The School of Education organized a day long workshop on the 13 September, 2014. The objectives of the seminar were for the participants to explore the theory and practice of constructivism, to relate constructivist ideas with the nature and method of specific subject area and to conceptualise and develop one teaching-learning concept within a particular subject area, from a constructivist perspective.
The resource persons for this workshop were Dr. Anil Sethi, Dr. Rakhi Banerjee and Ms. Indumathi S, from the School of Education, Azim Premji University. The workshop was conducted for a target group of teachers and principals. There were a total of 58 participants from places as far as Gulbarga, Chikmagalur, Mysore and across Bangalore. There was also a participant from Andhra Pradesh.

The workshop began with a session for all the participants conducted by Dr. Rakhi Banerjee on the key ideas of the constructivist theory and practice. The session shed light on constructivism as a theory of learning, its emphasis on problem solving and presentation of content holistically. Dr. Rakhi stressed on the fact that in constructivism, teachers need to adapt the curriculum to address students’ suppositions.

After a short tea break, the participants split into three groups. Three sessions were conducted in parallel covering the theory on constructivist ideas with the nature and method of the specific subject. Dr. Anil Sethi facilitated the social science teachers, Dr. Rakhi Banerjee, the mathematics teachers and Ms. Indumathi S, the science teachers. All the resource persons covered the different types of constructivism in their specific subject. They explained the constructivist approach to be followed in classrooms via examples. After lunch, the same three groups under the same resource persons had an activity based session on conceptualisation from a constructivist approach.

All the participants, resource persons, faculty and students of the School of Education, CHRIST (Deemed to be University) came together after their specific subject sessions to partake in the valedictory function, wherein each participant received a certificate acknowledging their attendance of the workshop.The day ended with participants sharing reflections, ideas and pleasantries over high-tea.