Rishabh Kumar Mishra, Samarjeet Yadav and Dharmendra Shambharkar The first semester examinations were over and the second semester was due to begin. On the very first day of the second semester, we, as course coordinators, met with the students. We asked them to share their experiences of the first semester B.Ed. and B.Ed.-M.Ed. (Integrated) course. As usual, they appreciated the department and spoke in favour of the courses they had opted for. Although most of them had something positive to say about the department, there seemed to be an unspoken discomfort among them. After sometime, one student shared her frustration. The class was restless because for the previous semester, they just had to complete assignments and make presentations. These views and experiences of the students led us to introspect our efforts as teacher educators. Can lofty readings and assignments immerse a person into the profession of teaching? Can this be the only way of introducing education as a discipline and methodology of teaching for preparing a ‘constructivist teacher’? How can we ignite young minds with novel and creative ideas? This was the vantage point. We started thinking about what we could do to expose our learners to a different flavour of learning. Instead of dictating our students to a pre-defined solution, we invited them to suggest a way out of the problem. After all, our problem posers were pre-service teachers. These pre-service teachers expressed different views. These views unfolded their beliefs about the teaching-learning processes. One of the students said that she wanted to do something childlike. If I quote her verbatim: “Hum bacchon ki tarah khush ho saken”. It indicated their belief about adult/child binary where a child-like curiosity and enthusiasm stands for joy and happiness. Similarly, they wanted to do something beyond lecturing, reading and writing (“jisme likhna padhna na ho”). It demanded a pedagogic avenue that could break the boredom of regular classroom processes. They were also assimilating their roles as teachers; therefore they asked for a learning experience that could be useful for their internship program. It was evident that these pragmatic concerns were also behind the decision-making process but it was driven by a zeal to do something new and different. Most of the students were fluent in Hindi. Keeping this in mind, we decided to organize a workshop on the theme ‘Trans-creating Hindi poetry through posters’. The workshop was intended to combine two types of areas of interest: poetry and drawing. As evident from the theme it was aimed

Vidushi Chaudhry It is an open secret that the B.Ed qualification is a broken system. Touted to prepare our teachers to teach in our vast and diverse land, this one-size-fits-all formula has failed and failed unequivocally. B.Ed programs have not adapted with time, and are inadequate in preparing our teachers as leaders, facilitators, knowledge workers and thinkers. The 21st century skills that they purport to teach are missing in the very system that trains them. Thus, schools, across all boards, are using professional development programmes to fill the gaps in teacher education that B.Ed failed to fill. As a co-founder of Mindsprings Enrichment Centre in Mumbai and before that at the Cathedral School, I was part of the teacher training complex for six years. I created and conducted workshops on learning difficulties, giftedness, language, assessment and lesson planning, travelling to both small schools in rural Maharashtra, and addressing teachers in the metros. Here are some insights from that incredible, heady and instructive time in my career. Needs across Boards If you survey any ten government school principals and ask them if their teachers are adept at delivering the curriculum or put the same question to ten heads of IB schools, the answer remains the same, No. Thus, schools call upon private organizations like mine to step in. The crisis is so deep that almost every school system is allocating days on their calendars for teacher training and upgradation. But this is not the only reason. In an ever-changing world where teachers remain reluctant to use technology, our students are digital natives. In addition, we want to teach the skills of collaboration, research, problem-solving and critical thinking to our students. Our teachers cannot rely either on their education or their own experience as students to deliver these. Their plight is an extraordinary one, and it is the student in the class who ultimately suffers. Thus, the need for training is acute. Lack of self-awareness by schools I have conducted workshops in schools, where at lunch, the staff has complained that they don’t need training in the area I am focusing on, and ask that I focus on a topic I mentioned in passing. When we sent schools a diagnostic to self-assess what workshop they would like to choose, we often got no response. They preferred if we sent them a list of discrete workshops to choose from. While school heads often are aware of their staff needs, prioritizing whether a stress management workshop should be conducted