Vol. 9, Issue-3, August 2020
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 1
Index
Sl. Sl. No. Paper Title Author Page No. 1. Reflection of Ethics and Morality in Camellia Yasmin 03-14 Science Education Dharitri Sinha
Sudeshna Lahiri
2. Understanding of Education For Dr. Akanksha Singh 15-21 Sustainable Development (E.S.D.) Vineeta Vinodiya among P.G. Students: A Naturalistic Inquiry
3. ‘Corona’- A Stigma Overpowering Suvashree Roy 22-31 Societal Dimensions Chowdhury,
Biswajit Sarkar
4. A Study of Social Intelligence of Madhavesh Kumar Tiwari 32-42 Undergraduate Students
5. Next Generation Science Standards: Subhajit Kumar Ghosh 43-54 New Assessment Approaches for
21st Century Learners Prof. Asheesh Srivastava
6. Perspectives on Indian Higher Dr Geetika Datta 55-71 Education Pedagogue & National Education Policy 2020
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 2
Paper-1 Reflection of Ethics and Morality in Science Education
Camellia Yasmin Dharitri Sinha Sudeshna Lahiri
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 3
Reflection of Ethics and Morality in Science Education
Camellia Yasmin1 Dharitri Sinha2 Sudeshna Lahiri3 ABSTRACT
Science Education has idiosyncratic responsibilities to propagate scientific temper in society. It builds on the ideas associated to Universalism, Objectivity and Rationalism. In Article 51 A (h) of the constitution it is mandated that it shall be the duty of every citizen of the country to impart, proliferate and further disseminate the scientific temper in society. According to NCF-2005, good science education is one that is true to learner, true to life and true to science. Science education is expected to confront the cognitive validity, process validity, historical validity, environmental validity and ethical validity and science curriculum should adhere to it. Ethics in science education has received considerable attention in the past few years due to a number of highly publicized cases of scientific misconduct. Therefore the ethical consideration in science education is needed to be conceptualized. But this component is very much neglected in our school curriculum. The major objectives of the study are to: find out the ethical components for science education in school mentioned in National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005 and draft National Education Policy (NEP) 2019 and explore the problems or the lacuna in implementing those values in schools. This study will investigate the rationale and arguments for the presence of moral values and ethics in the curriculum of science education. Lastly, the study will layout the obstacles in implementing moral values and ethics in the teaching-learning process of science education.
Keywords: Science Education, Scientific temper, Moral values, Ethics, Scientific Ethics.
1 Assistant Professor (Shimurali Sachinandan College of Education) and M.Phil. Scholar (Department of Education; University of Calcutta, Kolkata-700027; West Bengal). E-mail: [email protected] 2 M.Phil. Scholar (Department of Education; University of Calcutta, Kolkata-700027; West Bengal) E-mail: [email protected] 3 Ph.D.(Education), Associate Professor (Department of Education, University of Calcutta, Kolkata-700027; West Bengal) E-mail: [email protected]
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INTRODUCTION
“To be sure, it is impossible to prove the rightness of any ethical principles, or even to argue in its favour in just the manner in which we argue in favour of a scientific statement. Ethics is not a science. But although there is no ‘rational scientific basis’ of ethics, there is an ethical basis of science and of rationalism”.
–Karl Popper
People do not live their lives in moral or ethical isolation but grow up within particular moral traditions (Reiss, 1999). Liberal democracy can only flourish if its citizens hold certain moral and civic values, and manifest certain virtues (Althof & Berkowitz, 2006). Morals refer to human behavior where morality is the practical activity and, ethics describes the theoretical, systematic, and rational reflection upon that human behavior (Churchill, 1982). Values are linked to beliefs and attitudes and guide human behavior (Rennie, 2007). Morals, values, and ethics are strongly attached to society, spirituality and culture (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, 1991). A wide range of misunderstandings and misconceptions surround morals, values and ethics (Churchill, 1982). Morals, values and ethics are sometime difficult to understand because the misunderstandings and misconceptions surrounding them hinder arrival at the correct explanation. The objective of moral education lies in the fact that it can develop shared feelings with others, and makes one committed to one’s own personal responsibilities and actions (Campbell, 2008).
The nature of any discipline has significant impact on its pedagogy. Science reveals hidden aspects that help us to understand the world around us. Most of the concepts of science which we have included in our school curriculum have their origin from daily life situations and happenings in the surrounding world. The present society is the science-based society. The present century has made tremendous advancement in scientific and technical knowledge as a result of explosion of knowledge. In such a situation one of the main functions of education is to keep pace with this advancement of knowledge. Learning is a continuous and cumulative process which starts from conception. The belief that child comes to school as blank state is no more tenable. The child comes to school with certain social, moral, emotional and intellectual background with its own understanding of the phenomena around him or her. Cultivation of skills and their nurturance along with provision of extending opportunities are the most significant aspects of imparting
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 5 education. This process entails the development of scientific temper, right attitude, systematic way of assimilating knowledge, identification of difficulties, confronting the process of understanding and their remediation. The science curriculum of school should fulfil its social and moral aim along with the utilitarian and cultural aim. Science education should develop rational thinking and inculcate moral values among the learners. The affective domain of learning includes the manner in which the learner deals with things emotionally, such as feelings, appreciation, enthusiasm, motivation, attitude, interest, emotion, values, mental tendencies and social adjustment of the student. Broadly speaking, the scientific method involves several interrelated steps: observation, looking for patterns, forming hypotheses, devising models, deducting their consequences, verification or falsification of theories through observations and controlled environments, and thus arriving at the principles, theories and laws governing the natural world. Science is a dynamic, expanding body of knowledge. In a progressive forward looking society, science can play a truly liberating role, helping people escape from the vicious cycle of poverty, ignorance and superstition. In the context of science, three particular domains of values are present in society: the values associated with education, values of science and values of science education. These three values remain in close proximity, and interact or overlap with one another (Hildebrand, 2007). Thus science cannot be isolated from society. Values in science education include values associated with teaching science in schools, epistemic values of science, societal values and the personal values of scientists. The existence of value is not context specific. For example, western science has different values from other indigenous science value sets (Corrigan, Cooper, Keast, & King, 2010). Morality, values and ethics are always connected and interrelated to society, and attached to societal culture, which are constantly influenced by politics (Unesco, 1991; Witz, 1996).
Currently science educators are facing enormous challenges despite various education reforms and substantial research undertaken over the last few decades. There is decreasing trends of scientific attitude among the learners. They are not properly motivated to involve spontaneously in science education. At the same time, the rapid technological advancements and enhanced complexities in social life in the globalized world perhaps makes it more difficult to emphasize morals, values and ethics, and present them through an improved curriculum and teaching- learning process. In this study, the researchers explore the values and ethical components which are needed to be included in science education in school curriculum according to NCF 2005 and
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Draft NEP 2019. This article explains the necessity for embedding morals, values and ethics in science education and science teaching. It presents the rationale and arguments, and emphasizes the nurturing of morals, values and ethics in students through an improved science education curriculum, and describes their benefits to society. This study also attempts to find the obstacles in implementing these ethical dimensions through science education.
VALUES EMBEDDED IN SCIENCE EDUCATION
At first, the researchers have explained the values which are already embedded in science education. These values help the individual to become a responsible entity of the society. These values are discussed in the following:
1. Observation Value: Science provides unique training in observation and reasoning. Science students reason from definitely ascertained facts and form clear concepts. It makes one systematic and enables him/her to form an objective judgment. 2. Scientific Value: Prof. H.E. Armstrong said that Science is taught to provide training in knowledge of Scientific method, which is useful in the life pursuits. Hence science processes scientific values. 3. Cultural Value: Science has its cultural value. It has a literature of its own. The Scientific discoveries of Galileo, Newton, Faraday, Raman, Saha, Bose, Armstrong and others area treasures of mankind. So, Science has won the first rank of humanistic studies. 4. Utilitarian Value: Science has utilitarian value. It trains child to use his leisure time properly. 5. Guidance Value: The inventions of science have contributed to the betterment of human race. Herbert Spencer in his “What Knowledge is of Most Worth” provides information about what study of science furnishes. Science learning is incomparably more useful for our guidance in life. 6. Intellectual Value: Knowledge of Science provides great intellectual pleasure. An educated person is under very great disadvantage if he is not familiar with that knowledge. 7. Judgmental Value: Knowledge of the methods of observation and experiment in the different branches of Science helps pupils to develop a logical mind, a critical judgment and a capacity to build a methodical mental organization.
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8. Disciplinary Value: Science is found to be the most important and valuable element in the education of those who show special aptitude. Science provides discipline of mind.
ETHICS IN SCIENCE EDUCATION
As per the Cambridge University Dictionary of English, the word ‘Ethics’ implies a system of accepted beliefs that control behaviour, especially a system that is based on morals. The word Morality implies a set of personal or social standards for good or bad behaviour and character or the quality of being right, honest, or acceptable. All ‘civilized Nations’ guarantee liberty, equality and individual freedom to their citizens. In our daily life and activities, each of us, occupy ‘personal space’ (otherwise called privacy) and ‘public space’ to varying degrees. Our behaviour (i.e. conduct) and attitude, as individuals’, is regulated by ‘individual conscience’ or a sense of morality. Morality is based on an individual’s mind-set and a basic human instinct (Hauser, 2007). The Sanskrit word ‘Swabhavika Dharma’ comes closest to morality. Morality and ethics are part of a way of life and cannot be separated from all other aspects of life experiences (Kang & Glassman, 2010). Moral education aims at promoting students’ moral development and character formation. The theoretical framework of moral education is supported by moral philosophy, moral psychology and moral educational practices (Han, 2014). The main purpose of moral education is to promote students’ moral development. Ethics is the branch of philosophy which endeavours to explore the reasoning behind our moral life.
Science education includes these dimensions:
Knowledge embracing the cognitive and meta-cognitive components of the curriculum and covering, scientific, cultural, economic, social and environmental data and structures plus interconnections of systems, methods of enhancing scientific and technological processes and the management of risk and life cycle analysis.
Skills include the variety of scientific methods (process skills) but also reasoning, argumentation, decision-making, problem solving, communication and inter-personal skills. It goes beyond the simple ‘doing’ and into a minds-on/hands-on interaction.
Values, as the pinnacle component, places emphasis on a respect for life, the quality of personal life, aesthetics in nature, ethical/moral issues and cultural and societal priorities.
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Scientific process, the driving force for the changes in the environment requires a critical mind, free of prejudice and open to new ways of thinking. Scientific ethics calls for honesty and integrity in all stages of scientific practice, from reporting results regardless to properly attributing collaborators. The learners should be aware that the reliability of their work and scientific knowledge in general depends upon adhering to that ethic. Many of the ethical dimensions of science relate to the production of unbiased scientific knowledge. In every stage, science education needs several ethical dimensions such as:
1. Honesty in reporting scientific data
2. Careful and unbiased observation and analysis to minimize the error variance.
3. Openness and flexibility in sharing of information, methods, and data.
4. Sufficient validation of results through replication and collaboration with other investigators.
5. Proper acknowledgement of sources of information, data and ideas.
6. Moral obligation to society in general and in some disciplines.
REFLECTION OF ETHICS AND MORALITY IN NCF 2005
This curriculum framework is based on the foundation that India is one of the largest democratic countries in the world. Through an integrated and well-designed curriculum, the participation of children ensured and it preserves and adds new vibrancy to our culture of egalitarianism, democracy, secularism and equality. A positive experience of democracy and democratic participation was provided both within and outside the school. These experiences actively engaged children and young adults. The ideal of common schooling advocated by the Kothari Commission four decades ago continues to be valid as it reflects the values enshrined in our Constitution. The participation of all children needs to be ensured in all spheres of their life in and outside the school. A policy of inclusion was implemented in many schools and throughout our education system. According to NCF 2005, good science education involves the following basic criteria of validity of a science curriculum: (i) Cognitive validity, (ii) Content validity, (iii) Process validity, (iv) Historical validity, (v) Environmental validity and (vi) Ethical validity. This ethical dimension requires that the curriculum promote the values of honesty, objectivity, cooperation and freedom from fear and prejudice, and inculcate in the learner a concern for life and preservation of environment. (NCF 2005; P-46) According to this curriculum framework, science education should empower individuals to clarify their values; to enable them to take Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 9 conscious and deliberate decisions, taking into consideration the consequences of their actions; to enable them to be the makers of peace rather than violence, intolerance.
