Key Note from the Country Director

Mr Sushant Verma(Acting ��untr� ��re�t�r � ��SS��n��a�

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Key Note from the Country Director

Mr Sushant Verma(Acting ��untr� ��re�t�r � ��SS��n��a�

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Key Note from the Country Director

Mr Sushant Verma(Acting ��untr� ��re�t�r � ��SS��n��a�

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Dear Friends,

While the last quarter has been more about finalisation of localising the TESS-India OER across the seven states we are working in, This quarter has focused on building the synergies between TESS-India and its stakeholders.As envisaged the State Resource Group (SRG) are playing an important role in embedding. This quarter also focused on building the synergies between TESS-India and its stakeholders.

We are pleased to share that all the Open Education Resources (OER) have now been localised and vetted by the respective state governments. Most of the states have already given a green signal for TESS-India Open Education Resources to be embedded in the teacher education in the state. The entire localisation was extremely process driven and ensured a great learning experience for the entire team.

Key Note from the Country Director

Mr Sushant Verma(Acting ��untr� ��re�t�r � ��SS��n��a�

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November 2015, Volume 1, Issue 5

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TESS-India launched its first of its kind Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) with 3185 participants across 140 countries registered for the course. Nearly 27% participants were from India. Overall 56% participants were female. More than 95% participants were confident to the TESS-India MOOC in their professional practices.

An outcome study was conducted among the SRG members and the participating teachers across the seven states. The study was conducted during Aug-Sept 2015. The study shows a high level of awareness about TIOER and key resources. The study also found a high level of awareness among the participatory teachers about TIOER and key resources.

We have been able to forge a strong relationship with state governments of Assam, Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal and also with agencies like UNICEF, World Bank etc. TESS-India is achieving one milestone after the other in all the seven states. Now we are all geared to take the next step forward and introduce TESS-India OER units at school level, BRC, CRC etc. and to promote for uses of these materials for their professional development.

This would not have been possible without the continuous support of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) Government of India, Department for International Development (DfID) and all the state governments. Though we have come a long way, there are still many more miles to go before we can bring about the change we have dreamed of.

As Swami Vivekanand said, “He alone teaches who has something to give, for teaching is not talking, teaching is not imparting doctrines, it is communicating.”

Please feel free to write to me with your suggestions and comments.

With best wishes,

Sushant Verma(Country Director, TESS-India)

• LocalisationoftheTESS-IndiaOER

• StatelevelMasterTrainersinUttarPradesh

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• MOOC:EnhancingTeacherEducationThroughOER

• Focusdistrictactivities• TESS-IndiaatWorld

DIDACConference• TESS-India:adopting

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Johnson• Teachersassociated

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All the TESS-India OER have been localised and influenced by local language, dialects, customs, cultures and regulations with the objective to make them feasible for use in that particular state. These OER have undergone the process of ‘localisation’ to incorporate state-specific terms and contexts for easy understanding and use. Respective SCERTs and DSERT took lead and ownership along with all State Resource Group

LOCALISATIONOFTHETESS-INDIAOER

members and localisers in the entire process. Review by the respective state governments is completed and final ready to print versions are under production.

All of the pan-Hindi subject OER, School Leadership OER, key resources and videos are live on the TESS-India website: http://www.open.edu/openlearnworks/course/index.php?categoryid=45Pictured: Localisation in progress in Bihar

Inputs from the localised OER have been incorporated into existing teacher training programmes across the 7 TESS-India states.

OER embedded into D.El.Ed (ODL) in Bihar

In Bihar the state government has decided to continue incorporation of localised Version 2 of OERs into the Diploma in Elementary Education (Open Distance Learning) papers of Hindi and Math. This will reach over 100,000 teachers.

OER incorporated in Madhya Pradesh

A five day teachers training module development workshop under SSA programme was organised by Rajya Shiksha Kendra, Bhopal under which inputs in form of Case studies and Activities from TESS-India OER and Videos have been incorporated in the Training Module, prepared for Science, Mathematics and English Subjects addressing Class-4 and Class-7 teachers training for this year. References of TESS India OER and Video resources have been mentioned in training modules. Through this approach the OER will reach approximately 1 Lakh teachers across the state. As an immediate output, teachers could start using and consulting TESS-India OER in their classroom practices.

