An account of the two-day National

Seminar (ICSSR sponsored) on

Innovations in 21
st
Century Education



Adithi Muralidhar and Aparna Sivakumar


Observer Research Foundation Mumbai
Ideas and Action for a Better India

Page 2 of 12

On the 4
th
and 5
th
April, 2014, K. J Somaiya Comprehensive College of
Education, Training and Research organised a two day National seminar (ICSSR
sponsored) on Innovations in 21
st
Century Education. The sub-themes for the
seminar were Technological Innovations in Education, Innovations for Inclusion,
Innovative Instructional Strategies. Papers were invited from students, teacher
educators, practitioners in education and researchers, under these themes and
it was expected that these contributions would explore the educational
significance of the questions that emerged and their implementation. As their
brochure advertised, promoting creativity and incentivising innovations through
educational institutions is the first step towards broadening and deepening the
impact of innovations on our society and economy. K J Somaiya College too
has joined in, in this quest, and has engaged with a series of initiatives that help
foster and promote innovations in their own educational set up and also present
new instructional designs and innovative platforms for knowledge creation,
dissemination and application for others.
The seminar saw several eminent personalities on the first and the second day.
The audience for these seminars were largely B.Ed students and teacher
educators.
Overall, the sessions at the seminar were interesting.
Some key points and issues raised were:
Everyone admitted that there is a problem in todays teacher education
system.
The B.Ed curriculum does not adequately tackle the societal needs and
does not address the issues that teachers face in the classroom, in reality.
Teacher education is disconnected from school education - they both
should ideally have a symbiotic relation.
Internal enthusiasm from the individual teacher is critical to innovation
and creativity in their respective classrooms, and more importantly for
them to effect change within the existing framework of the educational
system.
Teachers should be working in communities and not individually. There is a
need for several collaborations between teacher educators, teacher
education colleges and with schools.

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Teachers need to be led by a strong leader with vision and ability to set
examples for others to follow.
ICT should be integrated in the educational system by which it becomes
more meaningful for the student and not just merely a different way of
chalk-board method.

On 4
th
April, we had the opportunity to hear Dr. Chitra Natarajan (Professor and
Dean, Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Mumbai), Dr. Vijayam Ravi
(Educational Consultant) and Shri V. Ranganathan (IAS, Honourable Secretary,
Somaiya Vidyavihar). They addressed the audience on various issues; some of
the highlights of their talks were as follows:
Some points by hear Dr. Chitra Natarajan (Professor and Dean, Homi Bhabha
Centre for Science Education)
Are we looking at teaching as a profession? Do we look at B.Ed as just a
degree of something more?
If teacher educators can learn on their own, then we are successful.
It is important to have a community of teachers. We are not an island for
ourselves.
During the course of her talk, Dr. Natarajan also mentioned Peter M.
Senge
1
. Peter Senge is the founding chair of the Society for Organisational
Learning (SoL), a global community of corporations, researchers, and
consultants dedicated to the interdependent development of people
and their institutions.
Some points mentioned by Dr. Vijayam Ravi (Educational Consultant)
She talked of innovations being of two kinds- one that happens in the
inside, and one that happens on the outside. If any innovation needs to
happen on the outside, it has to first happen on the inside.
Teaching is something where most of the learning happens during the job.
Todays educational scenario has to grapple with three major aspects:
One, you have children who are conceived with mobile phones in the
womb. Second, you have to deal with parents who are never satisfied.

1
http://executive.mit.edu/faculty/profile/30-peter-senge

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And three, you have a management who are also never satisfied with the
amount of money that comes in.
A teacher has to grow professionally and personally and it is crucial that
both happen simultaneously.
Dr. Ravi spoke of how often she meets with the same retort from teachers,
in her pursuit to inspire teachers- You can take the horse to the water, but
you cannot make it drink it. This is what teachers sometimes say to me. But
my reply to them is- Make the horse thirsty. That is the spirit of innovation!
There is dearth of leadership and guidance for teachers. There is too
much monotony in the classrooms.
Dr. Ravi quoted Chanakyas famous words- As the King, as the subject.
She wanted to emphasise that teachers will imbibe the qualities of the
Principal, who is the leader of the school, and the students will in turn
imbibe the qualities of the teachers as they are in their classrooms.
Dr. Ravi believed that all great teachers are slightly philosophical. She
cited several famous lines in this regard- Live to express, not to impress.
Work for a cause, not applause. Work never for people to see your
presence, instead, they should notice your absence.
She gave the example of Singhania School (Thane) which adopted a
single textbook curriculum.

The final remarks were made by Shri V. Ranganathan (IAS, Honourable
Secretary, Somaiya Vidyavihar & initiated the Shri Ranganathan Balika Trust)
2
. He
highlighted the points made by the previous speakers and listed out the main
problems in teacher education. He mentioned some best practices like that of
the Tamarind Tree Trust, which is located in Sogve village of Dahanu. It runs a
campaign for social and environmental justice to protect the eco-fragile status
of Dahanu, works closely with a self help group of tribal artists to develop new
methods of marketing and promoting their art and a lot of work is happening in
the local schools as well.

