NEP Implementation

NEP Implementation - Pedagogies and Tools Workshop

Mankind has witnessed 6 technological revolutions during the last ~700 years out of which, the latest two occurred during the last ~80 years. Most technological revolutions have ripple effects on societal setups, economic processes as well as political relations between countries. The information technology revolution (sometimes referred to as the Digital Revolution) has had some significant socio-economic impacts. Along with the products of the industrial revolution, it also provides a perfect platform for future technological revolutions. These clubbed with the changes to nature’s ecological balance, promise uniquely challenging times for the coming generation. It will not be sufficient to equip children with the same knowledge and competencies which the current education system (especially in India and some other countries) has been providing.

National Education Policy 2020

The National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020), which was approved by the Union Cabinet of India on 29 July 2020, outlines the vision of India’s new education system. The policy is a comprehensive framework for elementary education to higher education as well as vocational training in both rural and urban India. One of the key focus areas of NEP are the Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) as this would help prepare our children for careers in the coming decades. Over the next few years, the method of assessment will move entirely towards testing these competencies rather than rote learning. The NEP 2020 brings in some fundamental changes to our education system which will have a long- lasting impact. During the Annual Sahodaya Conference on December 11, 2020, the Secretary, Department of School Education and the CBSE chairman articulated the implementation expectations. ThinkTac’s workshop familiarises the workshop participants on “how” part of implementing the NEP 2020 guidelines including:

Emphasis on competency-based learning
Reducing curriculum to create space for critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, discovery-based learning, etc.
Focus on 21st Century skills
Experiential learning
Assessment as a tool for learning
Enriched environment at the foundational stage

As a social enterprise, ThinkTac took the first step towards preparing teachers by conducting the Experiential, Hands-On Science Teacher Primer Workshop during the summer of 2020, which was well received by thousands of school leaders and teachers. The current series of workshops on NEP implementation focuses on pedagogy and tools. This virtual workshop is designed specifically for School Leaders, HoDs and Science teachers as the target audience.

Workshop Agenda

While the value of these changes does not need much debate, implementation is the key to successful outcomes. In this workshop, we will discuss some of the ways to implement a subset of NEP recommendations.

SL	Agenda item	Description
1	Introduction	Speaker brief followed by an overview of the agenda of the workshop.
2	NEP Overview	NEP 2020 Overview Explore specific sections of NEP, applicable to schools that would be the focus of the workshop
3	Experiential Learning in Science	Talk by Dr Jayant Murthy, Senior Professor, Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bangalore on the importance of learning science through experience. Dr Jayant is a PhD from Johns Hopkins University, USA. He has worked at the Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA), Maryland, USA and is a specialist in Space Astronomy with broad interests.
4	Pedagogies	Introduction to three key pedagogies which lay foundation for developing scientific literacy along with learning skills like critical thinking, problem solving, creativity and innovation. Zone of Proximal Development Kolb’s Experiential Learning Bloom’s Taxonomy in the Cognitive Domain Relevant examples will be demonstrated/discussed for each pedagogy to provide a concrete perspective on their implementation.
5	Implementation model	Review the 5E model for implementing NEP linked programmes. Experiential science examples will be used to explore the model.
6	Q & A; Feedback

Speaker Profiles

Jayant Murthy, Senior Professor, Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bangalore; PhD, Johns Hopkins University, USA; worked at the Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA), Maryland, USA, specialist in Space Astronomy with broad interests.

Dr. Jayanth has published 272 papers so far, collaborating with peers across prestigious institutions in the USA and India. He is one of those prominent scientists of the country who is popularising science amongst the general public, including children, for its deep and better understanding.

Vishal Bhatt graduated with Engineering in Computer Science and completed his Masters from IIT Delhi. Vishal worked with the IT Sector for 11 years where he experienced programming as well as people management. His passion to be associated with the education sector made him join the education domain where he has been working since Jan 2011. After 2 years, he was a part of non-profit Innovation & Science Promotion Foundation and then co-founded ThinkTac in 2017.

Procheta Mallik graduated with Physics Honours, B.Sc. (University of New Hampshire, USA, 2005) and completed his Ph.D. in Astronomy (University of Glasgow, UK, 2009), followed by a year of post-doctoral research. Upon returning to India, Dr. Procheta pursued his passion in science education by doing popularisation activities for schools such as The Valley School, before joining Innovation and Science Promotion Foundation (www.ispf.ngo) at its inception in 2014. He co-founded ThinkTac (www.thinktac.com) in 2017.