Contents Volume 8 Issue 1

Specific Learning Disorder (SpLD) as a ‘Disorder’ has started attaining considerable attention recently because of the felt need to ensure timely identification and intervention for the betterment of the present and future suffering of such children. For achieving this purpose, better understanding of every aspect of SpLD is very essential for the teachers, as he/ she has the responsibility towards such students being specially able children and it is necessary to guide and train them in proper direction. While highlighting the need and importance of early identification of the students with specific learning disorder, this paper will focus on the various tools and techniques for the screening of SpLD; national and international level programs and policies and school based interventions that can facilitate the learning which can give wings to the dreams of such students.

In science education, teaching methodologies focussing on developing scientific attitude among students facilitate them in scoring academically high and thus scientific attitude may work as determinant of academic performance of students. A descriptive survey was conducted on 208 students of secondary school students in Delhi. The data analysis showed that there was gender difference, in the favour of girl students, with respect to scientific attitude and science achievement scores. A significantly positive co relation between scientific attitude and science achievement scores of students was found. Interaction effects also supported these findings.

Now teaching is recognized as one of the most challenging and respected career choices, absolutely vital to the social, cultural, and economic health of our Nation. I would like to explain how teachers role are change in perspective era. Teachers’ role differs from the old show-and-tell practices. Teachers description their professional aims and needs for the future. We are going to look at teachers changing role in the 21st century. The teacher’s new role is inevitable. It is the challenge of modern times and social needs. In their new role, teachers should support both the students and their parents. Teachers should act as guides for their students and direct them in their individual processes of development, taking into reflection the challenges of the globalisation development. The rapid changing world of the early 21st century communal education is also changing. As part of the changes the role of schools and education will also be different both in the educational system and in the society. Together with them the role of teachers will also change. In my Article, I am explored how the novel communal challenges and demands towards education and teachers change schools into institutions with modern aims and social contracts. We are going to describe the distinctive features of professional teachers.

Values are a precipitate of behaviour. They are established predispositions of behaviour. They are what is attractive to a person, they operate as criteria for making judgment between alternative cause of action and they directly influence the quality of the person’s behaviour and decision as a rule, the person adopts those values which help him to achieve the ends he desires and which are at the same time sanctioned by the group with which he is identified, his values are thus influenced by and are reflections of his personality. The main purpose of the research was to study the value of prospective teachers as they are the future teachers and many at times become the role models for their students. The researcher took 100 prospective teachers from two colleges of education under C.C S University. The sample was selected using random stratified sampling method. Teacher values inventory by Dr. (Mrs.) Harbhajan. L. Singh and Dr. S.P. Ahluwalia were used for the study. The analysis and interpretation of the data was done by calculating the Mean scores of the values and assigning ranks to those scores. The major findings of the study were: Male and female prospective teachers differ in their value and its Dimensions. The Male prospective teachers gave first preference to Aesthetic, Social, political, and theoretical value and female prospective teachers prominence to overall value, Religious and economic values.

Adolescence is a period of transition from childhood to Adulthood which results many developmental changes in the adolescents. Mental Health of the adolescents and their social adjustment plays an important role in the society. The main aim of the present study is to explore the mental health and social adjustment of the senior secondary students of Delhi. Moreover an attempt is made to elaborate the relationship between mental health and social adjustment of adolescents. Descriptive survey method is used for the present study. The sample of the study consisted of 100 male students and 100 female students (total 200 students were randomly selected) from the senior secondary schools of Delhi. The researcher used Mental Health Battery of Arun kumar Singh and Alpana Sen Gupta’s and Social Adjustment Inventory of Dr. R.C. Deva for the sample subjects. The findings reveal a positive significant relationship between the Mental Health and Social Adjustment in the adolescents.

The omnipresence and omnipotence of the state clearly indicates that it conditions human life almost all the time. The state is also the central player in the project of development and nowhere is it more critical than the developing countries. Though serious attempts have been made to understand the state, particularly the post-colonial state, there is no necessary agreement on what constitutes the nature of state. In this context, this article aims to map the various theories around the class character of the Indian state especially since the NEP was implemented.

