4 Introducing TESS-India

TESS-India is an example of an innovative project that uses collaboratively created, original OER for teacher education.

The TESS-India OER provide structured learning opportunities for teachers, helping them to move from generalisations about learner-centred practice to specific, contextualised instances. There are eight core sets of text OER to support teachers of different subjects in primary and secondary schools:

  • Elementary English
  • Elementary Maths
  • Elementary Science
  • Elementary Language and Literacy
  • Secondary English
  • Secondary Maths
  • Secondary Science
  • School Leadership.

Each of the first seven OER sets in the list above contains 15 units modelling key pedagogic practices through topics from the appropriate school curriculum. (The School Leadership set contains 20 units.) You can view the lists of units by visiting the TESS-India website [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .

Each OER offers several activities for teachers to carry out in their classrooms with their students, alongside case studies and links to videos – which are also OER – that exemplify these pedagogic practices in Indian classrooms. The OER have been localised for use in each of the seven states where the project is available (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Karnataka, Assam and West Bengal) and are available in six languages.

It is important to note that the TESS-India OER are not a discrete course or programme, and do not aim to replace the textbook. Instead, they are resources that can be incorporated in a variety of pre-service and in-service teacher education programmes. Depending on the teachers you work with, the TESS-India OER can be used in multiple ways to meet teachers’ needs.

Activity 1.5: Exploring TESS-India Teacher Development OER

Timing: Allow approximately 30 minutes
  1. Visit the TESS-India website and find the different subject sets of OER in various languages under the ‘Learning resources’ section.
  2. Explore one set of OER that is relevant to your practice.
  3. Download or print two or three particular OER that you would like to use with teachers. You will be using these OER later in the MOOC. For example, if you work with language teachers in elementary schools, you might be interested in downloading two or three of the 15 OER that can be found under ‘Elementary Language and Literacy’.

3 Open Educational Resources

5 TESS-India pedagogy