OER compulsory paper in B.Ed course in University of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh

In Uttar Pradesh, the Department of Education, Lucknow University, has included OER as one of the compulsory papers in B.Ed programme. The university has requested TESS-India to provide academic support for designing the content of the unit. 45 colleges follow the curriculum of Lucknow University. Besides, In Uttar Pradesh, TESS India OER have also been incorporated in BTC Curriculum (Pre-Service course run by DIETs). Mapping of BTC Curriculum with embedding of TESS India OER was done by the faculty of 21 DIETs.

Integrating OER in Karnataka

In Karnataka, teleconferences were organised with DIETs, BRCs and CRCs for the integration of the OER. Once

INCORPORATIONANDEMBEDDINGOFTHEOER

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completed, this will reach around 36,000 teachers. TESS-India OER were used as support material in the SSA and RMSA training programme. One session was given to TESS-India during the training and in other sessions the methodologies suggested in the TESS-India OER were used.

OER introduced in the School Leadership Development Programme in November 2013 in West Bengal

In collaboration with NUEPA and SCERT TESS-India has covered 200 schools in 4 districts (Bankura, Hooghly, Cooch Behar and North 24 Parganas) in the pilot phase. This gives the opportunity to TESS-India to build on the 1st phase and cover another 300 schools this year in the 2nd phase with the Version 2 TESS-India OER. The report for the pilot phase is ready and is being analysed to draw learning which can be used in the 2nd phase. This programme is building the capacity of these 500 Head Teachers to transform the classrooms and also equip the Head Teachers with necessary knowledge and skill.

OER introduced in B.Ed programme in Odisha

TESS-India Key Resources have been introduced in the newly designed Syllabus for the Bachelor’s Degree courses in Education (B.Ed) in Odisha. This has been approved by the Government and adopted by all the nine universities in Odisha from this academic session, 2015-16. These key resources are going to be referred in teaching in Science, Mathematics and English.

OER embedding in Assam

In Assam a small State Resource Group meeting took place to discuss the newly approved plan towards embedding the TESS-India OER in the state. A visit to Mirza DIET with Director SCERT and senior officials of SCERT was organised to discuss embedding of the TESS-India OER into their regular courses. Strategies for working in a few schools and in the DIET D.El.Ed courses have been discussed, and a presentation was made about TESS-India. A discussion has also taken place this with Pratham and Krishna Kanta Handiqui State Open University on use of the TESS-India OER.

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SCERT and TESS-India will jointly train educational functionaries from across the state and prepare them as State level Master trainers. The aim of the training would be to prepare 245 Master Trainers and strengthen their understanding on TESS-India OER to support student centric pedagogy and active learning in the classroom. Once the State level Master Trainers are trained, they will be deputed to train the district level educational functionaries. The whole process, from the training of Master Trainers to training of district level education functionaries, will prepare a strong force of teachers, DIET faculty and Block Resource Persons who will be equipped to transact NCFTE 2009 in the classroom.

It is envisaged that more than 10,000 teachers and teacher educators will get trained and will be able to build their capacity on practicing student centric pedagogy.

The first round of training has been completed by organising three simultaneous batches at DIET-Lucknow, DIET-Varanasi and DIET- Bulandshahar from 7th to 9th September 2015. The first round covered 124 Master Trainers.

STATELEVELMASTERTRAINERSINUTTARPRADESH

Focus district activities in Vaishali, Bihar, were initiated in 2014 (Math Mela, Training of Block Resource Persons (BRPs) on Student Centred Pedagogy, mentoring of teachers through BRPs) and UNICEF approaches for partnership to train 100 teachers from their intervention schools. The participants acknowledged the TESS India Key resources that created an opportunity for group discussion and helped to understand various participatory approaches of classroom practices in a timely manner.

TESS-INDIAPARTNERSWITHUNICEFINTWOSTATES

Funds have been received from UNICEF for installation of four Kiosks containing TESS-India OER along with other OER in Focus District of Karnataka. These kiosks can be used by the teachers and teacher educators to access the OER which have been uploaded on them. These OER can either be accessed on the kiosks or downloaded from them onto an external storage device like pen drives and external hard disks.

