth of the national economy. It requires a minimum of 10 to 20 computers in order for the operation and maintenance of a computer laboratory to be economical. The consolidation of primary schools into clusters would facilitate investment in adequate centralized facilities to provide at least minimum access to computer training for all students. But teaching students how to operate computers represents only a tiny part of the benefits of computerization. The greater potential of computerization is as a medium and aid for teaching any subject. Experience shows that computer-based general education can be at least twice as fast and effective as normal classroom methods now employed in India.

4) Value-based education

The word ‘values' is normally employed with reference to ethical and moral concepts. But it can also be used in a much wider sense to connote principles that are essential for national development. Values are those attitudes which based on long experience society has come to recognize as most essential for individual and collective achievement. Values represent the quintessence of life wisdom about what is necessary for continued social progress. It is possible to identify a list of 20 or 30 work values that will be critical for the future growth and development of Indian society and its greater participation in the emerging global economy, values such as cleanliness, punctuality, self-reliance, self-respect, honesty in trade, entrepreneurship, systematic functioning, etc. As practical skills can be trained, values can be trained too. Rather than merely imitating the West, a study of India's most successful individuals, organizations and communities will reveal the core values that form the inner foundation for their outer accomplishments. Efforts should be initiated to identify those values that are most critical to India's future development and to evolve a curriculum to effectively impart them to students of all ages.

5) Model schools

Even while the effort is still underway to expand the school system to cover the entire population, a simultaneous effort is needed to introduce and experiment with new philosophies and methods of education more in tune with the needs and possibilities of the 21st Century. As a modest beginning, experimental schools can be established in every district to test and demonstrate new methods and serve as models for other schools to emulate.

6) Promoting indigenous knowledge

For learning to be relevant it must be tailored to local needs and encompass indigenous knowledge systems. Knowledge about indigenous techniques for water resource management, preparation of fertilizers, preservation of foods, utilization of herbal medicines for better health and nutrition, personal and community hygiene are essential elements of a complete education that should be incorporated in the school curriculum. The curriculum needs to be expanded to include traditional knowledge systems such as Ayurveda, Siddha and other forms of herbal medicine.

7) English language education

In this era of globalization, command over the English language is a precious asset. It significantly improves access to information and employment. There is enormous popular interest in learning English, but most existing teachers are not qualified to teach it and fear for their careers if it is given importance. As a consequence, the rich-poor divide only widens. Rich children learn English and monopolise high paid jobs and the poor are condemned to low paid ones. Without antagonising existing teachers, the government can encourage private initiative to provide supplementary courses in English and support it to the extent that it will be affordable by all families.

8) Community colleges

Education begins with literacy but should not end there. Adult literacy programmes should be augmented by post-literacy and vocational programmes to transmit knowledge related to the individual's the social and cultural environment. Drawing lessons from the phenomenal success of community college systems in Australia, Canada and USA in providing wider access to higher education to both students and adults, India should develop its own system adapted to the specialized needs of the country. India's model should include courses designed to meet vocational, professional and personal interest needs including subjects such as music, media, computer, agriculture, horticulture, banking, hotel management.

9) Social Systems for Knowledge Dissemination

In addition to the educational system, India can adapt from other countries and originally innovate a wide variety of other organizations to facilitate the generation and dissemination of Knowledge to the population.

10) Build a National Rural Information Delivery System

Knowledge is a catalyst for the development process. The gaps in practical knowledge that retard development can be identified and filled by creating new systems and institutions to transmit information that is not being adequately conveyed by traditional means. Several efforts are already underway in the country to utilize the Internet as a medium for delivering practically useful information to the rural population. Within five years, every revenue village in the country should be equipped with a web-based computer system providing timely information, including prices for agricultural commodities in local and regional markets, technical advice on issues such as pest alerts for local crops, advice on health and nutrition, announcements of government programs, credit schemes, school and college scholarship applications, and self-employment opportunities. Such a system can form the backbone of a national development information system that caters to a wide range of practical needs.

11) Compile an Internet-based Development Encyclopaedia

Over the past five decades, the pace of development has accelerated around the world. Changes that used to occur over centuries or decades are now occurring within a few years. Humanity's knowledge of development is accumulating so rapidly that it is difficult to keep track of all that has been learned or to access information on relevant experiences in specific fields.

