Teacher Education for
Distance Education Teacher.
- Introduction -:
We find Open Universities and Distance Education Institutions in all the Countries. But we find no Teacher Education for Distance Education Teacher (DET) anywhere. The teachers in Convention Education System (CES) and Distance Education System (DES) perform different tasks. Therefore, the skills acquired for teaching in CES may not be useful in DES. According to the Manual for Self-Study of Distance Education Institutions, published by National Assessment and Accreditation , Banglore. There are more than ten Open Universities in India, where we find more than 20,00,000 students are studying and more than 50,000 Counsellors are serving. Every University has the Directorate of Distance Education. Every Open University has its study centres. The teachers, working there, are from CES. Sometimes lecturers are conducted on the name of counselling. Teacher is expected to find out the field need. He is not able to write a script for A/V production. We find him lacking in the skills required for DES. It leads the thought of teacher education for DES teacher.
2. Academic Task in DES and the Role of a Teacher.
Broadly speaking there are two distinct types of academic functions in DES.
- Discipline based development of courses/programmes.
- System development and delivery of service.
It includes preparation of learning packages, preparation and maintenance of courses including Audio/Video programs and planning, development of system and procedures including evaluation of students, and research into various aspects of the system itself includes the delivery of various services to students and evaluation of programs.
As it is quoted in the Report of The Committee on the Structure for the Academic and Student Support Services System of the University and the Pattern of its Staffing conducted by IGNOU, New Delhi, in DES, Teachers are necessary for imparting instruction or for preparing educational material of for conducting other academic activities including guidance, designing & delivery of courses, and evaluation of the work done by the students.
The DES requires the services of certain specialist personnel who may not be teachers of administrators in the traditional sense. They would be performing a wide spectrum of functions which combine managerial/administrative competence with academic sensitivity and understanding. The performance of such intermediate level functions and the development of a category of specialist personnel for the purpose is necessary for the success of the DES.
3. Skills required to perform the Tasks and to perform the Role of Teacher -:
The skills required for a DES teacher are different than that of CES teacher. In CES, face -to-face teaching -learning process is going on. Therefore, the teacher has to acquire teaching skills and various methods of teaching in face-to-face situation. But in DES, the learners are in remote places, and their age group is not same. They study at their sphere time and most of the time independently. Considering these factors, teacher in DES has to acquire certain skills. A teacher in DES may not use all these skills at a time but these will be used task wise. He may carry this task or that. Therefore, he has to acquire all these skills in Teacher Education. The list of skills are as given below, One may add other skills also. But these are core skills required for DES Teacher.
- Skills for designing Courses/Programs.
- Skills for preparation of meetings.
- Skills for writing Course units & program guides.
- Skills for proof reading.
- Skills for content and language editing.
- Skills for the designing of the cover-page of print material, including graphics & illustrations.
- Skills for writing scripts for Audio and Video programs.
- Skills for conducting orientation programs and workshops.
- Skills for preparing, checking and monitoring the feedback of assignments.
- Skills for bringing out revision of the courses/programs and bringing out completely new edition of courses.
- Skills for preparation and production of Audio/Video program.
- Skills for interacting with other agencies, especially heads of the Educational institutions and Managers of the Industries companies.
- Skills for counseling advice and guidance to the students.
- Skills for developing question banks and conducting Assessment programs.
- Skills for evaluating the students’ performance.
- Skills for evaluating the programs.
- Skills for planning to develop the courses/programs.
- Skills for Translation.
- Skills for designing and development of training material.
- Skills for Training and orientation of counsellors.
- Skills for presenting a paper in a Seminars.
- Skills for performing researches for the system development and for discipline based development of courses/ programs.
- Skills for handling illustruments, new technology.
- Skills for presenting radio and T.V. talks.
- Skills for presenting lessons on virtual classroom and monitoring these class rooms.
No one denies to accept pre-service teacher training degrees/ certificates in teacher education as a qualification for seeking employment as a teacher. The teacher education may be imparted through CES or through DES. The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) accepts distance education as a useful and viable mode for training teachers presently serving in schools. This mode is also useful for providing training and continuing education support for other functionaries working in the school system, Thus, it is also useful for training the teacher in DES.
Teacher Education is a special requirement for a teacher in DES. One should acquire the skills to work as a teacher in DES. Though it can be given by CES, it is fruitful to start Teacher Education through DES. One should get a practical experiences to acquire the skills needed for him in DES.
5. Nature of Teacher Education for DES.
To implement Teacher Education through DES, it is necessary to decide programmecomponents as given below.
- Adequate amount of self-learning printed course-material in distance education format.
- Provision for audio and video packages.
- Regular assignments which are fully evaluated within stipulated time.
- Internship provision and its duration.
- Evaluation shall be comprehensive and continuous.
- Duration.
- Contact programs.
- Practicals.
- Eligibility.
- Evaluation system.
The program components may be added by the Expert Committee called for the purpose.
6. Conclusion -:
Teacher Education is necessary not only for the teachers working in CES but also for the teachers working in DES. The skills required teachers working in DES are somewhat different from those of teachers working in CES. It is necessary to give special attention to acquire the skills for the teachers working in DES. There is no Teacher education available for training DES teachers, Therefore, the teachers working in the DES or the teachers who are going to work in the DES will welcome teacher education in this field.
References -:
(1) The Report of The Committee on the Structure for the Academic and Student Support Services System of the University and the Pattern of its Staffing Conducted by IGNOU, New Delhi.
(2) Manual for Self-Study of Distance Education Institutions, published by National Assessment and Accreditation 2/4 Dr. Raj Kumar Road, P. Office No. 1075, Rajajinagar, Banglore – 560 010
(3) Norms and Standards for Teacher Education Institutions; Published by National Council for Teacher Education, C-2/10, Safadarjung, Development Area, New Delhi.
(4) Comparative Chart of Open Universities in brief published by Distance Education Council, New Delhi.
(5) ‘Five Years Plans’ and ‘Annual Reports’ published by Y.C.M. Open University, Nashik.