REFLECTION OF ETHICS AND MORALITY IN DRAFT NEP 2019
This education policy in its preamble has talked about Liberal arts approach in higher education and the need of ensuring implementation in spirit and intent. This policy states that the education system of India needs rigorous professional, intellectual, moral and ethical principles into its implementation, keeping national interest at the centre of all planning and implementation endeavours. The National Education Policy 2019 provides a framework for the transformation and reinvigoration of the education system in order to achieve holistic development of an individual by increasing the focus on the moral and ethical components in a careful way.
This policy has talked about Holistic development of learners in School Education section (Part-I, Chapter 4: Curriculum and Pedagogy in Schools). According to this policy, “The curriculum will aim at enabling learners to attain learning outcomes relating to all curricular areas, including sports, science, art, language, literature, and ethics education, thereby ensuring that all children and youth receive an education that helps realize their potential, in all realms, to the fullest.” In the section Curriculum integration of essential subjects and skills (4.6; Part-I, Chapter 4: Curriculum and Pedagogy in Schools) the policy has discussed about ‘scientific temper’ and has also discussed about inculcation of scientific temper and encouragement of evidence-based thinking throughout the curriculum. Draft NEP 2019 has mentioned the term ‘ethical and moral reasoning’ (4.6.8, P- 95). This policy here considers the introduction of an “ethics” component to the curriculum early on and throughout the years of school as extremely important in helping students to build character, grow up into moral and good human beings, lead productive and happy lives and contribute positively to society. The major initiatives will include:
Incorporation of basic ethical and moral reasoning throughout the school curriculum: Students will be taught at a young age the importance of “doing what’s right”, and will be given a logical framework for making ethical decisions. This would then be expanded along the themes like cheating, violence, plagiarism, tolerance, equality, empathy, etc., with a view to enabling children to embrace moral/ ethical values in conducting one’s life; formulate a position/argument about and ethical issue from multiple
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perspectives; and use ethical practices in all work. According to this policy, incorporation of ethical and moral awareness and reasoning in the curriculum will be promoted through direct as well as indirect methods of teaching. For this purpose the curriculum should be aimed at addressing ethical and moral principles and values such as patriotism, sacrifice, non-violence, truth, honesty, peace, forgiveness, tolerance, mercy, sympathy, equality and fraternity. Incorporation of ethical and moral principles and values: Along with the above mentioned values, traditional Indian values of seva, ahimsa, swacchata, satya, nishkam karma, tolerance, honest hard work, respect for women, respect for elders, respect for all people and their inherent capabilities regardless of their background, respect for environment, etc. will be inculcated in students through the curriculum. Development of Constitutional values: The process and the content of education at all levels will also aim to develop Constitutional values in all students, Some of these Constitutional values are: democratic outlook and commitment to liberty and freedom; equality, justice, and fairness; embracing diversity, plurality, and inclusion; humaneness and fraternal spirit; social responsibility and the spirit of service; ethics of integrity and honesty; scientific temper and commitment to rational and public dialogue; peace; social action through Constitutional means; unity and integrity of the nation, and a true rootedness and pride in country with a forward-looking spirit to continuously improve as a nation. Courses on ethical and moral reasoning: In addition to the above discussion, throughout the school curriculum, a one-year course on ethical and moral reasoning will be required for all students sometime in Grades 6-8, where the subject of ethics as already described above will be discussed in a more sophisticated and deeper way, with full class participation. More advanced semester courses on philosophy, ethics, and moral reasoning will be available in high school as well.
OBSTACLES IN TEACHING MORALS AND ETHICS THROUGH SCIENCE EDUCATION
A range of obstacles are found in teaching morals and values in the science education curriculum in all levels of education. The main obstacles are: (i) clarifying what is morality and values which are to be conveyed through science education to different levels of learners. The school level learners are not being able to understand the meaning of ethics and morality since the curriculum
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 11 is not including those aspects in a comprehensive way, (ii) Developing the moral and ethical dimensions in teacher training programs since the teachers have a major role in implementing values and morality through their teaching-learning process. The teachers are not so much aware of these ethical components which are to be conveyed to the learners, (iii) There is very less scope to implement value and ethical dimensions through science education since science education mainly focuses on the accuracy of the methods and procedures involved in a particular scientific process, (iv) NCF 2005 has talked about 6 types of validity in science education. The cognitive, content and process validity are being implemented in the school level science education curriculum. NCF 2005 has environmental validity in the curriculum of science education in school level. The concepts like sustainable development etc. are not properly addressed in school curriculum. Our environment is facing various threats. Through education, it is possible to develop responsible citizens who will be very much conscious towards our environments. This dimension is very much important and need more focus to sustain the environmental stability. Science education needs to identify effective and safe ways to help people deal with the effects of climate change, as well as learn to manage and manipulate wild species and nature in ordered to preserve bio-diversity. For this purpose the ethical and moral dimensions are need to be strengthened and (vi) The Constitutional Values are not being implemented properly through science education. Science education needs collaboration, co-operation and togetherness. This attitude is not developing in a proper way.
CONCLUSION
Both ethics and values require a coherent addressing of basic philosophical and pedagogical questions to conceptualize and build a solid theoretical framework; this framework in turn will enable teaching of morals, values and ethics, and implementing of character education in the sciences (Han, 2014; Lickona, 1999) through an improved science curriculum. Through the proper implementation of values and ethics, students are able to grasp the social implications of their science studies, and understand the consequences and control the environment; they can reflect on how science and technology considerations differ from personal and political values, find various limitations of science, and acquire scientific knowledge and relate them to real‐life situations to contribute to the mankind.
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References
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Reiss, M. J. (1999). Teaching ethics in science. Studies in Science Education, 34(1), 115‐140.
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Campbell, E. (2008). Teaching ethically as a moral condition of professionalism. In D. Narváez & L. Nucci (Eds.), The international handbook of moral and character education (pp. 601‐617). New York, NY: Routledge.
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Corrigan, D., Cooper, R., Keast, S., & King D. T. (2010). Expert science teacher’s notion of scientific literacy. Paper presented at the First International Conference of STEM in Education. Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.
Han, H. (2014). Analysing theoretical frameworks of moral education through Lakatos’s philosophy of science. Journal of Moral Education, 43(1), 32‐53.
Hildebrand, G. M. (2007). Diversity, values and the science curriculum. In D. Corrigan, J. Dillon & R. Gunstone (Eds.), The re‐emergence of values in science education (pp. 45‐60). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
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Paper-2 Understanding of Education for Sustainable Development (E.S.D.) among P.G. Students: A Naturalistic Inquiry
Dr. Akanksha Singh Vineeta Vinodiya
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 15
Understanding of Education for Sustainable Development (E.S.D.) among P.G. Students: A Naturalistic Inquiry
Dr. Akanksha Singh4 Vineeta Vinodiya5
Abstract Education for Sustainable development is essential to attain the sustainable future. Education for sustainable development (ESD) includes awareness and training for promoting sustainable development and enhancing ability to handle issues like climate change, disaster management, biodiversity, poverty reduction and sustainable consumption of the resources. ESD also promotes competencies like critical thinking and collaborative decision making. Teacher plays an important role to impart knowledge, value and skills among students for sustainable development. In any teacher education institutes it is required that future teachers as well as teacher educators must understand the concept of sustainable development and Education for sustainable development (ESD). Present paper is an attempt to explore the understanding of ESD among P.G. students of Allahabad University. Researcher tried to explore the phenomenon through naturalistic inquiry.
Keywords: Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)
Introduction People around the world recognize that current economic development trends are not sustainable and that public awareness, education, and training are essential for moving society toward sustainability. Beyond that, there is little agreement. People argue about the meaning of sustainable development and whether or not it is attainable. They have different visions of what sustainable societies will look like and how they will function. These same people wonder why educators have not moved more quickly to develop education for sustainability programs. The lack of agreement and definition is hindering efforts to move education for sustainable development (ESD) forward. An important distinction is the difference between education about
4 Asst.Professor, Department of Education, University of Allahabad. 5 Research Scholar, Department of Education, University of Allahabad.
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 16 sustainable development and education for sustainable development. The first is an awareness lesson or theoretical discussion. The second is the use of education as a tool to achieve sustainability.ESD promises to make the world more livable for this and future generations. ESD aims for giving people knowledge and skills for lifelong learning to help them find new solutions to their environmental, economic, and social issues. The term “Sustainable Development” was brought into common use by the World Commission on Environment and Development (the Brundtland Commission) in its 1987 report ” Our Common Future”. Brundtland Commission defines the term “Sustainable Development” as “meeting the need of present generation without compromising the needs of future generation.” According to UNESCO (2012) “Sustainable development provides a framework for redefining progress and redirecting our economies to enable all people to meet their basic needs and improve their quality of life, while ensuring that the natural systems, resources and diversity upon which they depend are maintained and enhanced for their benefit and that of future generation.” Characteristics of ESD Education for Sustainable Development: It is based on the principles and values that underlie sustainable development; Deals with the well-being of all three realms of sustainability – environment, society and economy; It promotes life-long learning; It is locally relevant and culturally appropriate; It is based on local needs, perceptions and conditions, but acknowledges that fulfilling local needs often has international effects and consequences; It engages formal, non-formal and informal education; It accommodates the evolving nature of the concept of sustainability; It is interdisciplinary. It uses a variety of pedagogical techniques that promote participatory learning and higher- order thinking skills.
ESD is more than a knowledge base related to environment, economy, and society. It also addresses learning skills, perspectives, and values that guide and motivate people to seek sustainable livelihoods, participate in a democratic society, and live in a sustainable manner. ESD
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 17 also involves studying local and, when appropriate, global issues. Therefore, these five (i.e., knowledge, skills, perspectives, values, and issues) must all be addressed in a formal curriculum that has been reoriented to address sustainability. For proper implementation of ESD teacher preparedness is necessary. Teachers training institution are to a large extent responsible for the training of teachers at primary and secondary level, they are ultimately responsible for the development of new methods and new approaches for explaining sustainability to everybody, from pre- school to higher education level. Objective of Present study - To study the understanding of various dimensions of sustainable development (S.D.) among Postgraduate Students. To study the understanding about various aspects of education for sustainable development (ESD. The present study was carried out with M.Ed. students of Allahabad University only. Methodology- Researcher studied the phenomenon through naturalistic inquiry method. In present study purposive sampling technique was used for selection of samples. The researcher has selected 12 M.Ed. students of Allahabad University, 6 Boys and 6 Girls. As stream like science, art, and commerce to which a person belongs effects his understanding of ESD the researcher has selected 2-2 subjects from each stream among boys’ and girls’ subjects.