The advent of the World Wide Web now makes it possible to create a compendium of development knowledge, information and experience, a well documented and continuously updated source of knowledge and practical experience on all fields of national development. This Development Encyclopedia could view every subject from the perspective of social development. It could catalog proven technologies, successful strategies and best practices in different fields, so that the information is readily accessible to people all over the country.

Compilation of the encyclopedia would need to be managed by a central editorial team, but the actual generation of material could be contributed by thousands of experts located around the country. All contributions could be screened and edited, placed in a central repository on the web and updated regularly for a fraction of the cost of printed sources of information. Since publication of new material would be progressive and continuous, the Encyclopedia could be launched and operative very quickly and continue to grow in value as additional material was added.

The Encyclopedia could contain both theoretical knowledge and practical information. On the theoretical side, it could examine topics such as the role of agriculture as an engine for employment and industrialization, the global growth of the service sector as the major source of new jobs, the impact of information technology on productivity and economic growth, the role of social and cultural values in development, the relationship between peace and development, the impact of rising levels of education on democracy and economic development, the relationship between education, prosperity and corruption, and the relationship between inflation and development. It could contain articles examining the factors responsible for the development achievements of different countries. It could formulate a series of scales and indices to compare the effectiveness of social organizations in different countries.

On the practical side, the Encyclopedia could document both in text and multimedia format methods to improve agricultural productivity, preserve foodgrains, conserve water, recharge aquifers, improve nutrition and health care, create low-cost housing, introduce complementary local currencies, stimulate entrepreneurship and job creation. It could catalog and evaluate alternative technologies for power generation, agriculture and aquaculture, various industries and environmental protection. It could compare the effectiveness of public policies and administrative systems in different countries and regions.

The Encyclopedia could also become a virtual forum for national and international debate on policies, priorities and strategies for national and international development.

12) Expanding the nation’s corps of school teachers

A tremendous expansion in the number of teachers will be required to support a quantitative and qualitative improvement in the country's school system. Eliminating primary school drop outs and reducing the teacher pupil ratio from the present high level of 1:42 down to around 1:20 will together require an additional three million primary school teachers, tripling of the number currently employed. Similar increases will be required at upper primary and secondary school levels. The training of such large numbers will require the establishment of additional teachers training colleges and much larger budget allocations for teachers' salaries.

13) Expansion of schools and classrooms

A tremendous expansion in the number of schools and classrooms will be required to support a quantitative and qualitative improvement in the country's school system. In order to achieve the best case scenario depicted in Table 8, total school enrolment would have to increase by 75 million students or 44%. That would require a proportion expansion in the number of classrooms. In addition, efforts to improve the quality of education by reducing class size would require further 20% increase in the number of classrooms. Together, this would require increasing the total number of classrooms by 65% within 20 years.

Current TPR is 1:42 for primary, 1:37 for upper primary and 1:31 for secondary level. An additional 9 lakh primary teachers will be required to support 100% net primary enrolment in 2016 (an increase from 79 million to 116 million students). To reduce TPR from 1:42 to 1:30, an additional 11 lakh teachers will be required, bringing the total to 39 lakh teachers, which is double the present number. An additional 5 lakh upper primary teachers will be required to support 100% net upper primary enrolment in 2016 (a net increase from 46 million to 66 million students). To reduce TPR from 1:37 to 1:30, an additional 4.5 lakh teachers will be required, bringing the total to 22 lakh teachers, compared to the present level of 12.5 lakh. Higher enrollment and lower drop out levels in secondary school could require a doubling of the high school teaching corps which presently consists of 15 lakh teachers.

 Computerizing general education & vocational education

Mere quantitative expansion in classrooms and teaching staff is an efficient way of tackling the nation's educational deficit in the age of computer. Recent experience has proven that computerizing education, i.e. utilizing computer and computerized teaching materials as instruments for general education, can dramatically increase the quality of education and the speed of knowledge acquisition, while dramatically decreasing dependence the knowledge and skill of teaching staff.

A fundamental policy decision should be made to fully utilize the capacities of computer for general education, not just for computer training, and to launch a major initiative to convert the entire school curriculum to computer-based, CD-Rom teaching materials.

The effort at computerization can be extended to include not only general school curriculum but vocational training on a very wide range of occupational skills, which can then be made accessible through private and public vocational training outlets throughout the country.