The present study addresses to an imperative fundamental goal i.e. everyone wants to live in happy, healthy and fulfilling ways. Health and well-being do not belong to books and newspapers rather it belongs in our everyday life, where it can matter so much. Cultivating its components should be an important goal for all- parents, educators, citizens and in particular youth as these goals are fundamental human desires and rights. Hence, within vicinity of Positive psychology, the first generation of research arrived as an identification of authentic happiness theory (the pleasant life, the good life, the meaningful life). The second generation of research draws closer to the notion of well-being as it refers to both, a person’s state of happiness and health. Thus, the present study is at an advanced league of the second generation of research where in an effort is made to reflect and utilize positive psychological tools i.e. positive belief, positive education and positive nutrition which if cultivated and imbibed would help pave way towards health promoting behaviour, life satisfaction and well-being.

Teacher professional development has taken place in isolation and has been dependent upon input from outside “experts” (Sandholtz, A companion of direct and indirect professional development activities. Professional development for teachers is the range of formal and informal processes and activities that teachers engage in both inside and outside of the school, in order to improve their teaching knowledge and skills. As an alternative, collaborative action research actively involves teachers in professional reflection, validates educators as producers of knowledge, and recognizes their role in professional development and decision making. The value of teacher research is well documented (Cochran–Smith & Lytle, Inside outside: teacher research and knowledge, Teachers College Press, New York, 1993) but unless deliberate attempts to share findings are established, the products of teacher research often remain within individual classrooms. Strategies to develop collaborative research capabilities are needed. The ultimate goal of teacher professional development is improving student learning outcomes. Research indicates that teachers have control over many factors that influence motivation, achievement and behavior of their students. Therefore, professional development focusing on effective classroom management will enhance a teacher’s skills and performance in the classroom. Skills such as effective classroom management are vital to teaching and require common sense, consistency, a sense of fairness and courage. The skills also require that teachers understand the psychological and developmental levels of each student. The ability of teachers to organize classrooms and manage the behavior of their students is critical for achieving positive educational outcomes. Although sound behavior management does not guarantee effective instruction, it establishes the environmental context that makes good instruction possible. Reciprocally highly effective instruction reduces, but does not eliminate, classroom behavior problems. Effective classroom management competencies also significantly influence the persistence of new teachers in the classroom. Effective classroom management requires a comprehensive approach that should include structuring the school and classroom environment, actively supervising student engagement, implementing classroom rules, enacting procedures that encourage appropriate behavior, using behavior reduction strategies and collecting and using data to monitor student behavior and modifying classroom management procedures. Therefore in teacher preparation programs greater emphasis needs to be placed on preparing teachers to be competent and efficient at managing today’s classrooms with their diverse range of learners. This approach means not only giving pre-service teachers the intellectual understanding of the issues involved but also providing them supervised experience related to components of classroom management. The purpose of this paper is to provide research and recommendations related to professional development of teachers, specifically addressing the area of classroom management to improve learning outcomes. 

The present study was carried out on standard -III students of 10 districts of Punjab to assess their scholastic achievement in relation to Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan interventions. Significant difference was observed in the scholastic achievement of students as Base line, Mid –term and Final –term assessment in Punjabi, English and Mathematics. For the subject of Punjabi, students from high literacy districts performed better than students from low literacy districts but in English, students from low literacy districts outperformed students from high literacy districts. For Mathematics, students from low literacy districts performed better in BAS and MAS but students from high literacy districts outperformed them in FAS.

Problem solving forms an important ingredient of all scientific disciplines and it also constitutes an integral part of mathematics and science programmes at all level of studies viz. primary, secondary and upper secondary, almost everything that an individual does involves problem solving which is directed towards achieving a goal. The present study was designed to seek answers to three questions viz. whether there exist difference in problem solving ability and interest in science among boys and girls, and whether there exist any correlation between problem solving ability and interest in science. The results indicate that there is no significant difference in problem solving ability of girls and boys. The results also show that the difference in interest in science of girls and boys is significant. The coefficient of correlation between the problem solving ability and interest in science of the adolescents was found to be 0.494 which was found significant at 0.01 level of significance in the study.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the relationship between teacher efficacy and teaching competency of secondary school teachers. The study also examined the differences in teacher efficacy and teaching competency of secondary school teachers with respect to locale and gender. For this, 200 respondents from Gurdaspur city were selected. The results of the investigation revealed that no significant gender difference in scores of teacher efficacy and teaching competency. The study further revealed that there is significant difference in teacher efficacy and teaching competency of secondary school teachers with respect to locale. However negative relationship between teacher efficacy and teaching competency of secondary school teachers is found.

