District Institutes of Education and Training - Teacher Education

District Institutes of Education and Training: A Comparative Study in Three Indian States
7.4.2 Transmission loss in the cascade
This project was generated by Indore DIET. Almost all DIET training follows a
cascade model to some extent, typically along the lines of the pattern shown in Fig.
7.2 for Madhya Pradesh, and transmission loss within the cascade was a concern
across DIETs.
Figure 7.2: A cascade training model, Madhya Pradesh
Personnel
District Resource
Group
Briefing
Master Trainers
Expansion
Teachers training
Detailed
Place and people
5 days at Bhopal
Given by SCERT, RIE and College of
Education
(DIET + RPs 12 people)
5 days in I
Given by those who went to Bhopal to the
80 Master trainers in I District
12 days: 5 (content-based) + 7 maths and
EVS
Given by MTs at block level in 7 places in I
district to about 800 teachers
Mode and materials
Materials – same
module throughout.
Training focuses on
content, activities,
demo lesson.
Classroom activities
for each unit, how to
evaluate teaching, how
to make it effective
and interesting
In the discussion of this topic, the DIET felt that they would enrich the training
they gained from the State, and so there was no question of transmission loss
at that point – rather, they talked of transmission gain at the DIET level.
They strongly felt that transmission loss occurred at the point of the cascade
where they trained Master Trainers:
Transmission loss starts at the MT level, teachers are not expert in training.
Their major role is not training so this loss takes place there. MTs
are not mentally prepared to teach teachers. Administrative slackness is
another cause. In the message some percentage is lost. For example,
for Child-Centred Approach they don’t convey exactly what the concept
is. They then define it according to themselves. Our assessment is that
most of the MTs failed to grasp so in the field they do it according to
their own ideas. Some continue to do evaluation traditionally, some
just ticked, these children have achieved this much (MP/IND/Ch
April 99).
However the DIET wanted to try and find out more about what could be
going wrong at each level. It was decided that at each level, when receiving
and giving training, the trainer would keep a diary of reflections on the
training programme, including areas where doubts and concerns remained, and
try to see how these gaps might impact on training the next level. The diary
writing was structured by prompts on a sheet stuck into the diary:
144 DFID