The covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a shift in the teaching-learning process. Children are not able to come to school. This has brought tremendous challenges for teachers and students in rural and semi-urban areas. Teachers are not able to keep a record of each students learning equally due to the unavailability of resources like the internet, mobile, and computers. They have been trying hard to come up with innovative solutions themselves to solve the teaching-learning challenges. But it cannot alone be done by a teacher. For this, they need technology skills combined with pedagogy to not reach a child but to give them a good learning experience in remote learning too.
But how a teacher can attain these skills? Teachers are considered to be the source of information and knowledge then what skills have we been talking about? We are talking about skills that are required today in the remote learning process. These skills previously did not matter much to a teacher but now it is the need of the hour. Teachers are being provided these skills by training. The word training has many different interpretations. Teacher training means making teachers aware of new emerging teaching strategies, helping them in learning new digital tools, providing strategies to solve different classroom challenges and student engagement. But training requires a platform and space to gather all the teachers and then train them, isn’t it?
Yes, it requires a platform and now that platform has shifted online. Teachers are being trained in digital space now, for instance, on Google Meet and Zoom. Not only the platform but also the training strategies, mode of training, the theme of training, resources used in training, time limit, resource person, etc. have also changed.
But who are these teachers’ trainers? Are those teachers, school principals, professors, or technology experts? A teacher’s trainer can be anyone who has expertise in a particular domain. It can be a teacher himself who knows the subject and innovative methods to teach that subject. It can be a technology expert who knows to operate a digital tool and can help teachers in learning that tool. It can be an initiative like Gurushala to which many teachers are connected and it organizes training for its teachers in various domains, to improve various skills among teachers by inviting experts to train teachers.
Gurushala has been training teachers on various themes like innovative teaching-learning strategies, use of ICT tools in teaching, using the resource in the classroom, managing classroom, conducting assessment, making online classes experience meaningful, inclusive education, involving parents in teaching-learning, solving online classroom challenges, understanding students learning environment, social and emotional wellbeing of students, an engaging student in different art, self-directed learning, etc.
Gurushala is focused on improving the teaching-learning experience of students by providing resources to teachers for their professional development. Gurushala is changing the teaching-learning experience of over 26000 users across more than 11 states as of now by providing various resources online. Through this crisis, Gurushala has developed a different approach where teachers are being provided subject-specific content and also various online courses to enhance pedagogical skills. These courses (https://gurushala.co/course) helps in learning various pedagogical skills and technical skills where content library(https://gurushala.co/content) helps in accessing digital interactive resources in the form of videos, pdf, and ppts. Thus, Gurushala is creating an atmosphere of learning by developing the capacity of teachers and by providing them resources free of cost so that each and every child can learn.
But what impact has the teacher training brought on teachers? Training is conducted by keeping in mind the requirement of teachers. For instance, during remote learning, it has become relatively tough to examine the student’s learning progress. In training, some techniques and digital tools are suggested to teachers which can help them in overcoming the assessment and evaluation challenges to a much extent.
Teachers have become more confident after training. Their response in the feedback form shows the sense of confidence they gain after every training. Training is helping them not only to overcome their teaching-learning challenges but they have been developing their professional skills as well. These skills help them in solving the challenges and help in bringing innovative ideas to deal with situations like remote learning.
