District Institutes of Education and Training - Teacher Education

District Institutes of Education and Training: A Comparative Study in Three Indian States
training ideas of the teacher and of teaching that need to be drawn out and
discussed, and worked through in the course of their professional preparation.
Some DIETs have, within the existing framework of the curriculum, taken steps
internally to promote quality – such as adjusting evaluation procedures, making
practice teaching more meaningful, and linking pre-service activities with inservice
training. Other DIETs deliver training without regard to such possibilities.
4.4 Policy implications
An area of major concern is that unless the DIET is proactive, the pre-service
course lags behind changes in the school curriculum – even in Gujarat where it had
been changed, the changes were within the existing transmission model that policy
seeks to dismiss in schools. All the DIETs in our sample were graduating teachers who,
albeit to varying degrees, could not fully support contemporary classroom learning.
This chapter provides considerable evidence of a need for a radical overhaul of preservice
training, linking it firmly with the initiatives that are being put in place in
schools. This overhaul requires a fundamental change to the model of pre-service
training. The transmission model does not provide a meaningful preparation for
teaching and learning within the competency-based approach. Its focus on
teaching denies student teachers the opportunity to evolve a focus on learning, or
the stance of constant evaluation of practices in relation to that learning. Unless
such changes are made, pre-service training will continue to promote the view of
teaching as a technical activity that involves the passing of knowledge from teacher
to student according to a set series of steps and methods. This can only undermine
the efforts being made in schools to gear teaching and learning to individual
competencies.
A view of teaching that is more in keeping with intended changes in the school
curriculum requires the pre-service course to provide student teachers with
opportunities to engage in experimentation, making sound educational
judgements, and reflection on practice in contexts – not as a technician, but as an
emergent craftsperson. It also requires that those who work with student teachers
themselves adopt this approach, and points to the need for comprehensive
professional development for DIET staff with a clear focus on learning.
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