Personal Reflections on Practice
This is a space for personal stories by people who have engaged in the work of development or education with the sole purpose of empowering others. A reflection on what they do, how they do it and what works or does not, are presented here. These are stories that inspire and anyone with such an experience is welcome to share it here.
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The Missing Link of Teacher Education in India
By Akash Shandilya | Feb 27, 2025
A recurring lament of teachers with some years of experience is that they were highly motivated when they joined as teachers; however, with time, that zeal faded, and now they have settled into their jobs with the same apathy towards student learning that is generally pervasive and which they thought they would not fall prey to.
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Integrating Reflective Teaching and Design Thinking for Transformative Education
By Akila Radhakrishnan | 20 Dec 2024
Design Thinking becomes a powerful complement to reflective teaching. The design thinking process offers a structure and flexible approach that a teacher can use. By integrating both, reflective teaching and design thinking, an educator can address multifaceted issues in the classroom.
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Building a Research Culture Among DIET Faculty in Kalaburagi
By Guru Sankayya Moger | June 19, 2024
The creation of a culture of inquiry is necessary to challenge the status quo in the education system – for coming up with new or different answers to existing problems so that strategising ways of dealing with the challenges becomes a key component of the research infrastructure.
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Theatre-in-Class: Channelising Curiosity and Creativity
By Swathy Nambi | Feb 22, 2024
At a time when education policies are pointing at making the content more relatable and the process more interesting, how does one talk about Gandhi and the freedom struggle in a way that is interesting to students in primary school?
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Immersive Workshop on Foundational Numeracy: Understanding Student Perspectives
By Narendran V | Feb 8, 2024
The main goal of maths education in schools is the ‘mathematisation’ of a child’s thinking. Clarity of thought and pursuing assumptions to logical conclusions is central to the mathematical enterprise.
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Navigating the Labyrinth of Reproductive Health Education
By Nidhi Tiwari | Jan 21, 2024
A student brought up the point of discrimination against transgenders in the conversation. This was not something I had thought of while planning my lesson for the day, but I was glad to have someone raise the issue because it highlighted the kind of impact the session had on them.
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Gram Panchayat Libraries in Anekal Taluk: A Model for the State
By Sidlingappa M Huded | Mar 27, 2024
The University team engaged with the panchayat representatives and librarians to emphasise the vital role that libraries play in rural communities and how they can provide valuable services within the constraints of their available resources.
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ECE Resource Centre: Demonstrating a Model Learning Environment
By Shankar K | Oct 27, 2023
This successful model has inspired the Samagra Shiksha, Puducherry to establish 50 more similar ECE Resource Centres in the academic year 2023 – 24 across all districts of Puducherry.
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Constitutional Perspectives on Democracy and Development: A Transformative Workshop
By Niharika Negi | Oct 6, 2023
Sessions on liberty, fraternity, and equality highlighted the nuanced aspects of these principles. We understood the crucial difference between substantive and formal equality — a difference that is extremely critical to understand but is understood by very few.
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बच्चे परीक्षा में प्रश्नपत्र में प्रश्न क्यों छोड़ते हैं ? एक आवासीय शिविर के अनुभव
द्वारा : यशस्वी द्विवेदी ; सम्पादन : राजेश उत्साही | Sep 22, 2023
बच्चों से टीचर ने प्रश्न का क्या मतलब होता है, इस पर बात की। उन्होंने चर्चा की कि प्रश्न का मतलब होता है कि वह आपको कुछ निर्देश दे रहे हैं, बता रहे हैं कि आपको आख़िर क्या करना है? प्रश्न एक ही होता है मगर उसके जवाब देने के और लिखने के तरीक़े अलग – अलग होते हैं।
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Spatial Understanding and Thinking in Early Childhood Education: Implications for School Readiness
By Akila Radhakrishnan | Sept 6, 2023
In Anganwadi centres, spatial learning is fostered through various activities, such as playing with building blocks, puzzles, and educational games, that are designed to help children develop spatial awareness. Additionally, Anganwadi centres can incorporate elements of sensory integration therapy to help children develop spatial awareness.