At the same time, a national campaign should be launched to develop low-cost teaching computers that can introduced into existing schools on a very large scale. A tie-up may be possible with major international computer manufacturers to provide long term credit for this investment as it will serve as model for other countries and expand the entire world market for educational computers.

Education Leadership

What Do Teachers Bring to Leadership?

Teacher leaders do not necessarily fit the leader-as-hero stereotype. Instead, they offer unique assets that come from the power of relationships.

Teacher leadership means different things to different people. Team leaders, department chairs, and respected teachers live it every day: They experience the pushes and pulls of their complex roles, located somewhere between administrative leadership and almost invisible leadership. Yet many administrators, school board members, citizens, and even teachers don't recognize or understand teacher leadership (Ackerman & Mackenzie, 2006). And this lack of understanding adds to the obstacles many teacher leaders face.

At issue is our understanding of leadership itself. Most of us hold the deep-seated assumption that leaders must have appointments and titles that formalize their leadership and officially confirm their knowledge, traits, and competencies. Our analogy of leader as hero tends to package superior judgment and knowledge with superior authority and power.

Many teacher leaders, however, cannot find a comfortable niche in this analogy. Although schools may be formally structured to support hierarchical leadership, the culture within the education profession supports a rich egalitarian ethic. Within this culture, relationships determine who communicates with whom, who shares professional wisdom with whom, and who ultimately influences the quality of teaching and learning (Darling-Hammond, 2001).

Relational Leadership

An alternative to the hierarchical model of school leadership is the relational model, which views leadership as residing not in individuals, but in the spaces among individuals. This model starts by recognizing that relationships already exist among teachers, principals, specialists, counselors, and support staff. The question to ask is, How do these relationships influence the adults in this school to do good things for students? Leadership is a particular type of relationship—one that mobilizes other people to improve practice.

Relational leadership runs through the daily life of every school as educators attend to the quality of relationships, insist on commitment to the school's purposes and goals, and examine and improve instruction (Donaldson, 2006). Leadership is about how individuals together influence these three streams of school life to make learning better for all students. Although school administrators play a vital role in these efforts, teachers are uniquely positioned to contribute special assets to the school leadership mix in each of the three areas.

Teacher Asset: Building Relationships

Sylvia, an elementary school teacher, recruited colleagues from each grade level to pilot alternative assessments in math. She began by inviting colleagues with whom she had worked closely and then asking each of them to reach out to others in their working networks. Sylvia's strong relational skills pulled colleagues together, a marked contrast to her principal's style of pushing teachers to collaborate. Sylvia's reputation as an excellent teacher attracted others, and her inclusive style sent the message that every team member's opinions counted. Because of her knowledge of her colleagues' working styles, she was also wise enough to let the group's energy and time govern the speed and course of the initiative.

Teacher leaders like Sylvia have earned the trust and respect of other teachers (Bryk & Schneider, 2002). They are in the trenches with colleagues. They struggle with the same instructional issues, and they have demonstrated their success in the eyes of their peers. They are motivated by a desire to help students and support their fellow teachers, not to enforce a new policy or to evaluate others' competencies. Other teachers can go to teacher leaders without fear of judgment or dismissal. Their conversations can be frank, authentic, and caring.

Teacher leaders also have the benefit of working with others in small, intimate, adaptable groups or in one-on-one relationships. They aren't burdened, as administrators are, with setting policy for the whole school. Some of these small units are formal work groups, such as grade-level teams or departments. But many are naturally occurring and informal—clusters of teachers who get into the habit of dropping by one another's rooms, sharing materials, ideas, and challenges or generating a proposal to the principal for a new science initiative. In these less formal clusters, it's often difficult to say who's leading whom. But few would say that leadership doesn't exist among these energetic and closely connected professionals.

Teacher culture based on relationships is hugely influential in schools, often trumping administrative and legislative influence (Spillane, 2006). Although some administrators and policymakers might see this as a problem, strong relationships are teachers' most powerful leadership asset (Goleman, Boyatzis, & McKee, 2002).

Teacher Asset: Maintaining a Sense of Purpose

Patrick, a high school English teacher, became a champion of detracking. His reputation for integrity and commitment among his colleagues enabled him to voice deep—and at first unpopular—concerns that the school was failing its non-college-bound students. His willingness to examine his own teaching and to continue speaking up in conversations and meetings eventually persuaded other teachers to explore ability grouping practices in their own classrooms and to implement more equitable grouping practices schoolwide. His belief in the school's goal of equity drew others, including school administrators, into the effort.

