School of Education celebrates the Tenth Anniversary on 22 February 2017
Panel discussion on“Benchmarking Teacher Education: Innovation, Global Learning and National perspectives.”
The Panellistconsisted of renowned persons from the field of education -Dr Anand A. Samuel Vice Chancellor, VIT University, Dr AnithaKurup, Dean and Professor, School of Social Sciences and Head of Education Program at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS)and Mr Rishikesh B.S., an Associate Professor ,Policy &Governance, Azim PremjiUniversity. Dr Kennedy Andrew Thomas, Professor, School of Education,was the moderator of the panel discussion.
Dr Anand A. Samuel shared his views on digitalizing education and the experience he has with his students,who are the natives of the digital era and are very responsive on the digital forum. He also mentioned the boon of technology in education in the form of apps and portals that have influenced and taken education to an entire new level. To mention a few google classroom, LMS, hot potatoes etc. he also touched upon MOOC courses that have made high quality education accessible to one and all and alsoemphasised on digitalizing evaluation to make it more transparent and accessible to all.
Dr AnithaKurup focused on teaching as a professional course and on getting quality teachers. She emphasised on teaching profession to be taken up by candidates who are passionate about teaching and not someone who has chosen this path as an alternative career, as they preferred a change from other careers due to inevitable reasons. In order to get passionate and well qualified teachers, she emphasized on having integrated teaching programs for a period of 5 years and to be perused immediately after class 12. By doing so the teacher trainee masters oneself both in content knowledge and in teaching skills. By choosing the teaching career as early as in the 12 class, she believes will ensure that the candidates who enrol are passionate and clear about their teaching career.
Mr Rishikesh B.S. focused on globalization of education and grooming quality teachers. In his opinion increasing the duration of the teacher education program from 1 year to 2 years will not guarantee quality teachers. In order to get quality teachers the B.Ed. degree alone will not be of help and focused on having recertification courses, where the teacher gets to upgrade one’s knowledge and get aligned to the growing demands of the 21st century education system. He also stressed upon the fact that teachers should be able to research and adapt to innovative teaching practices. During the teacher education program the teacher trainee should not only focus on teaching in public schools but also get an exposure to rural schools to get a reality check and insight on the educational system and to test their adaptability as teachers.
The panel discussion was followed by a question answer round where the participants were given an opportunity to voice out and get clarity on the discussion. During the course of discussion it brought about a whole new perspective of the expectations and the efficiency that everyone looks up to in the teaching career. It was a fruitful and insightful discussion.