2
In his 37 years of service, Shri Ranganathan held various positions in Government of India and
Government of Maharashtra including Joint Secretary, Dept. of Atomic Energy, Additional Chief
Secretary (Home Dept) and Municipal Commissioner, Mumbai. He retired on 30/9/2002 as Chief
Secretary to the Government of Maharashtra. He holds the position of Chairman of the Mumbai
Heritage Conservation Committee.


Page 5 of 12

The second session on 4
th
April saw another eminent personality- Ms Kavita
Anand, who is the Executive Director of Adhyayan
3
. Kavita heads the Training
and Development section for Adhyayan and her expertise lies in managing and
conducting training programmes for teacher induction, school improvement
and leadership and management.
Some points mentioned by Ms. Kavita Anand
Kavita spoke about using social media as a tool in education. In fact at
the beginning of her talk, she asked all of us to keep tweeting at
#edindia2014. For those of us who did not have internet on our phones,
post-its were distributed. Her talk involved a lot of instant feedback from
the audience, for example, she gave us signals for Yes, No and Maybe
and randomly asked us questions. By a show of hands, she could gauge
her audiences ideas and experiences.
With close to 600 million Indians younger than 25, it is sad to know that
only 17% of Indias graduates are immediately employable.
In order to have 100 million workers by 2020, we would need 1000
universities and 50000 colleges within the next 6 years (Brick and Mortar as
well as Virtual).
Kavita spoke of two types of thinking- Independent thinking and
impoverished thinking. Education must aim at the former.
She urged the students of B.Ed to learn from the works of Ken Robinson,
Michael Barber, and Michael Welsh.
She spoke about the Global Classroom Project, Teacher tube, Coursera
and other internet sources of information and networking for teachers.
She said that teachers need to speak the digital native if we are to learn
from each other.
These were followed by parallel sessions of paper presentations. The topics of
the papers presented in Annexure1.
On 5
th
April, the panel discussion moderated by Dr. Indu Garg (Dept. of
Education, University of Mumbai) was very interesting and some crucial issues
were highlighted.

3
Adhyayan (http://adhyayan.asia/) is an education movement of Indian and international
educationists, dedicated to improving the quality of leadership and learning in schools. Kavita is
also the Executive Director of Shishuvan School.

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Dr Sunita Wadikar (Principal, Pillais College of Education
4
)
She spoke of the gap between school education and teacher education.
She said that this was a symbiotic relationship and that todays problem is
that teaching methods are 20
th
century while the learners are 21
st
century.
She also mentioned of assessment of teaching 21
st
century skills.





Dr Sybil Thomas (Principal, St Xaviers College of Education)
She talked of how teachers have conflicting responsibilities- that is 1) to
ensure that students learn proficiency and 2) help students to find their
own way.
She talked of how we are not born as human beings, and that we have to
learn to become human beings, and this process is a mysterious pursuit.
She also talked of the paradox one has to face where on the one hand,
teachers have to produce rational human beings, and on the other, their
efforts are hindered as their efforts are narrowed by a set curriculum.
Body of knowledge needs to evolve to serve the interests of that era.
Normalising the new techniques that are introduced in teacher
education.
It is important to build strong ethical foundations.
Leadership is very important. As a leader, what kind of organisational
structure do you permeate?
Teachers need to help students through philosophy to position
themselves.

4
http://www.pcer.ac.in/

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Ms. Elizebeth Mehta (Founder Director, Muktangan)
5

There should not be a divide between school and teacher education. Can
we integrate the same in the mainstream?
Fragmentation of teacher education Muktangans teacher training, for
instance, is inside the school; teacher trainees spend 2 days every week in
the school as part of their internship.
Teacher education needs to be community based.
How can one expect an 8 month course to tackle and equip teachers with
the knowhow of education?
Should teacher education get integrated into the university system?
Research should be integrated with teacher education. If not, atleast the
value addition of research to teacher education needs to be thought out.
Segmentation of teacher education. Are we looking at how the child and
how the child learns?
One can learn to be a teacher educator only by teaching in schools,
themselves. To be a teacher trainer, the teacher should have been in
schools for at least 3 years in different levels.
What about the education of the teacher educators? They need to learn to
be facilitators.
What about the ongoing engagement of teacher educators in schools.
Teacher educators should have more in-service training to enrich
themselves.
Teachers should be taught how to observe students vs observing
classrooms.
Currently it seems that there is no constructivism in teacher education, how
can we expect that they do it in schools? Teacher educators are themselves
learning by sitting in rows they need to learn in a participatory fashion, in
circles, in peer groups, they need to reflect more.
Teachers needs to be sensitized, are our own teachers clear on their belief
systems? Are we creating children to fit into society or to transform society?
The outcomes of assessment should involve a thinking teacher, responsive
organizational structure and effective communicator.