Issues Emerged- To know about the understanding of environmental dimension of sustainable development the researcher asked several questions related to different environmental issues like natural resources, pollution, global warming, disaster management, organic agriculture etc. From their responses the researcher finds out that most of them have only general knowledge about these issues, not of that standard and conceptual clarity which is necessary for any teacher. Those respondents only who belong to science stream have conceptual understanding of these issues. And those respondents who are somewhat aware of the different steps at individual level through which they can contribute at personal level towards sustainability, they also don’t have self determination to take personal initiative in this reference. For example, they know that for the control of global warming and pollution they have to change their life style and make it eco-friendly but they don’t want to give it practical touch. They switch off electrical appliances only when they have to pay
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 18 electric bill for it and when they are supplied electricity free of cost, they don’t bother to save electricity by switching off electrical appliances not in use. One respondent’s view was that relation between economical and sustainable development is controversial because for sustainable development; economic development has to be decreased because many of the environment related problems are the result of unrestricted economic development. To fulfill his greed man has always misused nature. Those countries which are already developed are more concerned with sustainable development. They for their development have already misused nature and now when the situation has become very critical, they want undeveloped and developing countries to take steps to control the situation. While the need of the hour is that all countries should work cooperatively and take their responsibility in this connection. Underdevelopment countries are facing problems even in fulfilling their basic needs, how can we hope from them that they will be able to work in this connection on their own
Conclusions and Suggestion-
The understanding of M.Ed. students about sustainable development is one dimensional. They are not aware of its different dimensions. They see it only from one angle of environment and natural resources, while it is a multidimensional term. Most of the students are not so much aware of its social and economic dimension. One reason behind their lack of understanding about it may be that it is recently introduced in curriculum. The concept of science stream’s students about different environmental issues like global warming, organic agriculture, pollution etc. is clear in comparison to humanities students. All of the respondents were in favor of making education for sustainable development a chief aim of education. Many of them suggested introducing it at primary stage so that eco-friendly lifestyle can be developed in them from childhood. Most of them were agree to make it more practice based. To make students sensitive towards environmental issues is very necessary, so that they think twice before doing any anti-environmental activity.
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Teachers themselves have to change their lifestyle first, so that their behavior can serve as a model for their students to follow. It is often seen that anti-environmental actions are mostly done by educated people, so it is necessary to change their attitude towards sustainability. Only having knowledge is not enough, commitment to convert this knowledge into practice is also necessary. Multi stakeholder commitment is necessary for sustainability. Each of us should understand our responsibility toward it. Strict law and provision of punishment for anti-environmental behavior is also very necessary. Students can make a huge difference to sustainable development. It is widely recognized that education has a vital role to play in encouraging sustainable practices in young people. If we really want to change our world towards sustainability it should be our chief concern to development understanding of sustainable development in young people and also develop the capacity to move from understanding to action for changing their lifestyle and actively making efforts towards sustainability. Present study presents the real scenario of education for sustainable development in teacher training programme. Taking into consideration the importance of it in teacher training programme it is necessary that more importance be given to it for effective output. Mere theoretical knowledge of education for sustainable development is not enough. We have to change the mindset of teachers and change their attitude towards environmental issues. In each and every aspect of life their behavior should be such that they present an ideal before their students. For any change in curriculum and its proper implementation teacher preparedness is necessary. So, teacher training programme whether pre service or in service should be such that can be effective in this sense. For proper implementation of education for sustainable development also this is very necessary. Our teacher educator should be aware of all the three dimensions of sustainable development. He should have holistic vision of it, how society, economy, and environment interact with each other and are related to each other. Curriculum of it is region based. Only a teacher competent enough in it can formulate curriculum of it taking into consideration the local need and culture.
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If a teacher has good understanding of it he can choose suitable method of teaching for it. It is interdisciplinary, so for every subject teacher its proper understanding is necessary. Every subject teacher should have knowledge and insight of selecting topics in his subject which can be useful for developing positive attitude towards sustainable development in students and can develop their students as eco-friendly citizenry. It is often seen that those who are more educated, are richer and have higher level of consumption which is against the soul of sustainable development. It is a teacher only who can instill in their students such values that even after becoming rich they control their consumption practices and continue to behave eco-friendly. The time is over now that we only talk about sustainable development without doing anything. Sustainable development demand multi stakeholder commitment. Each and every of us should understand our role in it and contribute towards it. We should understand that our individual activity can also have global effect. We should have futuristic vision and always think rationally about the future consequences of our individual action.
References: UNESCO(2012)Education for Sustainable Development, Source book, https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000216383/PDF/216383eng.pdf.multi Earth Charter(2000) http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/pages/Read-the-Charter.html UNESCO(2006) Education for Sustainable Development Toolkit. Learning & Training Tools No1. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001524/152453eo.pdf UNESCO(2005)UNESCO & Sustainable Development. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001393/139369e.pdf
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Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 21
Paper-3 ‘Corona’- A Stigma Overpowering Societal Dimensions Suvashree Roy Chowdhury, Biswajit Sarkar
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 22
‘Corona’- A Stigma Overpowering Societal Dimensions
Suvashree Roy Chowdhury6, Biswajit Sarkar7 Abstract
At present we are going through a phase where life has almost come to a standstill. Every aspect of society is facing an insurmountable problem. Individuals are facing mental despair in inconsiderable amount. The escalating numbers of deaths and afflictions due to Coronavirus is taking a toll on the mental well-being of the people across the globe. Especially, the uncertainly of the pandemic’s period is also creating restlessness among people. However, the present paper targets to throw light on the various societal aspects which got badly affected by the outbreak of the Coronavirus. Various research papers pertaining to the same have been used to showcase the gravity of situation prevailing across the world.
Keywords: Corona virus, Mind, Economics, Social, Education
Introduction
Of late the fear of COVID 19 has engulfed the psychosomatic status of people across the globe. It has intimidated every human being. The fear has overpowered all hopes. The despondency is growing in degrees day by day. The pandemic has taken a toll on the well-being of millions of people living in several parts of this world. In spite of the intervention of WHO to eradicate the pandemic and strengthen mental health, living conditions are worsening day by day. In a very recent survey, it was found that public health emergency was perpetuating exalted level of anxiety and agony among people, worldwide (Carroll, 2020). The promulgation of precautioning oneself from the disease COVID 19 was paradoxically creating more panic and anxiety among the people, leading many to enter depression and hopelessness. The researcher also cited that mental health conditions especially, insecurity, emotional isolation and confusion were common pieces of evidence found among people. Moreover, psychosocial aspects also affected people tremendously. Another research conducted by Aslam (2020) presented findings stating that even though social distancing is an imperative during this outbreak of pandemic COVID-19, it would have a long term mental detrimental effect(Aslam, 2020). The researcher
6 Assistant Professor, Department of Education , Baneswar Sarathibala Mahavidyalaya
7 Research Scholar, Department of Education, University of Calcutta Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 23 mentioned two other serious historical cases of stress disorder. One was during the outbreak of SARS in the year 2003 in Taiwan, where most of the patients afflicted with SARS were quarantined. The outcome of this was a severe stress disorder. The quarantined staff displayed behavioural manifestation like poor concentration, insomnia, irritability and indecisiveness. In the same year, another case on SARS, quarantined patients in China showed depressive symptoms. However, in this present battle with COVID 19, several cases of mental conditions are surfacing too. In one of the recent findings by Li, Wang, Xue, Zhao and Zhu (2020) showed that COVID 19 has created much panic among people and eventually led to psychological distress (Zheng et al., 2020). When the researches targeted to find out on the mental health status of the people, they discovered an immense amount of negative emotions prevailed strongly among people irrespective of class and gender. People were more prone towards experiencing feelings like, depression, indignation (anger, distress, resentment) and anxiety. Positive emotions were found to be lacking among the people. Instead, the feeling of lack of contentment and unfavourable attitude towards life was verily pervasive. Severe to moderate anxiety was found among the population of China. Research conducted on psychological responses on the outbreak of COVID-19 among the people in China showed that physical status deteriorated with the psychological despair. Physical symptoms like muscle ache; coryza and dizziness were associated with a higher level of stress, anxiety and depression. Most of the people displayed a hypochondriac attitude and also remained in fear of their family members getting affected by the COVID 19 (Wang et al., 2020). Galea, Merchant and Lurie (2020) observed that Poor mental health as a consequence of physical distancing at the outbreak of COVID 19 (Galea, Merchant, & Lurie, 2020). Social distancing almost galvanised people mentally and brought a sea change in the behavioural pattern of individuals across the globe. Besides, social distancing aggravated mental health issues but also added to the squeal of many existing diseases of many patients who were already under medical surveillance. They hypothesised that there would be a high rise in mental discomfort, depressive behaviour, loneliness and domestic violence. Child abuse would also rise.
Mental agony manifestation
Ever since the World Health Organisation declared on March 14, 2020, about one thirty- five countries across the world being under the severe attacking threat of COVID-19, the fear of getting infected affected more people than the virus itself(World Health Organisation, 2020). A Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 24 research conducted by Lin (2020) showed that people displayed agitated behaviour because they psychologised contracting COVID- 19. The discomposure found among the masses due to COVID-19 becoming ‘pandemic’ caused much greater terror in the minds of the people and catapulted a worse social scenario (Lin, 2020). Previous studies also affirmed that hypochondriasis and anxiety, generally, affected people during the times of any kind of epidemic (Cauchemez et al., 2009; Pappas et al., 2009; Ropeik, 2004). Similarly, COVID-19 fear has seemed to be quietly ingrained in the minds of men across the world. The anxiety of dying due to COVID-19 has embroiled the situation towards a worse state of things. The social distancing has taken a toll on the mental equilibrium of people hailing from different countries and walks of life. The unbridled fear of getting inflicted by the Coronavirus has instigated researchers and medical personals to probe deeper into psychopathological aetiology of people. In India, one such research on mental health status during this pandemic of COVID -19, Roy et al. (2020) found out that no matter how much people wanted to follow the guidelines laid down by the government to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, people suffered from a high level of anxiety (Roy et al., 2020). People were found to suffer from sleeping difficulties and fear of contracting the disease.
The fear of death or ‘Thanatophobia’ is a predominating thought in the minds of millions. In the recent past, two case studies of self-harm were reported by Sahoo et. al (2020). It depicts two cases as - A man of 52 years of age with no record mental illness or maladjustment was found to develop depressive symptoms after being psychologically tested. The man apprehended that while socialising he might have had contracted Coronavirus from a friend who was diagnosed with COVID 19 positive. The person had purposefully put himself into self- quarantine to restrict his family members getting infected due to the Coronavirus (Sahoo et al., 2020). Back to back, another case of suicidal attempt was registered. A man of 40 years tried to hang himself hypothesising that he could have had contracted Coronavirus post-March, 2020 (Sahoo et al., 2020).
Upheaval in the Education sector
The educational sectors are all locked down, and examinations have been postponed. Therefore, it could be deduced that the routine life of people and the youngsters have completely been disrupted. Even though the students are studying at home and preparing for examinations and completing project online, the physical socialisation has wholly stopped. This is another detrimental side of psychological stress; this could eventually lead to psychological pathologies. Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 25
The postponing of examinations is doing no good to the students but increasing their frustration level (Roy et al., 2020). The importance of socialization is of tremendous importance. Even though virtual socialisation is acting as a support system by so far, but to a great extent, it is a lean and faceless medium of communication (Ahuja & Galvin, 2003). It was the World Health Organisation in 2002 that declared the usefulness of socialization. Especially to keep oneself active and fit, an individual was required to be involved with social, economic, cultural, spiritual and civic events. The elderly people were expected to be more into physical socialization to have a healthified life (World Health Organization, 2002). Bulut (2019) stated that isolation was one of the most robust reasons for depression. Social and emotional support could help minimise mental aliments (Bulut, 2019). Unfortunately, in the very next year, the world saw an upsurge in the spread of the Coronavirus across the world, engulfing lives and distancing people way from one another. Once Johnson and Hariharan (2017) had stated during the outbreak of any epidemic or pandemic, it was crucial to provide health education to people (Johnson & Hariharan, 2017). The health education would constitute preventive measures and coping strategies with the then- existing crisis. However, in this present scenario of COVID-19 outbreak, it is quite difficult to deduce the time of the lockdown cessation. And it would be hard to state that to what extent would mental health education appease people and continue to be patient.
