Teacher workshop on ' Teacher Effectiveness and Motivating School Children'

A workshop on Teacher Effectiveness and Motivating School Children was conducted by Dr. Harish Chaudhary at School on 28th June 2016. Dr. Chaudhary is an alumnus of The Doon School, Dehradun. He did chemical engineering from IIT (Kanpur) followed by a PGDBM from IIM (Bangalore) and a PhD from IIT (Delhi). Dr. Chaudhary is a consultant and a trainer of repute. He has undertaken substantial research on values and quality in education, he has conducted several training programmes for school principals, parents and teachers.

The workshop commenced with an introspective session where teachers were asked to reflect upon the essential questions ' What is my job? Why am I here?' Dr. Chaudhary was of the opinion that education as a term should not be confined to literacy alone but should, rather be viewed in a broader context as of teaching life skills necessary to enable children to think critically and grow into intelligent citizens. He theorised intelligence as a skill that enables an individual to deal effectively with his environment. To achieve this goal, the speaker appealed to the teachers to not just limit their teaching to conveying information to students but to strive for a holistic development of the child's personality. According to him, education involves sharpening the mind of a child and inculcating a sense of values in him.

Skillfully woven into the discussion were also thoughts about discipline at School. Dr. Chaudhary defined discipline as a regulated way of living as opposed to the conventional meaning of sitting quietly in class. Discipline is something that shapes an individual's personality and at the same time gets reflected in one's outlook.

Inculcating self-confidence was another key point of his discussion. He clearly delineated the fact that children do not learn from people they don't like and thus emphasised that a teacher should be an amiable figure. He should be one who can present the subject as a context for thinking and should strive to relate topics to real life situations so that they become relevant for the students' modern lifestyles. He stressed upon the importance of reading to give vent to a child's creative and imaginative faculties - a skill which is gradually receding amongst present day students.

Dr. Chaudhary opined that the teacher should be able to create an environment in the classroom where disagreement is honoured and a child can freely express himself. It is equally pertinent for the teacher to patiently listen to the students. He emphasised on the skill of being able to provide a platform to students where they can become independent thinkers.

Quoting the example of Finland, he remarked that our education system should get the best people to join this profession, thus reaching good education the last child. Dr. Chaudhary spoke extensively about health - both physical and mental. According to him, ' A healthy mind leads to a healthy body'. He discussed issues that concern and affect the mental health of a child. He advised teachers to build a rapport with their students and help them keep a calm and clear mind. Igniting a child's mind by making the subject interesting, should be the objective of every teacher. A teacher's teaching should be stimulating enough to sustain the interest of the students, which can be increased by quoting the maximum examples relevant to the topic. To facilitate effective teaching, Dr. Chaudhary also stated that the present education system and the teaching methodology needs to undergo a change whereby a child is encouraged to become a thinker. The ability to think independently and dwell upon the subject would enable a student to apply his knowledge in real life situations. This would be possible only if the teacher takes adequate steps to simultaneously build a child's self-esteem.

The workshop came to an end with Dr. Chaudhary highlighting the importance of assessment and evaluation in the education system. He laid stress upon the fact that a teacher should assess her teaching more frequently to ensure that all the students of the class are able to understand the topic taught and if necessary be able to take remedial action. It's imperative that a teacher should reach out to every child in the classroom because its only then that a teacher's teaching can be considered successful.

It can be concluded that the workshop was very thought-provoking and informative. It gave us fresh insights into new methods of teaching. It also gave us a chance to retrospect and introspect. It was a wonderful opportunity for our teachers to have met and interacted with Dr. Chaudhary. His suggestions will indeed have a lasting impact on the teachers and they are certain incorporate several of his suggestions into their practise.

Ms. Suhina Roshangar.