National Awards for Innovative Practices and Experiments in Education for Schools and Teacher Education Institutions
In the early sixties, the then Department of Extension Programme for Secondary Education launched a Scheme entitled “Seminar Readings Programme for Teachers and Heads of Secondary Schools.” The scheme provided an opportunity to teachers to write detailed papers in English or in any other modern Indian language on teaching procedures or techniques, which they found most effective. The papers were submitted to the Extension Service Department of the NCERT. From time to time, changes were made in the Scheme and its scope was widened with regard to its nomenclature, nature of participation, eligibility criteria, specification of themes, procedure of submission of papers, short listing of papers, number of awards, eligibility for cash prize, amount of cash prize etc.
Till 2004-05, the Scheme was known as “All India Competition on Innovative Practices and Experiments for School Teachers and Teacher Educators”. There was a provision of 100 cash prizes of Rs. 2,000/- each (70 for school teachers: 50 for elementary level and 20 at secondary level, and 30 for teacher educators: 20 for elementary teacher educators and 10 for secondary teacher educators).
The scheme was reviewed by the NCERT during 2005-07 with the help of faculty members of RIEs and some external experts in the area of school education and teacher education. The review led to the reformulation of the Scheme as „All India Competition on Innovative Practices and Experiments in Education for Schools and Teacher Education Institutions.
‟ After the implementation of the Scheme for about ten years, it has been felt that individual teachers and teacher educators attempting innovations need to be accorded recognition by giving them awards at the national level. Therefore, the scheme has been rechristened as ‘National Awards for Innovative Practices and Experiments in Education for Schools and Teacher Education Institutions’ from 2017-18 onwards.
The main objectives of the scheme are to:
〽 sensitise teachers and teacher educators about the potential of innovative practices and experiments for improvement of teaching-learning;
〽 encourage teachers and teacher educators to try out innovative ideas and practices for improvement of different areas of school education and teacher education;
〽 encourage teachers and teacher educators to identify problems they face in their teaching learning process and adopt a realistic approach to find their solutions;
〽 create an environment in schools and teacher education institutions to ensure sustainability of innovation; and
〽 provide a forum to teachers and teacher educators to share their innovative ideas with all the stakeholders.
Innovation is typically understood as the introduction of something new and useful, for example, introducing new strategies or modified methods, techniques, practices, products and services. The definitions of innovation include:
〽 Process of making improvements by introducing something new; Process of implementing new ideas for improvement of teaching learning process;
〽 An idea, strategy, method or device;
〽 Changes that create a new dimension of performance in any aspect of teaching learning; and
〽 A creative idea that is realized through the use of alternative strategies or techniques.
〽 Capabilities of realising a desired change continuously in order to sustain it over a period of time.
Teachers and teacher educators can undertake innovations or conduct experiments on any aspect of their work related to teaching-learning, training or management of schools/colleges of teacher education in order to enhance efficiency of the institution to overcome problems and difficulties they face in day to day functioning. A few suggested examples are given below:
〽 Devise a new approach/instructional strategy in any subject area;
〽 Prepare and use innovative teaching-learning materials including ICT;
〽 Identification and mobilization /use of resources drawn from the local community/ environment for improvement of teaching-learning;
〽 Develop local specific curricular materials for teaching-learning;
〽 Develop innovative strategies for classroom management leading to an improvement in the organizational climate or better use of available resources in the class or school;
〽 Management of inter-personal relationships;
〽 Assessment of learning outcomes of students;
〽 Evolve strategies for inculcation of Peace and other human values;
〽 Devise strategies for educating differently abled children;
〽 Study learning styles of children/student-teachers/ teacher educators; and
〽 Sensitizing and empowering disadvantaged groups.
Teachers and teacher educators from recognized schools/teacher education institutions at all stages are eligible to participate in the Scheme:
〽 Any teacher of Pre-school (pre-primary), Elementary (primary and upper primary), secondary and senior secondary school recognised by State Board/CBSE or any other recognised Board; and
〽 Teacher of any recognised Special Education School.