Another serious problem that people, especially the students are encountering is the maximum exposure to mass media. Even though classes are taking place online; assignments are being prepared online, the exposure to the electronic medium is undoubtedly hampering the health of students. In one such research conducted by Gao et al (2020) it was exposed that too much use and exposure to mass media created problems among the students and the youngsters especially the ones who belonged to or above the age group of 18years. The researchers also urged for steady government intervention and look after the mental health lest, the pandemic would become “Infodemic”(Gao et al., 2020). Lack of physical interactive socialization with others could impede proper psychosocial development of a child. On virtual classrooms and socialization would create problems in cognitive and behavioural development. For the psychosocial well being biological, emotional, spiritual, social, mental and material aspects are extremely instrumental. Family and community networks exclusively play pivotal roles in the developmental process of a human being. Students who are unable to attend school and socialise physically, are suffering undeniably. This social distancing and staying aloof from the workplace
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 26 is creating a lot of communication problem in vis-a-vis social interaction and organisational competence. Ratcovic, Njegovan and Kostic (2014) opined that ‘organisational socialisation’ as a process immensely helped employees grow competent and adaptable to the organisational environment. It was empirically proven that socialisation within an organisation enhanced social skills development and interpersonal communication (Ratkovic-Njegovan & Kostic, 2014). However, needless to mention that organisations are all under the effect of lockdown and physical social interaction have been halted.
Economic debilitation
Even though several prophylactic measures are been provided by the World Health Organisation, people’s mental condition is also found to be going downhill. Economic factors also, especially loss of income has begun to become one of the most important contributing factors. The blue-coloured factories workers, the daily wage earners and the people belong to the poverty line are into deep trouble. The lock-down strategy undertaken by the governments of countries to combat contraction of the Coronavirus by population undoubtedly has been a stern step by so far, but the economy has been greatly compromised. The sudden halting of services, loss of income and visit to occupational sites for a daily wage, has become a precipitating factor for mental ailment and behavioural abnormalities among the masses. The global economy has come to a standstill (Aslam, 2020). Both at the international and national level, import and export of goods have come to a sudden suspension. Talking in the Indian context, Roy et al. (2020) pointed out that people in India are quite stressed out due to more than one reasons. The employees have to work from home, which is catering to various financial problems across the country. The perceived economic loss due to closure of schools and offices, ban on the market visit, halting of the transportation industry, import-export of good across borders and countries, seems to escalate the financial condition of people. Eventually, it is leading to the deterioration of mental health (Roy et al., 2020).
Economic debilitation was well documented in a recent study by Chakraborty and Maity (2020). As per their opinion, indeed the economic loss along with of lives during this outbreak of COVID 19 shall remain irreparable. Alongside the loss of human recourses, the economy has experienced a sturdy set back. The aviation industry, business transportation and international flight have all been held back. Movement of domestic flights, railways, except goods trains have
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 27 all been adjourned. Few exemptions on certain goods delivery within their own country are allowed (Chakraborty & Maity, 2020).
Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (OECD, 2020)
However, the tourism industry and the transportation industry is facing ebb in the world economy market. Besides, the developed countries are now apprehensive of high inflation in the job market and cases of unemployment. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), COVID-19 pandemic is the largest threat to the global economy since the financial emergency of 2008–2009(OECD, 2020).
Conclusion
Irrespective of age, profession and designation- fear of contracting Coronavirus and eventual death have insinuated within the minds of people across the globe. With the escalating numbers of deaths and health contamination due to COVID 19, people have already entered into a state of uncertainty and anguish. Despite the fact that relentless effort is being put to prepare an antidote and a vaccine for counteracting the spread of the Coronavirus, the mental health of the population is growing progressively worse. As Carol (2020) already indicated that humans are falling vulnerable in the hands of the Covid-19 outbreak, only self-motivation is the medication for survival. Even though social distancing is one of the methods to minimise the spread of the disease m lack of socialisation on face o face basis is also hampering the regular and normal
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 28 existence of people. But patience on individual front and intense research on the global front are the two most impotent needs of the hour.
References
Ahuja, M. K., & Galvin, J. E. (2003). Socialization in Virtual Groups. Journal of Management, 29(2), 161–185. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920630302900203
Aslam, F. (2020). COVID-19 and Importance of Social Distancing. Preprints, (April). https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202004.0078.v1
Bulut, S. (2019). Socialization Helps the Treatment of Depression in Modern Life. Open Journal of Depression, 08(02), 41–47. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojd.2019.82005
Carroll, J. E. (2020). Pretrial Detention in the Time of COVID-19. Northwestern University School of Law, Northwester University Law Review Online. Retrieved from https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=3576163
Cauchemez, S., Ferguson, N. M., Wachtel, C., Tegnell, A., Saour, G., Duncan, B., & Nicoll, A. (2009). Closure of schools during an influenza pandemic. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 9(8), 473–481. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(09)70176-8
Chakraborty, I., & Maity, P. (2020). COVID-19 outbreak: Migration, effects on society, global environment and prevention. Science of the Total Environment, 728, 138882. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138882
Galea, S., Merchant, R. M., & Lurie, N. (2020). The Mental Health Consequences of COVID-19 and Physical Distancing: The Need for Prevention and Early Intervention. JAMA Internal Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.1562
Gao, J., Zheng, P., Jia, Y., Chen, H., Mao, Y., Chen, S., … Dai, J. (2020). Mental health problems and social media exposure during COVID-19 outbreak. PLoS ONE, 15(4), e0231924. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231924
Johnson, E. J., & Hariharan, S. (2017). Public health awareness: knowledge, attitude and
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behaviour of the general public on health risks during the H1N1 influenza pandemic. Journal of Public Health (Germany), 25(3), 333–337. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-017-0790-7
Lin, C.-Y. (2020). Social reaction toward the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Social Health and Behavior, 3(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.4103/shb.shb_11_20
OECD. (2020). Coronavirus: The world economy at risk. OECD Interim Economic Assessment, (March), 1–15. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/berlin/publikationen/Interim-Economic- Assessment-2-March-2020.pdf
Pappas, P. G., Kauffman, C. A., Andes, D., Daniel K. Benjamin, J. T. F. C., John E. Edwards, J., Filler, S. G., … Sobel, J. D. (2009). Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of Candidiasis: 2009 Update by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Treatment Guidelines for Candidiasis, 48. https://doi.org/10.1086/596757
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Ropeik, D. (2004). The consequences of fear. EMBO Reports, 5(S1). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.embor.7400228
Roy, D., Tripathy, S., Kar, S. K., Sharma, N., Verma, S. K., & Kaushal, V. (2020). Study of knowledge, attitude, anxiety & perceived mental healthcare need in Indian population during COVID-19 pandemic. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102083
Sahoo, S., Rani, S., Parveen, S., Pal Singh, A., Mehra, A., Chakrabarti, S., … Tandup, C. (2020, June 1). Self-harm and COVID-19 Pandemic: An emerging concern – A report of 2 cases from India. Asian Journal of Psychiatry. Elsevier B.V. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102104
Wang, C., Pan, R., Wan, X., Tan, Y., Xu, L., Ho, C. S., & Ho, R. C. (2020). Immediate psychological responses and associated factors during the initial stage of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic among the general population in China. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(5). Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 30
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Paper-4
A Study of Social Intelligence of Undergraduate Students Madhavesh Kumar Tiwari
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 32
A Study of Social Intelligence of Undergraduate Students
Madhavesh Kumar Tiwari8
Abstract
Social intelligence has become a vital component for human wellbeing and success of any profession. Social intelligence is the ability of an individual to react to social situations of daily life. Social intelligence is now opening a new door and is becoming an interesting topic in the field of education where students’ interactions and relations are often taking place. Students communication and relation have become one of the pressing problems in school, college and universities and other walks of social life also. It is in this light researcher wants to contribute and be a part in unfolding of a new facet on social intelligence of undergraduate level students.
Key Words: Social Intelligence
Introduction Life is complex; the world is not perfect. Many different kinds of people live on this planet, and educators and psychologists are trying to know the best ways to educate man. Educational research provide a glimpse into the role that research can play in providing insights into how to change the life experiences of those who suffer discrimination and oppression. Humans are perhaps the most social animals. Although some a social insects, herd mammals and seabirds live in colonies comprising millions of individuals, no other species lives in such a variety of social groups as Homo sapiens. We live in many different sized societies, from small, nomadic hunter-gatherer societies to cities consisting of millions of people living in close proximity; we form special social bonds with kin and many of us make lifelong commitments in social relationships. Man is a social animal. He has to pursue in whole life in social surroundings, thus he needs to be socially competent in order to be successful and happy in his social arena of life. Concept of Social Intelligence
8 Assistant Professor, School of Education, K. K. University, Biharsharif, Nalanda , Bihar E mail [email protected]
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 33
Social Intelligence is of more importance in the present life style due to growing tensions stresses and various complexities. It can be learned, developed and used as an effective life skill for managing personal life, interpersonal relationships and achieving success in all the walks of life. It is difficult to lead a successful life in a society without social intelligence. Social intelligence helps an individual to develop healthy co-existence with other people. Socially intelligent people behave tactfully and prosper in life. Social intelligence is useful in solving the problems of social life and help in tackling various social tasks. Thus social intelligence is an important developmental aspect of education. Social intelligence is a type of interpersonal intelligence, where students with high social intelligence are better able to understand people than those with lower social intelligence and also better able to get along with others and demonstrate intelligence in interpersonal relationships. The social intelligence, that is, complex socialization such as politics, romance, family relationships, quarrels, collaboration, reciprocity, and altruism, was the driving force in developing the size of human brains and today provides our ability to use those large brains in complex social circumstances. Social Intelligence (SI) is the ability to get along well with others, and to get them to cooperate with you. Sometimes referred to simplistically as "people skills," SI includes an awareness of situations and the social dynamics that govern them, and a knowledge of interaction styles and strategies that can help a person achieve his or her objectives in dealing with others. It also involves a certain amount of self-insight and a consciousness of one's own perceptions and reaction patterns. Social intelligence has become a vital component for human wellbeing and success of any profession. Social intelligence is the ability of an individual to react to social situations of daily life. It includes an awareness of situations and the social dynamics that govern them and knowledge of interaction styles and strategies that can help a person achieve his or her objectives in dealing with others. It is also involving a certain amount of self-insight and a consciousness of one’s own perceptions and reaction patterns. Different professions require different levels of social intelligence. Humphrey points to a difference between intelligence and social intelligence. Some autistic children are extremely intelligent because they are very good at observing and memorising information, but they have low social intelligence. Similarly, chimpanzees are very adept at observation and memorisation, sometimes better than humans, but are, according to Humphrey, inept at handling interpersonal relationships. What they lack is a theory of other's minds. For a Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 34 long time, the field was dominated by behaviorism, that is, the theory that one could understand animals including humans just by observing their behavior and finding correlations. But recent theories indicate that one must consider the inner structure behaviour. Both Humphrey and Honeywill believe that it is social intelligence, or the richness of our qualitative life, rather than our quantitative intelligence, that makes humans what they are; for example what it is like to be a human being living at the centre of the conscious present, surrounded by smells and tastes and feels and the sense of being an extraordinary metaphysical entity with properties which hardly seem to belong to the physical world. This is social intelligence. Several studies have shown that social intelligence is multidimensional and distinguishable from general intelligence domains (Jones and Day, 1997; Marlowe, 1986). These concepts of social intelligence are incorporating internal & external perceptions, social skills and other psychosocial variables, (Taylor,1990, Marlowes, 1986) model of social intelligence comprised five domains- personal attitude, social performance skills, empathetic ability, emotional expressiveness and confidence. Personal attitude is indicated by having an interest and concern for others, social performance skills is demonstrated in appropriate interaction with other, empathetic ability refers to one's ability to identify with others, emotion expressiveness describes ones emotionality towards others and confidence in social situations is based on ones comfort level in social situations Weis and Sub (2007) showed that social undertaking and social knowledge were separate constructs of social intelligence. The Social Intelligence is defined as "the ability to get along well with other people, and to get them to cooperate with you, self-understanding, communicating more effectively persuading, working better in teams, leading and managing, personal and relationship counseling and teaching strategies also. The crux of employment success is social intelligence. For years, individuals have been judged by various aptitude tests (i.e. I.Q. test, SAT, LSAT, GRE, MCAT, GMAT). However, individually, those tests are not the best indicators of who will be successful. Recent studies show that success is largely attributed to social intelligence. Social intelligence is equivalent to interpersonal intelligence and involves perceptiveness, situational and interactional skill. Social intelligence is understanding and acting in accordance with social situations and environments to obtain cooperation, objectives and achieve results. In fields like law and business, social intelligence is one of the hidden keys to success. As a result, a proper understanding and use of