To build on their sense of purpose, teacher leaders like Patrick need to listen astutely to their colleagues and help them sort through many issues, keeping basic goals as the top priority. They need to know how to facilitate professional dialogue, learning, and group process—the keys to mobilizing others to action.

These teacher leaders use their relational base to help their colleagues keep their eyes on the prize. Because they are teaching every day, facing the same challenges and reaping the same rewards as their peers, their singular focus on their own instructional work and their commitment to reaching every student act as beacons to those around them. When the going gets tough and colleagues lose sight of their purpose or begin to question their commitment, teacher leaders' clarity, optimism, and dedication are a powerful antidote.

Teacher Asset: Improving Instructional Practice

Clarissa, a middle school teacher, has always pushed herself to improve. She has also freely shared her struggles with colleagues, often discussing them in weekly team meetings. Her influence has been different from Patrick's; instead of seeking a broad program change, Clarissa informally shares ideas, techniques, and problems from her classroom that cover the spectrum of daily teacher practice—for example, goal setting, assessment, instructional delivery, student management, and use of technology. Over time, she has helped cultivate in her teaching team a spirit of openness and a focus on developing more effective instructional practices.

Clarissa has influenced her colleagues to improve their practice in part through her instructional expertise: her capacity to understand students and their learning needs, to analyze her own instructional choices, and to continually monitor effectiveness. But her leadership assets also grow from her capacity to share professional inquiry with colleagues. She is comfortable revealing her failures and worries, soliciting these in others, and facilitating professional sharing and learning. It takes both a strong cognitive foundation and skilled interpersonal capacities to exercise leadership in improving practice.

Traditionally, we have viewed school improvement and reform as a matter of wholesale replacement of dysfunctional practices with new, “proven” practices. The current reform era, however, has taught us that permanent improvements happen in a much more piecemeal manner (Darling-Hammond, 2001; Elmore, 2004). Teachers have an extraordinary opportunity to exercise leadership because they are the most powerful influence, next to students, on other teachers' practice (Darling-Hammond, 2003). Whereas principals can shape teachers' beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, other teachers do shape them. Teacher leaders understand this and are deliberate about shaping their environment in a positive, responsible way. They draw on their relationships and their strong sense of purpose to help colleagues explore, share, and improve the practices they use daily with students.

Teacher leaders like Clarissa both model and cultivate professional improvement. They take pains to share what they do with others and to be accessible to colleagues concerning their own issues of improved practice. The power of their leadership stems from the fact that colleagues find these teacher leaders helpful. They are leaders because their own capacity to teach and to improve is infectious and helps others learn more effective ways of working with their own students.

A Complementary Mix of Leaders

The relational model of leadership obligates us to look first at leadership relationships and second at the individuals who are leaders. The leadership litmus test is, Are the relationships in this school mobilizing people to improve the learning of all students? If that test comes up positive, then we can ask, Who's contributing to that leadership—to strong working relationships, to a robust commitment to good purposes, and to relentless improvement of practice?

We must start by disposing of our old assumptions about leadership and about who can lead. We have placed too much responsibility and too much power with the few individuals whom we label “leaders” in our school systems. Superintendents, curriculum directors, and principals cannot on their own generate leadership that improves education.

Principals need teacher leaders of all kinds. Although principals are better positioned than teacher leaders are to influence the goal-directed areas of school life, they often have more difficulty leading through positive relationships. Their position and authority give them a platform for promoting vision and mission and focusing on improvement. But their power over reappointments, assignments, resources, and policies can undercut their working relationships; and their management responsibilities, can distance them from teaching and learning. In this respect, the assets that teacher leaders bring to schools are an essential complement to principal leadership.

We can strengthen school leadership and performance by acknowledging and supporting the vital roles of teacher leaders. Administrators, school boards, and state and federal policymakers should

• Identify and support those clusters of teachers in which professional relationships and commitments are fostering instructional innovation.

• Respect the judgment of these professional clusters and be willing to adjust their own strategies and initiatives to complement such teacher-led innovations.

• Put resources behind the efforts of teacher leaders by supporting shared practice, planning, and professional learning focused on their purposeful improvement of practice.

• Acknowledge that their own goals and initiatives can best be addressed by treating teacher leaders as vital and powerful partners.

