Highlights of the Year 2008

Today marks the completion of the 60 year of CIE's existence. The year was replete with a number of programmes, activities and initiatives taken up by the Faculty, Students and Scholars of the Department. Primary among them were the efforts made by the faculty towards development of the curriculum for the proposed two year B.Ed. Programme. While the previous year had been spent on conceptualizing the vision and design of the programme, this year focused on the actual development of specific courses and programmes of study. Needless to say, curriculum development for any professional course is fraught with challenges. Responding to these challenges however, the faculty through its task persistence and collaboration with its community of peers from affiliated colleges has been able to develop some innovative foundational and pedagogic courses while a few others are still in active pursuit. Once the process of course development is completed, our endeavour will be to organize a National Round Table for peer sharing of our newly envisioned programme. It is hoped that this programme will enable us to subsequently revitalize our Masters and Pre-Doctoral Programmes as well.

As part of our academic activities, our commitment to building up discourse in education through workshops, seminars and conferences continues unabated. A National Seminar on "Science Education in Schools: Emerging Perspectives" was organized in February. The seminar provided an interactive platform across a broad spectrum of participants - science teachers, teacher educators, scientists, curriculum developers, policy planners and researchers. The issues addressed in the seminar related to science pedagogy, probing the diminishing interest in science among students, integration of knowledge in science with processes which epitomize the nature of science and identifying priority areas of research in science education. One of the highlights of the conference was a session in which school teachers presented their experiences on Effective Practices in Science Teaching. The deliberations during the seminar motivated the participants and organizers to develop a forum for better communication and popularization of science and technology, both in schools and in the community. The efforts in this direction have culminated in the setting up of an inter institutional partnership of CIE with the National Council for Science and Technology Communication, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. This alliance is open to other like-minded organizations.

To address the challenge of achieving more equity in education, given the changing circumstances of our economy, polity and society, a National Seminar on Equity and Education in India: Policy Issues and Challenges has been scheduled for March 2009.

It is hoped that the seminar will engender extensive dialogue and discussion on the issue and lead to significant perspective building and policy implications. Many research initiatives and institutional projects were pursued by the faculty this year in areas as varied as teacher education, girls' education, curriculum study, language education and reading. To give impetus to research and development in the areas of elementary and secondary education, recognizing the academic stature of CIE, the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India had sanctioned six major research projects in 2006, with the vision that with CIE's input there would be considerable strengthening and revitalization of these areas in the national arena. These projects are in their final stage and would soon be coming to a meaningful conclusion. The central thrust has been on generating discourse for dialogue across the community of professionals. As part of one such project, coordinated by Dr. Vandana Saxena, A Handbook for Teacher Educators which encompasses a diverse range of themes has been released and distributed to different organizations across the country.

An International Project entitled, 'Comparative Analysis of International Baccalaureate, ICSE and CBSE Curricula in selected school subjects' which included English, Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, History and Economics was taken up under the aegis of IB, Singapore. Several colleagues from the department and affiliated colleges contributed to its successful completion. The central thrust was on critical analysis of the objectives, conceptual depth and assessment standards of the three systems. The project was coordinated by Dr. T. Geetha.

A UNICEF project entitled 'Status of Girls Education in Madhya Pradesh', with a team consisting of scholars from the University of Delhi, TISS, Bombay, and JNU is being coordinated by Dr. Sadhna Saxena. At present, report writing is in active progress. Qualitative data was gathered on more than forty themes from seventeen blocks from across the entire state. The uniqueness of the study is drawn from the fact that a large number of school going and dropout girls and their parents, were interviewed to understand girls' aspirations, state apathy towards their education and factors emanating from the clutches of patriarchy.

A Reading Research Group in the Department has been initiated by Dr. Shobha Sinha with the objective of promoting literacy research and providing a forum for serious exchange of ideas in the field. Specific emphasis has been given to understand literacy as an area of inquiry in India, especially in the context of early literacy acquisition and schools.

On-going workshops for English Language Teaching have been and continue to be held at the Department for both Pre & In-service English teachers to help them understand pedagogical perspectives and provide a more informed choice of appropriate developmental strategies that would prioritize reflection about how the content can be taught. These workshops include training in phonetics, developing CAL programmes and language games and methodology for teaching prose, poetry and drama. Dr. Geeta Sahni organizes these workshops.