Self- Concept is an important factor related to the achievement of every individual. For ages, educators have held that formation of self-concept is one of the aim of education and in some instances, the primary aim. It includes what people come to know about themselves through experience, reflection and feedback from others. On the other hand the other factor that acts upon the personality development is socio-economic status. The social and economical condition of the family has a direct effect in the upbringing of a child. The aim of the study is to find out the level of self-concept of visually impaired and normal students, to compare it on the basis of socio-economic status and to find out the interaction effect of types of students and socio-economic status on the basis of self-concept. Normative Survey method was applied and 200 normal and 200 visually impaired students of classes VI to XII were selected randomly from total 10 Secondary and Higher Secondary Schools of Dehradun and Haridwar districts of Uttarakhand. ANNOVA statistical technique was applied for data analysis. After interpretation of data it was found that normal students have better self-concept at every dimension i.e. Social, Physical, Temperamental, Educational, Moral, Intellectual and Total as compared to visually impaired students, whereas socio-economic status, when joint together are found insignificant at all the above mentioned dimensions of self-concept of visually impaired and normal students. It is suggested to Parents, Teachers, Curricula Makers, Counselors, Students, Society and Government that they should be well aware to the findings of the study and should take appropriate steps to increase visually impaired students’ self-concept so that they may cope with the society with their maximum output.

The present study is an attempt to investigate prospective teacher’s attitude towards the use of ICT: a comparative study between C.C.S. University, Meerut & Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra. The objectives of the study were (1) To compare the attitude towards the use of ICT between male prospective teachers of C.C.S. University, Meerut and male prospective teachers of Kurukshetra University Kurukshetra. (2) To compare the attitude towards the use of ICT between female prospective teachers of C.C.S. University, Meerut and female prospective teachers of Kurukshetra University Kurukshetra. The sample for the study comprised of 80 prospective teachers of Saharanpur district and 80 prospective teachers of Yamuna Nagar district. “ICT Attitude Scale” was developed and standardized by the researcher with the help of his guide. The findings of the study indicate that there were no significant differences between prospective male teachers of C.C.S.U. Meerut and prospective male teachers of K.U. Kurukshetra on the dimension of “Knowledge”, “Presentation” and total “ICT Attitude Scale”. There were no significant differences between the attitude toward the use of ICT scores of prospective female teachers of C.C.S.U. Meerut & prospective female teachers K.U. Kurukshetra on the dimension of “Knowledge”, and female prospective teachers of K.U. Kurukshetra have more positive attitude rather than female prospective teachers of C.C.S. University Meerut on “Presentation” dimension of ICT attitude scale it is significant at 0.05 and 0.01 level of significant. There were no significant differences between the attitude toward the use of ICT scores of prospective female teachers of C.C.S.U. Meerut & prospective female teachers K.U. Kurukshetra on total “ICT Attitude Scale”.

This paper discusses the dominance of textbooks within classroom teaching in India. In the history of Indian education in the post-independence period, since as early as 1952, various education commissions and policy frameworks have expressed concern over textbook dominance within Indian classrooms. But the education system still relies heavily on textbooks for ‘educating’ its students. National Curriculum Framework 2005 establishes the need to make learning meaningful for children by actively engaging them within the classroom. But with consistent domination of textbook reading as the only method of classroom teaching, actively engaging children remains a challenge. The paper discusses how choosing textbooks that create opportunities for actively engaging students can be a step towards developing a link between textbooks and active participation of children within classroom processes. It further suggests certain parameters for looking at texts in an analytical manner and also provides an example by analyzing a text on the parameters that are suggested.

Equal access to educational opportunity is a basic human right essential to well-being. Educational gap at attainment levels between male and female and further between female of rural and urban have been remained as focus of research. This paper is based upon the study of a Punjab village to assess the educational empowerment of rural women residing in that village. The study has been carried out on a sample of 200 women identified and designed as rural women in the age group of 20 to 50 years. Semis structured interview schedule, field notes along with observation were the techniques used in study. The findings of the study reveal that rural women have very low level of education. Among all social groups, scheduled caste women are at margin level. Poverty in the family and non-availability of the school in village has been emerged as major cause behind educational deprivation of rural women. Empirical finding have shown that increase in educational level among rural women, their family income enhances. It is suggested that education is pertinent domain to make women empowered and self-reliant. Efforts should be made through different ways to make women educated and self-dependent. Ensuring educational opportunity to all is essential for more than one reason.

