TEACHING METHODS, GUIDANCE AND EVALUATION
 

9.01 The need for a continual deepening of the school curricula which we examined in the preceding chapter is intimately related to the equally urgent need for a continual improvement in teaching methods and evaluation (inclusive of guidance). We shall devote this chapter to the consideration of some of the important aspects of this programme.

TEACHING METHODS: DISCOVERY AND DIFFUSION

9.02 Scope of the Discussion. A good deal of attention has been directed in recent years to the techniques of revitalizing classroom teaching in Indian schools. Basic education was intended to revolu- tionize all life and activity in the primary school and draw out `the best in the child-body, mind and spirit'. The Secondary Education Commission devoted an entire chapter in its report to dynamic methods of teaching, discussing the objectives of the right techniques, the values of various activity methods and the different ways in which these methods and techniques could be adapted to suit different levels of intelligence. Considerable efforts have been made during the last decade through seminars, workshops, refresher courses and summer institutes to introduce the teacher, especially at the secondary stage, to new techniques of instruction. The use of audio-visual aids has been on the increase in urban schools, and even television has been brought into the service of classroom teaching in Delhi. And yet it will be generally agreed that the impact of these activities on teaching practices in the vast majority of our schools has not been very significant. The picture is particularly dismal in the rural areas, and especially in the primary schools. In the average school today, instruction still conforms to a mechanical routine, continues to be dominated by the old besetting evil of verbalism and therefore remains as dull and uninspiring as before.

9.03 Why does this happen ? The problem is complex and the answers to it are not easy to give. But in our opinion, the following are the four major factors that impede progress:

(1) The weakness of the average teacher. By and large, the competence

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of the average teacher is poor; his general education is below standard and Ms professional preparation unsatisfactory.

(2) The failure to develop proper educational research on teaching methods. Little has been done to find out in crucial sectors the methods that are best suited to our conditions and needs. For instance, the best methods of teaching beginning reading in a phonetic script like Devanagari have yet to be developed.

(3) The rigidity of the existing educational system. Better methods of teaching are discovered, not so much through educational research, as through the adventures of gifted teachers who have the courage to get off the beaten track. Our educational system is not designed to encourage initiative, creativity and experimentation on a large scale and is, therefore, not able to keep itself abreast of the times.

(4) The failure of the administrative machinery to bring about a diffusion of new and dynamic methods of teaching. Even assuming that a good method of teaching is discovered and is actually introduced in a few progressive schools, the problem still remains of diffusing it among the other schools so that it becomes the common practice in the educational system as such. This is a difficult task, and we have yet to find the right techniques for accomplishing it.

The first of these problems has already been discussed in Chapters III and IV and the second is dealt with in broad terms in a subsequent chapter.*93 We do not propose to examine here the methods of teaching different school subjects as there is a good deal of pedagogical literature available on these topics. It is our considered opinion, however, that the failure to modernize our teaching methods is very largely due to the third and fourth factors stated above-the rigidity of the educational system and the administrative failure to diffuse even known and practised methods among the schools. We shall address ourselves mainly to these two problems in the course of this chapter.

9.04 Elasticity and Dynamism. In a modern society where the rate of change and of the growth of knowledge is very rapid, the educa- tional system must be elastic and dynamic. It must give freedom to its basic units-the individual pupil in a school, the individual teacher among his colleagues, and the individual school (or cluster of schools) within the system to move in a direction or at a pace which is different from that of other similar units within the system without being unduly hampered by the structure of the system as a whole. In this process,

93 Chapter XII.

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the freedom of the teachers is the most vital; it is almost synonymous with the freedom of the school, for the pupils can rarely be freer than the men and women who teach them. It will, therefore, be quite in order to equate the elasticity and dynamism of an educational system basically with the freedom of teachers.

9.05 It has to be remembered that advances in classroom practice never occur on a broad front, with all the teachers and all the schools moving forward in unison. In a school system with a large number of untrained or poorly trained teachers, there is need for a solid framework of detailed syllabuses, textbooks, examinations, frequent inspections and well-defined rules. The average teacher who wants security rather than opportunity for creativity may welcome this support. But the work of the best teachers can be crippled if they are not permitted, encouraged and helped to go beyond the departmental prescriptions. The success of an educational reform will depend upon this flexible approach where the good school or the good teacher is able to forge ahead and the necessary supports are provided to the weaker institutions to introduce the reform gradually. The task of the administrator or inspector in such a situation becomes very difficult. He cannot take the easy line of imposing common restrictions on all or be daring enough to give equal freedom to all. We expect him to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of each school and of each school teacher and to help them make the best progress they can. One of the essential conditions for making an educational system elastic and dynamic, therefore, is for the administrator to develop this competence, to discriminate between school and school, between teacher and teacher, and to adopt a flexible mode of treatment for individuals or institutions at different levels of development. This alone can help to promote initiative, creativity and experimentation on the part of the teachers.

9.06 Certain general conditions are necessary to promote this elasticity and dynamism, some of the more important of which are given below:

(1) The individual teacher is most likely to try bold changes in teaching practice if there is a feeling of reform in the air and if he sees his small contribution as part of a major social revolution.

(2) The experimenting teacher must have much more than the passive acquiescence of the school inspectors. He must feel that officers of the Education Department are personally eager to see experimentation and that they are willing, within reasonable limits, to accept a proportion of failures as part of the price.

(3) The inspectors are the key figures in any reform of classroom practice. They are Authority, present and obvious. They should

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be consulted from the beginning, should know that their criticisms and suggestions carry weight, and should be made to feel that the proposed changes are, in some measure, their reforms. A school system can be no more elastic or dynamic than the inspectors will let it be. This is why the in- service education of inspecting officers assumes great significance.

