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First experience at the Field Institute, Pondicherry

I attended the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation Training (CCE) for the Primary School Teachers, The training was conducted by the Department of Education, Puducherry with the collaboration of Azim Premji Foundation.

9th August 2012,
The training program started at around 9:30 AM.

The first activity was of introducing each other. There were about forty primary school teachers from different schools of puducherry. The teachers introduced themselves by saying their names prefixed by an adjective which best suited to them and also the reason which they have choose teaching as a profession. The activity went interesting.
After the self-introduction of the teachers the facilitators projected some photos in front of the teachers. The photos showed some children as well as teachers clicked from different situation. The teachers were asked to discuss on the photos; about the emotions, background and also the teachers were asked to connect these photos with the experience from their schools. Some of the teachers shared their experiences too. One of the major learning of the activity was that each child should be given individual attention.
The photo activity was followed by an activity where the teachers were grouped and was asked to discuss on what all a child knows before he/she comes to the school and also they were asked to discuss on what qualities and knowledge should a teacher have in-order to enhance the existing knowledge level of a child. The activity brought into the insight that, a child, before coming to the school has some knowledge in the local language he/she speak and also some of the people he/she comes across with respect to the relationship they have to the child. Also some basic numbering and some institutions like hospital, anganwadi etc.
Second half of the day there was a case study given to the teachers and they were asked to have a role play on it. All the teachers actively participated in the activity. The role play helped the teachers to get to know with different situations like that of the differently abled child and also on some of the learning disabilities which some children might show. These activities really helped the teachers to understand some concepts on the need of encouragement as well as individual attention.
After the role play the facilitator asked the teachers about their understanding on the term evaluation. The concept of evaluation was divided into three; the possible emotions which a child will have, the methods through which evaluation is been conducted and also on the purpose of evaluation. The teachers deliberated that the possible emotions would be fear, irritation and in some case the child may even fall ill. The methods which are been commonly used which was told by the teachers were oral, activity based, written etc. the purpose of evaluation may be for testing the knowledge of the child, his/her level of learning, to understand his/her skills etc. some of the teachers said that the purpose of the evaluation is to get a feedback on the process of teaching and mainly to check whether the child should be promoted to the next level. The major learning from the discussion on the evaluation was that, majority of the teachers were against the method of rot learning and mugging up of the things taught

10th August 2012,
The second day started at around 9:30 AM…

The sessions started by having a small recap on the learning of the previous day. The teachers recalled what was discussed the day before. The major point was that the assessment of a child should be based on his/her strength as well as weakness and not based on only the level of his/her memory. The concepts of summative as well as formative assessment were discussed among the teachers. Summative assessment is the one that happens at the end of the term and formative is a kind of continuous process where a child is been assessed on the basis of the activities and performance throughout the year. This formative assessment could help the teacher also to know on where he/she should improve in the teaching methodology. It was brought out that the best is the formative assessment the better will be the summative result.
After the discussions the teachers were grouped and were asked to do an activity through which the concepts of scholastic as well as co-scholastic type of learning. It was understood that any content knowledge we have is scholastic and any activity we do in order to make the content to be understood is co-scholastic. The activity of juice making helped the teachers in understanding these concepts.
Some activities on both Math as well as English where discussed. These discussions really helped the teachers in having a chance to learn from their peers.

13th August 2012,
The third day of the workshop started at around 9:45AM…

The session started with a small recap on the last days learning. After the recap the facilitator gave an activity where the teachers were asked to discuss on the meaning of the words Continuous, Comprehensive, Evaluation. The teachers put forward so many thoughts on these concepts. It was said that the continuous evaluation is for the teachers to know the effectiveness of the teaching methodology as well as for the children to understand on their on learning. The term comprehensive according to the teachers was that both scholastic and co-scholastic learning been assessed and evaluation is to know what the child has learned.   
There were some doubts for the teachers on the scholastic and co-scholastic part. An activity on the germination of the seeds were given to the teachers, through which those concepts where unpacked to the teachers. Also discussions were done on the indicators which can be used to assess the scholastic as well as co- scholastic learning.
The sessions were followed by the criteria of the distribution of marks in CCE.
The teachers gave their feedback on the CCE training. All of them said that the training was very usefull and they would try to work it out in their class..

Image source: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/man-holding-laptop-sitting-chair-3015061/

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