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 35 social intelligence is fundamental to get's success in every part of life. Albrecht presented a five- part model of social intelligence: 1. Situational Awareness 2. Presence 3. Authenticity 4. Clarity 5. Empathy. Albrecht’s break-down and presentation of social intelligence is helpful for those interested in developing or improving their social intelligence. Situational awareness can be thought of as having a “social radar,” or the ability to read situations and interpret the behaviors of others in terms of possible intentions, emotional states, and reactions. No matter what kind of work a person do, he/she is always in a relationship, Companies work with a bewildering array of top up and top down report, cross departmental communication, client contacts, team interactions, colleague collaboration, etc. All those contacts hinge on good relationship skills to be successful. Clients/employees are also affected by family pressures, community and social interactions. Research has conclusively found that while IQ is the best indicator for educational status, Emotional Social Intelligence (a key component of Relationship Systems Intelligence) seems to be the best determinant of one’s level of achievement and success in most professions and in marriage; (Goleman 2006; Shoda, Mishel, & Peake 1990; Durlak & Weissberg 2007; Gottman 2002). Do your clients or organizations struggle with any of the following, either personally or in their teams? Poor or toxic communication patterns Ineffective or confusing communication Unproductive or low team morale or low positivity Conflict avoidance or poor conflict resolution Low creativity, productivity or team synergy Role confusion or poorly occupied roles These are just some of the ways that poor Relationship Systems Intelligence can show up in individuals, teams and organizations. Fortunately, research indicates that Relationship Intelligence can be learned (Durlak & Weissberg 2007). Relationship Systems Intelligence (RSI) includes and transcends Emotional Social Intelligence (ESI) pioneered by Daniel Goleman and others. RSI starts with an understanding of oneself, (Emotional Intelligence) moves on to include an understanding of other’s emotional experience (Social Intelligence) and culminates with the ability to identify with and collaborate with groups, teams, communities and other social systems (Relationship Systems Intelligence). It is this final Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 36 evolution, RSI, which catalyzes the capacity of teams and groups to move beyond the personal to a powerfully generative group identity. Individuals and organizations vary in their level of RSI. Some may need to work on strengthening Emotional Intelligence, others may need training in Social Intelligence and more advanced clients are ready to work with Relationship Systems intelligence. Together the three forms of Intelligence create flexible, resilient individuals and teams. Social Intelligence builds upon Emotional Intelligence. It is the capacity to accurately identify others’ emotions, empathize with them, and to see things from another person’s perspective. It is the ability to leverage that awareness in an effective way to cooperate in the pursuit of goals and the creation of positive relationships. An important aspect of Social Intelligence is accurately identifying the emotions of others, rather than making up what you think they feel. There is a risk of projecting one’s own emotions onto someone else rather than inquiring and listening openly to their perspective. A CEO with good Social Intelligence is able to understand the feelings and perspectives of others, see past their surface behaviors to underlying motivations and skillfully bring out the best in others. Both Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence are often combined in what is now called ESI or Emotional Social Intelligence. Teams are strongly affected by the team leader’s ESI. Teams in organizations led by leaders who have low ESI are undermined, misdirected and deprived of the resources and authority they need to do the task at hand. (Hughes and Terrell, 2007). The qualities of social perceptiveness and behavioral flexibility are based upon well-organized and sophisticated knowledge structures or cognitive representations of the social elements (e.g., organizational members, work behavioral settings, problem scenarios, organizational goals, expected interaction rituals) residing in organizational domains. Some propositions are offered regarding differences between leaders and nonleaders in the nature of these social knowledge structures. Several implications of these arguments are discussed, including (a) viewing leaders as experts in the operations of complex social systems, (b) considering social intelligence as part of a network of leader attributes, and (c) examining differences between leaders and nonleaders in their cognitive qualities and representations. This examines social intelligence as a quality of effective organizational leaders. Specifically, it is proposed that successful leaders have as individual characteristics two components of social intelligence, social perceptiveness and behavioral flexibility. In essence, leaders are able to
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 37 ascertain the demands, requirements, and affordances in organizational problem scenarios and tailor their responses accordingly. Need and Importance It has become a truism that "no two individuals one exactly alike" Individuals are born distinct from each other and are unique in their own way. The factor of being distinct and unique from one another has sometimes becomes a big factor why problems in dealing and relating to other people arise. But as a social being, man cannot retrain from socializing with others in his social environment. He needs to relate and interact with others interpersonally for his survival, growth and development. That "no man is an island" shows man's relationship to other people as very important, He needs to make adjustments in relating to others in various situations to sustain and maintain his relationship. His interpersonal relationship with others affects his relationship towards himself. His self concepts, self-esteem, and self-efficacy are being influenced by his relationship to others people. Man is a social being and in his everyday living, he comes to meet and Interact with different types of people with different personalities. Individuals very in physical as well as in psychological and social characteristics. Because of individual differences. Man come to experience misunderstandings, conflicts, quarrels and frustrations in life if he cannot manage and direct his social relations. The problem in meeting individual differences has now become prevalent in every group and society compromising differences, resolving conflicts and enhancing personal and social relations have now become a challenge to every individual. Because of these, man needs to become adoptive and flexible in dealing with others to develop healthy and smooth relationship. He needs to develop and possess the capacity and ability to understand and manage other people. He needs to know how to operate and handle various situations, and he should have an idea about his social environment where he is interacting. To respond to these needs man's social intelligence is deemed to be important. Social intelligence is the human capacity to understand what is happening in the world and responding to that understanding in a personally and socially effective manner. Thorndike (1920) maintained that there are three type of intelligences. These are the abstract, mechanical, and social intelligence. Thorndike originally coined social intelligence and defined it as the persons ability to understand and manage after people and engage in adoptive social interactions. It is the ability to
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 38 act wisely in human relations. He maintained that social intelligence is different from academic ability and a key element in what makes people succeed in like. Moss and Hunt (1927) defined social intelligence as the ability to get along with others. More recently Kihlstrom and cantor (1987) redifined social intelligence to refer to the individuals, fund of the knowledge about the social world. Gardner (1983) in his book Frames of Mind; has proposed that intelligence is not a unitary cognitive ability But there are seven or perhaps more quite different kinds of intelligence. Multiple intelligence according to Gardner are the individual's different constructs in which some people or some groups are assumed to have more of these abilities than others. Among the seven intelligences he mentioned was social intelligence or interpersonal intelligence. Interpersonal intelligence as referred to by Gardner" is the individuals ability to notice and make distinctions among other individuals. Accordingly the social intelligence view construes individual differences in social behavior. The public manifestations of personality to be the product of individual bring to bear on their social interactions. Differences in social knowledge cause variations in social Behavior. But it does not make sense to construct measures of social IQ. The important variable is not how much social intelligence the person has but, rather what social Intelligence he or she possesses (Kihlstrom & Cantor, 1987). Recently Karl Abrecht (2005) contends that people have lost Job, friends, marriage and mates because of social in competence. That people who have highly developed sense of social intelligence have more friends, better relationship, more successful careers and happier lives than those who lack there skills. Objectives : 1. To compare the social Intelligence of under graduate students of Arts and science stream. 2. To compare the social intelligence of male & female students of undergraduate level. 3. To Compare the social intelligence of undergraduate male students of Arts and Science Stream. 4. To Compare the social intelligence of undergraduate female students of Arts and Science Stream. Hypothesis 1. There is difference in social Intelligence among undergraduate students of Arts and Science stream.
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 39
2. There is difference in social Intelligence among male & female students of undergraduate level. 3. There is difference in social intelligence among male students of Arts and science stream. 4. There is difference in social intelligence among female students of Arts and science stream. Method of Study Descriptive survey method is used as method of study. All students of B.Sc. and B.A studying in University of Allahabad constituted the population of the study. The sample for the study comprises of 200 final year undergraduate students of arts and science stream of university of Allahabad. The sample is selected through random sampling method. In the present study for measuring social intelligence, social intelligence scale develop and standardized by Chadda and Ganesan 2009 is used. t-test is used as statistical analysis to achieve the objectives of the study. The Present study is delimited to the undergraduate final year, Arts and science stream students, of Allahabad University only Findings i. There is no difference in social intelligence among undergraduate students of Arts and Science stream. ii. There is no difference in social intelligence among male and female students of undergraduate level. iii. There is no difference in social intelligence among male students of Arts and science stream. iv. There is no difference in social intelligence among female students of Arts and science stream. Educational Implications The purpose of the study was to explore social intelligence among undergraduate students. It has been concluded that the undergraduate students are focusing on passing the examination. The college/varsity, where the students have been selected as subjects of the study does not fulfill the requirements to enhance their social intelligence. It has been observed that the students are quite aware of the syllabus but they do not have additional activities allotted by the college/university. Apart from the one element of tour, the college/university does not organize inter college competitions, where the students could evaluate their comparative skills in different areas of knowledge. At Allahabad level, generally the college or the students have a conception of
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 40 education is to have the degree by book or crook. The prevailing reforms by educationists as per recommendation by the U.G.C. have not been followed in reality or ground level. The another major part of social intelligence which comprises exposure to the students. Students are not indulged in any kind of activities which support in their personality building. Generally colleges do not regularly organize any kind event which could boost their oral skill or personality. The institution generally follow their traditional approach in education. It does not aim at the execution of curricular. So, in this regard, the curriculum should strictly be followed and it should be updated with the passage of time. The elements of the curriculum must be framed in such a way, that it helps in fostering social intelligence of the students. The social intelligence of the students can be moulded beautifully by the help of the teachers. The help includes their support, counseling & guidance. In the environment like the subjected city, teachers can help students by the demonstration and lecture to revive their intelligence. The students social intelligence can be directed by the teachers by their own thinking and behavior. The teachers can give counselling time to time to develop the social intelligence of the students in right direction.
References:
Albrecht, (1983), Social intelligence : The new science of success.
Binet, A. (1916). The Development of Intelligence in Children (translated by E.S. Kite). Vineland. N.J. : Training School.
Cattell, R.B. (1940). Theory of Fluid and Crystalized intelligence : A critical experiment. Journal of Educational Psychology, 31, 161-179.
Dockrell, W.B. (1974). On Intelligence. London: Methuen.
Gardner, H., (1983), "Frames of Mind : The theory of Multiple In Intelligence", New York, Basic Books,.
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 41
Guilford, J.P. (1959). Three Faces of Intellect. American Psychologist, 14, 469-479.
Guilford, J.P. (1967). The Nature of Human Intelligence. New York: McGraw Hill.
Guilford, J.P. and Hopener, R. (1971). The Analysis of Intelligence. New York : McGraw Hill.
Himphreys, L.G. (1971). Theory of Intelligence. In R. Cancro (Ed), Intelligence : Genetic and Environmental Influences". New York : Grune and Stratton.
Jain, R.K. and Saxena,S. (2003). Social intelligence of undergraduate students in relation to their gender and subject stream in. IOSR Journal of Research Method in Education, Volume- II, pp. 197-214, Jan & Feb. 1-4.
Kihlstrom, J.F. and Cantor, N., (1989), "Social Intelligence and personality : There's room for growth," In R.S. Wyer and T.K. Srull (eds), Advances in social cognition, vol. 2, pp. 197-214, Hillsdule, N.J., Erlbaum.
McMillan, J.H. and Schumacher, S. (2001). Research In Education. New York. Longman.
Moss, F.A. and Hunt, T., (1927), "Are you socially intelligent?" in Scientific American, vol. 137, pp-108-110.
Piaget, J. (1947). The Psychology of Intelligence. London : Routledge and Kegal Paul.
Spearman, C. (1923). The Nature of Intelligence and the Principles of Cognition. London : MacMillan.
Spearman, C. (1927). The Abilities of man. New York : MacMillan.
Sub, H.M. and Probst, P (2008). Theory and measurement of social intelligence as a cognitive performance construct. Ph.D (Edu.). Magdeburg.
