The Progressive Teacher Vol 04 Issue 03

Student Support System:
Successful learning, besides many other
things, requires different levels of support
depending upon the needs of each individual
learner. Student support services provide
not only individual feedback to learning
community, they provide the learners access
to counseling support where and when
required. Schools can start individual student
support system that can work regularly and
help children when they are in academic or
non academic crisis. Student Support within
the school curriculum can be divided into the
following areas -
Literacy Target
Group:
Numeracy Target
Group
Individual Needs
Group
Gifted and
Talented Group
For children whose
literacy acquisition
skills are poor and
need Language
support.
For children
whose numeracy
acquisition skills
are poor and need
special remedial
benefit from extra
Maths Support.
For students who
need special care
because of their
educational needs
as they can’t carry
on their unmodified
curriculum.
For students
who perform
exceptionally
well and need
enhanced learning
programmes and
curricula to do
superbly.
Joint Home Learning Agreement:
Teaching-learning is a joint undertaking
between teachers and learners. Learning of a
child is not confined to the school campus and
it derives value from the home environment.
Home learning is a shared responsibility
between the student, teacher and family. In
our schools we regularly remain in touch with
parents and family members of our students
so that a joint agreement is reached. There
is proved evidence that after establishing
healthy home-learning environment, children
learn independently getting support from all
quarters. Joint Home Learning environment
provides a child confidence and support to
enhance learning skills and also provides the
child and parents timely feedback to counter
learning challenges.
Calibrating Collaborative Team Teaching:
Can having more than one teacher in the
classroom help students learn better? In
our schools we regularly transform our
classrooms into massive learning platforms
where teachers join in to support children’s
learning at several levels. Collaborative
team teaching often occurs in an inclusive
classroom. In a co-taught class, general
education and special education teachers
work together to plan lessons, teach and
monitor student progress and manage the
classes.
Being in a co-taught classroom
has many benefits. Students
can spend more time with the
teachers and get more individual
attention. And with more than
one teacher, it’s easier to teach
students in smaller groups or on
a one-on-one basis.
Moreover, students have the
opportunity to learn from
two teachers who may have
different teaching styles, ideas,
perspectives and experience. In
Collaborative team teaching, the
curriculum is divided into several
chunks and each team member
takes up different tasks aiming to
address the learners’ difficulties,
choices and requirements.
Replacing Over Testing
with Learning Measurement:
In recent years our education system has
undergone many changes in terms of teaching
and learning measurement. CBSE and
many state board schools are now adopting
standardized teaching learning assessment.
Junking the CCE pattern the new scheme
of evaluation aims to bring uniformity in
educational evaluation. The new scheme gives
90% weightage to pen and paper tests now,
including 80 marks to the half yearly or
annual examination. 10 marks are set aside
for periodic assessment in each term.
A word of caution is that all schools or
boards must be aware of the fact that
evaluation system should inculcate healthy
learning spirit not cut throat competition for
marks, percentage and grades.
As July has begun and our schools are
again buzzing with activity, our teachers are
again gearing up for the new lessons. Let us
hope that they will bring new pedagogy into
practice in a more lively and vivid manner. Let
our children experience the most enjoyable
and meaningful learning for today, tomorrow
and always.
Jul/Aug 2017
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