2 TESS-India Key Resources

The TESS-India Key Resources detail approaches that enable teachers to take a more student-centred, participatory approach to teaching and learning. These approaches are central to TESS-India’s Teacher Development OER. The Key Resources are as follows:

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Figure 3
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An image of a blackboard with a list of the TESS-India key resources written on it. These are:

  • Planning lessons
  • Involving all
  • Talk for learning
  • Using pair work
  • Using questioning to promote thinking
  • Monitoring and giving feedback
  • Using groupwork
  • Assessing progress and performance
  • Using local resources
  • Storytelling, songs, role play and drama.
Figure 3

These Key Resources apply to all subjects and levels, and offer practical guidance on the approaches advocated by Indian educational policy.

Activity 2.2: Tess-India Key Resources

Timing: Allow approximately 45 minutes
  1. Find the TESS-India Key Resources (English) [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] and TESS-India Key Resources (Hindi) on the TESS-India website. Also look for the related TESS-India video clips (English)  and TESS-India video clips (Hindi). 
  2. Choose three Key Resources related to your work and focus on reading these carefully. We suggest you also look at the related video clips – for example, you might choose to look at ‘Using pair work’, ‘Talk for learning’ and ‘Using local resources’. For each Key Resource, note three important points relevant to classroom practice that you would want teachers to pay attention to. For example, in the video ‘Talk for learning: Lower primary English’ you might want teachers to notice what role the teacher takes while the children do the activity.
  3. Revisit your responses to Activity 2.1. Do you notice any more evidence of active learning as a result of your reading?

Reflection point

Think about the teachers you work with and the Key Resources you have studied in Activity 2.2. How could you introduce these teachers to the ideas you identified? 

Optional activity: Teaching large classes

One of the greatest challenges that teachers and teacher educators face is involving all their students in the lesson, particularly when dealing with large classes. If you haven’t already done so, you might like to read in detail the Key Resources ‘Involving all’, ‘Using questioning to promote thinking’ and ‘Using pair work’. These resources are particularly important because they provide strategies that can be used to promote active learning in large classes.

1.1 Examples of active participation in learning

3 TESS-India Teacher Development OER