India has been well-recognised as a source country, sending large number of students to different educational hubs around the world. Contrary to this, the present paper argues that India is an emerging educational hub in the South Asian region. Secondary data (Right to Information and All India Survey on Higher Education), in addition to policy documents of different ministries are analysed to make sense of macro trends in inward mobility of international students into India. The trend in international students in India has had its ebb and flow, but India has emerged as an important destination country for international students in South Asian and Southeast Asian region. Other major findings of the paper are as follows: Africa is emerging as an important source of international students. Within Africa, share of North, West and Middle Africa is rising, and the share of East Africa which traditionally sent higher number of international students has fallen; there is an important chuck of international students who are more influenced by the idea of socio-cultural exploration and personal development; there is a huge underreporting on international students from developed nations and Asian countries, including, Europe and North America. The paper concludes that at present India seems to adopt the strategy of mutual understanding and capacity building, and sees it as an opportunity to maintain its influence in not only South Asian1 and African region but also in developed regions around the world.

The present study investigated student unrest in Himachal Pradesh University, its causes and suggestion for solving the problems. For the purpose of the study 82 students were selected by using purposive sampling techniques. Descriptive survey method was applied for collection of data and non parametric data analysis technique was applied for analysis of data. It was found that Major causes of students’ unrest were Behavior of employees and transparency, placement services, educational problem. Most of students were in favor of Students Union election however they were not in favor of interference of political parties in the University campus. Male students were more in favour of student union election than female students. At the end study draws some conclusion, discussion and educational implications of further improvement.

Nature poets, Robert Frost and Elizabeth Bishop, are concerned with the natural world and the human world. Anthropocentric and Ecocentric outlooks are explored here in terms of their dominant behaviour towards environment. This paper analyzes that: To what extent do these poets go beyond the anthropocentric world to reach the ecocentric world? And do both the poets create a sympathetic attitude towards the natural world of flora and fauna? Or do they have different outlooks of perceiving nature? The dealing of these poets with environmental degradation can reveal the inherent politics of anthropocentric ideology. Moreover, their poems are concerned with the relationship of the humans to the land and other creatures of the earth and also reveal the interaction and contact between the man-made/ materialistic/ human and natural/ non-human world. So, the focus is on how both the poets depict, present and use the natural scenario and natural world in their poems in order to depict the relationship between the human and non-human world.

The present research article aims to discuss the professional development of teachers in higher education in India. It also analysed the elements and area of professional development of teachers in 21st century. As it has been claimed that 21st century acting as an active force behind the rapid transition of higher education. Traditional means of knowledge are all most washed out by the scientific ways. Use of information and technology has got maximisation in each and every field of knowledge. The whole world is moving fast to make permanent impression in the world of knowledge. Nation after nation is coming forward with the novel facts of life. Researchers are getting acceleration in all the academic fields. Most of the countries are busy in restructuring their higher education system in order to survive in this competitive world. As the 21st century has brought about quantitative and qualitative changes in all the disciplines of knowledge. But we cannot ripe the fruits of such occurred and occurring transformations until we have professionally developed and trained teachers in higher education system. At present, in India several short terms and refreshers courses were mooted out by experts to train and develop the professional competency of university teachers. In India, most of the universities running refresher courses with the help of University Academic Staff colleges. These Academic Colleges are largely responsible to organise workshops and newly invented academic activities for the teachers’ professional development.

This paper is an attempt to find out the relationship of personality hardiness with work related stress among secondary school teachers in the state of Punjab. Personality Hardiness Scale For Teachers (Kaur & Kaur, 2012) and Self-constructed and standardised Work Related Stress Scale For School Teachers were employed on a sample of 500 (250 male and 250 female) secondary school teachers randomly selected from Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar and Gurdaspur districts of Punjab. The study reveals a negative and significant relationship between personality hardiness and work related stress among secondary school teachers.

The main objective of this paper is to compare the adjustment among government and private secondary school teachers. A sample of 105 secondary school teachers (55 governments and 50 private) was selected through stratified random sampling technique. Mangal Teacher Adjustment Inventory (MTAI) developed by Dr. S.K. Mangal was used for the data collection. Mean, SD and t-test were employed to analyze the data. The study revealed that government secondary school teachers possess significantly better adjustment than their private counterparts. There is no significant difference between the adjustment of government male and female secondary school teachers. The study also found that there is significant difference between adjustment of private male and female secondary school teachers. However, there is no significant difference between adjustment of government and private female secondary school teachers.