(4) The sympathy and support of headmasters and senior teachers must be won quite early in the programme if they are not to dampen all youthful ardour to experiment and explore. They may not want to break new ground themselves. But if they do not feel they are being by-passed and that the new system is not being foisted on them, they can become its patrons, if not its practitioners. There is also much to be gained by winning the approval of teachers' organizations to any movement that increases flexibility in the school system. Individuals will experiment more readily if they feel that experimentation has the general support of the profession.

(5) Anything that breaks down the isolation of the teacher increases his sense of assurance and makes it easier for him to adventure. The strengthening of the teacher's sense of inner security is a purpose common to all the methods advocated to increase the elasticity or dynamism in a school system. It is the basis of all real reform in teaching practice. There are occupations where amass advance can be achieved by the invention of new equipment and the issuing of instructions for its use. No worthwhile advance is possible in teaching method unless the individual teacher understands what he is doing and feels secure enough to take the first new steps beyond the bounds of established practice. It is easier for a teacher to do so in a small group than when he is working alone. The success of `eam teaching' in introducing new teaching techniques into some American schools is based on the fact that it is not the individual but the team that is responsible for the planning and execution of new methods. it is our belief that the proposed organization of a school complex*94 in which the teacher works in a cooperative group is more likely to help flexibility than the present system of isolation.

(6) Nothing reduces a teacher's sense of security or his willingness to take advantage of freedom so seriously as does his ignorance of the subject-matter he has to teach. If he is only a few lessons ahead of his class he dare take no risks, and finds safety in the old routine of rote memorizing. Increasing the teacher's level of

94 See Chapter II, for details.

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general education is, in general, the surest way of ensuring that some of them will adopt livelier and more meaningful methods of teaching. Fortunately, the limiting factor is not so much the absolute amount of knowledge the teacher has but the gap between what he knows and what his pupils know. Consequently, the easiest place to introduce innovations is in classes I and II. There is also a great advantage in taking the lowest classes of the school as a starting point for reform, since it is at this level that the greatest 'pupil wastage' occurs through repetition and drop-out.

(7) When in doubt, teachers will teach in the way they were taught themselves and not in the way they were told to teach. So, if a school system is to become more flexible and teaching methods more lively and varied, it is essential that these qualities be established very early in the practice, as well as in the theory, of at least some of the teacher-training institutions. A few training institutions at both the primary and the secondary levels should become centres for devising, testing, and adapting methods and materials to be used in the schools.

(8) A teacher or institution will be able to introduce innovations more easily if the parents of the pupils know enough about their purpose so as not to have any fear that they will interfere with their children's chances at the final examination. A strong and respected headmaster or teacher can probably best will over the parents by his own efforts; but in most cases, it will be necessary for the Department to help in convincing parents that changes in methods are desirable and officially approved.

(9) Innovations are more likely to occur if there is a ladder of promotion up which the bright young teacher can hope to climb by outstanding service.

(10) Obviously, elasticity or dynamism will be increased if there is a reasonable provision of books, teaching materials, and services that will enable some children to undertake part of their work alone or in groups. There is a limit to what can be expected of the most imaginative teacher if all he has is a bare room, a blackboard, a standard textbook, and sixty pupils. The most pressing needs for a teacher who wants to branch out on new methods are, therefore, a good supply of books and paper, and particularly at the lower levels of school education, some simple tools and materials for making equipment. If some teachers in the more poorly equipped schools are to have a real chance to make use of any freedom they are given, it would seem desirable to have at the disposal of the district education officer a

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sum of money, not too tightly bound up by regulations, that might be used, with discrimination, in providing the minimum facilities and services to certain schools and teachers who show a special willingness and capacity to adopt new methods and standards of teaching. The amount of such aid should never be so great as to make any experiment expensive, unreal, and incapable of being applied widely. Too many 'pilot projects' are conceived on such an elaborate scale that they irritate teachers in the average schools and are of little value to the system as a whole.

9.07 If measures like those described above can be taken, schools and teachers will have opportunities to venture forth on their own and try out new ideas and experiments. Of course, those that will actually utilize this freedom will be few. But it is these few teachers and schools whose work will put dynamism into the system as a whole and help in raising standards, in breaking new ground and in continually adapting the system to the demands of a changing society.

9.08 The Diffusion of New Methods. Elasticity in a school system is obviously of limited value unless the good practices developed by a few adventurous teachers or schools are spread more widely through the system as a whole. Unfortunately, this is by no means an automatic process in education, where successful experiments frequently die with the men and women who started them, and where the natural rate of spread of even the more viable innovations is measured in decades rather than in years. It takes a great deal of administrative skill and preseverance to get bold new methods understood and accepted by the body of average and below average teachers, even when they have amply proved their value and firm proofs of success are hard to produce in education. The difficulties are multiplied ten-fold when teachers are expected to accept, not a new technique for achieving the old ends, but methods that embody in themselves a new concept of the very purpose of education. That is why it is such a long and burdensome task to convert a school system based primarily on memo- rization into one involving understanding, active thinking, creativity and what has come to be called 'problem solving'. Each step is not a step but a leap into the unknown, and the average teacher needs skilled and detailed help, and what may seem to be a contradiction in terms sympathetic goading if he is to make it at all. This is precisely the problem that we have to face and solve during the next ten to twenty years.

9.09 How can this be done? Very little systematic research has been undertaken on the diffusion of classroom practices even in the educationally advanced countries, and practically none in developing coun-

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