Under the UK - India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) the Department has taken up a 5 year project in the area of in-service teacher education, in collaboration with the Open University (OU) in the UK. This year the Department tried out a Mentor Scheme in 11 identified schools in which trained mentors and mentees were involved in mentoring each other for their on-going professional development. The other activities undertaken during this phase include a Mentor Trainer Training Programme organized for teacher educators, preparation of a Handbook on Mentoring and a visit by the project team to schools in UK to observe mentoring in operation. A web-based Learning Management System (MOODLE) is being launched for all the mentors and mentees to network with one another. The project is coordinated by Professor Rama Mathew.

A course in English Language proficiency aimed at improving the skills of reading, speaking, writing and listening is being offered at the Institute of Life Long Learning (ILLL) to students of Delhi University. The 100-hours course which began in September is being run at 10 Centres for all those undergraduate, postgraduate and research students from the University who wish to improve their language skills. CIE is one of the Centres where about 40 students have enrolled. Professor Rama Mathew, Coordinator for English Language Teaching at ILLL has designed the programme and is coordinating the work of different teams and monitoring its implementation. It is a self- financing programme and is likely to be offered at more centres next year and the courseware and progress tests will be made available online on the web portal of ILLL.

Our Department is a member of the Asia Teacher Education Consortium (ATEC) along with 11 other Universities from China, Japan and Korea and now a new member from Vietnam, engaged in teacher education. In October this year, the third symposium of the Consortium was held at Hunan Normal University, Changsha in which Professor Bharati Baveja, Head and Dean of our Department and Professor Rama Mathew participated and presented papers. The Consortium which meets for its annual symposium every year in different member countries will be meeting in Delhi next year. Details of the symposium that will be held sometime in October are being worked out in the Department. It is hoped that other Universities from India will be able to join the consortium and participate in its activities.

The Regional Resource Centre (ARC) for Elementary Education is part of the University School Resource Network (USRN) established to address issues of equity and quality in school education. The Centre has been very active during the year. Several programmes and events have been organized which include public lectures, film series and study sessions. Some teacher fellowships have also been awarded. Professor Poonam Batra is the coordinator of this centre.

The Department was visited by representatives from different Faculties of Education from the United States of America, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada and The Ontario Institute of Education, Toronto, Canada to explore possibilities for collaboration between the University of Delhi and their respective Universities through research, cultural exchange programme and faculty and student exchange programmes. They, made presentations about their universities and programmes of study and had extensive interactions with the faculty to facilitate the process.

We are very proud of our Library which is known to be one of the best libraries of Education in the country. It has a treasure of old books and documents on the one hand and the latest publications, on the other. There has been a concerted effort over the year to equip the library with many new titles in Education and subscribe to more journals. 1003 books were added to the already rich collection this year. 30 periodicals are being subscribed to. The membership has been computerized. Computerization of the Library Catalogue is in active pursuit with approximately 30,000 books having been catalogued. A special section on the first floor which was created for research scholars to engage in serious reading and reflection is a very well utilized academic space. I am proud to say that the library attracts not only our own scholars and students of Ph.D., M.Phil., M.Ed., B.Ed. and B.EI.Ed., but scholars from several organizations and institutions from outside the University, as well.

The Department has also initiated the process of building up a library of educationally and socially relevant films for viewing and use in classroom teaching, tutorial discussions and in-service training of teachers. The aim of this library is to contribute through the audio-visual mode towards the building up of perspective on issues and providing sensitivity. It is hoped these in turn will get reflected in innovative pedagogic practices in classrooms as well. A beginning has been made by procuring some very meaningful films related to Ecology, Environment and Sustainable Development. Dr. Manju Aggarwal is coordinating this initiative.

The computer lab has been renovated with modern infrastructural arrangements. A proposal for provision of 50 workstations is in the pipeline along with a demand for A3 size Laser Printers, Coloured Printers and Editing Video Cameras. The CIE website has also been updated for wider use and relevance.

CIE faculty continue to play important roles in the University Administration, Government Organisations and in the larger Professional Community. It is a matter of great pride that Prof. Shyam B. Menon has been appointed Vice-Chancellor of Ambedkar University, Delhi.

Dr. P. Mohan Raju rejoined the Department after a productive and enriching tenure at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. We welcome him.

Dr. D. Parimala was promoted to the Senior Lecturer Cadre. Ms. Ritu Bala, Mr. Vinod Kumar Kanvaria, Ms. Kanchan and Ms. Seema Sarohe joined the Department as Lecturers. We congratulate all of them.