The most common psychological problems of college students are depression. Today depression is the serious issue in the world. Every nation invest a lot of money to solve psychological problems, depression is one of them. Research survey on college student’s reports there will be 10 to 20 % of student population suffering from psychological problems (Stress, Anxiety & Depression). So those kinds of problems are creating a barrier on the way of all round development. Depression is a serious illness among the students and long time depression has the causes of mental disorder. The aim of this study was to measure the depression among the college students and find out the significance of difference between male-female, rural-urban, science-arts, Hindu-Muslim students with regard to depression. The aim of this study also finds out the significance of difference on the basis of social class, academic years and job satisfaction with regards to depression. Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was employed to measure the degree of depression and 160 students in arts and science streams were taken as representative sample of the whole population. The results presented that level of depression among college students and found that out of 160, 16.88 % students are Minimal Depression, 35.62% students are Mild Depression, 41.25% students are Moderate Depression and the percentage of High level of Depression is 6.25. It is found that there is significant difference exists between Rural and Urban College students with regard to depression. The study revealed that there is no significant difference exists between gender (Male & Female), religion (Hindu & Muslim) and Stream (Science & Arts) students with regards to depression. The study also revealed that there is no significant difference on the basis of social class, academic years and job satisfaction with regards to depression.

Pollution affects not only the human health but also affects on environment. National development is also disrupted by the effect of environmental pollution. About one million people die each year because of water pollution and this is still largely because of traditional form of pollution which results from human dirt. It is estimated that at least 1 lakh people die each year from urban air pollution. Thus, at least one million or more will continue to die from pollution each year in India. This figure will rise to probably 2-3 million in a year with increasing the number of population. India takes some valuable steps to control the pollution. Some NGOs are playing very crucial role in order to reduce the environmental pollution. Along with these, few Educational institutions also have taken an important place through ensuring various programmes in the field of reducing environmental pollution. The present paper attempts to address the problems which originated due to the environmental pollution and also tries to focus on the role of educational institutions, NGOs and government in order to control this problem.

The present study was conducted on a sample of 500 married women teachers teaching in schools and colleges in the state of Punjab, India. Data was collected with the help of teacher self-efficacy scale constructed and standardized by investigator. The major findings of the study reveal that school and college women teachers do not differ significantly on teacher self-efficacy. Women teachers generally have average level (Fifty Four Percent) of teacher self-efficacy.

This research paper is based on the research study of the investigator on the attitude of in-service teachers towards gender issues, namely, gender roles, gender stereotypes and gender discrimination. For the study, the researcher conducted a descriptive survey among 312 teachers teaching at secondary level in the schools of Delhi. Self-developed attitude scale and interview schedule were employed for the collection of the data. The data collected was systematically categorized, tabulated, analyzed and interpreted. The study revealed that none of the teachers has studied about ‘gender’ as a complete subject, however, majority of them were interested in knowing more about gender issues. Further, it was also found that the teachers discriminated among girls and boys when it came to assigning tasks or activities to them. Some positive trends in their attitude were also revealed.

Teachers play very important role in managing classroom activities and use strategies to ensure that the classroom provides a context to support and facilitate learning. In today’s classrooms teachers must possess high degree of professional competences so that they can manage their classes efficiently and students get the maximum gain from their schooling. So, in the present study the investigator tried to explore the relationship between classroom management and professional commitment among secondary school teachers. Data was collected from 500 secondary school teachers by using classroom management scale by Neerja Gautam (2011) and Professional commitment scale by Dr. Ravinder Kaur, Sarvjit Kaur Brar and Dr. Sarabjit Kaur Ranu (2013). Results of the study revealed positive and significant relationship between classroom management and professional commitment.

Classroom interactions have been one of the most examined topic for the researchers coming from social constructivist background. In the same regard Vygotskian work can be considered meaningful and evocative in understanding the joint construction of meaning through interactions. However, from the reality of multicultural societies and their background, a closer and deeper study of interactions is required. In this context, Bakhtin, a Russian philosopher, who has presented in his work, a detailed critical account of social understanding of language and its style of dialogue, provides a valuable perspective fulfilling this objective. By studying Bakhtin’s ideas related to dialogue, this essay attempts to explore their application in the context of classroom interactions. It has been attempted to analyze the social constructivist approach and its execution and implementation in Indian classrooms. Then after the same analysis has been scrutinized from the perspective of dialogue given by Bakhtin. The scrutiny has also resulted in a comprehensive comparison between Vygotskian framework of interaction and Bakhtinian understanding of discourse. At the end, the paper presents a concluding understanding of how classroom interactions should be understood and analyzed within contemporary scenario of changing curriculum, pedagogies and teacher- student relationship.