This was originally written by Shadab Ahmed for Delhi Government’s bi-monthly publication. You can read the original piece in Hindi here.
ASER 2022 report was launched on January 18, 2023, according to it nationally the proportion of children who can do division has increased slightly (from 44.1 percent in 2018 to 44.7 percent in 2022). It also shared that Girls and most children enrolled in government schools show an improvement in basic math levels as compared to 2018. These insights made me recall Mr. Rohit Upadhyaya a Mathematics teacher for more than 10 years and Mentor Teacher in DoE schools for the last five years. In one of my coaching discussions with Rohit sir, I asked him to reflect on how the Teacher Development Coordinator (TDC) program has helped students in their learning journey and how he thinks he has contributed to his mentee schools. Rohit sir shared about “Ariba Saha” (name changed) a student of class 8th of a Government school in Delhi who was regularly lagging behind in mathematics.
Ms. Seema Singhal (TDC of his mentee school) discussed this challenge with Rohit sir as one of her fellow teachers discussed this challenge post an Academic Resource team (ART) meeting (ART meetings are the monthly network meeting where Teachers from the government school assemble for 90 minutes to discuss the challenges and plan for the upcoming months). Rohit sir shared with her that in the second year of the implementation of TDC program, one of STIR’s strategies encouraged teachers to identify five underperforming students in their classrooms and engage more deeply with their families and suggested that she should discuss the same with a fellow teacher. Rohit sir also made this as a follow-up action for his next visit to his mentee school.
On the next visit, he followed up with Seema madam on the status of Ariba’s mathematics performance, Seema madam shared that while she is gradually progressing her fellow teacher is supporting her and other students like her in a focused manner. Rohit sir shared that he make sure that followup on Ariba is among the follow-up action of his mentee school visit. He shared that in the month of April when the results were out for class 8th he checked on the performance of Ariba and Seema maam shared that she has made a good progress and passed in second division. She shared that while Ariba has started developing interest in mathematic there is still improvements required which her subject teacher will take responsibility of as Seema maam has shared a detailed feedback of Ariba with her.
The internal data of STiR also second Mr. Rohit’s reflection that showed that there is an overall increases were actually driven by students who were previously underperforming in mathematics, and who gained basic conceptual knowledge about single and double-digit operations by the end of the year, thus improving their overall performance. In other words, the improvements in maths outcomes were significantly due to teachers’ working to bring their underperforming students up to par with other students, rather than extreme high-performing outliers skewing the average. This is also substantiated by RCT done in Delhi, where on average maths levels for students in schools where 20-30% of teachers participated in some STIR intervention were ~4% higher than the average maths levels of students in non-STIR intervention schools.
STiR’s objective is that the students should learn effectively and think critically. STiR does this through intrinsically motivated teachers and officials by building their skills and capacity through behaviour change processe.
Rohit Sir shared that “One of the priorities for TDCs is to regularly contribute to the continuous personal and professional development of their ART and Co-ART members. Simultaneously, the MT should ensure they provide necessary resources such as courses, training materials, and share write-ups to support the TDCs in their handholding role. Furthermore, they should frequently appreciate and provide feedback to TDCs and mentor them through mentoring programs, with the ultimate goal of creating an environment in schools that fosters lifelong learning opportunities for both teachers and students.”
Reference:
NCERT: The government conducted a study through the NCERT in 2022 to find out whether students were picking up basic skills on literacy and numeracy. It found that as many as 37 per cent of students enrolled in class 3 have very limited foundational numeracy skills such as identifying numbers, and carry out simple mathematical operations, while even the most basic knowledge is absent in 11 per cent learners.
ASER-2022: Nationally, the proportion of children who can do division has increased slightly (from 44.1 percent in 2018 to 44.7 percent in 2022). Girls, and most children enrolled in government schools show an improvement in basic math levels as compared to 2018.
Students:
- In 80% of classrooms, students displayed self-esteem, and in 89% of classrooms, students were engaged.
- Based on the RCT done in Delhi, on average, maths levels for students in schools where 20-30% of teachers participated in some STIR intervention were ~4% higher than the average maths levels of students in non-STIR intervention schools.
- In the 2nd year of the intervention, one of STIR’s strategies encouraged teachers to identify five underperforming students in their classrooms and engage more deeply with their families. When measuring student outcomes at the end of the year, we attempted to understand if these overall increases in average were driven by extreme outliers (i.e. already high-performing students who performed even higher) or by an overall general increase in maths scores for each student. Results showed that these overall increases were actually driven by students who were previously underperforming in mathematics, and who gained basic conceptual knowledge about single and double-digit operations by the end of the year, thus improving their overall performance. In other words, the improvements in maths outcomes were significantly due to teachers’ working to bring their underperforming students up to par with other students, rather than extreme high-performing outliers skewing the average.
- This difference (in students’ average maths outcomes) was more significantly observed in schools where participating teachers only took part in network meetings organised by STIR. In other words, in schools where teachers only took part in network meetings organised by STIR, the difference between students’ average maths levels and non-STIR school students’ maths levels was ~6% greater than if the teachers had participated in a myriad of STIR activities, both of which were still greater than if teachers had not participated in any STIR activity at all.
Teachers:
- As of 2022, most teachers are engaged in 85% of network meetings.
- Similarly, teachers are experiencing safer learning environments, teachers exhibited feeling safe in 80% of network meetings in 2022, a 29% increase from 2018.
A 2021 survey on teacher metacognition, motivation and burnout found that 79.09% of Delhi teachers self-report being always motivated, with 96% indicating they always try their best.