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Successful Collaboration Between a Gram Panchayat and a Civil Society Organisation: A Case Study
By Debraj Bhattacharya | Aug 25, 2023
Local governments were found to be lacking in ideas, experience and expertise in the tasks that were allocated to them by the Constitution. This resulted in many civil society organisations taking up the cause and working directly with Gram Panchayats or indirectly through capacity building, advocacy, research and documentation to support these.
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English Language Enrichment Course for Primary School Teachers in Telangana
By Nisha Butoliya, Arun Naik, A Giridhar Rao | Aug 11, 2023
Even though the objective of the course was to help teachers develop their English language proficiency, we found that teachers also understood and appreciated the method of teaching and learning English that was used in the course.
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Of Teachers and Trainings: Some Reflections
By Akash Shandilya | July 13, 2023
Workshops and trainings will only have relevance and desired impact when other structures of supporting, encouraging, and strengthening teachers are well in place. In the current scenario, because of the ineffective functioning of these structures, the trainings/workshops remain isolated efforts towards the professional development of teachers. Hence, teachers struggle to align the purpose of these trainings and workshops with their practice.
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Government Schools in Tonk: Some Observations Based on My Visit
By Muthulakshmi RTS | June 23, 2023
Girls seemed to have a better conceptual understanding than boys. Boys are given remedial practice in subjects during the time the girls go for their self-defence sessions.
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The ‘Gujarat Model’ of Governance and Development: Reflections Based on a Field Visit
By Santhakumar V | June 9, 2023
Social change that is envisioned by the Vaishyas as a traditional social group which is invested in businesses, could be different from that envisioned by the middle-class or new-generation capitalists (who may be from the educated middle class). The demand for broad-based social change or modernisation may be weaker among them.
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Learning Loss to Learning Recovery: An Experience from Bagalkote
By Gladson M E | Jan 24, 2023
The Kalika Chetarike programme is a notable initiative by the Karnataka Government for the learning recovery of government school students. A full academic year has been kept aside for this recovery.
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Local Approach to Ecological Restoration: The Navadarshanam Experience
By Gopi Sankarasubramani | Jan 10, 2023
The biggest challenge is that governments, industry and academia, for various reasons, have not embraced sustainable farming practices. Much of the scientific research and technologies released into the mainstream simply do not appreciate the interconnectedness of things, especially in living systems and the self-regulatory mechanisms that exist in nature.
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A Reading Fest to ‘Elicit Literacy’
By Karthikeyan S S | Sept 15, 2022
The back-to-school activities created a great interest among the children and teachers made use of this eagerness to connect activities to foundational literacy and numeracy. We suggested that teachers help students create simple stories and from there was born the idea of conducting a Reading Festival in the school.
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A Sense of Surroundings: Lesson on Maps (Maths, Class V)
By Narendran V | Aug 9, 2022
Visualisation is an essential skill that needs to be developed in students. Without it, imagination and ideas cannot flourish. Lessons like this one are included so that visualisation skills can be developed.
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Contextual and Participatory Pedagogy: My Experiences in Teaching Economics
By Kashif Mansoor | May 16, 2022
A classroom is the best place to sow and promote the seeds of harmony, equality, and justice. It provides the most conducive environment to prepare the revolutionary ground against supremacist/hierarchical orders embedded in caste, gender, race or religious notions.
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Specific Learning Skills Survey to Help Teachers Address Learning Loss: Lessons from Puducherry
By Anand S |
The results of the survey were shared with teachers to make them realise what they need to focus on to improve teaching and learning. The results were also useful in selecting suitable worksheets based on each student’s learning level.
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Sovereignty, Pleasure, Illusion and Play (Part II)
By C N Subramaniam | July 8, 2021
Play, like creativity, is a commodity which is required also to sustain the state and market. We can indeed find ways of incorporating playfulness in developing the curriculum. For example, ‘what if’ discussions which seek to imagine a world in which some norm is broken – what if I were the king or what if adding two and two makes five and five and five makes seven?
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Sovereignty, Pleasure, Illusion and Play (Part I)
By C N Subramaniam | June 22, 2021
Play is a purposeless activity, engaged in freedom, pleasure and a creative mood. It creates an illusory world in which familiar objects and persons assume new meanings and roles. In being purposeless and illusory, it is beyond logical and moral judgements.