Thorndike, E.L. (1920), "Intelligence and its use", in Harper's Magzin, Vol. 140, pp. 227-235.
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Paper-5 Next Generation Science Standards: New Assessment Approaches for 21st Century Learners Subhajit Kumar Ghosh Prof. Asheesh Srivastava
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 43
Next Generation Science Standards: New Assessment Approaches for 21st Century Learners
Subhajit Kumar Ghosh9 Prof. Asheesh Srivastava10
Abstract
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) is an internationally benchmark was set by National Research Council (NRC), National Science Teaching Association (NSTA), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) of USA to create new education standards and to promote conventional science. More than 40 states from United States have shown their interest towards the standards and 36% of total students from United States are now passing through it. Emphasize has given on content and practice both, arranged in a coherent manner across disciplines and grades to provide all students to enjoy quality science education from grass-root level. The basic purposes of the standards are creating common standard for teaching in the U.S., eradicating fear and developing greater interest in science among K-12 students so that more of them choose to major in science and technology in higher education. The guidelines are intended to help students to understand the scientific process of developing and testing ideas and have a greater ability to evaluate scientific evidence. Besides publishing new curricula, NGSS is arguing for the new assessment approaches which can be incorporated to assess the ability of a learner. This paper has highlighted different assessment approaches as suggested by NGSS. Different written documents taken from primary as well as secondary source i.e. manuals, guidelines, frameworks, blogs, published article etc. has analyzed as for.
Key words: Evidence-Centered Design, Construct Modeling, Construct Map, Item Design, Outcome Space, Wright Map
9 Assistant Professor, Department of Education, Ramsaday College (University of Calcutta), Amta, West Bengal Email: [email protected] 10 Professor, Department of Educational Studies, Mahatma Gandhi Central University, East Champaran, Bihar Email: [email protected] Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 44
Backdrop: NGSS make the case for a substantial change in what happens in science classrooms…wants students not to simply memorize…but engage in the practices of scientists and engineers in order to understand. (…Valerie Strauss, The Washington Post, 2015) Science is not just a body of knowledge that reflects current understanding of the world; it is also a set of practices used to establish, extend and refine of existing knowledge. Both elements— knowledge and practice—are essential. In science, knowledge based on evidence from many investigations is integrated into highly developed and well-tested theories that can explain bodies of data predict outcomes and suggest for further investigations. Although the practices used to develop scientific theories differ from one domain of science to another, all sciences share certain common features at the core of their inquiry-based and problem-solving approaches. Next Generation Science Standards, a framework which embodied a vision for science education represents a change in how states have traditionally approached their science standards. This vision values a learning progression of core ideas, scientific and engineering practices and the crosscutting concepts that connect the various disciplines of science and applause critical thinking of a learner by actively engaging in scientific and engineering practices, applying crosscutting concepts to deepen their understanding of the core ideas. Consequently different assessment approaches are to be compulsory to assess learners’ ability and understanding. The framework of NGSS has mentioned that science education lies in the connections among the inter-disciplinary core ideas of all science subjects, e.g. such as using understandings about chemical interactions from physical science to explain phenomena in biological contexts. Elements involved in conceptualising Assessment: According to NGSS Assessment is based on Cognition, Observation and Interpretation. Cognition: It defines as a theory or set of beliefs about how students represent knowledge and develop competence in a subject domain (National Research Council, 2001, p. 44). The design of the assessment should begin with specific understanding not only of which knowledge and skills are to be assessed, but also of how understanding and competence develop in the domain of interest. For NGSS, the cognition to be assessed consists of the practices, crosscutting concepts and disciplinary core ideas as they are integrated in the performance expectations. Observation: Students’ capabilities in the context of specific tasks designed to show what they know and can do. The capabilities must be defined because the design and selection of the Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 45 tasks need to be tightly linked to the specific inferences about student learning that the assessment is intended to support. It is important to emphasize that although there are various factors that assessments could address, task design should be based on an explicit definition of the precise aspects of cognition the assessment is targeting. For example, assessment tasks that engage students in applying the three-dimensional learning could possibly yield information about how students use or apply specific practices, crosscutting concepts, disciplinary core ideas or combinations of these. If the intended constructs are clearly specified, the design of a specific task and its scoring rubric can support clear inferences about students’ capabilities. Interpretation: It depicts the methods and tools used to reason from the observations that have been collected. The method used for a large-scale standardized test might involve a statistical model. For a classroom assessment, it could be a less formal method of drawing conclusions about a student’s understanding on the basis of the teacher’s experiences with the student, or it could provide an interpretive framework to help make sense of different patterns in a student’s contributions to practice and responses to questions.
Fig 1: Elements involved in conceptualizing Assessment as a process
The above three elements are interrelated (Fig. 1). In context of any assessment, each must make sense in terms of the other two to produce sound and meaningful results. For example, the question that shape the nature of tasks in which students are asked to perform should emerge logically from a model of the ways learning. Interpretation of the evidence produced should supply insights into students’ progress that match up with that same model. Thus, designing of an
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assessment is a process in which every decision should be considered in light of each of these three elements. NGSS has suggested primarily two kinds of assessment approaches that are:
Fig 2: Different Assessment Approaches
1. Construct-Centered Approaches: A construct-centered approach focuses on “the knowledge, skills or other attributes to be assessed” and considers “what behaviors or performances should reveal those constructs and what tasks or situations should elicit those behaviors” (Messick, 1994, p. 16). In a construct- centered approach, the selection and development of assessment tasks, as well as the scoring rubrics and criteria are guided by the construct to be assessed and the best ways of eliciting evidence about a student’s proficiency with that construct. A construct-centered approach differs from more traditional approaches to assessment which may focus primarily on surface features of tasks, such as how they are presented to students, or the format in which students are asked to respond. For instance, multiple-choice items are often considered to be useful only for assessing low-level processes, such as recall of facts, while performance tasks may be viewed as the best way to elicit more complex cognitive processes. However, multiple-choice questions can in fact be designed to tap complex cognitive processes (Wilson, 2009). Likewise, performance tasks, which are usually intended to assess higher-level cognitive processes, may inadvertently tap only low-level ones. There are certain limitations to the range of constructs that multiple-choice items can assess. This approach divided into ways:
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 47
i. Evidence-Centered Design Approach and ii. Construct-Modelling Approach. Both the process of Evidence-Centered Design and Construct-Modelling Approach has developed through: • Analyzing the cognitive domain that is the target of an assessment • Specifying the constructs to be assessed in language detailed enough to guide task design • Identifying the inferences that the assessment should support • Laying out the type of evidence needed to support those inferences • Designing tasks to collect that evidence, modeling how the evidence can be assembled and used to reach valid conclusions and • Iterating through the above stages to refine the process, especially as new evidence becomes available.
i. Evidence-Centered Design approach: Evidence-Centered Design Approach has been developed by Mislevy and colleagues (Almond, 2002; Mislevy, 2007; Steinberg et al., 2003). In this approach, designers construct an assessment argument that is a claim about student’s learning that is supported by evidence relevant to the intended use of the assessment (Huff, 2010). The claim should be supported by observable and defensible evidence. This approach divided into three essential components of the overall process.
Fig 3: Components of Evidence-Centered Design Approach
‘Claim space’ is one who wishes to make or verify about the student, they are linked to the forms of evidence that would provide support for those claims—the warrants in support of each claim. Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 48
‘Evidence’ statements associated with given set of claims capture the features of work products or performances that would give substance to the claims. This evidence includes which features need to be present and how they are weighted in any evidentiary scheme (i.e., what matters most and what matters least or not at all). E.g. if the evidence in support of a claim about a student’s knowledge of Laws of motion then the student can analyze a physical situation in terms of the forces acting on all the bodies. Then the evidence might be a diagram of bodies that is drawn with all the forces labeled, including their magnitudes and directions. The value of the precision that comes from elaborating the claims and evidence statements associated with a domain of knowledge and skill is clear when one turns to the design of the tasks or situations that can provide the requisite evidence. In essence, tasks are not designed or selected until it is clear what forms of evidence are needed to support the range of claims associated with a given assessment situation. The tasks need to provide all the necessary evidence. And they should allow students to “show what they know” in a way that is as unambiguous as possible with respect to what the task performance implies about their knowledge and skill. This approach goes beyond the typical approach to assessment development which generally involves simply listing specific content and skills to be covered and asking task developers to produce tasks related to these topics. The Evidence-Centered Design Approach looks at the interaction between content and skills to discern; e.g. how students define a particular content area or construct. Thus ideally, this approach yields test scores that are very easy to understand because the evidentiary argument is based not on a general claim that the student “knows the content,” but on a comprehensive set of claims that indicate specifically what the student can do within the domain. The claims that are developed through this approach can be guided by the purpose for assessment (e.g. to evaluate a students’ progress during a unit of instruction, to evaluate a students’ level of achievement at the end of a course) and targeted to a particular audience (e.g., students, teachers). ii. Construct-Modelling Approach: Construct-modelling Approach has been developed by Wilson and his colleagues (Wilson, 2005). Both use a construct-centred approach to task development, and both follows the Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 49
evidentiary reasoning logic assessment triangle described by NRC. This focuses on “the knowledge, skills or other attributes to be assessed” and considers “what behaviours or performances should reveal those constructs and what tasks or situations should elicit those behaviours”. In a construct- centred approach, the selection and development of assessment tasks, as well as the scoring rubrics and criteria are guided by the construct to be assessed and the best ways of eliciting evidence about a student’s proficiency with that construct. This approach uses four building blocks to create assessments and has been used for assessments of both science content (Wilson, 2001) and science practice, as well as to design and test models of the typical progression of understanding of particular concepts (Wilson, 2009). The building blocks are viewed as a guide to the assessment design process rather than as step-by-step instruction. The first building block is specification of the construct, in the form of a construct map. Construct maps consist of working definitions of what is to be measured, arranged in terms of consecutive levels of understanding or complexity. The second building block is item design, a description of the possible forms of items and tasks that will be used to elicit evidence about students’ knowledge and understanding as embodied in the constructs. The third building block is the outcome space, a description of the qualitatively different levels of responses to items and tasks that are associated with different levels of the construct. The last building block is the measurement model, the basis on which assessors and users associate scores earned on items and tasks with particular levels of the construct. The measurement model relates the scored responses to the constructs. These building blocks are described in a linear fashion but they are intended to work as elements of a development cycle, with successive iterations producing better coherence among the blocks.
2. BEAR Assessment System: Another assessment design is BEAR (Berkeley Evaluation and Assessment Research center) assessment system (BAS), (Wilson, 2005) is a set of ADVANCE practical procedures designed to help one apply the construct-modelling approach. It is based on four principles— Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 50
(1) A developmental perspective (2) A match between instruction and assessment (3) Management by teachers and (4) Evidence of high quality Each of which has a corresponding element. These elements function in a cycle, so that information gained from each phase of the process can be used to improve other elements. Current assessment systems rarely allow for this sort of continuous feedback and refinement, but the developers of the BAS believe it is critical (as in any engineering system) to respond to results and developments that could not be anticipated.
Fig 4: The BEAR Assessment System
The first element of BAS is the construct map, which defines what is to be assessed. The construct map has been described as a visual metaphor for the ways students’ understanding develops, and, correspondingly, how it is hypothesized that their responses to items might change (Wilson, 2005). The construct map describes significant milestones in children’s reasoning about data representation, presenting them as a progression from a stage in which students focus on individual case values (e.g., the students describe specific data points) to a stage when they are capable of reasoning about patterns of aggregation.