〽 Teacher educators of Teacher Education Institutions at Pre-primary/Primary/ Upper primary/Secondary level offering Teacher Education Programmes;
〽 Teacher educators of Colleges of Education including CTEs, IASEs and University Departments of Education offering B.Ed./M.Ed., B.El.Ed., B.A.B.Ed. and B.Sc.Ed. programmes; and
〽 Faculty members of State Councils of Educational Research and Training (SCERTs) and State Institutes of Education (SIEs) offering teacher education programmes.
Teachers and teacher educators shall submit project proposal in given format to the Principal, Regional Institute of Education (RIE) of the region concerned (Annexure-1) latest by 31st July every year. The project proposal should be submitted in the following format:
Project proposals received for the Scheme will be evaluated at two levels:
〽 The project proposal will be evaluated at the first stage at the RIE level by two experts/RIE faculty members independently to determine the merit of the proposal; and
〽 The project proposal considered to be innovative by the RIE will be forwarded to the Head, Department of Teacher Education, NCERT, New Delhi.
〽 Project proposals forwarded by the RIEs will be evaluated at the central level (Department of Teacher education, NCERT, New Delhi) by two experts independently.
〽 The teachers and teacher educators whose project proposals are selected shall be informed to implement the project and submit the report along with summary before the suggested last date.
Teachers and teacher educators, whose project proposals have been approved, will implement their proposal. Selected schools/institutions will be visited by NCERT faculty for on-the-spot observation and interaction with the Project coordinator/Head of the school/institution etc.
i. A teacher or a teacher educator can undertake only one project during a particular year.
ii. The innovation should be based on the original work of individual.
iii. The Project Report should be of approximately 5,000 words excluding appendices.
iv. The Project Report along with its summary in about 500 words needs to be submitted.
v. The Project Report may be written in English/Hindi or any other regional language. However, the profile of the institution must be attached as given in English or Hindi even if the paper is written in a regional language.
vi. In case the report is written in regional language, the title should also be given in English/Hindi.
vii. The award will be given to the Teacher/Teacher educator (Project Coordinator). The project coordinator and Head of the school/institution would be invited to present the report in the National Seminar.
viii. The NCERT reserves the right to use the selected Project reports in any manner it deems fit.
ix. In all matters pertaining to the scheme, the decision of the NCERT shall be final and binding on the participating individual.
x. Teachers and teacher educators getting the cash award during a particular year shall not be entitled to receive the same again in the next three years. However, they may participate in the scheme and if the project is selected for award they would receive the certificate only.
The project report needs to be included:
In this section, teachers/teacher educators may briefly describe the background of the project, specifying the rationale for undertaking it.
Teachers/Teacher educators may describe the preparatory activities undertaken for the execution of the project. Obviously, the preparatory work shall include mobilisation of required resources-human as and material.
Teachers/teacher educators need to narrate how the project was implemented and what activities were undertaken during different phases. The title of the Project and objectives of the Project needs to be stated in clear terms. Limitations and problems or difficulties, if any, may also be brought out.
Teachers/teacher educators should clearly bring out the results achieved through the execution of the project and highlight if there is enough evidence indicative of improvement in some aspect of its work students learning outcomes, classroom management, inter-personal relationships, etc.
In this section, the teachers/teacher educators need to summarize the results and bring out educational implications for institutional improvement and specify the strategy to be adopted for sustainability of the innovation.
Two copies of the project report in about 5000 words and its summary in about 500 words and a copy each of Annexures duly filled in should be sent to the Head, Department of Teacher Education, NCERT, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi-110 016 before the suggested last date.
Teachers and teacher educators, whose project proposals are approved, will implement their proposal and submit project report to Head, Department of Teacher Education, NCERT, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi-110016 for evaluation. Project Coordinator and Head of the School/Institute will be invited to present the report in National Seminar. The final selection for giving a cash award of Rs. 10,000/- (Rupees ten thousand only) and certificate will be based on combined assessment rating of project report and its presentation in the National Seminar.
Head/Project Coordinator
Department of Teacher Education,
NCERT Sri Aurobindo Marg,
New Delhi – 110 016
Phone No. 011-26567320
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