EXTENDING
BACHELOR OF EDUCATION PROGRAMME
FROM ONE
YEAR TO TWO YEARS
B. N. Panda
INTRODUCTION
Research
studies in last fifty years in the area of teacher-education suggest that
teacher as a professional should answer the following questions:
Attribute
Question
Personal
integrity, human sensitivity and academic competency etc. are some of the basic
qualities/characteristics of an effective teacher. A teacher must be well
integrated with these personality qualities.
Knowledge
Question
Knowledge
question states, what teacher should know or what should be the knowledge base
of teacher-education. Knowledge question intends to professionalism teaching
and teacher-education by building a common base for profession. Different
version of knowledge needed for a teacher are theoretical knowledge, practical
knowledge, content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, codified knowledge,
culturally relevant knowledge etc.
Effectiveness
Question
The
effectiveness question focuses on these two issues mainly, i.e. what are the teaching
strategies and processes used by effective teachers, and what teacher-education
processes are most effective in ensuring that prospective teachers learn these
strategies. Scientific bases of teaching and empirical evidences about
effective teaching strategies both affect deeply in effectiveness
question. Now-a-days many
anthropological and socio- linguistic theories have been developed for making
classroom events meaningful.
Outcome
Question
The
outcome of teacher-education has become a serious topic for analysis now a day.
One should be clearer about the resultant part of teacher-education from
outcome question. Outcome question clearly states what should be the benefits
of teacher - education programme. What the teacher will do for the self and the
society, and why huge amount of money will be spent on teacher-education
programme.
ARGUMENTS
FOR CONTINUATION OF
The
supporters of one year B.Ed. say, the trainee-teachers posses the basic content
knowledge before their admission into B.Ed. course and, therefore, after their
admission into the B.Ed course, the trainee teachers are given more treatment
in pedagogy of teaching/teaching learning .strategies along with a tinge of
content tasks. And, for this purpose, one year B. Ed..
is a sufficient / sound time duration for developing
pedagogical skills in teaching / developing knowledge on teaching-learning
strategies among the trainee-teachers, say the supporters of one year B. Ed.
course.
ARGUMENTS
FOR TWO YEAR BACHELOR OF EDUCATION COURSE
The
critics of one-year B.Ed programme claims that the one-year course fails to
answer all these above stated questions. The critics of One Year B.Ed. argue
that, one year B.Ed is an in-sufficient time duration
to provide adequate and stable knowledge in content areas, in pedagogy of
teaching and at last in developing a sense of positive attitude towards
teaching among the trainee-teachers. The National Commission on Teachers-I
(1985) under the Chairmanship of D.P. Chottopadhyaya stated that the existing
one year B. Ed. Courses must be made effective both by the lengthening the time
available and by revamping the current course and curricula. The Commission
also suggested that two summer months
may be added to the academic year ensuring a working year of at least 220 days,
an increase in the working hours per
day, and in some places appointment of
additional staff and restructuring of the programme of studies allowing sufficient
time for practical works in the school and community.
TWO-YEAR
BACHELOR OF EDUCATION COURSE
NCERT
is a leading council at the national level, whose main objective is to bring
qualitative improvement in school education. Teacher-education is a significant
part of this school education programme. Along with many other functions, some
of the important functions of NCERT in the area of teacher- education are to
prepare the curriculum for teacher education, to revise the teacher-education
curriculum in accordance with existing needs, to judge the suitability of some
innovative curriculum for teacher education, to judge the suitability and
effectiveness of some new teacher-training strategies etc. After a long-term
debate and discussion, realizing the insufficiency/ inadequacy of one year
B.Ed. programme, NCERT introduced two year B.Ed. course in its four wings from
session 1999-2000 in accordance with NCTE guidelines. Since then this course is
continuing in these four RIEs keeping in view many
hopes and aspirations.
The
two-year B.Ed. programme introduced by NCERT in its RIEs
has certain special features/characteristics.It
provides greater scope for development of sound knowledge on different areas
i.e. content knowledge, knowledge on teaching-learning methodologies and
knowledge on pedagogy of teaching learning among the trainee-teachers. It
develops a sound knowledge base for trainee-teachers in content areas, develops
skills of trainee-teachers to be competent enough regarding how to transact the
content materials to the students of the schools meaningfully. Some of the
value related objectives that two-year B.Ed. intends to develop among the
trainee teachers are commitment, competence, accountability, dutifulness etc.
of the trainee-teachers towards the profession. It intends to bring integrated
development of the trainee-teachers touching both cognitive and non- cognitive
aspects of their behaviours.It is primarily practical
oriented. It gives stress on practical activities like internal
assessment, project works, sessional works,
internship in teaching, practice of micro-teaching skills, community works,
practical works relating to work experiences innovative ways for conducting
practical activities related to health and physical education, work experience,
fieldwork with community etc.
The
content materials of its programme are
transacted to the trainee-teachers through many innovative teaching-learning
strategies like problem solving, group discussion, panel discussion, seminar
reading, brain storming, practical and project work, discovery method,
competency based teaching, contextual transaction of the contents,
demonstration-cum-discussion, participatory/activity based group work, case
studies, practical exercises, innovations, individual/ group assignment, face
to face contact, tutorial / library work, research approach etc. contrasting to
the uniform teaching-learning strategy of one year B.Ed. programme. Two year
B.Ed. trains the trainee-teachers properly to meet the multifarious problems of
the school or classroom. It provides scope for pedagogical analysis of the content/
units included in its syllabus/curriculum. This pedagogical analysis becomes
helpful for healthy integration of contents, methods, theories, practical etc.
for meaningful transaction.•About
one month pre-internship in teaching programme (during Part-1 B.Ed. stage),
two-month internship in teaching programme (during Part- 11 B.Ed. stage),
post-internship meet, twenty days community work programme (10 days in Part-1
& 10 days in Part-11 B.Ed. stage) etc. are some of the special features of
this course. Both the pre- internship
and internship programme are supplemented by many other innovative activities
like practice of micro teaching skills in simulated classroom situation,
orientation of teachers of co-operative schools, multi-cultural placement,
substantial field experiences, field observation, team teaching, substitute
teaching, demonstration of the lessons, observation of the lessons, taught by
subject teachers, preparation, use and exhibition of teaching aids, conducting
action research/ case study, participation in both curricular and co-curricular
activities of the school, application of skills, getting opportunities for
reflection and application of their own experiences in the school situation,
development of teaching learning materials, observation of school processes,
taking the arrangement classes, peer group observation of teaching, analysis of
school experiences etc. along with the practice teaching.
CONCLUSION
The
scheme of studies, and the structure and scheme of examination of two year
B.Ed. course are mostly same in all the four RIEs
located at
REFERENCES
NCTE (1998) Curriculum Framework for Quality Teacher
Education.
NCTE,
Panda,
B.N. (2001) An In-depth Study of Two Year B.Ed. Programme in regard to
Suitability of Course Content and Transactional Strategies with Reference to
Objectives, Teacher Competencies and Commitment Areas. RIE,
Regional
Institute of Education (1999) Two year B.Ed.
Secondary course (Regulation & Scheme of Studies),
Regional Institute of Education. (1999) Two
Year B.Ed. Secondary (Ordinance and Courses of Studies),