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Quality Education: A Systemic Endeavor
By Richa Pandey | Apr 14, 2021
Interventions by organisations, like Azim Premji Foundation and Akshara Foundation, have contributed to speeding up the pace of improvement. While the problem of access is taken care of by establishing schools as per the norms, the next task is to ensure that learning takes place effectively.
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Reading Together: Exploring Texts with Adolescents
By Lavanya Murali | March 19, 2021
For this study, the readers chose the book The Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank translated into Hindi. It was read regularly for two months, one hour a day, by this group of adolescents. As they read, they discussed and interpreted the text relating it to their own situation. As the study progressed, newer elements related to the story, a movie on the theme and a history textbook were included.
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Human Connection over the Internet: My Experience of Virtual Teaching
By Richa Pandey | Feb 9, 2021
I wonder if I was teaching them in their regular school, how much time would have been spent on managing various things in the classroom. While I detest the virtual mode of learning on various grounds, I feel this sort of one-to-one connection is effective and somewhat essential to sustain the interest of children in their learning. But this can only be complementary and not a substitute for the regular, in-person teaching-learning process.
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Teaching Mathematics as a Learning Experience: A Bottom-up Approach
By Richa Pandey | Sep 22, 2020
I used the pile of notebooks lying in the room to establish the same point for the ones who might not have understood. The time invested was more than what I would have done if I were a regular teacher but the outcome was that the girl who had earlier said that she dislikes mathematics, answered my recapitulation question, ‘why do we learn multiplication’ by saying that ‘it helps us add easily’.
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Teaching Methods for Online Classes
By Srijita Chakraborty | Aug 18, 2020
A group of 15 odd girls sat in a room with a sole laptop in front of them while I was on the other side, in another city. Engaging them in a virtual setup was no mean feat. By trial and error, we were able to find methods that worked for us as a team. Now, in my second year of teaching, I wanted to pen some of the techniques that proved most effective in my previous year.
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A ‘Dark Zone’ of School Education: A Reflection
By Saswati Paik | Dec 26, 2019
In the Sheo block, located around 50 km from Barmer city, which was the biggest block in the Barmer district until recently, public elementary schools run within numerous constraints. Such constraints are hardly recognised or publicised and are rarely addressed.
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The Real ‘Skype’ Class (Part II)
By Srijita Chakraborty | Nov 20, 2019
Khadijatul Kubra Girls’ Mission (KKGM) is a mission exclusively for girls. Situated in the Bainan village of the Howrah district in West Bengal, it prides itself in providing convenient, quality education to Muslim girls, many of who may have otherwise dropped out. -
A Virtual Learning Experience (Part I)
By Srijita Chakraborty | Sept 10, 2019
A Gurgaon-based volunteer shares her experience of teaching spoken English online to a group of 17-year-olds in a home for destitute girls in West Bengal.
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Where Many Worlds Meet: Nilgiris Field Learning Centre
By Pratim Roy, Sarasmeetha Pathy and Anita Varghese | June 4, 2019
The NFLC curriculum brings together theory and practice, scientific and traditional knowledge, and quantitative and qualitative methods in a 15-week programme. Hosted by Cornell University’s study abroad programme, it is approved by all seven undergraduate colleges of the university.