Pictured: Participants watching TESS-India Video Resources in Vaishali, Bihar

MOOC:ENHANCINGTEACHEREDUCATIONTHROUGHOER

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Madhya Pradesh has seen high numbers of registered nominees successfully completing the TESS-India MOOC. TESS-India MOOC is in demand with state government. As a result, it has been integrated under ICT@Schools scheme run by Government of MP and initiated by Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.

MOOC Impact• After completing the

MOOC, Nominees shared TI Video resources with pre service teachers in DIETs.

• Integration of MOOC in Secondary level teachers training programme under ICT@Schools scheme initiated by Government of India.

• State Education Department showed interest to scale up the MOOC across the state.

Many participants with limited orientation on ICT completed the course and while attending the contact classes tried to learn the skills from co-participants.

Next batch of TESS-India MOOC launches in November this year. For more information visit: https://www.edx.org/school/oecx

Mr. V.K. Sachan, Lecturer, DIET-Kanpur, UP (Rural) was not tech savvy and did not have a command of the English Language. But because of his sheer resolve to understand OER he continued with the course with the help of his colleagues and other MOOC Fellows. Every week he had to travel for 8 to 10 hours, but never missed a single contact class.99%

said it improved their teaching

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FOCUSDISTRICTACTIVITIES

Teacher training and CRCC orientation in Bihar

In Bihar, the Focus district activities in Vaishali were initiated in 2014 (Math Mela, Training of Block Resource Persons (BRPs) on Student Centred Pedagogy, mentoring of teachers through BRPs) aiming towards the academic improvement of teachers and teacher educators by promoting active learning in classrooms. Presently, 100 teachers are trained on Student Centred Practices. This will be linked with orientation of Cluster Resource Centre Coordinators (CRCCs) on how to academically monitor and mentor the teachers to encourage active learning in classrooms. The BRPs who are already trained and are practicing this in the schools will be taking lead to orient the CRCCs as well as providing them handhold support.

Further, DIET has invited TESS-India and the OER and key resources are used in the Cluster level training of teachers (Falak training) to provide examples of active teaching and learning process and encouraging student centred practices in classrooms. There were 23 teachers along with 3 CRC from Garaul Block. This process will enable to link the training of CRCCs on Key Resources with these teachers and make the process of classroom monitoring and mentoring more effective.

Teacher Training in Odisha

In Odisha, 104 Focus District Teachers from 100 elementary schools were trained in two different phases at DIET, Dhenkanal. The first phase of training was from 10 - 13 August and the second 17 - 20 August 2015.

The sessions consisted of some joint sessions and subject wise separate sessions. In the joint sessions, key resources were discussed and subject wise sessions were conducted separately. Due care was given to time management in the plan of the programme. All the key resources of TESS-India were used by the resource persons in facilitating the sessions. It was an all participating workshop on the TESS-India OER by the teachers and resource persons. The participants were fully engaged in interactions, self-studies of TDUs, discussions and presentations on the key learning points and areas.

Teacher Training in Karnataka

In Karnataka, 80 schools from two Blocks of Focus District, Tumkur have been selected and training of 80 teachers, one from each school has started. A three-day workshop has been conducted in September in which the teachers have been oriented and familiarised with Elementary Science and Maths OERs. The next step ahead is that these teachers

will use active learning pedagogies suggested in the OERs in their classrooms and simultaneous monitoring will happen of classroom activities.

Focus District Training Program for Secondary Teachers and CRCCs

A training program was held for secondary school teachers at DIET campus in Dhenkanal district of Odisha from 1 - 10 September. The English and science secondary school teachers were trained from 1 - 4 September and the secondary maths teachers were trained from 7 - 10 September. The objective of this training program was to orient the teachers on TESS India Open Education Resources (TIOER) and Key Resources inside classroom curriculum for effective classroom teaching. The resource persons and DIET faculties oriented the participants on the objective of this program. Besides, the teachers were taught about the content of their respective subject and the application of key resources inside the classroom. This was done through group exercises, examples and case studies. In addition, each participant was oriented on using the tablet/phone/laptop to navigate around the TI-OER. The importance of maintaining teachers’ diary was also discussed.Similarly, a two day training program was held for CRCCs

at DIET, Dhenkanal, Odisha from 9 - 10 September. They were oriented on the objectives of this project and TIOER, key resources, navigating around OER, and most importantly, their roles and responsibilities in this project. Each one was enrolled into the e-group which they will be using through this project duration. The importance of documenting a case study and maintaining the lesson diary, on individual basis, was also discussed.

