TNOER need

Educational Context

Across several curricular and policy documents, two factors have been emphasized as being key contributors to the quality of education – (i) availability of good quality curricular resources and (ii) strengthening the quality of teacher development within the education system.

Recognizing this, TN School Education Department has initiated a decentralized approach to teacher training focusing on revitalizing cluster and block level interactions as a key method of teacher preparation during the current academic year. The program will leverage a Communities of Practice approach for strengthening teacher capabilities.

Providing curricular resources that demonstrate new pedagogical approaches as well as provide more interactive content, can be a good way to catalysing the cluster level interactions towards changing the classroom practices. On the other hand, the cluster collectives can also contribute to the resource repository, creating a model of sustainable curricular resource creation as well.

A curated resource repository

SCERT has always been providing curricular resources; however this model has some limitations in terms of the limited number of resources, and lesser flexibility in making contextualized resources. For anchoring the cluster level interactions through resources, it is essential for us to have a platform where resources added continuously, including teacher-led contributions. It is envisaged that such a dynamic resource repository will be able to build on teachers’ creativity and innovations at the school level while also strengthening their pedagogic content knowledge.

With this objective, a meeting was held on July 1, 2022, chaired by the SPD, Samagra Shiksha. Director, SCERT also participated along with other senior faculty from SCERT. During this meeting, it was decided that the Tamil Nadu Teachers Portal (TNTP) will extended further to include resources for supporting classroom transactions; this extension will build upon the current platform already developed by EMIS.

The TNTP portal

The DSE has already developed a portal, called the TNTP, in which resources have been uploaded, based on a detailed taxonomy of school content for all grades upto higher secondary levels. The department has also created over 25000 videos on various topics through internal and external sources. In addition to this, the TNTP also contains a question bank in which over 200000 questions have been contributed, including by teachers. A detailed classification of resource type, mapped to syllabus has been developed.

Extending the TNTP with resources for teaching-learning

The extensive mapping done as well as the resources created so far need to now be extended to lessons that teachers can actually transact in the classrooms. The lesson will be a “wrap-around” that includes multiple resources, and also suggested ways of building the lesson. The objectives of this would be as follows:

1. To provide resource support for the planned cluster level interactions
2. To provide a platform for teachers to share their experiences and resources
3. To provide multiple resources for the teacher to support her classroom teaching, deepening their pedagogic content knowledge
4. To provide supplementary and enrichment resources for students

These teaching-learning materials will be designed and organized by teams of teachers and teacher educators, identified by SCERT, on an ongoing basis. The creation and publishing of these resources will be done with support from EMIS, based on the current taxonomy.

This process of resource design and creation will be facilitated by IT for Change.

Processes and action items

Teaching learning plans need to be developed for all school topics, for each concept. This would mean multiple lessons have to be developed across subject areas The SCERT will develop a format for these lessons based on the current frameworks being followed. A suggested structure for the resource can be seen in Annexure 1.

These resource pages will be shared in the cluster meetings for teachers to review, reflect and also compare with their own practices. Teacher reactions in terms of feedback to the resources, further ideas for lesson plans, will be captured in the meeting and this will form the basis of further revisions. A suitable communication needs to be shared with teachers.

For the cluster meeting on July 16th, this will be rolled out on a limited manner with selected topics from Class 6-10. On an ongoing basis, a process needs to be in place for building these teaching-learning resources on an ongoing basis.

A 3-day workshop has been proposed from July 6-8 for developing resources for topics from Classes 6-10; 2 topics per subject per class. Initially the subjects would include Mathematics, Science and English. During a subsequent workshop, from July 11-13, other subjects can be taken up for classes 6-10. In the subsequent months, resources for all classes, all subjects and all mediums of instruction would be taken up.

The workshop will comprise 10-12 resource persons by subject, a co-ordinator by subject and also key SCERT faculty for guidance for the resource creation. The workshop will be facilitated by IT for Change and EMIS, and other resource persons identified by SCERT.

Draft Agenda

An indicative agenda for the three days is provided below.

Day	10.30 am – 1.00 pm	2.00 pm – 5.30 pm
Day 1 All 3 subjects, under the leadership of SCERT director	Teachers and facilitators will discuss the template for organising the resources on the repository, provided by SCERT and how it can be used for for the topics that are selected	An orientation from the facilitators on how resources can be organised on the repository (this will be a common session for teachers from all the three subjects) and discussions.
Day 2 (Co-ordinated by a nodal person from SCERT for each subject)	Teachers will identify the concepts and develop a set of lesson ideas; based on this, the team will identify and evaluate resources (both from the existing content as well as open content from the web)	The team will also come up with the organization and publishing plan for these resources on the repository. The facilitators will publish these on the portal, for review by the teachers
Day 3	Teachers will present their resource pages and receive feedback from others on how to improve the organising of resources. Further orientation be given by the facilitators to help this group to become a resource group for designing similar resource for the remaining subject including Social Science and Tamil.	Review and finalize the resource pages. Developing guidelines for teacher feedback and contribution at the cluster level.

Roles and responsibilities for the workshop

SCERT

1. The three-day workshop will be organised by SCERT, calling 12 teachers in each of the three subjects. All teachers must have access to a computer with Internet connectivity during the workshop. These systems must have Geogebra, LibreOffice, Kalzium, Audacity, Vokoscreen FOSS applications.
2. SCERT will provide the template in which the resources will be published on the repository. (An example of template which is being used in the Karnataka Open is made available can be seen on the Triangles page). SCERT will provide the specifications for the resource layout for the Tamil Nadu platform.