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विद्यालय में बदलाव के लिए ज़रूरी है बच्चों, शिक्षक और समुदाय के बीच संवाद
लेख: शाहिद , संपादन: गुरबचन सिंह | May 6, 2019
शिक्षा के क्षेत्र में बदलाव लाने के लिए ‚जितना कार्य हमें विद्यालय में बच्चों , शिक्षक एवं प्रधानाध्यापक के साथ करने की जरूरत होती हैं , उतने ही कार्य की जरूरत हमें अभिभावकों एवं समुदाय के साथ करने की भी जरूरत होती हैं। क्योंकि विद्यालय से पहले बच्चे का समाजीकरण, परिवार एवं समुदाय के माध्यम से ही होता हैं। अगर वे जागरूक हो जायेंगे तो वे बच्चों से उनकी पढाई से संबंधित वार्तालाप करेंगे, तब उनमें भी जिम्मेदारी का भाव उत्पन्न होगा |
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एक सफ़र आनंदशाला के साथ
लेख: शाही दीपक , संपादन: गुरबचन सिंह | May 6, 2019
इन सारी प्रक्रियाओं के बाद जो सबसे बड़ी सीख मुझे मिली वह यह है कि शिक्षकों के क्षमता वर्धन के साथ‑साथ उनका दृष्टि निर्माण बहुत ही आवश्यक है । यदि हमें शिक्षा में एक बड़े बदलाव के बारे में सोच बना रहें हैं तो शिक्षकों के विज़न के निर्माण पर कार्य करना बहुत बेहतर रणनीति हो सकती है। यह पहल हमने कई विद्यालयों में करके देखी है, जिसका परिणाम बेहतर रहा है।
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स्कूल से अंतर्क्रिया: मेरे बदलाव की दास्तान
द्वारा: प्रभात कुमार ; संपादन: गुरबचन सिंह | Apr 24, 2019
जब शिक्षकों से शिक्षा संबंधी चर्चा की जाती है … उनका मानना है की सर्व शिक्षा के लिए बने नियमों ने उनके हाथ बांध दिए हैं। बच्चे का वर्ग उसकी योग्यता के आधार पर नहीं बल्कि उसकी उम्र के आधार पर निर्धारित होते हैं, बच्चे नियमित रूप से स्कूल नहीं आते, नाम कटना आसान नहीं होता , बच्चे को हर वर्ष अगले वर्ग में प्रवेश मिल जाता है। बच्चे पढ़ें या न पढ़ें पास तो हो ही जाता है. जिस कारण शिक्षा का स्तर लगातार गिरता जा रहा है। ध्यान देने योग्य बात है कि “शिक्षा की उपेक्षा करके कहीं हम विकास का सही अर्थ ही न खो दें । ऐसा न हो जाये कि ‘बस्तियाँ बसती रहें और आदमी उजड़ता चला जाये’।
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आनंदशाला के जतन से विद्यालय के बदलाव का सफ़र
लेख: सुनील कुमार, संपादन: गुरबचन सिंह | Apr 17, 2019
हम सभी जानते हैं कि सरकारी विद्यालयों में लड़का-लड़की हमेशा अलग-अलग बैठते हैं , अलग – अलग खेलते है साथ में गतिविधि कराना एक चुनौती रहती है। एक दिन एक विद्यालय में गया तो मेरी आँखे खुली की खुली रह गई, काफी मित्रतापूर्ण व्यवहार से पंचमी वर्ग की लड़की – लड़का मिलकर फुटबॉल खेल रहे थे । बच्चों को हम कैसी शिक्षा एवं वातावरण देते है इस पर काफी कुछ निर्भर करता है। चुनौतियों को हल करने के लिए उसके कैरेक्टर को महसूस करते हुए चुनौतियों की तह तक जाना और कैरेक्टर की बातों को महत्त्व देते हुए अपनी बातों को रखने पर व्यक्ति को समझाना सरल हो जाता है ।
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Partnership Between Government and NGOs to Improve Public Education
S C Behar interviewed by Santhakumar V | Jan 31, 2019
‘The government is not a monolithic organisation. An appropriate characterisation of it would be a “multi-headed hydra” or “Ravana”, based on Indian mythology.’ SC Behar highlights the challenges NGOs face in working with the government.
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Quality Schooling for All: Lessons from the Total Literacy Campaign
By Santhakumar V | Sep 18, 2018
The campaign was first carried out in the Ernakulam District, Kerala and was a joint effort by the district administration and the Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP). M P Parameswaran, who played a key role in it, in a freewheeling chat with Santhakumar V.
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A Teaching Experience with the Indonesia Teaches Movement: Reflections of a Teacher-Volunteer
By Veraningsih | Sept. 10, 2018
Indonesia Mengajar is a non-profit organisation that recruits, trains and sends the nation’s talented young people to various regions of Indonesia to serve as Pengajar Muda (young teachers) in elementary schools and communities for a period of one year.
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Memories of a Visionary and a Cooperative: Lessons from the Marianad Cooperative, Kerala
By John Kurien | Mar 28, 2018
Prof John Kurien who started his career as a development practitioner, shares an interesting perspective which offers important lessons for other development practitioners.