TESS-India Focus District WhatsApp Group

Two online groups have been active on WhatsApp from the first phase of the training programme. The groups are TESS-Dhenkanalians and District Focus Groups. These groups also enable peer support and help the focus teachers share their teaching learning practices and get feedback.

Orientation workshop in Karnataka for teachers of Focus District

In Karnataka the orientation workshops were conducted in the Focus District of Tumkur for teachers on the use of OER. The aim of these workshops was to orient the teachers with TESS-India OER and help them plan using them.

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Pictured: Participants watching TESS-India Video Resources in Vaishali, Bihar

TESS-India participated at the World DIDAC India-Largest International Exhibition For Educational Products & Solutions in Asia Pacific. A conference was also organised as part of the exhibition where C. S. Lalith Prasad, Regional Programme Coordinator- Karnataka, TESS-India, made a presentation on TESS-India.

Pictured right: CS Lalith Prasad, Regional Programme Manager, Karnataka, TESS-India making a presentation on TESS-India at the conference

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Baseline Data Collection & Pilot training conducted

Madhya Pradesh/Bihar/Uttar Pradesh, Sept 2013: A four-day training workshop for DIET students and DIET lecturers took place across the three states in September this year. The workshop trained the participants on data collection in schools and DIETs.

Following the workshops, participants worked as data enumerators, collecting baseline data from schools and

DIETs to form a full baseline data set for the state. This followed a smaller Pilot Study in July this year where the data collection instruments were initially trialled.

Both Pilot and Baseline Training Workshops were led by the TESS-India M&E team. Some sessions were also facilitated by senior academics involved in T-I, including Prof Bob McCormick, Prof Frank Banks (both from the Open University UK) and Dr David Johnson (University of Oxford).

Bihar, Nov 2013: A meeting was held with D.El.Ed (Diploma in Elementary Education) Consultants � Dr. Gyandeo Mani Tripathi and Mr. Chandan Srivastava to plan for a step-by-step process of revising three papers (Classroom Management, Child Psychology and School & Education Policy).

To facilitate the revision process, finalised TESS-India TDUs and LDUs were provided in soft copies as reference materials. It was also agreed that more TESS- India materials will be provided as they are finalised.

Dr. Gyandeo suggested that after mapping process is completed, a one-day or two-day sharing meeting will be held with the SCERT to get their feedback. There will be one faculty from each DIET during this meeting.

In the second phase, there will be an intensive meeting with the team responsible for material development to strategise a plan for imbibing mapped topics into the revised papers. This meeting will be integrated with a five days subject specific training for DIET (District Institute of Education and Training) lecturers at the SCERT.

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National Localisation Workshop kicks off in Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh, Nov 2013: A three-day national localisation workshop was conducted by the TESS-India project team in partnership with Pratham from November 15-17 in Lucknow. The objective of this workshop to adapt and version the content contained in the Pan-India Teacher Development Units (TDUs) into local contexts leading to the stage of translation into state specific languages.

Mr Sarvendra Vikram Bahadur Singh, Director SCERT (UP), inaugurated the workshop and lauded the efforts being made by TESS-India towards improving the quality and quantity of teacher education in India.

Participating were 12 State Localisation Experts (SLEs), six

each from UPand Bihar, who were briefed by TESS-India's Academic Director, Ms Jo Mutlow, on TESS-India's vision and 'Theory of Change' concept followed by an induction into the pedagogy of our materials and why they are called Open Education Resouces (OERs).

The SLEs were also briefed on the Localisation Guidelines which they then used in 'localising' TDUs of Elementary English, Elementary Science and Secondary Maths. The workshop was conducted by Ms. Swagata Sen Pillai of Pratham and subject specific senior academic leads, who are also authors of the TDUs.

Developmental testing of TDUs completed in three states

New-Delhi, Sept 2013: The Academic Team of TESS-India completed the process of developmental testing of two TDUs each from the three subject areas of - Elementary English, Elementary Science, Elementary Maths, Secondary English, Secondary Science, Secondary Maths and Mother tongue - across the three pilot states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.