5
http://muktanganedu.org/

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Empowerment and time are the two factors that we need to focus on.
Ms. Parveen Shaikh (Head, Primary Section, The Somaiya School)
There is a huge disconnect between theory and what teachers can do in
the class. What happens in the community should reflect in teacher
education. How can we bring this shift in teacher training programme?
Ms Parveen Shaikh likened teachers moving from the B.Ed programme
directly to classrooms as premature delivery.
She rued that though schools have changed (parents are more demanding,
children have become much smarter), the teacher training colleges have
not caught up.
There has to be collaboration between teacher education colleges,
perhaps to start out with, those from the same area at least.
Are B.Ed students being treated as thinking adults? They naturally practice
what they learn in their teacher training programme in classrooms.
Ms. Shaikh appealed to all that ultimately methodology is your domain.
You can think of innovative ways in the classroom.
For example, Akansha have a thinking time allotted early each morning
when children come to school.
Ms. Vidhushi Chaudhary (Founder, Mindsprings Enrichment Centre)
6

Education is not given the status it deserves.
Gave example of Khan Academy: Flipped classroom.
Change the 10
th
standard board exam pattern for children, automatically
teacher education will change.
Teachers exams need to be coupled with financial incentives?
Children are powerless in todays world- it is a systemic problem we have
in education.
Teacher feels the onus is not on her/him, it is a collective decision and you
need not have to do anything.
Steps to do- 1) Advocate 2) Lesson planning with a creative element 3)
Diagnostic prescriptive teaching (systematised).

6
http://www.mindsprings.in/home.php

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Thinking skills paper should be integral to B.Ed curriculum.
Learning curves of children and greater than that of adults.
Mindsprings recruits professionals on sabbaticals, angry parents who
care for children and hence are committed and want to do something.
This ensures that teachers and children have a different learning curve.
She emphasized the need to capture committed resources, train them
and ensure that they are in the system, to improve education.
Dr. Indu Garg (Dept. of Education, University of Mumbai)
There needs to be a change in the mindset.
We need to rethink the purpose of education.
We need to rethink and rephrase the aims of teacher education.
Teacher education needs to be contextualised to todays world.
This was followed by paper presentations by participants, the list of which is
given in the Annexure 1.
Acknowledgements
The brochure of the ICSSR sponsored seminar on Innovations in 21st Century
Education was referred to for the making of this document. The list of topics
presented in the seminar is listed in Annexure. The front cover picture was
retrieved from the following link-
https://www.flickr.com/photos/joelogon/5001595933/in/photostream/







Page 10 of 12

ANNEXURE-1

SUBTHEME 1: TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS IN EDUCATION
1. Tech-savvy classrooms
2. Junior College Students usage of social networking sites for their personal,
academic work and their comparison based on faculty.
3. Learning outcomes of flipped classroom in relation with learning theories.
4. Using Design and technology task to foster learning through the joy of
making among students of class VIII
5. Mobile learning
6. Wikipedia: A unique attempt at democratisation of knowledge
7. Effectiveness of mobile application as an assessment tool in testing the
conceptual clarity in science among High School students.
8. Blended learning strategy for fostering conceptual clarity of
undergraduate students in commerce: An experiment
9. Flipped learning: An innovative tool to provide a rich learning
environment
10. Analysis of high dropout rate in online courses
11. Online course: Learners hub towards learning and socialisation
12. Google Apps: A powerful tool for managing institutional information
systems
13. Blog: An excellent platform for educational researchers
14. Using web based resources for promoting conceptual understanding in
Economics among Junior college students
15. ICT integration for enhancing English speaking skills of upper primary
vernacular medium students
16. Promoting achievement and interest in history through ICT enhanced
project based learning



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SUBTHEME 2: INNOVATIONS FOR INCLUSION

17. A Comparative study of perception of secondary school teachers of SSC
and ICSE Board about students with learning disabilities
18. Structuring Astronomy activities for creating equitable learning
environment for the vision impaired students
19. Disability and access to educational opportunities: A study of universities
in Delhi
20. An innovative strategy for addressing diversity in a science class
21. Enhancing self-esteem among upper primary students: A peer mentoring
approach

SUBTHEME 3: INNOVATIVE INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES
22. Understanding life skills: A teachers perspective
23. Concept Mapping
24. Student Perception of teachers interpersonal skills
25. Impact of an inquiry based science program on secondary school
students achievement in science
26. A study of the attitude of student teachers towards rural internship
27. Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the
world: Cooperative learning and infusion of values
28. Reverse mentoring
29. Transactional analysis embedded in decision making
30. Study of economic status as a determinant of personality and emotional
intelligence of standard X students
31. The effect of fathers occupation and education on creativity, self
concept and achievement motivation
32. Infusion of values
33. Creativity in Education

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34. Fostering academic achievement in mathematics of secondary school
students: A peer tutoring approach
35. Developing reflection through activity based learning
36. Active learning strategies in science to cater to multiple learning styles
among upper primary school students
37. Enhancing grammatical accuracy among upper primary students
through game based learning strategy
38. Enhancing the understanding word problems in math among upper
primary students
39. Case study approach to foster higher order thinking skills among the
higher secondary school students in business studies.
40. Concept map of fraction: An instructional tool in mathematics
41. Innovative instructional strategies

Note: All the papers were not presented owing to some last minute changes in
the schedule. The complete set of papers will be available soon in the
proceedings.