MIE Workshops: Bridging the Gap in Pedagogical Practices
Feroz Khan, Research Associate (Modern Institute for Education, MIE)

Teachers are the face and voice of education reform. Through them, the policies are implemented, and they are the one who interact with the children and plays the crucial role in shaping the minds of the students. Using their teaching methodologies, they inculcate learning and skills among the students especially at the stage of foundational learning or at a preparatory stage. At this stage children ‘learn to read’ and understand the simple text. If they fail to do so, they may struggle to ‘read to learn’ at the later stage. The outcome would be – students may repeat the grade or more likely drop out from the schools.

Learning Poverty

Learning poverty reflects a situation where a child up to the age of 10 years fails to read and understand the basic text. Without proper learning at the foundational or preparatory stage, children may face the problem to acquire human capital they need to enhance their learning or career. Under such situation the role of the teachers becomes very vital.
However, lack of proper guidance, to the students from an untrained teacher or teachers who are not utilizing their skills fully may lead to leaning poverty among the students. The foundational or preparatory stage provides the base for future learning or acquiring the skills.

Is there a need for in service training?

Pre-service teacher training does not ensure implementation of better classroom practices. There are many reasons to it – like unconducive teaching atmosphere or limited resources can hinder teachers’ performance. Additionally, teachers may face a situation when they are not able to deliver their skills at the fullest. It may occur due to stagnation while using the same skills sets repetitively or while delivering the same lecture or technique year after year. To overcome from the stage of stagnation or monotony teachers need opportunities to reskill and upskills themselves. Workshops play a vital role in helping teachers rejuvenate their teaching practices and stay updated with new methodologies.

In general, the purpose of the workshop is to recognise the gaps in teaching practices and develop the programme that address them effectively. It also helps teachers to acquire new skills or refine their already acquires skills. The workshop also helps the stakeholders in making informed decisions to improve student learning outcomes.

Modern Institute for Education (MIE) workshops for teachers

MIE is conducting a series of offline as well as online capacity building programme for teachers. These programmes recognise the crucial role of teachers in creating better classroom environment to help children learn at their optimum level through enhanced pedagogical practices. The initiative is in the line of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, and Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) to enhance teacher’s skills and competencies.

So far, the institute has focused on several key areas, including:

• Play-based pedagogy
• English language and literacy
• Time management
• National curriculum framework for the foundational stage
• Socio-emotional and ethical learning
• Crafting happiness and cultivating a growth mindset
• Digital wellness
• Digital transformation for school management
• Pedagogical leadership and stakeholder management
• Education in the era of AI tools like ChatGPT
• Effective communication skills

This is just the beginning. These efforts aim to help children receive proper guidance and learning at the early stage. The efforts of the institutes show that it is steadily moving ahead with the objective to prepare the model to strengthen foundational and preparatory stage of learning. Many other private institutes can learn from the organisation and contribute in reducing the learning poverty through enhancing teachers’ pedagogical skills.