Senior Academic, TESS-India, Mr Shankar Musafir explains, �The purpose and process of developmental testing of teacher learning materials is really important. It serves as a 'check' to ensure that the materials being developed by us are meeting the needs of teachers and through them, those of students. Through this process we are able to identify gaps and

address them to deliver materials high in quality and content.�

The developmental testing exercise was carried out by a high-level team comprising of India and UK-based subject experts who are also authors of the respective TDUs. These experts visited select government schools in the three states and observed teachers teaching in a 'real' classroom environment using the TDUs and 'versioning' them to suit their respective classrooms.

Simultaneously, the process was monitored and evaluated by these subject experts closely studying the before and after classroom

experiences of teachers and students to

understand the benefits achieved as a result of using TDUs (these contain case studies and ways

to teach a hard topic).

The feedback received and observations made, were noted. These will

be fed into the next set of TDUs currently in production.

Academic Director, TESS-India, Ms. Jo Mutlow engaged in an exercise with participants at the National Localisation Workshop on Friday.

A teacher using TESS-India TDU in her classroom to teach a chapter in Hindi. The TESS-India TDUs are �ased on student �centred active learning pedagogy.

Meeting with D.El.Ed Consultants

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A teleconference organised in Karnataka under SSA and RMSA programmes for integration and use of OER. The teleconference, organised in Bengaluru towards the integration of TESS-India OER in teacher training in the state, was organised with 34 District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) and connected 204 Block Resource Centres across Karnataka. S Jayakumar, Director, Department of State Educational Research and Training (DSERT) addressed the teleconference along with representatives from TESS-India and other DSERT officials.

TESS-India App testing has been done in Karnataka with 12 participants. The study has helped in the development of the new TESS-India website which is due to be launched in December 2015.

TESS-INDIA:ADOPTINGTECHNOLOGY

Dr. Susamma Johnson has been associated with TESS-India since March 2014. As she believes that TESS-India is a path finder for her professional development. She practiced all 10 key resources developed by TESS-India with her B.Ed (Science) in-service trainees (100 trainees). She included video lesson period in institutional academic schedule. Her trainees were interested in the video lessons as they were getting great learning opportunities e.g. Group work, Pair work, Questioning, Lesson planning, Using local resources etc. Case study, Narration, Pause for thought, are unique features of TESS-India OER. Students felt that NCF 2005 and

PROFILE:Dr.SusammaJohnson,SeniorLecturer,StateInstituteofScienceEducation,Jabalpur

NCFTE 2009 recommendations are being implemented by TESS-India OER. She observed that attitude towards using these OER is highly positive. Recently she introduced TESS-India OER in field. She presented a technical session in NATIONAL WORKSHOP held in Jabalpur highlighting TESS-India OER. Altogether 300 participants including Principals from Government and Private Colleges of Teacher Education, pre and in service trainees from a different part of the state took part in the workshop. As a result, many teacher education colleges are inviting her to introduce TESS-India OER.

Pictured: Dr. Susamma Johnson discussing TESS-India OER with fellow teachers

Pictured: Manjunath R, SADPI, TE Cell, DSERT Karnataka addressing the teleconference

TeachersassociatedwithTESS-IndiawinPresident’sAward2015• Ms. Khursida Begum, a teacher in Dhenkanal district

received the President Award on 5th September for her outstanding work in school education. Khursida has been part of TESS-India’s journey in State and was a localiser of Elementary Science OER. She is presently part of District Resource Group of TESS-India in Dhenkanal. Since her days as a Localiser, she has been a TESS-India OER /KR practitioner. Her diary (TESS-India’s Practice daily diary for teachers) is worth seeing and exemplary.

• Mr. Rajendra Pal Singh Dang, one of the senior teachers, who was part of development of AV clips in Dhar District,

MP (A Multi-grade, Multi-lingual, single teacher school) also received the President Award. He has also been awarded Best Teacher Award by the Chief Minister of MP in 2014.

• Dr. Manoj Kumar Patra, Headmaster of Belgharia High School, West Bengal who is an SRG member and an active resource person for the 1st phase of School Leadership Development Programme received the National Award from the President on 5 September. He has also won Siksha Ratna (State award) in 2012 from Chief Minister of West Bengal.