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The second BAS element is item design, which specifies how the learning performances described by the construct will be elicited. It is the means by which the match between the curriculum and the assessment is established. Item design can be described as a set of principles that allow one to observe students under a set of standard conditions (Wilson, 2005). Most critical is that the design specifications make it possible to observe each of the levels and sublevels described in the construct map. The third element, outcome space, is a general guide to the way students’ responses to items developed in relation to a particular construct map will be valued. The more specific guidance developed for a particular item is used as the actual scoring guide, which is designed to ensure that student responses can be interpreted in light of the construct map. The final element of BAS, a Wright map, is a way to apply the measurement model to collect the data and link it back to the goals for the assessment and the construct maps. The system relies on a multidimensional way of organizing statistical evidences, i.e. reliability, validity, objectivity etc. Item-response models show students’ performance on particular elements of the construct map across time; they also allow for comparison within a cohort of students or across cohorts. After focusing on above assessment design that recommended by NGSS for assessment of a given performance expectation it can be concluded by saying that NGSS provides the evidence necessary to support the intended inference, assessment designers should follow a systematic and principled approach to assessment design, such as evidence-centered design or construct modeling. Multiple forms of evidence need to be assembled to support the validity argument for an assessment’s intended interpretive use and to ensure equity and fairness.
Epilogue:
So, traditional approach of assessments has replaced by Construct-Centered approach which may focus primarily on surface features of tasks. Such as how they are presented to students, and expecting the responses from learners. Multiple choice items are often considered to be useful only for assessing low-level processes, such as recall of facts. And for assessing higher order cognitive process while performance tasks may be given to the learners. The approach proposed by NGSS goes beyond the typical approach which generally involves simply listing specific content. The Evidence-Centered design approach looks at the interaction between content and Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 52 skills to discern about a particular core idea. Students’ are able to perform a set of task when it is in their domain only. Mostly NGSS has emphasized on the assessment of knowledge, skills and elicited behaviours which could be the pioneer in restructuring the primitive assessment approach.
References: Almond, R.G., Steinberg, L.S., and Mislevy, R.J. (2002). A four-process architecture for assessment delivery, with connections to assessment design. Journal of Technology, Learning, and Assessment, 1(5).
Huff, K., Steinberg, L., and Matts, T. (2010). The promises and challenges of implementing evidence-centered design in large-scale assessment. Applied Measurement in Education, 23(4), 310-324.
Mislevy, R.J. (2007).Validity by design.Educational Researcher, 36, 463-469.
Messick, S. (1994). The interplay of evidence and consequences in the validation of performance assessments. Education Researcher, 23(2), 13-23.
National Research Council (2001). Knowing what students know: The science and design of education assessment. Committee on the Foundations of Assessment. J.W. Pellegrino, N. Chudowsky, and R. Glaser (Eds.). Board on Testing and Assessment, Center for Education, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
NGSS Lead States (2013). Next Generation Science Standards: For States, By States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Retrieved from: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=18290
Steinberg, L.S., Mislevy, R.J., Almond, R.G., Baird, A.B., Cahallan, C., Di Bello, L.V., Senturk, D., Yan, D., Chernick, H., and Kindfield, A.C.H. (2003).Introduction to the Biomass project: An illustration of evidence-centered assessment design and delivery capability. CSE Report 609. Los Angeles: University of California Center for the
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Study of Evaluation.
Strauss, V. (2015).What the future of science education should look like. The Washington Post. Retrieved from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/04/20 /what-the-future-of-science-education-should-look-like/
Wilson, S. M., Floden, R. E., & Ferrini Mundy, J. (2001). Teacher preparation research: Current knowledge, gaps, and recommendations. Seattle, WA: The Center for Teaching and Policy, The University of Washington.
Wilson, M. (2005).Constructing measures: An item response modelling approach. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Wilson, M. (2009). Measuring progressions: Assessment structures underlying a learning progression. Journal for Research in Science Teaching, 46(6), 716-730.
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Paper-6 Perspectives on Indian Higher Education Pedagogue & National Education Policy 2020
Dr Geetika Datta
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 55
Perspectives on Indian Higher Education Pedagogue & National Education Policy 2020
Dr Geetika Datta11 Abstract
The present paper focuses on the role of higher education in the education system of a country and the issues and challenges being faced by pedagogues/ teachers working in Indian Higher education institutions; especially with the advent of private institutions in the field; and the way things are being envisaged in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. It is generally felt that the quality of higher education has deteriorated with the coming of private players in the field. This paper tries to look into the functioning of private institutions and the difficulties and issues faced by the institutions and specifically the teachers in such a scenario. Due to prevalent policies, a dichotomy has been created between faculty working in the private sector and the government funded institutions; which tend to be exclusionary and discriminatory practices to the disadvantage of private funded institutions. Also an attempt has been made to critically analyse the Not-for-profit profit model followed by the government and the way it is negatively affecting the higher education and Higher education teachers of our country in the light of NEP 2020.
Key Words: Higher Education, National Education Policy,
Introduction
Higher Education is considered to be the biggest strength in the developmental path of any society and country. Focus of Higher Education is pursuit of knowledge, its application and generation of new knowledge which contributes towards social and economic growth and development of the society and country. And the backbone of this system of education happens to be teachers/ educators or pedagogues working in the field of Higher Education. As Albert Einstein has put it very aptly that “it is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and
11 Principal, Bhavan’s Leelavati Munshi College of Education, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi – 110001 ([email protected])
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 56 knowledge” and it is more so true of pedagogues in the field of Higher Education. The role of pedagogues at this level can be seen as involving all of the following:
1. Teaching
2. Attending to various administrative and non-administrative matters
3. Contributing to field of Knowledge
4. Guiding Researches in the field
All of these roles are equally demanding, and ethically the first responsibility of pedagogues has to be towards their students, then towards the institution/ organisation they are working in, followed by contribution to their chosen field of knowledge by way of their own research and guiding their students towards research in the field.
Field of Higher Education in India is in a state of flux. There have been phenomenal developments and changes since 1990s with the coming of Liberalisation, Privatisation and
Globalisation. Opening up of the field of higher education to the private sector, as an offshoot of the policy of liberalization, has bought higher education in a state of dynamism. There has been an unprecedented expansion of Higher Education. In the year 2017-18, there are 903 Universities,
39050 Colleges and 10011 Stand Alone Institutions. Currently, about 65% of higher education institutions are in the private sector. So there has been a phenomenal growth of private sector in higher education. Today, private higher education institutions represent the fastest growing segment of higher education world over and various committees have expressed serious concerns over the quality of education and experiences being provided in these institutions. It has been recognised that various regulatory bodies such as NCTE, AICTE, BCI and others have not been able to control the proliferation of sub-standard colleges in almost all academic and professional areas (Draft National Education Policy 2019). National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) has
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 57 advocated constitution of a Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) to look into the following four aspects of higher education via their respective verticals:
i. Regulation via the National Higher Education Regulatory Council NHERC)
ii. Accreditation via the National Accreditation Council (NAC) iii. Funding via the Higher Education Grants Council (HEGC) iv. Academic standard setting via the General Education Council (GEC)
Data generated by AISHE (All India Survey on Higher Education) 2017-18 gives an indicative of the penetration of private sector in the field of higher education in India as shown in the following figure:
Source: AISHE 2017-18 data (page 8)
The data suggests that 78% of colleges in India are privately managed; out of which 64% are private unaided and 14% are private aided. Now the question arises that as the role of private players in the field of education cannot be denied and the governments all over the world are not in a position to fund higher education, therefore it becomes imperative that stringent measures have to be taken to ensure quality education is provided to the future generation of our country.
And one of the most important factors impacting the efficacy of Higher Education are the people
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 58 or the pedagogues driving this sector. The following are the primary issues and concerns faced by pedagogues in the Indian Higher Education:
1. ‘Good Educator/ Pedagogue’: A dilemma: Who is a good educator and what the
parameters of describing are or judging a good educator has been an issue of dissidence
since ages. UGC, The Apex body of India has been coming up with various means of
measuring competency i.e. the Academic Performance Indicator (API) and it is a matter of
debate ever since especially over the importance given to published work as compared to
participation in the working of the institution in an effective manner. This has encouraged
faculty members to disconnect themselves from the working of their institutions and
devoting themselves solely to generate more and more publications. NPE 2020 has also
highlighted inadequate mechanisms for merit-based career management and progression
of faculty and institutional leaders as one of the major problems faced by Indian higher
education system. Not only this has very adversely affected the academic climate in
universities and colleges, it has given rise of whole lot of spurious journals, which publish
anything and everything for a fee. So in this environment of ‘publish or perish’ there is a
mad race between academicians about the number of publications; which are sub-standard.
Also this trend has given rise to ‘publication industry’ willing to publish anything for a
price and thus making huge profits in the process. It has also been recognised that there is
very little actual research happening in most of the Universities (Draft National Education
Policy, 2019). UGC as the apex body has been coming out with lists of ‘recognised’
journals which, ironically, keeps on changing every few months. So it is an extremely
challenging task to distinguish between quality journals and proft-making spurious
journals with any ‘so-called’ impact factor. Any apex body needs to look into this on an
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 59
urgent basis. NEP 2020 has emphasised that excellence will be incentivized through
appropriate rewards, promotions, recognitions, and movement into institutional leadership.
Meanwhile, faculty not delivering on basic norms will be held accountable. This seems to
be a welcome recommendation, but how the parameters will be put into place, remains to
be seen.
2. Teacher autonomy, Accountability and Performance: If a system wants to utilise fully
the potential of their teachers, greater flexibility and autonomy needs to be given to them
along with accountability. At present, there is no system of teacher accountability towards
their students. There is no established system of having 360 degree evaluation wherein
feedback from students, peers and colleagues constitutes the performance index of
teachers in higher education; as is an accepted and well-developed practice in world
renowned universities. While deciding the performance indicators of teachers, students’
feedback, colleagues’ feedback and other factors like contribution to the organisation/
Higher education institution and publications must be an intrinsic part of it. Also
parameters like Self-assessment and SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and
Threats) can be included in Performance Indicators for Higher Education pedagogues. The
present practices of giving a whole lot of weightage to published work, needs to be looked
into. The NEP 2020, while recognising limited teacher and institutional autonomy as one
of the major issues, has advocated career advancements based on teaching, research and
service; which is a commendable step. But how this is actually imbibed in the system is
yet to be seen.
3. Orientation to Andragogy: It is seen that pedagogues in various academic and
professional courses are not oriented towards basics of Andragogy. Various short-time
courses or Orientation programmes specially based on Andragogy and use of innovative
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 60
approaches to teaching should be taken up at regular intervals so that teachers in various
higher education institutions are able to make use of innovative approaches like Peer
Learning, Collaborative and Cooperative Learning, Group and Individual based Projects
and Problem solving, use of ICT (including MOOCs and OERs) and its tools effectively.
Only an orientation towards innovative teaching would not be sufficient, until and unless
processes of Assessments are not aligned to these innovative methods of teaching.
Innovative methods of teaching combined with assessments via traditional testing modes
will result into disastrous consequences. Therefore, innovative methods of Teaching along
with innovation approaches of Assessments are essentially required. Use of ICT, which
was considered to be an egalitarian practice few years back, now, because of COVID 19
crises has become essential and need of the hour. Therefore, complete programme to make
faculty members conversant with usage of various ICT tools and Learning Management
Systems (LMS) needs to be undertaken on an urgent basis.
4. Quality issues especially pertaining to private self-financing institutions and
universities: There is a perception that there has been deterioration in standards in
teaching due to the uncontrolled expansion of the system in the private (self-financing)
sector, without proper assurance of maintaining quality in higher education by not
providing the required infrastructural and instructional facilities or by not recruiting the
required number of properly qualified staff (Siddiqui, Sharma and Arora, 2009). The same
has also been highlighted in the PRS Legislative Research Standing Committee Report
(2017). There is acute shortage of funds especially at college levels since more than 65%
of available funds from UGC go to Central Universities, and State Universities their
constituent or affiliated colleges received very little funding, which adversely affect the
overall quality of higher education imparted. And the private unaided affiliated colleges
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 61
which do not receive any aid resort to many unethical and unprofessional practices as a
way sustaining themselves. These practices actually dissuade reputed institutions to foray
in the field and it is seen that institutions of dubious reputation are able to sustain
themselves because they do not bother with quality educational practices on ground but
keep their paper work in perfect order. The NEP 2020 speaks about restructuring and
consolidation of the Indian higher education system and has advocated many
revolutionary steps like abolition of affiliated institutions in a phased manner, more
autonomy to Higher Education Institutions (HEI), 4-years bachelors programme with
flexibility options of opting out after one year with a certificate, two years with a
diploma, three years with a simple bachelors degree and a bachelors degree with research
component in the four years programme, shift towards multidisciplinary institutions and
courses. It also speaks of getting feedback from selected students including differently-
abled students at each HEI via online medium through the National Higher Education
Regulatory Council (NHERC). It can been seen as a very positive and progressive step,
but it also means preparing our students to understand the responsibility these measures
entail. This would mean preparing our learners to be analytical thinkers who are
discerning individuals, can decide what is right and what is wrong, without being
influenced by various forces at play. It is seen that in many HEI that students become a
part of ongoing politics between faculty members and can behave on behest of some
influential forces: teachers or student leaders. Also, if appraisals are based on students’
feedback, faculty members may get into pleasing tactics to influence students. Such
measures intended to be implemented by NEP 2020 are very welcoming, but they need to
be exercised with caution.