(SCERT is requested to take care of the local hospitality - lodging and boarding of the facilitator team from IT for Change).

Technology support

1. The EMIS team will install the platform on the server and make it available for the workshop.
2. The team will also, with support from the IT for Change technology team, provide technical support to the teacher's use of the platform.
3. The team will create editor logins for the participating teachers on the platform prior to the workshop. (SCERT should share names and mail ids of teachers for this).

Further action items

1. Form a state-level steering group with SCERT faculty, SS team, DIET faculty, academics, educational technologists, teachers, under the leadership of the SPD. This group will draw up a vision document, road map and timeline, and mentor the TNOER project on a continuous basis.
2. Develop the expert group for developing and curating the resource pages by grade/subject/medium of instruction.
3. Develop processes for teacher contributions to TNOER
4. The process of curricular resource development, curation, use and revision can become dynamic and continuous and integrated with the teacher development programs of the department, and made mutually reinforcing.
5. EMIS team will explore the platform and make use of its features to extend its utility to teachers, teacher educators, curriculum developers etc.

Annexure 1 - Key principles in the design of resources

1. The resources should be in line with the overall objectives of any subject and also have contextually relevant content
2. The content should be accurate and free of any bias or prejudices and should also be accessible for children with special needs, and be available as open educational resources
3. The resources should be able to address learners at multiple learning levels
4. The resources will be in different formats and will be accessible online and offline
5. The resources must allow for continuous revision through teachers, experts and other stakeholders in the education system
6. The resource repository must also allow for monitoring and feedback from the teachers on the training and the extent of implementation

Organization of curricular resources

The resources should be structured in such a way that concepts are linked and built, across grade levels and should have clarity on the learning objectives. The resources should be developed as a set of lessons and not as discrete resource units.

1. Organize the resources by topic (not by class) – each topic must have a concept map that links all the underlying concepts and relevant basic concepts, creating teaching trajectories
2. For each of the concepts, map the different kinds of tools that can be used
3. Under each concept, list down the activities (can be bundled into any number of lessons)
4. A full description of the activities – including hands-on experimentation, observation, field visits, community interaction, computer simulations, audio visual content (both readily available and teacher made). The activities will also invoke multiple resources
5. Inclusion of questions and ideas that will provoke the learners to go beyond the syllabus requirements and connect various subjects
6. Methods of assessment – multiple methods of assessments to be included.
7. Appropriate meta data must be added to all content created so that teachers can access this by concept/ grade/ type of resource/ purpose of resource, etc.
8. The resources can also be made available periodically offline and through an app.

An example of this can be found on this page for Triangles

This is a general design for the curricular content; this needs to be qualified and specialized for different subjects/ grades as the project gets underway.

Annexure 2 – Action plan proposed

Project phase	Broad focus areas	Action tasks (to be developed further)
Designing and planning	Defining the scope, terms, structure and processes of the repository	Constitute a state-level steering group with SCERT faculty, SS team, DIET faculty, academics, educational technologists, teachers, under the leadership of the SCERT and SS, for creating a vision document, road map and timeline, and must be mentoring the project on a continuous basis
Planning the resource creation* and review (see note below)	Creating a design for the resource portal, focusing on integrating multiple tools and applications with teaching-learning processes Working with the technical team to action out the design in terms of architecture Developing the meta data parameters for the repository Creating and curating open educational resources, on an ongoing basis Creating processes and checklists for resource creation and curation Develop processes for inviting contributions from teachers	Draw up a core team of teachers/ teacher educators/ resource persons by subject for coming up with a portal designed Creating a core team of technical experts who can work with the academic team to action out the portal Resource creation and curation workshops to be organized for the core groups of teachers; teachers will develop lesson plans integrating multiple resources (including those already created by the department Identify and curate web-based resources that are available for contextualization and integrate them with lessons as well Ongoing capacity building for teachers in the evaluation and use of multiple resources, especially digital resources Publishing the resources so developed Formation of district resource groups for review of resources on an ongoing basis
Designing and managing the repository (technical – managed by EMIS, with support from IT for Change)	Technical design and architecture of the repository Metadata for resources Maintaining the repository Creating customized apps	Formation of a technical team for management of the design and architecture of the team Identify the technical functionalities and determine the best platform Creating a plan for digital capacity building in the state

* Broadly, there are 4 kinds of resources

1. Resources created by SCERT/ SS programs, including textbooks
2. Specialized content creation programs (e-content, Kalvi TV production) and content created by subject experts
3. Resources curated by the the resource curation teams at the state level and district level
4. Resources created by teachers and reflections from cluster meetings and other events/programs

Apart from these, the repository can also refer to existing open educational resources on the web.

Annexure 3 - Candidate topics

Two topics will be selected, one each from July and August

Std	Science	Maths	English
6th	Matter Around Us	Statistics	I Dream of Spices
7th	Health and Hygiene	Geometry	Your Space
8th	Light	Information Processing	Sir Isaac Newton - e Ingenious Scientist
9th	Periodic Classification of Elements	Algebra	Old Man River
10th	Plant and Animal Hormones	Coordinate Geometry	The Ant and the Cricket

August topics

Std	Science	Maths	English
6th	The Cell	Numbers	Sports Stars
7th	Heat & Temperature	Measurements	Adventures of Don Quixote
8th	Movements in Animals	Algebra	A Thing of Beauty
9th	Chemical Bonding	Coordinate Geometry	The Spider and the Fly
10th	Types of Chemical Reactions	Algebra	Tech Bloomers

The topic can be selected in a manner to be useful to teachers teaching across grades 6 through 10.