Fostering Epistemic Curiosity in School Children by Instructional Teaching Design: Classroom Realities of Indian Schools

The study attempted to answer two basic questions of classroom teaching: a. what were the most common teaching practices at the elementary school level? And b. did teachers foster curiosity in children during teaching? Classroom proceedings enfolded various teaching activities that might lead to a knowledge gap in students. 137 primary and middle schools (altogether 411 classes) were randomly selected to measure a pattern of questioning and answering during classroom teaching. Findings revealed that a large number of teachers adopted lecturing followed by writing on the board, dictating, and ignored some important teaching techniques such as explaining, demonstrating, and experimentation; though they were familiar with all these. Hardly any student asked questions to the teachers. Teachers missed to generate a gap of knowledge in them, showing hardly any use of curiosity-led instructional teaching design. Throwing any question to class or a group of students was an unplanned teaching behaviour. It was a limitation of an in-built education system that prioritised rote learning, exam scores, and grades that measured more static knowledge rather than understanding knowledge. The findings discussed limitations of the in-built education system and mindset of teachers that discouraged epistemic curiosity in children

School Closures: Facing Challenges of Learning Loss in India

Background: Learning losses does not mean forgetting only curricular learning but slipping back of fundamental learning abilities that learner would have acquired during schooling. School closures in India have severely disrupted learning processes of children resulting in learning losses and social gaps in academic outcomes. Though school closure is a global phenomenon, its adverse effects on learning outcomes are unevenly distributed in the society.Purpose: The paper aims to trace the phenomenon of learning losses resulting from a prolonged school closures during COVID 19 pandemic at the national level since march 2020.The study further is directed to trace accessibilities and uses of digital resources in India.Method: The study used secondary sources of data mainly of Bihar to ascertain the trend of learning losses. The data were regenerated to measure the emerging trend. Results: Learning loss was unevenly distributed in the society. Those who were digitally equipped had compensated their learning losses during school closures. The Bihar had mere 5 per cent computer and 15 internet facilities. The rural households had only 3 per cent computer and 13 per cent internet facilities. Primary grade children especially of disadvantaged groups in Bihar suffered more because they have very limited home learning resources. Learning crisis was more prominent at elementary school level where both the home resources and digital tools were inadequate. They spent hours in surfing social media for private purposes. The phenomenon of cyber loafing was widely seen among young students, showing a serious problem of internet abuse by secondary school students. Conclusion: Despite constraints Bihar managed to continue school learning programme during COVID 19. It had a largest force of digitally-equipped teachers (about 1.25 lakh) known as Potential Learning Community (PLC) who were ready to deliver e-contents to beneficiaries. Teachers established connectivity with parents and learners who had no android mobile. They started running Schools on Mobile (SOM) classes. The paper discusses learning recovery plan such as engaging community, reallocating resources for schools, etc

Educational Development Index of Bihar: Towards Better Tomorrow

The study was designed to compute district wise Educational Development Index of Bihar. At the same time, an attempt was made to assess the trend of improvement in elementary education for the last few years. U-DISE data for the last two years (2014-15 and 2015-16) was analyzed and compared with the baseline data. Bihar showed significant improvement on many parameters of elementary education. Despite the fact that Bihar is yet to achieve the desirable level but the progress is evident. Other than learning achievement in terms of quality Bihar has shown her firm determination to change the gloomy picture of elementary education. The findings reflect a positive trend of upward movement. Right from access to teachers in school Bihar has made progress in the light of RTE act, 2009

Hindi Language Competency of KGBV Students in Bihar

The study identified reasons for poor performance (about 40%) in Hindi language of class VI students in Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) of Bihar and also noticed loss in transition (about 6 to 24 %) at the upper primary level despite residential facilities being provided to them. There existed acute shortage of teachers (46%) as well as wardens (46%) in KGBV, resulting in poor management of residential facilities. Additionally, non-availability of language teacher for teaching Hindi and their limited understanding of pedagogical processes left the teaching-learning transaction unattended. Their insufficient training to language at the time of induction showed a gap in inputs concerning what the students desired and what the teachers had. In some KGBVs (e.g. Kishanganj) there existed minimal activities to overcome learning deficiencies in Hindi. They had virtually no idea about how to evaluate students and formulate plan for improving Hindi language. Non-literate mothers had strong desire to educate their daughter (40 per cent achievement in Hindi language). Attitudinal problem of the school teachers and headmasters were prominently observed. They attributed to the KGBV stakeholders for the managerial activities. The study suggested deployment of teachers and their intensive training for improving Hindi language among the students of KGBV

Photochemical Oxidation & Stabilization of Butyl Rubber in Solid State

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Role of the dielectric constant of ferroelectric ceramic in enhancing the ionic conductivity of a polymer electrolyte composite

The dispersal of high dielectric constant ferroelectric ceramic material Ba(0.7)Sr(0.3)TiO(3) (Tc~30 C) and Ba(0.88)Sr(0.12)TiO(3) (Tc~90 C) in an ion conducting polymer electrolyte (PEO:NH4I) is reported to result in an increase in the room temperature ionic conductivity by two orders of magnitude. The conductivity enhancememt "peaks" as we approach the dielectric phase transition of the dispersed ferroelectric material where the dielectric constant changes from ~ 2000 to 4000. This establishes the role of dielectric constant of the dispersoid in enhancing the ionic conductivity of the polymeric composites.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

Dynamics of Low Transition Rate from Primary to Upper Primary in Bihar

The Unified-District Information System of Education report of Bihar (U-DISE, 2014-15) revealed that about 17.45 per cent children of class V could not transit to class VI in elementary schools. It seems that the goal of universal elementary education may not be realised in the near future if transition rates are not further significantly enhanced. The study was designed to explore contextual reasons of low transition rate from primary to upper primary schools in Bihar with the help of a set of tools. The study was conducted on the government schools (135) randomly selected from three districts (9 blocks and 27 CRCs). 270 teachers, 174 VSS members, 98 Parents, 57 Non-transited children, 27 CRCCs and 9 BRCCs participated in the study. Altogether 1293 cases of the left study category and 411 cases of the left school children were recorded across district. The emerging trend pointed out that domestic work (30 per cent) and wage earning (25 per cent) were prominent reasons across district. Early marriage (11 per cent) and geographical barrier (10 per cent) were other reasons that could not be underestimated. About 47 per cent teachers admitted that schools had no child-friendly set-up leading to low transition in class VI. 43 per cent teachers admitted the fact that their schools were not conducive to transiting all children to class VI. The study discussed the role of VSS members, parents and cluster-resource centre coordinators (CRCCs) in low transition rate and also suggested some measures of improving transition rate