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 62
5. Number and Quality of Entrants in higher education for teaching positions: In the
year 2017, in an estimate of only Central Universities in India, a total of 5,925 Professor
posts, 2,183 Associate Professor posts and 2,459 Asst. Prof. Posts were vacant (PRS
Legislative Research Standing Committee Report). That amounts to 35%, 46% and 26%
respectively of the total sectioned faculty positions in Central Universities. We can assume
the same trend for State and other Universities also. Among reasons, one of the prominent
reasons is the long and tedious selection process. There have been instances where
positions are advertised, people apply for them; but the process never goes beyond that
and that advertisement becomes redundant after a year. The other very well-known reason
is Teaching as a Profession is not able to attract talented people in the field since it is not a
high-paying career comparatively and an individual needs to spend a long time getting
their post-graduation, M.Phils and Ph.D. and the prescribed salary structures don’t seem to
commensurate with the number of years which are required to be put in. And the ground
reality is, most of the colleges (especially operating in the private unaided sector), are not
paying/ or are not in a position to pay the UGC prescribed pay scales. Therefore, in our
country, higher education is not able to attract talented people for its faculty positions.
And Higher Education institutions or universities are basically known by its faculty,
therefore, there is an acute shortage of competent people in the field of higher education.
6. Not for profit model: The present government policies state that besides the institutions
established by or under the authority of Central or State government and institutions
financed by Central or State government only those self-financing institutions are eligible
which are established and operated by ‘not for profit’ societies and trusts registered under
the appropriate laws or a company incorporated under the Companies Act 2013 (18 of
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 63
2013). It is understandable that education has to be meant for social good. But it is a
known fact that governmental policies and fee structures do not provide for practical
functioning of private unaided institutions in an ethical manner. The basic bottom line
should be that fee structures of the colleges should be designed in such a manner that the
college becomes self-sustaining at least on the operating expenses and day to day expenses
like covering of prescribed salaries of teaching and non-teaching staff and other
operational and/or maintenance expenses. The Supreme Court of India had also held in
writ petition no 317/1993 by TMA Pai Foundation and others that “Management of
private unaided professional institutions can establish and administer their institutions,
admit students with reasonable fee structure…” (Singh and Mishra, 2008). In case of
private universities, they have the freedom to decide the fee structures, but the fee
structures for self-financing affiliated institutions are decided by governmental agencies as
per the present regulations; And it is woefully inadequate to cover even the salaries of
teaching faculty leaving all the other administrative expenses leading to number of
malpractices. The following are the consequences of the inadequate fee structures:
a. Leads to lot of corruption and many malpractices
b. Exploitation of teachers: it is a known fact that majority of teachers working in
these institutions are under-paid. Though on papers faculty is being given full
salaries but reality is otherwise. The service conditions are also very poor. These
practices lead to an unprofessional and unhealthy environment in institutions.
c. These regulations and policies prevent organisations of repute to operate in the
field or sustain themselves in the long run. So it is seen that many organisations of
ill-repute continue to operate whereas good organisations have either left the field
or do not have motivation to enter the field.
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These issues have created a dichotomy in the field of Higher education of our country vis-
a-vis faculty working in the public funded organisations and faculty working in the private
sector. Therefore, we need to think about how to maintain equilibrium making private
self-financing institutions sustainable and at the same time not to bring about
commercialisation in higher education. There is no doubt that there are many spurious
institutions which are working under the garb of cooperative societies and trusts but are
basically one-person or family enterprise, who indulge in all kinds of corrupt malpractices,
exploit the teachers, make them sign on full grade pay, employ people only on paper and
resultantly make huge profits (not on papers though). And all of this happens inspite of all
the regulatory mechanisms. These bring ill-reputation to entire private sector working in
the field of education.
The regulatory bodies have to think about ways and means of encouraging reputed private
players including foreign universities to play a significant role in Indian higher education
system. The policies are to be framed in such a manner that they are conducive to the
functioning of private players as well. The International Commission on Education for the
21st century in its report entitled “Learning: The Treasure Within” (1996) stated “it is not
only justifiable but also desirable to raise money from private sources in order to ease the
pressure on national budgets,…… private funding can come from variety of sources;
contribution, ….. by families and students towards fees”. Also National Policy on
Education (1986) in its para 11.2 had recommended “resources to the extent possible, will
be raised by mobilizing donations, asking the beneficiary communities to maintain school
buildings and supplies of some consumables, raising fees at the higher levels of education
and effecting some savings by the efficient use of facilities….. all these measures will be
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 65
taken not only to reduce the burden on state resources but also for creating a greater
sense of responsibility within the educational system” (National Policy on Education,
1986). NPE 2020 has mentioned that ‘private institutions with a public-spirited
commitment to high-quality equitable education will be encouraged’. But keeping in mind
the penetration of private education players in the field (more than 80% as stated earlier),
it is not possible that the entire system can function only on the basis of philanthropic
assumptions.
Therefore, there is a need to recognise the formation of policies which are conducive to
making private education feasible; making their operations practical. The NEP 2020 also
envisages ‘not for profit’ model to be followed for avoiding commercialisation of
education. Commercialisation of education is definitely not a desired step, but pragmatics
also cannot be ignored. Solely relying on philanthropic and public-spirited intent (NEP
2020) cannot sustain the huge proportion of private unaided higher education system in
our country. Since, the primary source of funding for these institutions is student fees and
the primary expenditure is salaries of teachers and other administrative staff; there has to
be parity between the two. The fee structures have to be decided keeping in mind the
salary structures decided by state/ central governments. But it is seen that determination of
fees is a political issue. Therefore, the fees structures decided are not sufficient to take
care of the basic expenditure i.e. the salaries of faculty and other staff; and which leads to
all the corruption and malpractices. The system has to provide mechanisms which give
legitimate means of sustaining and development to the private funded organisations. The
government needs to think about making entry of ‘for-profit’ institutions an option for its
people and students. A viable option may be to allow organisations registered under
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Section 25 of the Companies Act 1956 to operate in the field of private education, which
will not lead to commercialisation as, the promoters or directors of these companies
cannot take any profit or dividend. It has to be compulsorily ploughed back, which can be
used for development purposes. This will give impetus to reputed organisations to come in
the field and sustain themselves, and also give an option to students. Emergence of good
players in the field may lead to weeding out of corrupt players, as many a times students
take admissions in these institutions because of lack of options.
7. Research and Faculty growth: It is extremely important for an institution of higher
education to have enriched and updated faculty. In fact, higher education institutions are
known by the faculty they have. Therefore, it is imperative that adequate facilitations need
to be provided to faculty to engage in continuous updation and research. More awareness
about various online MOOC platforms like Swayam, IIMBx and many international
platforms like Coursera, edX and many more. Financial assistance and facilitations also
need to be given for continuous growth and development of faculty members.
8. Funding of Research Projects: Research is a very important component both for an
institution of higher education and also for people engaged in the field of higher
education. In fact an institution is known by its faculty and the kind of research which is
coming out of it. Central Universities, State Universities and Institutions of Eminence do
have funds to promote and undertake research, but the avenues for funding need to expand
for rising up to world standards. For other Higher Education Institutions (HEI), especially
the self-financing and Private Universities, there is acute shortage of funds for research.
NEP 2020 has also highlighted the issue of lesser emphasis on research at most
universities and colleges, and lack of competitive peer-reviewed research funding across
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 67
disciplines as one of the primary issues that Indian higher education system is facing. For
faculty working in these HEI, generally, it is left to their own initiative and their own
resources, which cannot be sufficient so they are not in a position to invest and pursue
researches even there is a will. And there is generally no support system to help them out.
Most of the government schemes funded by national agencies like UGC, CSIR, AICTE,
AYUSH, DBT, DSIR, ICSSR etc give research grants to individuals affiliated to
government institutions or institutions which come under Section 2(f) and 12 (B) of UGC
Act. This leaves faculty affiliated to private institutions (which are a huge majority)
mostly out of the purview of research funding. The question which arises is that if the
government of India has set up a proportion of fund for encouragement of quality
research, the main criteria for deciding on granting of the assistance should be the
soundness or relevance of the research proposal rather than the affiliation of the
researcher. Why should it be given only to people working in public-funded
organisations? This is an issue which requires deliberation and is an embodiment of
‘Exclusion’ of a different type at the policy level. NPE 2020 has stressed on setting up of a
National Research Foundation (NRF) to facilitate research in all areas by providing ‘a
reliable base of merit-based but equitable peer-reviewed research funding, helping to
develop a culture of research in the country through suitable incentives for and recognition
of outstanding research, and by undertaking major initiatives to seed and grow research at
State Universities and other public institutions where research capability is currently
limited’. Therefore, even in the NEP 2020, the stress is on funding of researches only in
public institutions and leaving private or self-financing institutions totally out of the
purview.
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 68
9. Role of Regulatory Bodies: The regulatory bodies are ‘responsible for recognition of
courses, promotion of professional institutions and providing grants to undergraduate
programmes and various awards’ as mandated by UGC. AICTE, NCTE, MCI, BCI are
various the regulatory bodies set up to facilitate planned and coordinated development of
the designated professional education programmes in the country, and for regulation and
proper maintenance of norms and standards in the higher education system. NPE 2020 has
recognised suboptimal governance and leadership of HEIs and ineffective regulatory
system to be major a challenge regarding Indian higher education system. These
regulatory bodies are supposed to serve as a parent body which lays down all the norms
which are to be followed with respect to infrastructure, faculty and other administrative
requirements and other requirements. Being the regulatory body, they should be looking
into the mechanisms which make functioning of all types of institutions efficient and
effective, including setting up norms regarding the viability of running self-financing
institutions. The regulatory bodies must also decide on the norms pertaining to deciding
the fee structures so that institutions become self-reliant and are able to sustain themselves
and also promote research in the long run. NHERC under NEP 2020 is being seen as body
which ‘will be set up to regulate in a ‘light but tight’ and in a facilitative manner, implying
a few important matters particularly financial probity, good governance and the full online
and offline public self-disclosures of all finances, audits, procedures, infrastructure,
faculty/staff, courses and educational outcomes will be effectively regulated’. Let us do
hope that all of these measures are actually transacted on ground in the way they have
been intended.
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 69
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Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278-2435, Vol. 9, Issue-3, August-2020. Page 71
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Patron Padma Shri Prof. M.S.Sodha F.N.A. Former Deputy Director, IIT, New Delhi & Former Vice-Chancellor, Indore, Bhopal & Lucknow Universities ,Visiting Professor, Department of Education & Physics University of Lucknow-226007 U.P
Chief Editor Prof.Umesh C. Vashishtha Former Head & Dean, Faculty of Education, University of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh & Former Founder Director, Institute of Distance Education; Centre for Aurbindo Studies; Centre for Gandhian Though; Centre for Vivekanand Studies; Institute of Rural Education and Management; University of Lucknow & Former Council Member NCTE-NRC & NCTE-HQ at New Delhi & Present Council Member, NCTE-HQ, New Delhi Mob.+91-9415521737
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