Great schools grow when educators understand that the power of their leadership lies in the strength of their relationships. Strong leadership in schools results from the participation of many people, each leading in his or her own way. Whether we call it distributed leadership, collaborative leadership, or shared leadership, the ideal arrangement encourages every adult in the school to be a leader. Administrators, formal teacher leaders, and informal teacher leaders all contribute to the leadership mix. They hold the power to improve student learning in the hands they extend to one another.

References

Ackerman, R., & Mackenzie, S. (Eds.). (2006). Uncovering teacher leadership: Essays and voices from the field. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Bryk, A., & Schneider, B. (2002). Trust in schools: A core resource for improvement. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Darling-Hammond, L. (2001). The right to learn: A blueprint for creating schools that work. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Darling-Hammond, L. (2003). Enhancing teaching. In W. Owens & L. S. Kaplan (Eds.), Best practices, best thinking, and emerging issues in leadership (pp. 75–87). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Donaldson, G. (2006). Cultivating leadership in schools: Connecting people, purpose, and practice (2nd ed.). New York: Teachers College Press.

Elmore, R. (2004). School reform from the inside out: Policy, practice, and performance. Cambridge MA: Harvard Education Press.

Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R., & McKee, A. (2002). Primal leadership: Realizing the power of emotional intelligence. Cambridge MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Spillane, J. (2006). Distributed leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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Gordon A. Donaldson Jr. is Professor of Education, University of Maine; 207-581-2450; gordon.donaldson@umit.maine.edu.

What Makes an Outstanding Teacher

Walk into any school and ask the students, "Who are the best teachers in this school?" Then ask the teachers, the administrators, and the parents the same question. Chances are the same names will appear on many lists. As more local districts, states, and the nation have recognized "outstanding teachers," research studies have sought to understand the characteristics that these teachers have in common.

It’s important to note that these teachers are not selected because they are “easy” or “popular.” Many exemplary teachers have a reputation for being very tough—for having extremely high expectations and demanding that students live up to those expectations. Educators underestimate students when they believe students only want “easy” teachers. What they do want is teachers who listen to their ideas and their questions, treat them with respect, and demonstrate honest caring. For such teachers, students will work to the limits of their ability.

There is little or no mention in these studies of the amount of knowledge that these teachers cram into their students and/or the subsequent test scores. How likely is it, however, that peers, students, administration, and parents would praise a teacher whose students weren’t exhibiting a high level of learning? At some fundamental level, it appears both educators and the public recognize what is important in teaching. Yet both continue to cave in to claims that increasing the number of standards for which students are accountable and demanding that students “keep up” will ensure learning, as well as increase the expectations of teachers. These claims are questionable at best. (For a discussion of the relationship between standards and teacher expectations.)

Although their personalities vary widely, one study of exemplary teachers revealed typical beliefs that these teachers hold. These include the beliefs that:

“1. all children can learn and that it is the responsibility of the teacher to try various techniques and approaches to find out what will work for each child;

2. children do not all learn in the same ways since each is a unique individual;

3. a holistic approach to teaching improves learning;

4. knowledge is constructed, so care is taken in uncovering prior knowledge and building on it;

5. children, as learners, are teachers; teachers must also be learners;

6. teachers need to know each child very well in order to assist their intellectual, social, and emotional development;…

7. genuine understanding … or generative knowledge… is a high priority, so continuity and connections in learning are emphasized;

8. teaching is guided by the child's strengths and interests;

9. learning is a continuous process, a "continuum of growth";

10. self-reliance and independence of students is the ultimate goal;

11. time must be spent teaching children how to learn (learning about learning);

12. involvement of parents as teachers is crucial to learning;

13. learning requires risk taking and mistakes”

How does one integrate such beliefs with the demands for more and more externally selected standards and standardized testing?

Some reformers have observed exemplary teachers and attempted to create "checklists" of behaviors that other teachers can emulate. What they fail to recognize is that the beliefs that motivate those behaviors are the key to the teacher's effectiveness. Unless other teachers share those beliefs, they will not get the same results—even if they emulate the behaviors, which is unlikely.

Attempting to force teachers to adopt such beliefs through the imposition of tougher standards on students may appear less challenging, but it is doomed to failure. Working with teachers directly to encourage reflection and an updating of outdated "conventional wisdom" offers the promise of producing real change where it counts—in the relationship between teachers and their students.